Following the youth, I walked further into the village. Right upon entering I already noticed the barley patched up buildings and still remaining damages that were scattered around the village. Aside from this, another thing I noticed was the absence of people within the village.

It’s not like there were no people at all, for example there were the girls at the entrance of the village, but the number of those people I saw was too small for a village of this scale. Furthermore, many of the villagers I saw had strange looks and somewhat weird expressions as they looked at me.

It was creepy!

Reason told me that something was wrong with this village. The behavior of the villagers and the things the youth had told me at the entrance of the village…. They simply didn’t match!

That youth said that there would be no problem to find a place to stay for me, but I could clearly see that there were almost no unscratched buildings in this village. Even if most of the damaged buildings had been somewhat repaired, they were still far from a good place to stay, especially as the nights grew colder by the day.

The winter was almost there, how were going to survive it?

I could guess that this had to be a trap and that these villagers would likely attack me as soon as I put down my guard. Why else would they invite me, despite the village being in such bad state?

The only question that remained on this matter was:

Why the fuck would they do this? What had driven the village and these people to this point?

What had happened to this village?

Originally, I had come her to get information and this matter was truly strange so I wanted to find out what had happened. Of course, if I wanted to avoid any danger, I could have just used my illusion technique and quietly disappeared from this village. But I didn’t believe that these villagers could harm me.

I could tell that there was no one cultivating in the village, meaning that there would be no one that could see through my illusions. What was there to fear then?

I shall find out as much as I can and then get away if it gets bothersome!

With this in mind I focused at my young guide that was leading me right into the center of the village. It was somewhat forced and felt unnatural.

Couldn’t he do it a little bit less suspicious? Seriously he is so obvious about leading me into a trap!

I truly wondered if he was just stupid or simply had no idea what he was doing. His intention was obvious, leading me into the middle of the village and then attack me together will all the other villagers.

Probably they were going after my money. After all, how could they know that I don’t even have a single coin?

I wryly smiled.

Those bastards really have horrible luck!

I kind of pitied them. But this wasn’t the time for useless thoughts! I had come to gather information and since they would probably attack me quite soon I should hurry up with asking questions.

I coughed lightly and asked the young man.

“May I ask who has attacked you?”

The young man stopped for a moment, seeming surprised over the sudden question. Then he hesitated for a moment and looked at me. Even though he tried to cover it up, I could see that he was nervous and unwilling.

It seemed that this was truly the first time he lured someone into a trap.

“It was the Jun-clan. Their forces and the forces of our Mo-clan clashed here, almost destroying the whole village.”, he finally answered, a difficult look rested on me.

I kind of felt sympathy with the young man. It seemed that he had no other choice but to lure me.

“And who has won?”

The youth shook his head. “None of them really won. At first the Jun clan had completely destroyed the Mo-forces and started pillaging the village. But then suddenly a lord Immortal arrived and righteously killed all of the soldiers, allowing us to survive this tribulation!”

I was quiet for some time.

This was him right?

He didn’t look like someone righteous tho… but that’s something you can easily misunderstand.

I could easily guess who this immortal was. Obviously, it had to be Imm, it was just that he didn’t look particularly righteous to me. But it had to be him!  Maybe he really wasn’t just a weirdo?

Yes this had to be it.

The youth noticed my long silence and thought I wouldn’t believe him.

“It’s the truth!”, his honest eyes looked at me and I couldn’t help but marvel about this worlds cruelness. This little guy had a good character, and yet he had to do despicable things to survive.

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“I believe you”, I assured him.

He looked at me, suspicion in his eyes, but I just changed the topic. 

“Do you know how far the next city is?”

This was by far the most important matter. I needed to reach a bigger city to gather even more information. Only after understanding how this world, how human society here worked, only then could I start thinking about what to do in this world!

And which place could possibly teach me more about this matters then a real city?

The youth gaze at me changed yet again. The question I asked was extremely normal, but in this situation the youth couldn’t help but feel troubled.

In his opinion I was going to die soon, so what use would this information be to me? Of course, he couldn’t say this, but he still felt really miserable right now. Perhaps it was out of respect to someone who was fated to die soon, but he decided to tell the truth.

“The nearest city is called Lin-city, it is about 30 kilometers north from here. You just need the follow the path towards that direction for 3 days.”, he answered and pointed into the northern direction.

So it wasn’t far!

I was delighted. I originally thought that I had arrived at some extremely desolate and lawless area. But it seemed that there were at least some cities here, so the situation couldn’t be too bad!

“Thank you for the information”, I sincerely said. But my words only troubled the youth even more and he felt even worse than before. It was a simple matter, almost laughable simple, but it still bugged him a lot.

He still forced himself to nod and then continued to walk, his steps somewhat shaky.

I couldn’t help but shake my head inwardly. Poor child.

