Chapter 469: Tracking Down Cultivators

Wind bit against Kai's face as he pushed himself harder, flashing over the mushroom-crowned hills. He'd gained his orientation in the Southern Reach, with a strong sense for Goralia in the north, so now even if the territory was unfamiliar, he could move around more quickly.

Even though he was by far the fastest person in the area, the underground communication between dryads moved faster, so he was frequently greeted as if he was expected. That made it easier to chase down the cultivators - Kai had interrupted the slaughter of a second Earth Soul and again killed him in the air, so the others were hiding instead of rampaging. Which was a victory, even if it made his job harder.

Eight Earth Souls, Yul Wei Ren, and Grandpa Wan Fei remaining.

The last village he'd visited hadn't seen any foreigners recently, but they'd heard some sort of strange message from the next town over. Given how the cultivators were all hiding, he had no choice but to pursue any leads, even if they were likely to be nothing.

This village was distinct from those he'd run across previously: there were large stone buildings, similar to Goralia, but the space between them was overwhelmingly shaded by canopies. There was a forested area, suggesting dryads, and a nearby river suggesting naiads, who he didn't know as much about, but most of the inhabitants seemed to be strange brownish people. He'd met humans with a wide range of skin colors on Rosemount, but these looked like another race he wasn't familiar with.

None of that particularly mattered, though, because as he landed everyone looked at him nervously.

They might not have gotten the warning messages, or they might just be understandably nervous about a strange overpowering warrior. Several guards emerged, sort of blocking his way through the main gate. Behind them in the shaded area, Kai could see a large cluster of the brownish people shifting nervously, clinging together like a family.

"Don't worry," Kai said with his best smile, "I'm just passing through. How are all of you doing?"

"We don't want any trouble, stranger," one of the guards said. The man looked incredibly nervous to be facing him. "Please just leave us in peace."

"I'm not here to bring any. I was wondering if you have any problems I could help with, or if you've seen any violent strangers."

"This is right in the middle of the Southern Reach," another guard told him. "No trouble here unless outsiders bring it."

The village seemed less hospitable than many of the others - maybe because of the local groups, or maybe because they just weren't friendly. Kai didn't want to ruin relations between Goralia and the Southern Reach, so he didn't plan to push... but he hesitated.

There was no way a village of this size didn't have problems, be they rogue monsters or local bandits. Either they absolutely wanted him gone... or there were extenuating circumstances. He stayed a little longer, examining the scene more skeptically.

When he looked inside the village again, he clearly made everyone nervous. Again, logical enough if they thought he was a threat, but they only partially seemed afraid of him. There was another locus of attention, something they were trying to keep their gaze away from.

An old man, a dryad with hair like dried leaves, stared at him intensely. He alone didn't look even slightly afraid, just stared back at him. When Kai met his gaze the man slowly, deliberately, looked toward the cluster of women and children.

Now that Kai looked again, he realized that all the women had children around their legs except one. She stood in the very center, yet she wasn't touching anyone, in fact the nearest women were avoiding touching each other. At first glance he hadn't realized, but now it struck him as horribly wrong.

Kai leapt into the village, grabbing the woman by the neck and pulling her away from all the others. For a second he worried that he'd made a terrible mistake, but then the woman faded away, revealing a cultivator wearing a wreath of burning leaves. It was one of the men, apparently presuming that Kai wouldn't attack an illusory woman.

The cultivator snarled and tried to attack him, but hiding had been his best tactic - Kai slammed him down into the ground until he stopped moving, before even thinking about the brutality of it. When he looked up, however, he saw that the village had relaxed: some of the parents covered their children's eyes, but the tension had broken. When the guards approached, they looked far more friendly than before.

"He showed up a while back," one of the dryad guards explained. "Forced us to make him an illusion and said he'd kill everyone if we revealed anything. We didn't want to obey him, but he was just so strong..."

"That's fine, you were put in a hard position." Kai almost bowed, then reverted to old habits and clapped the guard on the shoulder. "I'm here to stop people like him. Have you heard any news from nearby villages, or seen anything suspicious?"

All of the nearby villagers immediately began throwing out everything they'd seen lately, from a funny-looking monster to someone who was stealing their mushroom crops. It was basically all useless, but they were clearly so enthusiastic to help that Kai couldn't help but smile. He extricated himself as soon as he could and instead approached the old dryad who had signaled him.

That had been a brave act: the old man only had 10 Power in Dryad Essence, which Kai thought was the equivalent of a human laborer with minor Physique training, so he could have died in an instant. Now that the business was over, the old dryad had settled down into a chair.

"You're one of those Frontier elites, aren't you?" The dryad's voice was ancient and reedy, but still confident. It wasn't exactly true, but...

"I'm working with them," Kai said. "I'm surprised you know us, this far south. You don't even have a border with the Frontier."

