Chapter 66 – Retribution

Libby had been monitoring energy fluctuations coming from the towering barrier they had found underground – there was no doubt about it – it was unstable as hell. She predicted they had about thirty days before they either figured out a solution or the entire planet was engulfed in more dark energy than she liked to think about. At the moment, she was having to do ‘live testing’ of scripts to try and fix the problem in her PD – any attempt at messing with the tower itself could be catastrophic. On the plus side, they were getting a major source of energy right on their doorsteps – highly dangerous energy, not unlike sitting on the top of a semi-dormant volcano.

Adam had felt it his responsibility to warn the town of this potential disaster, but when Bai Bo-Xue trecked off toward town, he found that signs had been put up outside the village – stating that Binyon was now quarantined and off-limits to all visitors. So Adam just told everyone in town instead. He asked them to gather in the main square – which wasn’t hard as most of them generally hung out there, and the population of Binyon was almost in the single digits. The villagers all looked on excitedly – Adam felt bad at dropping this bombshell on them, a bombshell he seemed incapable of shielding them from.

“Dark energies in the forest threaten to engulf this area and, worse, potentially devastate this whole planet. I can help escort you to where ever you wish to go.” Said Adam, pausing to let this dramatic event sink in.

The villagers looked at one another then Che Gonghui spoke up. “Are you leaving?” he said, eyeing Adam.

“If all fails, we will leave – yes, but not until the final hours. “ said Adam truthfully; they could easily escape and gate to a nearby planet – regardless of faction intervention, he felt.

“In that case, I’m staying to see what happens,” said Che Gonghui simply. The others around him seemed to reach a consensus and nodded in agreement.

“What exactly is this danger? You speak of,” said Zhang Wang-Sheng, her boney knuckles grasping her old cane tightly.

“There is an underground barrier that seems to have malfunctioned in some way. Beyond the barrier is a realm of pure dark energy.” Said Adam concisely.

“Maybe I won’t save all my best wine for winter if that is the case, boss,” said Bai Bo-Xue, clearly trying to lighten the mood. But it seemed unnecessary this lot; it appeared, were no strangers to strife and hardships – as they all accepted their fate stoically.

However, Adam still felt the situation did not bode well for Mi Quo’s introductions, though, as he was seen as part of the problem – Adam tried to pass this off by saying that Mi Quo was a dark energy expert and that he might help them find a way out of this mess. The villagers were all naturally scared, and despite Adam’s promises of aid, they felt it was better to leave – he could not blame them but wondered where exactly they would go as this was a planet-wide problem.

Bai Bo-Xue did, on the other hand, see a handful of faction members hanging around the guaranteed zone – evidently there to make sure no one left the village, fleeing for safety.

Adam had agreed with Libby’s request to get some lab rats to experiment on and so set out to find at least two faction members – he found them lounging around on horseback a few miles out from Binyon. As the men chatted about random things, he waited a while until there were just three together, then easily picked off the members using shadow jump and pulled them each into the shadow realm – so as to more stealthily retrieve them.

Mi Quo had been confused about Adam referring to the place he had been carted off to as the shadow realm – he had seen nothing there that matched any descriptions of the shadow realm he had ever heard of. Initially, he didn’t want to do anything to anger his new boss but then, after some consideration, reasoned that with the current danger imminent - the more information they had, the better. Also, something puzzled him about the dark mana – if it were dark mana, then why had he not been turned into a zombie or at least killed? There was something up with that energy, but he couldn’t figure out what as yet.

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Adam and Libby were both surprised at Mi Quo’s shadow realm revelation – it seemed that it was more likely a dimensional rift leading to the shadow realm, which explained the lack of their being anything there. At least Adam was glad to know that they were unlikely to run across anything dangerous there – although he wondered how close they had been to actually enter the shadow realm; as he did so, the back of his neck prickled thinking of all the recurring nightmares he’d had about the place.

Bai Bo-Xue was not sure whether Adam’s arrival had been a blessing or a curse – he had gained little benefit as yet, and now the village was plunged into uncertainty. He was just finishing off a bottle of particularly fine plum wine with Shiau Yonghi when their door was unceremoniously kicked in – in strutted an unfamiliar face from the faction hostile to his village.

Yet these were no tier-r or even tier-m faction members; they seemed way stronger – he knew this by the cool confidence exuded from the guy and also the way he didn’t lower himself to cheap insults – a novelty.

Bai was about to find out if the enhancements Adam had given him were worth anything at all.

The man moved like a blur to Bo-Xue’s eyes, and before he could react, he was on the ground, face down with his arms clasped behind his back – he heard the unmistakable click of the metallic bracelets being placed on him. That was comical; they were designed to suppress Qi. Did they think him a powerful cultivator? At least they weren’t executing him then and there – although this meant they had worse plans for him. Bo-Xue groaned inwardly.

***

Adam was alerted to the presence of the attackers by Libby, and Shadow jumped to the front of their plot only to find a group of about six faction members. They were dressed in slightly different attire, Adam noticed – maybe a bit stronger, Adam would find out.

He changed into slo-mo, wanting to finish this quickly, grabbed a few long bamboo canes – essentially trees, left from the construction of the house and hurled them like blunt scythes, aiming to knock down as many as possible in one strike. He didn’t want any unnecessary injuries on the villager’s side.

Four of the men were flung back, their bodies tumbling through the air like Skittles hit by an express bowling ball. However, somehow, the other two managed to dodge – their reflexes must be amazing. He had only seen reaction times like that from his brief bouts with the sword sect guys.

He went in for some up-close and personal melee – shadow jumping next to one of the guys. What happened next was most unexpected – as his knuckles connected with the guy’s chest, a surge of power flooded into Adam – electricity. Adam was shocked physically and mentally, falling to the dirt of the path outside his house. Every muscle in his body burned – even as Echo tried to fix his nerve endings and repair the damage.

Black smoke rose off his body as his skin burned and charred – now he knew what the Galtans must have felt, and it was not fun.

Incapacitated for the moment, he lay on the ground as the guy showed the usual propriety and smirked, turning to his partner. “I think we’ve located our mysterious adventurer, and the bounty goes to me.” Said the guy.

“What shall we do, kill him or take him back alive? He seems docile enough. If we keep shocking him, it should be fine. What do you say?” said the other man, whom Adam couldn’t even see, lying on his side as he was.

“I say we kill him. We only get half as much again for him alive, and also, that would mean I’d have to split it with you,” he said, Adam, hearing yet again the smirk in the guy’s voice.

Adam’s shadow jumped, he didn’t like to leave the village, but he had no choice – he had thought he was strong but could see he was outclassed. His experience was severely lacking – he would have to fix that, and fast now, he had attracted attention again from outsiders.

Libby had executed their escape plan, and all the kids and villagers except for Bai Bo-Xue and Shiau Yongshi were accounted for – and teleported to safety via the gate stones set up.

Adam mostly healed, skin falling in flakes to the ground, appeared again near the guys, and tried to eviscerate them or at least delay them by sending a storm of shadow bolts at them from all sides. But after the energies cleared, both faction’s members were unharmed. Fuck.

He would have to leave the village and go in a random direction; surely, he could easily outrun these guys – he could almost fly, for god’s sake!

But for the second time that day, his expectations were crushed.

Both guys used some kind of technique and jumped next to him – he felt the guy’s hand yet again brush against him, sending violent jolts of fiery electricity through his musculature.

He fled, shadow jumping away, but with his energy senses, he could see they were tracking him somehow. Where could he go? They were matching his speed.