Transmigrated into the Villain's Cannon Fodder Ex-Wife (Transmigrated into a Book) - Chapter 40

Everyone instantly tensed up.

Yuan San had been leading the group, but as soon as he heard the scream, he turned back with his torch raised.

Lin Chu was walking in the middle of the group, while the man who screamed was at the rear.

Several torches lit up the area, revealing a small black snake slithering quickly into the cracks between the strange rocks. The man who screamed was wearing thick fur-lined boots and rolled-up fur-lined pants, exposing his calf. Two bloody fang marks stood out clearly on his skin.

“A snake? In this freezing weather?” one man with a torch exclaimed.

“That’s weird. Since we entered this forest, why do I feel like it’s getting warmer?” Wei Rou wiped the sweat off her forehead. She had dressed warmly for the cold, but now she felt like she was about to be steamed.

Lin Chu also noticed she was sweating. This strange weather didn’t make sense. She wasn’t an expert, so she had no idea what was causing it.

“Hang in there,” Yuan San said, handing his torch to Tang Jiu. He pulled out a dagger from his belt and quickly cut a cross over the bite on the man’s leg.

The bl00d that came out was bright red, showing no signs of poisoning.

Tang Jiu said, “That looks like a Wuzhao snake, the kind we see a lot around this area. It’s not poisonous.”

Hearing this, the bitten man finally let out a sigh of relief.

Lin Chu reminded Yuan San, “There’s medicine for heat and poison in the bag. Just to be safe, he should take one pill, and wrap his leg in gauze.”

The man, clearly embarrassed, waved his hand quickly. 

“Thanks, sister-in-law, but it’s fine. That snake isn’t poisonous, and my skin’s thick. Feels like a couple of needle pricks. It’s nothing, really.”

Lin Chu insisted, “This forest is strange. It’s better to be careful.”

Yuan San gave the man a pill and wrapped his leg with gauze.

They were all stronger than average people, and their thick clothes had kept them warm while riding through the freezing wind. But now that they were in the forest, it suddenly felt like spring or summer. Naturally, they were overheating.

Yuan San could feel himself drenched in sweat. No wonder the man had rolled up his pants earlier to cool down.

After wrapping the wound, Yuan San patted the man’s shoulder and raised his voice, 

“Brothers, hold on. This forest is strange. No matter how hot it gets, don’t expose your skin.”

After the snake incident, everyone was on high alert and no one dared to take risks.

They took a short break to drink some water, then continued deeper into the forest.

After a while, they came to a fork in the road with three paths. Yuan San and Tang Jiu didn’t dare pick a direction blindly. If they chose wrong, they might never find Yan Mingge.

Lin Chu put Little Gray on the ground and took out one of Yan Mingge’s clothes from her bag. She let the dog sniff it and stroked the back of his neck. “Little Gray, it’s up to you now.”

Little Gray let out a few uneasy whimpers. He was clearly uncomfortable in this place. But he still sniffed the clothing, then went to each of the three paths and sniffed around. In the end, he came back to Lin Chu, rubbing against her leg and whining softly.

Wei Rou looked confused. “What does that mean?”

Lin Chu wasn’t sure either. She let Little Gray smell the clothing again, but he showed no interest in going to the fork to sniff again.

Tang Jiu looked at the ground and suddenly said, “Could it be that Big Brother Yan came in riding a horse? Maybe the dog can’t smell him clearly.”

That sentence made everyone suddenly realize.

But Lin Chu frowned. 

“Then how are we supposed to find my husband? We don’t know what his horse smells like.”

Tang Jiu thought for a moment, then took off his bundle and handed it to a man nearby. He took off his coat and passed it to Lin Chu. “Sister-in-law, let the dog smell this. I helped lead Brother Yan’s horse this morning. His horse, Wu Yun, is known for its bad temper. I almost got kicked, and I wrestled with it for a long time. My coat should still carry its scent.”

Lin Chu took the coat and let Little Gray sniff it. This time, the dog quickly led them down the path on the far left.

They followed this method through several more forks. Finally, when they reached a straight path, Little Gray stopped. Everyone looked at where he halted—there was a forest beside the road, unusually thick for a place outside the pass. But what stood out were the freshly broken branches.

Lin Chu thought for a second and said, “Let’s head in from here.”

She guessed that when Yan Mingge chased after Hu Yanlie, the latter had escaped through here, and Yan Mingge had left his horse to follow.

The thick forest made it hard to move with torches, so Yuan San called two men to start clearing a path.

Getting into the woods made it easier to get lost.

Luckily, with the way Yuan San and the others were cutting down branches, they left a very clear trail behind.

After a while, the men were sweating heavily and had to take off their thick padded coats.

This part of the forest wasn’t as eerily quiet as before. They could even hear birds, though the cries sounded sharp and unsettling.

One man, while chopping branches, suddenly felt something cold and slippery fall on his hand. He reacted quickly, shaking his arm and swinging his blade. Two wriggling pieces of a small snake landed on the ground.

