Once inside the lake, Xiao Wen frowned his brows as he discovered that there was no blood in the water. Inspecting his arm, his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. Where the claws should have torn there was only smooth skin like that of a newborn baby’s. It was as if he had been living with one arm his whole life. He still couldn’t believe his eyes.

Did this have something to do with the bead, or maybe with the drop of blood? And what was that barrier, capable of blocking the demon? Questions were swarming around in Xiao Wen’s head. Things had occurred too rapidly.

Earlier when the beast had taken his arm, he was sure that he was going to die. And when he fell down in the ground, screaming from pain, he was hundred percent certain that the reaper was close by. Yet, with those strange events, he didn’t.

“Uhh, wait… what happened the demon? It’s so quiet.” Xiao Wen muttered, a tad confused, releasing a “hmm?” face as he looked toward the demon. “W-what the…?”

The demon was on the ground, black mist was oozing from its body. Most of its body was gone, and it didn’t move, completely still. Xiao Wen was thinking about how to proceed.

“Is it dead? Xiao Wen squinted his eyes. “But how did it die? And why are the events today so strange…? Maybe it just plays dead?

“I’ll wait here for two hours max. If it doesn’t move a bit, I run back to the village. Hopefully the demon horde isn’t ready yet. This demon was probably some sort of scout they sent to see how our village were doing.”

Making up his mind, Xiao Wen found a comfortable position closer in to the shore. Two hours later, he rose form the water, his clothes completely soaked, walking forward to the demon whose body was less than half remaining. The corpse was beyond recognition.

“Hmm? What’s this?” seeing something glimmer inside the dead demon, where there was a hole, Xiao Wen stretched his hand inside and grabbed it. He turned his hand around and looked at what he found. It was a round ball emitting a dark, reddish glow.

Minutes passed, and he couldn’t yet understand what it was, so he shook his head. “I’ll see what it is when I get to the village, the demon horde can come any second now.”

He had no pocket, so while he ran back to the village, he held the ball with his hand. What Xiao Wen didn’t notice though, was that the ball began to produce a stronger light as he ran. And eventually, it entered his palm and disappeared without a sound.

It was almost night when Xiao Wen came back to the village. The villagers who were still awake gasped as they saw the little beggar boy missing an arm from his body. But they didn't ask him, only stared at him for a while, then returned to what they were doing.

Xiao Wen quickly tried to find Auntie, and found her a bit further away, sitting alone. When her eyes grazed past him, a joyous expression appeared on her face. All of her anxiety and fear became a distant memory.

“Oh, Little Xiao! I’m so glad you’re safe… ehh, y-your arm? W-what happened!?” her joyous expression quickly turned ugly. Tears could be seen in her eyes. “H-how did this happened, did someone hurt you? Who is it? Anyone in the village?

She clenched her fists, trembling. "Oh, little Xiao...”

“No, Auntie!” Xiao Wen explained briskly and tried to calm her down as good as he could without lying too much. “It wasn’t anyone in the village, it was a demon! I was out in the forest, and it came out of the blue, attacking me and taking my arm. It was only by luck that I made it to a lake. The demon eventually got tired of waiting for me.”

“But you arm. Little Xiao, you lost an arm, how can you be so calm?” Lady Mei cried softly, “You’re not lying to me now, are you? Are you sure it wasn’t the villagers?”

Xiao Wen nodded. “Yes, Auntie. I swear.”

“Oh little Xiao… come here.” Lady Mei gave him a hug. Her face was stricken with sadness but at the same time, contained relief since she confirmed that he was alive. She held him tight, and only released him after a long time. “I beg of you, sleep at my house tonight.”

“Eh.” Xiao Wen hesitated.

After a long time, he answered her. “Fine.”

It’s not as if he didn't want to sleep at her place, he just doesn’t want her to get in trouble.

Just as they were about to go back to her house, they heard screams coming form the drunken boar. It sounded like the shriek of women.

The drunken boar is where most villagers goes to in the evenings. There, they drink their homemade ale and sing songs together while dancing. Xiao Wen didn’t understand why they liked it. It only became sweaty and stinking. Everyone’s breath smelled bad after spending the night there.

Lady Mei and Xiao Wei both nodded to each other, and went to take a look.

As they entered the pub, they were instantly petrified. In the middle of the pub, where there was a platform for performances, three disciples of the Purple Cloud Sect were standing above a young woman. It was the daughter of the village’s shoemaker, the beautiful Biyu Liu. Her white dress was ripped in halves, and a bruise covered her left cheek.

A bit farther away, there laid a young man. His body was curled up in the corner, and his face was a mess. His nose was broken, and more than one tooth was gone.

One could easily understand what had happened here with one glance. The young man was the beautiful Biyu Liu’s boyfriend or pursuer. But since the village’s traditions was that only married couples were allowed, the latter was more likely. He had tried to defend Biyu Liu from the Purple Cloud Sect disciples, and gotten beaten in return.

“Heh, young lady.”

The fat one of the three showed his black teeth, and smacked his lips while revealing a lewd smile. “We came to this crappy village to save it, and you don’t even allow us to have some fun?”

“You despicable…!”

Biyu Liu pulled the white night gown closer to her body.

All of the three laughed together. Looking at Biyu Liu, the one who seemed to be the leader, a tall and lean teenager, coughed dryly, “Why don’t we go up stairs? We’ll even teach you some of our arts in return, eeh?”

Everyone in the pub understood that all these disciples wanted to do was to take advantage of the girl, and have some fun with her upstairs. In reality, it wasn’t so strange for these events to happen when the Purple Cloud Sect came to visit. Most villager had gotten used to it, and turned a blind eye when it happened to avoid trouble.

Biyu Liu’s face who was already pale, became paler as she heard what they said. They wanted to take her purity? Then what would she give her future husband? She wouldn't be able to marry!

"Ohh?” The third one of the three saw when Lady Mei and Xiao Wen entered the pub. His mouth curved into a smile.

He pointed at Lady Mei. “Hey, Bao Long. Look at that woman over there. Don't you like aged wine the best?"

Bao long, the leader of the three, inspected Lady Mei up and down, saying. “Indeed, I do. This woman has nice shapes. I wonder how she tastes like.”

He licked his lips and walked over to Xiao Wen and Lady Mei.