All the huts were burning in fire, and forced the villagers to come out. They ran for their lives, but in no way could they out run the winged Aniesians. There was blood everywhere, on the side of the huts, on the dead bodies, and might even seeped through the soil.

Oh, the screams!

These were the worst screams I had ever heard of, like they came directly from a horror movie.

Sparkles were everything.

Grandpa Jin’s sparkles were so gentle and helped to grow plants, but all these were plain weapons. Based on the manipulator, the sparkles could turn to arrows, swords, and all kinds of unknown weapons.

The villagers were being slaughtered right in front of my eyes, and the Aniesians were making their way toward the little hut.

A strong hand grabbed my elbow, “LiNa, get up! Hurry! Get up!”

I thought that no matter what happened, I wouldn’t be scared at all since I had died once. It turned out that dying was not enough to make me strong to witness such a scene. I had seen slaughters in movies many times, but they were not real. This was real, right in front of me, so bloody and cruel!

So bloody and cruel!!

That my legs completely went numb and didn’t know how to walk anymore!

I was a freaking coward!

“Get up! LiNa!!!”

Grandpa Jin’s voice finally penetrated through my ears and woke me up from all this devastation. I thought of Grandma Sha and her crippled leg, oh, how I just hated myself so much for being such a coward!

We couldn’t waste a second!

I got up and found my strength to run toward the hut. We were so close, yes so close……………

Grandma Sha was right in front of us, just a couple feet away, smiling with tears in her eyes.

-----------------------SWISH-----------------------!

An arrow pierced through Grandma Sha’s heart, and went out the other end!

She fell down hard on the ground, blood started staining the clothes and spreading fast. All this time, she was looking toward us, as if we were the only ones she was reluctant to part with.

“Grandma Sha!!”

I shouted, almost losing my mind, and wanted to run toward her.

I wanted to hug her and found the best herbs to heal her injuries. Demons won’t die so easily, right? That young man was the color of blueberries when I found him, and his body was full of wounds with maggots, and he was able to pull it through.

Grandma Sha only had one wound in the chest, there was a great chance she would live, right?

Suddenly a strong hand grabbed hold of my elbow.

It was Grandpa Jin…………

His deep eyes were foggy and filled with fathomless grief, “No, LiNa……No……..”

“Grandpa Jin! We have to save her! Please, we have to!”

“It’s too late, everything is too late.”

What did that mean? Too late? How could a little wound possibly take a demon’s life!? Grandma Sha couldn’t die this way! It was just so unfair. She was the sweetest soul I had ever met. If it wasn’t her gentle care, I would have been long gone. She had cured my homesickness, and made me feel the love of a family again.

Please…..this couldn’t be happening………..

“Run…..LiNa……old man………run………!”

Grandma Sha coughed up a huge amount of blood and stared at our direction. She urged so many times for us to leave, to just go without her. Every time, her voice would get more and more faint and helpless, until she uttered the last breath.

“Run…………..”

She finally closed her eyes.

If it wasn’t for all the blood stains, she seemed to have fallen asleep on a warm sunny afternoon while sewing our rugged garments. She seemed so peaceful, yet, there were tear stains on the corner of her eyes.

“Grandma Sha………….”

Warm tears rolled down my cheek unnoticeably, and blurred out my vision. I kept on wiping my eyes because I wanted to see Grandma Sha’s face, but it didn’t matter how hard I wiped away the tears, more kept coming uncontrollably.

There was a knife stabbing my heart, so sharp and viciously as if it wanted to cut my heart to pieces.

Sparkles started to form on Grandma Sha’s body. I recalled when the Spotty Boar died, it turned to fairy dust too and rose toward the sky. It was returning to the embrace of Goddess Aniela.

Did that mean…………

Grandma Sha was dead…………?

Her body was getting more and more transparent, it was turning into countless golden sparkles and headed toward the sky.

I shook my head slowly, unable to accept the reality. Oh, the sparkles blurred out. They were so pretty, yet so painful to see.

Then finally every trace of Grandma Sha’s body was gone. All that was left were the rising sparkles and the pure white holy pearl flowing in the air. The pearl slowly rose until, all of a sudden, interrupted by a flag of wings.

A hand got hold of the pearl, and absorbed into the center of his palm.

“This is not enough! Keep an eye on all of them, don’t let a single pearl escape from here!”

He seemed to be the leader of all these Aniesians. After catching the holy pearl, he landed on the ground in a blink of an eye. They all wore a face covering, so it was hard to tell their appearance. All I noticed was that their clothes were made of silk and mainly white color. They seemed to come from a higher status class. Based on the arrogant voice tone and merciless stares, this was probably not the first time they had slaughtered a village.

The group of Aniesians treated the villagers no more than dirt.

I wasn’t afraid anymore, but filled with extreme anger. I came from a civilized modern world, and I had never thought of hurting or killing someone, but after witnessing the death of Grandma Sha and all the villagers, it had changed every one of my morals. The thought of revenge built inside second by second. If I survived this, one day I would gain enough power and take revenge. Grandma Sha did not deserve to die in this way, no one in any world should die in such a savage way.

The Aniesian leader said to his subordinate in a cold tone, “Here are two more pearls, you can go to the other side. I will stay here to take care of these two lowlives.”

“Yes, sir.” His subordinate nodded and flew off.

The brown hair Aniesian flew over, expanding his wings and casted a huge shadow on us. The closer he was the more pressure I could feel from the air, although he wasn’t using any magic arts yet. There seemed to be an invisible aura surrounding the winged man.

“Lowlife, don’t struggle anymore. You are no way a competitor of a winged Aniesian!”

Grandpa Jin looked up, “In no way you can qualify yourself as Aniesian! A real Aniesian will not murder innocent civilians. See all the bodies laying here, you are nothing but a savage murderer, a pearl hunter! Yes, you have wings, but you don’t deserve such blessings from heaven. One day, karma will come around and you will pay for all this!”

That man was irritated by Grandpa Jin’s challenging words, he moved his hand and immediately formed a huge circle of water!

“You outcasts are worth less than dirt, contributing your holy pearl to us is the greatest honor of your life. You should be grateful to have this chance. Ungrateful lowlives, today is your funeral!”

Inside the circle of water, a sharp water blade was forming. It kept getting brighter and brighter, as if building up some kind of powerful energy from the surroundings.

It was getting very windy, like we were in the center of a tornado. I could barely stand still.

Grandpa Jin whispered to me, “LiNa, I won’t be able to protect you, but I am confident that I can escape. You must go, otherwise we will both die here. I will let you know when it’s time, you hear me! I promise I will find you no matter what!”

I understood his point because I was nothing but a burden. If we both stayed here, we would have no chance. Grandpa Jin might be right, this was the only chance for us.

“You promise me,” I said with firmness.

“Yes, I promise you.” His eyes shone under the sun, then laughed out loud at the brown hair pearl hunter.

“LiNa, you have seen me grow plants, but never have seen it this way before. Now pay extra attention, this is the REAL way of plant cultivation!”

Right before the man executed the blade toward us, three sprouts sprung out from the soil and grew into gigantic purple plants. Each of the leaves was as big as a cooking pan! The stalks grew into the sky and seemed to know the location of the hunter, and grabbed hold of his body with all the veins, even the blade was frozen in place!

All this happened within the blink of an eye!