Three days later, I left the Imperial city with my 20 personal guards. These 20 people were all carefully chosen by the Beast emperor, and just as he had said, they were all mixed-breeds personally taught by him since they were young. They had learned how to utilize chi and martial arts, and after their many years of training, talking only of their chi strength, they were not very far from me.
Before I left, I had an audience with the Beast Emperor……
“Father, I will leave tomorrow; do you have any other command?”
“Oh Layson, the situation on the frontline isn’t very encouraging; I’m afraid we’ll have to retreat.”
I frowned and asked, “Is the situation that bad? Was there a big loss?”
The Beast Emperor said in a heavy tone, “The loss was enormous, but there is a benefit. Your father’s Beamon army lost more than three hundred; this is the most massive loss in the last hundreds years of war, but of course, the opponent paid with the lives of four dragon knights.
Besides the Wild Lion and Beamon army force, the rest of the forces have a combined death toll of over three million beastmen. Don’t you think this qualifies as a massive loss? However, since each tribe has suffered such tremendous casualties, it has made it easier to execute our plan. Now, do you want to wait for your father to return before you leave?”
I shook my head, “No need, Father emperor. How long would I have to wait before he comes back? I should follow my original plan after all, and leave tomorrow.” I do not want to meet father; in my heart he’s only a murderer that has indirectly killed my grandmother.
The Beast Emperor nodded and said, “Alright, then I will issue the decree tomorrow. I’ll have each tribe clean their own surrounding bandits, and whether or not they are willing to follow these orders, it’ll be advantageous to your operation.
Also, you don’t have to worry about the bandits around the imperial city; I’ll send the imperial guards to operate in secret, and clean them up. Meanwhile, the first batch of people that have learned about farming can begin working. I’ll order them in the name of the Beast God religion, to start establishing the first farms in the imperial city’s surroundings. My child, father has got your back, so if the operation is delayed, or you experience any sort of difficulty, come back immediately.”
“Thank you father emperor. This son will obey your imperial decree”
And like that, I left the imperial city. The weather that day wasn’t very good; the sand was blowing in my face, and it was very gloomy. The veil of the conical bamboo hat was blocking most of the dust for me, as I wondered if it would rain
I ordered the 20 guards to disguise themselves as commoners, and to spread out as we traveled; each maintained a distance of 500 meters, so that we were more likely to attract bandits. I was riding Black Dragon on the road alone, and as I slowly advanced forward, I unfolded the map and studied it.
There were a total of 17 territories in the Beastman Country, each equal to the size of a province in the Dragon Empire. They encompassed the Imperial City, which had about the same size, and each territory had a main race.
And our first destination was the Yuna territory, which was where the western werewolves lived. Although it was not the closest territory to the Imperial City, it was a completely flat land, and so it was the most suitable for cultivating a large variety of crops.
At the same time, the Yuna territory also produced a kind of very rare iron ore. This kind of iron ore couldn’t be more suitable for smelting metal armor and weapons; not only was the quality of steel top notch, but the durability was remarkable. Even the most powerful heavy cavalry unit in the Dragon Empire wasn’t worthy of this “dark iron” armor.
Such an important resource was actually abandoned rather than used more than half of the time in the Beastman territory.
For all of these years the beastmen had been accustomed to relying upon the supply from the Demon Clan for survival, but my mission was to change that. If the Demon Clan controlled the lifeblood of our economy from beginning ’till end, then there’d be no way for the beastmen to become powerful.
Two days later…
“Reporting, your highness. There’s a situation ahead.” The foxman closest to me leapt to my side and spoke.
I frowned and said, “Tell everyone not to call me ‘your highness’ in the future. Call me young master or vice pope, understand?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the situation?”
“The vanguard brother discovered a group of bandits plundering a small village ahead.”
My heart skipped a beat; plundering a village? Although the bandits were rampaging in the Beastmen country, very rarely would bandits gather together and ransack a village, because they knew that it would enrage the regime. I estimated that this was probably related to the decree the Beast Emperor had issued. It’s possible that they just wanted to ransack an amount large enough to go into hiding and temporarily avoid the clean-up operation.
I thought, “Since this is the case, now that you have come, you will never return.”
This place was on the outermost edge of the Imperial City’s range of influence. I’m afraid that the bandits dared act arbitrarily for this very reason. “Pass on my command: everyone gather and accelerate forward.”
“Roger that.”
Due to the blowing sand obscuring the sunlight, we only discovered the bandits’ situation when we drew near to the village. Many houses in the village were burned down, and we could see the tragic sight of children crying and yelling for their parents. The total number of bandits couldn’t be seen at that moment, but the majority were composed of the more valiant races. They killed people on sight, and took everything that they could find. Even the female villagers could not avoid being…
I sighed to myself, and then waved my hand and said, “Begin! Keep one alive.”
The 20 guards answered with one voice “Yes!”
I carried Black Sable on my shoulders and slowly walked into the village. These bandits were just mobs; they did not have the slightest ability to resist in the face of these imperial guards who had gone through martial arts training.
A luxuriant blood rain wafted through the sky, washing away the souls of beastmen one after another.
Walking forward, I suddenly heard a cry full of fear from the house beside me, “No!”
I slashed horizontally along the door, letting out a flash of yellow chi.
Hong!
The door of the house was blasted away. A bearman bandit with a naked lower-half was tearing the clothes off of a beastman girl, whose race I could not recognize at that moment.
As his happy moment was disturbed, the bearman angrily roared; with two bloody eyes he charged at me, lifting his trousers. Really stupid; couldn’t he even think for a second? Since I could easily destroy the door of the house, would I be an easy opponent?
I was too lazy to even giber nonsense with him. The Black Sable brought out an immense mad god chi and swept out horizontally; as his lower half charged forward, his upper half had long since departed from his body.
I released my chi, stopping the fresh splashing blood about a meter away from my body; I did not let his filthy blood soil my clothes.
Walking into the house; a female beastman with a body of long white fur was huddled up, shivering. I softened my voice as much as possible, “Are you ok? Don’t be afraid, I’m here to rescue you and your village.”
