Someone gasped in the forest. Quiet and hidden by the orchestra of sounds within the forest.

  But James heard it nonetheless. His senses proved beyond his expectations once more.

  He spun in his spot. Eyes searching the foliage and bushes around. Until he caught a small figure hiding behind a tree. Standing there and gaping in shock at him. A little girl, no older than fifteen years old. Brunette hair and skeletal frame.

  Gray robes hung loosely on her shoulders. Clearly too big for her frame. He could get rger details from this distance, but it was difficult to see her clearly with all the branches and leaves.

  James gulped. He felt butterflies in his stomach.

  A real person! This isn’t a hallucination right?

  He was confident he was not asleep. The Koi fish danger was real and heart wrenching. It couldn’t have been all imagined, right? James thought about how it kept missing him. Always a few inches away, but never quite on target when attempting to eat him whole. How easily he escaped it.

  James pinched himself discreetly.

  Nope. Very much awake.

  The pain was real at least. He didn’t think dreams and hallucinations had basic painful stuff in the wholy unorganized messes they were.

  Different emotions surged in his chest. Relief, joy, anxiety, even anger at the suffering he had to endure during his isotion. Finally he had been let out. Finally he had made it to a pce where he wasn’t alone and by himself.

  A real person actually stood in front of him.

  “Little girl,” James said. His voice was raspy from disuse. He signalled her to approach by crooking his finger at her. “Come here.”

  The girl froze. A deer in headlights. He could see her start to tremble like a tree in a hurricane. She had thought James hadn’t seen her yet.

  James couldn’t help but feel terrible for her. For all she knew he could have been a bandit, demon, or evil cultivator that would kidnap her and cut her up for body parts. Or maybe a spiritual beast or monster that would eat her for breakfast.

  What is she doing out here alone?

  Not that he minded at this moment. It just didn’t seem safe unless she was a cultivator.

  It took a moment but the girl approached almost unwillingly. James got a good look at her state. She was younger than his initial estimation. There was no way she was older than ten. Two basic wooden hair sticks kept her hair bunched up, though it was not done tightly.

  Her robes were dirty and ragged. The sigil of a silver mountain had been embroidered onto her robe.

  James couldn’t help but feel even worse that he already was. The ancient world was not a good pce for poor people. From the way her robes looked, the smudged dirt on her face and skin, and how messy her hair remained even with a hair stick. Everything pointed at a harsh life. One made worse by the existence of extraordinary powers in the form of cultivations.

  Maybe she had been forced into child bor camps. Those were supposedly common in ancient times back on earth.

  He doubted the girl would st long picking up rge stones half her size.

  “Where are your parents, little one? It’s dangerous out in the open.”

  Hu Shui couldn’t breathe. Something wrapped around her neck. Covering her mouth. As though she had dunked her head in water. It occurred the second she id her eyes on the old man. She felt six mountainous gazes locked onto her instantly.

  Each one enough to snuff out her existence if they so cared. In but a moment, she could become a memory forgotten.

  She shook as they continued to study her. Watching and waiting for something.

  Hu Shui couldn’t help but curse her terrible curiosity. She couldn’t help it. Her friend in the Silver Mountain Gang always warned her about the cat and how it had gotten killed. Brutally for being in the wrong pce and wrong time. For the wrong purposes.

  But she couldn’t help but ignore them. An instinctual need to know what was going on drove her. She had followed the noise until she reached an area where everything went silent. A forest with no noise. It was odd, and worse, she needed to know why.

  No bird songs. No insects chirping. Nothing. Even the wind had died down abruptly.

  That should have been a clear signal to turn around and leave. Run back to the protection of the bandit crew and the big boss. But it only fueled her curiosity. What could have caused this situation? Why were the animals and insects so scared? Did they all die?

  Her soul felt like bursting if she did not figure it out. So she kept moving forward against her better judgement.

