Surkhab

"Sir, here's your order," the innkeeper placed two dishes on the table. With that, he also placed a bowl of water on the table. 

One dish had the meat of a Red Deer and the other one had the meat of a Surkhab. 

The person who was sitting at this table was wearing a hood and his face could not be seen. 

"You can go," a kid's voice from behind the hood, and the innkeeper left. 

It was none other than Yang Zhai. He had not returned home after making everyone wear the same clothes a month ago. He came to this inn daily to eat for almost a month. 

He did not believe in anyone except for himself. Thus, that day, a month ago, he went somewhere else instead of returning to his house. And as almost 25 kids were wearing the same clothes and their faces could also not be seen, he was not discovered and left easily. 

After that, he changed his clothes and left the village at night. 

He knew that the Ma clan would not send someone to assassinate the three disciples right after the first round and would make a good plan and also investigate the three disciples first before striking. Therefore, Yang Zhai disappeared the next day, right after the competition began. 

"The Bai clan wants to put our lives at stake to weaken the Ma clan, or even start a war with them for some reason. It is clearly visible from their actions: otherwise, they would never have agreed to this competition, after all, the Bai clan cannot be blackmailed or threatened to agree to this competition." Yang Zhai thought, 

"And if I am not wrong, it might have something to do with the attack that happened when we were going to the Ma clan."

If everything he thought was true, then the ones protecting him would have let the killers sent by the Ma clan attack him to capture them red-handed. It would definitely endanger his life.

"The conditions of the competition are clearly displaying their schemes." 

It was obvious from the conditions of the competition what was going on. 

First, they set a competition of death. 

Second, they increased the time intervals between the rounds of the competition, why? Definitely to give enough time for the schemes to commence. 

Third, they only chose rank 1 competitors, why? One of the reasons was definitely to not risk the lives of the rank 2 and rank 3 Cultivators. 

Lastly, if one cultivator died, the empty spot could not be substituted or filled up by someone else, why? It was definitely to lure the enemies into attacking the competitors. 

And if that was the case, then, the Bai clan would definitely wait for the competitors to get attacked before protecting them. In this way, even the Bai clan was his enemy, let alone the Ma clan. 

Now that Yang Zhai went missing, the Bai clan would have to protect the remaining two competitors from their side, at all costs. After all, there was no guarantee if Yang Zhai was alive or not. 

Yang Zhai began to eat the two dishes. These two dishes were one of his favorites. After all, Yang Zhai also had a taste, just like how he could feel pain. 

He was wearing a mask that covered the whole left side of his face. He had also made a few slashes at his face with the knife. 

He was not in the Bai clan, but in a third mortal village that was under the Bai clan. It was the one mentioned by the cultivator who had tried to kill Yang Zhai when he had gone hunting the Moon Bull the second time and had obtained the Moon Bull's ability. 

He was eating when he heard the three hunters sitting at the next table talk to each other. 

"Hey, did you hear, the second round of the competition held between the Bai clan and the Ma clan will take place in three months?"

"Yeah, I did. But why are they holding the second round after so many months? What is even the meaning of this?" 

"Who knows, but I won one thousand essence stones after betting five hundred. I am thinking of betting again in the next round. If I manage to win two thousand essence stones more, I can live my whole life peacefully without any worries."

"So, the date of the second round has been announced. That means I have three months here. I think it should be enough." Yang Zhai had been investigating this village for the previous month and did not attack carelessly. It was better to be prepared than to fall short on something later on. 

And as this village was under the Bai clan, cultivators of the Bai clan would occasionally come here to see if something was wrong here. 

After eating, he left the inn. He began to walk in the village's bazaar to see if he could find something. 

He stopped and saw that there was a commotion ahead, and a lot of people were gathered around the area, so he went there to see what was happening. 

"Hey, you, don't you know who I am? I am the lord cultivator appointed by the Bai clan here, but you dare disrespect me." A middle-aged man said this. A small fire was floating above his right hand. From his aura, Yang Zhai sensed that he was a rank 1 cultivator. 

"Lord, please forgive me, I didn't mean to disrespect you, I apologize. I should not have asked for the essence stones." the one who was being threatened by the middle-aged man was a girl around twelve years old. Her clothes were extremely old, which displayed that she was poor. 

She was selling some miscellaneous things which were placed on a torn cloth on the ground. The middle-aged man was angry because he took something he liked from her but did not pay for it and when the girl requested for him to pay, he got angry. 

"No, there is no apology for you, now die!!" The middle-aged man moved his hand behind him and was about to kill the girl by burning her with the fire. 

"Please lord, please forgive her, she did not know about you. You… can take whatever you want." A woman came in front of the girl and began to beg for the girl's life. 

"Haha, I don't want anything now, you should die too. Everyone, look at this carefully and learn your lesson." The middle-aged man shot fire at the woman.

"Arrggghhhh!!!" a loud voice echoed throughout the bazaar. The people who were gathered around to see this turned their faces to the side to not look at the scene. However, nobody went forward to help her. 

Yang Zhai reached the place and saw someone being burned by the fire. A middle hand man was standing in front of the burning person, laughing. And a small girl was trying to put out the fire. However, Yang Zhai could sense that the person being burned had already died, so there was no benefit in putting out the fire. 

"Mother… Ahh,... Mother, no, no, mother! Please… wake up. Someone, please help us, please, waa, waaahh." The small girl kept on crying while asking for help. The palms of her small hands were also burned because of trying to put out the fire. 

It was not the fear of strong which stopped these people from helping the girl, but because of the lack of empathy and feelings. If it was someone their own, they would not have stood around doing nothing. After all, a mother was ready to die for her child, a lover was ready to die for their love, but what about the others? 

If a person wanted to help someone, they only needed a feeling, an emotion, it could be anything, love, hatred, regret, passion, revenge, and many more.  

Well, was the mother insane to die for her child, or were the ones who did nothing insane? An insane person could do anything. And it was this insanity that people liked because it involved no reason, a pure emotion. 

"This man won't be able to live much." Yang Zhai did not want to get dragged into this and turned around to leave. This man was burning people just because of a little disagreement, people like this could not live in this world, forget about this, they could not even live on the earth. 

The man noticed that Yang Zhai did not listen to his warning and was turning around to leave. So, he called him from behind, 

"Hey, you, did you not listen to me?" The middle-aged man kept on calling Yang Zhai, but got no response. 

*****/*****

Here's a question: Is Red Deer with only one color more beautiful or the Surkhab with many colors?