Chapter 307: Ancient Civilization

Xue Wei took the carts and went back to the ship where he placed everyone within their own cabins, on their own beds.

He was slightly worried about what might happen to them, but even more was he livid with the villagers. If it was not because he might need them later, then he would have killed them one after another, massacring the entire village for their attempt at harming his dear ones.

After considering for a moment, he decided that no matter what, he would kill them when he had no more use for them.

Xue Wei was not a forgiving person. He was aware that these villagers were not forgiving towards him or his comrades, so why should he be towards them? He was no saint.

Hei Gou, Lin Xiao, the King, Bai Tianyi, and Hei Gou were all spending their time moving from one end of the ship to another, constantly observing their friends, while at the same time, they were observing the village in turns so that they were not suddenly surprised by them.

The villagers were quiet. Throughout the entire afternoon, evening and night, none of them came towards the harbor, not even the sailors came out to look at their nets that had been sat out during the morning.

Sensing that they were all hiding inside, Xue Wei was not feeling comfortable. He felt that they were preparing something, and he was alert.

It was not only Xue Wei who was tense, everyone on board the ship felt uncomfortable. They were so few compared to the villagers, and although the villagers were weaker in strength, executing such a massive number of people would drain their energy, causing them to be easier to overwhelm.

The night went by a second at a time, and every minute felt like an eternity. No one was showing any signs of waking up.

Xue Wei was standing next to Luoluo, she was petite as she was laying in her bed, her face pale, and her eyes closed.

Seeing her like this made him hurt. She was like a true little sister to him, and he could not help but feel that he had failed in the task of protecting her.

The days went by slowly, and after two days, there was still no signs of awakening. Xue Wei's eyes turned solemn, and he looked out over the deck of the ship.

The villagers had not shown any reactions these two days either, but Xue Wei had gotten enough.

"Lin Xiao, you are staying onboard the ship. You are to protect everyone if anyone is harmed, then you will take the responsibility. The rest of us will go to the village again and force them to give us some information or an antidote."

"This is risky," the King said, but she had no other idea of what to do. The reason they had not gone before was that there were so many people in the village and so few of them. Although they could manage, it would be a challenge for them.

Xue Wei made ready for the group to leave, he was willing to do anything to get the antidote, he was anything but happy with how Luoluo was lying unconscious.

He was not worried about the crew being incapable of fixing their ship. As long as the materials were there, then they would be able to repair it themselves, so there was, in fact, no reason to keep the villagers alive.

Xue Wei took the armor from his storage artifact and wore it on his body. His eyes flashed with a cold gleam, and he was ready to execute everyone in the village.

The King and Lin Xiao were both somewhat uncomfortable about the fact that they would be killing villagers, but after thinking about the villagers' actions, then they felt more calm about it.

Together the group took out their armor and weapons before they went towards the village. Everything was quiet, and there were no sounds or movements in the houses close to the harbor.

Xue Wei was alert, his muscles were taut, and he spread his spiritual energy around, but no matter where he searched, he found no signs of living creatures, not even livestock was present.

Frowning, Xue Wei looked around, but he saw that Bai Tianyi and the King had the same perplexed expressions on their faces, unsure of what was going on.

"They have evacuated," Xue Wei said after a bit of time, his voice so cold that it felt as if the temperature surrounding them was dropping from his foul mood.

"They can not have left the island," he continued, "so let us look for them."

"We need to be careful," the King added, "Maybe they are planning something, they could have been trying to lure us away from the ship."

Xue Wei heard this and felt annoyed. "King, please go back to the ship too," he asked, "if you are there, you will be able to support Lin Xiao, being able to keep them at bay."

The King hesitated for a moment. If she left now, then it would be a much more ruthless battle when Xue Wei encountered them, should their plan not be to lure them away from the ship. But she understood that he would never risk Lin Xiao and Luoluo's safety. He would rather brave danger alone than let his friends be in danger.

They moved further into the island, they found marks and tracks of their migration, and it was obvious that they had fled hurriedly, not even bothering about trying to hide their tracks.

This fact made Xue Wei uncomfortable. If they had evacuated, should they not have done so in the cover of the night, hiding all tracks and making it impossible to find them?

