"Hah, I've been walking on this stupid road for so long and I still haven't found or seen anything.." Xue Shen said in annoyance until the sound of hooves echoed behind him caught his attention. Suddenly, a man shouted out.
"HEY!! YOUNG MAN! WATCH OUT!"
Xue Shen turned around and saw an old man atop a wooden wagon pulled by a single horse. The old man pulled at the reins, urging the horse to halt. Seeing the wagon barreling toward him, Xue Shen quickly stepped aside to avoid being run over.
"Phew.. Sorry about that, young fellow, are you alright?" the old man on the wagon called out.
"See! I told you, Dad! You shouldn't be going so fast on the road!" another voice chimed in. A young woman's tiny head leaned forward from the back of the wagon, her face full of concern. "I'm sorry, sir, about my father."
"It's quite okay, miss. And I'm fine, sir, no need to worry." Xue Shen replied.
The old man and young woman gave him a curious glance, looking him up and down. His strange clothes stood out, and the dead rabbit in his hand.
"You're not from around here, are you?" the old man asked curiously.
"Indeed, sir. I was hunting in the forest with some companions, but I accidentally wandered a bit too far and got lost." Xue Shen said smoothly, lying through his teeth.
"Oh, that's unlucky, friend! Well, it doesn't look like you have any way of getting around. Lin City is days away by wagon and even longer on foot. Why don't you hop onto the back of my wagon? We're heading to Lin City anyway. You can come with us until we reach it!" the old man said, smiling warmly.
Xue Shen looked at him suspiciously, weighing his options. After a moment of thought, he said, "Since your offering, how could I dare decline, sir?" He put his fist into his palm in a gesture of respect, then moved to behind the wagon and climbed aboard. He didn't want to keep walking to "Lin City" for days, so he decided it was better to just go with them.
Once aboard, he noticed a young woman, likely in her twenties, sitting on a box across from him. Around them were barrels, crates of apples, chests, and other boxes. In the corner, he noticed a sharp blade tucked away.
"Hello, sir! What's your name?" the young woman asked shyly, her cheeks flushed as looked at Xue Shen figure.
"My name is Lan Wei, fair lady. And yours?" Xue Shen replied with a friendly smile.
The young woman's blush deepened. "O-oh, um… My name is Nan Li."
"Haha, young man, what did you do to make my daughter this shy?" the old man teased, laughing loudly at her expense.
"Father!" Nan Li covered her face in embarrassment, looking away from Xue Shen.
"What a beautiful name for a beautiful lady," Xue Shen said, still smiling. All the while, his eyes kept glancing towards the sharp blade in the corner. A dark thought stirred within him. 'Could I kill these two?'
"Th-thank you, Mr. Wei…"
"Um.. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking Mr Wei?" Nan Li said softly, still facing away from him.
"I actually don't know. I was an orphan, raised by a few kind souls. We lived like nomads, never sticking to one place."
"Oh, I see. What kind of places did you live—?"
"I don't really know.. Um I actually have a question.. How likely do wagons come around this road?"
"Not often!" the old man yelled out.
"Mhm, indeed, Mr. Wei. This road isn't really used all that often—most wagons take different routes. So it's very lucky we found you! You could've been walking for more hours, or even days, before another wagon came."
"Oh really? So a wagon wouldn't often come here, huh?.."
"Yes," Nan Li nodded, smiling brightly as she replied.
"Well, I'm glad I was found by such a beautiful lady and kind man."
The woman's face grew red, and she quickly covered it in embarrassment again.
"Oh Mr Wei, Your to—"
But before she could finish her sentence. she felt a sharp blade slicing her throat. This was because of Xue Shen, when he was complimenting the lady he had lunged forward and grabbed ahold of the blade's next to him and tightly held the hilt. In a swift motion, he turned and drew the blade across her throat.
SHKKK
Her eyes widened in horror. Blood spilling from her throat as she struggled to breathe, a faint whisper escaping "Wha—" from her before her body slumped.
