For one thing, the village was even more ruined and dilapidated than last year. Some of the houses had caved in and collapsed completely, but they were left in their wrecked state. Probably because the villagers simply couldn"t afford repairs.

The kids, who used to play openly on the roads, were gone. The number of people farming was also diminished, and there clearly was a gloom and an air of despair that hung over the few villagers visible in the open.

"This is awful…"

I felt a chill run down my spine as I inspected the condition of the village. This was worse than I imagined.

Taking a deep breath, I shook myself out of my stupor and proceeded toward one of the villagers. I needed to get to the bottom of this, and perhaps find out who was responsible. Even if I couldn"t fight the culprits, I could provide information…

Don"t be naïve. What makes you think the Imperial Guard hasn"t already dug all the information out of these villagers?

Speaking of which, there was no sign of the Imperial Guard or enforcers. On my way here, I spotted sporadic patrols, of soldiers and veteran martial artists driving around the borders to keep an eye out for bandits and rogue martial artists. However, as I went further away into the rural areas, the patrols dwindled until they were gone completely.

Chun Xiang Village was so remote that it was almost forgotten by the great Zhou Empire. I guess even a continent-spanning empire didn"t have enough resources to patrol and protect every single village and citizen within its territory.

Well, of course. The amount of manpower you need for this would be insane…

I couldn"t help but feel depressed. But now that I was here, I should do something. Speak to them, offer moral support…anything. As long as I didn"t just stand here like an idiot doing nothing and looking totally lost.

"You are…"

I perked up at the familiar voice and turned around. It was Old Man Yi, limping forward on his walking stick. He glanced up at me, his expression twisted into a confused frown. It was clear that he didn"t remember me.

"I"m Fei Wu. I was here around last year…you helped me out a lot when Lu Shun found me collapsed near the riverbank."

"Ah…the outsider from last year! The young boy!" Yi brightened up and then hobbled toward me excitedly. "It"s been a long time!"

"Yeah. How is everything?"

Even as the question left my mouth, I immediately felt stupid. Of course everything wasn"t fine. I could see the devastated state of Chun Xiang Village for myself.

"Well…could be better."

Yi took no offense, and then turned away. He gestured for me to follow, and I apprehensively stepped after him.

"Well, let"s head to my home for some tea and catch up on stuff."

"Yes, sir."

This was my only chance to get some information, so I had no reason to refuse. That didn"t lessen the discomfort and feeling of helplessness, though. That feeling increased as I followed Yi through the half-destroyed paths and collapsed houses of the broken village.

"Hey! Aren"t you that boy from a year ago?!"

On my way there, yet another familiar figure popped up. Turning around, I caught sight of Lu Shun stumbling through the broken pathways and waving at me. I smiled and waved back, only for the warm greeting to die in my throat when I caught a good glimpse of him.

"You…!"

"Ah…ha ha ha, yeah. I look pretty terrible, don"t I?"

Lu shun had been battered and beaten into a terrible condition. Blue and black swelling throbbed under his heavily bandaged face, he seemed to be missing a few teeth, and one of his eyes were covered in gauze. The other was black. Below, one arm was wrapped in a cast and bound to a sling, and a sleeveless vest hung over a heavily bandaged body. Lu Shun was limping on a crutch, for one of his legs were set inside a brace.

"Are you all right?" I finally asked lamely, not sure what to say. Lu Shun smiled humorlessly and waved at his injured arm.

"Do I look all right?"

"No, I"m sorry. I mean…" I swallowed and shook my head. "What happened?" then I suddenly realized. "Don"t tell me…those demonic martial artists…"

"It"s a long story," Yi told me as he continued strolling back toward his house. "We"ll talk more inside my house. Take a seat."

"Yes, sir." I wasn"t sure what to say, so I nodded and followed him. Yi also turned toward Lu Shun with a grave expression.

"You should go home. I told you that you shouldn"t be moving around in that condition."

"Eh…but it"s rare that we get any visitors!"

Yi sighed and shook his head in exasperation, giving up. "Then at least come to my house and have a seat. Stop walking and making your injuries worse!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

Lu Shun obeyed despite his complaints. Not knowing what to do, I ended up subconsciously keeping a distance before setting foot into Old Man Yi"s house.

