"What?!"
The Village Head's face went blank. Behind him, villagers seethed with silent rage.
"Hmm? Unwilling?" The dead-fish-eyed bandit's voice dripped with mockery. "Thought you'd learned sense! Seems I'll have to take what I want!"
The Village Head trembled, voice cracking. "Great Sir... we'll give all our food and coin... just spare us—"
"Enough! This isn't a negotiation!" The bandit's snarl cut through the plea. His horsewhip snapped through the air. CRACK! The elderly man flew backward, a raw, crimson gash splitting his chest. Villagers lunged to catch him.
The bandit dismounted, hefting his broadsword toward the nearest hut. Ten others fanned out — some kicking doors open, others leveling weapons at the crowd. Five stayed mounted, blades glinting bloody orange in the dying sun.
Two villagers rushed their homes. Steel flashed. Bodies crumpled onto the dirt, staining it dark.
──────
The bandit leader strode toward a small cottage. Suddenly, a figure stumbled from the crowd — Xiao Feng, eyes wild with terror. He threw himself at the bandit's boots, clutching his ankle. "Please... no... don't go in... I beg you...!"
Ling'er was inside.
The bandit paused, then grinned like a jackal. "Something precious in there, boy?" His boot slammed into Xiao Feng's ribs. CRUNCH! The youth flew backward, blood spraying from his lips. A bandit's heel pinned him facedown in the dirt.
Screams tore from the cottage — a girl's cry, then the bandit's roar of triumph: "HA! A jewel in this dung heap! This what you were guarding, worm? Weaklings don't deserve pretty things!"
Xiao Feng strained against the boot, fingers clawing earth. "Ling'er...! Don't be scared... I'm coming...!" Terror curdled into hate — hate for heaven's cruelty, the bandits' savagery, his own helplessness. Something primal stirred in his core. Blood frothed on his lips as he heaved upward, muscles corded, vision graying...
The bandit atop him felt the surge. Snarling, he raised his sword —
──────
THUD!
A force like a battering ram slammed into the bandit's skull. He sailed forward, limp as a sack, before hitting the ground unconscious.
A figure blurred past — straight into the screaming cottage.
Bai Yunfei had arrived.
──────
He'd seen the chaos from the village edge: bodies bleeding, thugs menacing cowering families, a boy about to be butchered. Bandits. Instinct took over. Soulforce surged through his legs. He moved.
Inside the cottage, the scene burned into his eyes:
A girl pinned beneath the bandit leader.
A livid handprint on her cheek.
Torn fabric at her shoulder, pale skin exposed.
Tears streaking dirt as she choked, "No... please...!"
The bandit twisted at Bai Yunfei's entrance, hand darting for his fallen blade.
Bai Yunfei was faster.
A shadow-flash. His foot stamped down.
CRUNCH-SNAP! Fingers shattered under his heel.
The bandit's scream died as Bai Yunfei's second kick lifted him off the ground. Ribs caved like rotten wood. The man sailed through the doorway, landing three meters away in a broken heap, blood gushing from his mouth.
──────
Silence.
Bandits gaped at their fallen leader. Villagers froze.
Bai Yunfei stepped outside. Blood pounded in his ears. He scanned the eleven remaining bandits. No warnings. No boasts.
He lunged at the nearest thug.
The man swung his sword wildly. Bai Yunfei flowed past the blade, seized his wrist, and twisted. Bone grated. The sword clattered free. Bai Yunfei caught it mid-air, flung it aside, then drove his fist into the bandit's face. THOCK! The man dropped, unconscious.
Before the second body hit dirt, Bai Yunfei was already pivoting. Another bandit crumpled under a blow to the temple.
Only then did the pack react.
Weapons whistled as they closed in. Bai Yunfei grabbed the bandit at his feet — swung him like a flail — and hurled him into three others. The circle broke.
What followed was a blur of disarming efficiency. Bai Yunfei moved like water between them:
Wrists snapped under precise strikes.Sword-hilts rammed into jaws.Knees buckled under sweeping kicks.
Within minutes, a pile of discarded weapons gleamed dully. Ten bandits littered the ground — most unconscious, a few whimpering over shattered limbs or ruptured guts.
Bai Yunfei breathed steadily, a flicker of disappointment in his eyes. Too easy. Soul adepts against mortals... like snapping twigs.
──────
CLATTER-CLATTER!
Hoofbeats!
One bandit had scrambled onto a horse, kicking it into a gallop down the western path. Escape.
Bai Yunfei gave chase. Soulforce ignited his legs. The gap closed rapidly.
The fleeing bandit risked a glance back — and screamed. Bai Yunfei ran beside the galloping horse, matching its speed effortlessly. A hand shot out, clamped onto the bandit's calf, and yanked.
The man peeled from the saddle. His face met packed earth at full speed. He skidded, twisted, and lay still — breath a wet, ragged gasp.
──────
Bai Yunfei dragged the limp bandit back toward the village. A fresh scream pierced the twilight. Impossible. I disabled them all—
He burst into the square. Froze.
Blood.
So much blood.
The villagers stood rigid, faces sick with horror, staring at the center ground.
The clearing swam crimson. Blood pooled, sticky and dark, around eleven butchered bodies — his captives. Standing knee-deep in gore was Xiao Feng.
He clutched a broadsword slick with viscera. His eyes were raw, unseeing holes. He hacked mechanically at the dead-fish-eyed bandit's corpse — a ruined mound of flesh and bone.
"Die... DIE! ALL BANDITS DIE! Give back my parents! Give back my sister! KILL YOU! PROTECT LING'ER! DON'T TOUCH HER—!!"
The words were an animal's snarl. Blood soaked his clothes, matted his hair.
Bai Yunfei watched, a cold wave crashing through him. Despair. Rage. Helplessness. He knew this darkness.
Memory flashed:
A younger self in a blood-slicked arena.
Eyes burning red.
A brick clutched in trembling hands.
A dying wolf's skull caving under repeated, savage blows...
"Xiao Feng!"
Ling'er stumbled from the cottage, torn clothes hanging loose. She ignored the carnage, the stench of death. She threw herself against Xiao Feng's blood-soaked back, arms locking around his waist.
"Xiao Feng! Look at me! Please! Don't... don't be like this!" Her voice cracked.
The sword slipped from Xiao Feng's grasp. His wild eyes blinked, focus slowly returning. He turned stiffly. Saw Ling'er's tear-streaked face. Felt her arms trembling.
"Ling... Ling'er?" His voice was sandpaper. "You're... safe? You're SAFE!"
He crushed her to him, burying his face in her hair. Sobs wracked both bodies — raw, shuddering gasps of relief amidst the slaughterhouse they stood in.
Bai Yunfei watched them cling together in the sea of blood. No horror touched him now. Only a strange, quiet warmth. A pang of recognition. He's not broken. Not yet.
He didn't want to see that boy's light snuffed out.
Perhaps... because he'd once clawed his own way back from that same abyss.