"Do you still want this?" he pointed to the soup pot in front of them.
"No."
"Give me a few packs of instant noodles."
Zhong Yan produced a whole box for him, and Zhu Yujue began to crouch down and tear open the noodle packets.
Mother Zhu also came forward to help. The two of them tore open a box of noodles. There wasn't much soup left in the pot, clearly not enough to soften all the noodle cakes. He looked at Zhu Lan, "I heard you're a water-element ability user, can you help out?"
It wasn't just a rumor; he had seen Zhu Lan adding water to the pot before.
The ability users who followed were all of the offensive type. Other water-element ability users were still at the stage of adding half a bottle of water, completely lacking any offensive power.
Zhu Lan added half a pot of water to the pot. The original milky white soup instantly became a bit bland. However, there were still some meat and bones inside. Zhu Yujue gathered some firewood around and quickly added it, waiting for the water to boil.
More than ten minutes later, the water finally boiled. Mother Zhu put the noodle cakes in, and they started tearing open the seasoning packets. Seeing this, others also came to help. Those who hadn't moved were all drawn by the aroma, gathering around the large pot, their eyes like wolves fixated on the instant noodles.
A few minutes later, the instant noodles were ready.
They used the bowls from the congee to divide the instant noodles and took them to the two elderly people. The two soldiers ate their compressed biscuits and didn't want the instant noodles. They drank half a bowl of noodle soup, which filled them up.
While they were eating, Zhong Yan took out a mattress, a waterproof cloth, and a quilt from his spatial storage. He pulled Zhu Lan up and lay on her, intending to sleep.
"You're sleeping like this?"
Zhong Yan leaned on Zhu Lan's lap and looked at the soldier when he heard him, "What's wrong? Do you want to sleep like this too?"
The man shook his head, "I wouldn't dare. Aren't you afraid of monster attacks? What if something crawls onto you?"
"No way," he sat up and patted Zhu Lan, "I don't want bugs crawling on me, you help me drive them away."
"I want to sleep too."
"I don't care, I'm with you anyway. If they crawl on me, they'll definitely crawl on you too."
After saying that, he pressed himself back onto Zhu Lan and closed his eyes, intending to sleep.
The others quickly finished their food and assigned sleeping positions. Zhu Xingchen, risking a beating, asked Zhong Yan to bring out his RV so his parents, grandparents, and Zhu Xuewei could sleep inside.
The others would make do in the cars for the night.
The congee wasn't very filling and would be digested quickly. Drinking congee at night was like tormenting oneself. Zhu Xingchen was woken up by the urge to urinate in the middle of the night. Just as he was about to go down and leave his mark, he woke Zhu Yujue as well.
"What's wrong?"
"I need to pee."
Zhu Yujue also got out of the car with him, shining his small flashlight around, "It's too dangerous outside, I'll go with you."
The flashlight illuminated the open space between several cars. Mu Tian was sleeping soundly on the mattress, snoring. Zhu Yujue suddenly felt that it wasn't that dangerous outside.
However, he had witnessed the power of that woman, and he had heard from others that the young man had killed a giant python that only appeared in sci-fi movies during the day. He was also a master, and such a person would naturally be fearless.
Zhu Xingchen woke up a bit more when the wind blew outside. Seeing the two of them, he sighed, "They're amazing. Brother, do you think I should try to poach one of them?"
"Miss Zhao likes him very much, you won't be able to poach him."
Zhu Xingchen chuckled, "Poaching another one would work too, I'm good with both men and women anyway."
Zhu Yujue was a bit speechless, "I think you're tired of living."
That woman was very possessive. Although she didn't seem to do much, she completely encircled the person within her territory. The young man also seemed to enjoy it, and their interaction looked harmonious. If he were unwilling, these two likely wouldn't be interacting in such a way.
She would probably build a cage to lock him up, and anyone who dared to touch him would surely die.
Zhu Xingchen pouted and abandoned the unreliable idea.
"Hurry up and go, don't go too far."
Zhu Xingchen walked behind the car. He shone his flashlight around and suddenly felt something moving on the ground. He pointed the flashlight, and a small snake quickly slithered past him.
He instinctively took a step back, then thought of something, raised a ball of light in his hand, and shot it towards the snake.
The flashlight shone on something, reflecting a golden light. After a faint movement, the snake died.
He hadn't killed it.
Zhu Yujue walked closer. The snake was pinned to the ground by a sword, precisely at its seven-inch spot. It couldn't have been deader.
The long sword pulled itself out of the ground, glowing and becoming spotlessly clean. It twirled in the air twice before seeming to notice the people. It flew up a bit and "made eye contact" with him.
Zhu Yujue was incredulous, "You, you have, consciousness?"
The hilt of the long sword moved slightly, as if nodding.
"Can you understand me?"
The long sword moved again.
"You, are you really a sword? Or something else?"
The long sword was silent for a moment, touched the ground, and gestured for Zhu Yujue to look. Then it wrote the character "剑" (jiàn - sword) on the ground.
"Then why are you..." conscious?
He felt like he was dreaming.
"灵" (líng - spirit). He added "灵" after the word "剑."
"Sword spirit?"
The hilt moved again.
Zhu Yujue's worldview was shaken. After a while, he digested the information and tried asking again, "Are you the kind of sword spirit from books? Are you sealed inside by her?"
The long sword twirled twice.
Just as Zhu Yujue was making a guess, a light shone over. From a distance of several meters, he saw the person sitting on the mattress.
"I asked you to stand guard, and you're chatting with someone else?"
The long sword quickly flew back, circled the mattress, returned to her side, and twirled around her playfully.
Zhu Yujue walked over, his chiseled handsome face slightly bewildered, "Miss Zhao, I'm sorry, but I still want to ask, what, what is this thing?"
"Didn't he tell you?"
Zhong Yan reached out to touch someone, but Zhu Lan caught his hand and patted it soothingly. They were wearing thin clothes and no quilts. It was quite cold on a night like this, yet Zhu Yujue found the temperature around them to be higher than elsewhere, as if a small world had been carved out.
Did she do this?
This person truly held too many secrets.
"Forgive my presumption, but what exactly, are you?"
His flashlight accidentally swept across Zhong Yan's face. Zhong Yan waved his hand and said softly, "What are you doing!"
"It's nothing, go to sleep."
"Being too curious is not a good thing. He needs to rest, Mr. Zhu, you should go."
"Brother."
Over there, Zhu Xingchen flickered his flashlight. Zhu Yujue suppressed his inner questions and said softly, "Goodnight." He then walked back.
The night was exceptionally peaceful. The two soldiers were supposed to take turns guarding, but because it was so peaceful and they were too tired, they fell asleep just before dawn.
When they woke up, it was already broad daylight. Zhong Yan happily went to pick up firewood, planning to have a good meal before leaving.
However, others were a bit anxious. They ate something perfunctory and wanted to set off.
Zhong Yan was displeased, "Then you guys go ahead. We're not stopping you."