Li Yu walked through the Razor Grass Plains where the flora grew waist high and possessed edges sharp enough to slice through the tough hide of beasts. The wind here didn't howl; it hissed as it passed through the blades of grass. It created a constant and unnerving sibilance that sounded like a million snakes whispering secrets.

  He moved with the rhythmic gait of a traveler who had resigned himself to the distance. His Opalescent Qi formed a microscopic layer over his skin. It was used to deflect the razor edges of the grass without breaking his stride.

  Sometime into his journey, he witnessed the first lesson of the plains.

  A caravan was moving parallel to his path. It wasn't a wealthy merchant train, it was a migration of refugees. A mismatched tribe of Kobolds, minor demons and flightless avian-kin. They pulled sleds heaped with scavenged scrap. Their bodies were lean and desperate.

  Li Yu watched from a low ridge with his aura suppressed.

  A pack of Iron Maw Wolves appeared from the tall grass. They were low level beasts, barely at the Qi Condensation stage but there were dozens of them. Their jaws were lined with natural metal deposits and their eyes glowed with hunger.

  The refugees panicked at the incoming attack.

  "Circle the sleds!" a Kobold elder screamed as he was waving a rusted spear. But the group didn't circle.

  Instead, a group of the younger and stronger demons kicked the sleds over. They didn't do it to build a barricade for defense. They did it to block the path of the wolves by sacrificing the slow to save themselves.

  The stronger refugees sprinted away immediately. They left the elders, the wounded and the children behind.

  "Wait!" The Kobold elder cried. "Don't leave us!"

  The wolves descended and were snarling as they closed in on the easy prey. Li Yu watched but his expression was unreadable. He could walk away. It was the way of this realm. The strong survive and the weak perish. Interfering would gain him nothing.

  But Li Yu sighed. He moved. He appeared between the wolves and the cowering refugees. The lead wolf lunged at him. Li Yu didn't even raise his staff. He flicked his finger.

  Thwack.

  A burst of air pressure hit the wolf in the snout. The beast yelped and tumbled backward end over end. The pack froze. Animals had keen instincts. They looked at the small human standing in their path and they felt something terrifying. They felt a predator that didn't need to bare its teeth.

  "Scram," Li Yu said softly.

  He released a tiny sliver of his killing intent. The wolves scrambled back into the tall grass and vanished as quickly as they had appeared. The refugees stared at him and were trembling from their encounter. Worst of all, they expected him to demand payment or he was going to enslave them himself.

  Li Yu reached into his storage ring. He pulled out two large sacks of dried meat and a jug of clean water. He tossed them at the feet of the Kobold elder.

  Li Yu turned and continued walking West. He soon disappeared into the Razor-Grass before they could thank him properly. It was a small thing. A flick of a finger and a few pounds of meat. It wouldn't save the world but it would save them for today. For a little while at least. That was enough.

  He walked until nightfall. The moons of the Demonic Realm rose. One shattered and pale, the other a blood red crescent. The temperature plummeted. The razor grass frosted over and became brittle and somehow even sharper.

  Li Yu found a small depression in the earth that was sheltered by a cluster of rock formations that looked like giant petrified fingers reaching for the sky. He wasn't the only one seeking shelter here.

  In the center of the depression a small fire burned. Sitting around it was a Rock Skin Troll. The Troll was massive, easily eight feet tall while sitting down. His skin was like granite. It was cracked and mossy. He looked like a boulder that had decided to take a nap.

  Li Yu hesitated. Trolls were notoriously territorial. But then Li Yu saw what the Troll was doing.

  In the Troll's massive and stony lap sat a tiny creature. It was a Moon Moth, a delicate insect no larger than a human hand. It had wings that glowed with soft bioluminescent light. One of its wings was bent at an awkward angle.

  The Troll was holding a small pot of sticky resin. With fingers not up to the task, he was gently and painstakingly applying the resin to the moth's broken wing.

  He was humming. A low rumbling sound that vibrated through the ground. It was a lullaby of sorts. Li Yu watched from the shadows. The contrast was jarring. A creature built for smashing skulls was performing surgery on an insect that wouldn't even make a mouthful of food.

