Tao, Xuan, and Lex arrived with the bags before Han could start his lesson. They were being careful this time, not spilling anything, moving with exaggerated caution like they were carrying nuclear material instead of stolen vegetables.
"Master!" Tao called, slightly out of breath. "We brought the food, medicine, and clothes. Left the coins buried like you said."
Every refugee turned to stare. At the bags. At the supplies. At the sudden appearance of resources from a camp that supposedly had nothing.
Han's eyes locked onto the bags. Then onto Hunter. One eyebrow raised in a gesture that clearly said "this should be interesting."
Hunter took a breath. Time to spin another story. Time to turn theft into charity and hope nobody looked too closely at the seams.
"Everyone!" His voice carried across the clearing, enhanced by just enough qi to make sure he had their attention. The refugees stopped what they were doing, turned to face him. Twenty-three pairs of eyes, ranging from hopeful to suspicious to utterly exhausted. "I need to explain something. These supplies, they didn't come from nowhere."
The silence was complete. Waiting.
"I took them from a village. Clearwater Village. Two weeks ago." The admission felt like pulling teeth, even though it was part of the plan. "I raided them. Took their food, their medicine, their goods. Everything I could carry."
The refugees' expressions shifted from gratitude to shock to confusion in rapid succession. A few stepped back. Others exchanged worried glances.
"I'm not a righteous cultivator," Hunter continued, committing fully to partial honesty. "I'm not a hero. I'm just someone trying to survive in a world I barely understand. And sometimes survival means making choices that aren't clean or noble."
"Then why save us?" someone called out. One of the younger refugees, his voice cracking with the question. "Why risk your life for strangers if you're just a bandit?"
Good question. Really good question.
"Because I could," Hunter said, and meant it. The same answer he'd given Han, but somehow it felt more true each time. "Because watching people die when I have the power to stop it, I can't do that. I won't do that. So I saved you. And now I'm giving you these supplies because you need them more than I do."
He gestured to Tao, Xuan, and Lex. "Distribute everything. Food, medicine, clothes. Whatever people need. No strings attached."
The three bandits moved into action immediately, grateful for clear instructions. Started handing out provisions with surprising efficiency. The refugees accepted hesitantly at first, moral complications warring with practical needs. Then hunger won, like it always did. Food was food. Medicine was medicine. Ethics could wait until after survival was secured.
The little girl was still watching Hunter. Still holding that doll. Still silent as a ghost.
Hunter walked over to her, conscious of every eye tracking his movement. He knelt down so they were eye level, trying to look non-threatening despite being covered in blood and radiating Foundation Realm power.
"Hey," he said quietly. "What's your name?"
The girl didn't answer. Just stared with those too-big, too-knowing eyes.
"I'm Hunter. Your mom told you to be good for the nice man, right?"
A tiny nod. So small he almost missed it.
"She was very brave. Protecting you like that." Hunter's throat tightened, remembering those final moments. The woman's determination. Her absolute refusal to let go of her daughter even as life bled out of her. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her. I tried. I really did. But I'm still learning how to do all this cultivation healing stuff. I wasn't good enough."
The girl's chin trembled. Her grip on the doll tightened until her knuckles went white.
"But I promise I'll keep you safe. Okay? You can stay here with us. I won't let anything happen to you." Hunter held out his good hand, palm up. An offering, not a demand. "Deal?"
The girl looked at his hand. At his face. At the blood still staining his clothes from the battle. At the genuine concern in his eyes that he couldn't quite hide.
Then she reached out. Her tiny hand disappeared into his palm, warm and trusting and absolutely terrifying in its innocence.
Something in Hunter's chest loosened. Something warm and painful and entirely unexpected. Something that made the stealing and lying and moral compromises feel almost, maybe, possibly worth it.
[LUNA] AWWWW (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧ [LUNA] YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER NOW [LUNA] CONGRATULATIONS [LUNA] IT'S A GIRL [LUNA] DOES THIS MAKE ME AUNTIE LUNA? [LUNA] I'M GONNA SPOIL HER SO BAD [LUNA] GONNA TEACH HER ALL THE SHADOW TECHNIQUES [LUNA] AND HOW TO EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATE YOU FOR DESSERT ♥
That's not how this works.
