Mao Yuhan sat on his throne, absentmindedly groping the woman he had forced onto his lap. Xing Lingxin bit her lip to keep from crying. A little ways over, Xing Bai had been chained to a wall, forced to watch what was happening. The blood had drained from his face, but hatred remained clear in his eyes.

“I’m impressed you managed to buy enough time to let your daughter escape. That’s very admirable of you. Guess that makes you two real good parents. But you realize it’s just delaying the inevitable, right? I’ve already sent my idiot son after her. He might be dumber than a box of rocks, but he’s vicious and cruel. He’ll capture her quickly, then break her in.”

“Ngggg!” Xing Lingxin cried in pain as Mao Yuhan pinched her.

“I wonder what sort of expression she’ll have when she comes here and discovers the fate of her parents. What do you think, Bai?”

Xing Bai said nothing. Speaking out was exactly what this man wanted. He wanted Xing Bai to get angry and lash out because that would amuse him, but he wasn’t going to play Mao Yuhan’s games.

“Tch! You two are so boring.”

“Aaaah!”

Mao Yuhan threw Xing Lingxin onto the ground, having grown bored with the woman who refused to even put up a fight. He considered killing them. He wanted to wait until the whole family was together, but maybe it would be best if he just got rid of them now? It wouldn’t be as amusing. However, he was beginning to think nothing they did would amuse him.

“This is the problem with people like you. No matter how much I torture you, you never respond. It’s no fun if you’re not screaming. Maybe I should begin removing your wife’s limbs? Would I get a response then?”

Xing Bai’s lips trembled as Mao Yuhan stood up and walked over to the rack containing his axe. He lifted the weapon and placed it over his shoulder, turned, and marched toward Xing Lingxin.

He walked slowly. He wanted these two to cry out and beg for mercy. He wanted Xing Bai to get angry and swear revenge, but none of that happened. Even after he began standing in front of Xing Lingxin, the two remained silent and merely stared at him.

Mao Yuhan growled as he realized these two weren’t going to give him what he wanted. He had seen their kind before. They understood that responding to his provocations was exactly what he wanted, and so even if he killed this bitch in front of her husband, Xing Bai would remain stoic.

As he pondered whether or not he should just kill her anyway, someone rushed into the chamber, gasping for breath. It was one of his men.

“B-Boss! Mao Zemin…! Mao Zemin was…!”

“What about Mao Zemin?” asked Mao Yuhan, frowning as an unpleasant feeling settled in his gut.

“He… he’s dead!”

“What?!”

Mao Yuhan glared at the man, eyes demanding an explanation. So intense was the look in his eyes that the subordinate stumbled back several steps. His entire body was shaking.

“I… I don’t know what happened. According to what I heard, Mao Zemin’s head was impaled on a stake outside the city.”

Mao Yuhan pushed his subordinate away and marched out of his fortress.

It was early morning and the sun had just risen. Not many people were outside, but the few who were rushed to clear a path the moment Mao Yuhan appeared. They didn’t even dare look at him. This would have normally pleased Mao Yuhan, but his mind was elsewhere at the moment.

He soon reached the city exit, where a crowd of his Raging Boars had gathered. They were all staring at something he couldn’t see because they were in the way.

With a growl, he shouted, “Stand aside!”

“Boss!”

The startled subordinates quickly made way, trembling as he marched passed them, until he finally reached the spot where Mao Zemin’s head was, indeed, impaled on a stake. Mao Yuhan stared at the head for a long time. His son’s eyes were wide open, as was his mouth, and blood dripped from the stump of his neck. Written in blood on the ground were words.

Jian Wu sends his regards.

“B-boss… this is…” One of his subbordunates came up to him and tried to speak, but Mao Yuhan didn’t care to listen.

“So that brat miraculously survived? This is obviously a declaration of war.” Mao Yuhan turned to his men and barked orders. “Gather your weapons! We’re going on a hunt!”

None of his men knew what to do at first, but soon they released a roar that shook the entire city and made for their headquarters. It was hard to say if they were fired up because they wanted revenge, or because they were simply scum like him who enjoyed preying on others. It didn’t matter. So long as they fought and killed the person responsible for this, Mao Yuhan couldn’t care less.

Mao Yuhan looked at the head.

“It seems you were useless to the last. That’s what I get for raising the son of a whore.”

Mao Yuhan was not the type to take a wife. When he had an inch he needed scratched, he would either take someone who gained his interest or head to the local whorehouse if no one he fancied was around. His son was born from one such encounter. The woman had died giving birth. Mao Yuhan, in what was perhaps his single act of kindness, decided to raise the child.

He didn’t particularly care that his son was dead. He had never felt the familial love that was said to come forth when you had a child. Mao Yuhan didn’t understand such obscure feelings and emotions.

But he did understand one thing.

“Jian Wu, you have taken something from me. I have never once allowed someone to get away with stealing what is rightfully mine. I hope you have been washing your neck thoroughly, because I am coming to claim your head!”

He traveled with his men back to his headquarters. While they went to the barracks, he traveled to his throne room. He planned to kill those two since they no longer amused him and had no purpose, and yet, when he entered the throne, he saw no one. Mao Yuhan glanced at the chains that no longer held Xing Bai. He searched the room, but both him and his wife were gone.

