15 Assumptions

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Qing Fang followed behind Meng Ai as they approached the exit of the 'sacred garden'.

The small-bodied Meng Ai took short steps as she meandered through the plants with obvious experience. The frills of her simple white one-piece dress swayed mesmerizingly as she moved, revealing her milky-brown thighs beneath.

Even when seeing this scene, Qing Fang did not react as he did before. He had already forcefully suppressed his mortal desires, fearing they would hinder him when he entered the village. If it turned out that Meng Ai was the daughter of the village chief and already engaged, Qing Fang would run into a lot of unnecessary trouble. He would not throw himself into such a stupid situation.

Although he could match ten mortal martial artists as he is right now, his cautious nature had strengthened manyfold when he regressed to a mortal. Qing Fang was not taking any risks until he had started his Blood path cultivation and, as well as being able to dominate the whole village, had a reason to.

It had to be said that martial artists were indeed quite rare among mortals. The art of training one's body to perfection was an arduous process and many mortals died trying. It was a very cruel discipline. One of the things Qing Fang found insane was when they rubbed salt in their own eyes so they could see even if someone threw sand or dirt in their eyes. Martial artists strove to destroy any and every weakness their bodies might have. And while Qing Fang could imitate the muscle strengthening method they had with his unlocked soul, he certainly could not imitate all the other things they did.

It was not that he was unwilling, but that these weaknesses would also be destroyed with cultivation. When any part of your body regenerated, the only limit was the pain you could withstand. Qing Fang was quite accomplished in this, but not the best he had seen. There was once a demonstration in the Clan where a Stage 6 elder embedded needles into his eyes and under his fingernails. At that moment the crowd had serious expressions as they watched someone inflict so much pain on themselves. The Stage 6 elder would obviously heal from such injuries, but the seriousness was toward the pain cultivators had to endure to become stronger.

Pain in exchange for power. If one shied away from pain, then they were undeserving of power.

In any case, currently, Qing Fang was only confident of taking on ten martial arts masters or three grandmasters. The former had the strength of a weak Stage 1 cultivator while the latter had the strength of a peak Stage 1 cultivator. If by chance, Qing Fang encountered a great grandmaster who could match a Stage 2 cultivator, he would have to run. However, Qing Fang would be surprised if there was even one martial arts master in a village of 250 people.

Directing a short glance at Meng Ai who had not spoken after they started walking, Qing Fang had the intent of using her to establish himself in the village before he started cultivating again. Small villages were cruel places that were very harsh toward outsiders and those that did not fit in. If a person was considered strange, they would be thrown out of the village. However, such traditions had stemmed due to the survival instinct of the villagers. There was a reason people feared things they didn't understand; it was because it could likely kill them.

In such an environment, Qing Fang's mask would be tested to the extreme. Any flaws he found in his expressions but be quickly resolved or his plans could be hindered. All it took was one sceptic to accuse him. No matter how absurd the claims were, who's side would people take to? One of their own or a stranger? Because of this, Qing Fang must ensure he created the best impression with his most trained expressions.

He had already thought of a backstory for himself. He would say that he is from a tribe east of the 'sacred garden.' There was a beast attack and he fled. Then, he stumbled into the garden where he met Meng Ai. A reasonable backstory.

As for whether the villagers doubted the existence of the 'tribe'? Qing Fang doubted they would. The reason for this was the pungent flowers that kept the beasts away. Meng Ai's village was likely surrounded by these flowers and these flowers were definitely surrounded by extremely powerful beasts. They were in the depths of Tai forest where even Stage 5 beasts weren't impossible to run into.

From this, Qing Fang concluded that this tribe probably hasn't left their territory for thousands of years. If people did, for some reason, want to venture outside, they would be eaten alive when the sun set. Thus, Meng Ai's village would be completely ignorant of any possible tribes that may be nearby.

Throwing these thoughts to the back of his mind, all Qing Fang needed to focus on now was safely entering the village before procuring large amounts of blood to start his cultivation.

On the road of cultivation, going from being a mortal to Stage 1 was harder than going from Stage 4 to Stage 5. It was extremely difficult. The reason for this is that, as a mortal, one would have to accurately sense the existence of Laws and then manage to absorb them. The hardest part was the first absorption. Absorbing one's first Law fragment was harder than the last. Of course, those with affinity would find it much easier, but for people without it, they could only relentlessly train and meditate for years until they were able to.

Of course, since Qing Fang was aligned with Blood path and had prior experience, he could immediately start his cultivation with no resistance.

Walking behind Meng Ai with soundless steps, Qing Fang saw the colourful plants and herbs around him lessen as the path they were on merged with a few others. Afterwards, the path made from grass shorter than the others was over ten meters wide.

