Nightingale sat in the first carriage, her slender hand on her chin and the reins in the other, as she watched the scenery along the way.
It had been six days since she left the fairy castle, and she was about to arrive at Blackmoon Town. However, she was unhappy because she saw many refugees along the way, as well as magical beasts and corpses.
She had seen a group of bronze-tier wolves charged into a manor and killed wantonly. She also saw some men dressed as mercenaries worked together to deal with a silver-tier ice monstrous bear, but the magical beast crushed their heads instead. She had never seen a mother kill her child and threw the body out as bait to avoid those magical beasts.
It was an environment where not only the magical beasts were killing humans, but humans were killing each other too.
‘Every winter, the same thing happens. I wonder when it will end? It is different this year too. There are too many magical beasts, and they appear to be stronger. We usually only see silver-tier magical beasts when the season is ending, but we’ve seen a few of them already. I wonder what’s going on?’
She had killed all the magical beasts they came across on their way to Blackmoon Castle; even the Shadow Guards and the astrologer did the same. There were at least tens of thousands of those magical beasts, but that was only a drop in the bucket of magical beasts in the Misty Forest—there were millions of tens of millions of magical beasts there.
Nightingale’s parents were killed by magical beasts ten winters ago. Every time the season arrived, she would think of her parents. The faces in her memories were blurry, but she would never forget the hatred.
Roar!
The sky was dark and heavy with snow.
On a snowy ground not far from the carriages, a few stray dog-shaped magical beasts bit into a corpse that had exposed white bones. They seemed to hear the sound of the wheels. A few wild dogs raised their heads, and blood flowed down their fangs; they noticed the powerful aura of Nightingale and the others, so they lowered their heads again.
Those wild dogs did not have a strong aura; they were only iron-tier magical beasts and simple intelligence.
The wild dogs hesitated, but when they felt that they were no match against Nightingale and the others, they remained at the sides of the road. However, many refugees ran away from the carriages.
The adults covered their children’s eyes while the rest of the refugees took out weapons such as daggers and hoes as they stared at the group of wild dogs vigilantly. Those dogs were only at the iron tier, so they did not have much fighting power. Three or four strong adults could subdue them easily.
The two sides were in a standoff. The wild dogs did not dare to act rashly. Just as the group of refugees was about to pass by the magical beasts, they heard a miserable cry. A middle-aged man’s arm had been completely torn off; he fell onto the ground and hugged his arm as he wailed in pain.
A goshawk with wings that spanned several meters wide fell from the sky and landed beside the man. It chewed on the bloodied arm, and its sharp eyes were filled with cruelty.
“It’s a bronze-tier magical beast—the wind-splitting eagle. Everyone, run!” someone shouted. The remaining refugees scattered like birds. Only a barefoot little girl in shabby clothes ran to the middle-aged man’s side and hugged him as she cried bitterly. “Daddy, What happened to you?Daddy? Don’t leave me behind. Mommy is already dead. I only have you, Daddy!”
After the wind-splitting eagle descended, a few of the wild dogs that were eating rotten meat immediately lowered their heads and howled as they trotted away. Meanwhile, the wind-splitting eagle scanned its surroundings before its glance landed on the middle-aged man and the little girl. It knew that they were the easier prey.
The eagle spread its wing as a green storm enveloped its body; it charged toward the man and the little girl. Its opened claws were sharper than most blades. The little girl’s face was filled with despair as she closed her eyes in fear; the eagle was about to crush their heads.
Whoosh!
At that moment, they heard a sound. A dark light flashed, and the wind-splitting eagle was torn into two.
Nightingale held a dagger in her hand and stretched her right hand toward the girl who had opened her tearful eyes; she had yet to recover from the fear. “Are you okay?”
“Thank you, Sister.” The little girl rubbed her eyes with her fists. Then she smiled at Nightingale. “I’m fine. But my father is injured.”
“Lord Astrologer, please treat that man.” Nightingale turned around and pleaded with the astrologer. Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the ground beside the man began to squirm, and bright flowers bloomed. The released powder touched the man’s shoulder and healed his injuries. His wounds closed, and the blood stopped.
As the wound healed, the middle-aged man stood up with a pale face. He repeatedly kowtowed toward Nightingale and thanked her. “Miss, I thank you enough.”
Nightingale waved her hand and handed the dagger to the little girl. “No need to thank me. All those magical beasts deserve to die. I just did what I should have done! This is my dagger, a silver-tier weapon. You can have it as a defensive tool.”
Nightingale’s soft heart was touched; perhaps she felt a similarity to the little girl.
