Joining A Caravan

It was just that, little Tian was still left behind in the end. For the first time, Shao Qian left the Illusionary Mist Forest and intended on going to where Jesse had originally lived with his parents to look around first. Perhaps, he would be able to find some clues there.

Just as Shao Qian left the Illusionary Mist Forest, a person single-handedly charged into the depths of the said forest. This person made a name for himself within the depths of the forest, alerting all the magic beasts before leaving. The treant Pein looked at that person's leaving back and felt anxious. As expected, he really returned.

Shao Qian left the Illusionary Mist Forest, following the system's guidance to find a small village. In that small village, he exchanged some crystal stones that could be found in the Illusionary Mist Forest along with his own fur, blood and bones for a few gold coins. In the human world, without gold coins, there would be no way of travelling.

Using the gold coins that he had just obtained, he bought some daily necessities and intended to leave for the Illusionary Mist Garrison. Yup, Shao Qian went the wrong way. Within the Illusionary Mist Forest, there was no clearly telling where the East, West, South or North were at. As he had walked in the opposite direction, the Illusionary Mist Garrison was on the other side of the Illusionary Mist Forest.

He didn't want to cross through the Illusionary Mist Forest again. It wouldn't be certain that he would be able to get out once he went in. Don't underestimate the magic beasts' ability to take action.

Shao Qian considered finding a caravan, using the name of an escort and following them to the Illusionary Mist Garrison. This village didn't have an auction house and he had no way of finding alchemy materials here. It had to be known that all the his alchemy goods were half-completed in the Illusionary Mist Forest as a lot of alchemy materials could only be found in the human world.

"Excuse me, do you require an escort?" Shao Qian had changed the colour of his hair and pupils with potions. However, as the potions were only half-completed, he would would have to use them again after three days. If not, then he would change back to his original appearance.

"Are you a magician or a martial artist?" The person-in-charge asked. Shao Qian didn't wear a magician's robes, nor did he wear a martial artist's sturdy armor. He dressed like an average person, causing others to find it difficult to believe that he was a magician or a martial artist.

Shao Qian was surprised, before he shook his head. "No, I'm neither."

The person-in-charge's behaviour immediately changed. He was somewhat impatient as he waved his hand. "I only want magicians or martial artist. You, this kind of ordinary person, giving you gold coins is not possible."

Shao Qian was at a loss. He was just about to explain when a voice interrupted from the side, "Hey, boy, didn't we tell you to go run errands for our mercenary group?"

Shao Qian, along with the person-in-charge turned their heads. A beautiful woman wearing a skin-tight outfit, with an épée that looked to be the same height as her on her back, could be seen. The person-in-charge smiled respectfully at her. "Mrs. Christine, this little brother is a member of your mercenary group?"

"My apologies, steward Lacey. This child is my new member, but he was somewhat worried, therefore he came to find you once again." Christine walked towards Shao Qian and grasped his shoulder, smiling towards the steward. "My boy only needs half a gold coin."

"Mrs. Christine, you're too polite. Since this person is part of the mercenary group we hired, it is only natural that we follow the agreed commision." The steward was somewhat unwilling. After all, he was simply an ordinary person that needed protection, yet they still needed to pay him the full amount. This really made people feel unsatisfied. However, since the strongest mercenary group they had hired this time was Christine's, it wouldn't be worth to start arguing with her or get into her blacklist.

"Many thanks then, steward Lasey." Christine cheerfully patted Lasey's shoulder, before she half-held, half-dragged Shao Qian away.

Shao Qian wasn't too clear on the female's motive, hence he played along with her action of pulling him away. He had just been dragged into a room by her, when he was immediately hugged by someone and after that, his face was buried into a soft thing. At once, Shao Qian felt that breathing became a bit more difficult.

"That's enough, Lucy." Christine hastily rescued him. "You're frightening the boy."

"Christine, he's too cute!" Lucy released Shao Qian and spoke to Christine, "When I saw him with Lasey, I got so excited. Seeing Lasey's behaviour though, it was likely that he didn't want him to come. Luckily there's you Christine."

"I…" Shao Qian was able to clearly see the woman that had hugged him earlier. As a woman, she was actually somewhere around three meters tall. Whilst standing in front of her, Shao Qian was only able to see her chest. Furthermore…

Had he been buried in that chest just now?

"Sweetie, what's your name? Why did you find for Lasey?" Lucy's two eyes were shining as she looked at Shao Qian. She really hasn't seen this kind of lovable child for a very long time. Flaxen coloured hair along with pupils of the same colour, when his round cheeks smiled, the narrowing eyes looked just like a beautiful Astana Lake [2], extremely pretty.

