The raven kept getting drawn back to the gathering as it imagined snacking on the tasty tasty morsels down below.

When he passed over again, he noticed something strange. The humans seemed agitated. Two of the tastiest were gathered inside the gate like they were on watch, and many, many other tastees were at the top of the wall, all vigilantly looking out.

There were always a certain number of them walking around up there but not nearly so many.

Why? What had changed?

It flew away as it mulled over the strange behavior, eventually landing to consider it. The raven, however, knew little about humans, having only heard stories from its stronger fellows.

The raven was crafty, though. It liked puzzles almost as much as it liked shiny objects.

After a while, it flew back over the gathering to see if there were further changes. It wasn’t much for counting, but a similar number of tastees were still at the top of the wall. The two tastiest were still inside the gate.

Hmm.

What could cause such behavior?

It flew far from the gathering and landed again. Hmm. What would cause it to be on alert if it were in the same situation as the humans?

That thought struck a chord. If it had a strong protector and that protector became unavailable for some reason, it would be forced to become more alert for danger.

That made sense. That might be the reason.

Which meant that the tasty morsels were available for snacking!

Before taking flight, it paused. Caution. If it were right, tasty morsels! If it were wrong, the End.

Another flight was called for. To look. To study. Perhaps to snack.

----------------------------------------

Yang Ru was not happy. His sister had reached Mastery in her technique, but he was still stuck at Large Success.

Normally, that would not be a problem. He would catch up eventually. But Master had forbade further work on it.

To make things worse, Master had also emphasized the importance of reaching Mastery prior to advancing to Foundation Establishment, and Yang Ru felt his chances of doing that slipping away.

If he just had a little more time… He wished he had just one more opportunity to master it. He was so, so close.

“Spirit beast!” Yang Xiu yelled. “A bird. Flying.”

Zou Tian was cultivating in the center of the open area, and at her call, he looked up. It appeared to be eying him as it circled.

“I think I’m the target,” Zou Tian said.

If it was a rank three or below, any of them could kill it without difficulty. There was no way to know that, however, until it attacked or was attacked. Yang Ru had to treat it as a true threat.

“Stay where you are, Zou Tian,” Yang Ru said, backing up while keeping an eye of the bird. “When I say, dive out of the way and disappear.”

He kept backing up even after he was fully out of the open area and started down a path between rows of houses. As long as he could still see Zou Tian and the bird, the farther away he was the better.

The bird, a raven, was huge, easily the size of an adult human from tail to head.

It stopped circling. Having apparently decided to attack, it dove.

Timing was important. Very important. Crucial.

Yang Ru looked at the raven. Looked at Zou Tian. Looked at the raven. Looked at Zou Tian.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Yang Ru charged as fast as his qi enhanced muscles would propel him. He built momentum like he’d never built momentum before.

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As the raven entered Yang Xiu’s range, she shot an arrow. It deflected off the creature’s innate qi shield.

At least a rank four, then.

Yang Ru firmed his resolve. Bouncing off was not an option. He would not end up on his butt again. Would. Not.

The raven approached. Yang Ru approached. Zou Tian stood stock still.

Dozens of yards became yards. Yards became feet.

“Dive!” Yang Ru yelled.

Feet became inches.

Zou Tian dove to the right.

The raven screeched down to hit the dirt exactly where he had been standing.

Leaning forward, Yang Ru thrust the spear.

He braced his feet against the packed dirt and activated Stone Skin for both his front that was about to impact the raven and his feet while simultaneously using qi to enhance his leg muscles.

Crash.

The impact was as severe as any he had ever experienced, but he was flowing lava. He lived for impact.

The force of the collision pushed against him, but he refused to yield, leaning into it and focusing on his legs.

His feet dug into the ground, but he didn’t move any farther than the ground. And he most certainly did not end up on his butt.

Success!

Of course, the raven wasn’t damaged at all from the strike. It didn’t even look angry.

It looked hungry.

Master had only been gone for almost four hours. How were they going to hold that creature off for four more?

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Benton surveyed the people in Fatty Ren’s cultivation slash throne room. The Town Lord seemed happy, as did Kang Lin and Pan Jiang. Their four hangers on were still somewhat disconcerted by the entire thing.

