Quin quickly crossed the lake with the girl in his hands and looked around. They were currently at a part of the town where houses were more sparse, as this neighbourhood dealt with agriculture and needed more than just a simple garden for cultivating plants.

He spotted a house not too far away from them and asked while pointing at it, “Is that yours?”

“Yes,” the girl replied.

They heard a couple of high pitched screams just after they started to head toward the girl’s house and soon they were met with a couple of adult Shriekers.

“Hey, I’ll quickly deal with them, just stay here meanwhile, alright?” Quin asked. However, when he was about to put her down, she grasped his hands and looked at him in terror.

Quin let out a small sigh.

“I know that you might be scared, but you don’t have to worry,” he said. “There are only four of them here and it’ll only took me a few moments. You won’t be in danger.” He tried his best to calm her, but seeing that it did not work he continued. “Alright, I can’t really say in any other way, but you’ll be in my way. The Shriekers are absolutely no danger for me, but I simply can’t fight while holding you, plus I have to be careful about my speed as well to not hurt you with it. Look, there really won’t be any problems and I’ll be right back, but they’re closing in.”

The girl had a hint of embarrassment on her face after hearing this, but let go of him as the Shriekers were only about ten meters away from them. He stood up and leapt at them.

After a few slaps and punches pulvarized them, he returned to the girl. She looked at him flabbergasted. Although he had previously killed all the Shriekers that surrounded her, she was in a state of shock during that time and was barely conscious of what was happening around her.

“See, I’ve told you that you don’t have to worry about anything from now on,” Quin said with a smile.

“Y-yes,” she replied weakly and her face was red with embarrassment.

“Come,” he said and lifted her up. “You don’t have to feel bad about it, I know things like these aren’t easy.”

Their house was not too far away, but they still had come across a few groups of Shriekers. Fortunately, she did not have any issues after their first fight.

When they got to the house, they saw that it was in ruins just like its surroundings. Damn, I hope we weren’t too late. He jumped up to a part of the house that looked intact and scanned the area. Ah, there they are! Quin saw a group of people fighting behind the house, a couple hundred meters away from them.

He started running to them without hesitation. That’s six people fighting and two on the ground. Damn, I hope they’re still alive. He had a really bad feeling. From my previous encounters, I thought that the Shriekers were only attacking in single groups, which have anywhere from four to seven members, but this is completely different! There are... Four dead Shriekers and thirty-one of them are still fighting! These people look to be at the first and second level of Qi Culmination and they probably would have no problems with fighting against more Shriekers than their own number, but this many is... Simply overwhelming!

When he was close enough he put down the girl and said, “Stay here, they probably won’t attack you. I’ll also try to make sure they won’t, but if any of them come closer just yell and I’ll be back in a few moments, alright?”

The girl nodded, and though she had seen what he was capable of, she was still somewhat scared at seeing how many Shriekers were there.

With just a single jump, Quin was right in the midst of battle and only the bodies of Shriekers remained after him. One, two... Eight... Their numbers were quickly dwindling and seeing the new threat they decided to focus on him.

He could see as twelve lightning fast tongues were shooting toward him, but this was not the end of it as another four of them were coming at him from each direction. Damn, they’ve got incredible coordination! Their tongues are coming so that I won’t be able to evade any of them and furthermore they aren’t interfering with the other four that want to melee me. Well, it’s time to show them their tongues are worth jackshit to me! There was no fear on his face, only a smirk.

Quin caught four of their tongues and pulled on them with all of his might when they got close enough. In the next moment, the four no longer had tongues and purple blood was flowing from their mouths.

Not wanting to waste time, he leapt straight ahead at one of the creatures who was planning to attack him in melee. He easily crushed its head with a single strike, but it was then when the other tongues reached him.

To the Shriekers’ and the people’s surprise, these attacks simply bounced off of Quin, whose smirk in turn grew wider. Naturally, they fairly hurt him, but they could not even penetrate his skin and they were nothing compared to the various kinds of pain he had been through during the past two years or so.

Quin continued on, and in just about a minute took care each of them.

The six people looked at him with their mouths agape, wondering what had truly happened.

“Alright, I don’t think we should waste much time here,” Quin said firmly. “Is there anyone with water element?” he asked.

“Only me,” a bald and slightly overweight man said. “My name is Tang, thank you for your help.”