"My name is Jesse. I need to go to the Illusionary Mist Garrison." So… Is this caravan heading to the Illusionary Mist Forest?

"Illusionary Mist Garrison?" Lucy's face immediately fell. "We're going to Red Tile City. It's a distance away from the Illusionary Forest Garrison."

"So it's like that?" Shao Qian revealed a depressed expression, but quickly put on a new smile as he thanked Lucy, "Still, thank you, I will go ask the other caravans."

When Lucy saw Shao Qian smile, she blanked out for a moment, before she released a wail and with a 'whoosh!', once again hugged him. "So cute! So cute! How could there be such a cute child?"

Shao Qian struggled in Lucy's arms. It seemed like not only did he need to change the colour of his hair and eyes, but he also had to change his face now?

"Lucy, Jesse can't breathe." Christine quickly stopped Lucy. Lucy had no resistance to cute and pretty boys. It had also been Lucy that had pleaded her, that was why she had told the steward the lie that this boy was part of her mercenary group.

"Oh, sorry." Lucy pulled Shao Qian to her, reluctant to let go as she faced Christine with a face full of yearning. "Christine, is it really impossible?"

Here we go again. Christine opened her mouth, but in the end, couldn't say any words to reject it. After Lucy's little brother had been killed by a surprise attack from a magic beast, she had started liking boys that grew to look adorable, subconsciously regarding them as her own little brothers.

Because of this, their mercenary group found not little trouble. However, they didn't get fed up nor did they put a stop to it. They felt happy to be able to pull Lucy out of the haze from losing her little brother.

"Jesse, come with us to Red Tile City first. After we finish our assignments, we'll send you to the Illusionary Mist Garrison." Christine smiled as she spoke, "The Illusionary Mist Garrison is also an important city, there are many caravans that requires escorts there as well."

Shao Qian looked at the smiling expression on the pleasantly surprised Lucy, before he looked at the other people in the mercenary group and opened his mouth to express his thanks, "Thank you, all of you."

"You're welcome, boy." Christine patted Shao Qian's head. "Why do you want to go to the Illusionary Mist Garrison? It's very far to the Illusionary Mist Garrison from here."

"Mn, to find for my parents." Shao Qian didn't say any lies. Jesse's father had originally stayed in the Illusionary Mist Garrison. He just didn't know whether the place where they had originally stayed in still existed.

"But from this place to the Illusionary Mist Garrison, there's the entire Illusionary Mist Forest." Wanting to cross through the forest was simply impossible. Humans just weren't able to go near the depths of the forest. No, don't even mention going near the depths of the forest, even slightly approaching the center would result in getting torn to shreds by magic beasts. Therefore, why did Jesse's parents actually detour to the front of the Illusionary Mist Forest when they were going to the Illusionary Mist Garrison?

"Mmhm, they're blacksmiths in the Illusionary Mist Garrison." At least, it wasn't wrong that they were blacksmiths ten years ago.

On the contrary, there was a possibility to do business in the Illusionary Mist Garrison. After all, if the city was too small, then the number of visitors would also be small. But the Illusionary Mist Garrison wasn't the same, it was very big. Furthermore, as it was the most closest to the Illusionary Mist Forest, there were many travelling merchants and mercenaries that take the risks to temper themselves, coming and going.

"Okay, okay, we're done with preparations to set off." Lasey didn't give them much time for chit-chat. In fact, they had already waited in this small village for three to four days before encountering Christine's mercenary group with much difficulty. It would be better for them to set off as soon as possible.

It was in such manner that Shao Qian stayed with Christine's mercenary group. He was either responsible for being their helper, or running errands to fetch items and so on. Lasey had originally asked him to feed the horned-beasts that pulled the carriage. Who would have known that as Shao Qian held green grass within his hands and approached the horned-beasts, they would suddenly kneel on the ground, trembling. It was as if they had come across a natural enemy.

It wasn't that they had come across a natural enemy though. Even if Shao Qian had restrained the imposing pressure of a holy-ranked magic beast, he still couldn't remove the smell of the other high-ranked magic beasts on his body. Therefore, the horned-beasts had been frightened by the smell of high-ranked magic beasts on Shao Qian's body.

From them moment onwards, Lasey also hated Shao Qian even more. He had paid so much to hire this ordinary person, yet this ordinary person couldn't even gain the favour of a horned-beast.

The calmness on the road made people feel that it was unbelievable. This road was very close to the Illusionary Mist Forest and there would always be a time when some magic beasts would run out to hunt. Walking on this road, they never expected that they actually wouldn't encounter a single magic beast. This was simply unbelievable. Could it be that their luck was already extremely good, to the point where it may be bursting?