Chapter 5 : What have to come will come

In the marketplace of the town, Shu was walking out of a shop while sighing to himself:

"Look like everything here have been emptied out too."

He had managed to find some supplies after visiting several houses and only needed another half, but from then on the house that weren't already ransacked became rarer and rarer, he decided to try looking at other area but the center of the town was even emptier. He then decided to go to the market place but it was to no avail.

As he walked by, thinking about going to the north instead, he saw a small store on a remote corner that seemed unbroken, he walked over not hoping for anything much. He saw that the door was closed and the windows were intacts, so he opened the door after smashing the lock, and entered the store, here he found some bags that were unopened, when he opened them and looked inside, what he found was a pleasant surprise to him, there were several loath of breads in some bags while there were cheeses and sausages in the other. This place was the store room of a restaurant nearby that got spared from the raid as the owner must have left in panic leaving them here and the other raider who passed by didn't show any interest for such a small house. 

He loaded everything he could in his bag feeling happy with the harvest. After he finished and was about to leave the small room he saw a long staff reclined beside the door. It had the same length as his wooden stick, he remembered that he lost it in the wild, so he took the staff in exchange to protect himself.

...…

The kid walked on the street of the town as he mused to himself:

"I have more than enough supplies to last for a month, I should get out of here now. I don't know were to go, but it will be dangerous no matter the way I chose so I'll leave it to fate."

He was holding a bag half his weight on his shoulder and a staff on his hand, as he walked to the north side of the town. The street became emptier than several hours ago, most of the people who decided to continue running away were already long gone after taking enough provision, the ones left were those whose will have already collapsed and didn't want to keep running anymore feeling that it was meaningless. They decided to wait and live their last moment here until the end. 

He soon reached the street leading out of the town and he was about to continue his journey. When...

'Swish', a strange whistling noise came from behind him, he stopped and looked back but didn't see anything, he suddenly looked up as he felt something. He saw something fall from the sky at incredible speed coming to his direction.

'Boom !Splash' as it fell several metres before him, it made a deafening noise followed by a shockwave that reached up to him throwing himself backward and raising a cloud of dust. The people in the town heard it and either ran away for their life in panic or shut the door of the houses they were in hidding like ostriches. Shu was scared by the noise and wanted to run away too. He greeted his teeth and went forward disregarding the dust while griping his bag and staff musing to himself 'I will sprint away as fast as I can'. 

As he shot out with all his might and prepared to make his escape; he suddenly saw a small crater on the road before him, it was from the thing that fell.From the sky before. Up close, it was possible to see the silhouette of a person lying in it; the person's face couldn't be seen clearly but he stopped moving forward as his hair stood on end. 

 Shu had seen many atrocious things in his life in the slum, and even when the dark wolves attacked in the wilderness he responded quickly to run away, but it was different this time. For the first time in his short life, he felt such a fear so that he didn't even have the courage to run away or to scream but just stood here starring at the person before him not daring to make a single move.

 He understood immediately, this feeling was when a prey met a predator far beyond its understanding, in front of such power the only thing it could do was just waiting for its fate whether it would be killed in an instant or if the predator wouldn't care about it. 

Shu had never felt so helpless, he dared fighting adults if they attacked and showed the cunningness to hid and run when thing were not in his favor, but right now he couldn't even think in font of this person's presence, his head was blank.

 After several minutes which seemed to last a lifetime, the dust began to settle down and the image of the person lying here became clearer, it was a middle aged man wearing a very damaged black robe with traces of burnt. When Shu looked over, he found out soon that the man's body was in a very bad shape, half of it was burned like charcoal including a part of his face where the skin looked like it was melting, it was an hideous sight to say the least; it would be surprising for him to be still alive in this state but there was still a breath even if it was very faint. 

Seeing the man's terrible state, the kid didn't panick as his mood somewhat calmed down instead, for him whoever this terrifying person was didn't matter, it was still better if for the man to be dead than alive.

 He was just about to release a breath in relief as he escaped disaster, when the man's eyes suddenly opened, his stare was turned in his direction. Shu felt his heart leap in his throat and broke into cold sweats, those cold eyes didn't hold any regard for him, they were conveying and indifference as if looking at an ant. The kid felt intimidated under such a gaze but this time he wasn't immobile anymore, he released the breath and did something completely outside of his own expectation. 

'Bam' Under the disheveled hair on his dirty face he showed an indifferent expression with cold eyes on his own, he calmly raised the staff in his hand and hit the middle aged man in the head with all his might, it could have been a reaction out of instinct, or a show of his unwillingness to live in fear under the look, but this blow actually drew the last breath out of the middle aged man. The man's eyes showed disbelief and indignation as they began to dime losing their luster.

 Shu was breathing heavily after the ordeal, he looked a bit confused about his own action; but he collected himself rapidly as there were more important things to do. He didn't care about the man's indignation as he did what he had always done after finishing a prey off, he looted the middle aged man of his belonging and didn't even spare his cloths and shoes before putting them in his bag with his supply of foods and water, he then began to run away as fast as he could from this darned place, he didn't know what could happen next so the farther the better.

 As the back view of the kid was going further away from the town into the wilderness, he didn't know that a young man wearing a white daoist robe, who was floating in the sky, was looking at his disappearing silhouette with an inscrutable expression. After he went out of sight, the young man then turned tot he middle aged man's corps which still had the eyes wide open. He looked at him and said:

"To die by the hand of a mortal child, even if you were an enemy and only a mortal transcending cultivator, you must feel a great indignation in your way to the afterlife. Let me send you on your way."

The young man then waved his hand and a red fire appeared and flew over, it burned the middle aged man's corps turning into ash that drifted away in the wind, the man then flew away in a flash leaving this place. 

After several hours, the residents who hid themselves saw that there wasn't anything happening after the huge sound, they walked out of the houses and began to continue their life waiting for the what was to come, they didn't know that the war wouldn't continue heading in their way anymore. And after several days, an envoy came to the town holding a decree , it was stating that from now on this town was a part of their country's territory and they were citizens under the Skynight kingdom.