Chapter 4: Dragonfang

“Eleena, did you go visit that priest again?” The village elder who had been standing at the entrance of the village asked, seeing Eleena running back to the village.

“Yes I did, Elder!” Eleena answered happily.

“You better keep your distance from him, young lady,” the village elder advised sternly, “He’s too suspicious.”

“But Mister Xi Wei just healed Uncle Pierre yesterday..?” Eleena asked in confusion.

“Yes, and he didn’t even ask for one copper coin in compensation. If it were a priest from the city, the amount required for them to heal an injury of that degree would be at least 300 Rions!” The village elder explained patiently, nodding in response to her question. “This is why I don’t believe that he is a good person, child. Listen to me and don’t go seeing him anymore, alright child?”

The village chief who was over sixty years old could already be regarded as pretty long-lived in this world. His long years had made him more knowledgeable and experienced than the average villager.

If Xi Wei had asked for anything in return such as money or some young ladies from the village, he would not have been so worried, but this sort of person who seemingly wanted nothing in return was the most dangerous in his opinion.

In the past there had been such a person that had appeared in one of the nearby villages. He seemed amiable and approachable, helping the villagers to fix their buildings and do their farm work—it wasn’t a long time before he was accepted by the innocent villagers.

In a twist of events, that man turned out to be a fanatic cult member of an evil god. While he was gaining the trust of the villagers, he used nearly a year’s worth of time to convert the village into a sacrificial platform, killing all the villagers and sacrificing their flesh and blood overnight!

When the militia had arrived, the originally lively and thriving village was reduced to a grotesque scene of corpses consumed by the subordinates of the evil god…

The village elder was one of the members of the militia back in the day, and he could never shake the hellish image from his head in his entire life.

“Mister Xi Wei isn’t as bad as you say he is!” Eleena refuted, pouting indignantly.

The village elder was going to say something, before a sturdily built young man rushed over in a panic.

“Village elder, I have bad news!” The young man shouted, panting as he tried to catch his breath. “Our hunting team found a pile of fresh Dragonfang dung in a forest not far away from our village! Pierre said that the slaugh—” he cut himself off, noticing the young girl standing nearby.

Changing his words quickly, he continued, “The incident that happened at Hawkes village might have been done by this Dragonfang, and now it migrated to this area! It might set its sights on us…”

Not knowing what a Dragonfang was, Eleena tilted her head curiously, listening into the conversation.

“What?!” The village elder exclaimed, the wrinkles on his forehead growing deeper with worry.

A Dragonfang was an extremely fierce and bloodthirsty creature that was somewhere between a wild animal and a magical beast. Its size was twice that of tigers and lions, with monstrous strength that could kill a boar with one blow. Growing on its tail were large, sharp bony spikes shaped like a dragon’s teeth. Even a team of hunters wouldn’t be able to put a scratch on it.

Even more worrying was the fact that these cunning and cruel monsters absolutely adored the taste of humans, especially their brains. That was the reason why they often snuck into villages to prey on the young and the weak, using the bony spikes on their tails to crack open their skulls and feast on their brains while they were still fresh; all while leaving farm animals alive.

“Have the hunting teams stop going out to hunt for the next few days. Tonight I’ll have everyone gather up some money…You’re a fast runner, first thing tomorrow morning, bring the money with you to Yugen city and have the crusaders from the Holy Corps send help!” The village elder commanded, before he continued, “Remember, you can only ask help from the Brilliant White Church or the Temple of Glory!”

The young man nodded in understanding, and was about to reply before alarming chimes resounded from the western lookout tower, causing both the village elder and the young man’s faces to pale dramatically.

The village which had been rather quiet up to that point suddenly burst into action in response, with many capable villagers coming out to protect their homes with crudely made weapons.

They hadn’t even done anything before the chiming abruptly stopped, and was replaced by a harrowing wail.

Soon after, the wooden lookout tower collapsed, and from the ashes came a monster that looked like a grotesquely large wolf, with bony scales covering its body. It sauntered into the fray slowly with a bloody arm hanging from its maw, terrifying tail sweeping and creating clouds of dust as it shuffled closer to the village.

Even though it stood on four legs, its eyes were already on eye level with an average human, showing exactly how large it was. This monster was stronger and more powerful than its kin!

“Run, Eleena!”

The village elder pushed the girl behind him and resolutely stood in front of her protectively along with the young man.

At this point in time, there were villagers who had already tried to attack the Dragonfang, but the monster had enough power to snap a human into two along with their weapons in one bite, and could crush a human’s head like a watermelon with a swing of its tail, not to mention those claws that could easily leave marks on the sturdiest granite.

Not only that, the Dragonfang was extremely fast and agile that even the arrows that the hunters were proud of could hit it. Even if a stray arrow hit, it would be deflected by the bone plates on the monster’s back, unable to cause any effective damage.

The villagers had no chance.

Eleena was so terrified that her knees buckled and she could barely stay standing. She knew that her presence wouldn’t have been of any help, but she couldn’t flee for life as the people she regarded as family were getting massacred in cold blood.

After blanking out from fear for a moment, she suddenly remembered someone who could help.

“Mister Xi Wei! Yes, if it’s him…”

Even though she didn’t know what type of deity the God of Games was, but she knew that if Xi Wei could appoint a Saintess, he would definitely be someone strong!

If it were him, maybe he could find a way to defeat this terrible monster!

Gathering her strength to control her legs which felt like putty, she stumbled over to the stone cottage as fast as she could.

One the way there, she tripped and fell quite a few times in her haste, bruising and wounding herself. This however, did not deter her from her goal as she gritted her teeth and braved on. Finally, she reached the stone cottage and knocked on the wooden door with all her might.

Fortunately, the door opened as it always did, revealing Xi Wei’s not-so-handsome but pleasant-looking face.

Before he could greet her, the girl shouted, “Mister Xi Wei, please help save everyone!”

“What happened?” Xi Wei asked, perplexed by how ragged the girl looked.

As a deity, Xi Wei had the ability Divine Eye, and could observe and look places and people that were not under the influence of another deity. But since he was still weak at this point, he could only see some vague images like a faulty surveillance camera. Adding onto that was the fact that using this ability required him to consume his divine energy. Therefore, he only used it once or twice on Eleena with the thoughts of wanting to understand her to convince her to join his church (and no, it’s not because he’s a pervert) before giving up on this ability entirely.

Eleena quickly explained what had happened to the village.

“Please save us!” Eleena pleaded as she cried, “If you can rescue our village, I’ll do anything, even be the Saintess!”

“Faith is not something that can be exchanged so easily,” he said calmly.

“But…” Eleena was at a loss. Other than herself, she didn’t have anything else that she could have used to exchange for his help.

“It’s okay, let me go take a look alright?”

Honestly, Xi Wei did not have any thoughts of wanting anything in return. He had just transmigrated as a deity after all, and he still had the mentality of a human being and wanted to help the villagers out.

‘But now my time in the mortal realm is going to become even lower, huh…’ he thought resignedly.