  The Troll finished his work. He blew softly on the resin to dry it. Then, he lifted his hands. The Moon Moth fluttered as its wing held steady. It circled the Troll's head once, dusting him with glittering pollen, before flying up toward the shattered moon.

  The Troll watched it go a wide jagged smile cracking his stone face.

  "Fly good," the Troll grunted to the sky. He then reached into a bag and pulled out a raw root vegetable. He quickly bit into it and crunched into it like an apple. Li Yu smiled at the scene. He stepped out of the shadows.

  The Troll roared at the intruder and scrambled to his feet. It quickly grabbed a massive stone club. "Mine! Fire mine!"

  Li Yu held up his hands with his palms open.

  "Peace," Li Yu said. "I just need a corner of the windbreak. I have my own food. I won’t bother you."

  The Troll sniffed the air. He looked at Li Yu and then at the darkness of the plains. He grunted and sat back down.

  "Corner only," the Troll warned. "Snore loud."

  Li Yu sat on the opposite side of the fire. He pulled out two jugs of wine and tossed one to the Troll. The Troll caught it, sniffed it suspiciously, and took a swig. His eyes widened. He belched. It sounded like a rockslide.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Good burn," the Troll admitted.

  They sat in silence for the rest of the night. A human cultivator and a Rock Skin Troll. They were sharing a fire in the middle of nowhere. No words were exchanged. None were needed. The troll didn’t even need to share but for one reason or another it had decided to.

  The next morning when Li Yu woke up the Troll was already gone. Next to the spot where Li Yu had slept there was a small, perfectly polished river stone. A gift. Li Yu knew when the troll had gotten up and given him the stone. He had his guard up at all times but pretended to keep sleeping.

  Li Yu picked it up. It was smooth and cool to the touch. A small smile appeared on his face.

  ‘It’s not all bad people here after all…’ Li Yu thought with some warmth to his soul. The Razor Grass Plains eventually gave way to the Sea of Rust.

  This was a desert but not of sand. It was a desert of metallic dust. The dunes were deep red and the wind carried a metallic tang that tasted like blood. Here, Li Yu saw the remnants of ancient wars.

  Colossal skeletons of war beasts lay half buried in the rust. Their ribcages formed tunnels that travelers used for shade. Broken swords jutted from the ground like tombstones.

  Li Yu saw scavengers here. Not just animals but cultivator scavengers. He passed a group of Metal Elementals. Beings made of living quicksilver and scrap. They were harvesting marrow from the petrified bones of a behemoth. They ignored him completely and went about their business. In the Sea of Rust everyone was too busy to fight unnecessary battles.

  He saw a human merchant caravan. This one was heavily armed. The guards wore masks to filter the rust dust. They rode on Dust Striders, giant insectoid mounts with long spindly legs that kept them above the shifting drifts.

  Li Yu walked alongside them for a few miles but kept his distance. They eyed him but didn’t tell him to go away. Many others have done it as well for safety. As long as they didn’t actually get in the way the guards rarely cared.

  Li Yu overheard their conversations.

  "Prices in the Ashplains are up," a guard grumbled. "The fortress is stocking up."

  "War coming?" Another asked.

  "There’s always a war coming," the first replied. "Border tensions are high after the incident at Black Pass. The Commander isn't taking chances."

  Li Yu listened. It seemed the ripples of Malos's actions had reached even here. The destruction of an entire legion and an army had put everyone on edge.

  Eventually, the red dust began to turn grey. The air grew colder. The metallic taste faded and was replaced by the smell of sulfur and charcoal. The ground hardened. The shifting rust dunes were replaced by cracked black stones.

  Li Yu had arrived at the Ashplains.

  This region was grim. It was a volcanic plateau where the ground constantly smoked. The flora here was black and twisted. The trees were made of charcoal that burned slowly from the inside but never turned to ash and was fueled by the geothermal Qi.

  And in the distance, looming against the dark sky like a sleeping beast, was a fortress.

  It sat at the mouth of a massive canyon that cut through the Cinder Peaks. It was the only safe passage through the mountains that separated the chaotic wilds from the more stable territories of the Human Nations.

  Fortress Iron Wall. It lived up to its name.

  The walls were high. They were constructed of black stone and reinforced with steel plates. Massive ballistae that were powered by spirit stones were aimed at the sky to target flying beasts. They lined the ramparts. The gates were made of a dull grey metal.