"Hm?" The old man turned his head, his eyes widening as he saw his daughter slumped over, blood spilling down from her. "Nan Li!" he cried out, his voice trembling with horror.
As the old man turned around in shock, Xue Shen was already upon him, the same blade that had struck the girl was now plunged deep into his back.
"Uuaghh!" the old man groaned, his eyes wide with disbelief. "What are you doing? You maniac?! Are you insane?!"
The wagon screeched to a halt as he tried to jump down to escape, but Xue Shen's arm shot out, grabbing ahold of him and holding him in place.
"Dont run" Xue Shen said, his voice low and flat.
With a swift motion, he withdrew the blade from the old man's back and drove it into him again—again—
SHK–SHK–SHK-SHK–SHK-SHK.
The sickening sound of blade thrusting into his back repeated almost endlessly.
"Uaghhh…" The old man gasped, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Blood poured continuously down his back. Terror evident in his widened eyes as he realized there was nothing he could do except accept death.
Xue Shen didn't relent. He stabbed him again and again, moving the blade as fast as he could, not caring whether each strike was lethal—only focused on striking quickly.
The old man's struggles became increasingly futile, with each strike, he grew weaker, his breaths fading into painful gasps.
Finally, Xue Shen stopped, his still breath steady, as the old man's body remained still, no longer living the cruel game of Existence. The lifeless body slumped backward onto the wagon, eyes frozen wide open, directly casting a haunting gaze toward the still corpse of his daughter nearby.
[Ding! 10 EXP]
[Ding! 1 EXP to blade mastery]
[Ding! Level up]
[Ding! 10 EXP]
[Ding! 1 EXP to blade mastery]
Xue Shen was drenched entirely of the man's blood, but currently he wasn't worried about that. Instead he was curious about the new notification "Blade Mastery.." 'What the hell is Blade Mastery?' but decided not to think about it, he first needed to dispose of the bodies.
Dragging both corpses, he hauled them to the trees by the roadside, concealing them in behind the bushes, though their blood left a noticeable blood trail. Returning to the wagon, he rifled through their cargo.
Inside the chest, he found three waterskins, dried meat, a pouch of silver and gold coins, fresh clothes, shoes, a brazier, and a bucket. In the crates, he found rice and fruit, and the barrels contained nothing but water.
"Hmm… I could take this wagon straight to Lin City… Or use it to bait more travelers," he murmured, a dark smile spreading across his lips, he decided the latter being the better option.
"Stats."
[Name: Xue Shen]
[Level: 2 | EXP: 11 | 20]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 22 | Lifespan: 70]
[Race: Human]
[Cultivation: Mortal]
[Bloodline: None]
[Physique: None]
[Spiritual Roots: 1 | Status: Rootless]
[Talents: None]
[Unspent Stat Points: 2]
[Constitution: 0.4 +^]
[Strength: 0.5 +^]
[Dexterity: 0.8 +^]
[Intelligence: 1 +^]
[Endurance: 2.8 +^]
[Perception: 0.9 +^]
[Charisma: 2 +^]
[Luck: 0]
[Skills: Blade Mastery: Level 0 | 2/10]
[Techniques: None]
After some thought, he placed one point into Strength and another into Dexterity.
[Strength: 0.5-> 1.5]
[Dexterity: 0.8-> 1.8]
Xue Shen's gaze shifted to the horse at the front of the wagon. After a moment of analyzing, he tightened his grip on the blade, deciding to kill the horse for the EXP.
"I should aim for its legs so it can't run," he muttered.
He moved swiftly, swinging at the horse's front legs, cleanly chopping it off. The animal neighed and thrashed wildly, but pain and imbalance soon brought it crashing to the ground, its head bowing low. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Xue Shen struck the other leg, severing it cleanly. The horse struggled to rise, and Xue Shen's eyes narrowed as he aimed the blade higher, aiming for its neck.
