Chapter 114: Detour.

Chapter 114: Detour.They didn’t manage to run far when Li Hanchen caught up.

"What took you so long?" Yanzhen asked, not slowing down.

"Had to tell Han Fenglie to register the four guys we saved." Hanchen said. There was no sign left from the previous bickering, nor competitiveness.

"He’s an ass. Are you sure he won’t scam you?" Yanzhen said, but Lee interrupted them.

"We need a large wagon, guys." He said, "Otherwise it’ll take three days to get the kids back."

"Fuck!" Chi Yanzhen cursed again, and stopped in his tracks.

Li Hanchen also stopped, and said, "We won’t make it!"

"I know ..." Chi Yanzhen agreed with a downcast expression, and bit his thumb.

"I did instruct Han Fenglie to tell elder Wang we had an important matter to take care of, though." Li Hanchen said, and grinned.

"Motherfucker! This is not the right time to fool around!" Chi Yanzhen said, picked Lee up again, and dashed away at the speed that made Lee dizzy.

He was certain neither of them used the power of a wind spark, but they were running faster than race cars. All Lee wished for was for him to have goggles to shield eyes from the wind in his face, or even better – a safety helmet.



Lee didn’t remember the short route to the blob farm. He was brought to Ashland long ago, and was trying to meditate most of the road anyway. Because of that, he was forced to guide the two in the direction of the fortress first, till the mine where he and Butalax had the meal, and then to the farm.

His two saviors weren’t happy with the detour, but Lee explained that this was the best place to get a wagon if they didn’t want to bring one from Ashland.

And then the actual fun part began.

The two guys didn’t bother to take one larger wagon, but picked one smaller each and started to race which one would get to the farm faster. It was a spectacular sight to see how the two, covered in dried blood, with torn robes and their long hair fluttering in the wind, charged through the endless fields of gray, finding fun in a damned place where normal people lost their minds.

***

’This will be bad!’ Lee thought to himself when they arrived at the farm the moment the blood moon rose.

Three grownups and over a hundred and fifty children were kneeling toward it, performing their daily prayer. It was a normal sight in this world, but the two guys pushing the wagons weren’t thrilled to see that. Lee felt a burst of heat and cold erupt at the same time, and under the terrified eyes of the kids, the three adults were beheaded.

Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen weren’t satisfied, though. But since there was nowhere to vent their anger, they quickly separated human children from the rest and piled up in wagons, ignoring the many shouts of panic and crying.

It was clear that the kids would never recover from the psychological damage, but it was still better for them to leave this place, no matter where they were brought.

Except for Lee, no one cared for the children of other races being left behind, but judging from the attitude his two saviors showed, for them it was safer to stay. He could also sigh in relief, seeing that Butalax wasn’t around. The guy was probably in the fields, overseeing the shift that was currently herding blobs, and that, luckily, saved his life.

Surprisingly Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen didn’t need directions to return back to Ashland. The moment the last kid was in the wagon, the earlier race resumed.

To calm the kids down, Lee spoke to them in the Sunwell dialect, shocking them out of their wits. But then he got an idea and began to sing,

"Rolling down the hill so free,

A wagon’s wheels hum with glee.



Bouncing, swaying wind in hair,

A ride of joy without a care."

Surprisingly, hearing the song, everyone calmed down in an instant. Not that Lee was any good at singing, exactly the opposite. But it was the song that Tess used to sing him when they left Maryport, escaping from the rebels all those years ago, and, as it turned out, every child has heard it before.

When the group reached Ashland, almost all children were singing on their own, and it’s impossible to describe how much it pissed their two rescuers off. But it was the only song Lee could remember, and the kids were set on singing it like they were hypnotized.

Upon their arrival, there were only four people at the rift gate. At that moment Lee was too far to notice how their initial annoyed expressions changed to ones full of shock, except for one, which grew even darker. But everyone quickly recovered, and when the wagons were unloaded, faces of the people at the gate were full of displeasure.

Noticing Lunax standing next to two men, and a woman with stunningly large breasts, all dressed in fancy robes, Lee’s feet grew cold. After taking a deep breath, he mostly calmed down and climbed out of the wagon on his own, although limping.

"You two bastards! Do you even realize how much inconvenience you have caused?" The moment they arrived, the woman began to scold Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen.

"Sorry, Master!" Both deeply bowed, apologizing at the same time.

"Do you think this is some kind of a game?" The woman seemed furious, but there was a strange glint in her eyes that indicated that, in fact, she was amused.

"Sorry, Master!" Both repeated again.

"Who are these children?" She shouted, putting her fists on her hips, clearly playing the role of a stern madam.

"We saved them." Chi Yanzhen said, "We implore you to divide the results between the two of us."

"How do you expect me to do that with thirty seven kids? Do you want me to cut one in halves?" She barked at them.

On the way back Lee already guessed many children had been lost during the past year. From what he remembered, upon arrival there was over fifty of them. Of course, it was nothing compared to the amount kidnapped from Sunwell, but these were children they could save.



"Cut the crap!" A slightly older man, bold, with a short, white beard interrupted her, "You played around for too long and for the late return you two are disqualified! No points for you, slackers! No, that’s not enough! You’ll be locked up in the tower for three months without a chance to talk to anyone!"

"Yes, Elder Wang" Neither Chi Yanzhen nor Li Hanchen batted an eye and immediately bowed towards the man.

"And you there! Yes, you troublemaker!" The elder pointed at Lee, "For leading two of our disciples astray, you’ll be cleaning their rooms for the time they are locked up!"

Lee didn’t particularly care if he became a maid for three months even if he had to do the cleaning limping on one leg. Saving almost forty kids was surely worth it. He was worried, though, about the two guys who got the prison sentence just like that.

But he was the only clueless one here. What Lee didn’t know was that them leaving was witnessed by the people standing in air above Ashland. The two rapidly departing figures were in too much of a rush to remain unnoticed. Lee, being carried on the back of one of them was also seen, and his role in the matter was too easy to guess.

What he also didn’t know was that elder Wang gave out incredible rewards instead of punishments, even to him.

The present people, including Lunax, realized that, but formally the initiative of the two had to be punished because technically they broke the rules. After the return, the punishment would be announced in a slightly different form, and most likely the reward part was going to remain a secret.

While getting punished wasn’t the best thing in the world, Lee was more concerned about the way Lunax looked at him. The fake God was either displeased with his involvement in the rescue, or the man knew Lee was the one who broke into his vault.

Thankfully, a moment later the bearded guy appeared on the top of the rift gate and, under Lee’s stupefied eyes, smacked his both palms on the gate, casually opening a rift.

"What are you waiting for? Get going!" He shouted, and both Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen urged the kids to enter the rift as if they were shepherds herding cattle.

Lee followed behind, but the moment he was about to enter, heard the big breasted woman say, "Alright, LunLun, stay safe. You can do anything you want, but stop kidnapping humans!"

The almighty God of Ashland, the amazing Lunax whom hundreds of thousands of people prayed to, was actually some random LunLun. Hearing this, Lee tripped right at the gate and tumbled through, landing face-first in the lush grass on the other side.