Chapter 113: Points.

Chapter 113: Points.Neither of the two saviors got out of the skirmish unscathed. Both had their elegant robes torn and were covered in blood – their own and that of their opponents. But for some reason they didn’t even notice their own condition and began to bicker the moment the fight was over. And the strangest part was – the reason for bickering were the five people in Victoria’s house.

"Alright, Hanchen, you had your fun. You can leave now!" The guy who earlier wielded fire, slowly walked over, and said.

"You’re kidding, right?" The one with his hair tied in the bun, said, "Chi Yanzhen, I just saved these people! Why would I leave?"

"What do you mean, saved? I put a lot of effort in rescuing the running kid and in the process saved the rest!" Chi Yanzhen said.

"That’s not how it works!" Hanchen said, "I was here before you arrived and these four points are mine. I can give you the scrawny one, but that’s it."

"Give? Li Hanchen, who do you think you are?" Chi Yanzhen was getting angry, "I’ll take you on right here, come!"

"Why don’t you chill? You know we’re evenly matched and us fighting it out is pointless." Li Hanchen said, "I’d suggest we try to find more humans. Elder said there might be many in the mines. They supposedly stretch for hundreds of miles – that’s a lot of ground to cover."

’What the hell is going on?’ Lee thought, gawking at the two young men outside.

Not only he wasn’t killed, a couple of guys showed up from nowhere and acted as if they owned the place. And the strangest part was – one of them somehow had the power to wield ice.

"Hmph! ... chill ... Only because you have a mutated spark, doesn’t mean you’re puns are funny." Chi Yanzhen said, as if intentionally clearing up Lee’s confusion, "But fine, take those four rescue points as a favor from me. I guess it’s better for us to deliver these and then go and look for some more. Otherwise we’ll be dead last, even you with only for rescued humans."

"Good! I always knew you were a reasonable person!" Li Hanchen said, but then turned to the people in the broken house, and said, "Get your sorry asses up and march over to the rift gate! You can thank me later for saving you, now go!"



Needless to say, this was probably the first time someone dared to order Victoria around, but even she didn’t dare to utter an objection. These guys were at least at her father’s level, if not stronger.

"Wait!" Chi Yanzhen said, after taking a couple steps closer to the house. Then he pointed at Deen, and said, "You! Carry my guy! He has a broken leg. You don’t expect this Young Master to do the dirty work, do you?!"

"But ... he’s not one of us ..." Deen blurted, after throwing a glance at the princess.

"Was I asking you, dickhead?" All it took was for Chi Yanzhen to look at Deen, and the guy was scared shitless. It didn’t matter anymore what she thought, there was another boss in town.

"Sorry, Young Master!" Deen politely said, and went to pick Lee up.

Only now Lee realized one of his Legs were broken, and the earlier dose of adrenaline didn’t let him feel pain. Obviously he wasn’t worried – it would heal overnight, at least I should. But he was wondering why these people were talking in the Ashland’s dialect.

It took him a while to realize that the mushroom probably hadn’t lied. It was actually possible the language was more wide spread than he expected.

***

The way to the rift gate turned out to be a long, but not a boring one. The two saviors continuously argued, but from their discussion Lee found out they were old rivals, competing in everything from the early childhood. And even though they seemed angry at each other, it was easy to tell they were good friends.

While their relationship was amusing, it was more important that they were from another world, sent here as a part of some kind of competition. The goal was to save as many humans as possible, and for every human saved, they would get respective points.

The only one in the group who wasn’t happily smiling was the princess. She was obviously humiliated by how dirty and worn out she looked, that she had to be saved, and more importantly – all she was worth was a point in some kind of competition.

But she didn’t dare to raise any objections. No matter what she felt, she was finally getting out of here.

***

"Hahaha! Chi Yanzhen! Only five?" A jeering voice met the group when they arrived in the wide field in front of the rift gate.



