"Ha… I guess what they said was true after all..." Wu Zhe muttered in annoyance. He had been sitting behind the tree for what felt like hours, yet there were still no signs of any incoming wagon. The forest was quiet, only the occasional rustle of leaves breaking the silence as darkness soon approached.
"It's getting dark soon and there's still no signs of any incoming wagons." he said, with disappointment in his voice.
A few hours later…
Loud hooves suddenly awoke Wu Zhe. He gripped his blade tightly and looked towards the dirt road. He only saw one wagon with dim lights, the surroundings of the road was pitch darkness. He saw two men riding at the front, and a hood covering the wagon making him unable to see inside.
"Huh? Honey, why'd you stop?" a middle-aged woman called out from the back of the wagon.
The three in the carriage peered ahead and froze at the wagon blocking the road.
"Honey, grab our swords!" One of the men shouted.
The woman snatched up the swords and torches. With torches in one hand and swords in the other, they stepped off the wagon and approached the stranded wagon. Their eyes quickly fell upon the blood staining its surface and the bones nearby.
"What the hell…" she muttered.
"Did a monster do this? Could it still be nearby?" one man whispered.
"A monster this far out of the Blighted Lands?" the other man whispered, questioning what it would be doing all the way out here.
The two men exchanged uneasy looks, each unsure of what to do, until one of them finally handed something over. The possibility of a monster lurking in the woods weighed heavily on them. But despite that, they were still reluctant, unable to make a decision on what to do.
Wu Zhe watched from behind the tree line, his Qi extending outward from his body as he observed them.
"Weak…" he muttered, noticing the three has zero Qi inside of them.
He suddenly straightened his back and began walking toward them, blade in hand, no longer wishing to hide.
The three were unaware of the approaching Wu Zhe and kept their eyes fixed on the wagon, searching for any clues about what had happened there.
"Ha…" the husband sighed. "I think it's best we leave. Whatever happened here wasn't good. We could report this back in Huangcheng City."
"Who said you could leave?" a voice interjected.
The three froze, their eyes darting through the darkness as they tried to locate where the voice had come from.
"Who's there!?" the husband shouted.
"Who are you?" the woman called out, her tone more friendly but still cautious.
"Say something!" the other man yelled.
Wu Zhe stopped and answered, "I am the one who shall release you from existence's clutches." He continued walking toward them, his steps echoing ever closer amidst the darkness.
"What?"
All three turned their backs against eachother, waving their torches around as they tried to see where the man was.
"Where are you? We are simply travele—" the brother words were cut short as a blade enveloped in Qi flew toward him, hitting his neck and completely decapitating him. The blade spun through the air like a boomerang and returned to Wu Zhe's hand.
The man's head flew clean off, his blood spraying the couple.
The woman screamed in horror as she realized what had happened.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her.
It was her husband. He had suddenly started running back toward their wagon, panic etched on his face.
"A trap! Damn it!" the husband cursed, gripping his wife's hand as he ran toward the wagon as fast as he could.
"All futile…" Wu Zhe said, suddenly walking toward them, but not sprinting, just walking. It was as if he were toying with them.
The couple finally reached their wagon. Wu Zhe stepped into plain view, and as they looked at him, the first thing they noticed was the empty look in his eyes and his pale, almost white skin.
"Move!" the man shouted, leaping onto the reins and urging the horse forward.
The reason the man focused on escaping was because he was convinced this was some kind of bandit ambush and that more bandits were on the way.
The horse moved forward slowly, pulling the wagon into motion. Suddenly, Wu Zhe's hand flared with Qi, the blade becoming enveloped by his Qi.
With a swift motion, he hurled the blade, and the Qi-enveloped weapon shot toward the lead horse.
SHK
The blade struck the horse's torso, cleaving it cleanly in half.
As he stared at Wu Zhe, he hadn't noticed the horse had been split in half until the reins in his hands went slack. His eyes widened in horror as he looked down at the fallen horse, and its body cleaved apart.
"Damn it!"
"What do you want from us!" he shouted, confusion and fear in his voice as he struggled to understand why Wu Zhe was trying to kill them.
"To free you…" Wu Zhe replied calmly.
"What? Are you insane!" the man yelled, bewildered by the strange answer. "What do you mean, 'to free us'?"
