The Lost People of Teyvat

Chapter 3: Dying Fish

The Silver Wing Treasure Stealing Group was established more than three years ago. The number of members reached more than twenty at its peak and only four at its lowest when it was first established.

Initially, the bandit leader and his gang committed a crime, so they fled Liyue Harbor and became bandits in the wild mountains. Long Knife, Hammer and Dagger were the first members of Silver Wing. The four of them followed the bandit leader's policy of "often robbing, occasionally killing, and from time to time robbing and killing" and quickly grew stronger.

Then they came out in full force with full confidence, planning to launch a large wave - but then they happened to run into the Qianyan Army suppressing bandits, and three years of hard work went to waste.

Many of the brothers died, some were injured, and many more were captured by the Qianyan Army. The four leaders of the bandits were the first to realize something was wrong, and they immediately took some supplies and the blessings of their brothers and quietly left the scene.

Scarface was timid and didn't dare to fight against the caravan guards with his brothers. Unexpectedly, this saved his life.

When the Long Knife Bandit mentioned Scarface, he showed no disdain in his eyes. In his words, even that loser was worthy of holding a knife? Giving him a fire stick commonly used by the Hillock people was already a compliment to him.

"I never thought that our Silver Wing had such a past." Chen Tianfeng said with unfaithful emotion: "Boss is right, I have a good relationship with our Silver Wing. Now our Silver Wing needs fresh blood like me."

The long knife bandit glanced at Chen Tianfeng and said, "Silver Wing is not an ordinary treasure-stealing group. You have to meet the conditions to join. I'm afraid you can't accept it."

"Well, to be honest, I do have some skills."

"Knocking down a loser is not a big deal." The long-knife bandit shook his head and mocked, "Any hillbilly with a stick can trade with him one for one."

"It seems that I am stronger than the Hilichurls." Chen Tianfeng smiled and said casually, "Speaking of Hilichurls, when I was in Liyue Harbor, I always heard people say that there were Hilichurls everywhere in the wild. I didn't expect that there were actually very few of them. I didn't even encounter one along the way."

"Some places have more monsters, some places have fewer. If there were more monsters on this road, we wouldn't have chosen this road." The long knife bandit explained casually, looking at the distance between them and the convoy: "Okay, let's go after we finish digging the wild vegetables."

"Right away."

It’s a pity that I didn’t find what I wanted... Chen Tianfeng felt a little regretful. He grabbed a handful of wild vegetables still with fresh soil on them and followed the long-knife bandits to chase after the convoy.

noon,

The Silver Wing Treasure Thieves randomly found a suitable place to stay. The Hammer Bandit and the Dagger Bandit walked together to the woods a little further away. Chen Tianfeng saw that the Dagger Bandit had a cloth bag with partitions tied around his waist, which was filled with glass bottles of different colors.

What exactly is the elemental power of Teyvat? Water element and water, ice element and ice... can these things be considered the same thing?

Why think about these useless things... Chen Tianfeng shook his head, and together with the silly boy, he lit a bonfire, set up a stove, and prepared for lunch.

After a while, the Hammer Bandit and the Dagger Bandit came back together, one holding two rabbits in his hands, and the other holding a dozen mushrooms in his arms. The rabbits were as quiet as the mushrooms, so I guess they had no regrets when they left.

Chen Tianfeng and the silly boy processed the rabbit together. Using the existing conditions, they made a pot of rabbit in mushroom soup which was weird but tasted acceptable, which attracted great praise from the thief leader who could only grill meat and not even do it well.

Scarface looked at Chen Tianfeng, then at the idiot boy, and sipped the soup from the bowl, his triangular eyes rolling around: "Hey, our future chef and the real idiot have a good relationship."

The thief leader paused while drinking the soup and narrowed his eyes slightly.

If the fool had a good relationship with the cook, his meals wouldn't be so good.

"How could that be? This idiot follows me around all day long, and it's so annoying." Chen Tianfeng laughed and said, "If I didn't know he was really stupid, I would have thought he was trying to steal my skills and take my position as chef."

The thief leader looked at Chen Tianfeng and the idiot boy and smiled generously: "This is easy. Just ask the idiot not to follow you for the rest of the journey. Oh, by the way, I see we have picked a lot of wild vegetables, so don't bother yourself anymore, brother."

After that, the bandit leader did not wait for Chen Tianfeng to answer and shouted loudly: "There is not much road left. We can reach the camp before noon tomorrow. Let's take our time. Rest for an hour and then set off again!"

The bandits responded sporadically, and each of them quickened the pace of drinking their soup, intending to enjoy the rare leisure time in the afternoon.

After dinner, Chen Tianfeng and the silly boy cleaned up the pots and bowls together and leaned against the cart to rest.

There is always no shortage of lizards in the wild of Teyvat. Chen Tianfeng tried hard to identify the species of the lizard with a broken tail in his hand. Judging from its color, it should be a red horned lizard with a small red pointed horn on its head.

The little thing was very difficult to catch. If it hadn't mistaken the stupid boy for an immovable stone, Chen Tianfeng probably wouldn't have been able to catch even its tail.

I vaguely remember that there was an introduction to this lizard in the game. It seemed that its tail had some special medicinal effect after being dried and ground into powder. It seemed that... it could make something in the human body hard?
Chen Tianfeng looked strange for a moment, and then he thought that he might have remembered it wrong. After all, Genshin Impact is a twelve-plus game, and there shouldn't be that kind of text introduction.

