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Chapter 12: The Night Ride

Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_

As night came, cries of grief rang out from within Meng village.

During the battle of the day, all of the two thousand barbarians were killed, and at least half of the young adults from all three barbarian tribes were lost. But the Meng village suffered heavy losses too. Although they got the help from the barbarian hunters who happened to be there to resupply themselves, more than seven hundred villagers were killed, including men and women.

At least one person in every family got killed by the barbarians. Every family was in mourning and crying in grief of their losses. Tonight, the atmosphere of Meng Village was uncomfortably cold.

Wu Qi was sitting with his leg crossed on a tree branch of a big tree that stretched out over the river. He placed his arms on his chest, looking at the suspension bridge not far away. A few barbarian hunters with big axes were cutting down trees to help the village fix their archery tower and to fix the suspension bridge that was destroyed during the battle. They were working very energetically and with high efficiency. Although the battle had happened only a few hours ago, the archery tower, which had been destroyed, was almost completely fixed.

Meng village was the only supply point for those who entered and exited the woods in the few thousand miles around Little Meng Mountain. No matter whether they were venturing into the Little Meng Mountain to harvest herbs, to hunt animals, or, like this group of professional barbarian hunters, hunt barbarians, all of them would stop by the Meng village and rest and resupply all their necessities.

Therefore, the relationship between the Meng village and those herb gatherers, hunters, and barbarian hunters was very good, while the relationship with the barbarians was really bad.

Normally, Meng village would be disturbed by those barbarians a few times a year, but never had they been attacked like today, where three barbarian tribes working together to attack Meng Village. The most surprising were those bird barbarians, as their tribe was at least seven to eight hundred miles away from Meng village. No one knows why they were so crazy as to come all this way to wreak havoc in Meng Village.

Anyways, Meng village had suffered a great loss this time. Even Doggie’s father, the burly man who brought Wu Qi back to Meng village, had died under the strange fireball shot out by that barbarian leader.

Sighing, Wu Qi looked up into the starry sky, murmuring to himself, “To live on is not an easy task, but I will still persevere to live on with this life of mine!”

A weird ‘hehe’ laugh came from afar. The leader of the barbarian hunters, Zhang Hu, carried the Nine Rings Machete with one hand, and a wine sack almost as big as two bulls’ heads while walking towards Wu Qi. He thrust the huge wine sack at Wu Qi and said with a bright smile on his face, “What brother Wu Qi said is true. To live in this world is really difficult! But we, as men, still need to live on. Right?”

Grabbing the wine sack, Wu Qi drank two mouthfuls of hard liquor and frowned.

There was a spicy, pungent smell mixed in with the smell of high concentration alcohol, but the taste was really awful. The wine was mixed with some unknown herbs. It was very useful to improve one’s blood circulation, expel coldness, and to help get rid of minor toxins in one’s body, but the taste of the wine was worse than some poisons.

After forcing himself to swallow two mouthfuls of wine, Wu Qi simply threw the wine sack back to Zhang Wu, who was standing under the tree. With a bitter smile on his face, Wu Qi asked, “Big brother Zhang Hu, where did you all come from?”

Grabbing the wine sack and downing a few gulps of wine, Zhang Hu burped out satisfyingly and spoke casually, “We just came out from the mountain and were about to go back to Little Meng City and have some fun. My group has been working on the mountain for more than half a year. We had a pretty nice harvest this time around.”

With a sigh, Zhang Hu looked back toward Meng village. He smiled bitterly and said, “It was unfortunate that this happened to Meng village.”

Wu Qi didn’t say anything. He just held his arms and listened to what Zhang Hu was saying.

“But, on the bright side, Doggie and those other young guys are going to become adults soon. Meng village will survive. Sigh, I wrote a letter a few years back to the governor, asking him to send an army to stand guard in Meng village. But that governor will never agree!”

Wu Qi lowered his head, quickly analyzing all the information contained within Zhang Hu’s words.