The girl had covered her face with her palm, but through the narrow slit of her fingers she saw my smile filled with goodwill, and seemed to relax a little. She asked, trembling, “Are, are you really not a bandit?”
I smiled and said, “Of course not; I’m here to slaughter the bandits. We are the emissaries of the Beast God, sent to help our Beastman Clan resolve their difficulties and worries. Believe in me, ok?”
Listening to my words, the beast girl became brave; she put down her hand that was blocking her face and stared at me with big eyes. As it turned out, she was a very rare young white bear-girl, seemingly no smaller in size than me, and beautiful. No wonder that beastman bandit was tempted.
“Dont be afraid. Wear your clothes; I still need to rescue the other villagers.”
The white bear-girl nodded and said, “Thank you for saving me.”
As I turned around and was about to leave, I heard her words, and looked back to say, “Don’t thank me, thank the Beast God. Because we are here upon his order, we were able to save you in time.”
“Beast God?”
……
Just as I had exited the house, I suddenly heard a sharp whistle. This was bad; the bandits seemed to have some brains. It looked like they wanted to group up to resist us together. As expected, one of my lionmen underlings ran quickly towards me and reported, “Reporting, vice-pope. The enemies are gathering at the other end of the village; what should we do?”
This lionman was called Mink; he was tall and mighty and also had the lineage of a human. His looks obviously displayed the distinctive features of a human; if his body wasn’t covered in fur, he would have looked exactly like a human. Among all the guards, I paid the most attention to him, because not only was he bold, he was also quick-witted.
“Did our brothers suffer any injuries?”
The lionman smiled with contempt; he said, “What could they possibly do to us with just these petty tricks?”
I nodded and said, “Alright, then gather them immediately; we’ll now confront the bandits and give them a fight.”
This was the first time we met bandits after departing from the imperial city, and it was a large group as well. I couldn’t help but feel a little excited inside; killing the bandits would relieve the villagers’ crisis, and we could proclaim our so-called “Beast God”, so why shouldn’t I have been happy to do it?
After the dying screams in the village quieted down, I ordered two of my guards to organise the villagers to put out the fire. With the rest of the 18 guards, I headed towards the other side of the village.
As Mink had stated, a large amount of bandits were gathering there. They were wearing all sorts of clothes. Their gang was basically formed by tigermen, werewolves, bearmen and cheetahmen. Looking at it, it was roughly more than a hundred people, and most of them were holding their “trophies” in their hands; each of them staring furiously and gradually drawing closer to us.
When they noticed that we only had 19 people, one could see their expressions relax noticeably.
I lowered my voice, “Mink, later, both you and your brother will be responsible for killing the runaways. Not one will be spared; got it?”
Mink’s eyes glowed in an ominous light, “Don’t worry, young master; none of these scoundrels will be able to escape today.” His audacity to freely speak as he pleased in front of me was one of the reasons why I appreciated him.
With Black Sable on my shoulders I took large strides forward; the Bandits on the other side quickly lifted their weapons, eyeing me cautiously.
A tigerman, who seemed to be the boss, shouted with his machete raised, “Where do you come from? Why did you simply kill my brothers at will? Are you tired of living?”
I said with a flat voice, “We are people of the Beast God, why do we need to kill each other?”
A werewolf who stood beside the tigerman shouted in condemnation, “Rubbish! Why the fu** do you care?! This is the way WE live! If we aren’t allowed to rob, then how about you send some girls for us to play with?”
The tigerman laughed loudly, and said with a ruthless voice, “Stop talking nonsense. Quick, kneel down and beg; perhaps I will let you live, or else…..hehe.”
Due to a lack of a better option, I shook my head and answered with one word, “Kill.”
I was the first to dash out; greeting the tigerman and the werewolf beastman that had spoken with me. The tigerman furiously roared as his machete came splitting down from above his head. I, who had charged to his front, made an abrupt stop at the ground two meters away. The contrast between the speed and silence of the movement was abnormally strange.
When his machete chopped down, I shook my wrist. Black Sable, with a strand of yellow glow, flicked upwards, and as easy as that, the tigerman was split in half.
I didn’t even blink my eyes. My body rapidly flashed to the left, dodging the sneak attack of the werewolf. Black Sable swung smoothly to land beside his neck. Since he was a leader, he should have more information; I decided to keep him alive temporarily.
My chi firmly locked onto his body; the wild killing intent scared him so much that he didn’t dare to move an inch, and with a pale face like that of a ghost, he begged, “Spare me, great master. Please, spare my life.”
I laughed coldly, “Spare your life; have you ever spared the lives of anyone you’ve robbed? I’ll tell you something: We are the emissaries sent by the Beast God to take care of the trash that harass the Beastmen. Brothers, the one who will be left alive has been chosen; cleanse the rest.”
I took a furtive glance at the village behind me; the villagers who were not dead slowly gathered at the entrance of the village, watching the scene of slaughter.
Even before I killed the tigerman, my guards had taken action, releasing their different colors of chi. This fight didn’t really have any suspense. Although their numbers should have afforded a tremendous advantage, these bandits actually had no chance of resisting. They were either dismembered or crushed to pieces by the chi, and there were nearly no corpses left intact.
The one who was enjoying killing the most was Mink. From the battle that had only started a few minutes ago, the bandits had already started to flee in disorder. This guy, Mink, slashed to the left and to the right with his pair of big axes; the bandits that died to his hands numbered far more than 20.
The eyes of the wolfman captive fell more and more into despair. The gang of bandits were wiped out in an instant under the powerful might of my 18 escorts; only bloody meat remained all over the place.
The wolfman couldn’t control his shivering legs and prostrated himself onto the ground forcefully. Feces and urine flowed out at the same time, and a pungent odour came to our noses.
I sent him flying with a kick, and yelled, “Mink! Come here!”
Mink came running to me happily while swinging his two big axes, “Young master, what is your order?”
I pointed at the wolfman ten meters away and said, “That one over there is the only one alive. Find a place to wash him, then bring him to me. ”
Mink stared blankly and said, “Wash? Are you planning to eat him? Wolf meat doesn’t taste very good…”
I slapped Mink so hard that he somersaulted on the ground, “What’s this nonsense? Hurry up and do what I ordered you to do.”