"As you correctly surmised, the demonic martial artists were the ones who beat Lu Shun into a pulp like that," Yi informed me as he sank into his wooden chair. He gestured for us to sit, but since there was no other furniture in the house, I took a seat on the carpeted floor. The fabric was torn and dusty and I was pretty much sitting on the floor, but I was used to it. On the opposite side, Lu Shun settled in the corner of the room with a grunt.

"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…" he struck the wall with his uninjured palm. "They came and raided us and took a bunch of women and children away. I tried to fight them…"

"…and ended up like that." Old Man Yi sighed. "You"re too reckless, Lu Shun."

"But I can"t help it! What am I supposed to do? Watch as those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds take our women and children!?"

Bellowing furiously, Lu Shun struck the wall with his fist again and gritted his teeth. I could literally here the popping of his veins as he seethed.

"I didn"t say that, but you would have accomplished nothing if you died."

"I"m glad you survived, though." I breathed a sigh of relief. Lu Shun barked out a bitter laugh at that.

"I only survived because I escaped. If it weren"t for Old Man Yi"s medical skills, I would have died from my injuries!"

"You escaped?" I asked. Lu Shun nodded and then shrugged as best as he could with his bandaged shoulder and slung arm.

"To be fair, they weren"t interested in chasing me down. They had far more important things to worry about. Like trafficking women and children or something. I have no idea what they plan to do with them, but I can"t forgive them!"

"The Tian Sha Sect is known for draining the qi essence from women and children and processing that into demonic pills," Yi informed us coolly. He scowled as he glared into a s.p.a.ce faraway. "I"ve firsthand witnessed the terrible drugs that they concoct. They grant the people who consume them berserk strength."

"But why have they only been active recently?" Lu Shun demanded sourly. "They"ve never attacked us and the other villages on such an unprecedented scale before. They"ve usually left us alone, hiding deep within the Southern and Western Mountains. Why did they suddenly become so much more active and aggressive?"

"I…wouldn"t know," Yi admitted. "I"m guessing they wanted revenge on the Martial Arts Alliance for destroying so many demonic sects in the previous war."

"But that war was over a decade ago! Why wait until now?!"

Old Man Yi gave Lu Shun an exasperated glare. "How would I know? Why don"t you ask them the next time they come?"

"They"ll be coming again?" I asked, surprised at that. "What for? Didn"t they already raid your village?"

Yi snorted. "Only to take our women and children. But they quickly left when a nearby patrol of Imperial Guard happened to chance upon us. Now that the patrol has moved on to another village that has been a.s.saulted, they will return sooner or later.

"But for what reason?" Lu Shun demanded, his voice trembling with unbridled hatred and fury. "Haven"t they already taken everything?"

Yi glanced at him, his gaze sad. "Not everything. Not yet."

"What do you mean by that?" Lu Shun demanded, turning pale.

"They don"t just drain essence and qi from women and children to make demonic pills. They will attempt to directly suck the qi from us men to cultivate their demonic techniques. The reason why they prioritized the women first was because they need more yin qi than yang qi for their demonic techniques, and women have a lot more yin qi than men."

"…but it won"t be enough, and they want every drop of qi they can get," I muttered, horrified. From what I learned from Wu Ling Academy, the vast majority of demonic techniques did rely on infusing their methods with yin qi.

"That"s right."

"We can"t let them do that!" my voice rose. "We"ve to stop them!"

""We"?" Lu Shun scoffed. "What can we do?"

Then he blinked and stared at me, as if suddenly realizing something. His jaw dropped and his eyes narrowed.

"Don"t tell me, you accepted our request?"

"That"s too reckless!" Yi turned to look at me sharply. "I appreciate your thoughts, but right now you"re no match for those demonic martial artists. You should leave this matter to the veterans and the Imperial Guard."

"They won"t be coming." I sighed and shook my head. "The Imperial Guard and enforcers are stretched too thinly across the border. The demonic sects aren"t just targeting this village but the entire Chun Ling region. They just don"t have the manpower to patrol and protect every village."

"I"m aware of that, but what can you do? It"s pointless if you get killed along with us. You"re not even a part of the village!"

"Yeah!" Lu Shun agreed wholeheartedly. "I appreciate your sentiments, but you"re too reckless! You"re still young! There"s no need to throw away your future!"