Suddenly, they heard the pattering of feet nearby. Wu Qi, sitting up high, saw a girl from the village holding the hand of a barbarian hunter and sneakily leaving the village, walking into a tall grass field near the village. Not long after that, the tall grass starting to swing back and forth rhythmically.

Zhang Hu lowered his voice and laughed under his breath.

“Brother Wu Qi, let’s keep our voices down, so as to not disturb them.”

Wu Qi looked at that grass field and nodded his head, as if he had thought of something. He had seen that girl earlier in the day. Her husband had been killed during the fight and she was left alone with a daughter at home. Now she sneaked out in the middle of the night and mated with a barbarian hunter. Perhaps she was trying to ‘borrow a seed’.

These barbarian hunters were all strong men. Their talents and skills were much greater than those of the men in the village. If she could give birth to a boy, then, by ‘borrowing a seed’ from them, the boy would be able to support the family when he grew up, and continue the heritage of this family. The villagers respected those who were strong. ‘Borrowing a seed’ from a barbarian hunter was better than finding her target in the village.

Nodding his head, Wu Qi silently came down from the tree. He walked closer to Zhang Wu, sat down on the ground, and leaned back against the tree.

“Big brother Zhang Hu, I have spent the last ten years following and learning from my master. This is the first time I have left him and ventured out alone, but then ran into this. I was wondering about the world outside of this mountain. What is it like out there?”

After making up a fake identity, Wu Qi started to ask about the world outside of the mountain. He was not planning on staying in Meng village. This piece of land was just too small and wouldn’t provide any advantage for Wu Qi.

The skills within the Scroll of Stealing all required him to obtain the excess of this universe to supply his own insufficiency. How much of an advantage could the tiny Meng village give to him? Even if he stripped away everything they had, it just wouldn’t give him any advantages. Only by leaving this mountain and going to the outside world would he have more opportunities. That would be where he would have the best chances to become stronger.

But, what did the outside world actually look like? The villagers of Meng village rarely left the mountain. They did, occasionally, go out, but it was, at most, just to pay a visit to Little Meng City. Then they would just come back. They simply didn’t have the information that Wu Qi needed urgently.

After tilting back up his head and drinking two more mouthfuls of hard liquor, Zhang Hu smacked his lips.

“What can become of it? The Great Yan Dynasty, who is the overlord of all lords, is still not bothering with what is happening down there. All those kingdoms are fighting amongst each other restlessly. The wealthy and influential clans within these kingdoms are conning and cheating each other to the point where they are all exhausted. And the young masters of these clans are harming and hurting each other in a messy chaotic situation!”

Curling his lips in disdain, Zhang Hu gave a cold snort, “However, the Little Meng City is located in a remote place, so it is still fairly easy to earn a stable meal there!”

Clasping forcefully on Wu Qi’s shoulder, Zhang Hu sighed, “Brother Wu Qi, listen to big brother’s advice. The area outside the mountain is totally different from the area on this side of the mountain. Back in the days, big brother’s ambition was loftier than the skies, devoting myself wholly to fight for a prosperous future. After working tiresomely for twenty years, finally I brought myself some achievements. But at the end, three years ago, I was forced to flee to Little Meng City, struggling along from day to day!”

Wu Qi staring at Zhang Hu and smiled, “Fine, I’ll listen to big brother Zhang Hu. If I can’t deal with it anymore in the outside world, I’ll come back here and spend the rest of my life hunting barbarians with big brother!”

Making some ‘click click’ sounds with his tongue, Zhang Hu decided that Wu Qi was just another rookie who just came out from the mountain, trying to spread his wings and fly up high. He felt that Wu Qi never really gave a thought to his own abilities, whether they were sufficient for him to fly up in the world outside of this mountain or not.

Over the years, Zhang Hu had seen a lot of these rookies.

Shaking his head, Zhang Hu asked hesitatingly, “Then I’ll wish you a smooth journey. But, brother Wu Qi, I saw you kill quite a lot of bird barbarians today. You are quite a skillful man, eh? You and your teacher, and your fellow disciples… what happened to them?”

Wu Qi smashed the ground forcefully with both of his hands. After some time, he said in a serious voice, “I never had the chance to clearly see what happened. We were walking for a time, then there was a strike of thunder, and then I fainted.”