Anger flashed on Mink’s face and immediately after, with a dispirited expression, he sighed, turned around, and walked towards the wolfman.
“Assemble.”
Under my order all the guards except Mink instantly assembled in front of me, standing in a neat formation.
I swept my eyes across them, and discovered that some are lightly injured. I scolded them angrily.
“Are you guys good for nothing? Some of you are even injured just from fighting against these small fry and laughable clowns?! I really don’t know how you guys normally train! Go and clean the battlefield. If there are still any bandits breathing, without exception……” I made a gesture of slashing open the throat. “After everything is done, assemble at the entrance of the village”
Finished lecturing them, I turned around and walked towards the village’s entrance. The villagers that were gathered there constantly backed away with each of my steps, then the one in the front suddenly kneeled down, and immediately, like wheat pushed down by the wind, the rest of the few hundred villagers all kneeled down.
The elder bearman in the front said with a quavering voice, “Lo-lord, please don’t kill us! Have mercy on this village.”
Before I could answer, a white shadow ran out of the crowd, “Grandpa, did you become nutty or are you becoming old? They are not here to kill us!”
I focused my sight; it turned out that it was the white bear-girl I saved right after I entered the village. She had tidied her clothes, and was my height; among bearmen her figure was relatively slender. She also had a trace of a smile on her face.
That aged bearman turned pale with fright hearing her words and with a quavering voice said, “Nie, hurry up and kneel down! Do not speak nonsense in front of the lord.”
I smiled, “No, she did not speak nonsense, what she said is true. We came to rescue your village. Everyone please stand up; we will not bring you any harm. And the families that were robbed, you can now reclaim your belongings. My subordinates are clearing up over there, so If there is something on the corpses that you want, feel free to take it. Everything belongs to the village; it can be considered as compensation for you.”
The kneeling villagers immediately created a disturbance; the aged bearman was the first to stand up, and he looked at me bewildered.
“Grandpa, what he said is true, they are the emissaries of the Beast God; they are really sent by the Beast God to help us. If they didn’t help me, I’m afraid that you would have never seen your granddaughter again.” At this key moment, the white bear-girl had once again helped me greatly.
The aged beastman tried asking, “Yo-you are really the Emissary of the Beast God?”
I took off my conical bamboo hat and nodded with a smile, “Yes, the Beast God knows about the suffering of the beastmen. That is why He has specially sent us here to help you. The Beast God didn’t forget about his people.”
Seeing me look like a human, the aged bearman took a few steps backwards, “You, are you human?”
I shook my head, “No I am not human; I have blood mixed with both human and beastman, and my father is a Beamon. Elder, if we wanted to harm you or plunder your village, would there be a need to speak so much? You saw what happened a moment ago; more than a hundred bandits could not withstand us for more than 15 minutes. Do you think there’s a need for me to lie to you?
On the other hand, what do you posses that’s worthy enough for me to lie for? I can tell you this: because the people of the beastmen empire got harassed by bandits over the years and are living in troubled times, the Beast God has observed the suffering of us beastmen, and specially appointed us to exterminate the bandits, and to also help you live a better life. Because of this, we founded the Beast God religion.”
I paused and shouted, “Beastmen Brothers, do you not wish to recover your loss? The things that the bandits stole are limited; those who move quickly will gain, and those who are slow will get nothing.”
The white bear-girl trusted me the most here. The old bearman was not able to hold her, and she ran towards the place where the bandits were exterminated.
The white bear-girl walked past me, and she even showed me her self-considered most-charming-smile, but looking at it I could only shudder. I am not a bearman after all. Perhaps for them, she is an irresistible beauty. Every villager observed the white bear-girl; they could only see her rapidly running towards the pile of corpses and starting to loot. My guards were only piling up the corpses; some even searched the bodies and threw the things to the white bear-girl.
Seeing the situation, some villagers with courage ran over there as well. When the rest of the villagers discovered that there was no danger, they could no longer resist their greed and flocked over. Only the old bearman stayed where he was and stared at me in disbelief.
Just at this moment, Mink with a sour face, dragged the wolfman back and smashed him heavily onto the ground. “Young master, I have washed this guy clean. Damn it! This guys was simply way too dirty. It was all because I couldn’t shut my mouth just now; please don’t be mad at me!”
I helplessly smiled, ”Alright, you stay here and guard him. I will discuss some things with this villager, and later I will come back to question him.”
“Yes, Young master.”
“My grandpa is not some random villager; he is the village chief.” The white bear-girl came back running while carrying an armful of loot. Seeing her happy face, it was apparent that she had found some rather good stuff.
Actually, I already guessed this aged bearman’s identity; I merely did not expose it. Towards the aged bearman, I said, “Sorry. So you are the village chief. May I have a word with you?”
The aged bearman soundly prostrated himself on the floor with a plop, tears flowing down, “Oh Benefactor, please forgive this unworthy one’s disrespect.” After saying that, he suddenly started to kowtow with ping ping noises. The white bear-girl quickly joined her grandfather and prostrated on the ground.
I stepped forward, with both hands supporting the aged bearman, and said with a smile, “Don’t be like this; I don’t deserve it. This is the order of the Beast God. We are merely executing his orders.”
“Benefactor, please, let’s talk inside the village.”
“Ok.” I pointed at the wolfman on the ground, “Mink, you will direct everyone here. After cleaning up, burn those corpses, and then wait for me here. Guard this guy well and don’t let him escape.”
“Don’t worry, young master. If he dares to run, I will amputate both of his legs.”
The wolfman who was lying on the ground, started to tremble, saying, “This unworthy one does not dare! This unworthy one absolutely will not dare to run.”
Pleased, I nodded, and together with the white bear-girl, we supported the aged bearman as we walked into the village.
Due to us arriving on time, the village did not suffer much damage. The elder bearman lead me to the house, where I had just saved the white bear-girl.
Seeing the corpse of the man I had killed, the white bear-girl ran over and landed two kicks on him.
