Chapter 102

  When the Heavens Weep (VII)

  We ran until my lungs were numb and my legs felt chained by weights.

  The sloped, rugged terrain of the mountain slowly shifted to the forested one, and it became even harder as I had to avoid stumbling and falling down against the endless jutting roots of the trees.

  There were cuts and scrapes galore within just a few minutes of running and trying to navigate the maze of the tall, overgrown shrubberies full of thorns and sharp branches digging out.

  Yet we ran.

  Luckily, at least, all we had to do was run down and follow a 'path'--there was no way to get lost.

  Though, I have to admit, besides the burning pain searing within every inch of my body, there is one thing that hurts above it all--the shame. What shame? Well, I am carrying a child, sure, but Long Tao is carrying someone twice the age of the child I'm carrying, and he barely looks like he's broken a sweat.

  Xi Zhao, too, looks about as unbothered as when we started, and me? Well, I'm soaked.

  I can all but taste the sweet toxins of apathetic laziness ooze out of me, though, in my defense, the vast majority of them were not my doing. I've actually been working out semi-regularly, you know? A few dozen push-ups here, some squats, a bit of cardio, but it didn't feel like much was changing.

  Any time I got my body purified by the system, however, the change was massive--sort of like having worked out for six months straight and actually seeing the results of it.

  I could think of a thousand things--

  The light was blinding, so blinding in fact that I instinctively pulled my hand over Light's eyes and just barely closed mine in time for them to burn just a bit. The ground suddenly gave out under me, and I started falling, stumbling in the dark to find the girl and pull her tightly into my chest as I tried to angle my fall in the opposite direction.

  Even through the darkness, bits of strobing lights broke through, like shattered shards of an hourglass aglow like a prism. Streaks blurred, and I found myself closing my eyes harder only to somehow exacerbate the entire damn thing.

  I fell rather awkwardly, back first rather than butt first, though, luckily, I did bounce off the tree on my way down, which cushioned the fall slightly. It was when I landed that the actual tremors truly began--the ground quaked violently. Honestly, it felt as though there was something deeply dormant waking up, like a volcano was about to blow its top off and these were its warning calls.

  Within a second, I found myself tossed back up and rumbling across the air; just in time, I managed to open my eyes and see the tree about four yards from me, pushing out with my feet and landing against it, springily managing to land on one of my feet after.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Honestly? Probably the most athletic feat I've ever pulled off in my life.

  Looking back up the mountain, I caught a brief glimpse of a truly monstrous pillar of greenish light. It pulsed like tiled noise for a moment before it dissolved, leaving behind a clear blue sky.

  In my awe, however, the clean blue sky was overcome with ashen clouds within just a few moments. A breath later, rain as red as blood began to pour down.

  "What the..." I mumbled, just now recognizing that I've bruised a few of my ribs in the fall and that they hurt. I swallowed the yelp, however. "Are you okay?" I asked the girl nestled within my arms.

  "I'm fine," she replied.

  "Everyone alright?" I called out, looking around.

  Luckily, Long Tao and Dai Xiu were fine, if a bit rattled and dirty, while Xi Zhao was limping a bit, having sprained his ankle.

  "What happened?" Xi Zhao asked as all of us looked up the mountain.

  "... I don't know," I said. "We should keep going."

  We continued descending, though having slowed down a bit. At some point, the steep terrain of the mountain leveled out, and we left the forested area, emerging on a rather graceful, grassy descent from which we could see the flats expanding into the misty horizon.

  "Let's take a break here," I said, all but collapsing.

  As soon as I set Light down, I practically fell down, heaving for breath.

  It wasn't just tiredness, I don't think. Rather, I feel it's more that the weight of everything has just started truly sinking in. It just dawned on me that I'm on the run with the kids and that we're homeless. That all I've known now lies destroyed, and everyone besides the ones here... is dead. Or, at least, captured.

  You know, it'd be so easy for me to lose my shit right about now.

  I have a full barrel of excuses, don't I? Yet, as I lift my head and look at these kids, I realize... I can't. Long Tao, yeah, he's fine, if a bit winded. He's probably witnessed hundreds of battles just like that and participated in thrice as many.

  But what about the others?

  They hid it, the best they could at least. But I could see it in their eyes--there were no better off than me. No, they were worse off than even me. At least, I've got a few decades under my belt, for what it's worth.

  Silence snuck in our midst as everyone sat down. I took out a few pills and distributed them, popping a few myself. The wounds were beginning to burn, and the infection is never a fun game to play.

  That soul-anchoring feeling was back--anxiety. Like a root of a tree, it's dug itself deep, and it won't be easy to get rid of. But I do everything I can to swallow it down like a knot in my throat, standing up and facing them all.

  For better or worse (mostly worse), I'm all these kids have. And there's no going back, not now, and likely not ever. It's unlikely that we'll plant our roots anywhere anytime soon, which means we'll become vagabonds for a little while. Do I have any experience surviving that way? Eh. I backpacked a bit in my youngblood days, and this was while I was kind of broke and had to do odd jobs to make ends meet.

  This one time, while trying to figure out how the hell I was going to afford reaching the Alps for some of that sweet winter skiing (thinking I could afford it at all), I got stuck for almost a month in a small Slovenian village called ?tanjel, where I got hired to do odd jobs around a vineyard. The entire village was nothing but stone and wind, and I laid bricks all-the-livelong-day, every day, for a half-built wine cellar, while sleeping in a barn that smelled of figs and concrete dust.

  It wasn't the only time--rather, I found that I often had to park myself in the smaller hamlets where the work, while draining as all hell, was genuine. The locals were nice; they often shared their meals with me, and they paid on time.

  That's probably what we'll have to do--start roaming, looking for odd jobs, and stay in smaller places while traveling eastward. Not immediately, as there's still a small horde of resources in my fair share of spatial rings (especially the one Elder Qin gave me just as the battle was breaking out), but it was an inevitability, and it's probably best I prepare them for it immediately.

  "Your appearances," I said. "Have you decided on the new ones?"