Chapter 79: Peace of a Moment

That’s a small Chapter, can be ignored if you want to its a transition Chapter, thank you do reading.

Chapter 79: Peace of a Moment

Mo Fei’s Glaive rushed through the air toward Kiyori. She stumbled backward, and the weapon closed the distance. She closed her eyes, but nothing happened.

Slash!

She slowly opened her one eye and looked at the ground. A large wasp lay there, its body slashed by the sharp blade.

Mo Fei stared at her flatly, while her eyes darted between the wasp and the Glaive.

She finally opened her mouth to speak. "You could have warned me..."

Mo Fei shrugged with a scoff. "That was for the shot."

Kiyori glared at him for a few seconds, her eyes fixated on him. "I’m going to return that favor someday..."

"Good luck with that." He said while focused on the wasp. He opened his Apprentice’s Eyes for a moment and saw the threads connected too far from here to the same tangled spirit thread. "That wasp tried to take that pouch."

Kiyori glanced at the wasp; her small anger had faded already. "Shards... they are not stolen though that basp..." She coughed. "Wasp."

Mo Fei wheezed at that, his cold demeanor slipping slightly. "Basp?"

"I fixed that!!" She quickly turned to walk, keeping her face away.

"Yeah, sure you did." He followed her, the corruption slowly fading in his head. The spirits had managed to make it normal again.

The silence stretched, only to be broken by her again. "So," Kiyori began. "You had... compatriots? Coff—Comrriad."

Mo Fei glanced at her with a disappointed look. "Friends."

"Friends, yes! That word works too, I guess." She laughed it off, flustered by her mispronunciations. "I get tangled in my own tongue every so often. Maybe a gift..."

"A what?"

"I mean... an embarrassing gift."

Mo Fei inhaled a long breath. His eyes lingered on the letter in his pocket; he still hadn’t read it yet, but he wanted to, though knowing the madness, he wouldn’t be able to focus clearly. "I had a few people who cared about me."

"Where are they now?" She glanced back while he followed her. Moving toward the villager, she stopped at an empty ground to create a burial site.

"One of them had gone, while others... I don’t know where they are anymore. Who knows in which world they are and if I’ll be able to find them again." The earring in his ear blew with the wind softly.

Kiyori scanned the place, trying to find something to dig, and her gaze lay on the backyard of a house where two spades rested. "Gone? And you are lost then?"

Mo Fei nodded; his gaze followed her, finding the spades. "Pretty much yes." He moved toward the spade almost as if he knew what she wanted to do.

"I hope you find them soon."

Mo Fei picked up the spades and began to dig the ground alongside her. "There were three people... actually five. One woman with a bad temper, maybe irritated most of the time, and one teenager... a typical little brother; he usually called me older brother, and two kids whom I saved from ghosts."

"Ghosts? " Said she with surprise. "That might be one of the wholesome things."

A small grin twitched on Mo Fei’s face. "There was a man too; he never backed down from his care for us, always ahead, trying to protect us, staying awake for us, and even putting our lives over his... he..." Mo Fei paused, his expression slightly faltered, eyes looking down at the grave. "He always thought about us until his last breath; I still can’t forget how tired he was from the world that seeks power."

Kiyori listened without saying anything. "Sounds like a father to me."

"Not really a bad resemblance."

Both of them dug multiple graves and put the dead bodies of the villagers in them. Kiyori clasped her hands together and closed her eyes for a few moments. "Shouldn’t you try to find them?"

Mo Fei shook his head. "I can’t; there is something I can’t explain if they find me."

Kiyori yawned slowly after working hard. "Why? Do you not wonder what they are doing?" She began to walk again. ’We need a village to rest, but it’s already night.’

"I can’t explain because I don’t have the answer of my state; I don’t know where I am right now." He followed her; his hand moved to fix the Glaive, binding it to his back.

She hummed a thoughtful tone. "So what’s your amchistion—" She clicked her tongue while correcting herself. "Ambition?"

"None, I just want to return. Being ascended is not made for me; it’s an extra meaningless work that I simply can’t do." Mo Fei’s gaze lay on an empty hut, which was still broken but enough to rest in. He pointed toward it.

Kiyori stopped at the threshold of the shattered sliding door. She peered inside at the dust and broken tatami mats, then glanced back at Mo Fei. She cleared her throat. "Um... well. It is a roof," she began. "But... we’ve only known each other for exactly one sun cycle—I mean, one day. So, could you sleep a little distance away..."

Mo Fei untied his scarf without looking toward her. "If you want to sleep outside with the giant poisonous bugs and whatever else is left behind, act like a nice guest, hold your breath, then count to ten and sleep. I’m taking the floor near the door to keep an eye."

Kiyori quickly shook her head, a thought in her mind that shivered her slightly at the mention of wasps. "Fine! I’ll put up the barrier so no demon can enter."

She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a long, thin white silk cord used for tying back her hair. Moving to the center of the small room, she tied it between two broken wooden pillars, bisecting the hut perfectly in half, then chanted a few words with her two fingers half-lifted in the air. "There." Kiyori said, dusting off her trousers before lying down a few meters away.

Mo Fei stared flatly and let out a tired grunt and leaned his back against the wall on his side, closing his eyes. "I doubt it’ll work."

"Take rest," she murmured, clutching her bow tightly against her chest as her long day finally caught up to her. Silence finally claimed the ruined village, saved from the demons but haunted by the shadows of a world seeking power.