The First Order

With Ren Xiaosu’s physical fitness, he would not get injured from just falling off a bicycle. He dusted off the dirt and snow on him and got back on his feet. “Wudi, if you see any injustice in the future, just let me handle it. You should focus on riding the bike, alright?”

“Oh, sure thing, Master!” Chen Wudi hurriedly picked the bicycle up and continued riding with Ren Xiaosu as he caught up to the group.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the wolves on the hilltop. The white wolves were not alarmed by the sight of the escapees running away and stood there motionlessly in the snow. It was as though they had nothing better to do and were only here to take a gander. But Ren Xiaosu could not understand what their motives were.

In front of him, Chen Wudi was pedaling hard and saying, “Master, why are there always people in this world who think nothing of hurting others to achieve their goals?”

“Humans are self-serving,” Ren Xiaosu replied nonchalantly.

“What about people who try to get something without making any effort for it?” Chen Wudi asked.

“That’s also because humans are self-serving,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

Chen Wudi suddenly sounded a little depressed. “Master, do you think I should still fight against injustices in the future? There are so many bad people out there. What if the people I save turn out to be bad as well?”

Ren Xiaosu could feel the contradiction inside of Chen Wudi. It seemed like his dream of becoming a hero was starting to waver. Although Ren Xiaosu did not want to be a hero himself, he found this quality in Chen Wudi’s nature to be praiseworthy.

Ren Xiaosu patiently explained to Chen Wudi, “You can continue saving others if you wish to save them. But if you discover that they’re bad people after you’ve saved them, you can just beat them to death.”

“OK.” Chen Wudi nodded vigorously in response.

All of a sudden, a scream came from the fleeing crowd. A woman shouted, “Someone has taken my belongings! Everyone, please help me! He snatched my bag!”

Immediately, Ren Xiaosu jumped off the bicycle in anticipation of what might happen. By the time he landed on the ground, he saw that Chen Wudi had already rushed to that woman to help her and left the bicycle behind with no one to control it.

Ren Xiaosu felt sad. It was still better for him to learn how to ride a bicycle. It wouldn’t do if he had to keep depending on others like this. After a while, Chen Wudi ran back after beating up another man. When he saw the bicycle lying on the ground, he was a little embarrassed. “Master, I’m sorry. I forgot you were on the bike again.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Ren Xiaosu had no alternative but to dismiss it. “But with so many people here, you can’t possibly handle everything, right? I’m afraid that you will exhaust yourself to death if you continue dealing with every little matter.”

Moreover, this was just the beginning of their escape. There would probably be many more instances of such bullying among the escapees in the future.

“Then I’ll just handle them one at a time.” Chen Wudi said hesitantly, “I can’t possibly just ignore them.”

After fleeing for a while more, Ren Xiaosu suddenly called out to his group, “Alright, let’s stop here. The wolves aren’t pursuing us. Besides, if they were really chasing after us, none of us could get away.”

Yan Liuyuan and the others came to a stop. When the other escapees saw them stopping, they also slowly stopped in their tracks. Everyone was weary to the bone now.

The only good thing that came of this was that they did not feel as cold after some exercise.

Now that they had fled to a new location, they would have to rebuild their campfires and collect more firewood to burn. Some people who were too lazy to go around doing all that again just laid in the snow. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan led the group of students who did not mind the trouble of restarting their campfire.

This was what Ren Xiaosu had requested of them. No matter how cold or tired they were in the snowy wilderness, they were required to make a campfire. Otherwise, they would pay a hefty price.

“Bro.” Yan Liuyuan asked, puzzled, “Did you sense anything strange about those wolves?”

“You sensed it as well?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I keep having the feeling that the Wolf King is constantly watching me from afar. It’s like I can feel its gaze on me all the time.”

This was something new to Ren Xiaosu since he did not feel that he was being watched.

When it was late at night and Ren Xiaosu saw that everyone around them had fallen sleep, he reminded Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, who were keeping watch, to be careful. He needed to go somewhere for a while.

Ren Xiaosu walked into the wilderness with great doubts on his mind. He was going in the direction of where the wolves had appeared.

The snow was very deep. Ever since The Cataclysm, the winters would get exceptionally cold, and the snowfall also became much heavier.

He walked towards the wilderness with some difficulty in the snow. Some escapees who were still awake were shocked when they realized someone was brave enough to venture into the wilderness at such time.

“Is he going for a potty break?” “Maybe, but wasn’t he the one who came from the wilderness alone and joined us?”

“Look at how well-prepared their group is. They probably knew something was going to happen to the stronghold.”

“How did they know?!”

A woman who had her face concealed behind a scarf was secretly watching Ren Xiaosu’s receding figure. Suddenly, someone beside her said in surprise, “Aren’t you… Fang Yujing?”

Even though she had concealed herself very well, someone still recognized her. The person said happily, “It’s really you! I’m your fan! I heard you were going to be participating for a couple days in the music festival, but I never thought something like this would happen.”

Fang Yujing forced a smile. “It’s good enough that we’re all still alive.”

When she turned her eyes back to Ren Xiaosu, she discovered he had disappeared into the distance.

Ren Xiaosu crested a tiny hillock and was surprised to see the wolves playing in the snow. Several of the females even had a dozen little wolf cubs with them. The wolf cubs seemed unafraid of Ren Xiaosu as they looked over from afar.

Ren Xiaosu did not dare go any closer as he was worried the wolves would suddenly attack him.

He just wanted to see what was going on with the wolves here. But before that, he would have to ascertain if the wolves saw him as prey.

The strong and powerful males in the wolf pack stood still in the snow and observed him. Then they moved aside for the Wolf King as it made its way over from the rear with a large rabbit dangling from its mouth. The rabbit was still warm and dripping with blood.

Ren Xiaosu stood still. He wanted to see what the Wolf King was planning to do, while the black saber was getting restless as it kept buzzing in the palace.

The rabbit was as large as a bicycle tire. Ren Xiaosu didn’t know what it ate to grow to this size. He could see condensation coming from the rabbit’s warm blood as it dripped onto the snow.

The Wolf King stopped not far from Ren Xiaosu and placed the rabbit on the ground. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Are you giving that to me?”

But the Wolf King did not respond. It just turned around and left with its pack. Ren Xiaosu could only watch as they padded away.

This confused Ren Xiaosu even more. Had the wolf pack gotten so sociable that they even sent food to humans? But what astonished him was that the number of wolves seemed to have increased by a lot this time. It looked like the Wolf King had been tirelessly accepting new wolves into its pack.