Lao Lu walked out of the village while Lei walked towards her. When she was a certain distance away from Lei, she stopped, prompting the man to do the same.

“Oh dear, why stop so far away?” Lei said. “Now we have to raise our voices to hear each other.”

“You’ll forgive me for wanting to stand away from your spitting range,” she scoffed.

“Come now, this is a parley.” He said with a shrug. “I am not here to fight, just to discuss how to mitigate the massive mistake you have made.”

“What mistake?”

“You refused to surrender the Xiu girl, now you have put all those people in danger.” Lei briefly looked at the village behind Lao. “I had to convince Steam Dragon not to obliterate the whole village just to kill the girl.”

Lao narrowed her eyes at him.

“You have a chance to save this village and everyone in it, Captain Lao. Just give us the girl.”

“And if I tell you she is no longer here?”

“Then the village dies.” Lei shrugged. “You have 15 minutes.” He turned around and began walking back to the group. “It was good to see you again, Captain.”

“That’s crazy!” Deng Dandan shouted. “If they want a fight, they’ve got it!”

“No,” Lao said. “This village has very low level cultivators. The strongest, not counting the Xius is an Intermediary Cultivator. If Steam Dragon comes, they will not stand a chance.”

“Then I guess we have no choice,” Xiu said, her head downcast. “I have to give myself up.”

“Xiu… no,” Dandan said.

“I’m glad you agree.” Lao said.

“Uh…” Dandan said in surprise.

“We have 15 minutes. Most of the string villagers are out hunting. We have 4 at our disposal. Chun is still down for the count.”

They all looked at Chun, snoring drunkenly on the floor. A little village girl came by him and poured some water on his head, which made him stir but otherwise, stay in place.

“And Old Man Xiu is still fetching Wang Zen.” She continued. “We have only a few options in these circumstances and all of them involve us handing Xiu over to them…”