Except for a brief rest in the middle, the Flat-beaked Beasts kept moving without stopping the entire journey.
Yang Bairao couldn't help but marvel at these creatures.
"Ten pounds of grass per hundred kilometers; five minutes eating grass, two hours of running; feed them once and they run from dusk till dawn."
Along the way, Yang Bairao had no chance to take out his phone to check the time, and he had no idea how long had passed.
Through his half-closed eyes, he only felt that as the sky began to darken, Lü Tian let out a shout, and the Flat-beaked Beasts slowly came to a halt.
When Yang Bairao opened his eyes and looked, another village lay not far ahead.
Following behind the military commander Lü Yi, the group listened as Lü Yi shouted loudly toward the village ahead. Yet after a long while, not a single person came out from the village to greet them.
A gentle breeze blew, rustling the wild grass on the prairie and bringing with it waves of a bloody stench that stirred the East Wasteland Cavalry into restlessness.
"Let's go!"
Lü Yi was very calm and offered no explanation, immediately driving his Flat-beaked Beast away from the village without stepping foot inside it.
Observing the cavalry's unusual reaction and smelling the blood himself, Yang Bairao thought of the tragic state of Xiang Village, and he wanted to seek confirmation from Lü Tian riding behind him.
Lü Tian seemed to sense Yang Bairao's uneasy state of mind. Urging his accelerating Flat-beaked Beast forward against the fierce wind, he managed to make his unbelievable words reach Yang Bairao's ears.
"They're all dead. This is the fifth village we've encountered while collecting grain. Those bastards are worse than beasts—burning, killing, looting, stopping at nothing."
"They" referred to that group of bandits, the very bandits Yang Bairao had nearly run into that fateful night.
Yang Bairao didn't know whether to feel fortunate or unfortunate. Fortunate that the direction he took away from the river that night happened not to be on those bandits' regular path.
Unfortunate that he had transmigrated to such a chaotic place, completely unlike others whose journeys began with an ancient master's soul attached to them.
It wasn't until the group had traveled far away and deep into the night that Lü Yi ordered the Flat-beaked Beasts to stop, allowing everyone to rest and letting the beasts graze.
That night, some slept peacefully, while others did not.
The ones who found peace were the cavalrymen who had witnessed numerous village massacres, while the one who found no peace was Yang Bairao, a transmigrator who had just arrived in this man-eating world.
He found it hard to sleep and didn't even take out his phone to look at it.
Tossing and turning, unable to find rest, he simply stood up and looked around at the cavalrymen sprawled out sleeping at random, and then at the Flat-beaked Beasts resting on the outer perimeter.
"They've gotten used to this chaotic world. Maybe this is just fate, but I refuse to accept it!"
Carrying the fast-paced rhythm of modern life, Yang Bairao made a resolute decision this time. He wanted to change this world, to change this prairie.
Stepping carefully over the obstructive arms and legs, he slowly walked over to Lü Yi. There were things he wanted to confirm, questions he needed answered clearly.
Lü Yi hadn't fallen asleep either. Hearing the movement coming from Yang Bairao's direction, Lü Yi sat up even before Yang Bairao drew close and motioned for him to walk out toward the perimeter, so as not to wake the sleeping cavalrymen.
Following Lü Yi for a long distance as they waded through the tall grass, Lü Yi wore a solemn expression.
Taking the initiative to break the silence, he said, "Pretty shocking, right? Are you scared? As an outsider to this East Wasteland Prairie, you must rarely see the horrors of a village massacre. What is the outside world really like?"
Yang Bairao put away his usual flippant attitude, nodded, and said, "Shocking, no. Scared, yes. Where we come from, everyone lives in peace and contentment. Although many people carry debts, they don't face unpredictable life-or-death situations."
"Is that what your side is like? No wonder almost no outsiders ever come to the prairie. You're the only one in many, many years."
Lü Yi spoke with the tone of an elder, though he was not old in years; the "many years" he referred to were simply the years recorded in the fortress's archives.
"Those bandits, can't you organize people to drive them away, or perhaps..."
Yang Bairao paused. As someone from the modern world, he knew that murder required paying with one's life, but somehow, actually saying the words felt hard for him to accept psychologically.
Thinking of the tragic state of Xiang Village—the miserable death of the pregnant woman and the unborn child's bitter reluctance to never enter this world—it all felt as vivid as if it were happening right before his eyes.
Finally, his attitude shifted, and he blurted out those words: "To execute them?"
Listening to Yang Bairao's words, Lü Yi sighed and said, "The Beast-Taming Team has already fought them, and we were heavily defeated. It's not that we haven't thought about driving them off the prairie, but we can't beat them."
Lü Yi's tone carried helplessness, alongside a deep, intense hatred.
Yang Bairao knew nothing about the power system of this world. He was merely a corporate worker who had transmigrated less than two months ago, a college graduate flooded with the information age, and many things were beyond his imagination.
"Are they that strong?"
Yang Bairao's tone was somewhat distressed by the overwhelming strength of the bandits.
If it were his own world, first a sweep with heavy machine guns, and if that didn't kill them, a barrage of missiles would level the ground. Unless those bandits could fly or burrow through the earth, or were Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators, no matter how strong they were, they would be blasted into dust under the attack of modern weaponry.
Yet Yang Bairao knew that although the Beast-Taming Team had suffered a heavy defeat, the fact that they could engage in battle at all proved that these bandits could not withstand the bombardment of modern firepower.
Lü Yi seemed to see through Yang Bairao's ignorance of the immensity of heaven and earth, and let out a cold snort: "The weakest among them wouldn't need a second blade to kill someone like you."
As if he hadn't fully explained the terrifying strength of the bandit group, Lü Yi paused for a moment and continued, "I don't know how power is classified in your outside world?"
"Actually, the outside world I'm referring to might not be the outside world you think of!"
Yang Bairao wanted to say that, but he changed his words instead: "It was just a small mountain village where people lived in peace and contentment. As for why I came here, there's no need to mention it."
Lü Yi wasn't particularly interested in Yang Bairao's background either, so he simply explained to him: "Their warlord is a cultivator, a warrior who refines Yuan Qi, and that group of people under him, though ordinary folks themselves, are overwhelmingly powerful when armed."
Having said this, he waited for Yang Bairao to show astonishment, to see whether this young man from a small mountain village felt bewildered or yearned for cultivators.
Yang Bairao's reaction wasn't what Lü Yi expected; his tone remained very calm: "Warriors who refine Yuan Qi? As long as I can figure out the power system here, I have plenty of ways to deal with them."
The first sentence was to confirm what Lü Yi had just said, while the second was to tell himself that since they refined Yuan Qi, he had ways to defeat these Yuan Qi-refining warriors.
The two talked for a long time, and from Lü Yi, Yang Bairao learned about the grading of cultivators. As for anything further, Lü Yi didn't know; after all, Lü Yi was only slightly stronger than an ordinary person.
However, Yang Bairao did learn one piece of news: the chieftain of the Lü Village within the Cavalry Fortress was also a cultivator.
"This world has no spiritual energy, spiritual force, battle qi, mental power, magic, or magic potions—it actually uses Yuan Qi."
Walking back to the group with Lü Yi, Yang Bairao remained unable to sleep for a long time. He harbored deep resentment toward the bandits' inhumane acts, yet he was also excited that this world truly turned out to be a realm where one could cultivate.
At the same time, he firmly memorized the classifications for the first two tiers.
Postnatal, Congenital.
"Just watch me, Yang Bairao, shake the heavens and earth!"