After walking about 300 steps in the right-hand direction, Zhang Xiaopaw saw the gambling that the two men said.

There was not just one ring, but more than a dozen in a row. The round wooden platform of all colors is half a zhang high, and the diameter of the table is about two zhang, which is not large. It is to drive some wooden stakes into the ground, and then lay thick wooden planks on them, and then tie them with hemp rope to fix them, the workmanship is very rough, and it seems that they should be built in a hurry.

On the south side of each ring there is a simple sunshade grass shed, in which there are tables with buckets of water, or stacks of soft white steamed buns, or strips of lean meat, and even silver directly.

On the right hand side of the table sat a bookkeeper, who from time to time loudly announced who had won, lost something, or won such and such a reward, and recorded it in detail in the account book.

There are also many men in strong clothes in the shed, sitting or standing, all of them are burly and strong, with cold expressions, and they know that they are not easy to mess with at a glance. But there are still people who bet on valuable objects to challenge on the stage, just because the prizes on the table are too tempting, but they all lose more and win less.

There is also a ring supervisor, sitting in a spacious and comfortable bamboo chair, from time to time with men in black suits to meet the challenges of the challengers.

"Come on!"

"Go up, go up, don't be afraid!"

"Kill him in one go!"

"Lao Li, win two steamed buns and come down!"

There were constant shouts under the ring, and it seemed that everyone's emotions were ignited by the gambling battle in the ring.

Of course, there is no shortage of cries from losers, someone has broken their legs and feet, someone has been beaten to vomit blood and fall into a coma, and someone has lost a family heirloom -

The sensible or the timid will be deterred by the miserable cry of the loser, weigh their own pounds, and dispel unrealistic illusions.

There are also wise people, after watching for a while, they peek through the clues and find that most of those who win are the nurseries of the main party, deliberately winning a large number of prizes to stimulate the crowd. They wanted to loudly expose the unscrupulous tricks of the Lord, but as soon as they opened their mouths, someone put a knife against their hearts, 'Please' them to go away.

In fact, except for some irritable and irrational people who go to the ring to challenge, or those who are confident in their own strength and dare to fight on stage, most of them are still some poor people who are desperate.

They bet on the only little valuable object, sacrifice their lives to fight, fight for a scoop of water or a steamed bun, and if they win, they may be able to let his family live for a day or two more, and if they lose, then the whole family will die together.

"Come on, boy!"

"The young man is so majestic!"

"Young man Lang worked hard, won ten explosions in a row, and overturned them!"

"Young man—"

The bottom of one of the rings was extremely lively, with a crowded crowd and shouts and cheers.

In the ring, a one-armed boy was fighting with a black-clothed man, with swords and swords, very fierce.

The boy's long hair was scattered, and he hadn't combed it for a long time, and his hair was full of dust and grass clippings, sticking together one by one. The whole face was covered with dirt, and it was impossible to tell whether it was white or black. A pair of eyes have no look, but they are not cloudy either, giving people a feeling of being godless and sharp and restrained. It is like a bladeless heavy sword, its appearance is not good, and its momentum is introverted, which should not be underestimated.

The young man was erect, but his clothes were so tattered that it was difficult to hide his body, several times more torn than those worn by the refugees. His right arm was empty, broken at the shoulder, and the hideous scar was shivering.

Although the young man has no right arm, he is not weak at all in his left hand, a five-foot long sword flies up and down, the sword is fierce and flexible, and for a time he actually killed the black-clothed man in black to dodge left and right.

Suddenly, the young man with a broken arm grabbed a flaw, and the long sword broke through the defense of the black-clothed man, and slashed at the chest of the black-clothed man, directly slashing the black-clothed man's chest upside down, splashing blood and falling into the ring.

The boy with the broken arm put away his sword and clenched his fists, retreated to the edge of the ring, did not get off the ring or speak, but looked at the grass shed opposite the ring with a flat gaze.

"The challenger wins!"

"Win four games in a row, get two buckets of water!"

As soon as the gentleman in charge of bookkeeping under the straw shed announced the victory, deafening cheers erupted in cheers from under the ring.

"Oh-"

"Young man is mighty!"

When the bookkeeper saw that the young man with the broken arm was going to continue the challenge, the corners of his eyes couldn't help twitching a few times, and he said loudly: "The challenger wants to continue to challenge, if he wins five consecutive victories, he can win the four stabs of Qing Shui, and if the challenge fails, he will lose all the profits!"

