What You Fear Comes to Pass

All kinds of trees grew in a disorderly tangle across the gray-black earth. The ground was uneven, with slopes and sunken hollows cropping up frequently. Countless people trudged onward, fear written on their faces, with a faint thread of hope for the future woven into it.

The procession of tens of thousands stretched out like a long dragon. On either side, a Pseudo-Transcendent stood watch at regular intervals.

At the head of the procession, Lin Shan followed the shortest route marked on Parchment. Carrying the Clan Artifact meant he no longer had to worry about the Ash Fog blocking his sight. The downside was that without the Ash Fog, they lost a natural layer of protection, and the barrier could even disturb every anomaly and Fallen it swept over.

At times like this, anomalies were manageable. As long as they stayed out of their territories, anomalies rarely moved of their own accord. The Fallen were the real trouble-they attacked on their own initiative.

By noon, they had covered only ten kilometers. They had encountered no danger along the way because the land they crossed had belonged to the Human Race and had already been cleared. Any farther, and they would enter unfamiliar territory.

They rested for half an hour at noon, eating the dry rations prepared beforehand. Once they had eaten their fill, they picked up the pace again. They had to cover thirty kilometers that day.

They had barely stepped beyond the boundaries of their former clan territory.

"Ah!" A startled scream rose from the crowd.

More screams followed immediately.

"What is this?"

"A snake? Or a bug?"

Lin Shan frowned at the long yellow bug struggling in his hand. It had a dense mass of tentacle-like legs and a row of compound eyes on its forehead, making it particularly horrifying to look at.

These were merely ordinary bugs that ordinary people could kill, but there were far too many of them, and they were venomous. Lin Shan had already seen people collapse after being stung, their breathing stopping moments later.

Lin Shan clenched his fist at empty air, and every bug within a hundred meters ahead burst into a puddle of yellow blood.

But it was no use. That wide-area attack had directly consumed a fifth of his Supernatural Power, while the procession stretched for several kilometers. No sooner had one wave of bugs been cleared than those behind them surged forward to take their place.

More people fell. Everyone desperately stamped on the bugs, screams of fear and agony rising and falling together.

Lin Shan remained unmoved. The next second, he vanished from where he stood.

Several kilometers from the crowd, several bugs over three meters long lay on the ground, powerful spiritual fluctuations surging from their bodies.

Suddenly, one of the bugs let out a piercing shriek. Pale red flames engulfed its entire body, reducing it to ashes in an instant.

At the sight, the other two bugs let out shrill cries like nails scraping glass. Moments later, a dense swarm of miniature bugs burrowed out of the earth and surrounded them.

"So it really was them!"

When he had held one of the small bugs earlier, he had sensed something wrong. It was clearly an ordinary bug, yet faint traces of spirituality occasionally flickered across its body.

Lin Shan had followed the direction from which the bugs emerged and found these three Fallen, identical in appearance to the small bugs.

After burning one to death, he clenched his hand toward the others, trying to control the blood inside their bodies. But it did not work; it merely made the bug's body tense and twitch slightly.

"My Supernatural Power is still too weak," Lin Shan murmured.

He immediately used the Red Lantern again, burning the remaining two to ashes as well. Every second of delay could cost another life. After ending the battle as quickly as possible, Lin Shan returned to the procession.

By then, order had been restored. With nothing controlling them, all the small bugs had burrowed back into the earth.

"Wu Xing... wake up, Wu Xing!"

"Little sister, please open your eyes. We're about to have a good life. We won't have to live in fear every day anymore."

"I knew it... I knew people would die... We've barely gone anywhere, and so many people are already dead..."

Complaints like these erupted throughout the procession.

"Keep moving," Lin Shan said calmly.

"What?" Someone immediately objected. "Aren't we going to do something about their bodies? How can we leave their corpses out in the wilderness?"

"Exactly!"

"What Pioneers? You just crossed over earlier than we did and got lucky enough to gain transcendent abilities. How can you lead the Human Race when you're so cold and heartless?"

"That's right. You're only in your twenties. What gives you the right to talk about leading the Human Race?"

"Who gave you your authority? You're just using your power to threaten us, claiming you'll lead us to survival. And now? A hundred thousand people have already died! These people died right in front of us, and you're turning a blind eye. Do you even have hearts?"

The crowd grew increasingly restless. Seeing so many people die before their eyes had shaken them far too deeply.

Lin Shan watched it all coldly. Human hearts were complicated, and he no longer wanted to explain anything.

He still spoke calmly to the Pseudo-Transcendent soldier beside him. "Pass the word down. Anyone who wants to stay here and collect their bodies can stay. Everyone else keeps moving."

"Yes, sir." The man saluted, then quickly ran back, shouting Lin Shan's words. About two hundred meters away, another soldier took over and relayed them farther down the line.

There were very few Pseudo-Transcendents among the humans, but every one had survived the battlefield and undergone rigorous selection. Only those who had witnessed true bloodshed could understand that sometimes sacrifice was unavoidable, and everyone else could only keep moving forward.

Still, one thing they had said was right. All authority was now clenched in the Pioneers' hands, maintained entirely through the oppression of power. Every Pseudo-Transcendent was their trusted subordinate, and ordinary people had no way to resist.

But this was also the best way to minimize losses. Presenting a united front against outside threats was better than internal strife. At least, Lin Shan agreed with this approach. Talking about democracy under these circumstances was simply throwing lives away. In this world of Transcendence, without absolute power to keep things in check, the Cat Clan was the perfect example: a tiny minority's struggle for authority had brought the development of the entire clan to a standstill.

Five minutes later, the procession continued onward.

Surprisingly, not a single person was willing to stay. Even those who had shouted earlier lowered their heads in silence. Some wiped away tears, while others resented Lin Shan in their hearts, but all of them stepped forward and followed.

They did not stop until the Red Moon rose that evening. Along the way, they encountered two anomalies and several attacks by packs of Fallen. Lin Shan avoided the anomalies' territories in advance, but the Fallen could not be evaded, and the procession's numbers kept dwindling. In that single day, several thousand people might already have perished, perhaps even more.

"Keep everyone together. Don't let them spread out too much," Lin Shan instructed. At night, anomalies were everywhere, and even staying in one place could be dangerous. He flew into the air and kept a constant watch over their surroundings.

He feared that some anomaly which only appeared at night might suddenly materialize among the crowd.

Suddenly, a chill swept through Lin Shan's entire body. His gaze snapped toward a certain patch of space. It rippled like water, as though something were about to crawl out.

"What you fear really does come to pass!"

Red light flashed twice. With two teleports, he appeared out of thin air at the distorted spot.

Mustering all his strength, he roared:

"Scatter! Get away from me!"

"Hurry, unless you want to die!!"