"Ha… things never change," Wu Zhe muttered under his breath, hearing himself be called insane.
Seeing the dead horse, the man realized there was no other way. He tightened his grip on his sword and faced the slowly walking Wu Zhe.
"Honey… run," he muttered to his wife as he stepped down from the wagon, sword in hand.
"What? N–no!" she cried, clutching him tightly, refusing to leave her husband to die.
"God damn it! Honey, listen to me for once! Now is not the time to be stubborn! I want our children to at least grow up with a parent. Wouldn't you want the same?!" he shouted, forcing her off his body and urging her to run.
The man saw that it was hopeless so he thought the best outcome was to at least, save his wife, if it meant sacrificing his.
The wife's face contorted with conflict, but finally, she turned and ran towards the dark forest, tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran.
Wu Zhe watched silently as she dropped her torch and vanished into the trees, the darkness covering her escape.
"Come here, lost child. Embrace death," Xue Shen said calmly, spreading his arms wide, as if welcoming the man into a embrace.
"You bastard!" the man roared, charging forward with his sword in hand.
To his surprise, Wu Zhe calmly stared at him as he charged, showing no sign of seeing him as the slightest threat.
CRACK!
Wu Zhe's fist slammed into the man's face the moment he stepped within striking distance. With his other hand, he grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it, causing his grip on the sword to loosen and causing it to clatter to the ground.
The man felt his bones snap as Wu Zhe twisted his wrist. With the punch to the face, some of his teeth shattered, and blood spilt from his mouth as he collapsed, clutching his face and groaning in agony.
"That's it?" Although Wu Zhe looked disappointed, his voice sounded excited as he stared at the collapsed man. "Come on! Get up! Show me! Show me how corrupted existence has made you! Let me see your will to live!"
He began stomping the downed man, again and again, each kicking heavier than the last.
"Come on!"
"Show it!"
"Show me that desperation!"
"Show it to me!
"Show how corrupted existence has made you!" Wu Zhe shouted repeating the words, his voice seething with madness. As he rained kicks after kicks upon the man, his normally blank eyes and expressionless face shifted from an empty one into a wild, and mad one.
CRUNCH.
The man's ribs shattered, a weak groan spilling from his lips.
"Uhhhhh—"
"Fucking show it to me!" Wu Zhe yelled even louder, abruptly stopping his kicks.
He reeled his leg back, using all his strength without using his Qi, and then drove it downwards with full force, smashing it into the man's teeth and shattering it.
CRACK!
The forest was silent, except for the man's weak, faint groans.
Wu Zhe stood over him, breathing in and out periodically, his eyes wide and gleaming with madness. Then, slowly, a frown spread across his face.
"You won't show it?" he whispered. "Fine…"
He reached down, and yanked him up by the strands of his hair, dragging him across the ground as the blood from his mouth smeared the ground below him.
"Let's find your dearest wife…" he murmured, voice low and cracking with glee. "Maybe she'll show it."
The man groaned weakly, unable to resist, as Xue Shen pulled him deeper into the dark.
"Ha… Ha…"
The woman's breath came in short, gasps. She could no longer run, only walk forward, her legs trembling.
"Uhh…"
A low groan echoed nearby. A man's voice. Her heart dropped to her stomach, because she recognized it instantly. She imagined scenes of her husband's pain in her mind, and tears welled in her eyes.
She heard the footsteps rustle through the fallen leaves, as it kept drawing closer and closer.
She put a hand over her mouth, closing her eyes shut, and crouched down, curling into a ball, desperate to make no sound.
The steps grew louder… Then slower…
Until finally, the footsteps faded away into the distance.
She exhaled shakily, trembling, and began to rise—
CRACK!
A branch snapped beneath her foot.
"There you are…"
"Mmggghh!" Her husband groaned, thrashing weakly on the ground, trying to keep Wu Zhe at bay.
Wu Zhe boot smashed into his stomach.
He frantically swept through the darkness with his hand until he felt something…
Hair.
His fingers found strands of hair, and almost instantly as he felt it, he yanked it toward himself.
"AHH!"
"NO!"
"NO!"
"NO!"
The woman screamed, thrashing wildly and striking him with her fists, but her blows did nothing to Wu Zhe.