Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

She stopped abruptly as she saw the back of her grandfather hunched over on his walking stick while he observed the burning fields in front of him. She felt a sinking pain in her heart as she slowly approached his sorrowful posture.

"Grandpa...what happened?"

He didn't even turn his head to acknowledge her as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Ning'Er. I didn't want to spoil the mood last night. It warmed my heart so much to see you again and I wanted to celebrate as a family."

He gave a deep sigh, coughing a little as the smoke irritated his throat. "Our clan's businesses have been suppressed even more this year than usual. The Sacred Family have been utterly ruthless recently...just a few months ago, they repeatedly dumped products that directly compete with us at rock-bottom prices, not even caring if they lost significant money. They've pressured their business partners to stop working with us completely and we've lost many of our previous relationships. I know that the situation with our headquarters in Glory City is more stable with the current relationship with the Guild of Inscriptionists, but it cannot sustain all our branches in the villages. Now, our main farmland for spirit herbs..."

His voice trailed off as he continued looking at the devastation in front of him.

"Oh no...did they send people to burn our fields?" she exclaimed. This was a direct act of provocation and destruction that the authorities of Glory City would not allow! "I can raise a case with the poli..."

"It was me. I set fire to our farms." he said in a firm tone. "Three weeks ago, we discovered an outbreak of a unique type of winged weevil that we've never encountered before. They spread at an unbelievable rate no mater how we tried to counter them, laying eggs directly into the stems of our spirit herbs, with the young bursting out to consume everything around. I don't even know where this vicious and relentless species came from. I was afraid that they would multiply uncontrollably to rampage through all of Glory City, which could affect the entire population...so I decided to burn our fields even if it might mean that we cannot sustain our branch in this village anymore."

"But grandpa...this village is where our Winged Dragon Family originated from. You were always so proud that you were born in this very village. How can we close down our branch here?" she tearfully asked.

In all the emotion, Ning'Er had momentarily forgotten that money was something that she had in abundance in right now. She quickly took out an interspatial ring and passed it to her grandfather. He looked at it in surprise and curiousity, looking at her face for an explanation.

"Grandpa Xiao, here is 100 million demon spirit coins. It should be more than enough to sustain the clan in this village for a very long time. At the same time, you should use it to hire reliable fighters and demon spiritualists, as well as upgrade our clan's equipment, in case the Sacred Family play any dirty tricks or get more aggressive with our family."

She knew that she would be stirring up more trouble with the Sacred Family soon and wanted to ensure that her family in this village was more prepared to weather any issues that came about from her actions. "In the meantime, let me write to the Guild of Inscriptionists in Glory City to ask if they have any ideas on setting up something sustainable here until we can replant and harvest spirit herbs again."

He looked at her, unsure how to respond. The amount of funds that she took out nonchalantly, almost without thinking, was something that would have taken the branch here over a year to earn in income. Finally, he closed his eyes and bowed his head in acknowledgement to her, "Ning'Er, you've grown up. I won't ask where you got this and will humbly accept it on behalf of the family. At a time when I was ready to give up in my fight against that devious family that has been suppressing us for so long, you dealt with it at a snap of your fingers. The future truly belongs the younger generation. I can rest easy knowing the clan will be in good hands. Thank you."

She accompanied her grandfather back to his home a slow, relaxed pace. Although they walked in silence, numerous thoughts were rushing through her mind at this moment. She had been very much focused on upgrading her strength, and those around her, and realised that she may need to pay some attention to stabilising her Winged Dragon Family's economic situation, especially if they were to be able to stand strong against the Sacred Family's suppression. She had many strategies in the future that would include the Alchemist Association among others, but she was still too weak to put those plans into action yet.

As they walked out of sight, a group of three men stood up from where they were hidden at the edge of the forest adjacent to the burning farmland. They were covered from head to toe in black cloth, with only a thin slit showing for their eyes to see out of.

One of them muttered, "That old man was pretty decisive with his actions. We thought that if those engineered weevils we released into their farm spread to Glory City, we could place the blame on the Winged Dragon Family and crush them once and for all when the other families turned against them. Who knew that he would actually torch his family's livelihood so ruthlessly?"

"Well, at this rate they won't last for long. At the very least, there should be no way that their branch in this village continues, and even their clan as a whole will suffer. This was their biggest plantation for their spirit herb business!" A skinny man next to the first one exclaimed in an unusual high-pitched, squeaky voice. He turned to the one standing at the front and smirked, "Why are you so silent? Thinking about how to handle your fiancé?"

Under his hood, Shen Fei gnashed his teeth together in simmering anger as his eyes glittered with malicious intent. "One of these days, she'll venture out into these woods to train and even though I won't kill her, I'll make sure to cripple her so badly that she has to live the rest of her life suffering as a deadbeat!" If he didn't concern himself with ensuring there were no witnesses, he would have acted already but the Patriarch had given him clear instructions to make sure nothing ever linked back to the Sacred Family.

He didn't tell the other two what else had gone through his mind. Before he crippled her, he would have his way with her and ensure that her soul was completely crushed as he destroyed her dignity. He felt a sharp flash of pleasure in his loins as he licked his lips, impatiently waiting for that time to come.

Over the next few days, Ning'Er's grandfather did not let her out of the home. Instead, they stayed in the private courtyard stretching an acre long in front of the house, where he spent all his time teaching her everything he could about utilising the wings that she had integrated. He had spent many long years training with this equipment and was able to draw out from his memories many different ways to utilise them in combat, escape and general mobility. She was able to absorb a lot from his experience with her quick mind, and knew that the time he spent teaching her had accelerated her learning curve by many times.

She truly enjoyed the days she spent with him because she didn't know how many times she could come back to visit in future as she would prioritise finding a way to be able to defeat the Sage Emperor. Her heart was overjoyed as she was reminded how much he loved her and wanted the best for her. She had not been able to spend time like this with her grandparents in her past life after she had encountered Nie Li because she had followed him around on his adventures, and had gone to the Draconic Ruins Realm quite soon after.

In the meantime, the servants began building a large warehouse-like structure. As a result of her correspondence with Wang Shu, they had discussed to build a production center for the Guild of Inscriptionists in her grandfather's village. The guild had been lacking manpower anyway to mass produce lower-tier talismans and artifacts anyway, and the forest behind the farmland contained all the main components they would require for materials. At the same time, she wanted to be able to have a measure of trust towards those she taught her inscriptions to.

This partnership would ensure a highly profitable and sustainable business stream for the Winged Dragon Family for the foreseeable future. Over time, the clan would also set up thriving business with a chain of shops to sell valuable materials sourced from the forest, especially with the Cloaks of Misdirection that Ning'Er would create for them to use.

On the fifth day she was back, she decided to go out to explore and get some fresh air before the upcoming auction in two days. Her grandfather had taught her everything he knew and she wanted have more space to practice her flying techniques. She had just remembered to send a letter to Linjian informing him that she had heard that the Guild of Inscriptions had managed to create another Unity Sword of which he had fallen in love with using during their previous expedition. With his Divine Family's deep resources, he should be able to easily win the bid if he set his mind on obtaining this sword.