The aged Bearman reproached, “Nie, we don’t hold grudges against the dead; don’t damage his corpse any further. Please, come into the house with me sir.”
Upon entering the house, he lead me to the master’s chair, and no matter how vehemently I refused, I could not resist his stubbornness, and ended up sitting in the master-seat, “Elder, what is the normal situation of this village?”
“Sigh Lord emissary, the strong and capable ones are all on the frontline, and we don’t even know how many will be able to make it back. Normally we live by farming, so we can still get by somehow.”
I nodded and said, “Are you often harassed by the bandits?”
The village chief shook his head, “A direct attack on the village like this was the first time. They still caused some disturbances, but that was nothing more than stopping us in the middle of the road to rob our goods. If we gave them our goods willingly, there wasn’t much of a chance of being killed.
A few days earlier, when the Beast Emperor proclaimed the decree about exterminating the bandits, we were really quite happy, thinking that we would not be disturbed by the bandits anymore. Who would have thought that right after the declaration, so many strong bandits would show up. If you emissaries didn’t arrive so quickly, our village would be done for.”
Hatred filled my voice, “It is precisely because of these scourges that our Beastman country has become so decayed. Be at ease, for the Beast God gave this order to us. Our mission is to exterminate the bandits. We are just the first step; later on there will be Emissaries of the Beast God that will specialize in helping the people to produce and farm. All you need to do is follow the order of the Beast God, and you will surely be able to live a good life.”
The village chief was pleasantly surprised, “Really? I have been waiting for this day for a very long time. Oh great God of the Beasts, so you did not forgot your sons; you remember us!”
Seeing him this excited, I knew that my goal had already been achieved.
I comforted him, “Don’t be too excited, it is not good for your health. The Beast God will never abandon his children. If you continue to believe in him, then a good and peaceful life will come.”
While saying that, I took out a bag of gold coins from my chest pocket and handed it over to the village chief. “Distribute this money to the villagers and use it to rebuild their homes.”
The village chief hurriedly refused, “No, you have already been a great help! How can I accept your money?!”
I said grimly, “This money is not coming from me, but is from the Beast God for his people. Take it. When it is time, our comrades that are in charge of helping you to produce will come; please do your best to work together with them. Don’t worry, the Beast God will take care of you and the people.”
The village chief took the gold coins trembling, and kneeled down in excitement, saying loudly, “Oh Beast God, our god, thank you for giving us hope!”
Seeing that my goal had been achieved, I stood up, “The matter here is done. I have to continue my mission of helping the other Beastmen to break away from their sufferings. I shall first bid you farewell.”
The village chief held me with his hands, “How can this be? At least eat a meal before you go, or else the Beast God will blame us for neglecting his emissaries.”
The white bear-girl also helped to persuade me, “Yes, yes; stay and eat with us.”
I smiled, “The Beast God is kind, tolerant and forgiving; he will not be angry about something like this. As His emissaries, we must do our utmost when we carry out our mission for the Beast God. We really can no longer delay; I beg for your forgiveness.”
This old fellow of a village chief didn’t want to let me go; he wanted us to stay and eat a meal no matter what I said. Just when we were in the middle of our discussion, Mink suddenly ran in hurriedly. I frowned, “Didn’t I order you to watch over the werewolf? Why did you come in?”
Mink bowed respectfully, “My apologies, young master; the other brothers are watching over the werewolf bandit. You should go out and have a look; the villagers are waiting to see you.”
Wanting to see me? The village chief and I met each other’s eyes, and then I turned around and walked out of the village chief’s home.
The scenery was spectacular. Every villager had surrounded the village chief’s home, and was kneeling on the ground. My guards attempted to help them stand up, but the villagers insisted to kneel and weren’t willing to stand up. The guards couldn’t use violence either, so they were embarrassingly lost, not knowing what to do.
The moment I walked out of the village chiefs home, all the villagers said loudly in unison, “You have our thanks for saving this village.”
Facing such a grand situation, although I did it with a purpose, I felt proud for my actions; I raised my voice and said with some excitement, “Brothers and sisters, everyone please stand up. If you don’t, I will kneel down with you.”
Finishing the sentence I lifted my gown and was about to kneel down; the old village chief who had followed me outside, stopped me from doing so. Seeing this scene, the villagers stood up one after another.
“Everyone doesn’t need to thank me. Like I said at the entrance of the village before, I am an emissary sent by the Beast God to rescue our people. We are representing the Beast God. The Beast God didn’t forget about us and he still cares for his Beastmen people, so as long as everyone can live happily, that will show the greatest appreciation towards that old man. We still have other matters to attend to, so I will have to trouble you to make a way for me, ok?”
Just when I persuaded the villagers, the village chief suddenly shouted,
“Villagers, the emissaries saved us from the verge of the death. Shouldn’t we show them our gratitude properly and be hospitable to them? Can we just let them go like this?”
Immediately, the villagers who were about to make way answered with a high voice in chorus, “No!”
The village chief continued the agitated speech,
“If we let the emissaries of the Beast God leave like this, it would be disrespectful towards the Beast God. And because of this, I decided that every family will take out the most valuable possession they have and gift it to the lord emissaries. How about it?”
“Yes!”
I forced a smile and said, “Elderly village chief, aren’t you making it difficult for me? The commandment of the Beast God was to not take even the smallest things from you. We dare not violate the command of the Beast God.”
The old village chief laughed frank and openly, “We are doing this happily and willingly; the Beast God will not blame you. Everyone can start moving now.”
At this time the sky was no longer overcast with darkness; a beam of bright and beautiful sun rays broke through the thick clouds, spilling onto the land. The sun shone more and more intensely as the black clouds in the sky continuously dispersed. This marvelous scene stunned everyone who was present.
My heart moved and I said with a loud shout, “My fellow siblings, the days of hardship are over now. Can you see it? The dawn of a new era of hope is shining upon us. Together with great effort, and under the leadership of the Beast God, we are heading towards a great life.”
Every villager rejoiced after hearing my speech. A few moments ago, there was nothing but worry and misery, but now it had become like an ocean of cheerfulness and joy.
