The bald, burly man found several wild fruits in the mountains, each about the size of a goose egg. He excitedly ran to the river to wash them, but the water remained muddy.
Furious, the bald man headed upstream to teach whoever was muddying the water a lesson. Then he succeeded in delivering the fruit to Nangong Ling...
Seven days passed in a flash. Not only had Nangong Ling recovered from his injuries, but his Reiryoku had also grown considerably stronger. He could feel it clearly himself.
But he did not grow too lazy. Every day, aside from eating, sleeping, and recovering, he practiced with his sword to improve his fighting power.
The villagers were somewhat useful too. Every day, they had to catch four bowls of small fish and shrimp from the creek and offer them to Nangong Ling. It was a task he had assigned them.
Those three idiots had never thought to make the villagers catch fish. At most, they had sent people to look for wild fruit in the mountains. No wonder they had been as skinny as monkeys.
The past seven days had not been peaceful either. Occasionally, people who had awakened Reiryoku passed through. The somewhat stronger ones were driven off, while the weaker ones were killed by Nangong Ling...
"Hahaha, so... I'm not that weak after all!"
Today, Ling had driven off another guy with Reiryoku and couldn't help breaking into a grin. "Speaking of which, that's the eighth guy who's come to rob us today. Why have so many tough guys been coming this way lately?"
Even more people had passed around the place without trying to rob anyone or fight, but Ling had never asked them what was going on.
Putting away his excitement, Nangong Ling began to ponder the matter. He did not have to wait long before more than a dozen ordinary people came running out of the small woods with their families in tow.
"Hey, wait a moment..."
A katana suddenly appeared and stabbed into a tree. If the man in the lead did not stop, he would run straight into its sharp blade.
"Ah, that was dangerous, you bastard!"
The middle-aged man shouted at Ling.
"Sorry, I just wanted to ask why so many people have been coming from that direction lately. Is there a reason?" Although Ling apologized, he did not sound the least bit sorry.
"Damn it, that's all? Couldn't you have stopped me properly?"
The embarrassed and angry man seemed to recall something terrifying. Cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead, and he said gravely, "It's Hollows. The Soul Reapers are fighting them. You should run too! It looks like the Soul Reapers can't beat them..."
With that, the man ran off in a flash, leaving Ling standing alone.
The news then reached the villagers as well, from the man who had been forced to do a good deed. The villagers were swept up in the flight too, and that morning they had even made a point of coming to say goodbye to Ling...
"Hollows? Hmph, my Reiatsu has gotten so damn strong these past few days, and I've been wondering where to find a good opponent to test my full strength on! I'll use them for sword practice!"
Ling released his Reiatsu and swung his sword fiercely. The large tree beside him was instantly cut clean through and fell.
Having figured out this world's rule that the strong reigned supreme, he was no longer so afraid. All he had to do was become stronger than everyone else, and wouldn't he be able to rule over everything?
For Nangong Ling, who had sought pleasure in games in his previous life and had been somewhat depressed, this truly was a beautiful world!
What he did not know was that this arrogant display had been sensed by a medium-sized Hollow that was hunting humans, and it turned in his direction.
Some Hollows with strong wills possessed a little consciousness, but even those that did only used it to hunt souls.
"Without my helpers, I have to catch fish myself again. Damn it, none of those guys running away today had any food on them."
Ling couldn't help complaining. If he had known, he would have forced a couple of villagers to stay and do chores. He was still too kindhearted.
There were fewer and fewer fish and shrimp in the creek; Ling had almost eaten them all. He was back again, and had just finished damming the creek when a vicious, brutal Reiatsu assailed him from behind.
Ling quickly drew his sword and dodged. A huge crater was smashed into the spot where he had just been standing. This was no human, but a gigantic monster—a Hollow!
Standing upright, the Hollow was a full four meters tall. A pair of reddish eyes peered out beneath its white bony mask, and its enormous arms were also covered in white bony material. Its entire body was green, save for a ring of red fur around its neck, and there was a huge hole in its chest.
It was staring greedily at Ling, saliva already dripping from its enormous mouth.
Gulp!
"So big!"
Ling swallowed, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He was only 1.6 meters tall at present and could only look up at the Hollow.
The red-haired Hollow's Reiryoku was nothing to scoff at either. A single punch could smash a huge crater into the ground.
"Hahaha, not bad, human. But this is the end."
Scree!
The red-haired Hollow was self-aware and could even speak. After letting out a strange cry, it charged at Ling, who stood rooted to the spot.
"You dare look down on me? Die!"
As the red-haired Hollow's huge fist came crashing down, Ling released as much Reiatsu as he could and slashed at it.
Clang!
The collision of sword and fist rang out like clashing metal. The katana striking the red-haired Hollow's fist could not advance an inch, blocked by the layer of white bony material.
"Hahaha, die!"
Overjoyed, the red-haired Hollow landed a direct hit on Ling with its other fist, sending him flying backward into a tree. Ling spat blood, the blood and qi in his body churning.
The red-haired Hollow pressed its advantage. After charging forward for a certain distance, it leaped high into the air, intending to crush Ling to death.
