After witnessing countless corpses scattered across the wilderness, Luo Wei felt her heart growing numb.

  The winters in the Western Continent were brutally cold, ciming many lives each year. Now with the addition of man-eating magical beasts, one could only imagine how unbearable life had become for these commoners.

  "Wasn't the Magic Association supposed to have summoned high-level mages here? Why are there still so many magical beasts roaming outside?" Luo Wei couldn't help but ask as she witnessed a pack of low-level magic weasels feasting on a human corpse.

  Troy replied in a somber tone, "These low-level magical beasts have little value, and capturing them is time-consuming and bor-intensive. Most mages don't want to deal with them."

  "Although the Magic Association issued a notice, not many came to help fight against the magical beasts. After all, the Association won't pay gold coins to volunteers."

  "More importantly, after news spread about the Behemoth's awakening, all countries began strengthening their defenses. They couldn't spare any forces to support the Magic Beast Mountains."

  Luo Wei frowned, "What about the local lord and the king? Don't they care about these commoners at all?"

  "The lord fled long ago, and the king's capital is far from here. How could they possibly care about the lives of common people?" Troy said sarcastically.

  "Only the vilges near Beast Town are slightly better off. That area belongs to the Magic Association, and they've organized swordsmen to patrol at night."

  As they spoke, the griffin had already flown near Beast Town.

  The five of them jumped down from the griffin and silently walked toward Beast Town.

  After walking for about ten minutes, Luo Wei heard chaotic crowd noises, though she couldn't tell what was happening.

  Looking up, she saw that Beast Town had been surrounded by three yers of thorny barricades, keeping the ragged refugees outside.

  These refugees were crying and begging to enter Beast Town. They surged forward but were driven back by the guards' spears. Finally, they could only colpse desperately onto the cold mud outside the barricades, digging up grass roots to eat.

  Luo Wei noticed that many among them had stopped breathing. Some thinly-clothed refugees sat stiffly by the barricades, thick frost forming on their brows.

  In winter, with temperatures below zero, the mountain forests looked stripped bare and gray, without a hint of green in sight.

  These commoners, wrapped only in tattered hemp and patched sheepskin coats, endured hunger and cold in the bitter wind, their lives slowly ebbing away until they became ice sculptures.

  "Why don't they make fires?" Luo Wei asked softly.

  "All the dry wood in the mountains has been collected. The remaining trees require tools to cut down, and they don't have axes or sickles."

  "Why don't they have any?" Luo Wei asked, immediately realizing how naive her question was.

  Most of these people weren't free peasants. They had no nd of their own, and all property belonged to their lord, including themselves. How could they possibly own expensive iron tools?

  "They are all serfs," Troy expined simply. "Besides, the nearby forests belong to other lords. They cannot viote the lords' property, or they'll be sentenced."

  In medieval Western society, only free peasants were considered commoners. They had their own farmnd, and although they paid taxes to their lords and owed them allegiance, their bodies belonged to themselves.

  Farmers without their own nd were serfs, and everything they had belonged to their lords. All their actions required their lord's permission, including marriage, occupation, travel, and production activities.

  "These serfs vioted their lord's orders by fleeing their nds, which itself is against the w. Beast Town doesn't dare take them in."

  Luo Wei remained silent for a long while before turning to the four others: "We probably can't enter the town looking like this. Let's clean up first."

  "At least we should wash up and change clothes, then gather some herbs to brew a potion to remove the smell."

  "Alright," everyone agreed without objection.

  In the afternoon, the five of them finally finished tidying up and walked toward the town gates.

  As soon as they walked among the refugees, desperate pleas rose all around them.

  "My lord, please, please spare some food!"

  "Just a bite to eat, I beg you, I beg..."

  "Kind dy, merciful dy, please take pity on us..."

  "My child is freezing to death, please take him inside..."

  The refugees prostrated themselves at their feet, begging for food, their faces swollen and festering with chilbins, looking like the zombies Luo Wei had seen in movies in her previous life.

  Their bodies were gaunt and aged, pressing their faces into the dust as they begged. People behind them surged forward, raising countless chapped hands like tree bark toward the five of them.

  Luo Wei couldn't describe her feelings at that moment. Human life had become so worthless that even the dirt seemed to despise them.

  "Clear the way!"

  "Get back, go!"

  "Move aside!"

