Chapter 231: Drizzle

~~~

It has been three days since Liu Jin last visited his grandfather, two since the last storm, and one since the last time his men fought a Spirit Beast.

“Pick up the pace! We want to reach Drizzle Town before nightfall!”

The men don’t complain. Weeks of fighting and eating Spirit Beasts have increased their cultivation levels, putting nearly all of them in the Nascent Realm. What would have once tired them into unconsciousness now merely demands moderate effort. The company is still not nearly as fast as Liu Jin would like–one of the reasons he alone goes to the Brotherhood’s hideout and back instead of making all the men make that trip–but progress is progress.

Lei Kong leads the men in a marching song. Surprisingly, he knows quite a few of them. Some are too bawdy for Liu Jin’s tastes, but the men enjoy them. Better for them to run happy than bored.

Going by the map the Brotherhood gave him–one much better than the one he received from City Lord Lei’s men–they should be arriving at Drizzle Town in a few hours. With it, they will have seen nearly every settlement in the region except those closest to Thunder Blade Fortress, where Lei Leji, the head of the Lei Clan and Lei Kong’s uncle, rules.

Contrary to what someone like City Lord Lei might think, Liu Jin has not been wasting time visiting random towns. In fact, his trips have not been random at all. Every location they have seen has helped Liu Jin understand how the Lei Clan has structured its power around the region. That’s how he knows nearly every member of the Lei Clan is in Thunder Blade Fortress right now.

Maybe it is because of Lei Kong’s sudden appearance. Maybe the Lei Clan has become extremely insular over the years. Maybe it is something else. The reason does not matter.

Most of the Lei Clan has gathered in a single place. That will make things easier.

The song changes. It is a nice song, so Liu Jin tries to hum along, but his heart is not in it. His men might sing cheerily, but there’s no removing the scowl on Liu Jin’s face. He cannot focus on anything other than how much he dislikes all this.

Maybe… Maybe that’s why he has put off acting for as long as he has.

The Lei Clan has not moved against him beyond placing spies like Quan among his men. Most likely, they have not done more because they are as wary of Murong Bang’s reaction as anyone else.

However, that will all change the moment Liu Jin goes against the City Lord. It does not matter how quietly he does it, and Liu Jin could do it very quietly. Over the past few weeks, Liu Jin has considered the pros and cons of multiple poisons. He has even thought about leaving City Lord Lei alive but so drugged he’d basically be a puppet. The existence of the Brotherhood of Thunder, more specifically that of Leader Liu, means he’d have someone to put in charge of the man.

Unfortunately, none of the methods Liu Jin has considered can stand up to the scrutiny of a family visit. The Lei Clan is fully complicit in the City Lord’s slave trade, so he cannot put a stop to it without them noticing.

The song changes. Ten joins in. Liu Jin does not. The heaviness of his thoughts makes his tongue feel like lead.

An entire clan. A clan made of many worthless people that have willingly cooperated with a monster for more than a decade, but an entire clan all the same. One consisting of multiple families with multiple innocent children. If Liu Jin kills only the guilty, can he expect the children to listen to him explain why he killed their parents?

Of course not. The very thought is stupid and naive.

Reluctant as Liu Jin is to admit it, there is a reason why so many revenge stories wipe out families to the last person.

There has to be another way, but no matter how much he tries, Liu Jin cannot think of something that won’t create dozens of would-be avengers that would probably just get themselves killed in a decade or two.

The march continues

The songs continue.

Liu Jin struggles to do the same.

~~~

Drizzle Town is no more.

The houses are destroyed, walls and doors broken down and ceilings caved in. The people…The people are all around the town. Skewered on top of large wooden stakes so they might welcome any who visit. There are so many of them. Men. Women. Elderly.

Children.

One child looks at them with lifeless eyes. His face is twisted into something that resembles a smile, but Liu Jin knows better. Muscles stiffen after death, including those in the face. The macabre sight is a cruel coincidence. Nothing more.

The air stinks of blood and dead flesh. Flies and vultures have already begun to feast. An eye is torn out. An ear is chewed. Intestines are dug through with sharp beaks.

Someone pukes.

It serves as a trigger for those with the most sensitive stomachs among them. It seems that impaled children are a step too far for some.

“What…what in the world?” Ten’s voice trembles with confusion and rage. “What happened here?”

A good question, but now is not the time for it. In a flash, Liu Jin’s Qi snakes lash out, startling the men behind him. They wrap around every single stake and destroy them with poison Qi.

The bodies hit the ground one by one.

“Gather the bodies,” Liu Jin says. “Prepare a pyre. We’re burning all of them.”

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“W-what? But commander! Those bodies are…” A green-faced soldier gestures haplessly at the rotting corpses, the notion of touching them in any way unappealing to him.

Liu Jin stares at him.

The soldier gulps.

“I mean… Right away, commander.”

Forty minutes later, all the bodies are piled up, and a rudimentary pyre has been lit. It is all more informal than Liu Jin would like, but as long as the Death Fashioning Scripture is an issue, it is better to quickly burn any dead body.

“Did you find anything?” Liu Jin asks when Ten and Lei Kong come back from searching the town.

“Nothing that is not apparent at a glance, my lord,” Lei Kong says. “This was a quick and violent attack. There was no goal beyond a total slaughter.”

Liu Jin takes a deep breath.

“I see.”

“I examined some of the injuries. This was not done using cheap weapons,” Ten continues. His face twists as he struggles to remain calm. “Some of the corpses were trampled over. There are horse tracks all over town. The people that did this came and left on horseback.”

The people that did this. Under other circumstances, Liu Jin might have cracked a smile. There is no need for Ten to be so vague when there is so much evidence around them. In the first place, there are almost no bandits in this area other than the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood most certainly did not do this.

This was done by soldiers. Not just random new recruits like the ones Liu Jin has been given, but men with experience and equipment.