I wasn"t sure if he should be telling me that, given that he was the one all hurt and bandaged up like a mummy.

"Just leave the mission to veterans and more senior martial artists," Yi told me as he leaned out of his seat to place a rea.s.suring arm on my shoulder. "This is not a mission meant for children such as you."

"…they won"t take this mission."

"Huh?"

Lu Shun stared at me. I glanced up and met both his and Yi"s gazes evenly. Clenching my fists, I gritted my teeth.

"I know you can"t afford to provide a higher amount of reward, but 10 gold isn"t enough for a mission of this level. No veteran martial artist will accept it, not when there"s such a high level of risk and danger involved!"

"…we know."

There was an air of weary resignation in Yi"s voice as he leaned back in his chair and sighed. His shoulders slouched and he closed his eyes.

"You know?" I repeated incredulously.

"Yes." Yi nodded. "Even so, we sought to try. We thought that if there was even the slightest chance that a martial artist would come to help…"

"It might have been a bad idea," Lu Shun remarked with a shake of his head before turning to give me a sad look. "We ended up dragging you into this village instead."

"You didn"t drag me into anything," I protested. But neither men was listening to me. Yi was nodding in agreement.

"Yes, this is our fault." He turned to fix his stern gaze on me. "Young man, you should leave this village as soon as possible. Don"t get caught up in our mess. I"ll escort you out first thing tomorrow. You shouldn"t stay here any longer."

"But…"

"Don"t worry." Lu Shun smiled and waved dismissively. "We survived their raid once. We"ll survive it again. Who knows, we"ll probably get lucky and an entire battalion of Imperial Guard will come across our village in time to crush them."

I was sure he didn"t believe what he was saying.

"It"s late now, so you can stay the night." Old Man Yi gestured toward one of the rooms. "Help yourself to one of those rooms for tonight. Make yourself comfortable. But make sure you leave first thing tomorrow."

"…"

I crawled to my feet and exhaled deflated. Glancing out at the twilight filtering through the windows, I clenched my fists.

"Do you mind if I visit a few people?"

"Oh? Who?" Lu Shun asked curiously.

"Hu Shi. I have yet to repay her for taking care of me the last time."

"Oh, you have done more than enough. Helping us hunt down Wild Boars and allowing us to stock up enough food for the winter…I daresay you"ve done more than what is required of you." with a smile, Yi patted my shoulder again.

"Besides, it"s impossible."

There was a bitter tone in Lu Shun"s voice that made me glance up. I stared at him, my mouth dry.

"What do you mean?"

Old Man Yi nodded gravely, his eyes darkening.

"In the last raid, Hu Shi and her son, Hu Hai, were among those who were abducted by the martial artists from the demonic sect."

*

The next morning, I woke up and stretched myself. Putting my gla.s.ses on, I crawled out of bed and shivered in the cold, autumn air. Summer had ended, and fall had begun. The temperature had begun to drop, and mercifully so. It had been an intense summer, after all. I blame global warming even though we didn"t have fossil fuels in this timeline.

I was pretty sure we had greenhouse gas emissions, though…

"I hope you don"t mind this meager fare." Old Man Yi spoke up when I left my room, lading a cup with steaming water. Next to it was a pathetically small piece of bread. Apparently they had run out of meat. I offered to hunt some, but they didn"t want me to. Yi told me that the villagers planned to leave Chun Xiang Village in the near future.

"We won"t be able to stay here for much longer, not with the demonic sects running rampant and raiding villages…"

As such, they wouldn"t be able to store the meat that I would have procured for them. With the ongoing raids, the abduction of their women and children, and being forced to scrounge up 10 gold coins, the villagers were subsisting on the bare minimum of food.

I couldn"t help but feel sorry for them.

"Thank you."

Yi nodded as he pa.s.sed me a cup of tea. He pa.s.sed a stern gaze over me.

"After breakfast, you are to leave immediately."

"That"s…"

The old man shook his head, cutting me off before I could protest. I fell silent, not knowing what to say under that gaze.

"I appreciate your sentiment, but you"re just a boy. No matter how desperate we are, there"s no way we"ll drag an innocent outsider who"s underage to fight for us. If anything happens to you, we"ll be unable to face your parents."

