"M-my H-lord," a faint voice rang out. Zhi Cheng turned around. One of the women, she was badly injured and almost dead, was holding one of the children in her arms. Zhi Cheng narrowed his eyes. He had seen a lot in his life, but children's corpses were a sight he could not get used to, even centuries later.
"You just wanted to play," she gasped. Zhi Cheng knelt down.
"That was stupid!" he said. Then he stretched out his hand and snapped the crying, whimpering woman's neck.
"You should have waited just a little longer. Just another day or two and you all would have made it to Chaisang alive," he sighed.
His heart felt heavier than usual. Not because he had just killed an innocent. It was because their deaths were so unnecessary.
If they had listened to Qing Lai, who had warned them not to go too close to the cave exit until reinforcements arrived. But no, she had to go play with the children. Stiff, heavy footsteps caught his attention. Qing Lai had stepped out of the cave behind him.
Zhi Cheng unconsciously stood in front of the children so that he didn't have to watch everything. Qing Lai swallowed.
"Why...?" he asked. Zhi Cheng didn't know what to say.
"Why?" Qing Lai went down on his knees and buried his fingers deep in the forest floor.
Of all the things Zhi Cheng could have told him. From the fact that the children wanted to go and play and had attracted attention, to how stupid people were sometimes, he said nothing.
He wasn't particularly tactful, on the contrary, he usually loved to confront his counterparts with the cold truth, with their own stupidity, and then watch them slowly begin to doubt themselves. But as always, he couldn't bring himself to do it when it was Qing Lai standing in front of him.
"Sometimes you just can't save everyone," he said instead, and it was the nicest thing he could say in this situation. Qing Lai looked up. He didn't comment on Zhi Cheng's clumsy attempt to cheer him up.
"No!" he said sharply. "They were just women and children, loaded down with cloth and flour. Why chase them for days and cannibalize them completely?" he said firmly.
"Even the children. Normally they are kidnapped, sold or kept as slaves. Why were they all slaughtered?" he asked.
Zhi Cheng paused. He had forgotten that beneath the surface of the well-meaning pacifist lurked an ice-cold man of facts. He mourned the death of the women, he felt guilty and responsible, but none of these feelings paralyzed him. They did not make him doubt himself and sink into self-pity. Zhi Cheng frowned.
"Do you want to ask her?" he returned. Qing Lai sat back on his heels and wiped the tears and caked blood from his face. He looked up.
"What they can do, we can do too. Let's retrace their steps and ask them. Brother Qing, I don't think even a hundred of these barbarians would stand a chance against us if there's nothing left to look out for," he objected.
Of course, I could kill those hundreds on my own if I had to, he added in his mind.
Qing Lai's gaze drifted back to the cave. He stood up.
''Let's wash and lay out the body first and mark the path from the main road. My brother will escort them back to their families, I'm sure of it," he said in a raspy voice.
Zhi Cheng suppressed an eye roll, but scoring a point or two didn't seem wrong to him, so he agreed.
Zhi Cheng gasped, gathering the corpses was more exhausting than expected. He had instinctively fought with magic without considering his physical condition. That was now taking its revenge.
His veins burned and itched, the blood that had just started to flow again thickened and coiled like poisonous snakes in his veins.
This wretched night weed. But it was his own fault, he had chosen it himself. It was a very slow-acting poison, but also tough and difficult to remove from the body.
He was actually considering a complete bloodletting? That would knock him out for a few weeks, but it wouldn't kill him. After all, he was already dead. As long as his spiritual core, embedded in his heart, remained intact, there was almost nothing that could kill him.
However, it was difficult to gain some time for himself. Qing Lai was constantly on his tail. Or Zhi Cheng himself got himself into trouble around him.
By midday, they had finished laying the bodies next to each other in the cave, washing them and covering them with the cloths. They had also placed the children next to them.
They carelessly threw the bodies of the abusers into the forest some distance away; the wild animals would take care of this human scum. Then they marked the way back to the main road with colorful scraps of cloth.
The earth was churned up and they could clearly see the tracks of the marauders who had fought their way through the uneven, dense forest for days.
Zhi Cheng walked a few steps behind Qing Lai and watched him. Qing Lai had regained his composure, but the smile on his face had disappeared. Concentrating, he ran through the dense bushes. His suppressed anger was clearly visible in every step.
When they got back to the wide road, the battle scars, dead horses and broken wagons were still visible. While Qing Lai left a note in the last scrap of cloth, Zhi Cheng surveyed the tracks left by the robbers who had fled before them.
They didn't go far across the road and then disappeared into the forest.
"They were looking for something!" said Zhi Cheng, letting his gaze wander over the pile of rubble.
"And they were thorough," Qing Lai agreed with him. The wagons and carriages had been broken open, not a single box or piece of cloth was left inside.
The horses and dead bodies had simply been left lying around. Drag marks showed that some had already fallen victim to the wild animals.
"During the last raids, they let some of the drivers and citizens go so that the remains could be taken away. But this time, they destroyed everything thoroughly and left no one alive, it looks like they were afraid that what they were looking for was taken by someone else," Qing Lai remarked.
Zhi Cheng raised a brow, but didn't say anything back. He had merely borrowed some gold, but it couldn't be this valuable thing that a few barbarians wiped out an entire trade caravan for.
"Highwaymen and looters are usually after three things. Gold, women and something to sharpen their knives on. They have no interest in things like spices and fabrics. They can't do anything with them," said Zhi Cheng, trying not to be completely silent.
Qing Lai stepped forward behind one of the wrecked carriages and watched as Zhi Cheng examined the tracks. Finally, the Ghost King pointed further up the road. Qing Lai followed his finger with his eyes.
''It's possible that they work for someone who has use for these things. But no tea in the world is worth killing nearly a hundred people for," he said.
"They probably didn't expect resistance. They must have thought they had competition and those simple-minded bastards just slaughtered everyone as a precaution. Even the women and children," Zhi Cheng remarked.
Qing Lai clenched his hands into fists. Zhi Cheng could sense the threatening, murderous aura he was exuding. But only a moment later, Qing Lai took a deep breath and relaxed again.
Although Zhi Cheng could clearly see that it was simmering beneath his surface, Qing Lai went ahead with a forced smile.
It was not difficult to trace back. Zhi Cheng knew from experience that they didn't carry their prey far, and from one of their squads, it shouldn't be hard to find their real hiding place.