But now they were basically inviting them to follow them. Could it be that their plans were to actually lure them away? Or did they want them to think like this?

Xue Wei felt a headache coming his way.

"The King and Lin Xiao are strong," he muttered to himself, "They will be able to hold out on the ship. Although they will be pushed to their limits, they will be able to manage. So we should follow these tracks and see what is going on."

Bai Tianyi heard his words and a small smile flittered across his lips. He knew that his master was the most conflicting person he had ever encountered before.

He was ruthless, cold-blooded, and bloodthirsty towards those who wished to harm him.

But he was warm, friendly and a real friend towards those he considered friends.

Bai Tianyi had picked him out of desperation. He had wanted to leave the village no matter what, to become a living being again, or as close to a living being as he could, so he had picked the first, the best, candidate that appeared.

Now that they had been together for years, Bai Tianyi was very happy with the random master he had picked.

Xue Wei did not treat him like the spiritual artifact that he actually was; he treated him as his real friend, and someone who had given up his humanity for immortality, this was an exciting thing. It felt that he was still human.

Just as they thought like this, Xue Wei stopped in his tracks. The scent of blood in the air was getting more and more prominent, the scent was so dense that he could almost taste it, and he felt how his own blood was boiling, wanting to let go of everything and rush forward, ready to fight anything that came across them.

The bloodlust in his body was much more overwhelming than normal. It was as if there was some sort of drug within the bloody smell, some sort of drug that was making him have an even more overwhelming urge to murder than usual.

It was not only Xue Wei who felt it. When he looked at Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou, he saw that their eyes were red, and their teeth were tightly clenched.

"The smell is wrong," Xue Wei growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously. He found a soul-calming pill he had concocted back in Yan Dalu and tossed two to Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi before he took one and sat down to cultivate.

The Soul-Calming Pill was a very different type of pill than what one would normally consume. It did not increase one's cultivation base, neither did it do anything for one's strength, all it did was to calm one's mind and bring control over the soul.

This pill was not consumed unless necessary. Pills left impurities in one's body if one did not eat high purity pills, and thus they were only consumed in limited quantities, or to improve one's cultivation base.

But right now, the Soul-Calming pills were very important, and they could help them maintain their sanity while investigating what was happening with this heavy scent of blood.

Xue Wei sat still for as long as it takes for a cup of tea to brew before he stood up once more. When he stood up, he felt that he had control over his mind again, although the bloodlust was still struggling under his control, he could feel that it no longer threatened to take over his mind any longer.

Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi took a bit longer to calm themselves, but when all three of them were back to normal, they once more began moving forward.

They relaxed and took a lot of time to slowly inch forward. They had entered a dense forest, and this forest was ideal for setting up ambushes, so Xue Wei and the other two were on high alert as they moved past the trees, bushes, and branches.

The forest was filled with ancient old trees, but the further they got into the forest, the more overwhelming the silence became. There was no wildlife sounds, no living beings at all, not even insects.

There was only a bit of dim light in the forest as the crowns of the trees were a thick layer of green above them. The sun could not break through the dense blanket of leaves and branches.

Suddenly, in front of them was a clearing in the branches. This clearing was filled with old ruins of an ancient civilization, the pagodas and buildings were almost ruined, and in the middle was a massive altar.

When they found the clearing, the scent of blood was much more overwhelming than it had been before.

The closer to the ruins they got, the more alert they became. In the ruins were a river that ran through the ancient city, and this river was filled with blood. The river originated from the altar and ended in a sea that was located in the middle of the city.

The amount of blood needed for this river was not able to be counted in the thousands, in fact, much more was needed. It seemed as if millions had left their lives to be able to fill up this river and lake.

But even within this ancient city, there was not one living being. The city had clearly been visited recently, it was completely spotless, not a grain of dust could be seen, but no one living could be seen. Even when they spread out their spiritual energy, could they not find anyone.

Their eyebrows furrowed, their hearts beating rapidly as the adrenaline started to rush through their bodies.

"Let us look at the altar," Xue Wei said after a bit of thought, and the other two had no objections. They were constantly looking around as they made their way towards the altar.