"Aye, but when I was a sapling, Goralia had a rough time of an incursion. Monsters got through, and it looked like we were finished for a while. Even the True Root Knights couldn't stop them. But then those elites came... we thought for sure they'd take over, but they honestly just killed the monsters, helped us start rebuilding, and left."

"That's the ideal. It doesn't always work that way, but someone has to stop the incursions."

"Some forgot, but I never did. That's why we send some folks up north, to try to help you."

"I know, I've worked with some of them." Kai considered asking the old dryad if he knew the woman who had participated in his Hunter Trials, but that was silly, since there millions of dryads in the Southern Reach. "Listen, thanks to you I finished this without anyone getting hurt, but it won't always be that easy. Do you have any way to contact the Frontier elites?"

"Me? No, no, I'm just an old man." The dryad extended a twig-like finger to the northwest. "You want something like that, go to Razorfall City. Far bigger place, in contact with Goralia and beyond. That's where you'd find the elites, or anything else you need."

"Thank you." Kai considered giving something to the elderly dryad, but maybe they'd done everything they'd needed to do. This wasn't really about names or prestige.

So after one more look at the relieved village, Kai flew away, toward the northeast and Razorfall City.

He expected the journey to take longer, since it was a meaningful distance, but he'd underestimated his new speed. By rough approximation, Deadwaste was about as large as the other continents, but a huge portion of the center was eaten by the wasteland and Frontier. So the Southern Reaches, despite their similar name, were overall smaller than the Southern Rivers of Cloudspire.

Nothing even tried to stop him. His hunger extended and picked out some monsters, and he was sorely tempted to go hunting after so long without many monsters, but there was no time. All his actions needed to be focused on taking out the cultivators, contacting the Frontier elites, and finding a way back.

Eventually Razorfall City came into view, nowhere near as ominous as the name suggested. From a distance, he could see various flying vessels floating over the city. It reminded him more of home than any of the smaller villages because it was built over several hills with large walls. Unlike Monskon City, which split into regions of wealth, Razorfall City appeared to be divided into several districts around different hills: from above, he could see that they clearly had different types of trees and one was filled with pools and artificial rivers.

No time for sight-seeing, though. Kai reduced his speed as he approached, and sure enough, several guards flew on massive hovering leaves to meet him. They had between 200-400 Power apiece, which was impressive for here, but they also looked like they had a good impression of his strength and weren't happy about it.

"I'm pursuing a group of humans from Cloudspire," Kai said before a fight could start. "They've already killed several dryads and they intend to kill more. Have you run into anything like that?"

"We fought a cultivator several days ago," one guard said, "but we managed to ward her off. Haven't heard anything else."

"That's fine, it's your city. But I need to contact the Frontier elites as soon as possible. I heard I could do that here?"

The guards glanced at one another before an older woman spoke up. "The place should still be intact, but we don't have much to do with that. You'll have to negotiate with the Goralian Merchants Guild."

Kai confirmed they weren't going to stand in his way or make him jump through any hoops, got basic directions, then he shot down into the city. He'd grown more used to flying in dryad cities by now, so he didn't break any trees and prevented any shockwaves that might have damaged them. On the ground, the city was far more difficult to navigate, but he'd gotten a clear enough picture from above.

The idea of a single "Goralian Merchants Guild" seemed troubling, since Goralian merchants covered a huge range. Either the southern Goralians had instituted new policies or they were trying to band together to show their strength in the Southern Reaches. Either way, he might have to play politics again, because the merchants wouldn't respect him in the same way the guards did.

As he entered the human district, Kai was distracted to be among Goralians again. He was still the tallest person on the street, but far more of the men were closer to his height, and his hair and skin didn't stand out, unlike in Cloudspire.

Soon he found the large building of the Merchants Guild - he was actually reading normally, instead of relying on the Alltongue Fruit as he had for so long. As Kai ascended the steps three at a time, he considered his approach. He didn't want to just threaten or abuse his power, but being polite could get him stuck for far too long.

Inside, he walked past the familiar decor and saw that there were three major desks, each of which had a line of people waiting to be heard. Two desks had Goralians and one was all locals, but all three lines were moving too slow for him to wait. Kai strolled between the lines to find someone in charge and within seconds there was a guard poking a spear in his face.

"Step back, big guy!" The young man waved the spear point around. "This isn't the wastes, hunters can't just throw their weight around!"

At first Kai thought the guard was unbelievably brave, then he realized that the man might just be too incompetent to have fully developed spiritual sight. Kai reached up, grabbing the spear easily, and the guard actually looked surprised. The commotion around them was growing and he didn't want to hurt the man, but this was just getting worse...

"Kai?"

He looked away, startled by the familiar voice. A woman had appeared from a back room, and for a moment he just saw a Goralian woman before suddenly he realized that it was Juray.