Just like Quin had told them, it did not take a long time for him to get the wagon. Although they felt a bit strange, the nine people -- including the unconscious ones -- quickly entered it.

“Alright, everyone’s ready?” Quin asked. Seeing them nodding, he set off.

Fortunately, the vehicle was of good quality and Quin did not have to worry much about pulling it at fast speeds. It also helped that they were near the road that led to the part of the town he was going.

He was quite surprised at the ferocity of the attack on Hounxi, as on their way they had come across numerous groups of Shriekers, which made it seem like there was no end to them. Naturally, he took care of them and the number of survivors under his care soon increased to seventeen. Now the wagon was almost fully packed with people and Quin thanked the heavens that he had found it in top-notch shape.

It took him a couple of minutes to finally get to his destination due to the constant fights that plagued him. He looked around and did not see any trace of Shriekers in the vicinity, so he let out a sigh.

“I don’t see any here,” he said. “I’ll go check the situation inside and will be back shortly. Meanwhile the ones who can still fight stand guard, and if anything happens just holler.” He looked at the crowd and saw that the majority of them had already started moving.

Quin quickly entered the building, but did not dare to take it easy and remained as cautious as he could. They’re not in the living room... They’re not in the kitchen either... Damn, I really hope nothing bad happened to them! He felt anxious as worry inside his heart rapidly grew. Maybe they’re in the inner garden?

He started to hear various voices as he reached closer to the inner garden, but he could not make them out . Fearing that something bad was going on, he increased his speed to the top and basically barged through the door.

There, in the inner garden, he saw all of them looking at him, confused. Thank the heavens they are fine! He let out a long sigh.

“Quin, what’s the problem?” his mother asked him.

“You haven’t even noticed?” he looked at them dumbstruck.

“What?” Xia asked back a bit worried.

“The whole town is under attack, it’s... It’s basically swarmed by Shriekers. I have come here from the inn and had to kill my way through. I was worried that you were attacked as well, but I came across a few people and just couldn’t leave them there... I, I was coming as fast as I could, but there was so many of them that it took so much time... I was so worried that...”

Quin finally dared to relax a bit and lower his guard, as now he saw that they were fine and he was among people who were close to him. A couple of different emotions hit him and he realized how afraid he had been that something would happen to them. Although he had put up a tough front during the entire time, it was only because he had suppressed his true feelings and was aware of the danger they were in.

The only time he had fought enemies whose numbers were comparable to this was during his Coming of Age Ceremony. Even though there was no doubt that he was a lot stronger than them and he had also been through deadly battles more than once, it still did not mean he was completely without fear or stress.

His mother walked to him and hugged him, while gently stroking his head.

“Hey, it’s alright,” she said. “Nothing happened to us, and you did good by saving people.”

Quin hugged her back and stayed like that for a few moments. His mother knew him very well and could calm him down with just a few words. He was already a young man and not a kid, but being next to his mother made him completely relaxed. Despite how he was sure that he was stronger than her, he felt in complete safety near her.

He let out a long sigh and gathered himself after a few moments.

“There are seventeen people outside currently, waiting for me, what should we do?” he asked. “The Shriekers I’ve come across weren’t my match, but you can never know, so maybe we should stay here as they didn’t seem to be interested in this area.”

His mother looked at him and understood that Quin did not want to risk their safety.

“There are a lot of people living in the city and among them a lot of our acquaintances; I don’t think we should just hide here while they are fighting and dying to the Shriekers, Quin,” his mother told him.

Quin thought for a moment and then answered, “If you think that’s the right choice, then alright. Gather your stuff and come outside, I’ll be waiting for you there.”

She’s been sleeping through the whole time! He looked at Faiyi with a smile, who was peacefully sleeping on a blanket.

Though Quin did not want to risk things and would have preferred to stay in this area, he knew what his mother said was right. Besides, he was quite confident in his ability to deal with those monsters.

“Alright guys,” he said to the crowd outside, “The people to whom I’ve been looking for are fortunately all fine and will be coming out in just a few minutes. Then, we’ll be going back to the town to help the others with fighting and to kill each of these fucking monsters. This area wasn’t attacked by them, though I don’t know if it’s something permanent or just temporary. You can choose to stay here or come with us.”

They looked at him a bit hesitantly and started to talk among each other for some time. In the end, each of them decided to follow him. It was not something he was surprised about, as they had seen him fight more than ten adult Shriekers without breaking a sweat and naturally, they felt reassured when next to him.

Now they numbered twenty-five with his mother, Faiyi, Fei, Xia, Zhai and three of their servants in tow. The wagon was filled to the brim with the crowd of people, but it still had no problems.

They did not meet with any Shriekers for a few minutes, but their numbers increased continuously as they got closer to the town center. It looks like the town center is having a rough time currently, but it shouldn’t take too long for us to get there.

He stopped suddenly as he spotted a group of more than forty Shriekers about a hundred meters in front of them and wanted to keep the others some distance away.

“Just like usual, the stronger ones take guard, I’ll be back shortly,” he said, but as he looked at his mother he noticed her worried expression.

She knew that her son was rather strong and although she saw him fighting, up to this time he was only fighting groups with nine or ten Shriekers. In contrast, this group had more than four times as many members, which filled her with worry.

“Don’t worry mom,” Quin said with a smile. “I may get a couple of bruises, but that’s all.” He laughed and then turned around.

When he got closer he became shocked at what he saw. There were two people in the middle of the Shriekers and though they were not looking so good, they were still able to hold their ground. Both of them were actually quite tall -- taller than two meters -- and had silverish white hair that reached to the middle of their backs. They were also wearing clothes Quin had never seen before which had the same color as their hair. To be honest, to him it looked like they were made out of their own hair. They shared a very similar facial structure as well and it took him a moment to realize that their genders were actually different.

Although he stopped for a moment in surprise, he quickly collected himself and jumped straight into the fray as he saw the bad shape they were in.

With his lightning fast speed, he attacked without catching the Shriekers attention for a breath’s of time, and that was enough for him to reach the couple.

He could catch a moment’s confusion in the two strangers’ eyes after he arrived, but they quickly realized his intention. Both of them were wielding a shield and a medium sized saber, and were doing their best to cooperate with him during the fight.

All three of them were constantly bombarded by the Shriekers’ sharp tongues, even from above. Strange, I knew that their larvae could fly and assumed that the adults could as well, but this is the first time I’ve seen them doing so.

Quin had caught a few of their tongues, and ripped them out just like usual, while planning to let the others crash into his body.

It was then when the silver haired man jumped in front of him, and the woman to his back. They started to shine with a silver light and their shields extended into a half dome, creating a full one together.

None of the Shriekers’ attacks were able to penetrate the shields and bounced off of them. However, it did not come without a cost as both of them spat out a mouthful of blood. Though, they did not say a word, the man looked at him with a hint of anger and irritation.

Hm, so they saw my strength, but thought that I was just fighting recklessly. I guess they could only see just an inexperienced young man in me.

“I’m grateful to you, but you should focus on defending yourself,” Quin said and saw that he was not too convinced. “Don’t worry, I really won’t have any problems. Anyways, we don’t have time to waste!”

With that he leapt forward without giving his opponents time to react, and crushed the skull of five of them in an instant.