Book 2: Chapter 85: Shifting Tides |
Yin Hu and the rest of the Hu Clan left only a few minutes after Hei Gu vanished into the forest.
The once arrogant young master was likely going to die to some Spirit Beast or monster along the way if he did not end up becoming the luckiest man on the planet. His cultivation had vanished and turned him into a mortal. Or so Yin Hu believed that was what happened to him after his Dao was crushed by the pimp slap.
For days they pushed at what he considered a glacial pace that made his ears ring.
Completing in a single day what they did in an hour when they had been in the Bleak Forests. It made his legs ache in disuse and everyone in the party felt uncomfortable.
Yet, they had no choice but to continue at their current speed.
Da Ruis stopped in his tracks and pointed to their right. There. The potential disciple is over there.
Yin Hu looked around the group. Everyone had their assignment when it came to their recruitment process. This had been the main reason why the pace had been slower than a sloth during nighttime and in a blizzard. Every once in a while, Da Ruis would find a new disciple they could add to their little band of misfit creatures thrown into the Nursery Instance for them to develop and grow strong.
Jun grabbed Shui and prevented her from bolting after the very likely cute baby critter.
Zhong Da went left, Wu Xui went right, and Da Ruis approached from the direct center of them all. They had a few escape attempts already in the measly four new disciples they found in the past few days. One almost made it out and into a large river before Zhong Da caught it at the very last second.
The group crept closer and closer to the location Da Ruis was heading to.
Everything in the forest held its breath, silence dominated the atmosphere, the world conspiring against the little animal to get kidnapped err recruited into the Hu Clan.
Yin Hu trailed behind everyone to make sure nothing untoward ended up happening.
Da Ruis raised his hand for everyone to stop. He approached slowly and pushed open a bush that had been covering a litter of feline cubs. Of them all, a single one had pristine black fur that hid it even in broad daylight. Qi worked around it to extend the shadows and meld its form to create a pseudo cloak of invisibility. It would have worked except for the giant, innocent bright eyes that yowled at Da Ruis.
One of its siblings, a normal leopard cub tried to clamp its jaws around Da Ruiss fingers but failed to find a hold of the ghost. Snapping at nothing but air.
Zhong Da and Wu Xui released all tension in their bodies once they noticed there would be no chase.
Da Ruis waved his hand and the black furred cub vanished from its spot. He then returned the bushes and hid the cubs from the outside world slightly better than they had found them just in case something may have been watching them. Predators would find any path for an easy meal after all.
Once done they bolted out of the area.
No one said anything nor did he take the time to check its rank. He trusted Da Ruis enough for that.
More importantly, they didnt have that much time anymore.
The second largest reason their travel speed had nearly fallen to the very ground was simply because there were too many people around. Jin Bao and Shan Yue werent the only caravans, though they were the largest so far. Yet, those were easy enough to dodge.
Not what felt like an endless surge of refugees that pushed with little on them except the clothing on their backs and each other.
Thousands upon thousands if Yin Hus estimates were anywhere close.
So much so that Yin Hu had paused their little party just to find out what had happened and why there were so many people. He had seen bunches of refugees when he had been in the Silver Mountain Gang but those had been dozens, hundreds at most. Whatever was happening in the current Righteous Bloc was a few folds greater in magnitude and danger than even what he had witnessed from the Demonic Cultivators.
Zhong Da, being their representative to the outside world, was sent out to ask and search for information.
All of the ones he spoke to were moving with haste toward the partys destination; Yellow HearthStone City. The central powerhouse and largest fortified area that could accept more people.
The very place his group had categorized as the most populous and already filled to the brim with refugees, the poor, the weak, the oppressed, and everyone else stuffed into the city limits like sardines surrounded by curtain walls a dozen meters thick and a few hundred meters tall. Nearly impenetrable and defended by a dozen sects at least led by the Numb Hands Pavilion.
Yin Hu had considered it a perfect spot to find the downtrodden Mcs that would break the order of the world.
More so now that it would be more concentrated with peoples.
He shook his head. Still remembering the why of this situation an elderly man had told them.
The war lines had shifted.
Legions of the Demonic Bloc led by Lou Feng of the Malevolent Spear Sect had marched through thousands of defenders, slaughtering them all. Conquering a fortified city and murdering thousands upon thousands of lives without an ounce of mercy.
Magistrate Ji GuoLang of the Black Jem Pavilion, a merchant sect as strong as the Numb Hand Pavilion, had been impaled by Lou Fengs demonic spear and then paraded through the streets of IronArch City. One of Yin Hus targeted locations for new disciples of the noble classes in the area had been leveled. The Magistrate was kept alive without any limbs, skin peeled off and then thrown into the gallows. Caged and left to rot above the main city gateway for all to see and remember.
He would likely survive for years without any sustenance due to his elevated cultivation unless he was saved.
This was a clear reminder of what type of world they were currently in. This wasnt some paradise he could have fun in. Even if he was not directly involved, evil still existed. Crimes against humanity would still occur. Worse yet, the current Righteous Bloc werent much better.
As Lou Feng conquered IronArch City.
The Merchant Emperor of the Numb Hand Pavilion had taken advantage of the strange disappearance of one of the most powerful members of the Demonic Bloc.
The powerful Zi Zhen, Heavenly Demon of the Dark Gate Palace, had vanished. Their numbers retreated in the wake of his disappearance, leaving their furthest frontier holds and outposts unguarded by sufficient forces. Cai Xuefang was nowhere to be found. The Dark Gate Palace elders and generals bickered amongst one another too, furthering the weakening of their lines and opening a path for the Neutral Bloc to not only break through the dozens of weaker sects in the area, but to conquer lands directly back.
A Demonic Host attempted to gather to oust and push them back, but it never materialized.
The Merchant Emperor of the Numb Hand Pavilion had conquered two fortified cities back and three smaller forts too.
War lines shifted. The promise of death hung above the heads of the mortals of the world. Natural barriers had been breached with the conquered cities and exchange of territories. Things were changing faster than they could keep up with.
Yin Hu recognized the need to increase the speed of their pace. He couldnt wander as though the world was not flipping over on its head.
And until he was strong enough to do something about it, he refused to get involved and threaten the lives of his girls and those that relied on his decision making to survive.
It would be some time too. At least until the Hu Clan was strong enough to stomp anyone that stood before them.
Even if the world united against their forces.