With his full force, he swung downwards, but it didn't cut cleanly; the blade became wedged in the horse's tough flesh. Xue Shen yanked it free and swung again, but it still didn't slice completely through, though this time the blade didn't become wedged. He tried a third time, and with a final, powerful strike, the horse's neck split, blood spraying in his face as its head was cleanly severed from its lower body, some of the blood splattering his clothes.
[Ding! 15 EXP]
[[Ding! 1.5 EXP to Blade mastery]
[Ding! Level up]
"Stats."
[Name: Xue Shen]
[Level: 3 | EXP: 6 | 30]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 22 | Lifespan: 70]
[Race: Human]
[Cultivation: Mortal]
[Bloodline: None]
[Physique: None]
[Spiritual Roots: 1 | Status: Rootless]
[Talents: None]
[Unspent Stat Points: 2]
[Constitution: 0.4 +^]
[Strength: 1.5 +^]
[Dexterity: 1.8 +^]
[Intelligence: 1 +^]
[Endurance: 2.8 +^]
[Perception: 0.9 +^]
[Charisma: 2 +^]
[Luck: 0]
[Skills: Blade Mastery: Level 0 | 3.5/10]
[Techniques: None]
"Hm.. Fuck it. Let's go balls deep in on Strength," he muttered.
[Strength: 1.5-> 3.5]
Xue Shen raised his blade high, testing his newfound strength. With one powerful swing, the blade cleaved clean through the horse's neck, splitting it into 2.
"That's more like it.." He grinned, looking like he was savoring the rush of power.
'Ha.. It'll take so long to return to my peak..'
Xue Shen began thinking about what to do next. Since he now knew that Lin City was at least several days away by foot, he just decided it best to wait here.
He meticulously formulated multiple plans to ambush the next travelers who might come down the road. But just as he was lost in thought, a foul odor hit him, emanating from himself.
"Holy fuck, I stink. I need to get these clothes off," Xue Shen muttered. He went back to the carriage, poured water from the barrel into a bucket, grabbed the clothes and shoes from the chest, and headed into the forest to clean himself.
Just as he was taking off his clothes, he felt something in his pocket. He pulled it out and found a small vial of some kind.
He stared at it intently. Inside were seven tablets. 'No way… Tablets!' Xue Shen's eyes lit up with excitement. It seemed he knew exactly what they were. Carefully, he set the vial on the ground.
After washing himself, he changed into his new pants and shoes, but then he stopped and he picked up the vial and stared at the tablets again. A thought pressed at the back of his mind 'I need to conserve them…' before carefully slipped the vial into his pockets.
After everything he put on all his new clothes and shoes, he started thinking again, on his next moves.
Ten minutes of careful thought later, he settled on a few strategies. First, he'd wait alongside the tree line and use the wagon as a blockade. If an approaching wagon held only a handful of people, he'd lure them into the forest using the blood trail as bait, then pick them off one by one, turning the trees into his playground for purifications.
His second plan, if the group was too large to successfully eliminate one by one, he would draw them out of their wagons, seize their wagon, and supplies, and leave them stranded while keeping their wagon and goods for himself. He also planned to return later, once they had run out of food and weakened from thirst, since he intended to taint all the water in the barrels with spoiled rabbit blood, leaving them vulnerable to food poisoning, infections, and disease. Also because he'd had burnt most of the all of the food in the brazier, leaving only a small portion for himself to live off of while waiting. At that point, the large group would be too weak to resist, and he could return to finish them with ease.
He even considered urinating and defecating in the barrel of water, but decided against it, as he wasn't that much of a freak.
Third, if something unexpected happened or there were too many to kill and none of his tactics worked, he'd run. He wasn't willing to die before reaching his goal, a few EXP points weren't worth it. Far too many variables could still ruin the plan, and he wasn't even sure the incoming wagons would fall for his ruse. After all, many things could go wrong in this cruel game of existence.
"Haaa… Time to wait." Xue Shen said, lying down just behind a tree.