Heavy bags of rice and large strips of dried meat were tossed onto the strong backs of the donkeys.
It was already midnight, yet the entire Dong Village was buzzing with a quiet, anxious energy.
While Hua Ke remained inside the small wooden house refining his spirit essence, the mortals had gathered every single valuable thing they could physically carry.
Behind a tall stack of wooden crates, Cui Cui kept stealing nervous glances at the closed door of the mysterious spirit master.
Qing Qing stepped directly into her line of sight, blocking her view with a deeply stern frown. "Big sister, what are you doing? I am telling you this for your own good. You need to stay away from that spirit master. Have you lost your mind?"
Cui Cui quickly looked away, her cheeks flushing red in the dark night. "What! I do not have anything to do with him! I was just wondering if he is okay. Why do you think I have anything to do with him, Qing Qing?"
"Did you forget what happened to our uncle?" Qing Qing hissed, his eyes wide with fear as he kept his voice low so the passing village elders would not hear. "Did you forget how a spirit master brutally killed him just because he failed to give one rice bag more? Mortals are just ants to them! That man is not helping us out of goodwill. He definitely has some hidden motive. We must be very careful around him!"
"Qing Qing! Come help with these heavy ropes!" Fei Fei shouted from the center of the village square.
Qing Qing glared at his sister one last time before running off into the darkness.
Left completely alone, Cui Cui looked down at her small hands, a hard and complicated look settling on her face.
Her brother spoke the harsh truth of this world. She realized she knew absolutely nothing about this young master except few basic details.
He was a dangerous stranger, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling of a strange fate.
Near the village entrance, Fei Fei looked around the bustling crowd. Torches flickered against the old wooden houses.
Would they ever be able to return to the Dong Village? Was this a terrible mistake? Would they really receive any shelter from the mighty Lin Clan? The spirit master supporting them was not even from the Lin Clan, contrary to what they had thought.
Of course, when they heard him state his name and realized he belonged to a different clan rather than the Lin Clan, all of them had doubts. Yet a spirit master is still a spirit master. They had no choice, and a spirit master was a huge asset for them in this situation.
Suddenly, the wooden door creaked open.
The entire village fell dead silent. All eyes turned to Hua Ke now known as Wang Ke by them. He stepped out fully prepared, wearing the crisp black robe that Fei Fei had gifted him earlier. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
His aura was calm like a deep lake, but his eyes carried the sharp edge of a spirit cultivator.
He walked straight up to the village chief. "Let us take the path closest to the mountain. There are many deep caves in that rocky area where the villagers can rest safely. The further you get away from the Cang Wu mountain, the fewer caves there are. Flat lands are extremely bad for a large group like ours. Resting in wide open areas will only attract more wandering wild beasts."
Fei Fei nodded respectfully, stepping closer to speak in a very quiet tone. "Young master, were you able to recover properly? Cui Cui told me you were using a spirit to heal your wounds inside the house."
Hua Ke raised an eyebrow, his piercing gaze locking onto the older man. "Are you worried that I will let you down when the beasts attack?"
Fei Fei waved his calloused hands frantically. "No! I would not dare to have thoughts like that, young master! But I am quite worried about my innocent villagers. There are small children and frail women depending on my leadership. I cannot take any foolish risks."
"Trust me," Hua Ke muttered with absolute certainty. "We will avoid everything dangerous on the road, and I will deal with any blind beast that dares to approach us."
Hua Ke felt a massive surge of confidence in his heart. He had survived the deadly Inheritance cave of Senior Pu Zi, gaining immense combat experience.
Cui Cui had already briefed him about the ferocious beasts surrounding this immediate forest.
Now that he had fully recovered his spirit essence and even successfully advanced to the Rank One upper stage, his battle strength had multiplied.
Combined with the experienced village hunters and their sturdy equipment, a simple Corpse Eater Hound pack was no longer a deadly threat to him. The true danger lurking in the shadows was Ji Ma Ko himself.
Satisfied with the reassurance, Fei Fei walked quickly to the front of the caravan. "Move out!"
Hua Ke remained in the middle of the tight formation, his sharp eyes constantly scanning both ends of the long line of villagers.
Cui Cui walked up right beside him. Her round eyes held a deeply pleading, desperate look. "Young master... please protect my village. Do not let anything terrible happen to them."
Looking into her earnest expression, Hua Ke felt a very strange sensation in his chest, as if an invisible thread of fate had been built between them. He let out a heavy sigh in his mind. *What am I going to do now? She got one of my spirit inside her.*
He gave her a slight nod. *Whatever, I will just face the problems as they come. First, I need to get these mortals to the Lin Clan territory alive.*
***
The day arrived when he would begin devouring the beauties of Dong Village after nine nights and nine young virgins from another village.
Inside a damp and foul smelling cavern, Ji Ma Ko woke up bursting with sick excitement. He slept on a thick pile of stolen wolf pelts. As he sat up in the dim light, his body looked entirely skeletal. His limbs were nothing but pale skin stretched tightly over bone.
Years ago, he was a proud and wealthy Rank Two spirit master called Bai Ma Ko. But his vile lust got the better of him. He touched the beautiful wife of a powerful righteous path spirit master who was higher ranked than him and was nearly slaughtered for his crime in Bai Clan.
He barely escaped with his miserable life, his cultivation permanently crippled and forcefully dropped back to Rank One because of the devastating attack and this frail body was living proof of that.
He stretched his bony arms, cracking his stiff joints. His lookout wolves, stationed carefully near the main road, had not alerted him to anyone leaving or entering the area. That meant the terrified villagers were not trying anything stupid.
It never crossed his arrogant mind that the villagers would take the long, treacherous route through the deep forest.
A large group of mortals traveling without a strong spirit master in those dangerous woods was a guaranteed death sentence.
Yes, mortal villages had hunters, but they only used simple traps to kill the weakest prey they could find. Just one Corpse Eater Hound pack was more than enough to wipe out a completely unprotected village.
Ji Ma Ko did not expect the Dong Village to be foolish enough to throw their lives away.
Because beast tamer path spirit masters like him had a strict control distance for their wolves, he could not send a beast directly into the village to keep an eye on them.
But why would he need to? They had absolutely no choice but to submit and send the beautiful girls he had requested.
That was exactly what he expected to see when he walked out of his cave.
But the clearing was completely empty. Nobody was waiting for him.
Immediate irritation flared heavily in his chest, burning through his twisted mind. A lustful man like Ji Ma Ko could not bear waking up without a beautiful woman waiting to serve him, at least that was the story Ji Ma Ko wanted everyone to believe.
It was as if he had been starved of his favorite morning meal.
Filled with explosive rage, he stormed over to his Blood Wolf. This was a spirit grade beast, entirely superior to the normal mortal wolves in his large pack. He climbed onto its broad back and rode furiously toward the Dong Village.
When he violently smashed through the village gates, the silence was deafening. The houses were stripped completely bare. The Dong Village was empty.
His skeletal face twisted into a hideous mask of pure anger. His Blood Wolf sniffed the dirt ground, immediately catching the heavy scent of the villagers and the fresh footsteps leading completely out of the village toward the Cang Wu mountain.
Ji Ma Ko grinned wickedly, showing his rotting yellow teeth. "You want to run? Fine. It is going to be a grand feast for my wolves!"