Someone Is Still Waiting Here

There were more children in Qingxi Village than Xu Sheng had expected.

The moment the carriage stopped at the village entrance, several little ones came over, keeping their distance as they stared at the White Wings on his back. One reached out to touch them, only for his mother to yank him back.

Xu Sheng turned and met the child's eyes.

"Want a closer look?"

The child nodded, still clutching his mother's sleeve.

"Stand back a little. I'll spread them out for you."

Xu Sheng moved clear of the boxes on the carriage and slowly unfurled one wing. The children's gazes followed its tip upward, and the one at the front tipped his head back, his mouth hanging open.

Xu Sheng felt a little smug.

Sure enough, people liked these wings wherever he went!

"White Wings, give me a hand."

Du Wenhe called to him from the carriage. He answered, folded his wings away, and pointed toward the village.

"Go line up first. It's your turn to awaken today. If you want to see the wings, come back and look afterward!"

The children who had been crowding around the carriage ran off at once. Mo Yifan looked at the newly cleared path and said quietly, "If I'd known that would work, I'd have brought mine out too."

"Yours comes with fire. Don't go scaring them off."

Xu Sheng picked up a box and headed inside in high spirits.

The village chief, Uncle Ruan, was already waiting outside the empty house, checking names against a register. Xu Sheng counted along with him: twenty-two children, all due to have their Martial Souls awakened this year.

Mo Yifan peered into the house. "With this many, we'll be busy until noon, won't we?"

"So I'm leaving the carriage to you for now." Xu Sheng handed him the reins. "If any children try to climb on, stop them. The boxes are full of equipment."

Mo Yifan led the horse away to find a place to park. Lu Song stayed behind to help Uncle Ruan gather the people scattered outside the door and call their names one by one.

Ren Yu went inside and helped Du Wenhe arrange the six black stones. The blue Soul Power crystal was set to one side, while Ji Juechen stood by the door, holding its ever-wobbling panel steady.

The first child stepped into the circle of stones, so nervous that he didn't know where to put his hands.

"Don't be afraid. Just stand here." Du Wenhe waited until the boy was standing steady before channeling Soul Power into the black stones.

Specks of golden light rose, and the tension on the child's face gave way to wonder. He couldn't help looking down at his right hand.

A small sickle took shape.

He hurriedly turned, wanting to show his mother outside, but Du Wenhe reached out and turned him around again.

"We're not done yet. Put your hand on this crystal, and we'll test your Soul Power too."

The crystal didn't light up.

The child's lips slowly pressed together. He was still holding the little sickle when he went out, and his mother crouched down to wipe his palm.

His mother was the first to smile. She said that when he went out to the fields with his father in the future, his sickle might even work better than his father's. The child looked down at it for a while, then finally held it up for her to see.

The awakenings continued inside.

An embroidery needle, a wooden spoon, and even a short bow appeared. The bow made the blue crystal glow faintly. Du Wenhe noted down the children with innate Soul Power and told their parents how they could continue cultivating and where to ask about academies.

Some people asked the same questions several times, while others simply stood nearby and listened to them ask. Du Wenhe spoke slowly, answering each question before letting them ask the next.

The child who had been staring at Xu Sheng's wings earlier awakened a gray sparrow and had level-two innate Soul Power. He ran out of the house and came up to Xu Sheng, but then hesitated to speak.

Xu Sheng crouched down. "Finished your awakening? What Martial Soul did you get?"

"A gray sparrow." The child finally couldn't hold back his question. "Will I be able to fly someday too?"

"You've got a chance. You have Soul Power, and your Martial Soul is a bird," Xu Sheng said. "Start by learning from your teacher. Once you can use your wings well, try going higher a little at a time."

"Could I fly all the way to Suotuo City?"

Xu Sheng glanced back along the road they had taken and smiled.

"Don't fly that far just yet. If you land in a field, we'll have to come looking for you." Xu Sheng raised a hand and tapped his chest. "Remember this outfit. Once you can cultivate, come ask for me at the hall. Next time we meet, we'll see who can fly higher."

The child nodded vigorously and turned to find his mother. Halfway there, he doubled back to tell Xu Sheng his name.

That afternoon, the awakenings were nearly finished. Uncle Ruan had turned to the back of the register, but he still hadn't closed it.

Xu Sheng saw him glance outside the village several times and asked, "Uncle Ruan, whose child hasn't come yet?"