Walking on it, Qing Fang's brow furrowed. No path needed to be this wide. Because of this, Qing Fang thought that there might be some sort of festival or tradition that takes place here. If this was the case, Qing Fang's task of entering the village would become harder.

What's worse than a sceptic? A religious sceptic.

If there was some strange religion that Meng Ai's village followed, the chances of him entering were slim. The reason for this is that people wouldn't want a heretic in their midst. And he couldn't just pretend that his 'tribe' also followed the same religion. People weren't idiots. They would know he was lying and become even more suspicious.

The only relief Qing Fang had regarding this was Meng Ai's reaction toward him thus far. It could be suggested that her village wasn't hostile to outsiders from her actions. Of course, she could just be a curious teenager, but Qing Fang had to take his chances.

The ten-meter-wide path didn't widen any further and left the garden.

Right now, Qing Fang looked around as he followed Meng Ai. The grass path was currently in between rows of large trees on either side. In between the trees on the grass floor were the pungent-smelling flowers that Qing Fang had seen before. Getting a good look at them now, they had a dense and thin green stalk that was about 1 feet long. There were no leaves or thorns, just a purple flower at the top. There were light-purple streaks along the dark-purple petals. Looking closer, there was a visible mist falling from the petals and spreading along the floor like heavy smoke. Qing Fang wondered how this flower even came into existence. Maybe the mist was to stop it from being eaten by predators?

Qing Fang's eyes brightened. If he took this flower outside Tai forest, it would sell for a fortune! With the ability to repel Stage 5 beasts, its value could be up to 500 silver coins or half a gold coin. But Qing Fang no longer bothered with it. Even if he procured huge amounts of stock, he wouldn't be able to sell them as he is thought dead by the Clan. Anonymous selling wouldn't work as such a valuable product would be investigated by the Clan. With the methods of a huge force like Qing Clan, there was no doubt they would be able to find him somehow.

The large trees on either side of the path were quite strange. They were about four-meters-tall, quite small for a tree. But what was strange were the leaves on its branches. They glowed with a pink light. Although dim right now as it was just after midday, they would shine like pink stars at night.

'Such strange plants and trees grow within the depths of Tai forest?' Qing Fang marvelled at the mysteries of nature. Given a large enough food chain, the forest would be a home for evolution and mutation, eventually producing the trees and plants on either side of Qing Fang.

There was a reason why Qing Fang didn't query Meng Ai on the strange flowers and trees. It would signify his existence as an outsider. Although he already an outsider of the village, these questions could expose him as an outsider of the entire forest!

If that happened, the villagers would be undoubtedly curious if the world outside their cage of beasts would question him. More likely, they would try to restrain him and then torture him for information about the outside. Although they wouldn't be successful in capturing him, Qing Fang was planning on entering the village without hindrances. If he made such a mistake, he would be an idiot.

Lost within his thoughts, Qing Fang didn't notice Meng Ai turn toward him.

Seeing the strange man who introduced himself as "Fang" walking with a pondering expression on his face while directing nearly no attention to his surroundings, Meng Ai laughed a little. Fang's overly serious expression was quite comical to her. As she was a thirteen-year-old girl who was flourishing at the peak of her youth, solemnity was nothing but a joke to her.

Hearing a cute giggle sound just before him, Qing Fang looked at Meng Ai who had turned around to face himself. Looking at the dainty brown-skinned girl with abnormally green eyes giggling with a happy expression, Qing Fang wanted to ask her why she was laughing. However, he just put a gentle smile on his face as he stared at her. He was still walking forward while she was walking backwards while looking at him.

Seeing that she got Fang's attention, Meng Ai stopped laughing and spoke. "Fang, we are nearly there. The entrance to the city is within view." After she said this, Meng Ai turned around and skipped ahead with vigour. It seems she was very happy about a potential love interest being discovered, however, Qing Fang would've never guessed it. He had much, much bigger things to worry about.

'What?! City?! Not village?!' Qing Fang was chiding himself for assuming that Meng Ai belonged to a village of 250 people. Although he was partially glad that he would no longer have to worry about fitting in, with a much larger population, there was a much bigger danger.

Cultivators.

As Meng Ai described it to be a city, Qing Fang assumed at least 100,000 inhabitants. There was bound to be cultivators belonging to Stages 2, 3 and even 4 within. Qing Fang's confidence plummeted as his caution increased to unprecedented levels. The most important thing was still his life and then his cultivation. Everything else was secondary.

Even though the danger had increased massively, Qing Fang still wanted to immediately start cultivation. Even if that meant risking death by the cultivators within the city. But Qing Fang was not overly dejected and hopeless. He still had a huge trump card.

