"We don't know! We truly don't know!"
One villager replied, but it wasn't a reply Feng Mingxu was looking for. He just stood there with a discontent look on his face and waited…
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
The villagers began to despair. How could they live through this if they didn't know the answer? Some of the villagers were already pushing those around them behind so they wouldn't be targeted first…
"Ah? Who are you! Stop right there!!"
Right as Feng Mingxu was about to kill the very first villager, an utterly shocked and furious voice roared out at him from the left of the mountain.
Several people came running into the village soon afterward.
At the front of the group was Stone. To his immediate behind was Zuo Shou, uncle Wu, and uncle Zuo. They were coming back from the mountains from a hunt and were shocked to see this sight and hurried over the village.
Stone had no weapon in his hand, but that didn't stop him from charging at the four strangers in his anger. He approached quickly and moved to punch the closest one to him only to have the person aim a kick onto his chest faster than he could respond!
"Ugh!"
Stone flew through the air and fell back down to the ground. He coughed out a mouthful of blood; the kick had been more powerful than he expected.
The short-haired youth that kicked him sneered. As he turned his head to ask Feng Mingxu what to do with Stone, something from the corner of his eyes caught his attention. A stone that glowed orange rolled out from the folds of Stone's robes.
"A…a primal stone! A high-tier primal stone!! How do you have one of those!?"
The short-haired youth let out a cry of disbelief.
"A high-tier primal stone?!"
Feng Mingxu's eyes flashed with a brilliant light. He was even more convinced of his own theory now; these people just had to be connected to the Alchemy School!
"You people brought this onto yourselves…tell me what I want to know or have your village die out!"
A blade of wind was summoned with the snap of his fingers. Which one of these villagers would he be killing to set an example? He had plenty to choose from.
"Whoosh!"
A sudden gust of wind came at the four without any warning. Altogether, Feng Mingxu and the other three leaped back several steps to avoid the intrusion.
"Kcht!"
A long staff stabbed deep into the ground where Feng Mingxu had been standing. Had he not moved the staff would've struck him clean. The end tail of the staff was still vibrating, meaning that the propulsive force in which the staff had been thrown with was considerably strong.
"Who goes there?!"
An attack of that scale was something beyond the means of a commoner. The short-haired man knew that and was adequately wary of their new adversary.
"Big brother Tang!!"
Stone—who was currently being helped up to his feet by Zuo Shou and uncle Wu—let out a cry of joy.
A strange gray shadow came jettisoning down from the mountains with blinding speed. In no time at all the shadow was already at the village, but the figure was very strange to look at because…there were so many beasts larger than he was being carried on top of the person's shoulder!
"Bang!!"
Bai Yunfei dropped all of the beasts he had been carrying onto the ground to inspect the situation. The cowering villagers, the injured Stone, and the four outsiders…
"Who are you people?!"
Nothing much had changed about Bai Yunfei in the past three years. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties now and had long hair that was tied behind the back of his head. His skin was much darker than before and his body looked quite robust.
In short, he looked more like an inhabitant of the mountains more than ever before.
"A Soul Warrior?"
Feng Mingxu was surprised by the appearance of Bai Yunfei, but the surprise didn't last very long. "So a soul cultivator is here after all! Is he from the Alchemy School then?"
"Hah! It was only just a Soul Warrior…that scared me for a second." The short-haired man snorted. "Could you be…an alchemist?" He was reaching the same conclusion as Feng Mingxu.
"Why are you hurting our people?!" Bai Yunfei replied with a question of his own.
"Tang Long…they appeared out from nowhere. They're looking for some kind of alchemy school, and they're willing to kill for it! Be careful…they know magic!"
One villager hurried to warn Bai Yunfei. It didn't seem illogical to this village that these people were capable of 'magic'. It also seemed logical to warn Bai Yunfei—the strongest one in their village—of this fact since not even he seemed like he stood a chance against this supposed magic…
"Kill?!" Bai Yunfei looked furious at the sound of that word. His eyes were already taking in the sights of the several injured villagers around him. The muscles on his arms bulged as he clenched his fists. He glared at the short-haired male.
"What…what reason have you for all this!?"
It seemed absolutely ludicrous that a mere Soul Warrior would give them four this much attitude. But for the briefest of moments, the short-haired man felt a slight shiver travel up his spine as if he was a small mouse being eyed down by a towering snake. For that one small instant, the man didn't have it in himself to even move!
But that moment passed quickly, and the man felt himself be overcome by humiliation. "You're just an ignorant savage, die for me, why don't you!?"
His body flashed with violet light as he prepared to show the ignoramus in front of him the error of his ways.
"Hold on!" But it was Feng Mingxu that stopped him. "Are you or are you not from the Alchemy School?"
Bai Yunfei's eyes moved over from the short-haired man to Feng Mingxu. He studied him for several moments before replying, "I'll tell you outside this village."
He was trying to push for 'negotiations' to take place outside the village.
"Oh?" A mirthful smile appeared on Feng Mingxu's face. "Fine then," He motioned for the others to follow him, "Let's go then, there's no point dealing with these commoners."
They all knew Bai Yunfei was just trying to protect the villagers. It didn't matter much to them since this Soul Warrior was here. He was presumably from the Alchemy School, so the four of them could first get whatever information they wanted from him first before dealing with the villagers.
The five of them walked for a short distance until they reached the hill Bai Yunfei commonly used to stare at the skies.
"This should be far enough, now spill it. If you don't give us a satisfactory answer, we'll head back to the village and kill everyone there." Feng Mingxu threatened.
"Kill…" Bai Yunfei repeated the word slowly, as if the word was burning his tongue to even say it. "Is murder something you four can do so easily?"
"Haha! What a naive idiot you are!" Barked the short-haired man. "Killing a few commoners is like killing ants for us soul cultivators. We kill as we like and when we want, do you really think we wouldn't?"
"Soul cultivators…" This was the 'first' time Bai Yunfei heard of such a thing.
"Let's cut the bullsh*t, I'm giving you one last chance." Feng Mingxu interrupted, "Are you from the Alchemy School or not?! Tell us where the alchemy School is and we'll let the villagers live. We'll even reward you for your troubles."
Bai Yunfei grew silent for a moment as if considering the deal.
He nodded.
"Fine, follow me then."
"What?"
It wasn't a reaction any of the four of them thought to see. Two of the males were happy nonetheless though, but Feng Mingxu looked furious. "You trying to lie to us?!"
"Whoosh…"
Several blades of wind appeared with the wave of his hand before flying at Bai Yunfei to surround him!