11 Chapter 11. The trip begins

Morning, Leo was silently sitting down in his room, training inside his mind space. Ever since he first entered it, he went to check out the training hall every day and to practice his art in an open training space. This had brought a great increase in his initially amateurish control over his strength to a more refined point and even went to the point where it improved how his moves and punches flowed.

Ava's voice called out from downstairs, "Leo! Leo! It's time for you to go to the village entrance, your dad is ready to take you. You better not be late or else they might leave without you."

Although Leo was in his mind space, he could still hear the sounds and smell of what was going on around him. Hearing Ava's call, Leo immediately returned from training in his mind space and started packing a few pairs of his clothes into a small backpack and came running out of the house with his little backpack and simple beige shirt and brown pants to be greeted by Reon who had an annoyed look on his face as he had been kept waiting for a while. Leo quickly apologized to lighten the mood and the pair started walking to the village entrance as Reon gave Leo gave him tips and tricks on what to do it he ever got lost or if he was in a bad situation.

They arrived after a long ten-minute walk and what greeted them was a large crowd of about twenty parents surrounding about twelve kids as they were saying their goodbyes. Some were worried while others were excited.

"Dad, is there anything I should look out for on this trip?" asked Leo suddenly as he had a feeling that something was bothering his dad.

"Leo… I want you to be careful. I'll keep it extremely brief for you, the people of the Aranea Sect are not good people, they look down on us because we are villagers. The only reason that this village is unbothered by them is that we are located very far from them and that this land is very isolated and invaluable and also our payment of food. Along with that, I also managed to hear that the village elder's daughter wanted to come on this trip but was inevitably denied by her father. But knowing her, I think she has escaped the house and is currently hiding in one of the carts. I want you to look out for her as well. Right now you haven't started cultivation so you can't really do anything but if you feel any unfriendly gazes you should tell your uncle Wilson immediately," said Reo as he spoke in an extremely serious tone with an 'I'm not joking' expression.

Leo nodded his head as he took everything Reon took to heart, "Don't worry father, I will do as you said. Father but why don't you stop her?" Leo couldn't help but ask.

"Its cause she needs experience, if she doesn't go now she will either have to go in the future or her father will keep her in this village and she will never get to see the outside world. That's why I'm forcing myself to not stop her. She herself has a life, if she doesn't learn about the outside world then if there comes a day when it all breaks down, she will not be able to deal with it and might go delusional and crazy," Reon explained as he put up his best 'wise sage' expression.

"I see," Leo replied as he was amazed by how Reon's thought process had decided this.

After this, Leo and Reon quickly said their goodbyes, and Leo walked over to the caravan at the end and sat in it as he waved goodbye to his father, telling him to take care of mom and little Lexus.

"Reon, I hear that your son is going to the sect," one of Reon's co-workers spoke out from behind him as he placed his hand on Reon's shoulder.

"Yep, he is. Is your son going too?" Reon smiled back and asked.

"Yes, I'm really worried about him though," the man spoke out with a heavy worried sigh.

He then turned to Reon to see him walking back, bewildered by Reon's actions, the man quickly asked, "You don't seem worried, are you not at all worried about your son?"

"Haha," Reon laughed as he casually replied without turning back to face the man, "I'm not worried because I know that he is coming back safely. My son isn't some nobody."

As the caravan slowly started moving from being pulled by horses at the front, Leo firstly took this time to scan the caravan with his eyes and found out that the large caravan was led by twenty other men alongside uncle Wilson. The majority of them were at low gathering realm which made Leo feel quite relieved.

"It seems the caravan has taken many of the village guards," Leo thought as he worried about the village for a second, "Eh what am I thinking? The village is in the middle of nowhere, no trouble could possibly happen to the village."

As they all rode slowly through the beautiful green grasslands, Leo made sure to memorize the route so that in the future he himself could travel to the sect.

'This should be far enough from the village now,' he thought as he turned to look at a grain barrel in the far back corner of his caravan. He then gave a sigh and said "Ok Aurie, you can come out now. Stop hiding, you are terrible at hide and seek. We are far enough from the village now that uncle Wilson won't take you back."

After saying this, the barrel shook and it's top was clumsily opened and a little adorable girl with blonde hair stood up and stumbled out. Her mesmerizing pure purple eyes looked at Leo in disbelief as she asked curiously, "How did you I was there?"

Leo blandly replied as he threw a small grain of wheat at her little white head, "I always knew you were there, it was just I didn't want to say it so that you could come on this trip."

Hearing this, Aurora suddenly let out a sweet smile as she stood up and came up to Leo, and the both of them began looking at the scenery as the caravan slowly passed majestic mountains, beautiful hills, and winding rivers.

At around two in the afternoon, the caravan stopped for lunch and everyone went out and made a campfire and started roasting food around it.

Wanting to eat, Aurora and Leo went out to go and eat as well but it came with the price of Ol' Wilson finding out and when uncle Wilson found out that Aurora had joined the trip, he was extremely angry as he lectured Aurora for the whole first fifteen minutes of lunch and repeatedly telling her that she should never do this again while Aurora kept her head low in sadness as she slowly nodded her head in a very apologetic manner.

"Leo, Aurora is your responsibility. Seeing that you are the most mature kid here and that you are both friends, you must take care of her," Ol' Wilson spoke to Leo with an 'I've finished taking out my anger look.'

Leo quickly nodded in reply and replied, "Don't worry uncle Wilson, you won't have to worry about her."

"Good," said uncle Wilson as he lit up once again with a bright smile, almost as it the previous version of him had never existed.

During the whole lunch, Aurora sat next to Leo as silent as an owl, seemingly still shaken by the scary lecture she had received.

Wanting to lighten up the mood, Leo quickly finished his food and took Aurora back to the back caravan. As they arrived back to their original positions, Leo curiously asked Aurora "Aurie, have your parents told you about the Aranea Sect?"

Aurora nodded as she said with a slight blush of embarrassment, "they told me that it was a dangerous place and that I wouldn't be safe there. But I knew that you were going so I had to go. I would be so lonely in the village, I would probably die for boredom."

Hearing this, Leo shook his head as he reached out his hand and patted her little head as he smiled and said "silly girl…"

That night, Leo made sure and took seven drops of blood from Aurora while she was sleeping.