Chapter 392: Chapter 392. Nothing is Over!

“Aahhh…!!!” The woman screamed when he saw the man who raped her getting his head squashed. She turned to her son and saw that her son was no longer held. The other man was on the ground with his head rolling away.

“Mother…!” Her son ran to her and hugged her.

Amon stood and wiped his hand off the blood and brain of the man whose head he just crushed.

The woman stopped being hysterical after being embraced by her son. Amon also didn’t show any sign of aggression toward them. After calming down, she realized she was naked. She was ashamed as she futilely tried to cover herself. Her clothes had been ripped apart by the man who raped her, and she didn’t have any other clothes.

Amon took a set of women’s clothes out of his space ring. They were Tuang Yin’s. She often left her clothes in his residence during the academy years. After her passing, he just dumped those clothes into his space ring. He gave the clothes to the naked woman.

“Tha–Thank you…,” the woman said.

“Thank you, mister!” The son also expressed his gratitude. His eyes were glimmering as he stared at Amon.

“Why are you and your son in this place?” Amon asked.

“Why…? Because we live here,” the woman answered as she wore the clothes.

“Live here? It’s nothing but ruins here. How do you survive?”

“We live in a small community over there,” the woman said as she pointed in a direction. “We were the residents of this city who refused to leave. We thought about rebuilding this city.”

“How did that go?” Amon asked.

“… Not well,” the woman answered. “Without the kingdom’s aid, there is nothing much we can do. It is already difficult for us to pass each day. We survive mostly by scavenging goods around this city, but it is getting harder to find valuable things with each passing day. More than half the people who chose to stay have left.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“We can’t… We are not cultivators. During the first year after the city was destroyed, there were still kingdom squads who came to offer us safe passage to other settlements.”

“You should have followed them,” Amon remarked.

“I know… At the time, my husband was still unwilling to leave this place. He remained clinging to the hope that one day this city will be rebuilt.”

“Where is he now?”

“He is… dead. He got into a conflict with another scavenger. That scavenger turned out to be a cultivator, and he lost his life…”

“No one comes anymore now?”

“Not really. Sometimes, there are trade caravans who come to trade food and supplies with the goods we scavenged from this city. People who want to leave this town ride with them.”

“Why didn’t you?” Amon repeated his previous question.

“Because we must pay for the ride using aer stones. We don’t have any,” the woman answered.

“I see,” Amon said. “Considering you are this city’s citizen, do you know anything about the people from the Royal Academy?”

The woman nodded. “From what I know, they stayed for a few months. I don’t know for sure, but I heard people saying they finally decided to leave because their hidden treasure had been stolen. After they left, most of the kingdom’s people left with them. All the clans and half the surviving citizens followed them. We who decided to stay are left to fend for ourselves after that.”

Hearing that, Amon understood the one who stopped this city from getting rebuilt was also him. If the Royal Academy still had the Spring of Life, they would have stayed. Without the spring, it didn’t justify the cost of rebuilding. The kingdom must have decided to forget about this city altogether and leave it to fate.

Amon took some aer stones from his space ring and handed them to the woman. “For you to pay for safe passage to another town.”

“This… This is too many,” the woman uttered in surprise.

“Keep them. They were trivial sums to me,” Amon replied. “But don’t show them off. You will just invite trouble.”

The woman understood. She hid the aer stones inside her clothes.

“Thank you, sir. You are truly kind,” the woman told Amon.

“Mister! When I grow up, I want to be a hero like you!” The son exclaimed.

Amon was amused to hear that. He was the furthest thing from a hero. If only they knew their suffering was his fault.

“Then train hard to be a powerful cultivator,” Amon told the kid. “Maybe someday you may enact revenge on the person who had destroyed this city.”

“Yes. When I grow up, I will help the kingdom eradicate those evil rebels!”

Amon mentioned person, not people, but he didn’t bother explaining. He turned around and started walking.

“Where… Where are you going, kind sir?” The woman called.

“Away from this place. I suggest you do the same,” Amon answered.

“But… We don’t know where to go… This place is all we know. We don’t know anyone in other cities.”

“Anywhere is better than here,” Amon replied. He never stopped walking away.

—————

In the Capital, the Golden Stone City, Xin Wuming had a meeting with Gao Lan, Lu Fei, Qiang Dan, and San Guo. Xin Wuming and the others left Qishurg City after the kingdom decided to abandon it. They chose the capital because this was one of the two places Amon told them to gather if an emergency happened.

They brought all the surviving members of the Vicious Faction and the Demon Gang to this capital, which was quite a number. Half of their members were outside Qishurg City when the disaster happened. They hurried back when they heard the news, but by the time they arrived, the city was already in ruins.

Most of the Vicious Faction members joined the military. This was because they were Royal Academy students. The Royal Academy was dissolved after the incident. The staff was relocated by the kingdom to handle other affairs. All students who were willing were given special privileges to join the military, but they started at lower ranks compared to if they completed the academy the normal way.

Xin Wuming chose not to join the military. If he joined, he would lose his freedom and have to go to places the military told him to go. He wasn’t willing to do that because, to this day, he still believed that Amon was still alive and would one day come back to them.

Yang Li, who was also a Vicious Faction member, didn’t have the same reservation. She joined the military with many other Vicious members.

The remaining Vicious Faction stayed with Xin Wuming and worked with San Guo. The ones who stayed were mostly those who helped Amon in Qishurg City’s secret workshops, such as Ah Bin and other students who focused on specialist jobs. San Guo opened a legal workshop in the capital and put them to work honest jobs.

Over the years, San Guo had grown to become a respectable businessman in Golden Stone City. On the outside, he was a law-abiding citizen. Supporting him from the shadow was the Demon Gang led by Gao Lan. Together, they benefited from one another.

Lu Fei and Qiang Dan remained Demon Gang members, assisting Gao Lan. Xin Wuming followed San Guo. San Guo established a courier service named Fortune Escort Company, which was given to Xin Wuming to manage. They provided transport services for valuable goods and escort services for important people, ensuring their safety to their destinations. Most of the combat-oriented members of the Vicious Faction who chose not to join the military worked here.

Currently, there was trouble with their operation.

“Another caravan was ambushed?” San Guo asked.

Xin Wuming nodded. “This has been the third caravan we lost. Though attacks by bandits are not rare, they are mostly uncoordinated. Our people may suffer wounds, but they never completely lose the goods. These three assaults, however, were very methodical. It is as if we were targeted.”

“I think it is safe to assume that to be the case,” Gao Lan said. “All three assaults happened when we used your courier service to smuggle our drugs.”

Sometimes, the Demon Gang used Xin Wuming’s courier service to smuggle illegal goods or criminals in and out of the capital.

“It must be those Gao people,” Qiang Dan stated.

“They are never a fan of us,” Lu Fei said. “I heard our late boss caused their clan members quite a headache in the Royal Academy.”

“Big Brother Amon is not yet dead. Please don’t refer to him as if he is,” Xin Wuming said.

“My apologies,” Lu Fei replied.

“Wuming, I know your feelings, but maybe it is time to face reality. It has been five years, after all,” San Guo said.

Xin Wuming shook his head and said, “You were not there when big brother gathered us, but he once said, unless we witness his dead body, nothing is over! We should never assume that he is gone. I know he is still alive and will one day return to lead us again!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep