Chapter 256

  Darkness (VII)

  While the kids yammered on, I shifted my thoughts back to the reality of things: this is annoying.

  Not only do we have to contend against the forest and its (many) mysteries, but now the Sages have also entered the mix. I mean, it kind of makes sense? From my rough understanding, the 'village' where they reside isn't too far north of the forest itself, so it makes sense that they would try and get some Life Qi from here since it's simply close by.

  I'm just annoyed that they went so far south that, in my head, it makes no sense.

  I mean, none of their actions, so far, make much sense. They attacked the city with hundreds and hundreds of young folk, and none of them tried to run away. It was as though they just sent them to death, straight-up.

  They also sent someone far south to collect Life Qi from the mortals--not even cultivators--and that can't really be the best use of the vines, can it?

  And now, they're here.

  In this godforsaken place.

  Where, supposedly, every expedition that tried conquering it failed spectacularly, and nobody even knows exactly why.

  ... So, what the hell are they doing here?

  Haah.

  Whatever.

  Just thinking about it is giving me a headache.

  "Eh? Where is the body?" Rayce voiced out, and we all collectively glanced down only to see... well, nothing. A body that was just there was nowhere to be seen.

  My eyes wandered a bit to the nearby patch of moss, and as I drew the lantern closer to it, I saw it glistening as though it was dewed. Crouching, I pulled it back a bit and saw exactly what I expected: the body of that middle-aged man, but unlike all the others, it had tiny, hair-like tendrils jutting out from the roots of the trees digging into his skin, the boring point pulsing and writhing like a worm.

  ... okay, seriously. We need to get the fuck out of this place, and we needed to do it yesterday. Screw the fact that I would have wasted the freebie quest, screw the fact that there's potentially some rather lucrative treasure somewhere in its depths, this place is beyond cursed. It's like I walked from a world of cultivation into some weird, quasi-eldritch horror story, and we're the idiots who thought this time around it'd play out differently.

  "Master, we should prepare for a fight," Long Tao said as I stood back up.

  Lao Shun dragged me to the center as even he took out some kind of a shapely orb with strange lines carved into its surface, holding it tightly between his fingers. At the same time, the kids surrounded me, but what caused me the greatest sense of alarm was the fact that Long Tao himself stepped forward.

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  He never fought unless he absolutely had to.

  I quickly realized why he had to, though--we were surrounded, on all ends, by what looked to be at least fifty cultivators. It wasn't the demonic beasts, but rather the damned shitheads.

  "Don't break the formation," Long Tao said. "I'll take on their leader while you handle the rest."

  "Yes, Senior Brother!" Even Light joined the choir as she jumped onto my shoulder to, according to her words, have a better vantage point to look down at the pathetic slabs who dared want to harm me.

  ... wow.

  Long Tao shot off into the dark like a ghost, and not a moment later, the first array of attacks arrived; there were a lot of elemental bouts amidst the steel-tipped arrowheads, though the kids dispatched them with ease. However, they didn't break rank, maintaining the circle with me in the center. Wan Lan was to my left, Rayce was to my right, Dai Xiu was in front of me, Xi Zhao was behind me, and Lao Shun danced between them all, taking the in-between positions.

  A shadow stirred from between the nearby trees, aiming for Rayce; I panicked a bit, though as I watched a flicker of flames erupt from in front of him and literally obliterate the figure into ashes within the blink of an eye, I swallowed a gulp instead.

  "Here they come!" Wan Lan announced, and just as her words faded, dozens of shadows broke through and attacked in concert.

  The first to react was Xi Zhao, who unsheathed the sword in a rather unremarkable-seeming fashion, only for a flicker of light to barrel forward and tear through everything in its path. It was a bloodbath on his end, to say the least; limbs and heads were severed, blood sprayed out like a geyser, and the sounds of the meat being chopped were something I'll never forget.

  Wan Lan reacted next, taking one step forward and slamming out with her fists while taking seven hits directly. Only two managed to just barely nick her skin, while her twin-strike, as she called it, ripped apart the first figure into a mess of minced particles, with enough remnant force spilling out to the sides to kill seven more.

  Dai Xiu was even more straightforward, sending out a single punch that seemed to distort the space between her fingers--a blink later, an invisible force slammed into the converging figures, and they just... disappeared.

  There wasn't blood, there wasn't gore, there wasn't anything. Literally nothing.

  I felt strange Qi churn just above me, and I barely had enough time to glance up before smoky tendrils of purple shot off from the Light's fingertips, each like a sentient whip that perfectly found figures hiding deep in the shadows between the trees. Yelps and cries echoed out as the tendrils wiggled for a moment, retracting the next, and there were no more ranged attacks incoming.

  Glancing to the side, I saw Lao Shun standing there slack-jawed. No, seriously, you could put a freakin' pumpkin into his mouth with how agape it was.

  His eyes were darting between all the kids at speeds that seemed inhuman, and his mind was probably working ten times as fast to try and rationalize what he witnessed.

  ... I was a bit gobsmacked, too, to be honest. I mean, I know the kids are strong, but aren't they, like, a bit too strong?

  Especially this gremlin sitting on my shoulders.

  I kind of don't actually want to go to that secret realm, as these idiots might just kill everyone, not because of intent, but because they'd be just that much stronger.

  ... or am I just hallucinating because they managed to beat some no-name, low-level quacks?

  The sad bit is... I can't really tell. I mean, I know that's not it, as Lao Shun's reaction otherwise wouldn't have been so exaggerated, but I can't tell.

  "A-ah, we should go help that kid," Lao Shun said as everyone collectively whipped their heads toward him and looked at him as though he'd just uttered the stupidest thing anyone ever has, in the history of the world. "W-what? Why, why are they looking at me like that?"

  "Just be glad that they're only looking," I said. "This is them behaving properly, you know?"

  Help Long Tao?

  Yeah.

  Those would be the days.