Oh well, they’d get used to it.

“This has been fun and all,” Benton said, “but I really have to get going. Before I can get back to the village which hopefully isn’t under attack, I need to go by the orphanage and maybe find a merchant that Elder Kang sent for me?”

“Esteemed Grandfather did arrange a merchant, Esteemed Master Cultivator.” Kang Lin proceeded to explain where to find the man.

“Gratitude to your grandfather,” Benton said before turning to Fatty Ren. “If there’s nothing else…?”

“Go with haste, Friend Su.”

“Gratitude. As I said, I’ll be back once all this mess is over, and we’ll figure out something to do about your bottleneck.”

Fatty Ren’s face was bright. “That I most certainly look forward to!”

Benton Quickstepped toward the merchant, emerging on a street outside the palace. He found that, inside the town, he had to confine himself to short hops to avoid running over people. The exceptions were places like the orphanage and Fatty Ren’s room where he had a clear picture in mind of where to emerge that was probably devoid of people and things.

Soon, though, he found a man who was sitting on the driver’s bench of a large wagon who met the description provided by Kang Lin. The merchant immediately jumped down and kowtowed.

“Greetings, Esteem—”

“No time for that,” Benton said. “You have bows and arrows?”

The man quickly pulled back a cover from his wagon. The entire space was packed with the weapons.

“Perfect,” Benton said.

He quickly used Analyze on a random sampling. The arrows were nothing special. A lot of them were pure mortal grade, and the best he found was only Profound. There were no complaints about the quantity, though, as there were at least ten thousand of them.

The bows were better, all at least good enough for a Foundation Establishment cultivator and maybe three dozen in all.

As near as Benton could figure, the whole wagonload was worth less than a few spirit coins.

“Will this cover it?” Preferring not to let his ability to create spirit coins get out just yet, he pulled three rank five beast corpses and a rank six, intact to include the cores, from his ring. He pointed out the respective ranks.

The man’s eyes went wide.

“I think I’m overpaying by quite a bit, so I need you to give me five thousand taels back. Does that work?”

The merchant, apparently speechless at the speed of the transaction, nodded.

“Great.” Benton thrust a piece of paper at the man. “This is the name of the man I want you to give the taels to.”

If Peng Zhen’s reliable keeper of money turned out to have been stealing from the orphanage, Benton would have to find the merchant again to get the money, but Benton had high hopes that he wouldn’t have to. After the whole thing with the Town Manager getting deposed, he thought his reputation was scary enough that no one would dare steal from him.

It was hard to account for pure avarice, however, so he’d see.

Benton swept the entire contents of the wagon into his ring and disappeared with a Quickstep, emerging just outside the yard of the orphanage.

Children playing immediately noticed his appearance, and one of them ran inside yelling. Benton thought about handing out street vendor meals, but he just didn’t have the time. Besides, the kids looked a lot more well fed than the last time he’d been there.

Mistress Gong quickly appeared, looking a lot less harried than last time as well and wearing a newish dress and actually smiling. She cupped her hands. “Esteemed Master Cultivator, this lowly one thanks you. The children thank you.”

“Think nothing of it. I just stopped by quickly to touch base and find out if everything was going well. Any issues with the money or anything?”

“No issues at all, Esteemed Master Cultivator.”

“Perfect. I arranged for more funds for you. If you have any issues, go to the Town Lord and tell him I want him to take care of you. He’ll get you anything you need.”

The woman looked surprised at his instructions, but she cupped her hands again. “Of course, Esteemed Master Cultivator.”

He filled her in on the timetable for the beast tide. “You should be perfectly safe here. The Poison Claw Sect sent cultivators to protect the town.”

“Gratitude, Esteemed Master Cultivator.” She hesitated. “And the other children?”

“They are all cultivators now and will be fine.”

He hoped.

“Gratitude, Esteemed Master Cultivator.” She cupped her hands a final time.

“I’ll return in a few months. Remember, if you have any problems at all, go to the Town Lord.”

It was time to return to the village. The kids just had to hold out for another hour or so. Hopefully, nothing had gone wrong.