The young man with the broken arm swept his long sword, the tip of the sword pointed obliquely at the ground, and said in a flat voice: "Fight!"

There was another burst of cheers from the audience.

"I'm here to fight you. Out of the grass shed came another man in black clothes, his voice was thick and powerful, his temples were bulging, and his breath was stirring between his gestures, which showed that his ability was extraordinary.

"Win one game to get a scoop of water, win two games in a row to get half a bucket of water, win three games in a row to get a bucket of water, win four games in a row to get two buckets of water, win five games in a row to get four buckets of water, the more you win in a row, the more rewards. ”

Under the ring, Zhang Xiaopaw was holding Niu Dawa, followed by Lu Kaixue, and squeezed into the crowd. He didn't know much about writing, so he pointed to the notice board and asked Lu Kaixue for advice, and Lu Kaixue read the gambling rules written on the notice board to him.

"Sir, how much water does it take to clean my brother's wounds?" Zhang Xiaopaw asked.

"Save a little, a bucket is enough. Lu Kaixue responded.

"You need to win three games in a row. Zhang Xiaopaw muttered to himself, looked along the row of rings, and saw that the third ring on the right was also rewarded with water, so he squeezed through the crowd and walked over there.

Boom!

As soon as Zhang Xiaopaw walked to the ring, he saw a person fall from the ring on his back and landed not far in front of him, bleeding from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and his limbs twitched, and he couldn't survive.

The crowd shook their heads and sighed.

There are old women who pounce on them and cry 'son', some young women pounce on them and cry 'Lang Jun', and some children pounce on them and cry 'Daddy', but no matter how much they cry, the man can't wake up, because he has lost his breath.

"Ahh

"What are you doing?!"

"Don't, don't-"

"Please, let my family go. ”

"Woo-"

Five masked men suddenly walked out of the crowd, three of them stepped forward and pushed away the old woman, the young woman and the child, and the other two grabbed one of the men's arms and dragged them out of the crowd.

The old woman, the young woman, and the child immediately screamed in terror, crying and begging while desperately trying to stop them, but how could the three old and weak women and children screw the five men, and they were kicked to the ground one by one, and they could only watch as the masked men dragged away the bodies of their sons (Lang Jun and Daddy).

The five masked men did not make a sound from beginning to end, even when they were caught, bitten, kicked and beaten, they always kept their teeth shut and did not say a word.

At first, Zhang Xiaopaw didn't understand what these masked people were doing when they robbed a corpse, but he had a keen hearing, and he quickly captured the relevant information from the noisy crowd, and he couldn't help but be terrified when he heard it, it turned out that these people were robbing the corpse to take it-

Zhang Xiaopai's stomach suddenly churned and gagged, which reminded him of the bloodstained valley that had lost all his humanity, and he immediately couldn't suppress his anger, and subconsciously wanted to stop this inhumane brutality, but he couldn't help but be stunned on the spot at a glance.

As far as the eye could see, there were ragged and skinny bodies, dusty faces, sunken eye sockets, and a pair of blank and helpless eyes, looking at the bodies that had been dragged away, their throats squirming, and the sound of swallowing saliva was connected.

Zhang Xiaopaw couldn't help but be terrified, although these people in front of him did not do anything inhumane, but in their hearts they were envious of those masked people who had the courage to do so. Many even clenched their fists, and their dirty faces showed expressions of struggle, as if they were fighting fiercely inside.

Hunger is eating away at their humanity little by little.

Zhang Xiaopaw didn't dare to think about what a terrible scene would be when everyone lost their humanity and became masked people who snatched corpses.

People eat people, people kill people.

Outside the majestic walls of this wild goose city, it will surely become a hell on earth.

And will the dignitaries and nobles and powerful gentry in the city wall still stand on the high city wall, indifferently admiring the killing under the city wall? They may even throw two white-faced steamed buns down from time to time and laugh when they watch a group of people frantically grab one steamed bun.

When he was stunned, the masked man who had snatched the body had disappeared into the crowd, and he did not chase after him to stop it, because he felt powerless, unless he could stop the hunger, similar tragedies would continue to play out and get worse, but he could not stop the hunger, so he felt powerless and hopeless.

"Hey-" Zhang Xiaopaw shook his head and smiled bitterly, shook off the messy thoughts in his mind, and couldn't help but secretly laugh at himself, he was just a mountain villager, a humble existence living at the bottom of society, what to do so much, these issues should be considered by those big people and heroes.

