novelraw Chapter 30 : Chapter 30
Chapter 30 : Chapter 30
Chapter 30: Fleeing the Disaster
In the darkness ahead, the steadily growing firelight announced that the town over there was suffering the same invasion.
No one in the carriage spoke.
Behind them, quite a few townsfolk from Wheatfield Town had already escaped. They were gasping for breath, their faces obscured by the darkness, their expressions impossible to make out, though they could not possibly look very good.
It seemed as though their bodies were nearly at the point of collapse. They kept bending over to catch their breath, and they too noticed the distant firelight.
Some of the townsfolk cried out in alarm, but after that, there was only one more layer of gloom upon them. It changed nothing.
Behind them, the flames of Wheatfield Town were still rising, nearly enough to burn every house to the ground.
The blaze was so bright that it even illuminated the road where they were.
Gradually, yet another pillar of fire rose. Jiang Lin turned to look. It was a village about a dozen kilometers away from Wheatfield Town.
That place had also been ravaged by beastmen.
It seemed these beastmen were not merely looting one or two villages or towns. They intended to plunder every settlement within Gerson Territory.
That only made Jiang Lin more certain that this was a premeditated operation.
There was a very high chance that this beastman plunder was connected to Gerson City, and connected to that Demon Girl.
The death of the old lord was very likely the source of all this.
Jiang Lin had no desire to become involved in such a war. As he mulled it over, it seemed he could not remain here any longer. At the very least, he had to find a relatively stable place to cultivate.
He simply did not know whether, aside from Gerson Territory, the other territories had also suffered beastman invasions.
If that was truly the case, then he needed to leave even more.
The scale of this beastman assault was obviously enormous.
The carriage continued onward as Jiang Lin silently controlled it, making sure it did not stray from the road.
Among the townsfolk who had escaped behind them, there suddenly came the sound of someone collapsing.
Then a cry of alarm rose at once.
“Ande can’t hold on anymore! Mrs. Heath, please let him ride in your carriage!”
The townsfolk helped the fallen man to his feet and stared intently at the two ladies seated in the carriage, Mrs. Heath and Martie.
Mrs. Heath hesitated for a while, but wisely made no response at all. She even turned to glance at Jiang Lin sitting at the front, and after that, she became even more certain of her decision.
Seeing that she showed no reaction, the townsfolk shifted their gaze to Martie.
“Miss Martie, for the sake of him being a regular at your tavern, please take him with you. We are all from the same town. Please, do not be so coldhearted.”
Before Martie could speak, Mrs. Heath, as though something had touched a nerve, suddenly lifted her head to glare at the townsfolk chasing after the carriage and said through clenched teeth,
“Damn it, so you still remember that we are all from the same town? Then when I was in danger just now, you clearly heard my cries for help, so why did you run away?”
As she spoke, Mrs. Heath’s chest heaved violently, and she muttered in a low voice,
“Please forgive my foul language. These people are simply too shameless...”
The servants keeping pace by the carriage also stared at the townsfolk. They were the same. If not for Jiang Lin, they would already have been killed and eaten by those beastmen.
The townsfolk shouted a few more times, but seeing that neither Mrs. Heath nor Martie in the carriage was moved in the slightest,
they simply shut their mouths and wisely stopped saying anything more. After all, seated in the carriage was a Baroness, along with several of her servants.
There was no point in arguing any further.
No one who had managed to escape was a fool.
The carriage moved at a steady pace along the country road. On both sides lay black wilderness overgrown with weeds.
In the darkness, those weeds, half the height of a man, swayed gently in the wind, giving off a feeling of unknown dread.
The Kerosene Lamp hanging from the carriage illuminated only a limited patch of dim yellow light. The townsfolk behind followed closely, unwilling to fall behind the group no matter how exhausted they were.
They looked at the Kerosene Lamp hanging from the carriage. Perhaps only that faint yellow light could offer them a trace of comfort.
Jiang Lin’s Divine Sense swept the rear. Of all the townsfolk of Wheatfield Town who had escaped, there were only around a dozen left.
For a town of more than a hundred households, not even one in ten had made it out.
Their faces were filthy and disheveled, cast in gloom. Some had not even had time to put on proper clothes.
All of them kept their heads lowered and followed in silence without saying a word.
After confirming that no beastmen were pursuing them from behind, Jiang Lin spread his Divine Sense to both sides of the road.
At a time like this, he could not afford to be careless.
Although those goblins were not very intelligent, the beastmen behind them were clearly ruthless creatures. There was no way they would fail to realize that some townsfolk had escaped.
If Gerson City learned of this, it would quickly organize soldiers to come and suppress them.
Unless these beastmen intended only to plunder the nearby villages and towns before retreating back into Dusk Forest.
As his Divine Sense swept outward, it seemed that something was slowly moving within the waist-high weeds on both sides.
Those figures lurked in the grass, savage in appearance, with powerful hind legs and sharp claws.
They were obviously capable of explosive bursts of speed. At that moment, the beastmen moved with extreme caution as they slowly approached the carriage and the townsfolk.
But no matter what, they could never have imagined that such concealment was completely useless in front of Jiang Lin.
“As expected...”
Jiang Lin’s expression remained calm as he drove the carriage. With his right hand, he lightly formed a sword art. In the dim yellow light, one illusory sword shadow after another condensed from Spiritual Power. Then, with a sudden sharp hum, they shot into the weeds on both sides.
They drew no attention at all.
The sword shadows streaked through the darkness at high speed, piercing toward the backs of those lurking beastmen’s necks.
A moment later, everything was as it had been.
Only now, there were a few more beastman corpses hidden in the weeds.
After that, nothing else happened.
By the second half of the night, Martie woke from a light sleep and took over control of the carriage.
Jiang Lin did not rest either. He merely sat beside Martie with his eyes closed, quietly resting his mind.
Mrs. Heath, meanwhile, had long since curled up in the carriage, casually spreading hay beneath herself as bedding, and had fallen into a deep sleep.
The servants who had been following alongside the carriage were all yawning again and again, but they still forced back their drowsiness and kept themselves alert.
The townsfolk behind were the same. None of them dared to rest, nor did they dare to stop.
They were terrified that the beastmen would catch up.
“Aren’t you going to rest a little?” Martie rubbed her eyes, still seeming unable to shake off her drowsiness.
“It is fine. If Miss Martie is sleepy, I can take over,” Jiang Lin said with a smile, shaking his head.
“How could that do? We agreed that I would help you in the second half of the night,” Martie said stubbornly. Then, as though she had suddenly thought of something, her expression turned miserable as she looked at him.
“We forgot something very important.”
Jiang Lin was briefly taken aback. He did not immediately think of what she meant.
Martie pulled a long face. “We forgot to take the money with us...”
“That was money I worked so hard to save...”
Hearing the deep grief in her voice, Jiang Lin did not really know how to comfort her.
For this young woman, it truly was something worth grieving over.
“As long as you are alive, that is enough. Money is an external possession. You can earn it again.”
Jiang Lin offered a rather plain sort of comfort. Then he took out a Silver Coin and handed it to Martie.
“For you. Consider it your starting capital.”
One Silver Coin was equal to one thousand Copper Coins, and one Gold Coin was equal to ten Silver Coins.
This was the common currency of the Central Nations, jointly issued by the Lors Empire and the other kingdoms. On it were inscribed words of blessing representing eternal friendship and peace.
It also symbolized the lasting friendship and peace of the Central Nations.
Holding the money, Martie’s mood visibly improved.
Even so, she still looked somewhat lost as she stared into the darkness ahead, uncertain of what she ought to do in the future.