"All the children are here." Uncle Ruan pointed to a line in the register. "I'm waiting for the deacon over in Liuxi. He said he'd come here to meet up after finishing the awakenings there. It's only a little over ten li by the mountain road, so why haven't we seen him after two days?"

Du Wenhe walked over and stopped short when he heard that.

"You mean Tang Heng?"

Uncle Ruan nodded.

Tang Heng was another deacon dispatched by the Soto Main Hall. He was to awaken the children in Liuxi and two small villages along the way, then meet Du Wenhe in Qingxi and return to the city with him.

Du Wenhe put the crystal back in its box. "Has anyone come from Liuxi these past two days? Did they see Deacon Tang?"

Uncle Ruan recalled a group of people who had come yesterday.

They said they were recruiting gifted children for an important person in the kingdom and had even arranged an academy for them. Some parents in Liuxi wanted their children to go, while others didn't dare, and they had even brought people over to ask for directions.

"Was Deacon Tang with them?"

"I didn't see him. I asked, and someone said he'd gone ahead to find teachers for the children."

Du Wenhe's face darkened. He took out his field-duty badge and showed it clearly to Uncle Ruan.

"We need to go to Liuxi. If anyone else comes here to collect children, stop them first and wait for me to come back and get to the bottom of it. Especially those who have awakened—not one of them is to go with those people."

Lu Song had just loaded the things onto the carriage. Hearing this, he steadied a box and asked, "Then should I stay in the village?"

Du Wenhe nodded. Xu Sheng helped unload the boxes, then beckoned to Lu Song.

"Keep watch here for now. If anyone really does come recruiting again, ask his name first. Don't rush to drive him away; send me word."

Lu Song made a gesture to him. "Got it. Call me anytime if anything happens."

Mo Yifan helped Lu Song park the carriage in a spacious spot in the village. By the time he returned, Du Wenhe was already asking for directions along the mountain road.

Before long, Du Wenhe set off for Liuxi along the mountain road with Xu Sheng, Ji Juechen, Ren Yu, and Mo Yifan.

A few elderly villagers sat scattered around the village entrance. When asked where the children had gone, one woman excitedly said her youngest son finally had a chance to study somewhere important.

Her neighbor, however, kept urging her to ask more questions.

"The first day, they said children could train even without Soul Power. The next day, they said they had to select people. They can't keep their story straight. The children were taken away last night, so why didn't you go along and see for yourself?"

"They said the road was difficult, and they'd come back for us once the children were settled..."

The woman's voice gradually faded as she looked at the emblem on Du Wenhe's chest.

"My lord, is something wrong?"

Du Wenhe told her to explain where they had gone first. She hurriedly pointed toward the mountain road behind the village, then added, "Xiaocui's mother went with them. Her child is young and wouldn't let go of her. If you're going over there, could you ask her for me?"

The five left the village and searched along the road for a while.

Ji Juechen suddenly crouched down and picked a short piece of broken rope out of the grass.

The cut was very clean.

A few steps farther on, fresh hoofprints marked the mud. A drag mark ran diagonally from the roadside, flattening a patch of grass. Dark red blood stained a tree root, already dry.

Ren Yu looked up at Du Wenhe. He put away the broken rope and signaled for everyone to stop.

"Don't all go in together. Yifan, take a look from higher up. If you spot anyone, come back. Don't alert them."

Mo Yifan skirted the edge of the woods to higher ground and used his Flame Eagle possession to cross a broken slope. As soon as he landed, he withdrew his Martial Soul and lay beside a rock to look down.

After a while, he jogged back.

"There's an old quarry below, with someone guarding the entrance. There are children inside. I saw two. There was nowhere to hide farther ahead, so I didn't dare get closer."

The sun had already sunk behind the mountain, leaving the stones beside the road half in light and half in shadow.

Du Wenhe sketched the quarry's approximate location on a piece of paper, wrote a few lines, and stamped it with his field-duty seal.

"The villagers said a traveling hall worker passed through Qingxi today. Go back and find him. Ask him to deliver this letter to the Soto Main Hall as quickly as possible."

He handed the letter to Mo Yifan and added, "Tell Lu Song to make sure the children there are settled first. If the parents hear the news, don't let them go into the mountains on their own."