His soul. Qing Fang's unlocked soul was more than ten times stronger than a Stage 6 cultivator's soul. By using its power, he could forcefully take control of people. When Qing Fang was Stage 3, he had thought about possibly controlling Stage 5 cultivators, however, that had fallen to Stage 2 cultivators when he regressed back to a mortal. His power in controlling cultivators had not fallen in any way, however, due to cautiousness, Qing Fang had restricted himself to Stage 2 cultivators.

With the ability to control people, Qing Fang could possibly kill a few people without being detected. However, any more than a few dozen would attract a large amount of attention. Overall, his ability to kill people would heavily rely on the size of the city. The larger it is and the more inhabitants there are, the more people could go 'missing.'

In this regard, the larger the city is, the better it would be for his Blood path cultivation. However, along with this benefit, the larger it is, the stronger the cultivators would become. But the relationship between these two things was not linear. There would come a point where Qing Fang, as a mortal, would be able to kill many mortals without repercussions. The reason for this is that the more mortals there are, the fewer importance cultivators place on them. If the city was excessively large, Qing Fang speculated that he might be able to cultivate back to Stage 3 with ease. This would be the best-case scenario.

If he could reach Stage 3, then his importance to the city would make him more valued and he would be able to get away with killing more mortals and furthering his cultivation. However, this all depended on the size of the city itself.

For Qing Fang, it would be best for an extremely large city with very powerful cultivators for the reasons stated before. The worst-case would be a small city with a Stage 4 cultivator at most. This would make his movements very difficult and many of the things stated before impossible.

As for why Qing Fang was so concerned with the city? It was because he was now in the same situation as it. He, too, was trapped within the cage of beasts. He wasn't special. He couldn't fight off hordes of Stage 5 beasts in the night even with his capabilities previous strength. Even if he became Stage 5, he would still be trapped.

Thus, if the city was too small for Qing Fang to increase his cultivation enough for him to escape, he would waste a lot of time. This is because after he took over the city, given he was able to, he would have to herd and breed the mortals like chickens to further his Blood path cultivation. If the city was overly huge, Qing Fang might possess the power to escape even before taking over.

For either scenario, Blood path was still the best path. Cut off from the outside world, the resources for any path would be limited and scarce. It was likely for there to be a small number of very powerful cultivators rather than a large number of weak ones. Due to this, killing mortals will be much simpler as these powerful cultivators would not concern themselves with a few mortals going missing.

Thinking on this, Qing Fang realised an extremely important matter. It was regarding the 'sacred garden.' If the city was huge and had very powerful cultivators, there must be similarly powerful beasts to keep them contained within this cage. That means that, around the city, there could be Stage 6 and 7 beasts. However, in the garden that Qing Fang stumbled into, the most powerful was Stage 5. Qing Fang thought that he likely stumbled upon a huge secret within the city, given it had cultivators more powerful than Stage 5.

The cultivators inside the city definitely knew that people existed outside. As for Qing Fang's confidence in this? It was due to a very large event that happened recently. Yes, it was when elder Li Shan manifested a huge sea of fire above the whole Tai forest. The cultivators trapped within this city in the depths of this forest were bound to have seen it overhead.

At this, Qing Fang was confident the top experts' desire to leave would've been strengthened. This was why Qing Fang felt he had stumbled on a huge secret. If the experts within the city were above Stage 5, then they could easily leave by passage of the 'sacred garden'. However, Qing Fang thought that they likely didn't know this. Otherwise, why would cultivators deprive themselves of the chance to progress further in cultivation by locking themselves within a city?

From this revelation, either the city was huge and had a scheming faction or had no one above Stage 5.

Regarding the future to come, Qing Fang couldn't make any more decisions or assumptions without seeing the city for himself.

Turning his eyes away from his raging thoughts, he looked ahead. The path ahead suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a vast sky. On the edge of where the path disappeared, Meng Ai was stood while waving toward him.

"Hey! Fang! The city is here! Hurry up!" As she skipped ahead, Meng Ai had to shout so her words could cross the distance and reach Qing Fang.

The sound of grass being flattened by his feet with every step coupled with the branches of the strange trees swaying in the wind as Qing Fang neared Meng Ai.

Qing Fang fixed his eyes on the stretching blue sky that Meng Ai seemed so small in comparison to. His future development depends on what lies ahead. His future relied on the outcome more than it seemed. He either quickly amassed strength or spent hundreds of years trapped in this cage.

Arriving next to the petite Meng Ai, Qing Fang bore a bearing of solemnity as he washed his gaze beneath the blue sky onto what may lie beneath it.

*Note:

Stop.

You there. Yes, you: the guy looking at his screen. Stop.

Look at yourself.

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*Also, I wrote a sample chapter for a new novel, "Insidious Demon"! Check it out! WARNING!! It is extremely explicit and involves the devouring of a human! If you can't stomach something like that, I advise you NOT to check it out! Have a nice day!

PSYcho_72*