[LUNA] OH THAT'S EXACTLY HOW THIS WORKS [LUNA] YOU SAVED HER [LUNA] HER MOM DIED [LUNA] YOU'RE HOLDING HER HAND RIGHT NOW [LUNA] BOOM [LUNA] PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ACQUIRED [LUNA] NO TAKE BACKS [LUNA] IT'S LEGALLY BINDING IN 47 DIMENSIONS (◕‿◕✿)
I'm thirty-three years old and I owned three mugs.
[LUNA] PAST TENSE: OWNED [LUNA] NOW YOU OWN THREE MUGS, A CHILD, THREE INCOMPETENT DISCIPLES, AND TWENTY-ISH REFUGEES WHO THINK YOU'RE BATMAN [LUNA] YOUR LIFE IS SO MUCH BETTER NOW [LUNA] YOU'RE WELCOME ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Hunter stood up slowly, still holding the girl's hand. She followed without question, that doll clutched tight to her chest with her free arm. A package deal. Girl plus traumatized toy.
Han appeared at his elbow again, because apparently the man had a sixth sense for dramatic moments. "The supplies are being distributed. Everyone will have food for tonight at least. Medicine for the wounded. Some clean clothes."
"Good. What about shelter?"
"The cave can fit maybe ten people comfortably. Twenty if we pack them in. We'll need to build something temporary for the rest. Lean-tos, maybe. Basic cover." Han paused, his expression darkening. "We also need to talk about those squirrels."
"They're coming back."
"They're definitely coming back. Red-Maple Shadow Squirrels don't forget. Don't forgive. They'll regroup, gather their full force, and hit us again. Probably within the next day." Han's jaw tightened. "Maybe sooner if we're unlucky."
Hunter's spiritual sense reached out automatically, scanning the forest in a wide circle. He couldn't sense the squirrels yet, but they were out there. Somewhere. Plotting revenge with little furry brains full of murder.
"Can we fight them?" Hunter asked. "Realistically?"
Han was quiet for a moment, his eyes distant as he calculated odds. Thinking. Weighing variables. "If it was just you and me? Maybe. You're Foundation Realm, I'm ninth level Body Refining. Together we could handle a significant number, especially with your shadow techniques." He gestured at the camp, at the wounded refugees leaning against trees, at children huddled together for comfort. "But we're not protecting just ourselves. We have twenty-three refugees. Most are injured. Some are children. We can't just fight, we have to defend a static position while keeping everyone alive."
"So what are our options?"
"Run or fight. Those are the only options." Han's expression was grim. "If we run, we move slow. The injured will slow us down. The squirrels will hit us on the road, pick us off one by one. We might lose half the group before we reach safety, assuming we even know where safety is."
"And if we fight?"
"We prepare. Set defenses. Make them come to us on our terms. It's risky but it gives us better odds than running." Han looked at Hunter directly, meeting his eyes. "But it requires you to fight smart. To use your full power. To actually understand what you're capable of. Can you do that?"
Hunter thought about the squirrel massacre. About how he'd fought on pure instinct and adrenaline, relying on Shadow Step and luck and the vague hope that he wouldn't die. About how Han said he was fighting like a Body Refining cultivator trying to punch above his weight instead of someone who actually belonged in Foundation Realm.
"I don't know," Hunter admitted, because lying to Han felt pointless. "But I'll learn. Fast."
"Then we start now. While we still have daylight." Han raised his voice, projecting across the camp with practiced authority. "Everyone able-bodied! We need to prepare defenses! Follow my instructions!"
People started moving immediately. Some confused, some scared, but all listening. Han's voice carried the kind of authority that people followed instinctively, the voice of someone who'd kept others alive through worse situations.
Tao, Xuan, and Lex rushed over like eager puppies. "Master! What do you need us to do?"
"Help Han. Do whatever he says. Follow his orders exactly." Hunter paused, making eye contact with each of them. "And try not to break anything important. Or yourselves. Especially yourselves."
All three nodded seriously and ran to join the work crews forming around Han's directions.