Zhang Hu, as if he had related it to something, suddenly drew in a sharp breath.

After remaining silent for a moment, Zhang Hu spoke with a bitter smile, “That really is a calamity. Brother, I can only say that you are just unlucky to have met some unreasonable cultivator. I guess you must have disturbed him and thus, he struck out in anger.”

Wu Qi nodded his head but didn’t say a word. He grabbed Zhang Hu’s wine sack, and in one breath, drank half of the hard liquor in the sack.

Opening his mouth, Zhang Hu wanted to say a few more words to console Wu Qi, but he only shook his head and breathed out a long sigh.

The two men took turns drinking the hard liquor and, soon, the wine sack was empty. Wu Qi had the protection of innate water energy, so when the hard liquor entered into his stomach, it was immediately broken down into threads of hot air and then safely moved around his body. He never even felt the slightest bit tipsy. But the liquor had hit Zhang Hu’s hard. He laid on the floor with his hands and feet spread and laughed dryly with a ‘shh shh’ sound.

“Three years ago, I, Zhang Hu, was a General, and had a cultivation at the peak of the Houtian level. I, unintentionally offended a cultivator who was worshiped by a wealthy family and was forced to give up everything and run away to Little Meng City. Now I will spend the rest of my life in this deserted land. I was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I guess it was my fate. Those cultivators… why are they so strong?”

Wu Qi was listening attentively to Zhang Hu’s story, trying to get more valuable information, when, suddenly, he heard a rapid clatter from within the woods on the opposite side of the river. A line of fire torches, resembling of a long snake, was moving slowly in the direction of the village.

The barbarian hunters who were fixing the suspension bridge sounded out an alarm and many villagers immediately rushed out from Meng village with grief and indignation on their faces.

Not long after that, a large group of cavalry appeared on the opposite side of the river. The cavalrymen were all wearing the same black cloth and black armor and riding on animals which looked like horse or deer with gold and green stripes all over their bodies, full of strength and grandeur. These rides were restlessly hitting the ground with their hoofs. When their hooves hit the ground, large amounts of sparks were produced.

A strong deep voice came from the line of cavalry.

“Where are the elders of Meng village? We, the Third Battalion of the Heavenly Guards from Little Meng City, received an order to stand guard in Meng village!”

Zhang Hu, who was a bit slow because of alcohol, shouted out in surprise, “What? That damn stingy governor… since when did he become so generous to send a battalion of guards here to Meng village? Isn’t he the one who said that he couldn’t afford the extra cost of troops due to insufficient tax income?”

Shaking his head, Zhang Hu frowned and said, “Even if he wants to send guards here, can’t they come here during the day? The distance between Little Meng City and here is not more than five hundred miles. A raptor can run two thousand miles a day. They could reach Meng village within four hours… Why do they need to journey at night? It looks like-… hmm!”

Wu Qi asked with a low voice, “Looks like what? Big brother Zhang Hu?”

Zhang Hu curled his lips and muttered in a low voice, “It looks like a superior officer is coming, and the governor is sending out the battalion to make himself look good.”

While two men were muttering in low voices, the suspension bridge had been lowered down.

The Third Battalion of the Heavenly Guards from Little Meng City had five hundred elite soldiers, and all of them were at least 2.5 meters tall. They had strong and sturdy bodies and an intrepid manner that the villagers of Meng village don’t possess. They also had nice armors on their body and some good weapons, making Zhang Hu feel a lot of envy.

This troop of elite soldiers rode into the village slowly, and the villagers of Meng village can’t help but greet them with cheers, washing off the atmosphere of grief that had been covering the village.

With these five hundred elite soldiers from Little Meng City stationed here, by utilizing the geographical advantages of the Meng village, Meng village would be safe from danger from now on, unless there were more than four thousand barbarians who bluntly attacked them without caring for their own lives.

Wu Qi also nodded his head. With this cavalry army stationed here, he could leave the Meng village with peace of mind.

It was now the time for him to truly enter this world.