"Ugh! Damn it, I can't beat this thing. Of my thirty-seven strategies, running away is the best..."
Ling wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and used his Reiatsu to calm the blood and qi in his body. Then he rolled out of the way of the red-haired Hollow's crushing descent, scrambled to his feet, and ran.
"You think you can escape when you're my food? Die!"
The red-haired Hollow opened its enormous mouth and spat out more than a dozen small round bullets of Reishi, sending them flying at Ling.
Seeing that the Reishi attacks flying at him were only the size of chicken eggs, Ling focused a little more Reiatsu on his back. He forcibly took four hits and continued fleeing for his life.
"Red Hair, I'll be back!!!"
Though he had lost, Ling refused to lose face. Even as he fled, he had to shout a threat—and at a Hollow, no less.
"Hmph, then I'll be waiting!"
Although the red-haired Hollow was conscious, it was not particularly bright. On hearing this, it actually stopped pursuing Ling and turned toward the village to search...
"A monster is a monster. It stopped chasing me just like that... I can't beat you, but I'm smarter than you. I'm not coming back until I can beat you."
After running a kilometer, Ling was delighted, feeling that he had won a point back. At least he had kept his life.
From that moment on, he also secretly warned himself not to show off like that again until he had the strength. Even the Soul Reapers who ruled Soul Society had been defeated, so how could a country bumpkin like him easily deal with a Hollow?
Of course, it was also possible that certain powerful experts could deal with one easily. But anyone who could reach that level without the Soul Reapers' instruction probably had absurdly high Reiatsu...
After running two kilometers, Ling spotted three Soul Reapers running toward him in the distance. The three of them also saw Ling fleeing in a sorry state with a katana in hand.
"Wait, what happened up ahead?"
A burly, full-bearded Soul Reaper used Shunpo to block Ling, who was about to go around them. Ling was so startled that he almost swung his sword.
"Soul Reaper, you nearly scared me!" Ling wore a fierce expression, but at the same time he wondered, What was that just now? He appeared in front of me from so far away...
He knew nothing of Shunpo, nor did he know about the Soul Reapers' four basic disciplines of swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, movement, and Kidō.
"Uh, sorry. May I ask what happened over there?"
The full-bearded Soul Reaper was evidently well-mannered too. He really had frightened someone.
"There's a really powerful Hollow in the village over there. I couldn't beat it, so I ran. Hurry up and kill it! That's your job anyway. Goodbye!"
After rattling that off, Ling ran away with his sword, not noticing at all that the look in the burly, full-bearded man's eyes had changed as he watched him. The other two Soul Reapers also ran over.
One of them saw the bearded man looking in the direction Ling had gone and couldn't help asking, "What's wrong? Was that an Asauchi the kid was carrying?"
The bearded man smiled. "No, I'm just a little surprised. He probably picked up the Asauchi and the clothes somewhere. What surprises me is that he actually dared to fight a Hollow..."
"Is that so?"
"He's certainly got guts. Before we entered Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy, all we dared to do when we saw a Hollow was run!"
The two Soul Reapers accompanying him were also a little surprised to hear that.
"Never mind. Let's hurry and kill that Hollow!"
"Right!"
The three headed straight for the village. Clearing out Hollows was their job anyway, so there was nothing more to say...
Ling stopped running and walked slowly toward District 67. On the way, he encountered a group of people walking at a leisurely pace. They clearly had Reiryoku, and it was not weak.
One of them was a bald, skinny man with a scar running from the left side of his upper lip to his brow. When he saw Ling carrying a sword and wearing a sleeveless black robe, he turned and asked, "Hey, kid, are you alone?"
What does he want? Ling's gaze sharpened, and he said in a low voice, "Isn't that obvious? What do you want?"
The bald, scar-faced man smiled faintly. "Hehe, don't be nervous. If we really wanted to cut you down, we'd have rushed you all at once already. I'm Genji. I saw that you have Reiryoku too, and I wanted to invite you to join us!"
"I'm Nangong Ling. Join you? Give me a reason first." Ling glanced at their group. There were eight of them in all, and they were filthy, covered in bloodstains...
"Hahaha, don't joke around..."
"Hehe, he hasn't been anywhere else, has he?"
"Genji, forget it! He's just a kid."
As soon as Ling finished speaking, the guys behind Genji looked at him with disdain. Ling's expression did not change. He couldn't beat them, after all, so he had to put up with it a little.
"Cut it out." Genji stopped his companions, then asked Ling, "You only awakened your Reiryoku recently, right? West District 68 doesn't have any particularly strong people who've awakened Reiryoku, or any strong organizations, but District 67 is different..."
As Genji explained, Ling learned that most other districts had a very strong person as their leader, who formed an organization devoted to seizing the scarce food.
If outsiders like Genji and his companions went in, they would face hostility. Passing through was fine, but if they wanted to settle down, they would have to fight for it.
Unfortunately, large numbers of Hollows had recently invaded District 68, forcing the souls to enter District 67, where there happened to be an organization with more than thirty members...