-end-
Three days later, I left the Imperial city with my 20 personal guards. These 20 people were all carefully chosen by the Beast emperor, and just as he had said, they were all mixed-breeds personally taught by him since they were young. They had learned how to utilize chi and martial arts, and after their many years of training, talking only of their chi strength, they were not very far from me.
Before I left, I had an audience with the Beast Emperor……
“Father, I will leave tomorrow; do you have any other command?”
“Oh Layson, the situation on the frontline isn’t very encouraging; I’m afraid we’ll have to retreat.”
I frowned and asked, “Is the situation that bad? Was there a big loss?”
The Beast Emperor said in a heavy tone, “The loss was enormous, but there is a benefit. Your father’s Beamon army lost more than three hundred; this is the most massive loss in the last hundreds years of war, but of course, the opponent paid with the lives of four dragon knights.
Besides the Wild Lion and Beamon army force, the rest of the forces have a combined death toll of over three million beastmen. Don’t you think this qualifies as a massive loss? However, since each tribe has suffered such tremendous casualties, it has made it easier to execute our plan. Now, do you want to wait for your father to return before you leave?”
I shook my head, “No need, Father emperor. How long would I have to wait before he comes back? I should follow my original plan after all, and leave tomorrow.” I do not want to meet father; in my heart he’s only a murderer that has indirectly killed my grandmother.
The Beast Emperor nodded and said, “Alright, then I will issue the decree tomorrow. I’ll have each tribe clean their own surrounding bandits, and whether or not they are willing to follow these orders, it’ll be advantageous to your operation.
Also, you don’t have to worry about the bandits around the imperial city; I’ll send the imperial guards to operate in secret, and clean them up. Meanwhile, the first batch of people that have learned about farming can begin working. I’ll order them in the name of the Beast God religion, to start establishing the first farms in the imperial city’s surroundings. My child, father has got your back, so if the operation is delayed, or you experience any sort of difficulty, come back immediately.”
“Thank you father emperor. This son will obey your imperial decree”
And like that, I left the imperial city. The weather that day wasn’t very good; the sand was blowing in my face, and it was very gloomy. The veil of the conical bamboo hat was blocking most of the dust for me, as I wondered if it would rain
I ordered the 20 guards to disguise themselves as commoners, and to spread out as we traveled; each maintained a distance of 500 meters, so that we were more likely to attract bandits. I was riding Black Dragon on the road alone, and as I slowly advanced forward, I unfolded the map and studied it.
There were a total of 17 territories in the Beastman Country, each equal to the size of a province in the Dragon Empire. They encompassed the Imperial City, which had about the same size, and each territory had a main race.
And our first destination was the Yuna territory, which was where the western werewolves lived. Although it was not the closest territory to the Imperial City, it was a completely flat land, and so it was the most suitable for cultivating a large variety of crops.
At the same time, the Yuna territory also produced a kind of very rare iron ore. This kind of iron ore couldn’t be more suitable for smelting metal armor and weapons; not only was the quality of steel top notch, but the durability was remarkable. Even the most powerful heavy cavalry unit in the Dragon Empire wasn’t worthy of this “dark iron” armor.
Such an important resource was actually abandoned rather than used more than half of the time in the Beastman territory.
For all of these years the beastmen had been accustomed to relying upon the supply from the Demon Clan for survival, but my mission was to change that. If the Demon Clan controlled the lifeblood of our economy from beginning ’till end, then there’d be no way for the beastmen to become powerful.
Two days later…
“Reporting, your highness. There’s a situation ahead.” The foxman closest to me leapt to my side and spoke.
I frowned and said, “Tell everyone not to call me ‘your highness’ in the future. Call me young master or vice pope, understand?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the situation?”
“The vanguard brother discovered a group of bandits plundering a small village ahead.”
My heart skipped a beat; plundering a village? Although the bandits were rampaging in the Beastmen country, very rarely would bandits gather together and ransack a village, because they knew that it would enrage the regime. I estimated that this was probably related to the decree the Beast Emperor had issued. It’s possible that they just wanted to ransack an amount large enough to go into hiding and temporarily avoid the clean-up operation.
I thought, “Since this is the case, now that you have come, you will never return.”
This place was on the outermost edge of the Imperial City’s range of influence. I’m afraid that the bandits dared act arbitrarily for this very reason. “Pass on my command: everyone gather and accelerate forward.”
“Roger that.”
Due to the blowing sand obscuring the sunlight, we only discovered the bandits’ situation when we drew near to the village. Many houses in the village were burned down, and we could see the tragic sight of children crying and yelling for their parents. The total number of bandits couldn’t be seen at that moment, but the majority were composed of the more valiant races. They killed people on sight, and took everything that they could find. Even the female villagers could not avoid being…
I sighed to myself, and then waved my hand and said, “Begin! Keep one alive.”
The 20 guards answered with one voice “Yes!”
I carried Black Sable on my shoulders and slowly walked into the village. These bandits were just mobs; they did not have the slightest ability to resist in the face of these imperial guards who had gone through martial arts training.
A luxuriant blood rain wafted through the sky, washing away the souls of beastmen one after another.
Walking forward, I suddenly heard a cry full of fear from the house beside me, “No!”
I slashed horizontally along the door, letting out a flash of yellow chi.
Hong!
The door of the house was blasted away. A bearman bandit with a naked lower-half was tearing the clothes off of a beastman girl, whose race I could not recognize at that moment.
As his happy moment was disturbed, the bearman angrily roared; with two bloody eyes he charged at me, lifting his trousers. Really stupid; couldn’t he even think for a second? Since I could easily destroy the door of the house, would I be an easy opponent?
I was too lazy to even giber nonsense with him. The Black Sable brought out an immense mad god chi and swept out horizontally; as his lower half charged forward, his upper half had long since departed from his body.
I released my chi, stopping the fresh splashing blood about a meter away from my body; I did not let his filthy blood soil my clothes.
Walking into the house; a female beastman with a body of long white fur was huddled up, shivering. I softened my voice as much as possible, “Are you ok? Don’t be afraid, I’m here to rescue you and your village.”
