"Hey!! Young man!! Watch out!!"
"Move!!"
Wu Zhe turned his head and caught sight of an old man and a younger fellow atop a wooden wagon, pulled by a single horse.
The old man tugged at the reins, urging the horse to halt. Seeing the wagon barreling toward him, Wu Zhe quickly stepped aside to avoid being run over.
"Phew… sorry about that, young fellow. Are you alright?" the old man on the wagon called out.
"See! I told you, Dad! You shouldn't be going so fast on the road!" another voice chimed in. A young woman's tiny head peeked over the back of the wagon, her face full of concern. "I'm sorry, sir, about my father."
"Are you alright, friend?" the younger gentleman asked.
"It's quite alright, miss. And I'm fine, sirs. No need to worry," Wu Zhe replied.
The old man and young woman gave him a curious glance, looking him up and down. His strange clothes stood out.
"You're not from around here, are you?" the old man asked curiously.
"Indeed, sir. I was hunting in the forest with some companions, but I accidentally wandered a bit too far and got lost." Wu Zhe said smoothly, lying through his teeth.
"Oh, that's unlucky, friend! Well, it doesn't look like you have any way of getting around. Lin City is days away by wagon and even longer on foot. Why don't you hop onto the back of my wagon? We're heading to Lin City anyway. You can come with us until we reach it!" the old man said, smiling warmly.
Wu Zhe looked at him suspiciously, weighing his options. After a moment of thought, he said, "Since your offering, how could I dare decline, sir?" He put his fist into his palm in a gesture of respect, then moved to behind the wagon and climbed aboard. He didn't want to keep walking to "Lin City" for days, so he decided it was better to just go with them.
Once aboard, he noticed a young woman, likely in her twenties, sitting on a box across from him. Around them were barrels, crates of apples, chests, and other boxes. In the corner, he noticed a sharp blade tucked away.
"Hello, sir! What's your name?" the young woman asked shyly, her face flushing as she looked at Wu Zhe's figure.
"My name is Lan Wei, fair lady. And yours?" Wu Zhe replied with a friendly smile.
The young woman's blush deepened. "O-oh, um… My name is Nan Li."
"Aww, has our little Nan Li taken a liking our friend?"
"Haha, young man, what did you do to make my daughter so shy?" the old man and her brother teased, laughing loudly at her expense.
"Brother! Father!" Nan Li shouted, covering her face in embarrassment, looking away from Wu Zhe.
"What a beautiful name for a beautiful lady," Wu Zhe said, still smiling. All the while, his eyes kept glancing towards the sharp blade in the corner. A dark thought and simply impure thought formed in his mind.
Could the lifeforce from these three be enough to create a cultivation base for me? He thought.
"Th-thank you, Mr. Wei…"
"Um.. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking Mr Wei?" Nan Li said softly, still facing away from him.
"I don't know. I was an orphan, raised by a few kind souls. We lived like nomads, never sticking to one place."
"Oh, I see. What kind of places did you live—?"
"I don't really know... Um I actually have a question… How often do wagons come around this road?"
"Not often!" the young man yelled out from the front of the wagon.
"Mhm, indeed, Mr. Wei. This road isn't really used all that often, most wagons take different routes. So it's very lucky we found you! You could've been walking for even more hours, or days, before another wagon came."
"Oh really? So a wagon wouldn't often come here, huh?.."
"Mhm," Nan Li nodded, smiling brightly as she replied.
"Well, I'm glad I was found by such a beautiful lady and such kind fellows."
The woman's face grew red, and she quickly covered it in embarrassment again.
"Oh Mr Wei, Your to—"
Before she could finish her sentence, a sharp blade slashed across her throat. It was Wu Zhe, while complimenting the lady, he had lunged forward, grabbing ahold of the nearby weapon, gripping its hilt tightly, and in one instantaneous motion spun around, and drew the blade across her throat, slicing it open.
SHKKK.
Her eyes widened in horror. Blood spilling from her throat as she struggled to breathe, a faint noise escaping "Wha—" from her before her body slumped.
The young man spun his body around to see what the strange sound was about. His eyes widened in horror as he caught sight of Nan Li's collapsed corpse, but in that instant, Wu Zhe was already on him, the same blade that had struck the girl plunged deep into his back.
"Uuaghh!" the young man groaned, disbelief evident on his face. "What the hell are you doing? You maniac?! Are you insane?!"
"Huh?" The old man turned, his old age caused him to be unable to hear Nan Li's faint noise, but he noticed his son suddenly turn, and his eyes went wide as he noticed Wu Zhe, plunge a blade into his son's back.