Xu Sheng tucked a waterskin securely into Mo Yifan's things. "Explain the way up the gentle slope to Lu Song. Once the parents have taken their children home, have the village guards watch the equipment while he brings rope over. Don't take the broken slope. We may need to bring people out afterward."

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can."

Mo Yifan put the letter away, turned, and ran back the way they had come.

The remaining four circled around to the other side and found a position with a clear view of the entrance. Xu Sheng opened the chat and told Lu Song what they had found. Only after receiving a reply did he close the panel.

Old stone walls surrounded the quarry, with several gaps in them. Stone that had never been hauled away lay piled in the yard. A short tunnel ran beneath the mountain at the rear, leading through to a path down the lower slope.

Du Wenhe had passed through here before with people from the hall and knew the tunnel was still open.

But a wooden frame had been erected beside it, with several layers of rubble piled on top, and people were also walking back and forth at the entrance.

Xu Sheng lay in the grass, scanning the area bit by bit.

Eight children huddled together in the yard, and a woman held the youngest on her lap. Her arms were bound, and the children only dared stay close to her, not venture away.

An injured young man also sat by the wall.

When Du Wenhe saw his face clearly, his hand clenched.

Tang Heng!

The awakening equipment lay scattered on a cloth bundle beside him. The crystal box had been opened, and one black stone had rolled to his feet.

A man in the yard kicked the black stone aside and looked down at Tang Heng. "I'll ask you one more time. When the people collecting them arrive later, will you speak for us or not?"

Tang Heng braced himself against the wall and sat upright, blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Send the children back and let their families decide for themselves. You've got people tied up, and you still expect me to say something?"

The man seized him by the collar, dragged him half a chi away from the wall, then slammed him back against it.

Du Wenhe's green vine had already emerged from his sleeve, but Xu Sheng grabbed his arm first and pointed toward the corner of the wall on the right.

There were footsteps over there too.

A person holding a short blade came around the corner, a medicine pouch hanging from his waist. Several more followed. One released his Martial Soul to test it, then quickly withdrew it.

"One ring," Ren Yu said quietly.

Xu Sheng heard one of them say they needed to take turns returning to reality that night and shouldn't all leave at once.

Players!

He looked again at the man in the middle of the yard, lowered his body, and stopped moving.

It was only after darkness had fully fallen that Mo Yifan slipped back from the other side. His temples were covered in sweat, and he crouched down and took two gulps of water first.

"The letter's on its way. Lu Song is having the parents take their children home, and the village guards are helping too. He'll come as soon as he's done. I explained the route to him."

Xu Sheng nodded. "Lu Song just sent a reply. He's already on his way."

He pointed toward the tunnel at the rear.

"You've seen the path down the slope. Lead them out that way later. The children, the woman, and Deacon Tang-ten people in all. Once Lu Song arrives, I'll have him meet them below."

Mo Yifan wiped away his sweat and leaned closer to look at the pitch-black tunnel entrance.

"Can Deacon Tang stand?"

"If he can't, support him. If that doesn't work, carry him. That shield of yours can carry one person, can't it?"

Xu Sheng looked back at Du Wenhe.

"Deacon Du, Ren Yu and I will clear the way. You and Juechen keep an eye on the one in the middle and keep him pinned down. We'll get the people out first."

Du Wenhe stared at Tang Heng and slowly pressed his green vine back into the grass.

"The rear tunnel is narrow. Don't crowd together. Yifan, go to Tang Heng first. Leave the children to White Wings."

Ji Juechen already had his iron sword in hand.

Xu Sheng sent Lu Song another message: Meet outside the rear tunnel. Eight children, some injured.

The message had barely gone out when things changed in the yard.

The man in the yard suddenly stopped, his nostrils twitching as he looked toward their hiding place.

Three Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.

Two yellow, one purple!

Xu Sheng tightened his grip on his sword hilt, drawing the wings on his back closer to his body.

"There's someone on the slope. Go take a look!"

A player by the wall raised his head and followed the man's gaze. He picked up a hand axe, a yellow Soul Ring rose around him, and he leaped onto the slope from the broken wall.

Ji Juechen drew his iron sword from its cloth wrapping. Xu Sheng slowly drew his sword as well and stepped half a pace aside, leaving Ren Yu room to spread out her vines.

Below, the woman was still holding the child.

She heard the commotion and raised her head, but didn't dare call out.