The smell of herbs and spices filled my nostrils; the juicy meat was roasting right before my eyes in a hypnotic way, almost begging me for a bite.
Gulp.
"I can eat it like this anyway…"
Quickly, I lunged forward with a powerful bite.
BANG
A slap just as powerful made me recoil.
"Be civilized and wait, it won't take long," Euphy said, wiping the drool running down the corner of her mouth, barely holding herself together as well.
"This is torture!"
"Of course it is, but it'll be worth it!"
"You're all cut from the same cloth!" The mayor laughed, amused, before downing his drink, his face already flushed even though the party had barely begun.
'Old rascal' I thought, grumbling.
My eyes quickly scanned the scene around me, where more and more old, rascally 'mayors' had gathered, drinking.
The atmosphere was lively, and the more you looked, the more supposedly 'dead' cultivators you could see among the crowd.
With little effort, it was clear that the number of casualties in the battle had been zero.
How? I don't know.
But another question came to mind first.
"Euphy… why is every cultivator in the countryside elected mayor by the village?" She swallowed hard, still hypnotized, before looking at me, trembling.
"You're thinking about it the wrong way," she said, trying to avert her eyes from the meat—something that required great effort and mental power. "It's not that the village elects a 'mayor'; they simply elect their smart grandfather."
"Grandfather?" I frowned, not liking where this conversation was going.
"Well, you see, Kai, when a cultivator—a being who seeks immortality—realizes he has failed, either because he lacks talent or because he's changed his mind and just wants to enjoy the life he has left, he comes to the countryside."
I nodded in agreement; it sounded like a common development. A retiree seeking peace.
"In the countryside, he builds a very comfortable little house and lives there peacefully for the rest of his days. That's it, end of the story." Euphy smiled broadly as she saw the meat being taken off the fire.
Immediately, I attacked with aura, making her shiver and let out a little yelp.
"You son of a—"
"The cultivator retires alone, and then what? Where does the village come from?" Euphy complained before continuing.
"Even a retiree still lives at least a hundred to two hundred years, sometimes even more. A very long life for mortals, who, like all living beings, are always drawn to power. Every living being in this world has an innate desire for power."
Euphy chuckled softly while looking at the people around us. My eyes did the same, quickly noticing the similarities between many of the villagers and the mayor.
"Mortal humans are the weakest and most vulnerable species. They can rarely tread the earthly path. After all, this path becomes harder to walk the older you are. Usually, the ideal time to walk it is while you're a cub… but have you ever seen a human baby? It's not impossible, but… well, it tends to be very rare. In comparison, we beasts manage nine times out of ten."
I nodded in agreement. The fact was that acquiring aura required defeating enemies that were always stronger than oneself.
However, fights between youngsters were decided more by mindset and strategy than by brute power, which was the most important factor for aura to be granted.
Very different from fights between adults, which could simply be defined by hunter and prey—a relationship that did not grant aura.
An ordinary adult human would only gain aura by taking down lions, tigers, or elephants, completely alone.
It was clear that for Vlad to reach that level of power, he had faced his own Herculean challenges.
"Keep this in mind: humans only walk this path out of desperation; it's not suited for them. Unlike the heavenly path, the path of cultivators." Euphy soon grabbed a piece of meat, brought it to her mouth with pleasure, and spoke while chewing.
"Think about it: forests packed with ferocious beasts, cities controlled by mad, genocidal kings and their bastard nobles with weird fetishes—and meanwhile, out in the easily accessible countryside, there's an old man who can teach you the path to power."
"You just described how all cultivators in this world are dangerous—after all, they're the kings, nobles, and everything else," I said. "Why would the old man be any different?"
"Exactly!" she shouted excitedly. "They're all weird, crazy bastards, without a single exception."
She swallowed her food and continued.
"That's why first you need to make sure the old man won't snap and kill you to take your wife… the best way is to act pitiful and have an ugly wife and a beautiful daughter." Suddenly, Euphy dropped the meat and acted it out dramatically. "'Oh, illustrious cultivator, my wife, my daughter, and I got lost in the storm and were chased by a bear. Could you grant us a place to spend the night?'"
She looked at me expectantly, wanting me to continue the act, and with a grunt and a sigh, I did.
"Of course, as long as your wife is ugly and your daughter is of age. Otherwise, I hope your husband's backside is clean."
Euphy couldn't hold it in and burst into sincere laughter.
"Okay, okay. Now a few days pass, the daughter is offered to the cultivator, and everyone is one happy family. However, the man gains power and leaves with his wife; the cultivator's bride has children and dies. Other couples learn about the cultivator and do the same as the first couple. Over time, a village is born, and deciding the mayor is pretty simple."
"The patriarch…" I sighed, remembering that many of them wanted to abandon the villages, leaving them to their own fate. "Indeed, they're all crazy bastards."
"They're crazy bastards, but they're exactly what protects the village from beasts and other ill-intentioned cultivators. Life in these villages is the best one can get as a human without any power."
"But they don't mind abandoning them; I doubt they see them as descendants." Euphy nodded in agreement.
"Yes, they protect them merely out of convenience and have no strong attachments. But that doesn't change the relationship between them…"
She took another bite of meat, the intense flavor making her let out a pleasurable moan.
"In the end, everyone is happy and at peace. Maybe this is one of the few places where no one will do anything and everything for power."
I sighed, analyzing the scene once more.
In the end, it all boiled down to a cultivator's vacation colony.