章 32: The Meeting II - The Coming Tide

Shu He and Shu Li both walked into the room and went to take their places among the gathering, Shu Li was directed to a seat beside Elder Cao, as he sat down he glanced to the side to observe the white faced elder.

'What could have made him like this?' He thought as he looked at the faces of everyone in the room, basically every able adult man was here along with extra faces that weren't familiar to the village.

'Mercenaries, something is happening then' He concluded, some of them were familiar faces he had come across in the past, that included Gang Bo's group, there was simply no reason for them to all be here unless they were needed for something.

Shu He on the other hand stood behind his father sinking slightly into the crowd of people that were also standing behind, among them was the large oxen like man Dai Niu who looked confusedly at Shu He when he arrived.

"Hey kid" He whispered to Shu He "What're you doin' here?" He asked, clearly thinking a child shouldn't be allowed in.

Shu He merely shrugged and pointed towards the three cultivators at the head of the table "If you want to ask them why they invited me, go ahead".

Dai Niu followed his finger before he almost choked on his breath "Oh- never mind then".

"Never mind that, Old Ox what's wrong with Elder Cao?"

"That… he's been like that since those three arrived the night before, he won't say anything but ordered everyone to gather today like this" Dai Niu answered completely ignoring Shu He's rude terms of addressing him. "I really don't know what's wrong with him, but he wasn't even this worried when the young miss went off… something really bad must be happened" He continued with a grim expression.

'Or is going to happen' Shu He finished what wasn't said in his mind, there's no other explanation as to why there were so many gathered here.

"Now then, since everyone is here I think we should get started" Chao Shi clapped to get everyone's attention before he spoke. "I explain the circumstances to Cao Yang here when we got here, would you like to start, Cao Yang?" He glanced at the white faced elder, who slowly turned his stiff neck to him, he gritted his teeth and stood up opening his mouth, but as he did he could barely get the words out, merely a small cackle and choking sound as if he didn't want to even speak about what needed to be said.

The tapping of a finger echoed out in the room causing everyone to direct their gaze over to Chao Shi who had a slightly bored expression growing on his face as he looked at Elder Cao. "You should remember, this is YOUR village old man, are you really going to let someone else do the lifting?" a hint of annoyance leaked out of his gaze.

Elder Cao audibly gulped before he took a few breaths to calm himself down yet that didn't hide the clear cold sweat flowing down his wrinkly skin. "My apologies… then I'll… start" The word 'start' held a hint of reluctance and dread as he spoke.

"It has come to my attention thanks to our… guests here that there is a great calamity coming upon our small village" he said with a hint of horror creeping in his tone, he let the words sit for a few seconds, the expressions of everyone in the room turning dark yet everyone remained silent.

Elder Cao looked around seeing the faces of his villagers and their guests. "Within a days' time, a beast tide… will come crashing… against our… village…" He struggled to speak the words but eventually they left his mouth causing his face to pale once more, it wasn't just his this time though, many of the men's faces turned as white as a sheet of paper, others grim while only a few were left apprehensive or confused.

"Wh-what do you mean? A beast tide?! Are you sure?!" One man began panicking and yelled out, causing many to follow.

"You're joking right? Right?!"

"Oh, please no!"

"How can we handle something like that?!"

"Someone please help us…"

"Everyone be quiet!" Shu Li's voice boomed throughout the room causing the voices to cease and stare in his direction.

"S-Shu Li, can you handle it?" Someone asked him.

"… I'll do what I can, my home is here too you know? But… I can't do it alone" He knew with confidence he couldn't handle a whole beast tide alone.

Beast tides were a massive collective of various species travelling in a stampede, it was an uncommon event and was usually caused due to a natural disaster causing mass migration, of course there were plenty of other external influences that can cause them as well, fortunately there were basically only normal beasts in this area however that wasn't what made the beast tide a terrifying event, it was the sheer number of beasts involved.

"Elder Cao, do we know the estimated number of beasts?" He was thinking that, as long as it was still in the double digits it would be manageable.

Cao Yang merely looked towards Chao Shi who sighed.

"Our reports put the numbers close to 300". He stated without much hesitation.

Silence descended on the room; you could have easily heard a pin drop.

"Are you sure?! That number is accurate?!" Even Shu Li was wide eyed with cold sweat dripping from his brow now, that number of beasts was way too much for this small village to handle.

"You're doubting us?" Chao Shi merely glanced at him.

"…Can we expect you to help us?" Shu Li asked with some hope.

After he said that it was like the light of hope was lit in the eyes of everyone who all stared at the three cultivators expectantly.

