Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 70 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 70 – Yin Xue

The process of rebelling against an established power was never clean. Yin Xue knew that – after all, he had put down more than one rebellion during his time with the Verdant Green Waters. As upright and beneficent as the sect might claim, they were still tools of the Shen kingdom. They took on assignments to deal with bandits where the local guards and soldiers might not range, for the kingdom was large and wild.

The years of the drought had been worst. Even with the work undertaken by the Silver Merchant, even with the food stores that flowed in and the careful care of irrigation ditches and past stores of rice, it was not enough for some villagers. Certainly not enough for the neighboring clans and small towns and villages from the south and east who had risen, searching for food.

Banditry, thievery, rebellion. It was all the same to the hungry mouths that needed to be fed, the raging passion of injustice at a world that with but the withholding of the barest, most necessary of items, could wreck a lifetime of good deeds.

Farmers became bandits, soldiers became outlaws, and cultivators became heretics and demonic cultivators. Promised power and strength and the escape of hunger, they had popped up all across the kingdom, and the martial cultivators of the Verdant Green Waters were deployed.

Flashing heroes in green robes, dispensing justice and protecting the civilian populace. Swords and staves and shields wielded for rightness, leaving behind broken bodies and corpses that had to be buried. Occasionally, these wandering heroes might come across a particularly strong demonic cultivator. Someone that had risen through atrocity or training or desperate need.

Then, Yin Xue had come. After all, his pathway upwards had been cut-off but he still needed to prove his worth to the sect. Had to gain merits, had to acquire tools and spirit stones and perhaps, find a manual or two that might further aid his own, twisted cultivation.

When reports of those powerful individuals needing slaying arrived, Yin Xue went out. Chased them through gorges and dens, waterfalls and inns till he cornered them. Fought blasted battles, sometimes all alone, other times in the midst of mortals and cultivators alike.

Rebellion, squashed before it could ferment and grow.

“We can take the battle to the rahnuma. Kill all those who see us as below them,” Korcan said.

“Take your people, certainly.” Yin Xue pointed to the hills. “And flee. Get out, get away. Hide before they can find you, flee to a different country if you can. If you stay, you die.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Rebellions do not succeed just because of passion. They require more than the support of the masses.” He gestured with his chin at the crowd that slowly came out. “They are too beaten down, too scared to be your puppets anyway.”

He could see Korcan react as though he had been slapped by the words, but the man continued to clench the stolen sword in hand. The smaller one, taken from the archer he had helped kill.

“You need strength and unrest, amongst them all. You need elites – individuals in the government itself – to aid you. And you need the government to be in turmoil, long enough for you to establish yourselves before they send an army to crush you.” He sniffed. “Do you have any of that?”

Korcan looked away and Yin Xue nodded. “Exactly.”

The demon lips thinned. He stared at his fellow villagers who had broken into three groups. The first hurried to gather their meager belongings and readied themselves to flee. More families in that group than others. Another group stood around, arguing and scolding one another or just stood around, staring at the bodies. Too stunned by the change to react. The final turned back to work, as though by being the good little workers, they might somehow avoid the catastrophe coming.

“Fools.” Yin Xue raised his voice though, put a touch of chi into it. “Stop working. Consume the cores that are in the beasts. Gather some more, to keep for yourselves. And leave, before they come.”

Having said his part, he got on the flying instrument, only for Korcan to rush over, put a foot on it as though he might be able to stop it lifting.

“What are you doing?” Korcan said.

“Leaving.” He looked down at the foot. “What are you doing?”

“I… I want my revenge.”

“You got it.”

“No!” Korcan snarled. “You got it. I want them dead. All of them.”

Yin Xue pointed down the direction the demons had come from. “There’s more that way.”

“I…” Korcan lowered his head. “I cannot. If I go that way, I’ll die. Painfully. Uselessly.”

“Then you’re learning.”

“And that’s what I want to do!” Korcan said quickly. “Learn. I need to grow stronger. Take me.”

“As a disciple?” Yin Xue snorted. “No.”

“As a servant. As a guide. You need me.”

The air froze over, crackling with sudden unseen pressure. Korcan paled, which was quite the sight on the demon, but he did not retreat. He did duck his head low, whispered.

“I can be useful.” Another long pause before he finally added. “Please…”

Yin Xue reined back in the killing intent, allowing the demon to breathe easier. Around him, as though because his sudden burst of rage had given his earlier orders legitimacy, the remaining villagers were taking action. Tearing apart monsters, consuming the tiny cores within hungrily. Others hurried to pack the largest of the creatures into wicker baskets, meant to store them for a short period alive or began to empty our their houses to run.

A few, faster groups, took the worm-like creatures and began to hurry away, heading in different directions in the hope of running.

In the distance, Yin Xue could begin to sense movement at the periphery of the town. Trouble, coming, though nowhere as fast as his flying instrument. He could easily leave, long before the guards or whatever other demons they were looking for arrived.

“Sir…” Karcon gulped, looking up at Yin Xue.

Two more demons came, one a female. She wore tattered robes like Karcon, and might have once been beautiful if not for the burnt, scarred visage that ran down one side of his face. The other, a young boy who practically vibrated with energy and enthusiasm.

“This is not my fight.”

“It would not take long, to distract the guards.” A hesitation, then Karcon added. “There are not many of them here. You’ve killed their greatest fighters already.”

Yin Xue snorted, looking at the pair who had joined them without asking. It was the kid who added, slyly.

“They have coins and stones on them, sir. Riches that can be stolen.”

Yin Xue lips pursed, looked around him. Added. “A map?”

“It’d be in the garrison itself,” Korcan said.

“No.” The word was slurred a little, the woman unable to open her mouth fully due to the damage done to her mouth. Still, she continued. “Residence.”

“You know it?” Yin Xue said.

“And their jewelry. And pills.”

Well. If that was the case, and since he had already taken action and had some individuals who would be perfect fallpeople…

“Get on. We leave now.” The trio scrambled onboard, in short order.

Yin Xue knew the fate of bandits. He had, after all, been the one who had hunted them down before. However, some had lasted years, decades even. In that time, he could not believe that he could not find a way out of this realm back to the Middle Kingdom.

Or a way to ascend. To do that, however, he needed more than just a few stolen weapons and spirit instruments.

He needed knowledge.