“Miss, you’re already my benefactor for saving me. How can we still accept your things?”
The middle-aged man refused, but finally, he could not resist Nightingale’s intense gaze. He thanked her again before he took the dagger and left with his daughter.
Before they left, the little girl reluctantly said goodbye to Nightingale. “Big Sister, thank you for the dagger. With it, my father and I should be able to survive. My father is a pastry chef, and his rye bread is very delicious. When we come back, I’ll ask my father to make it for you.”
Nightingale did not say anything. She just smiled and waved her hand, but she felt delighted. Even though she had given away her precious silver-tier weapon, she did not feel the slightest bit of heartache because she felt that she had saved two lives.
At that moment, she heard a sigh from above her head. “What a pity. Those two people won’t be able to walk far before they die.”
Nightingale’s body trembled. She raised her head in disbelief and realized it was the astrologer who had spoken. “Lord Astrologer, they have a weapon now. They don’t need to increase their combat power. A silver-tier dagger is enough to cut bronze-tier or even some silver-gold magical beasts. Their chances of survival should be greatly increased. Why would they die?”
“If you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself.”
The astrologer did not say anything else. He rubbed his hands to trigger the Starfall spell. It formed 24 glowing cards that connected to form a magic mirror.
The image in the mirror was of a one-armed middle-aged man and a little girl who had just left. They brought the body of the wind-splitting eagle that Nightingale had killed back to the group of refugees and distributed the meat.
However, the other refugees did not thank him. They did not ask how he killed the bronze-tier magical beast, but they conspired to kill him and steal his dagger. The last scene in the image was of the little girl squatting alone in front of her father’s corpse and crying. Behind her, several dog-shaped magical beasts were approaching her.
Nightingale’s body trembled as she muttered, “How could that be?” Her face turned pale.
“It’s because of the dagger you gave them; they did not have the strength to wield it. It’s never a good thing to have a precious treasure in your hands as it might get you killed. As one might say, an innocent man will get himself killed,” the astrologer explained to her.
However, Nightingale could no longer listen to him. She turned around and began to walk in the direction the girl had left. She had caused the man’s death, so she had to save the child.
However, just as she took a step forward, a glowing barrier appeared in front of her and stopped her.
“Hey, why are you so reckless?” The astrologer withdrew his right hand that he used to cast magic. “That was not reality, but only something that might happen. They might not be dead.”
“But they might die, right?” Nightingale retorted stubbornly.
“Who in this world is not destined to die? Even if the two of them do not die this winter, they might die in other accidents. You may be able to protect them once, but can you protect them for the rest of their lives?”
The astrologer’s voice gradually became serious. “You want to protect them. What about the others? Should you leave them to die? Since you can’t save everyone, then don’t lend your help to specific people. Saving people selectively is not mercy; it is pride.”
The astrologer’s words shocked Nightingale. After a moment of silence, she returned to the carriage.
The carriages continued to move. Nightingale did not speak again on the way. She only talked when they were near Blackmoon Town. “Lord Astrologer, is there really no way to save everyone? Not even an elite like you have a way to do that?
“There is no way to save everyone in this world; not even a god can do that, let alone me.”
After he comforted Nightingale, the astrologer looked into the distance. “We are already near Blackmoon Town. Don’t let your imagination run wild. Before you think of saving others, you must first let your family and friends live a good life. My disciple, Watson, has done a good job on that.”
Before they left Fairy Castle, he heard that Nightingale and his disciple had a good relationship. That was why he had taught Nightingale some principles while they were on the way. If one wanted to be stronger, one would need to understand the true meaning of the world. There was no difference between the path of cultivation and the path of life.
Nightingale thought about the astrologer’s principles and muttered, “It’s impossible to save everyone.” She looked in the direction of Blackmoon Town. When she saw that it did not matter, she was shocked.
Hundreds of thousands of magical beasts crowded the front of Blackmoon Castle. More than half of those were silver-tier magical beasts, and the lowest ones were bronze-tier magical beasts. That number alone could make one’s heart tremble—those magical beasts were too powerful.
Each of those magical beasts could knock down Blackmoon Castle’s walls with a simple wave of its claws.
Why were there so many magical beasts outside Blackmoon Castle? Did those magical beasts invade the castle?
Nightingale was a little confused, and then she was anxious about the situation. She was about to teleport to help them, but she realized that something was wrong.
The hundreds of thousands of magical beasts in town did not attack anyone.
Instead, they carried large and small ores, herbs, and fruits on their backs. They seemed to have moved out of the Misty Forest and were in a neat formation as they escorted the ragged refugees into Blackmoon Town.
