The Cannibals

Kai watched as the group of ignorant country bumpkins raise their sticks and metal bars to intimidate Zhai Lin who remained calm. They wanted to get their message across the factory owner and maybe if they hurt his visitors he will know they mean business.

These people are desperate and at this point they are willing to do anything to get food and water. It was a dark day when those who ate the snow started dying suddenly. People have thus run out of a possible source for water. This made their already perilous situation even more miserable.

As people in the country side with very little interaction with the government, they can only squeeze the local big shot and try to get as much benefits as possible before he is squeezed to death.

The group started attacking. Zhai Lin didn't stay passive and retaliated with a series of movements bringing the group next to him to the ground unable to move. Most fell due to their comrades carelessness.

For an onlooker if seems funny but the people involved excluding Zhai Lin are in pain and some even have broken bones. Seeing the miserable people on the ground, the rest backed off and made room for Zhai Lin to walk forward.

He got the key from a guard and turned around to leave. He looked at the resentful crowd and gave them a dazzling smile in return. "Your problems are not bigger than mine. Your struggles are yours to endure, involving an outsider like me will only add to whatever misery your are going through. I can be a real villain in your story. So I advise you to choose your opponents carefully next time." He left them after said these words.

"So cool." Kai felt the heroic spirit of his creation. The tone of his voice, the lazy attitude in the eyes and the posture of someone lecturing a group of misbehaving children gave such a contrast to the content of his words.

Kai got chills as excitement coursed through his body at the realization of just how perfect his creation is. Snapping out of his stupor, he met Zhai Lin half way and they made it to the warehouse. Kai released the hundreds of thousands in dollars worth of food and water in the overly large warehouse.

He then went to the factory and got himself inside without triggering the alarm system. The factory warehouse is full of varying designs of tiles, wall papers, ceiling boards, cement.

Kai is very pleased with the quantity and the quality of the stock. Inside his Castle, there is a place reserved for storage and it is very big. He moved all the stock inside and exited the tile factory.

The security who is supposed to be on guard is no where to be seen. Kai had been wearing a different face while removing things from the warehouse and he brought his signal jammer with him so no cameras could record him.

The same night, Zhai Lin gave back the keys. It was not until later that the factory owner realized his entire warehouse had been robbed that he knew why the mysterious man never asked for them to escort him to retrieve the stock, he had already taken it.

Kai didn't know about how the factory owner would use the supplies to compensate the workers nor did he care. Those were some of the stuff he stole from the Wen family in the west provinces. At this point, it is like a drop of water in the ocean.

Kai went to check out the houses in the deep rural areas were some of the people don't even bother sending their children to school. The houses are muddy and there are dead animals on the way. It is snowing but the place is very muddy. This place is filled with rice fields.

It seems he came when they were having a community meeting. These people look really poor. The clothes they are wearing is barely enough to shield them from the cold yet they stood in the open space listening to an old man reading from an ugly book.

"The gods we worship are angered by the sins of our children. If we sacrifice them and use their bodies as soup and nourishment we might survive." The man said and no one disputed him. It is evident they are either afraid or they are ready to eat the children.

This place was hit even harder when the crops started dying and the animals from the nearby mountains got more aggressive and came fir the cattle. The people have been hungry and thirsty for weeks. Many or them died, so the remaining people will do anything to live. And this even man is taking advantage of the desperation to damn them all to hell. Kai assumed this man Is probably an evil incarnate of a demon from the hell dimension.

But it is not his place to judge, he has plenty of food and people have non. It is easy to sit on a high horse and judge those who are on the low platform. He just wonders if he can get that which he seeks from this place. While he is searching, the man speaking said something interesting.

"It will not be any of the good children but the ones who have sinned against the gods. These two. Ye family members are sinful and the girl is pregnant out of wedlock. She is the one bringing the wrath of the gods to us." The man spoke with conviction, not that the people around need convincing.

"Yes father." The villagers had visible relief on their faces that it didn't have to be their children who are sacrificed. Kai is dazed at this meeting. That girl is so small she seems 14 or younger, who impregnates a 14 year old?

The boy next to the girl is very angry, something about the look in his eyes that makes ones skill crawl. Like a beast on the verge of snapping and killing everyone. What has he gone through to make his eyes like that?

But he doesn't have any energy to say anything, much like his sister. Their rations were taken from them the day their mother died from an unknown illness a few months ago. His sister has been assaulted and humiliated in this village he hates himself for being weak, but most importantly he hates these people. Every last one of them.

Their father used to be strong but was killed by the village chief because he thought he will take his position. Now he finds new ways to torture them everyday. He contemplated killing himself but his sister will be all alone then. He wished there was a way for him to be strong.

He prays for a miracle all the time but nothing has changed. He wants to die together with all these people and cleanse the world of these sinners who want to eat them. They want to chop them up and boil their bodies into soup. He feels rage the likes of which burns his organs with a terrible flame.

Hate. He hates so much that it consumes him inside out. These people have gone too far and then some.

Helpless. This is his reality. Ye Lang's eyes turned red and the veins on his face became prominent.