"No" Chao Shi answered.

And thus, the light of hope was quickly extinguished.

"Not at first anyway; We have something else to death with first".

"What else could be more important than protecting us?!" A man yelled.

*CRUSH*

The sound of shattering wood echoed throughout the small room, everyone's eyes darted over to the short black-haired man sitting beside Chao Shi, he had been resting his cheek on his hand with his elbow on the table and his other hand lain flat, yet now the other hand had cleanly passed through the thick black wood table leaving hairline cracks throughout half of it.

"You should take care to not that the 'else' is the whole reason we're here in the first place! You'd be left to fend for yourselves without even knowing it otherwise, so shut up and keep quiet!" Bai Shun yelled at the man who had just spoken, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

"""…""" The rest of the crowd followed his instructions and kept their mouths shut.

"…And you're sure we're in the path of the tide." Shu He continued the questioning after everyone else went quiet.

"To be more precise, you're the target of it" Yun Hua answered in Chao Shi's stead, thinking that making Chao Shi answer everything wasn't right.

"We're being targeted. Why?" This time it was Elder Cao who had managed to speak up once more, in even more disbelief that this wasn't just a freak accident.

Chao Shi gestured to Yun Hua, telling her she can continue in his stead causing her to smile for a second.

"I don't know if you've heard any rumours recently, about missing people or beast attacks, well we have been quite active and weren't very subtle about it so there should be some" She spoke, causing some people in the crowd to perk up as they had heard some things recently along those lines.

"I know! We've heard some stuff and even came across a site that looked like a mass beast attack, there were many dead and torn apart, that kind of thing, is that what you're talking about lady?" Gang Bo spoke up, remembering the horrific site his team came across a little while back.

"It's Yun Hua, and yeah that's it; Those weren't random attacks but were organised by a group we're currently chasing around".

"So, they're cultivators?" Shu Li quickly picked what she meant, reading between the lines.

Suddenly a slight expression of disgust rose on Yun Hua's face. "Cultivators… yes but…" She looked over to Chao Shi with hesitation.

"Well, they're a bit different than us" Chao Shi continued "Normally you don't need to know about this information but…" In that moment, Chao Shi glanced over in Shu Li's direction, not at him but behind him, straight at Shu He, no-one noticed this except Shu He and Shu Li "Well, I'll tell you a bit".

"In this country we have 5 major sects, and a myriad of minor sects, all of them are kept of record and report their activities and members to the Capital Iris, however there is a third type of sect which we refer to as 'Black Sects', their existence lives under the board and many keep themselves secret or away from the light, one of the reasons is simply because of the techniques they practice… let's just say they're not very… humane" His last words were full of disgust as he spoke about them.

"Recently, a certain Black Sect has been getting very cocky with their strength, biting off more they can chew and attacking caravans and small villages like this one, so we've been chasing them around at every chance we get and looking for their base."

"So, we're not the first ones to be attacked like this?" Shu Li asked.

"With a beast tide? You're the first ones yet, but don't be mistaken you aren't the only ones, at this moment apart from the masses of us scouring the region for their base there's also plenty of other villages receiving visits, Rockfell has been sending out reinforcements to the closest ones as well, unfortunately this one isn't close enough" Chao Shi shook his head like it wasn't his business.

"Why do you think there's only three of us here? We're spread thin right now trying to cover the entire region." He then explained.

"Is that why you're here then?" Out of nowhere, a young boy's voice broke into the conversation.

Many looked to Shu He and wanted to tell him to be quiet, but they were too scared to do so after the previous outbursts.

Shu Li looked behind to his son and then awaited the answer.

"Didn't you ask us the same thing before? You should have your answer now" Chao Shi looked at the child and merely smiled.

"That's not what I mean, aren't you from the 'Steel' region's 'Titanic Steel Sect', this is the 'Earth' region, you shouldn't be here right? Is the 'Trembling Earth Sect' low on people?"

Shu He's response caused Chao Shi to pause for a second before he burst out in laughter.

"So, you noticed? Yes you're right, the Trembling Earth Sect is lacking in members, so they begged us and the Raging Inferno Sect to send reinforcements, pathetic right? They can't even protect their own region." He scoffed at the other sect as he spoke.

He then leaned forward and clasped his hands together, gaining a straight expression once more.

"Now then, that's enough now; You know what's coming so what will you do?" He stared at all the men in the room causing them to sweat slightly, in the mind they were picturing a mass of beasts encroaching on this village.

There was only one question still in their minds right now.

'How do we deal with it?'