"You don"t even know my parents," I pointed out. "And my parents don"t know you either. You don"t have to worry about that."

"Even so…I couldn"t face the academy and tell them that I got one of their students killed."

"The academy sends students out on missions like this all the time." I waved Yi"s concerns away. "We sign an indemnity form, so both you and the academy will be absolved of all responsibility in case anything happens. Besides, we"ve already made our resolve."

Yi stared at me pitifully, but shook his head.

"You"re still too young," he muttered mournfully. I didn"t argue. To be honest, I didn"t take this mission. I was officially here to collect herbs. Only high school students could accept three star missions and above, so technically Yi was correct. I was too young to handle this mission, and I wasn"t even supposed to be here.

"I understand." I shoved the last of the bread into my mouth and downed it with tea. Placing the now empty cup on the table, I rose to my feet and bowed my head gratefully. "Thank you for the meal. Let me know if there"s anything else I can help with."

"Sure. Now go home."

With one final look at the elder, I departed the house.

I had hardly taken more than a few steps when something exploded behind me.

"?!"

Whirling around, my jaw dropped as I watched something smash the house a few blocks down. As a cloud of dust blossomed into the air, villagers ran down the battered pathway, screaming. Even as they barreled past me, I stayed rooted to the spot, studying the destruction in awe.

I could sense an enormous amount of qi proceeding toward my direction. Someone extremely powerful had arrived. And this chill…the overwhelming amount of yin qi…this was definitely the pract.i.tioner from a demonic sect.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

A ma.s.sive guy lumbered into view. With a single swipe of his huge hand, he smacked a house off its foundation and sent it collapsing. While he indulged in his appet.i.te for destruction, several more figures came into view.

They kept their distance, but I recognized one of them. That silhouette, that hairstyle, and that face…I would recognize him anywhere.

"Qi Fu Ren!?"

The bully was the last person I expected to see in this remote village. But now that I thought about it, it shouldn"t be surprising that Qi Fu Ren joined a demonic sect. he had learned a demonic technique, and his horrible personality fitted them perfectly.

"What are you doing?!"

Lu Shun yelled at me as he limped forward. A few of the villagers had grabbed hold of him and hauled him forward. Despite that, they were too slow. The giant was going to catch up with them soon enough. Well, he wasn"t that much of a giant, to be honest. He was about six feet tall at most, but as wide as a bodybuilder.

Calling him a giant was an exaggeration.

"Hey!"

I turned to Lu Shun, who was bellowing at me. The two villagers supporting him turned to look at me in disbelief and fear.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward while performing several calculations in my mind. At the speed the huge guy was traveling, the villagers wouldn"t be able to outrun or escape him in time. He would overtake them in a few minutes. Already, a few of the villagers had been caught by him and he hurled them over his shoulder for the figures behind to take them.

…right. They had no intention of killing the villagers. They needed them alive so that they could suck the qi and essence from the villagers, in order to strengthen their demonic cultivation and hone their demonic techniques.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"AAAAH!"

"NOOO!!!!"

Swallowing, I turned back to Lu Shun and shook my head.

"Go," I told him and the two villagers supporting him. "Don"t worry about me. Run from here, as fast as you can."

"What about you!?"

I pushed my gla.s.ses up as I turned toward the huge demonic martial artist and took a step forward.

"I"ll buy you guys the time you need to escape. I"ll delay that guy for as long as I can."

"You"re crazy!" one of the guys blurted out. Lu Shun nodded in agreement.

"Don"t be an idiot! Hurry up and escape!"

"If I don"t face that guy and delay him, then none of us will be able to escape."

The horror on the three men"s faces were evident. I put on a brave smile.

"Don"t worry. I"ll figure something out."

"But he"s too strong!" Lu Shun argued weakly. He knew I was right, that the rogue martial artist would catch up if no one stalled him, but he didn"t want me to sacrifice myself. "You can"t beat him!"

"I don"t need to beat him," I reminded him, my smile still frozen on my face. "I only need to delay him. Once all of you have escaped, then I"ll find a way to flee."

The three guys looked pretty bleak when they realized that they were actually holding me back. Without further delay, they took off. Lu Shun gave me a last nod.

"Make sure you survive at all costs."

"I"ll try."

Giving a vague response, I then turned around and confronted the approaching and rampaging rogue martial artist.