Chapter 157: A Human Figure

"Damn it!"

Three days later, Liu Chang angrily kicked a massive tree beside him, his fury shaking the entire trunk violently.

"Back here again, goddamn it!" In his rage, Liu Chang savagely drew yet another heavy "X" on the hand-drawn map in his hand. By this point, that particular region on his self-made map was densely covered with red crosses. Elsewhere on the makeshift map, he had marked various bizarre and winding routes that spanned every corner of the parchment, yet he still could not find a single path leading to the outside world.

"This forest is simply too vast." Staring at the map in his hands, Liu Chang felt his mind and spirit beginning to fracture. Judging by the scale of his map, the region he had charted—including the portion within Henan—was already as large as a quarter of Hebei Province. And that was just the area he had actually explored. Factoring in the uncharted territories, Liu Chang shuddered to think whether this forest had swallowed up the entirety of Hebei.

The forest was treacherous to traverse; every direction looked identical, and after walking for an entire hour, one still felt as though they were marching in place. This agonizing sense of futility was already unbearable, and now, combined with such staggering scale, the effect of getting lost was amplified exponentially.

Because of this gargantuan expanse, calibrating a compass was nearly impossible. Wandering without landmarks or shifting scenery, no one could ever tell if they were moving in the correct direction.

And that was not even the most severe problem. The worst issue was that the rendezvous point he had previously agreed upon with the clone brothers—Elder Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother—and He Zhizhi most likely no longer existed.

None of them had anticipated that the forest would be this immense. Extrapolating from the mapped region, it had already engulfed the agreed-upon location of Handan City, obliterating the meeting spot. Furthermore, with no way of knowing the true boundaries of the woods, Liu Chang no longer even had a destination. Where on earth was he supposed to go to find those who had left?

And where should he head to catch up with the faction that had abducted Xiaojing?

A person who has lost all sense of direction is terrifyingly vulnerable. Trapped within this almost entirely enclosed environment, completely cut off from human communication, Liu Chang drifted aimlessly like a headless fly.

Another three days passed, and his supply of fresh water ran out. Consequently, he began a routine of drinking tree sap and chewing on leaves.

Four more days elapsed, and even his food was completely exhausted. Thus, he was forced into a lifestyle of hunting while desperately seeking a way out.

Four days after that, his psyche was on the verge of complete collapse. He had heard tales before of individuals locked away in isolated, windowless rooms who, within a remarkably short span of time, suffered severe mental deterioration and emotional breakdown.

Liu Chang was now teetering on the edge of that exact breakdown. The monochromatic forest was like a colossal, sealed chamber—one that inflicted crushing fatigue and danger while making decent sleep an impossibility.

Every single night, Liu Chang heard that eerie rustling sound. Yet whenever he was startled awake by it, the surroundings were deathly calm, while the daytime jungle relapsed into that same nerve-wracking silence.

"Sigh..." Deep within the nocturnal jungle, Liu Chang trudged forward silently. Because of the nocturnal disturbances, he had altered his schedule: since the daytime was relatively quiet, he would sleep during the day—after all, sleeping at night was no safer than resting under the sun.

Half a month had passed since his battle with the Amphibians. The bandages wrapped around the bridge of his nose had been removed; although his nasal bone remained sunken, he had partially recovered his sense of smell.

The return of his olfactory senses helped Liu Chang regain a sliver of orientation. Guided by the direction of the wind, he had managed to locate water and food. While his days were no longer as desperate as they had been earlier, the psychological oppression grew heavier by the day. He now possessed an overwhelming desire to converse with someone, to speak about anything at all, even meaningless nonsense, just to have a human exchange.

"This should be the right direction, right?"

"Yeah, it must be this way."

Despite days of hardship, Liu Chang hadn't quite devolved to the point of the protagonist in *Robinson Crusoe* talking to a volleyball, but he had learned to converse with himself.

"No scent of urine here. I must not have been this way before."

"Right, untouched territory. Better leave an olfactory marker here."

Muttering to himself, Liu Chang walked over to a tree, unzipped his trousers, and fished out his member. Facing the roots, much like a dog staking out its territory, he squeezed out a tiny, conservative dribble of urine, as if afraid to waste a single drop.

Along the journey, this was the method he used to leave behind directional markers. The scent of urine lingered for a long time, and with his partially restored sense of smell, he could detect his own previously marked scent from a kilometer away. It was infinitely more effective than ordinary signposts and possessed a massive radius of influence. Over the past two days, this technique had saved him from countless detours.

"Done peeing."

"Time to set off, then."

Talking to himself, Liu Chang hoisted his shrunken backpack and resumed his trek.

This lifestyle continued for another two days. Just as he was growing accustomed to the profound solitude, the heavens finally granted him a turning point. As Liu Chang was pressing onward, for the first time in over ten days, he caught a scent—the scent of living humans, the scent of breathing people.

After more than half a month of isolation, the sudden whiff of human presence caught Liu Chang off guard. It wasn't until that familiar scent repeatedly stimulated his olfactory receptors that he snapped out of his daze as if waking from a dream.

"Brilliant, Liu Chang, there are people!"

"Yes, truly wonderful! People! Does finding people mean we've finally made it out?"

"The chances are very high!"

"What are we waiting for? Hurry up and catch up to them!"

"Right, right, no time to waste! Go after them, don't let these fellows get away!"

Certain that people were nearby, Liu Chang's spirits soared. He broke into a headlong sprint, striding two steps at a time, completely forgetting to conceal his approach. Like a starving wretch who had gone without food for half a month, he ran madly in the direction of the scent.

Moving at incredible speed, he covered a distance of a kilometer in less than a minute, arriving breathless at his destination. The sight that greeted his eyes was a group of men and women armed with rifles and crossbows.

"Hey there, brothers and sisters!" Liu Chang called out, eager to plunge right into the group from afar. However, days of relentless psychological strain had caused him to forget the fundamental rules and precautions of interacting with others in this apocalyptic era. His frantic shouts and breakneck speed completely triggered the group's self-preservation instincts.

With a sharp *whoosh*, the most panicked woman among them instinctively raised her crossbow and loosed a bolt directly at him.