Hunter looked down at the little girl still holding his hand, still silent, still watching everything with those eyes that had seen way too much. "I need to train. To get stronger. So I can protect everyone. Can you stay with..." He looked around, realized he didn't know any of the refugees well enough to trust them with a traumatized child. Didn't know who was kind, who was patient, who wouldn't see her as a burden. "Actually, just stay close to me, okay? Don't wander off."
The girl nodded. Sat down near the cave entrance. Clutched her doll. Watched Hunter with those too-knowing eyes that made him feel transparent.
[LUNA] OKAY SO TRAINING MONTAGE TIME (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧ [LUNA] THIS IS YOUR ROCKY MOMENT [LUNA] EYE OF THE TIGER [LUNA] GONNA FLY NOW [LUNA] ALL THE INSPIRATIONAL 80S MUSIC [LUNA] EXCEPT YOU'RE GONNA PUNCH TREES INSTEAD OF HANGING MEAT [LUNA] BECAUSE THIS IS A CULTIVATION WORLD AND TREES ARE THE HANGING MEAT HERE ♥
What do I even train?
[LUNA] EVERYTHING [LUNA] YOU'RE FOUNDATION REALM BUT FIGHTING LIKE A NOOB WITH CHEAT CODES [LUNA] IT'S LIKE HAVING GOD MODE ENABLED BUT STILL DYING TO THE TUTORIAL BOSS [LUNA] TIME TO ACTUALLY READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL [LUNA] YOU KNOW, THE ONE I DOWNLOADED INTO YOUR BRAIN [LUNA] THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN IGNORING [LUNA] RUDE BTW (◕‿◕✿)
Hunter walked to a clear area away from the camp, away from the refugees building their makeshift defenses, away from the little girl's watchful eyes. Drew his sword. The rusty blade that had killed exactly two people and approximately forty squirrels, give or take a few he wasn't sure about.
Time to figure out what Foundation Realm actually meant. Time to stop being an accident waiting to happen. Time to become the cultivator everyone thought he was.
Before the squirrels came back and proved he wasn't.
Around him, the camp buzzed with activity. Han was directing people with military efficiency, organizing them into work groups. Some were gathering wood for barricades. Others were clearing sight lines, removing brush that could hide attackers. A few of the less injured were being shown how to make basic stakes and traps from materials at hand.
The merchant, Qiu Hengdao, had recovered from his breakdown enough to start cataloging what they had versus what they needed. His purple robes were filthy and torn, but his mind was sharp, organizing supplies with the precision of someone who'd built a business from nothing.
Children were being herded to the safest spot near the cave entrance, given tasks to keep them busy and distracted. Organizing medical supplies. Sorting food. Anything to keep their minds off the fact that murder squirrels were definitely coming back.
Hunter watched it all for a moment, this strange little community forming around survival and fear and desperate hope. Then he turned his attention inward, to the power coiling in his dantian like a caged dragon he didn't know how to unleash.
Time to learn.
Time to not die.
Time to justify the faith all these people were placing in him, however misguided that faith might be.
In the trees three hundred meters away, perfectly concealed behind layers of ice and misdirection that would make a lesser cultivator weep with envy, Liu Mei pulled out her crystal notebook.
Day 3, Late Afternoon: Subject distributed stolen goods to refugees. Kept coins for himself (smart). Admitted to being bandit. Refugees accepted anyway (desperate). Subject acquired child dependent (concerning). Currently preparing for defensive battle against spirit beast swarm.
Subject does not understand his own power level. Required education from Body Refining guard. This explains so much.
Defensive battle odds: Still terrible. But slightly less terrible than before. Will observe.
She settled deeper into her concealment formation, pulled out more spirit fruits from her storage ring, and waited for the show to begin. This was better than theater. Better than the cultivation sect drama plays that cost a fortune in spirit stones to attend.
Below, Hunter was attempting to practice sword forms based on vague muscle memory from the technique download. It was going poorly. He'd somehow managed to stab himself in the foot within the first minute, then hopped around cursing in a language Liu Mei didn't recognize but assumed was very crude.
Liu Mei took notes.
This was going to be a disaster.
She couldn't wait.