Ye Tong stood before the thatched house, covered in blood. Though the recent rounds of shooting had given him a brief respite, the moment the Black Lions appeared, he knew the true crisis had only just begun.
The Black Lions were not all of a single level.
The dozen or so Black Lions at the forefront were all Level Three Fierce Beasts, while the nearly hundred behind them were Level Two Fierce Beasts. Yet these beasts alone were enough to tear apart and devour everyone present.
Devour?
Ye Tong's eyes lit up. Suddenly, he shouted sharply, "I have a way to resolve the crisis before us, but I need Medicine Slave and Meng Jia to protect me."
Medicine Slave roared, "No problem! Meng Jia, my young master has always kept his word. If you don't want to die, come protect my young master with me."
Meng Jia's thoughts raced. Looking at the situation before him, he had no confidence whatsoever in this seemingly frail youth. Still, with the attitude of treating a dead horse as if it were alive, he struck back a Level Three Black Lion and charged toward Ye Tong.
Ye Tong did not know whether Meng Jia had chosen to trust him. The instant he finished shouting, he slipped into the thatched house, decisively took out the Dark Dagger, and sliced open his wrist.
Blood gushed forth like a spring, carrying faint black impurities as it splashed into two bowls.
"Sizzle..."
After draining two bowls nearly half full, Ye Tong tore off a strip of silk, sealed the acupoints on his wrist, and used vital energy to stop the wound. He swiftly wrapped the injury tightly with the silk, then held the two bowls and dashed out the door. "Scatter this blood over everyone, and over the corpses of those who died in battle! Hurry!"
Medicine Slave instantly understood, crying out in horror, "Young Master, it's your blood?"
"Yes, hurry!" The loss of blood sent waves of weakness through Ye Tong, but he still gritted his teeth and persisted.
Medicine Slave was extremely fast. The moment he rushed before Ye Tong, he snatched away half a bowl of blood. With a flick of his fingers, drops of blood shot onto the people around them. Then, without entangling himself with the fierce beasts at all, he moved swiftly through the battlefield.
Meng Jia did not understand Ye Tong's intentions, but seeing Medicine Slave's actions, he quickly seized the remaining half bowl of blood and copied him, scattering it over one companion after another, even over several corpses.
The battle had not ended.
In less than half an hour, including Ye Tong's group, the force of nearly sixty people had dwindled to fewer than twenty. Those still alive were all covered in wounds.
Bang...
Ye Tong was sent flying by a Level Two Black Lion, while the middle-aged woman was also swatted away by the claws of another Level Three Black Lion, several bloody gashes appearing across her back.
The next moment, the somewhat swaying Level Three Black Lion pounced before the little girl, its sharp teeth tearing into her neck.
Pfft! A dagger pierced through the lower jaw of the Level Three Black Lion.
Roaring in pain, the Level Three Black Lion released its bite. Then its claws struck the little girl's head, sending her flying.
"Yan'er..."
With a heart-rending scream, the middle-aged woman disregarded her own injuries and threw herself toward her daughter. Despair filled her eyes, for she had already seen a chunk of flesh torn from her daughter's neck, blood pouring out in great streams.
"Mother..."
The world before the little girl had turned blood-red. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but her eyelids felt heavier and heavier. She heard her mother's cries and wanted to comfort her, yet no matter how hard she tried, she could no longer make a sound.
She smiled.
Though the smile was terribly ugly.
This was the last thing she could do before her consciousness vanished, because she remembered what her mother had once said: no matter when, she loved seeing her smile. She thought that perhaps her smile could comfort her mother...
"Yan'er, don't..."
Tears gushed from the middle-aged woman's eyes. Amid her heart-rending cries, she completely failed to notice a Black Lion already pouncing from behind her.
Suddenly, Black Lions crashed to the ground one after another, roaring, howling, twitching, and gradually losing their breath.
A Black Lion forced Ye Tong against a wall, but he remained exceptionally calm. Keenly catching the sway of the Black Lion's body and the sudden slowing of its attacks, he seized the opportunity and drove his longsword through its eye socket.
In less than a quarter of an hour, fifty or sixty Black Lions had all fallen.
The other Black Lions were frightened by this sudden change. Their attacks became far more hesitant, and finally, amid the roar of one Black Lion, they all turned and fled into the forest.
Corpses covered the ground. Blood covered the ground.
Ye Tong quietly looked at the scene before him. There was no joy at having survived a disaster; instead, his heart felt extraordinarily heavy.
He did not know most of these people, but over the past days, they had fought side by side, struggling to survive.
He was still alive, but those broken, mangled corpses on the ground, and those cultivators who had been devoured alive by the fierce beasts, would never again see tomorrow's sun.
Is this the law of this world? The weak are meat for the strong; only the fit survive? Ye Tong asked himself, but no one could answer him.
The dozen or so others who had survived were likewise stunned by the turn of events. Yet being alive filled their faces with excitement.