  At some point, the noise returned. Gradually but it felt odd. Fake. As though they were acting. Commanded to make as much noise as possible and replicate what a forest should have sounded. The bird songs were all off tune and timed wrong. The insect chirped out and about instead of under logs and hidden in shadows. She even saw squirrels and a hawk next to each other, uninterested in separating or chasing. Chirping and making forest sounds.

  I should turn back—

  That was when she got her first glimpse. Instantly, Hu Shui knew she had messed up.

  “We should eat her.” a voice roared in her head.

  Hu Shui had gasped in shock. Terror filling her chest. She could already imagine the demonic voice consuming her.

  “Quiet, fatty! Eating such pathetic meat would only ruin our cultivation,” a second said. Voice much lower. Hu Shui felt a tinge of relief in her chest— “We should strip her of that beautiful skin! Let her suffer in agony for a thousand generations! How dare she stand before our master. Stare at his existence without the qualification to merely be in his presence!”

  She felt herself sway back and forth. Forced to lean on the tree for bance. Her head thundered in dull beats. Like her heart had suddenly moved up there.

  “Magerdon! You cruel wretch. Look how scared the little thing is.” A new voice entered the discussion. “I bet she tastes horrible and her screams, quiet and unbecoming. Humans aren’t known to be appetizing or entertaining.”

  “They’re alright,” The first responded. “Have to drink magma after to get the weird aftertaste…”

  “Such weakling deserves to be destroyed…”

  “No! We cannot just kill everything in our path…”

  “I agree with Salimonarigon. Killing every insect is such a bother. There’s always more of them under every unturned rock…”

  “Enough!” A deep and powerful voice shook her very cultivation. Her knees buckled. “It is not our pce to make that decision. It is Master's choice. Stay silent until he has announced his judgement.”

  Her teeth chattered. It took more effort than she knew she had in her tiny frame to keep from falling over. The old man’s eyes locked onto her. Finally finding where she had been hiding. Not a single emotion crossed his stoic face.

  Shui lowered her head. She felt oddly naked before him. As though he could see the depths of her soul. He was beyond the six auras that pressed on her. And each one a mountain compared to the Bandit Big Boss.

  “Little girl,” He spoke in an ancient dialect she had rarely heard. Long, pitch bck beard and moustache covered his mouth.

  He pointed at her. All six auras surged. Preparing to destroy her existence. Their killing intent bubbled and surged. Waiting for a moment's action. His finger arched back towards him. Calling her forward.

  “Come here.”

  Each aura disappeared instantly. Retracting to the spear in the Old man’s hand. They dared not make a sound. Who stood in front of her? What type of monster did she stumble into?

  His eyes never left her figure. She had heard of demons taking advantage of little girls. The evil ones eating them. The other stories were horrible. Hu Shui couldn’t help but imagine every single scenario possible. From him tearing her head off, torturing her for the rest of her life, and other more heinous thing he could do to her.

  She had to fight against every instinct in her body. Everything was telling her to run for her life. Maybe the Silver Mountain Gang could help her. But she knew better. They would sell her to him as soon as he showed up. Just to save their own lives.

  Approaching him made her shaking worse. Every step felt heavier. A walk to the gallows. She hadn’t even noticed the tears and rips on her robes becoming wider due to taunt branches and thrones. Her eyes were locked on the old man.

  She arrived before him. Stepping into his clearing. The smell of deep endless woods struck her senses. Purity unquestionable.

  “Where are your parents, little one? It’s dangerous out in the open.”

  Hu Shui’s head rocketed up in shock. She couldn’t believe her ears. The voice he spoke with had been filled with kindness. It struck her speechless. Was he faking it? People weren’t that nice anymore. Everyone looked out for themselves.

  No one should sound so compassionate. Or care for her. No one but Hu Jun.

  “Behold!” The voice that shook her cultivation roared to the skies. “Our Master’s mercy. In his great wisdom, he had chosen to pardon her of the many heinous crimes she committed!”

  “Master is too kind!”

  “Master’s mercy knows no bounds!”

  “Master…!”

  “…!”

  Zer0n1gh7s