He hesitated for a moment, glanced around, and after making sure that no one was paying attention to what he was doing, he pinched the lizard with his right hand, exerted force with his left hand, broke the wound on his finger, and smeared two drops of blood into the lizard's mouth.

The red horned lizard struggled, and seemed full of energy even though its tail was broken.

What am I thinking? How is it possible... Chen Tianfeng felt that he was a little crazy. He shook his head and smiled, and was about to throw away this poor red horned lizard.

At this moment, the red horned lizard's struggling strength decreased significantly. Its webbed claws weakly slapped Chen Tianfeng's fingers twice, and then it became silent, with faint white foam coming out of its mouth.

Chen Tianfeng was stunned for a moment, then he calmly put away the body of the red horned lizard. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no one was paying attention here, his heart beating violently.

The appearance of dead grass is indeed related to him!
His blood is poisonous! Is it the effect of time travel? Or is this the golden finger that has been delayed for a long time?
Hmm, these two seem to be the same thing...

Chen Tianfeng narrowed his eyes slightly and rubbed his fingers subconsciously.

No matter what, this is undoubtedly his biggest chance!

Chen Tianfeng closed his eyes and gathered his messy thoughts. He stopped thinking about how the blood became highly poisonous and instead thought about how to use this turning point covertly.

Poison...Will poisonous snakes be killed by their own venom?

The corner of Chen Tianfeng's eye twitched, and he suddenly remembered the hot issues in the original world. He opened his eyes and looked hesitantly at the wound on his left hand that was no longer bleeding.

How stupid! Once the toxin enters the body, it is transmitted through the blood. If I were poisoned, I would have died long ago... Instead of worrying about this, I might as well think about whether the poison will become harmless due to loss of activity under high temperature... Otherwise, I can't eat sashimi...
Not everyone can accept eating raw food.

Chen Tianfeng glanced at the fire that had not yet been dealt with, and gradually an idea came to his mind.

evening,

Led by the bandit leader, the group came to a dilapidated little temple. The clay statues enshrined in the temple had long been dilapidated and could not be recognized from their original appearance.

This should be the usual stopover for the Silver Wing Treasure Thieves. When the thief leader skillfully took out a gray cloth bag from behind the statue, Chen Tianfeng became more certain of this.

The temple is not big, but it is enough to accommodate a few people and shelter them from wind and rain.

The Hammer bandit tied the donkey cart and horses outside the temple, sat down on the hay spread in the temple, and looked at Chen Tianfeng with burning eyes, almost asking directly what to eat tonight.

"Brother, when I came here, I saw a river nearby. Why don't I go catch two fish and make fish soup for the brothers?" Chen Tianfeng thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Fish in this season are the fattest and most suitable for making soup."

The thief's eyes lit up, and he patted Chen Tianfeng's shoulder heavily: "This is good! This is good! What I like most is the fat fish in autumn! Let's go, let's go together!"

"Let me show you the skills of Silver Wing's strongest fishing expert!"

The thief leader laughed and put his arm around Chen Tianfeng's shoulders, leading him out of the small temple: "Brothers, wait for me to return with a full load!"

The long-knife bandit had a blank expression on his face, the dagger bandit curled his lips, the hammer bandit smiled foolishly, and only the scarred man responded loudly, enthusiastically expressing his trust in the bandit leader's fishing skills.

As the thief leader and Chen Tianfeng walked away, Scarface's eyes rolled around, with a malicious smile on his face, and he approached the silly boy who was huddled in the corner and muttering to himself.

The other bandits were either indifferent or looked as if they were watching the fun.

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Chen Tianfeng looked at the so-called "Silver Wing's strongest fishing expert". He held a sharpened wooden stick in his hand and swung it down with his muscular arm. The stick stabbed out like lightning, and when he raised it again, a fish was pierced through it.

It’s a very powerful method... but this is not “fishing”... Chen Tianfeng grinned, took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his trouser legs and walked into the river water downstream that barely covered his calves. Taking the opportunity to catch fish, he threw away the poor red horned lizard.

"Hey! How many fish can you catch?"

The thief leader half-closed his eyes and shouted at Chen Tianfeng: "Go to the shore! Keep an eye on my spoils, don't let them get away!"

"Okay, boss!"

Chen Tianfeng pretended that he didn't understand, and walked back to the shore carefully. He casually wiped off the water stains, put on his shoes and socks, and sat next to a few dying river fish.

He lowered his head as if looking for something. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he looked at a few ants crawling on the ground beside him. He took out a small wooden stick with charred burn marks from his pocket.

"Brother, you are still childish at heart. You are playing with ants."

When the thief leader finished "fishing", he saw Chen Tianfeng lying on the ground poking a dead ant with a stick, and he couldn't help but sneer: "Real men should do something exciting. When we get back to the camp, I'll take you to see it!"

"Then I'm looking forward to it."

Chen Tianfeng seemed to be in a good mood. He dropped the wooden stick, took the thief's spoils and followed him back to the small temple.

When the two returned to the small temple, Chen Tianfeng put down the dying fish, stepped into the temple gate, and was about to ask the silly boy to go with him to prepare dinner, but suddenly he froze in place.

The foolish boy, who should have been hiding in the corner and repeating in a low voice "I don't want to die" and "My mother-in-law is waiting for me", was now curled up in pain on the ground in front of the statue, with blood at the corners of his mouth and abdomen, and covered in dust, just like those dying fish.

Scarface jumped out, his triangular eyes full of excitement: "Boss! This idiot stole something from the car and hid it! It looks like a poisonous weed!"

(End of this chapter)