The girl had covered her face with her palm, but through the narrow slit of her fingers she saw my smile filled with goodwill, and seemed to relax a little. She asked, trembling, “Are, are you really not a bandit?”
I smiled and said, “Of course not; I’m here to slaughter the bandits. We are the emissaries of the Beast God, sent to help our Beastman Clan resolve their difficulties and worries. Believe in me, ok?”
Listening to my words, the beast girl became brave; she put down her hand that was blocking her face and stared at me with big eyes. As it turned out, she was a very rare young white bear-girl, seemingly no smaller in size than me, and beautiful. No wonder that beastman bandit was tempted.
“Dont be afraid. Wear your clothes; I still need to rescue the other villagers.”
The white bear-girl nodded and said, “Thank you for saving me.”
As I turned around and was about to leave, I heard her words, and looked back to say, “Don’t thank me, thank the Beast God. Because we are here upon his order, we were able to save you in time.”
“Beast God?”
……
Just as I had exited the house, I suddenly heard a sharp whistle. This was bad; the bandits seemed to have some brains. It looked like they wanted to group up to resist us together. As expected, one of my lionmen underlings ran quickly towards me and reported, “Reporting, vice-pope. The enemies are gathering at the other end of the village; what should we do?”
This lionman was called Mink; he was tall and mighty and also had the lineage of a human. His looks obviously displayed the distinctive features of a human; if his body wasn’t covered in fur, he would have looked exactly like a human. Among all the guards, I paid the most attention to him, because not only was he bold, he was also quick-witted.
“Did our brothers suffer any injuries?”
The lionman smiled with contempt; he said, “What could they possibly do to us with just these petty tricks?”
I nodded and said, “Alright, then gather them immediately; we’ll now confront the bandits and give them a fight.”
This was the first time we met bandits after departing from the imperial city, and it was a large group as well. I couldn’t help but feel a little excited inside; killing the bandits would relieve the villagers’ crisis, and we could proclaim our so-called “Beast God”, so why shouldn’t I have been happy to do it?
After the dying screams in the village quieted down, I ordered two of my guards to organise the villagers to put out the fire. With the rest of the 18 guards, I headed towards the other side of the village.
As Mink had stated, a large amount of bandits were gathering there. They were wearing all sorts of clothes. Their gang was basically formed by tigermen, werewolves, bearmen and cheetahmen. Looking at it, it was roughly more than a hundred people, and most of them were holding their “trophies” in their hands; each of them staring furiously and gradually drawing closer to us.
When they noticed that we only had 19 people, one could see their expressions relax noticeably.
I lowered my voice, “Mink, later, both you and your brother will be responsible for killing the runaways. Not one will be spared; got it?”
Mink’s eyes glowed in an ominous light, “Don’t worry, young master; none of these scoundrels will be able to escape today.” His audacity to freely speak as he pleased in front of me was one of the reasons why I appreciated him.
With Black Sable on my shoulders I took large strides forward; the Bandits on the other side quickly lifted their weapons, eyeing me cautiously.
A tigerman, who seemed to be the boss, shouted with his machete raised, “Where do you come from? Why did you simply kill my brothers at will? Are you tired of living?”
I said with a flat voice, “We are people of the Beast God, why do we need to kill each other?”
A werewolf who stood beside the tigerman shouted in condemnation, “Rubbish! Why the fu** do you care?! This is the way WE live! If we aren’t allowed to rob, then how about you send some girls for us to play with?”
The tigerman laughed loudly, and said with a ruthless voice, “Stop talking nonsense. Quick, kneel down and beg; perhaps I will let you live, or else…..hehe.”
Due to a lack of a better option, I shook my head and answered with one word, “Kill.”
I was the first to dash out; greeting the tigerman and the werewolf beastman that had spoken with me. The tigerman furiously roared as his machete came splitting down from above his head. I, who had charged to his front, made an abrupt stop at the ground two meters away. The contrast between the speed and silence of the movement was abnormally strange.
When his machete chopped down, I shook my wrist. Black Sable, with a strand of yellow glow, flicked upwards, and as easy as that, the tigerman was split in half.
I didn’t even blink my eyes. My body rapidly flashed to the left, dodging the sneak attack of the werewolf. Black Sable swung smoothly to land beside his neck. Since he was a leader, he should have more information; I decided to keep him alive temporarily.
My chi firmly locked onto his body; the wild killing intent scared him so much that he didn’t dare to move an inch, and with a pale face like that of a ghost, he begged, “Spare me, great master. Please, spare my life.”
I laughed coldly, “Spare your life; have you ever spared the lives of anyone you’ve robbed? I’ll tell you something: We are the emissaries sent by the Beast God to take care of the trash that harass the Beastmen. Brothers, the one who will be left alive has been chosen; cleanse the rest.”
I took a furtive glance at the village behind me; the villagers who were not dead slowly gathered at the entrance of the village, watching the scene of slaughter.
Even before I killed the tigerman, my guards had taken action, releasing their different colors of chi. This fight didn’t really have any suspense. Although their numbers should have afforded a tremendous advantage, these bandits actually had no chance of resisting. They were either dismembered or crushed to pieces by the chi, and there were nearly no corpses left intact.
The one who was enjoying killing the most was Mink. From the battle that had only started a few minutes ago, the bandits had already started to flee in disorder. This guy, Mink, slashed to the left and to the right with his pair of big axes; the bandits that died to his hands numbered far more than 20.
The eyes of the wolfman captive fell more and more into despair. The gang of bandits were wiped out in an instant under the powerful might of my 18 escorts; only bloody meat remained all over the place.
The wolfman couldn’t control his shivering legs and prostrated himself onto the ground forcefully. Feces and urine flowed out at the same time, and a pungent odour came to our noses.
I sent him flying with a kick, and yelled, “Mink! Come here!”
Mink came running to me happily while swinging his two big axes, “Young master, what is your order?”
I pointed at the wolfman ten meters away and said, “That one over there is the only one alive. Find a place to wash him, then bring him to me. ”
Mink stared blankly and said, “Wash? Are you planning to eat him? Wolf meat doesn’t taste very good…”
I slapped Mink so hard that he somersaulted on the ground, “What’s this nonsense? Hurry up and do what I ordered you to do.”