Bang. Zhang Xiaopaw jumped into the ring with Niu Dawa in his arms.

He was afraid that the restless crowd below the ring would trample on Niu Dawa, so he jumped into the ring with Niu Dawa in his arms, and then put Niu Dawa on the edge of the ring, and asked Lu Kaixue to take care of Niu Dawa as much as possible.

"Challenger, take out your challenge chips. The bookkeeper under the straw shed saw Zhang Xiaopaw challenging and immediately shouted.

Zhang Xiaopaw took a knife on his wrist, put the bone knife across his chest, and said, "Use this bone knife as a bargaining chip." ”

He had nothing to lose, only this bone knife was worth a little money.

The bookkeeper couldn't help frowning slightly, and said, "What is the value of your bone-bone knife? If it is just an ordinary bone with no value, it is not enough to be used as a bargaining chip." ”

Zhang Xiaopaw raised his hand and plucked out a piece of hair, put it on the blade and blew it gently, the hair was suddenly cut in two, and said: "Blowing hair and breaking hair, cutting stones and cutting iron is not a problem!"

The bookkeeper's eyes lit up suddenly, and he said, "A treasure knife can be used as a bargaining chip." Please leave it to our notary to take care of it temporarily to avoid unnecessary trouble. ”

A man walked out from under the grass shed, dragging a wooden tray in his hand, and stopped in front of Zhang Xiaopaw.

Zhang Xiaopaw frowned, but thinking that in front of so many people, the other party would definitely not dare to take it by force, so he put the bone knife on the tray and carried it to the grass shed by the man.

Lu Kaixue under the ring was dumbfounded by Zhang Xiaopaw's operation, he really wanted to pry open Zhang Xiaopaw's skull to see if there was something less than a normal person inside, otherwise how could he be so stupid that he went to the ring to challenge but handed over his weapon, isn't this self-cutting off his arm?

"Challenger, put your name on it. ”

"Liujia Village, Zhang Xiaopu. Zhang Xiaopaw hugged his fists.

On the ring on the left, which was three seats apart, the young man with the broken arm seemed to hear Zhang Xiaopaw's self-registration number, and looked over with a surprised expression, but his brief distraction allowed his opponent to find a flaw, and the sword cut a bloody hole in his shoulder.

Click!

Suddenly, there was a thunderclap on the ground!

The long sword in the hand of the young man with the broken arm pierced through the opponent's chest, and wisps of white smoke rose from the wound, emitting a stench of burning, and the slightest electric current flowed through the sword.

The crowd under the ring and the people under the grass shed looked stupid, and they didn't understand why the young man with the broken arm was obviously at a disadvantage and was about to lose, why did he reverse the offense and defense in an instant, and still win?

The young man with the broken arm withdrew his sword, and the man fell headlong with his chest clutched. The young man with the broken arm didn't look at him, just looked at the grass shed and said softly: "The challenge is over, give me clear water." ”

"It's—" Mr. Bookkeeper frowned.

The young man with the broken arm frowned, and shouted in a condensed voice: "What, do you want to repay the debt?"

"I am willing to gamble and lose!" Mr. Bookkeeper gritted his teeth, and then announced loudly: "Challenger Zhou Jianlai, won five games in a row, and won four buckets of clear water." ”

After speaking, someone walked up to the young man with the broken arm with two buckets of water in one hand and put it down, and another person dragged the tray over, and there was a blue-green jade pendant lying on the plate.

The boy with the broken arm put away the jade pendant and put it in his arms, squatted down and plunged into the bucket, grunted and drank violently, and drank two-thirds of the bucket of water in one breath, and his belly bulged.

After drinking, he stood up and arched his hand under the straw hut and said, "Can you trouble the champion to distribute the remaining water to the audience under the ring?" ”

"But—yes. The bookkeeper was surprised, but agreed.

"Oh-" The ring erupted in cheers.

The boy with the broken arm jumped out of the ring with all kinds of praises and walked in the direction of the ring where Zhang Xiaopaw was.

Boom!

Zhang Xiaopaw punched the black-clothed man in the chest, like a drum, and beat the black-clothed man until he vomited blood and fell off the ring on his back.

"So strong!" the young man with the broken arm saw it from a distance, with an extremely surprised expression on his face, and muttered to himself: "Isn't he congenitally blocked by the Battle Gate, how can he become so powerful after not seeing him for more than a month?"