Chapter 119

  Choices in Life (I)

  So, thirteen men (and one woman) had encircled the exit of the tunnel. Their backs were facing a forest of trees, behind us was a slight hillside that then fell back down into a town wall, and we... well, we were screwed.

  Kids emerged at some point despite my trying to keep them down, and the expressions were... well, telling.

  Let's start with the newcomer, Wan Lan--she appeared horrified and absolutely certain we were doomed.

  Long Tao? Well, he appeared the same way he always does--just utterly unbothered by everything, as though he wasn't the one being surrounded but was merely here as an audience.

  Light? The girl mostly seemed curious, her shining eyes scrutinizing the figures in front of her as though she was trying to decipher something.

  This is where it gets odd, however.

  I'd expected Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao to be at the very least mildly scared, but no. Not even remotely. Rather, they seemed... confident.

  They puffed their chests out, Xi Zhao was even grabbing toward the sword, and I am seriously wondering whether there's something wrong with the brains of those kids. They know I am 'merely' at the Spirit Manifestation Realm, even if I were an actual, devoted cultivator. So, what in the heavens gives them the confidence to strut around like peacocks?

  "Lan'er," the leader's eyes, however, quickly ignored all the rest of us and focused entirely on the teenage girl next to me. "Oh, Lan'er. I've offered you the world, and this is how you repay me? By sneaking out like some vermin with these ingrates? And Madame... she's been a thorn for so long, but I've given her half the town--and it still wasn't enough. She kept you from me, Lan'er."

  Hm?

  Wait a second.

  This is the reason this old guy is here? Not to kill us but to take back a teenage girl?!

  ... Come on, dude! You look like eight times her age! You're the town's chieftain! I'm sure there are hundreds of women that would throw themselves at you--aah, I'm just shouting into the wind. People like him... don't care.

  Before Wan Lan could respond, I stepped forward and pulled her behind me; my only way out is to piss this guy off so much that he attacks us with something big. He probably sees us all as ants and will likely order his henchmen to kill us... but that can't happen. I need him to attack, and I need him to attack with something at least passably strong.

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  "You ever heard the expression, 'a pig dreaming of marrying a swan'?" I spat out with as cold and calm of a voice as I could. "You're one of the ugliest pieces of shit I've ever seen in my life, and instead of hiding in the deepest chamber under the only Mother that has ever tolerated you, you come crawling out to stalk and horrify young girls? Even dogs behave better, and not even the trained ones, but the dying strays."

  Silence.

  Just absolute, dreadful silence.

  You could drop a nuke, I feel, and this silence would still swallow up all the sound. That's how heavy it was.

  Even Long Tao, someone whose expressions changed about as frequently as seasons in this world, had his jaw slightly agape as he stared at me.

  I don't do it often, not anymore, but hey--I was a little gremlin back in the day. If I wanted to get a rise out of someone, it wasn't all that hard.

  And I can see, in real time, the old man's patience draining--his face grew beet red, his eyes widened, he started to breathe deeply, and veins began to pop like pipes across his body.

  "W-what did you say, you little bastard?!!" He growled back at me, the level of Qi pressure just... decimating.

  Honestly, I... I want to run away. I just want to turn to Long Tao and tell him to whisk the two of us away.

  I'd felt it a few times before, the fear, but it was never this immediate. Despite there being some loosely death-threatening situations, none were as visibly in front of me without any kind of a wall between us.

  There isn't Elder Qin or Hua anymore to protect us, to buy us time, or to help us run.

  There's just me--and I had to work every muscle and nerve in my body to their limit just not to start shaking in place.

  It's hard to breathe, as though there's an anvil pressed against my chest, and it's even harder to think--sort of like that post-cold haze that you feel for a few days despite feeling better.

  ... and yet, I can't crumble. I can't fold like I have folded so often in my life.

  "Not only are you severely unfortunate to look at, but you are also deaf; be a good boy and crawl back in the coffin of horrors that you stepped out of. Don't besmirch this beautiful world with that unfortunate facial configuration."

  The words must have stung further as the density of Qi grew threefold in less than a breath. It was becoming so hard to breathe and stand that Wan Lan was unable to endure any longer; she fell down and crashed against the dirt, though, shockingly, everyone else remained standing.

  Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao appeared a bit uncomfortable, but the other two...

  Yeah.

  Those monsters.

  Seriously, before us stands the strongest person we've ever met (in this lifetime), and they're still just so cavalier about it.

  "Ha ha ha," he began to laugh as he lifted his right arm, a ball of flame coalescing above his palm. "Funny. You are a funny little old man. I was going to kill you regardless, but I'd have at least let you enjoy breathing the air for a while longer. But no. Forget it. I will kill not only you but also the Madame and everyone even remotely connected to any of you. I will carve my anger into your bones so that even in death, it will haunt your pathetic selves.

  "Be burned, o' ye faithless!"

  He flicked the wrist so fast that I barely even caught the afterimage of it--but it didn't matter. I'd squeeze the little tortoise-shaped thing so tightly that it had practically imprinted itself into my palm.

  Just as his voice faded, I raised it and pointed it forward, expecting... well, I'm not really sure.

  I'm not quite ready to die, to be frank; I've just barely started experiencing the world of magic, and to die so soon? A triple-layered tragedy. So, I'd hoped that the system's rewards were magical and that the '???' in the little tortoise's description was large enough to rebuff whatever realm the guy was at.

  And if not?

  ... well. I have a feeling that I'm going to fall deep into a well of depression as Long Tao drags me around like a ragdoll, telling me to make stuff while I think back to this decision and this moment. Like an ever-living sludge that cannot be pulled out from the memories.