  It wasn't a city designed for trade. It was a city designed to stop armies. Li Yu approached the main gate. There was a queue here as well. Li Yu joined the line and then after a while it was his turn.

  "Next!" A guard barked. Li Yu stepped forward.

  The guard, a scarred man at the Foundation Establishment stage, looked Li Yu up and down. He held a crystal lens over his eye and was scanning Li Yu’s energy signature.

  "Name?"

  "Li Yu," he said.

  "Race?"

  "Human."

  The guard lowered the lens. He looked at Li Yu’s simple robes and the staff on his back.

  "Cultivation?"

  "Mid-Stage Core Formation," Li Yu lied. He wanted to appear competent but not too noteworthy.

  The guard grunted. "Purpose of entry?"

  "Travel," Li Yu said. "Heading West towards the Human Nations."

  The guard narrowed his eyes. "West? You know that passing is strictly regulated right now?"

  "Regulated?"

  "High alert," the guard explained. "After the Black Pass was wiped out, command locked down the borders. No one goes through the Cinder Peaks without a permit or a merchant writ. We can't have spies or refugees flooding the pass. Especially so if a Demonlord is against them."

  Li Yu paused and wasn’t quite sure what to do now.

  "I'll stay in the city for now," Li Yu said smoothly. "Rest and resupply. Perhaps wait for the regulations to lift."

  The guard nodded. "Entry tax is ten spirit stones. Not cores. Stones."

  Li Yu retrieved ten low grade spirit stones from his pouch. He handed them over.

  "Welcome to Iron Wall," the guard said and handed him a wooden token. "Keep your head down. Don't start fights. And if you hear the siren, get indoors. The Ash Drakes have been active lately."

  Li Yu took the token and walked through the massive gates. Inside, Fortress Iron Wall was a stark contrast to Gorm. There was no chaotic shouting. The streets were laid out in a rigid grid. The buildings were blocky, utilitarian bunkers made of stone. Small groups of soldiers marched in formation down the main avenue.

  It felt less like a city and more like a military camp that had grown too large. But it was clean. There were no slaves being whipped in the streets. There were no open pits of fighting beasts. However, that would be to be expected from a more military camp. Perhaps inside those things would exist all the same.

  Li Yu walked down the main thoroughfare. He saw a bakery selling bread. He saw a blacksmith hammering a sword with focused precision. He saw a mother scolding her child for running too fast.

  "Careful, Jhin! You'll trip!"

  Li Yu stopped. It was such a mundane and human sound. However, after weeks of guttural roars, shrieks and the silence of the dead, hearing a mother worry about a scraped knee felt like a thunderclap.

  He watched them. The child laughed while running back to his mother's skirts. Li Yu felt a strange tightness in his chest.

  'Humanity,' he thought. 'It survives here. Walled in, armoured up and terrified... but it survives.'

  He kept walking and was looking for an inn that he could stay at. He found one near the central plaza. The Grey Hearth. He entered. The warmth of a real fire hit him. The smell of stew filled the air.

  Li Yu sat at a table. He looked at his hands. They were clean but he could still feel the phantom grit of the ash on his skin.

  He had made it to the border. He was one step closer to the Human Nations. But as he looked around the room, he saw the tension in the eyes of the patrons. Men gripping their tankards too tight. Women whispering with worried glances at the door.

  The guard had said the pass was regulated. High alert. Li Yu sighed.

  'There is no rest,' he thought. 'Just different battlefields.'

  He signaled the serving girl.

  "One bowl of stew," Li Yu said. "And tell me... where does a person go to get a permit for the pass?"

  The girl looked at him while wiping her hands on her apron. Her eyes were sad.

  "The Commander's Office," she said softly. "But they aren't giving them out, stranger. The only way through the peaks right now... is to sign up for a patrol or have connections with the inner circle."

  Li Yu nodded slowly.

  "Of course," he murmured.

  He leaned back and was watching the fire crackle in the hearth. The flames danced and were casting shadows that looked like grasping hands. He had come here to escape the chaos of the Demonic Realm's wilds. It seemed he had just walked into a different kind of cage.

  But at least this time, the food smelled like home.