Beastmaster of the Ages

Shi Xiao’s future was immeasurably bright. He was young, but his cultivation was catching up to the adults’. There was no way they would get on his bad side while he was still young.

”What about you guys?” the brothers asked, scanning the faces of the others.

”Speak! Does anyone disagree?!”

The villagers nervously shifted; the mother and daughter were simply unfortunate. As much as most of the villagers didn’t really want to mess with them, they wouldn’t stand up for them either.

”That’s right! It’s a fair punishment.”

”They almost killed the future of our village! How heinous!”

”Beibei, Shi Xiao’s usually so good to you. How could you do that to him? You’re truly wicked. You need divine punishment!”

”You deserve to be made a public surrogate!”

”That’s right! Punish her! Burn Aunt Hua to death! Let’s get this over with!”

None of them hesitated to croak at the two of them as if they had actually committed a grave sin. Aunt Hua’s eyes widened as she stared at her former friends and neighbors. Her eyes immediately turned red and tears of despair flowed down her face. Their village was their entire world, and there were only so many people, yet all of them had chosen to stand with Shi Xiao. As small as their number was, to Aunt Hua and Beibei, they were the people of their entire world. How could they possibly resist?

”Mom, what’s a public surrogate?” Beibei didn’t even know about the concept due to her relative immaturity. While she was still bullied when her father was around, that was brushed off as roughhousing between children, unlike the complete persecution they were facing now. She couldn’t even imagine the ills the world had in store for her.

”It’s... it’s....” Aunt Hua’s voice was stuck in her throat at the sheer horror of having to explain the concept to her daughter.

”Let me tell you, you fool! I gave you face by desiring you, yet you tried to kill me! Hehehe...” Shi Xiao chuckled as he looked at Beibei, delighting in her expression of fear. ”Public surrogates are kept locked up and offered to anyone in the village to deposit their seed! The only reason for your existence will be to increase the population of the village until you die! Hahaha!”

Shi Xiao had finished venting. When he saw Beibei’s worsening gaze as she slumped weakly and helplessly on the ground, he was utterly satisfied.

”What’d you think it would be? Did you think life was all about happiness?” Shi Xiao crossed his arms with delight. ”Happiness and pleasure exclusively belong to people like me. People like you were born to be workhorses and cattle for us. Do you understand what the world is truly like now? Have you learned to fear reality? It’s too late.”

Beibei and her mother knelt together. She tightly held her mother’s hand. They had naively thought that going along with Shi Xiao’s whims and serving him would be the worst of it, but alas, they didn’t understand the depths of his depravity, nor the reality of the world that they lived in.

Beibei slowly looked up at the mob. Apart from Shi Xiao and his family members, the others of the fifty-plus people didn’t dare to meet her eyes. Some of the older men even stole a glance at her figure, poorly veiling their lust and desire. Even they would be able to partake in public surrogates. That was why they hesitated and actually considered agreeing to Shi Xiao’s suggestion. A lone mother with xeno fatigue and her daughter were easy prey in the eyes of the villagers. The more the light faded from Beibei’s eyes, the more they relished in her suffering. It was a truly breathtaking display of humanity.

”What’re you waiting for? Take her away, and burn the other! We’ll provide the cosmic artifact required to bind the public surrogate! I’ll have my way with her today. When I’m done, the rest of you can enjoy her!” Shi Xiao said. The pain in his back still stung to the bone. He had never been this badly hurt ever in his life.

”Take her away!”

”Burn Aunt Hua first. Let’s use xenofire. It leaves no trace and the curse won’t spread to others.”

”To be honest, I wanted to call for her burning the day she got the fatigue!”

”This family is horrific. The man was fierce and combative and never paid his debts. Who knows what the woman did to deserve a divine punishment like this? That brat was also foolish enough to collude with an outworlder.... What a family of ingrates!” They made sure to curse louder in an attempt to curry favor with Shi Xiao.

”Take them away!”

”Let me do it!”

”I’ll burn Aunt Hua!”

”Hey, don’t fight me for the chance to do it!”

They even scrambled to do the deed. Beibei’s tears had long dried up. Like a soulless puppet, she lay unmoving in her mother’s embrace. ”Mom, is this what life amounts to?”

The mother merely sniffled without being able to say a single word.

”I don’t want to live anymore. Take me with you. I don’t want to live if this is what living is,” Beibei said, forcing a smile.

”I... I don’t have enough energy to kill you,” Aunt Hua said, utterly tragic.

”Split them apart! Take them away! Don’t give them a chance to kill themselves!” Shi Xiao yelled.

”Yes!”

The mob swarmed in to part them, dark figures reveling in their misfortune as they did so. Hell existed in the hearts of men. Beibei felt that her heart had stopped beating, when all of a sudden, her body felt lighter! Not only was she still hugging her mother tightly, a snow-white vine wrapped around them and flung them high, then dropped them in a snow-white lily.

”A tree....” Beibei looked around, stunned, before she snapped out of it. A large tree had sprouted in the yard of their house! It had sword-shaped leaves and six brilliant flowers, as well as countless vines and branches. Black roots also shifted under the ground. How could a tree move?

”What’s this?” She pinched herself to check if she was dreaming. When the tree had sprouted, the other villagers had been sent flying. She even saw a few beasts in the empty village! One of them was a two-headed dragon covered in swords and rings of stars. In the sky, a crimson-black phoenix of flame soared. And beside the tree was a black-and-white liger-like electric beast. There were also quite a lot of metallic insects all over the place, forming a sea that engulfed the entire village. Most importantly, she saw a familiar silhouette in the middle of all the beasts. It was the white-haired youth with a scaly black left arm, dressed in black and gold robes. He stood there with an air of righteousness.