"Prepare, we will appease the gods and dine in the flesh of the great sinners today!"

The people of the village are very scared of the village chief because he is said to have power that can vanquish his enemies in a matter of a day.

This place is superstitious and when all those who went against the village chief or showed potential to surpass him started dying off one by one they bought into his nonsense that he is a chosen advocate for a higher being.

This village is very far from the world and the city, there are not even schools around the place. The most authoritative person here is the village chief and he is an evil bastard drunk on power. Kai shook his head and continued watching.

A few women were designated the task of washing the siblings clean. They were then brought to the ceremonial stage and someone was to slit their throats and gather some of their blood for the thirsty villagers to drink before they gutted the offering.

The girl is pregnant! How evil does one need to be to want to consume the blood of a pregnant woman who is underage? Kai felt his stomach churning.

Just as the creepy old man they call 'the priest' approached the siblings with a knife, Kai released a bold of lightning and strikes the man turning him into ashes. The priest is walking and the next moment a powerful lightning came from above his head and attacked him. Then his form turned into ashes and followed the wind.

The villagers became so scared they scattered in fear leaving the siblings who are watching the scene with apathy.

Seeing the man who was supposed to kill them die so miserably did not bring joy to the twins. Instead they were just staring at the place without any change in their expressions. Kai saw that the two people have lost the will to live. Perhaps they are not the right subjects for his experiment.

He decided to aske them. He used his telepathy for the first time in this way. Theoretically Kai can control humans, animals and other lifeforms of low intelligence but he hadn't focused on such a things before.

"Do you wish to live? You can nod if you do. I will leave you be if you have given up." His voice entered the minds of the two teenagers. It is a soothing voice with some form of power.

The two looked at each other. Their parents were killed in a ploy and if they die like this, they will never hold the ones who did it, accountable for their crimes. They nodded simultaneously as if they have one mind.

Kai saw it but he didn't immediately released them. "I have a way to make you strong but I need you to become my slave. I can not trust you otherwise. Do you agree? It will not be painless either." He warned.

The two people nodded again so he took them into the basement of his castle where it is impossible to see the outside and walked away, leaving the village behind.

Kai have just killed a man but he didn't care. His heart didn't even jump as he sent a crazy man to hell. It felt like something he had done before but he chose not to dwell on the details and accept the two new slaves.

The two were sent to the underground space of the castle since he hasn't given them the slave mark. He pulled them out as soon as he was almost by the gate. Kai gave them warm clothes to wear. They then walked the rest of the way.

Kai found the soldiers patrolling the villa area and he became curious, why are they still here after he gave them the Payne battery formula? The Huo family is not a low income family with no extra safe houses.

It is baffling why they are still here. The siblings looked around and what they saw scared them. The intimidating soldiers standing guard preventing their entry.

Kai showed them proof that he is a residence here. The solders looked at the twins noticing their malnourished bodies. Sunken skin, visible bones and dark complexion. They can tell even as the twins are wearing padded clothes that they are very thin inside those clothes.

They wondered where did they come from. A guard looked at Kai as silently asking him to explain their situation. Kai however, had not time for gossip.

"They are my guests." He went inside in a slow pace because the two people don't have energy even after he gave them fasting pills. He is aware that he can not put a liquid chip inside these two since they are malnourished and one is pregnant but he brought them in anyways.

"What are your names?" Kai asked softly but they still flinched at his voice. They must have been through a lot to be this jumpy.

The boy spoke, his accent is very thick "We are called Ye Ling and Ye Lang, I am Ye Lang. Are you the god who saved us?" He asked with great courage.

"I am not a god, but I did save you. This is an exchange so don't think of me as a savior but someone who can give you something you want in exchange for your absolute loyalty." Kai said strictly. The twins nodded and bowed.

"But first I need to get you two into shape. You are too weak like this, luckily I have the perfect tools."

When they made it to the villa, Kai prepared rooms for them but the girl is pregnant and he doesn't want her to take stairs everyday so he went to speak to Tang Mai.

"Let me get this straight, you brought home two orphans who are twins and one of them is pregnant?" Qingyu asked him when he heard his explanation to Tang Mai.

"I need them for something and their neighbors were planning of cooking them tonight so I took them away. I just need Tang Mai to switch bedrooms and take one in the first floor."

"It's okay. You took us in when we had no where to go." Qingyu said but Tang Mai seems to be thinking of something.

"I want something for the inconvenience." She said.

"Ye Ling is pregnant and they are both malnourished with her brother so they will be having full meals however many times a day they want." Kai smirked at her expression.

"I could include you to this arrangement but you need to start working out. Do we have a deal?" Kai asked her.

"Once..."

"Two times a day and I will get you a personal trainer." Kai smiled when he saw her blinking silly.

"Relax, he will be here for the twins."

"Fine, two times a day. I can handle it." Good. Kai can tick the good guy box. He is being insistent on making her work out because she is a foodie and it is very easy for those to get fat again and she is getting a heart disease. He saw it is still at the development stage so she can not afford to lose time.

...