There were hundreds of people gathered here, mostly muddle headed slaves, but next to them stood proud youths, dressed in fancy robes of different colors, looking like merchants in a cattle market.

The one who spoke was a tall, young man, dressed in a sky blue robe, with similarly long hair to Chi Yanzhen. And while Yanzhen’s and Hanchen’s bickering was friendly, Lee’s savior clearly didn’t like this guy.

"Piss off, Han Fenglie!" Chi Yanzhen said, but despite the contents of the speech he sounded proud, "Four of them are Hanchen’s! But even if my guy has a broken leg, he is more worth than the slaves you got there! You might’ve as well piled up rocks and claimed you rescued them! Look, are these even people?"

Not only Lee, everyone who heard had to agree with him. In fact, it was impossible to not have this thought after seeing the condition the former slaves were in.

’Unlucky.’ Lee thought, ’These guys probably didn’t have a chance in this damned place. The constant degradation of mind everyone experiences here is horrifying. I doubt anyone can actually save them ...’

"Alright, let’s register our haul." Li Hanchen said, "We still have a bit of time. Maybe we can get some more points till departure ..."

"Fuck! What an idiot!" Lee’s loud curse interrupted him.

Lee couldn’t forgive himself he only remembered it now, but even though he smacked his own forehead, to the bystanders it looked like he was cursing Li Hanchen. The latter’s expression turned ugly, and Han Fenglie’s roaring laughter didn’t help the situation.

Even Victoria was ready to smack the kid with the broken leg dead. No matter how humiliating was them getting saved, she was not ready to die in Ashland only because these haughty young masters got pissed off. But the worst of all felt Deen, who was currently carrying the perpetrator on his back.

But Lee didn’t care. He quickly glanced around, and said, "Master Chi Yanzhen, may we have a word?"

"What the hell?" Chi Yanzhen was slightly shocked, "How come you speak with no accent?"

"How much time do we have?" Lee said, ignoring his question.

"You have no more time." Hearing Li Hanchen’s angry hiss, Lee felt the temperature in the surroundings drop. The guy was even surrounded by a thin, white mist of cold from how angry he was. He said, "Yanzhen, you’ll take one of mine points. I can live with three!"

Deen didn’t care anymore he was ordered to carry Lee. He dropped the dangerous luggage and rushed few steps away.



The fall hurt, but Lee was surprised by the sudden development and didn’t realize his earlier blurt signed his death sentence. Fortunately Chi Yanzhen stepped in.

"Chill, Hanchen!" He imitated his friend’s remark from earlier, and said to Lee, "Don’t piss him off like that!"

"I’m sorry?" Lee wasn’t sure what he had done, but it didn’t matter. He said, "There are around fifty human children working at a blob farm. Do we have time to save them?"

"What’s a blob?" Li Hanchen’s asked, and his attitude immediately changed. He couldn’t blame Lee for the reaction if the stakes were what he said.

"You’re a blob!" Chi Yanzhen said, "Where are they?"

"Far." Lee said, "Really far. That’s why I’m asking how much time do we have ..."

"Damn it!" Chi Yanzhen cursed to himself and bit his lip, helplessly looking around, "Probably not enough ... How old are they? No, wait! How long ago were they brought here?"

Lee could only applaud the guy’s intelligence.

One would expect a fire-wielding monster like him to be quick-tempered and dumb, but it was surprising that he was even more cool-headed than his friend. His question was actually whether the children could be saved unlike the former slaves he was seeing all around, sitting in batches, with lifeless looks on their faces.

Inwardly praising the guy, Lee said, "Approximately a year. But most should be around five or six years old, so not completely lost cases."

"So be it! Fuck it!" It took few moments for Chi Yanzhen to decide, and Lee didn’t even notice he was on the guy’s back, his eyes all teared up from the speed they were running at. The guy didn’t care his luggage had a broken extremity, and even held a bag.

"Which direction?" Yanzhen asked, and turned slightly right, following Lee’s pointed finger.