This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 239 What’s the price?

“It is… pain. And despair,” Russell murmured, his voice tinged with barely perceptible tension. “Very intense… many… many lives are fading away.”

Without saying a word, Nie Weiyang took the lead and walked towards the passage. The further down he went, the more indescribable acrid stench filled the air.

At the end of the passage was a huge natural pit, the entrance of which was blocked by a rough iron fence.

And beneath the pit... lies a hellish scene.

Dozens of ragged, emaciated people huddled at the bottom of the pit like livestock. Most of them had blank stares and their bodies were covered in various wounds and sores. Some had already turned into cold corpses, left unattended. Excrement and vomit piled up in the corners, emitting a stench that filled the air. Faint, painful groans echoed in the pit, sending chills down one's spine.

These are all Zhao Deming's 'slaves'. When they fled in panic, these properties, having lost their usefulness, were abandoned here like garbage, left to fend for themselves, or perhaps... they were deliberately used as expendable pawns to delay the pursuers.

This is the trolley problem.

Nie Weiyang was too fast; he couldn't possibly lead an ordinary group on a long-distance pursuit. But if he were alone or with only a few scattered people, this scene would inevitably slow down his progress.

At this moment, Nie Weiyang showed no emotion on his face.

Russell slammed his fist against the rock wall beside him with a dull thud, his heterochromatic eyes burning with the same rage: "Damn it! Those bastards!"

The numb people at the bottom of the pit were startled by the noise, and they looked up blankly to see two unfamiliar figures standing at the entrance of the cave.

A tall, strong figure, burning with fury like a tiger or wolf. A figure shrouded in a faint light, with terrifying crimson eyes.

A faint, habitual fear first flashed in people's eyes, but it was quickly overwhelmed by a deeper despair.

Nie Weiyang's gaze swept over this human tragedy, finally settling on the rusty iron fence.

He slowly raised his hand, grabbed the fence, and easily broke it in half and threw it away.

“Take them up.” He said, walking down the stairs, feeling an itch in his teeth and hands. “Send a message to the nearest city and have them come and pick them up.”

“Okay.” Russell took a deep breath, but was overwhelmed by the stench again, so he had no choice but to turn around and rush up to deliver the message.

Nie Weiyang stepped down into the crowd.

The pungent stench and intense despair almost solidified. His scarlet eyes calmly swept over the numb or pained faces, finally settling on an old woman curled up in a corner.

She was very old, with sparse, gray hair, half of her body covered in terrible ulcers, her breath weak, and her eyes staring blankly at the top of the rock, as if she had long since given up on the idea of ​​living.

Nie Weiyang knelt down in front of her and, without the slightest hesitation, reached out and carefully picked her up.

The old man was frighteningly light, like a bundle of dry firewood. The smell of rotting flesh was overwhelming, but Nie Weiyang's movements were steady and gentle.

A pure white light emanated from his hand, and the healing energy, devoid of temperature, slowly flowed into the old woman's body, temporarily stabilizing her rapidly deteriorating life force and slightly alleviating her pain.

Finally, the old man's cloudy eyes shifted slightly, seemingly lost in thought.

Nie Weiyang carried her up the steps, leaving the filthy, death pit, and settled her in the main cave where Zhao Deming had previously lived. It was clean and spacious, suitable for accommodating the wounded.

The old man looked at him blankly.

He didn't speak, but continued the treatment for a while longer until he confirmed that she was temporarily out of immediate danger of death.

Then, he turned and walked back towards that hellish pit.

Russell had returned after delivering the message, his face ashen, and he began to help.

Silently and efficiently, the two carried the weak and unable-to-move individuals aboard. They settled all the survivors, provided water and food, carefully cleaned each person's wounds, and treated them with healing skills and their own medicine. Nie Weiyang's holy light was warm and possessed a powerful purifying effect, while Russell's natural energy nourished the withered life force. Their movements were as gentle as possible, their voices soft, attempting to soothe these tormented souls.

After the initial fear subsided, a glimmer of humanity gradually returned to the numb eyes of the survivors.

As they watched these two powerful strangers do these things and listened to their gentle inquiries, their tense nerves slowly relaxed.

A young girl with terrible scars on her face finally broke down in quiet sobs as Russell treated the ulcers on her arm.

“After the blood moon rose… the settlements scattered, and I met them when I was fleeing…” she recounted haltingly, her voice hoarse. “He said he would help us do business, that he would feed us… We thought that since there was a currency called ‘silver rings,’ there was an economic system, and we could survive… His daughter was so kind to me at first, giving me food and saying I was pretty…”

Her tears, mixed with pus and blood, streamed down her face: "They said they would let us live to old age in the new world... He lied to us... He lied to all of us..."

She didn't dare look at Nie Weiyang next to her, but subconsciously huddled up next to Russell, who looked more harmless.

The old woman who was initially carried up by Nie Weiyang finally came to her senses.

After treatment, her condition seemed to have improved somewhat, but her gaze remained vacant as she stared at the cave ceiling and murmured to herself:
"I never thought... that I'd be so old, having toiled my whole life, and still not be able to die peacefully."

Her voice was dry, like sandpaper being rubbed.

"Let me die... young man, please, let me die... it hurts too much... it's too painful... I'm so old, why can't I die yet?"

Nie Weiyang walked to her bedside and looked down at her aged and pained face.

His voice was unusually calm, offering neither comfort nor encouragement, but simply stating a cold, hard fact:

“People don’t just die when they get old,” he said. “People can die at any time. That’s just how things are.”

These words were so cold, yet strangely they carried a sense of tolerance and gentleness.

The old man slowly closed his eyes, two streams of cloudy tears sliding down his cheeks: "I just want to die... right now..."

Nie Weiyang reached out his hand, his fingers gently brushing across the old man's sparse, gray hair. The movement was incredibly gentle, creating a strange contrast with his earlier words.

“Everyone dies eventually.” His voice was low. “Death is there; there’s no need to rush it.”

He leaned slightly closer to the old man's ear and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:

Don't you want to see it?

"Don't you want to see the people who turned you into this... who died before you?"

The old man's breathing suddenly quickened, and his eyeballs trembled violently beneath his tightly closed eyelids.

Nie Wei straightened up, stopped talking, and continued to use his skills to relieve her pain.

Inside the cave, only the suppressed sobs and painful groans of the survivors remained.

The rescue message has been sent out, but the waiting process is still agonizing for everyone here.

Zhao Deming's plan succeeded; Nie Weiyang and Russell were indeed firmly held back by this scene...

Nie Weiyang scanned the crowd in the cave, then exchanged a brief glance with Russell before they both looked away.

But what is the price?
(End of this chapter)