But I did nothing about the situation and silently followed him to the middle of the village. I had obtained my information, but there was something else to obtain here and that was battle experience!

I had no idea of what use my illusions and psychokinetic technique could be in a real fight, so my fingers were twitching to try! This was the perfect opportunity for this! They couldn’t really fight well, after all they were all but simple farmers. Aside from shovels and axes they had nothing that could be considered a weapon.

Because of this I did not move or escape but instead obediently followed into the trap.

Finally, we had arrived at the small square in the middle of the town and I expected an attack coming any second.

But they didn’t move according to my speculations. Instead of straight away attacking me and trying to get my money (not that I have any), the youth lead me into a house and made me sit on a small wooden table.

Without another word he put a small plate with some kind of food in front of me and gestured.

….

They were going to feed me before robbing me?

I had mixed feelings now. Who would expect their robbers to treat them a meal first and then rob them? Was this some kind of last meal before death?

Is this a god damn joke?

My thoughts were in disarray.

But I didn’t show my surprise and obediently ate the food. Well eat is not quite the right word, it was more like absorbing it into my real body. Don’t even ask how I did it!

I quietly finished my meal and noticed that the youth had disappeared at some point of time. They were finally going to attack me? I truly wondered what was up with this village. Why would they rob me if they had enough to eat? What did they need the money for?

Anyway, I stood up and went out of the small house.

Just as I expected there were about 30 man standing outside the house staring at me with simple weapons in their hands. I couldn’t feel any malice from them, only pity and unwillingness.

It seemed like they were really good people. But that didn’t matter.

My face didn’t change as I looked at them and slowly advanced. They reacted and lifted their weapons, ready to attack. Despite my strange reaction and their unwillingness, they didn’t falter and even took one more step, closing the cycle around me.

“Tell me why?”, I asked. My voice steady and calm.

“We need money for medicine. A lot of the villagers are ill.”, an elderly man at the back answered similar calm.

I nodded, my face still showing no emotions at all.

“Then come?”

They came. Without any hesitation, they swung their axes or shovels towards my head, aiming for a quick K.O.

I didn’t not bulge or move in any way, waiting for their attacks to hit. It was just an illusion either way, so what harm could they do to me? At the same time, I used some of my heaven mist qi to make my real body invisible and borrowed into the ground.

I would rather avoid being found out as a plant. Not because of embarrassment, but to avoid any more trouble. Who knows how they would react to a flying plant?

I still had no idea of the relationship between humans and demons, so it would be better to avoid being found out as another race.

Just then, the first hit arrived upon my illusionary body and tore apart the illusion. My ‘body’ suddenly disappeared and turned into white mist. I immediately channeled my qi, transforming it into heaven mist qi and then created a new illusion a few meters away.

Right after that I executed my psychokinetic technique and made some stones and pebbles in the vicinity float up and gather around my body.

The villagers stared at me with astonishment in their face’s. Then they paled and quickly retreated.

“”Cultivator!””

They could tell what kind of person had come into their village. It seemed that cultivation wasn’t that rare in this area.

But despite their reaction and some obvious fear, they didn’t let loose on their weapons, nor did they simply abandon the fight. It seemed like there was still some fighting spirit in them.

I made my illusion point his finger at the crowd and then controlled the floating stones to shoot at them and rain down upon the villagers. Of course, I did it careful, hoping to kill no one, but I could still hear cries of pain coming from the crowd.

After this first barrage, five of these normal villagers had fallen to the ground, holding their heads or various other parts of their bodies. The stones had heavily smashed them, causing some broken bones and bloody wounds.

But this still didn’t make the rest of them back down. Once again, they attacked the illusion, tearing it down and I had to use my qi to create a new one a little bit further away.

They really were desperate. Attacking me despite the difference in power, it seemed like this was truly their last chance. But this did not concern me and I continued.

This time I simply used my psychokinetic to take control of a villager’s body and let him slam into three other villagers, causing all of them to fall to the ground.

I continued with another rain of pebbles and stones, taking down another seven villagers.

Half of the villagers were injured now. And more than half of my qi was gone too!

Every time my illusion was destroyed I had to use a lot of qi to create a new one, furthermore controlling a human body or a multitude of stones strained my qi reserves a lot more then just making my own little body float.

After all I’m still just at level one of the earth realm, my reserves were still too small. I was in trouble.

What was I going to do if this keeps on? I can’t flee without qi can I?

I felt more and more troubled. But my worries fortunately weren’t necessary. After half of them had fallen to the ground with some kind of injury, the rest lost their remaining courage and retreated to a further distance.

I breathed out relived and didn’t waste any time. The faster I got out of here, the lower the risk of running out of qi. Because of this I quickly used my remaining qi to get my real body out of the ground and quickly ‘walk’ out of the village.

I didn’t look back and my thoughts were hazy.

So this is how a fight is like?