He immediately let go of the reins from his hands. The wagon screeched to a halt as a result, and he sprang into action.
"The fuck!" the old man shouted, lunging to grab Wu Zhe's arm and pull the blade free from his son's back.
Wu Zhe's free arm shot out, seizing both of the old man's arms and twisting them mercilessly. The old man screamed as his limbs bent unnaturally.
All the while, his other hand, still holding the blade, withdrew it from the young man's back and drove it in again, again and again.
Causing a SHK–SHK–SHK–SHK sound to repeat as the blade exited and reentered from the young man's body.
Once he finished twisting the old man's arms, Wu Zhe released them and clamped both hands around the man's throat, squeezing with brutal force until all air was cut off.
"Perish," Wu Zhe said, killing both father and son simultaneously.
The sickening sound of the blade piercing flesh and the choking gasps of the old man repeated almost endlessly. It was clear that neither would survive this day.
As the old man struggled to breathe, the air in his lungs vanished, as his face turned pale. Blood poured relentlessly down his son's back, and terror was evident in both their widened eyes as they realized there was nothing they could do except accept death's embrace.
Wu Zhe didn't relent. He continued to stabbed him again and again, moving the blade as fast as he could, not caring whether each strike was lethal, only focused on striking quickly.
While the old man's struggles became increasingly futile.
A couple seconds later, Wu Zhe finally stopped, his breathing erratic, as the young man, and old man's body remained still, no longer living the cruel game of Existence. Both their lifeless bodies slumped onto the wagon, their eyes wide open, directly casting a haunting gaze.
But just to be certain, Wu Zhe using the hilt of his blade, crushed his skull repeatedly until he felt that the man was truly dead.
He then tore a piece of Nan Li's clothing and used it to wipe the blood from his face.
"Ha… Beautiful." he muttered, eying the carnage he had caused.
Then after being pleased with himself his mind went towards the Devouring Arts, as repeat with the rabbit.
The three dead corpses began rotting.
The moment their bodies rotted, the memories of the three began surging into Wu Zhe's mind.
He smelt old hay and horse shit. He felt the ache in his hands from years of gripping the reins. He saw a younger version of the old man laughing, a childlike son and daughter perched beside him on each side of the wagon, their hands too short to reach the reins. He heard her babbling voice, excited about nothing of importance that Wu Zhe could not care less about.
Then, after these seemingly harmless memories, a creeping despair began to rise within him. From their memories, he saw himself as an expressionless lunatic, killing them, and he felt the hopelessness and utter despair of their inability to save themselves.
When the memories fully settled in his mind, Wu Zhe exhaled.
"Interesting…" he muttered, dismissing their petty thoughts and feelings, except for the few that mattered.
From their memories, he gained useful pieces of information. First was the name of the place he was in, The Great Luo, an empire ruled by the dynastic Luo family for nearly two thousand years. Second was the city they were traveling to, Huangcheng City, a settlement on the outskirts of the Blighted Lands, bordering the Blighted Woods, a place where monstrous creatures roamed freely. Huangcheng City was not just another city; it sat between the Great Luo lands and the Blighted Lands, functioning as a fortress that protected the empire's frontier.
The Blighted Lands, as this region was called, was a dangerous and chaotic land, the deeper one ventured into the blighted lands the more horrifying and terrifying stronger the monsters become, so terrifying that there no been no record of a single successful venture into deep lands of the blighted lands. Thus the Great Luo gave up and instead created a frontier to combat the invading monsters.
The Blighted Lands, as this region was called, were dangerous and chaotic. The deeper one ventured, the more horrifying and powerful the monsters became, so terrifying that there was no record of a single successful expedition into its depths. Realizing the futility of conquering the region, the Great Luo instead created a frontier to combat the invading monsters.
Huangcheng City, sitting at the edge of this frontier, became a fortress against both the horrors of the Blighted Woods and the cruelty of men. At first, the Great Luo sent experienced warriors to defend it, but over time, they began sending exiles, criminals, those disgraced by shame, or anyone deemed unnecessary, transforming the city into a living prison where survival depended on strength.
Although much of the city was lawless, it was still dominated by three powerful families: the Ning, the Li, and the now-fallen Jia family. Because the city was constantly threatened by monster incursions, a guild system had been established. Guilds would venture into the wilderness, hunting and exterminating monsters to keep their numbers low enough so that the creatures would not pose a direct threat to the city's inhabitants.
The system maintained a fragile balance, but it was clear to Wu Zhe that this order was weak, temporary, and could be destroyed if someone wished to ruin it.