Anger flashed on Mink’s face and immediately after, with a dispirited expression, he sighed, turned around, and walked towards the wolfman.
“Assemble.”
Under my order all the guards except Mink instantly assembled in front of me, standing in a neat formation.
I swept my eyes across them, and discovered that some are lightly injured. I scolded them angrily.
“Are you guys good for nothing? Some of you are even injured just from fighting against these small fry and laughable clowns?! I really don’t know how you guys normally train! Go and clean the battlefield. If there are still any bandits breathing, without exception……” I made a gesture of slashing open the throat. “After everything is done, assemble at the entrance of the village”
Finished lecturing them, I turned around and walked towards the village’s entrance. The villagers that were gathered there constantly backed away with each of my steps, then the one in the front suddenly kneeled down, and immediately, like wheat pushed down by the wind, the rest of the few hundred villagers all kneeled down.
The elder bearman in the front said with a quavering voice, “Lo-lord, please don’t kill us! Have mercy on this village.”
Before I could answer, a white shadow ran out of the crowd, “Grandpa, did you become nutty or are you becoming old? They are not here to kill us!”
I focused my sight; it turned out that it was the white bear-girl I saved right after I entered the village. She had tidied her clothes, and was my height; among bearmen her figure was relatively slender. She also had a trace of a smile on her face.
That aged bearman turned pale with fright hearing her words and with a quavering voice said, “Nie, hurry up and kneel down! Do not speak nonsense in front of the lord.”
I smiled, “No, she did not speak nonsense, what she said is true. We came to rescue your village. Everyone please stand up; we will not bring you any harm. And the families that were robbed, you can now reclaim your belongings. My subordinates are clearing up over there, so If there is something on the corpses that you want, feel free to take it. Everything belongs to the village; it can be considered as compensation for you.”
The kneeling villagers immediately created a disturbance; the aged bearman was the first to stand up, and he looked at me bewildered.
“Grandpa, what he said is true, they are the emissaries of the Beast God; they are really sent by the Beast God to help us. If they didn’t help me, I’m afraid that you would have never seen your granddaughter again.” At this key moment, the white bear-girl had once again helped me greatly.
The aged beastman tried asking, “Yo-you are really the Emissary of the Beast God?”
I took off my conical bamboo hat and nodded with a smile, “Yes, the Beast God knows about the suffering of the beastmen. That is why He has specially sent us here to help you. The Beast God didn’t forget about his people.”
Seeing me look like a human, the aged bearman took a few steps backwards, “You, are you human?”
I shook my head, “No I am not human; I have blood mixed with both human and beastman, and my father is a Beamon. Elder, if we wanted to harm you or plunder your village, would there be a need to speak so much? You saw what happened a moment ago; more than a hundred bandits could not withstand us for more than 15 minutes. Do you think there’s a need for me to lie to you?
On the other hand, what do you posses that’s worthy enough for me to lie for? I can tell you this: because the people of the beastmen empire got harassed by bandits over the years and are living in troubled times, the Beast God has observed the suffering of us beastmen, and specially appointed us to exterminate the bandits, and to also help you live a better life. Because of this, we founded the Beast God religion.”
I paused and shouted, “Beastmen Brothers, do you not wish to recover your loss? The things that the bandits stole are limited; those who move quickly will gain, and those who are slow will get nothing.”
The white bear-girl trusted me the most here. The old bearman was not able to hold her, and she ran towards the place where the bandits were exterminated.
The white bear-girl walked past me, and she even showed me her self-considered most-charming-smile, but looking at it I could only shudder. I am not a bearman after all. Perhaps for them, she is an irresistible beauty. Every villager observed the white bear-girl; they could only see her rapidly running towards the pile of corpses and starting to loot. My guards were only piling up the corpses; some even searched the bodies and threw the things to the white bear-girl.
Seeing the situation, some villagers with courage ran over there as well. When the rest of the villagers discovered that there was no danger, they could no longer resist their greed and flocked over. Only the old bearman stayed where he was and stared at me in disbelief.
Just at this moment, Mink with a sour face, dragged the wolfman back and smashed him heavily onto the ground. “Young master, I have washed this guy clean. Damn it! This guys was simply way too dirty. It was all because I couldn’t shut my mouth just now; please don’t be mad at me!”
I helplessly smiled, ”Alright, you stay here and guard him. I will discuss some things with this villager, and later I will come back to question him.”
“Yes, Young master.”
“My grandpa is not some random villager; he is the village chief.” The white bear-girl came back running while carrying an armful of loot. Seeing her happy face, it was apparent that she had found some rather good stuff.
Actually, I already guessed this aged bearman’s identity; I merely did not expose it. Towards the aged bearman, I said, “Sorry. So you are the village chief. May I have a word with you?”
The aged bearman soundly prostrated himself on the floor with a plop, tears flowing down, “Oh Benefactor, please forgive this unworthy one’s disrespect.” After saying that, he suddenly started to kowtow with ping ping noises. The white bear-girl quickly joined her grandfather and prostrated on the ground.
I stepped forward, with both hands supporting the aged bearman, and said with a smile, “Don’t be like this; I don’t deserve it. This is the order of the Beast God. We are merely executing his orders.”
“Benefactor, please, let’s talk inside the village.”
“Ok.” I pointed at the wolfman on the ground, “Mink, you will direct everyone here. After cleaning up, burn those corpses, and then wait for me here. Guard this guy well and don’t let him escape.”
“Don’t worry, young master. If he dares to run, I will amputate both of his legs.”
The wolfman who was lying on the ground, started to tremble, saying, “This unworthy one does not dare! This unworthy one absolutely will not dare to run.”
Pleased, I nodded, and together with the white bear-girl, we supported the aged bearman as we walked into the village.
Due to us arriving on time, the village did not suffer much damage. The elder bearman lead me to the house, where I had just saved the white bear-girl.
Seeing the corpse of the man I had killed, the white bear-girl ran over and landed two kicks on him.