  The gate guards drove back the refugees and dismounted before Luo Wei: "Noble dy, are you looking to enter the town?"

  He judged from their attire that Luo Wei was the leader of the group.

  "Yes," Luo Wei nodded slightly, "Can we enter now?"

  "Well, we could... but the town is at full capacity now, and the mayor said we can't let any more people in..."

  "Stop wasting time," Luo Wei tossed him three gold coins, "We want to enter the town, now - can we or not?"

  The guard caught the coins and his face lit up with joy: "Of course, of course! Please follow me, this way."

  He was just a knight from a minor lord's household, earning only ninety silver coins a year. These three gold coins were worth more than three years of his income!

  The guard happily escorted the five inside, but as soon as he turned around, two other guards surrounded him.

  "Friend, you weren't pnning to keep this all to yourself, were you?"

  "What are you saying? I would never do that. I was just about to share with you."

  The guard reluctantly pulled out the three gold coins and gave one to each of them.

  As Luo Wei's group entered the town, it was like stepping into another world entirely.

  The square was bustling with people, mages in robes chatted leisurely in small groups, dashing swordsmen sat in taverns holding prostitutes while engaging in grand discussions, and street vendors had set up numerous stalls. There was no sign that this pce had ever been threatened by magical beasts.

  Outside was a frozen wastend strewn with the starving, while inside were warm hearths and abundant food and wine.

  "Beast Town hasn't been this lively in ages."

  "Indeed, with so many important people visiting this year, my wine celr is almost empty. Do you still have any sheep left?"

  "No, I'm trying to find someone to bring me more from outside!"

  Merchants with ruddy faces passed by Luo Wei, excitedly discussing how much money they could make this winter.

  Luo Wei touched the money pouch at her waist, then let her hand fall.

  Never mind, what could she alone do anyway?

  There were hundreds of refugees outside - even if she gave them bread and meat today, would they survive until tomorrow?

  Besides, with so many "important people" in town, there wasn't enough food even for them.

  "Let's go," Luo Wei said calmly. "First, we'll buy some clothes, then get some potions."

  "Good!" Theodore and Hol immediately agreed.

  With so many people around, they had kept their cloaks tightly wrapped to hide their grass skirts underneath.

  The five entered a tailor's shop, and when they emerged, everyone except Luo Wei, who was already elegantly dressed, wore proper new clothes.

  Looking presentable would prevent others from looking down on them.

  "Should we try to find vacant rooms at an inn?" Troy asked.

  "We can try," Luo Wei answered.

  As they walked through the town streets, hearing the bustling sounds around them, none could muster a smile.

  Just as they were approaching an inn, sudden commotion erupted in the town square.

  "His Highness the Prince is arriving! His Highness the Prince is arriving!"

  "Everyone to the square to kneel and welcome him, everyone—"

  Crowds of people poured out of the inns on both sides of the street, as all visitors, merchants, and residents rushed out.

  The five were pushed forward by the fervent crowd, like pebbles caught in a mudslide, flowing along the street into the town square.

  In the crushing crowd, Luo Wei held tightly to Troy's arm to avoid being separated.

  "Who is His Highness the Prince?" she asked, standing on tiptoe to reach Troy's ear.

  Troy answered quietly, "He's a Cardinal of the Church, commonly known as a Prince of the Church. Believers must address him as His Highness."

  So it was a Cardinal - all this pomp for a Cardinal?

  Outside the town, two rows of knights violently drove away the refugees from beneath the walls, clearing a wide road and standing guard with drawn swords on either side.

  Ten minutes ter, an ivory carriage adorned with gold and silver slowly approached, and the Cardinal's magnificent cardinal's crown and staff came into view.

  "Quick, let's go back!" Luo Wei said anxiously.

  "What's wrong?" Troy asked in confusion.

  "I've come down with a condition where my knees won't bend. Let's hurry!"

  Luo Wei pulled Troy back, and seeing this, the three young demons quickly straightened their half-bent knees and followed the two of them as they ran from the square.

  "His Highness the Prince arrives—"

  As the carriage entered the gates, everyone knelt down, bowing their heads reverently. The cmor instantly died away, leaving the vast square in complete silence.

  Suddenly, the five people still standing became extremely conspicuous.

  "Must we kneel?" Luo Wei whispered.

  "Even kings must kneel," Troy quietly replied.