Chapter 555 – Village Of Secrets

The plane flight took a little over two hours. The private island we lived on was a ways off from Human Territory mainland, all the way out at sea in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, though, my father’s jet was pretty damn fast, probably enhanced with magic somewhere.

Lin Luo was also a better pilot than expected—she knew how to avoid wind currents and the like to speed up our journey and make it safer, so despite her harsh words at the beginning of the flight, she actually did care about her passengers’ safety.

Well… either that, or she just knew she crashed the plane, she would die too. We were on the same boat here—or rather, the same plane.

In any case, because there was really no good place to land in the mountain ranges due to the landscape and the thick fog, so we were kind of forced to drop from the air like skydivers.

Haha, who am I kidding. I had Sky Magic.

I was also strong enough to carry both Feng Mian and Qing Yue in my arms as we descended, so they were perfectly fine too. Axilia rode on my back, but even with all this weight, I didn’t feel encumbered at all. Vampiric and half-angelic strength was… quite the combo.

After we landed, Lin Luo flew the jet somewhere else, saying that they’ll be in touch through our earpieces. Yes, we had those for communication. They didn’t function like normal earpieces, though, of course. These transmitted messages through the mana in the air, so it was a lot more accurate and fast. It had infinite range too, and since mana was everywhere in the world, there was no need to worry about losing signal or anything like that.

For whatever reason, I felt like Lin Luo was becoming more… nice to us? It may just be a hallucination, but… ah, well, whatever. That wasn’t important right now.

“How’s the tracker looking, Xuan Kai?” Feng Mian asked, and I glanced down at my wrist, where the tracker was attached.

“Hm… it seems to be pointing… in front of us, down.”

“In front of us, down…? But…” Qing Yue sank into thought, folding her arms. “We’re on top of a mountain. Down would mean…”

“There’s a village up ahead,” Axilia pointed out, licking her lips. “Maybe after we massacre them, we’ll find out~!”

“No, Axilia, we’re not going to massacre a bunch of innocent people,” I said with a sigh, rolling my sleeve back down. “But if they try anything against us, go ahead.”

“Hngh…” Axilia pouted a bit, folding her arms. “… Fine.”

Continuing onwards, we soon arrived at the village gates. Two guards were stationed here, each on top of a wooden watchtower. They wore stone armor that looked clunky and utterly low quality, but that was just the circumstances out here, I suppose. It was a surprise there even was a village out here on this mountain in the first place, after all.

“W-Who are you?” One of the guards demanded, aiming a primitive bow at us as if that were a threat. They clearly were surprised to see other humans out here, and what’s more, humans who just dropped down from a transportation device they probably never even knew existed. 

“We come in peace,” I began, trying my best to not spook them, and from beside me, Qing Yue and Feng Mian both stifled a laugh at my tone. I shot them both a glare, and they quickly cleared their throats and wiped the smile from their faces.

“W-Where do you come from? What do you want from us?” The other guard asked, gulping. It was clear they were scared—they were used to dealing with wild beasts in these parts, not other people from the outside world to them.

After all, humans were naturally scared of the new. They hated change by instinct, and wanted to stick to the old ways whenever possible.

“We’re here to look for something,” I said. “I was wondering if your village knows anything about it.”

“This… we don’t know anything!” The guards yelled. “Leave, please! You are not welcome here!”

I let out a deep sigh. “Is there really no other way? Man…”

The guards did not budge, and continued aiming their bows at us.

“Please leave, or we will shoot!”

I closed my eyes. “Naive.”

Suddenly, my eyes snapped back open, unleashing a deadly killing aura enough to paralyze the guards in fear. Red energy leaked from my similarly-colored eyes, and I slowly began walking towards the wooden village doors.

“… Remember, I didn’t want to have to do this.”

Slicing my hand across in the air, I unleashed a horizontal slash of fire that sent the wooden doors flying in an explosion, and burned down to ashes. Inside, the villagers screamed in fear and began running to their own homes—good. I didn’t want to harm them if at all possible—I just wanted to speak with their leader, the village chieftain or something.

And sure enough, soon, a group of seniors approached us, led by an old man dressed in poor clothing slightly better than everyone else’s, and he bowed to us.

“O great sir… I know not where this humble village has offended you, but please, spare us. We are innocent… we just wish to lead peaceful lives. We will give you anything you want… just spare our lives.”

“I don’t want your lives,” I said coldly. “I want information. If those guards at the gate had let us in like I so kindly asked, I wouldn’t have had to enter in such a… dramatic way.”

“I apologize deeply on their behalf, great sir,” the village head said, entire body shaking from fear. “What is the information you seek? If it is something we know, we surely will tell you…”

“There is something below this area,” I said.. “Something very peculiar, and out of this world. As the village who sits above it… do you know what that something is, and how I can access it?”