Ch. 21 - Leaving for Rosewood City

As soon as Xiong Hu had left, Xiao Huoyan once again fell to the floor, but this time he did not lose consciousness, and nor did he cry.

He felt scared. He had just killed several people without blinking, and worse was the fact that he did not regret it this time. He was himself, yet he enjoyed their scared expressions, the feeling of being superior to everyone else. He even enjoyed the sound of their screams as he absorbed all of their lifeforce.

He used to tell himself that it was not his fault when he killed others. He used to tell himself that it was the 'victim's' fault for provoking him. Since he lost himself and turned into some kind of crazy demon, he did not fully blame himself for killing others, but now it was… different.

This time, not only did he kill several other human beings without losing his control first, he even enjoyed every single moment of it. And that was what scared him the most.

He did not stay on the floor for especially long. After a while, he came back to his senses and remembered that he actually had somewhere to go. He had to go to Rosewood City to look for his uncle.

He was sure that he had seen a map in Jin Long's old room, so he went back to look for it. He quickly found it in the second drawer closest to the bed. He thought it would be a shame if everything were to be stolen when he was away.

The Jin Clan seemed to have a lot of enemies, so he sorted everything into different categories and then he used different Space Rings to store everything.

"Off I go", he said to himself and quickly set off towards Rosewood City to look for his uncle.

He started to get thirsty, which was completely normal since he had already walked for a few hours. He knew that he had food in one of his storage rings, but he had forgotten to bring water. Food does not really help when you are thirsty.

He decided to walk to the closest village to ask for some water. He continued to walk for almost two hours, then he reached a small village.

Everyone was staring at him as he walked around the village. At first he thought it was kind of strange, but then he remembered. He had forgotten to take a shower and was still covered in blood. It was not his blood, but the villagers did not know that.

He continued to walk a little bit more, then he just went to a random house and knocked on the door. A moment later, a teenage girl opened the door.

As soon as she saw Xiao Huoyan standing in front of her door while covered in blood, she began to cry.

"Why are you crying, pretty sister?"

Xiao Huoyan did not know anyone in this village. Therefore, he decided to act as a pitiful child until he knew if he could trust them.

"Oh I-I--"

"--Who is it sweetie?", the girl's mother asked while on her way to the door.

The girl did not know what to answer, and before she could ask for Xiao Huoyan's name, her mother had already arrived at the door.

"Oh my!"

Her mother yelled in surprise when she saw Xiao Huoyan standing there covered in blood, with only a map in his hands.

"H-hello, pretty lady!"

Xiao Huoyan said and bowed respectfully.

"Oh, dear please come in and tell us what happened to you!"

"Are you sure it is f-fine? I am pretty dirty and I do not want to dirty anything in your lovely house, pretty lady."

"Oh, nonsense! Please, come in dear!"

"F-fine, t-thank you."

Xiao Huoyan followed the mother and daughter in. He did not like to act like a pitiful and lonely child, but he still did not know if he could trust them.

"Uhm, would you like to take a bath first? I will warm a bath for you if you would like."

"N-no, thank you pretty sister. I-I do not want to disturb you, I j-just came to ask f-for water."

"It is fine dear. Please take a bath and then tell us about what happened to you, okay?"

"O-okay, thank you pretty lady and pretty sister."

Xiao Huoyan went to take a bath and then went straight to the kitchen. He could hear the pair of mother and daughter whispering about him. They seemed to genuinely care for him. For some reason, it actually felt quite nice to have someone care for him.

"I-I finished. Thank you."

"Great! I am sorry, but we do not have any boy's clothes here but I can go and ask the neighbours for a set off clothes. I am sure it is fine."

"O-oh, it is fine. I already washed my clothes and dried them. It is fine now, but thank you anyways."

"How come they're already dry, dear?"

Xiao Huoyan could not come up with any decent lie, so he decided to tell them the truth. He was not going to tell them everything about him, nor everything about the incident, but it could not hurt to tell them that he used Demonic Flame to dry his clothes. He could tell them the truth… or at least a part of it.

"I j-just…"

Xiao Huoyan said while holding out his hand. Then he used Demonic Flame. A small black flame seemed to appear from his hand.

"Oh, so you are a Cultivator!"