Chapter 119 – Choices in Life (I)

Chapter 119

Choices in Life (I)

So, thirteen men (and one woman) had encircled the exit of the tunnel. Their backs were facing a forest of trees, behind us was a slight hillside that then fell back down into a town wall, and we… well, we were screwed.

Kids emerged at some point despite my trying to keep them down, and the expressions were… well, telling.

Let’s start with the newcomer, Wan Lan–she appeared horrified and absolutely certain we were doomed.

Long Tao? Well, he appeared the same way he always does–just utterly unbothered by everything, as though he wasn’t the one being surrounded but was merely here as an audience.

Light? The girl mostly seemed curious, her shining eyes scrutinizing the figures in front of her as though she was trying to decipher something.

This is where it gets odd, however.

I’d expected Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao to be at the very least mildly scared, but no. Not even remotely. Rather, they seemed… confident.

They puffed their chests out, Xi Zhao was even grabbing toward the sword, and I am seriously wondering whether there’s something wrong with the brains of those kids. They know I am ‘merely’ at the Spirit Manifestation Realm, even if I were an actual, devoted cultivator. So, what in the heavens gives them the confidence to strut around like peacocks?

“Lan’er,” the leader’s eyes, however, quickly ignored all the rest of us and focused entirely on the teenage girl next to me. “Oh, Lan’er. I’ve offered you the world, and this is how you repay me? By sneaking out like some vermin with these ingrates? And Madame… she’s been a thorn for so long, but I’ve given her half the town–and it still wasn’t enough. She kept you from me, Lan’er.”

Hm?

Wait a second.

This is the reason this old guy is here? Not to kill us but to take back a teenage girl?!

… Come on, dude! You look like eight times her age! You’re the town’s chieftain! I’m sure there are hundreds of women that would throw themselves at you–aah, I’m just shouting into the wind. People like him… don’t care.

Before Wan Lan could respond, I stepped forward and pulled her behind me; my only way out is to piss this guy off so much that he attacks us with something big. He probably sees us all as ants and will likely order his henchmen to kill us… but that can’t happen. I need him to attack, and I need him to attack with something at least passably strong.

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“You ever heard the expression, ‘a pig dreaming of marrying a swan’?” I spat out with as cold and calm of a voice as I could. “You’re one of the ugliest pieces of shit I’ve ever seen in my life, and instead of hiding in the deepest chamber under the only Mother that has ever tolerated you, you come crawling out to stalk and horrify young girls? Even dogs behave better, and not even the trained ones, but the dying strays.”

Silence.

Just absolute, dreadful silence.

You could drop a nuke, I feel, and this silence would still swallow up all the sound. That’s how heavy it was.

Even Long Tao, someone whose expressions changed about as frequently as seasons in this world, had his jaw slightly agape as he stared at me.