Dragging his battered body, Meng Jia came before Ye Tong. His sharp gaze carefully examined Ye Tong as he said, word by word, "These fierce beasts... died because of your blood?"
"Yes."
Ye Tong answered calmly.
Meng Jia opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that he did not know what to say.
He could not understand. No matter how hard he thought, he could not comprehend how a human's blood could poison so many fierce beasts to death.
Amid the pile of corpses.
The middle-aged woman tightly clutched her daughter's corpse, her face filled with despair. Her daughter was her life, more important than her own life. Now her daughter was dead while she remained alive. She could not accept this reality.
Why?
Yan'er was dead!
Why was I still alive?
Would she be afraid, walking alone? Would she miss me?
A brilliant light bloomed in the middle-aged woman's eyes. Almost instantly, she seized the short sword beside her and, without hesitation, thrust it toward her own chest.
Bang...
A figure flashed past. Medicine Slave appeared behind the middle-aged woman and struck her unconscious.
Suppressing the weakness coursing through his body, Ye Tong slowly came to Medicine Slave's side. Looking at the tragically dead little girl and the unconscious middle-aged woman, a lingering fear suddenly rose in his heart.
Strength!
I want powerful strength!
This world, where the weak were prey to the strong, was too cruel. Too cruel.
Ye Tong clenched his fists tightly, and a soul-hooking, spirit-seizing light of determination burst from his eyes. He wanted to become stronger, strong enough to protect those he cared about when danger came—such as Medicine Slave, who valued Ye Tong's life more than his own.
"Young Master." Medicine Slave let out a faint sigh.
After a moment of silence, Ye Tong released his fists and said, "You should not have stopped her."
Medicine Slave froze, asking in confusion, "Why?"
Ye Tong turned to Medicine Slave and gazed deeply into his eyes. "For some people, being alive is not much different from being dead. If there is a difference, it is that they suffer more despair and pain than the dead. Have you ever tasted what it means to be better off dead? The torment of the heart, the bitter Sea of Suffering of pain, the torture of the spirit—this... is what truly means being better off dead."
Hearing Ye Tong's words, Medicine Slave fell silent.
He suddenly realized that after living nearly his whole life, he had practically lived it into a pig's belly. He did not even understand such principles as well as his young master did at such a tender age!
Not far away, the dozen or so surviving cultivators stared blankly at Ye Tong. Even those who had disliked Ye Tong before, including the wealthy middle-aged man, were completely dumbfounded. They had never expected those words to come from the mouth of a youth.
Who was he? How could his understanding of life be so profound?
Better off dead?
So this was the true meaning of being better off dead!
Accompanied by two surviving subordinates, the wealthy middle-aged man came before Ye Tong and cupped his fists. "I am Jin Qiusheng, a member of the Jin Lineage in the prefectural city, known as Second Master Jin. May I ask how I should address this little brother?"
"Ye Tong!"
Jin Qiusheng vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar. Just as he was about to speak, a flash of insight crossed his mind, and he blurted out, "You are Ye Tong? The youth the Tong Family tried to win over?"
Ye Tong frowned. "I have nothing to do with the Tong Family."
After thinking for a moment, Jin Qiusheng said, "Brother Ye Tong, our survival this time was entirely thanks to your blood. You have shown great kindness to all of us. I, Second Master Jin, will remember this favor. Once we reach the prefectural city, if there is anything you need me to do, just speak."
Ye Tong said nothing. He turned around, picked up the little girl's corpse, and walked toward the thatched house.
Jin Qiusheng smiled, raised a hand to wipe the blood from his face, and muttered, "Quite the personality. I like it."
"My young master does not like men." Medicine Slave snorted coldly. He resumed his decrepit appearance, leaning on the Dragon Head Cane as he headed toward the thatched house.
A Small Beast Tide had brought a devastating disaster.
Though Meng Jia was covered in wounds, he still directed the surviving Baishun Merchant Guild guards to clear the battlefield. As the corpses of their companions were buried one after another, they began dissecting the fierce beast corpses and collecting the valuable materials from them.
Gao Shan had died.
That Dragon Lion Eagle had died as well.
Only at dusk did another Dragon Lion Eagle carry eight people from the direction of Cold Mountain City and land atop the mountain, restoring this place with a little human presence.
"Ye Tong!"
A figure appeared outside the thatched house.
Ye Tong looked up and saw the exhausted Meng Jia. Rising to his feet, he walked out and asked, "What is it?"
Meng Jia handed over a token. "My Baishun Merchant Guild has a rule: whenever an intermediate camp is attacked by fierce beasts, anyone who helps us kill them will receive a token from the Baishun Merchant Guild. In the future, wherever you go in the Sky Net Empire, as long as there is a Baishun Merchant Guild there, you will receive our most sincere hospitality."
A friendship token?
Ye Tong muttered to himself, but he did not refuse Meng Jia's goodwill.
He possessed far too much experience, so he understood one principle very clearly: one more friend meant one more road.
Before you continue