It didn’t take him long to realize what happened, and once he did, he released an enraged scream that shook the room.

***

Wu Jian sat alongside Xing Zhenya, Gao Zhou, and Huǒ Shuchang. It was still morning, but the sun had now risen and was making its way west.

“Are you sure antagonizing Mao Yuhan like this is a good idea?” asked Xing Zhenya.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Huǒ Shuchang asked with a raised eyebrow.

Xing Zhenya looked away. “Well… no, but this doesn’t seem like a very good idea.”

“We can’t just sit here, doing nothing. We’ll never defeat Mao Yuhan that way,” Wu Jian stated. “This plan might not be the best, but it’s the one that has the greatest chance of success with the limited firepower we have.” He drew several figured in the ground as though to explain his plan visually. “Luring Mao Yuhan into the Magical Beast Forest gives us a greater range of options. We can also avoid dealing collateral damage to the surrounding buildings. I don’t want innocent civilians getting caught up in this battle.”

Xing Zhenya bit her lip for a moment. “Those are all good points, I guess.”

“What options do we have to confront Mao Yuhan?” asked Gao Zhou.

“We’re not going to confront him right away,” Wu Jian claimed. He could see the question in Gao Zhou’s eyes, so he explained himself. “The Magical Beast Forest is huge. Mao Yuhan won’t be able to simply come here and find us. He’ll have to set up a base to operate out of. He’ll send squads into the forest to sniff us out. Our first step will be to wipe out the squads he sends after us.”

“So you want to whittle away his forces,” Gao Zhou mumbled as he stroked his jaw. “It’s a good plan.”

“Kinda boring though,” Huǒ Shuchang raised his hands defensively when Wu Jian frowned at him. “Don’t get me wrong. I understand this is the safest method we have, but I feel like you’re forgetting about me. Mao Yuhan is half a step into the Asura Realm, yeah? Well, I’m at the first subrealm of the Asura Realm. I could easily take him on if you want me to.”

“No. I want to be the one who fights Mao Yuhan. He beat me pretty badly the last time we fought, so I feel like I need to defeat him to continue moving forward. I’ll stagnate if I can’t overcome this.” Wu Jian shook his head. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t accept your help if it becomes necessary. That man is a menace and needs to die. I can’t even fathom how many people he has murdered and enslaved. I can’t abide by letting a man like that live. If the situation becomes undesirable and it becomes clear I’ll lose, you can deal with him.”

Huǒ Shuchang scratched his head. “Well… all right. I guess I can accept that.”

Wu Jian began going over their plan now that everyone was on the same page. The first thing they needed to do was secure several locations they could use for bases. They would never remain in one place for too long and periodically change locations to make them harder to track.

Another thing they needed to do was scout for key ambush points. This would be hard since they didn’t know where their enemies would show up, but they could lure squads to these ambush points by giving them bait to follow. Of course, since their goal in coming out here would be to kill Wu Jian, he would make the perfect bait.

As they were discussing their plans, a roar that shook the trees distracted them. While Xing Zhenya and Gao Zhou jumped up like a pair of frightened rabbits, Wu Jian turned around just as Yōuměi burst from the trees. The large panther had two people on her back. They were looking a tad harried, with their hair in disarray and their faces drained of blood, but their eyes lit up the moment they landed on Xing Zhenya.

“Daughter!”

“Zhenya!”

“Mother! Father!”

Xing Zhenya burst forward as the pair scrambled off Yōuměi’s back. They were just in time to catch the girl as she ran into them full tilt. Wu Jian winced as the trio fell to the ground, but none of them seemed bothered. They laughed and cried as they embraced each other.

“I had wondered where your magical beast companion went off to, but now I understand. The reason you used Mao Zemin’s head as bait was because you knew it would lure out Mao Yuhan. While he left his headquarters to investigate, you had Yōuměi sneak in to rescue them," said Huǒ Shuchang.

“That’s right.”

“I see. That was another reason you used Mao Zemin’s head as bait to lure Mao Yuhan out,” Gao Zhou said with a contemplative expression. “You knew that doing this would enrage Mao Yuhan and force him out of his headquarters. Then you had Yōuměi infiltrate it and rescue the young lady’s parents. That was a bold move.”

“Fortune favors the bold,” Wu Jian said with a shrug. “Mao Yuhan is the type of person who kills for pleasure or because he’s bored. I’m certain he would have killed those two once we made our move, if for no other reason than because they had no purpose as hostages. Xing Zhenya also wouldn’t be able to focus knowing her parents were in danger. And if they were killed…”

“She’d probably fly into a rage and attack Mao Yuhan by herself,” Gao Zhou said with a nod. He knew exactly where Wu Jian was going.

“Let’s get going, everyone!” Wu Jian shouted to bring everyone’s attention back to where it needed to be.

“Jian Wu… you’re alive.” Xing Bai stood up alongside his wife and daughter, then bowed to him. “I see. You’re the one who rescued us. Thank you very much. My wife and I would have died if not for your intervention.”

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s move quickly. Mao Yuhan will likely head in here with his entire sect soon. We need to establish several safe places to hide and locate areas we can safely ambush his men.”

Wu Jian led his group, now expanded by two, deeper into the Magical Beast Forest. The time to hunt was nigh.