The aged Bearman reproached, “Nie, we don’t hold grudges against the dead; don’t damage his corpse any further. Please, come into the house with me sir.”
Upon entering the house, he lead me to the master’s chair, and no matter how vehemently I refused, I could not resist his stubbornness, and ended up sitting in the master-seat, “Elder, what is the normal situation of this village?”
“Sigh Lord emissary, the strong and capable ones are all on the frontline, and we don’t even know how many will be able to make it back. Normally we live by farming, so we can still get by somehow.”
I nodded and said, “Are you often harassed by the bandits?”
The village chief shook his head, “A direct attack on the village like this was the first time. They still caused some disturbances, but that was nothing more than stopping us in the middle of the road to rob our goods. If we gave them our goods willingly, there wasn’t much of a chance of being killed.
A few days earlier, when the Beast Emperor proclaimed the decree about exterminating the bandits, we were really quite happy, thinking that we would not be disturbed by the bandits anymore. Who would have thought that right after the declaration, so many strong bandits would show up. If you emissaries didn’t arrive so quickly, our village would be done for.”
Hatred filled my voice, “It is precisely because of these scourges that our Beastman country has become so decayed. Be at ease, for the Beast God gave this order to us. Our mission is to exterminate the bandits. We are just the first step; later on there will be Emissaries of the Beast God that will specialize in helping the people to produce and farm. All you need to do is follow the order of the Beast God, and you will surely be able to live a good life.”
The village chief was pleasantly surprised, “Really? I have been waiting for this day for a very long time. Oh great God of the Beasts, so you did not forgot your sons; you remember us!”
Seeing him this excited, I knew that my goal had already been achieved.
I comforted him, “Don’t be too excited, it is not good for your health. The Beast God will never abandon his children. If you continue to believe in him, then a good and peaceful life will come.”
While saying that, I took out a bag of gold coins from my chest pocket and handed it over to the village chief. “Distribute this money to the villagers and use it to rebuild their homes.”
The village chief hurriedly refused, “No, you have already been a great help! How can I accept your money?!”
I said grimly, “This money is not coming from me, but is from the Beast God for his people. Take it. When it is time, our comrades that are in charge of helping you to produce will come; please do your best to work together with them. Don’t worry, the Beast God will take care of you and the people.”
The village chief took the gold coins trembling, and kneeled down in excitement, saying loudly, “Oh Beast God, our god, thank you for giving us hope!”
Seeing that my goal had been achieved, I stood up, “The matter here is done. I have to continue my mission of helping the other Beastmen to break away from their sufferings. I shall first bid you farewell.”
The village chief held me with his hands, “How can this be? At least eat a meal before you go, or else the Beast God will blame us for neglecting his emissaries.”
The white bear-girl also helped to persuade me, “Yes, yes; stay and eat with us.”
I smiled, “The Beast God is kind, tolerant and forgiving; he will not be angry about something like this. As His emissaries, we must do our utmost when we carry out our mission for the Beast God. We really can no longer delay; I beg for your forgiveness.”
This old fellow of a village chief didn’t want to let me go; he wanted us to stay and eat a meal no matter what I said. Just when we were in the middle of our discussion, Mink suddenly ran in hurriedly. I frowned, “Didn’t I order you to watch over the werewolf? Why did you come in?”
Mink bowed respectfully, “My apologies, young master; the other brothers are watching over the werewolf bandit. You should go out and have a look; the villagers are waiting to see you.”
Wanting to see me? The village chief and I met each other’s eyes, and then I turned around and walked out of the village chief’s home.
The scenery was spectacular. Every villager had surrounded the village chief’s home, and was kneeling on the ground. My guards attempted to help them stand up, but the villagers insisted to kneel and weren’t willing to stand up. The guards couldn’t use violence either, so they were embarrassingly lost, not knowing what to do.
The moment I walked out of the village chiefs home, all the villagers said loudly in unison, “You have our thanks for saving this village.”
Facing such a grand situation, although I did it with a purpose, I felt proud for my actions; I raised my voice and said with some excitement, “Brothers and sisters, everyone please stand up. If you don’t, I will kneel down with you.”
Finishing the sentence I lifted my gown and was about to kneel down; the old village chief who had followed me outside, stopped me from doing so. Seeing this scene, the villagers stood up one after another.
“Everyone doesn’t need to thank me. Like I said at the entrance of the village before, I am an emissary sent by the Beast God to rescue our people. We are representing the Beast God. The Beast God didn’t forget about us and he still cares for his Beastmen people, so as long as everyone can live happily, that will show the greatest appreciation towards that old man. We still have other matters to attend to, so I will have to trouble you to make a way for me, ok?”
Just when I persuaded the villagers, the village chief suddenly shouted,
“Villagers, the emissaries saved us from the verge of the death. Shouldn’t we show them our gratitude properly and be hospitable to them? Can we just let them go like this?”
Immediately, the villagers who were about to make way answered with a high voice in chorus, “No!”
The village chief continued the agitated speech,
“If we let the emissaries of the Beast God leave like this, it would be disrespectful towards the Beast God. And because of this, I decided that every family will take out the most valuable possession they have and gift it to the lord emissaries. How about it?”
“Yes!”
I forced a smile and said, “Elderly village chief, aren’t you making it difficult for me? The commandment of the Beast God was to not take even the smallest things from you. We dare not violate the command of the Beast God.”
The old village chief laughed frank and openly, “We are doing this happily and willingly; the Beast God will not blame you. Everyone can start moving now.”
At this time the sky was no longer overcast with darkness; a beam of bright and beautiful sun rays broke through the thick clouds, spilling onto the land. The sun shone more and more intensely as the black clouds in the sky continuously dispersed. This marvelous scene stunned everyone who was present.
My heart moved and I said with a loud shout, “My fellow siblings, the days of hardship are over now. Can you see it? The dawn of a new era of hope is shining upon us. Together with great effort, and under the leadership of the Beast God, we are heading towards a great life.”
Every villager rejoiced after hearing my speech. A few moments ago, there was nothing but worry and misery, but now it had become like an ocean of cheerfulness and joy.
-end-