“Quin,” he said. “Check those two who are unconscious, and then the girl behind me.”

Though Tang was at least twenty years older than him, he had no issue with Quin’s instruction and got to it right away.

“You’re Quin?” one of the men who was around thirty years old and had semi-long black hair asked. “Aren’t you the Spirit Forming cultivator? Why haven’t you come earlier?! My wife... She’s dead because you just lazed around and didn’t even summon your Spirit! You could’ve saved all of us but now because of you she’s dead!” The man’s eyes were filled with anger and grief.

Quin snorted as he looked at the man.

“You know, after saving your lives I shouldn’t be the one who has to explain himself, but here you are: I didn’t laze around and I’ve got no Spirits. By the way, I also have no obligation to save any of you and though I’m worried about my own family I still spent some extra time to come here. You know, the next time someone saves your life, you should be a bit more thankful.” He knew that the man’s behavior was probably due to his loss and he understood how bad it can be, so although he still said a few things, he took the edge out of his voice.

“Dad!” the girl he had saved before said before the man could even react.

“Mei!” he replied as the girl started to slowly walk toward him. However, just before the girl reached him, his face turned into one filled with anger. “It’s because of you! After your mother escorted you to the lake she came back with her body covered in injuries and she died right after! If she hadn’t done it just for you, she’d still be alive!” The man’s face was quite ugly as it changed between anger and grief constantly.

Mei’s tears started to flow down her face as she heard what had happened.

Damn that fucker! I get that he’s filled with grief, but she’s his own daughter for god’s sake! Quin became filled with anger as well. He could not help but imagine his father in the place of the man and that only made his rage increase.

Quin picked up a stone from the ground and threw at the man. Of course, he did not want to kill him thus the stone only grazed the man’s face but it was enough to make a gash.

He looked left and right until noticing that Quin was glaring at him.

“You should watch your damn mouth!” He said with contempt in his eyes. “The world’s not revolving around you. I know that it isn’t easy, but you shouldn’t try putting the blame on others, especially not on your own daughter.”

He did not really want to preach, but the man had really made him recall his father and his own arrogant behavior as well.

The man snorted and said, “Mind your own business! It’s my daughter and I do what I want!” His entire body was painted red, like a tomato, from anger, and then he slapped Mei so hard that she flew backward a meter or two.

Although Quin did not have a good image of the man, this kind of action was something he did not expect at all and so could not react in time. However, in the next moment he was right before the man and he was clearly beyond furious.

He grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him up, his eyes filled with killing intent. It had been a long time since he was this angry at someone and felt his blood boiling. Naturally, he had no actual intention of killing the man, but wanted to teach him a lesson.

Utter terror was reflected in the man’s eyes as he stared at Quin, and even his life started to flash before him. Quin threw him away after a couple of moments and then saw as Mei, not caring about her own condition, rushed to her father.

He sighed in his heart as he looked at her and was reminded of himself.

“I really want to get going so I won’t waste too much time, but for fuck’s sake get your shit together! Do you think it’s only you who have lost someone to these damn creatures? Do you think that losing your mother is easier? Do something like this again and I won’t let you off so easily.” He paused for a moment. “Just use your damn mind for a moment, who do you think is responsible for all of this? Who do you think you should be truly angry at? Was it me who attacked the city? No, and neither was it your daughter, besides do you really want to respect your wife whose biggest wish was to save your daughter like this? Do you really think that’s what she wanted? You should direct your anger at these vile and disgusting creatures who want nothing more than to destroy us, our families and our civilization. If you behave like that, you aren’t better than them and are actually helping them.” He glared at the man a few more moments and then as he turned back to the crowd he relaxed his expression.

“Alright, now you’ve got two options. First you stay here alone and do your own things or second, you come with me. Though, I can’t completely guarantee your safety, I think you’d be a lot safer with me. But, I don’t really have time to slowly walk with you as I’m concerned about my own family. Fortunately, I’ve seen an intact wagon nearby so if you want to come with me you’ll be traveling on that, while I... Well, I’ll be pulling it.” He let out a chuckle as he imagined that he would be just like a horse.

“Alright, if you want to come start heading toward that direction,” he said as he pointed with his finger. “I’ll get the wagon and will be back in less than half minute.”

With that, he immediately left for the wagon with his fastest speed and the others could only hear a booming sound as the ground exploded under his feet.