The girl stared at him—first in disbelief then awe, He not only saved her Life but now he is determined to help, save or avenge her people even though he didn't know them.
Do such selfless people still exist?
who can doom themselves as far a it means saving another?.
Then she made her mind and followed him.
Together, they stepped through the door, leaving the forest behind and heading for the village.
The path ahead was uncertain, but Wu Chen knew one thing for sure.
He could not back down and he won't. He had power, purpose, and a destiny to fulfill. And he would stop at nothing to see it through.
...
Li Wei stood at the edge of the village, his hands gripping a crude spear tightly. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched the horizon, where the forest seemed to writhe and churn like a living beast.
The air was thick with tension, and the faint cries of demonic creatures echoed in the distance.
His younger sister, Li Mei (李梅), Twelve years old, with her hair still in childhood braids, is lost somewhere in that hungry dark. And the thought of her alone in the forest filled him with dread.
His grip on the spear tightened until the wood groaned in protest.
Somewhere in that writhing gloom, his sister's footsteps might still be fading.
"Li Wei!"
His father Li Jian voice cut through the night like a blade, raw with urgency yet tempered by decades of leadership.
His Father stood silhouetted against the flickering torchlight like a gnarled oak at the village perimeter, his battle-worn spear already dark with ichor.
"This line holds here." He said.
No request. No plea. Just the unshakable command of a man ready to die standing.
Li Wei's nodded sharply, a soldier's acknowledgment. Sixteen summers old—barely a man by village reckoning—yet old enough to know death's face when it came calling.
his hands had known the weight of a spear since they could first grip one. He'd trained under the hunters' watchful eyes, learning to track, to kill, to survive.
He had tracked boar through thorns and fought wolves with nothing but a skinning knife.
But these creatures?
A distant shriek tore at the air, too guttural for any natural beast. His skin prickled.
They moved like shadows given flesh.
They fought with the cruelty of starved wolves.
They bled like men but died like nightmares—twice.
And their hunger—gods, their hunger—
But that's not even the main issue, the worst of all is:
They learn and adapt.
Creatures are not supposed to do that only Humans should, but it seems this demonic beasts are different.
Special even
The villagers stood clustered in the heart of the settlement, their faces ashen but resolute in the moonlight. A heavy silence hung over them, broken only by the distant, guttural snarls that crept ever closer through the mist.
Old Man Zhang (张老), his gnarled hands gripping his walking staff like a weapon, stepped forward.The elders had spoken—there was no other way.
The strongest among them—farmers, hunters, even boys barely old enough to wield a sickle—would form a barricade at the village's edge. Their task was grim: to hold the line, buying time with their lives if necessary.
Meanwhile, the women and children would slip away through the ancient tunnel hidden beneath the village shrine, its entrance choked with cobwebs and forgotten prayers
It was a desperate gambit, a fraying thread of hope. But it was all they had.
"Li Wei." His mother Li Fang (李芳) voice was barely above a whisper, her soft hand trembling as it settled on his shoulder.
His mother had always been a woman of few words, she is a strong woman, who never cried—Atleast Wu Chen never saw her did—but the tremor in her fingers betrayed her, and her voice cracked like brittle kindling.
But still Li Fang did not weep.
There were no tears left—only the iron grip of her hand on Li Wei's shoulder, fingers biting into his flesh like talons.
'Don't go'. The words screamed inside her skull, but her lips moved silently, shaping empty comfort instead: "Your sister… she's strong."
A lie. A prayer. A mother's last defiance against the dark.
She knows strength doesn't count with those creatures.
Now her daughter is gone— hopefully not torn apart or swallowed whole—and her husband stood with the other men, spears and axes meant for splitting wood, trembling in hands.
And her son?
Her last child?
She forced air into her lungs and continued her words. "She'll find her way back."
Li Wei's face twisted. He knew. Of course he knew. The creatures did not leave survivors.
Yet still His mother stood straight-back, her voice trying to be steady as a grave-marker. Because she knows If she let herself scream, if she let the terror claw its way out of her throat, she would never stop.
And the villagers needed her unbroken—needed her to lead the survivors, to pretend the world had not already ended.
So she held her son's gaze and lied, both to him and herself that things will be alright.
"Be careful". A pause and she added softer, as if speaking too loudly might shatter her fragile hope
"And come back alive."
Li Wei swallowed hard, the taste of dust and dread sharp on his tongue. The words were meant to steady him but it did not.
Her grip told the truth about her emotions.
The fear and hope in her eyes was a mirror of his own. It wasn't just a plea. It was a prayer that if she could would have materialize.
It's only natural—how else would a mother react when her daughter has gone missing, likely to suffer a brutal death at the hands of monstrous creatures.
And as if that pain isn't enough, she faces the grim possibility of losing her son and husband as well, all in the desperate effort to keep herself and the other villagers alive.
The fact that she hasn't completely broken down is a testament to her strength.