Even after being cut in half, the snake didn’t bleed much. Its head was still baring its fangs in a fierce snarl, sending chills down Lin Chu’s spine.

She wasn’t afraid of wild beasts, but she hated these cold, slimy creatures.

“Looks like there are a lot of snakes here. Everyone, be careful,” Yuan San warned.

The deeper they went, the clearer the signs of fighting became. They even found a large iron hammer covered in long spikes at the base of a slope.

“That’s Hu Yanlie’s weapon!” Tang Jiu shouted.

Lin Chu caught sight of bl00d on the iron hammer, and her heart sank. She couldn’t tell if it was Yan Mingge’s bl00d, but just imagining getting hit by that spiked weapon made her whole body ache.

At that moment, Little Gray didn’t even need to sniff Yan Mingge’s clothes—it suddenly darted off in a certain direction.

The sky was starting to lighten. From a distance, the forest was no longer pitch black but instead covered in a hazy gray.

Lin Chu called Little Gray’s name and quickly followed. Wei Rou, worried about her, stayed close behind.

Little Gray stopped in front of a huge boulder.

Everyone noticed a piece of cloth peeking out from under the rock. Their hearts collectively tightened.

As they got closer, Lin Chu couldn’t hold back a sharp scream.

From the clothes and build, they could tell it wasn’t Yan Mingge under the rock—but Hu Yanlie. His head had been cut off. The shock of the gruesome scene overwhelmed Lin Chu’s senses, and she turned aside and threw up by the edge of the woods.

Wei Rou frowned at the body, her face quickly turning pale as she also threw up like Lin Chu.

The men didn’t think much of it, assuming the women just weren’t used to seeing such brutal scenes. But Yuan San gave Wei Rou a few extra curious glances.

“He killed Hu Yanlie. That means Big Brother Yan should be fine!” Tang Jiu called out loudly.

Relief finally showed on the men’s faces.

“That brute was no match for Big Brother!” one of them said casually. He was probably hungry, as he pulled out a piece of flatbread and began eating right there.

Lin Chu, still recovering from vomiting, was stunned to see him snacking next to a fresh headless corpse. She didn’t even know how to react. People who had been on battlefields really were tough.

What gave her a little comfort was that even someone like Wei Rou, who seemed fierce and strong, also got sick from the bloody scene. At least she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t handle it.

In just that short moment, daylight fully broke. Yuan San and the others put out their torches, and the forest became much clearer.

“We can probably find Big Brother Yan by following the bl00d trail,” Tang Jiu said.

Since Yan Mingge had taken Hu Yanlie’s head, unless he had gone too far, the bl00d trail should still be fresh.

As they walked down a slope, Lin Chu accidentally tripped and fell, startling everyone.

Wei Rou rushed to her side, quickly lifting her up and checking her. “Sister-in-law, are you hurt?”

Lin Chu shook her head and crouched back down. Along the way, she’d noticed that there were a lot of loose stones. Last night it was too dark to see clearly, but now with daylight, after that fall, she could see the ground was full of small black stones. Many of them were stuck to irregular-shaped rocks.

“What’s wrong?” Wei Rou asked, noticing Lin Chu staring at the ground. She squatted down with her.

Lin Chu pulled out her small self-defense knife and placed it on one of the rocks. The knife was instantly attracted and stuck to the stone!

“This mountain range… it must be full of magnetite!” Lin Chu said, unable to hide her excitement.

She finally understood why Little Gray didn’t like this area and why Tang Jiu said messenger pigeons couldn’t fly through.

Animals have sharp instincts. This whole mountain being made of magnetite meant there was a strong magnetic field—it would make Little Gray uncomfortable and interfere with pigeons’ sense of direction.

As for why the climate here felt so different from outside, Lin Chu still wasn’t sure. Maybe it was the magnetic field, maybe something else. Nature always had its mysteries.

“A mine?” Wei Rou was surprised. She looked closely at the black stones on the ground and mumbled, “When my master taught me iron forging, the stones were always red. Why are these black?”

“Both red and black stones are types of iron ore,” Lin Chu explained. “But red ones—usually iron oxide—are easier to smelt into usable iron. Magnetite is harder to reduce in ancient smelting.”

“You can forge iron too?” Wei Rou asked, eyes lighting up. She already liked Lin Chu’s personality, and if she liked smithing too, they’d have even more to talk about—maybe even share forging techniques.

Lin Chu quickly waved her hands. “No, no, I can’t forge. I just know a little theory.”

With her slim arms and legs, she wasn’t about to take up blacksmithing anytime soon.

She only knew some basics of metallurgy—not enough to actually do it. But now that they’d found a magnetite mine and had a skilled smith like Wei Rou, maybe it really was possible to refine some high-quality iron here.

“Woof woof!” Little Gray suddenly barked and ran off in another direction.

Lin Chu snapped out of her thoughts and quickly followed.