Chapter Three: Bal Village

“Impressive!” A gleam flickered in Batu’s eyes as he witnessed Lei Yan’s attack. For a fleeting moment, he felt a desire to test his skills against Lei Yan, but the thought vanished as quickly as it appeared. As Old Man Wan and his men fled in disgrace, Batu rose from beside the tree and strode swiftly to the rear truck. With a low shout, he struck the lid of the coffin with his palm.

With a creak, the coffin lid flew off under Batu’s force. As the lid came away, a little girl of about six or seven, her eyes tightly closed and her body bound securely, appeared before Batu. Anxiously, Batu checked her breathing, and upon discovering that she, like the boy before, was merely unconscious, his heart was finally at ease. He exhaled and said, “Father, Yu’er is unharmed as well!”

Hearing that both children were safe, Bata let out a sigh of relief. Turning to Lei Yan and Qing Ling, he smiled and said, “Thanks to your generous aid, Yu’er and Tian’er are safe and sound. If you don’t mind, please join me at our village for a drink. Allow me to properly thank you!”

“That would be splendid. We were looking for a place to rest anyway. Since you are so gracious, we will gladly accept your invitation,” Lei Yan replied with a smile. Since the offer was made, there was no need for them to spend the night in the wild.

“Please, after you!” Bata gestured for Lei Yan to lead the way, then turned to Batu and said, “Batu, bring the two children and catch up quickly!”

Bata led Lei Yan down a small path beside the canal. “This is a shortcut to the village. May I ask your names?”

“I am Lei, and she is Ling,” Lei Yan replied casually, not wishing to reveal their full names, and Qing Ling seemed not to object.

“Lei? Ling?” Bata was a bit puzzled. Such single-character names were unusual, but he guessed they simply did not wish to disclose more, so he let it pass.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Bata pointed ahead to a small grove and said, “Once we pass through this, our village will be in sight!”

Lei Yan and his companions had just entered the grove when Batu quickly caught up. He had a child slung over each shoulder, both still unconscious. As soon as he reached Bata’s side, he said, “Father, it’s all done!”

“Good.” Bata nodded, and seeing Lei Yan’s questioning look, he smiled and explained, “I simply asked Batu to bury those two warriors. It didn’t seem right to leave their corpses exposed to the elements.”

“Such an act only encourages them to think you are easy prey. They’ll be back again, bold as ever,” Lei Yan said with a shake of his head, feeling that Bata and Batu were being overly merciful. Batu could have killed Wan Chuan with a single blow, but refrained; Bata watched his enemies flee and made no move to stop them. And after their deaths, he even had his son bury the bodies. In Lei Yan’s mind, this would only embolden their foes and make them more brazen.

Bata sighed. “Alas, I cannot truly blame them. They were driven to desperation. But if they dare to return, we will not let the matter rest.”

“You mean they were forced into it?” Qing Ling, who had been silent, now asked with interest.

Her question matched what Lei Yan had been wondering. He smiled and said, “What was so important that they would risk all for it?”

Bata gave a wry smile. “The Wan Family Village has suffered terribly. About a month ago, every night, a child would vanish from the village. By morning, the child’s corpse would be found on the nearby Blood Orchid Slope.”

“Oh?” Lei Yan and Qing Ling listened intently.

“This went on for over half a month. The village warriors took it very seriously—every family kept their children at their side each night. But it was to no avail. Each morning, another child would be gone. The warriors took turns guarding the village without sleep, and by rights, nothing should have happened. Even if something occurred, the guards should have noticed. Yet, strangely, every night a child vanished, and their bodies reappeared on Blood Orchid Slope.”

Lei Yan frowned deeply. For warriors not to notice anything—could it be the work of cultivators? Suddenly, memories long buried resurfaced in his mind: a technique that used children to cultivate. It was a memory inherited from Lei Wanchun after his death, a memory Lei Yan had all but forgotten until this moment.

The brutality of the crimes furrowed Qing Ling’s brow as well.

Bata saw the grave expressions on Lei Yan and Qing Ling’s faces and felt his own misgivings over Lei Yan’s earlier ruthless actions with the warriors fade. He sighed and continued, “This has gone on until now—what began as one child a night has become two. Nearly all the children of Wan Family Village are dead. Now, they have turned their sights on our village. I hear they’ve been organizing warriors to investigate Blood Orchid Slope, since all the bodies have been found there. But none who have gone to the slope have ever returned; all perished there.”

“If the culprits are cultivators, no number of warriors would make a difference,” Lei Yan said, his brows furrowed tightly. “Have they never considered leaving that place?”

“Wan Family Village has been on that land for centuries. Their ancestors are buried there. For an entire village to leave the land that has sustained them is no simple matter. And even if they did, how would they feed themselves? Without land, without money, how would they survive?” Bata shook his head, clearly moved by the thought. If such a disaster befell Bal Village, they too would likely not leave.

Lei Yan understood well: most villages survive only because they have land. Without it, they cannot endure. If they had money, at least they could seek out a new place. But most villages had none; without fields, how could they support their people?

As they talked, the group passed through the small grove without even realizing it.

“There—our village lies just ahead!” Bata pointed toward a cluster of homes in the distance.

As they emerged from the woods, the view opened wide before Lei Yan’s eyes. He followed Bata’s gesture and saw a vast stretch of fertile land, lush with green crops extending as far as the eye could see. In the distance, a village with smoke curling from its chimneys lay nestled beside a winding river, where, if one looked closely, one could make out children playing by the water’s edge.