Chapter 398: Encounter on the Road

In the days that followed, Fang Rui copied the Heifeng Stronghold playbook. He fabricated a “Demon Alliance” out of thin air and, operating under various internal aliases, made his presence felt everywhere. With him acting as a catalyst, the situation in Liangzhou began to devolve at an accelerated pace.

Thanks to the flying Tribulation Demons he enthusiastically sponsored, the rebel armies breached cities faster, leading to fewer stalemates and a reduction in civilian casualties. At the same time, his influence helped orchestrate a large-scale encirclement to annihilate the Court’s armies, which had been massacring villages and collecting “blood food”…

It was safe to say that with the Demon Alliance’s interference, the whole of Liangzhou had devolved into utter chaos.

…

「This day.」

The sun set in the west, its afterglow as red as blood.

On the plains, some twenty-odd refugees in tattered clothes huddled together, their stomachs rumbling with hunger as they gathered firewood.

“SCREECH!”

Just then, a clear cry echoed from the clouds as a small dot in the sky rapidly grew larger. A closer look revealed it to be a massive purple crane.

“Can we figure out a way to catch it?” one man asked, rubbing his stomach. His eyes glinted as if he wanted to swallow the crane whole.

“Yeah! That’s a huge crane. If we butcher it, it probably won’t even fit in one pot,” another added, swallowing hard.

“We’d have to be able to beat it first.”

An old man among them shook his head. “A beast that big is practically a spirit. It might be even tougher than those Martial Artists!”

“Huh? Look, are there people on the crane’s back?”

“How is that possible?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? I heard when Marquis Pan started his uprising in the neighboring prefecture, he had a unit called the Wudang Flying Army that rode giant birds to break through city walls…”

…

“SCREECH!”

The Purple Feathered Crane let out a long cry, descending in a howling gale that made the refugees cry out in alarm and shield their faces.

Evidently, it had overheard their “won’t even fit in one pot” comment. This was its retaliation!

“Enough!”

Suddenly, at the sound of a gentle voice, the gale ceased.

The refugees looked toward the source of the voice.

The crane was even larger than they had imagined. With its wings spread, it had a span of over ten feet, its feathers gleaming with a cold luster as if forged from steel.

And indeed, there were two people riding on its back—one large, one small.

One was a burly man with a rugged face and an intimidating presence. The other was a small, thin girl with bright, lively eyes and clean clothes.

They were none other than Fang Rui and Xin Xue’Er.

At this moment, the refugees were trembling with fear. Any thought of hunting the Purple Feathered Crane had completely vanished.

How could they possibly provoke a Spiritual Crane that could summon a gale? To say nothing of the extraordinary individual who could use such a creature as a mount!

A small, elderly man with graying temples, who seemed to be their leader, stepped forward. He bowed to Fang Rui and asked uneasily, “Sir, what can we do for you?”

‘Just as I thought. This appearance and entrance certainly save a lot of trouble.’

These refugees might seem meek and subservient before him, but they had flexible moral compasses. Their sense of right and wrong could shift at a moment’s notice. They bullied and robbed the weak, yet groveled before the strong.

He had seen plenty of such things lately.

‘When the world is in chaos and order has collapsed, the only eternal constant is power—the might of one’s fist!’

Fang Rui mused before asking, “I’ve come for directions. How far is it from here to Liangzhou City?”

Hearing that he wasn’t looking for trouble, the old man let out a sigh of relief. He pointed in a direction. “Liangzhou City is that way. It’s about a five or six-day journey on foot…”

‘For me, that’s only about an hour.’

Fang Rui wasn’t in a hurry to leave. He had Xin Xue’Er rest to one side while he chatted with the old man.

“Elder, may I ask your surname?”

(In this era, a man of thirty could already refer to himself as an old man, so addressing someone fifty or sixty as “elder” was perfectly appropriate.)

“You can drop the formalities. My surname is Weng.”

“Elder Weng, where are you from?”

“From Huangshui County in Jinsha Prefecture. We’ve been fleeing this whole time and only just made it here… These are my fellow townsmen…”

“Is the drought in Jinsha Prefecture that severe?”

“Severe doesn’t even begin to cover it. The ground is cracked, there’s no harvest, but the Court still collects taxes… The fields I’ve worked my entire life, I had to just abandon them. We had no choice. If we stayed, we’d die… By leaving and fleeing the famine, we can at least gasp for a few more breaths…”

…

Fang Rui had been wondering why Elder Weng was the leader of this group of refugees, especially when quite a few of them were stronger than him.

After talking with him for a while, however, he found that Elder Weng spoke with clarity and had some worldly knowledge. That must have been the reason.

As they were speaking, Fang Rui suddenly noticed the refugees catching locusts, skewering them, and roasting them over the fire as if to eat them.

“Elder Weng, are you roasting those locusts to eat them?”

“Yes.”

“But… swarming locusts are poisonous!”

“We have no choice, Sir.”

Elder Weng gave a bitter smile. “Eating roasted locusts won’t necessarily kill you; it’s a gamble. But if we don’t eat, we’ll starve to death. What other choice do we have?”

“On the run from the famine, we’ll eat anything we can find—grass roots, tree bark, you name it. We only eat locusts when there’s absolutely no other choice… Sir, look at our group. There are no children, no women. The locusts took them all!”

“Is that right?”

Fang Rui sighed. While swarming locusts were indeed poisonous, roasting them at high temperatures weakened the toxins. Coupled with the fact that the people of this world had stronger constitutions, eating a small amount might not necessarily be fatal.

Still, it was no different from drinking poison to quench a thirst.

“Finding food is one thing, but the real difficulty is finding water,” Elder Weng said, a touch of pride in his voice. “It’s a good thing I have a knack for it. I can feel where to dig, and that’s how I’ve led my townsmen this far…”

Fang Rui glanced over and, sure enough, saw a newly dug pit nearby, containing a shallow pool of murky water.