Travel Trouble

Under the scorching rays of the summer sun, a group of green clad men was traveling slowly. Some of them rode ox carts, while others walked. It was none other than Mayton's group of hunters.

''It has already been more than a week. Old Mert still didn't catch up to us. Do you think something happened to him?''

A hunter asked worriedly.

When they left the village, they left a message to Old Mert specifying where they were going and also which route they took at a visible location. With Old Mert's speed, he can travel at least ten times faster than the caravan. Ox carts were not really known for their speed after all.

While all the hunters were worrying about Old Mert, Mayton was worrying about something else. He realized that under the sun, he couldn't stop absorbing the qi even if he tried to. Coupled with the message the hunters left for Old Mert, he thought it wouldn't be too hard for that strong cultivator who was after him to find him. But the thing which worried him the most was the complications caused by his cultivation.

After finding out he couldn't prevent it, he let his body absorb the qi freely. First few days everything was fine. But at the 5th day of the journey, he started to feel a searing pain at the pores of his skin. Even though it was painful, it wasn't unbearable, and since Mayton was helpless to relieve the pain, he tried his best to adapt to it. When he finally adapted to the pain of his pores at the 8th day, the pain started to spread to all over his body as he climbed up to an ox cart shortly before falling unconscious. This was also the day when his sister realized something wasn't right with Mayton.

Angeza was getting ready to hug her brother for falling asleep just like she always did after the loss of her parents. But this time when she tried to hug Mayton, she realized Mayton's body was hot and stiff. He was like a brick which stayed under the summer sun all noon. Angeza screamed in panic as soon as she found out Mayton was unconscious. This alerted everyone in the caravan. From then on Mayton never left the shade of the ox cart even after regaining his consciousness the next day.

''How lucky, someone got a strange, never before seen disease and can't walk. I say it's quite a convenient coincidence.'' grunted the one armed hunter, as he glared at Mayton.

Mayton didn't mind him though. He was fully focused on the condition of his body. Since the day he started to avoid sunlight his condition took a turn for the better. This wasn't a permanent solution though. He couldn't possibly avoid the sun forever. He also realized that his cultivation stopped progressing. It was like his body was full, and even if he absorbed more qi, he couldn't keep it in his body.

Mayton sighed as he thought to himself ' I really need to learn a cultivation technique. Absorbing qi like this clearly won't work. '

While it was fine to absorb qi without a cultivation technique, this kind of cultivation had several limitations. First of all, it was slow. Secondly, when you encountered a bottleneck, if you wanted to further your cultivation, all you could do was risking it and forcing a breakthrough. Forcing a breakthrough by absorbing more qi than the body can handle had severe consequences in case of a failure. You could fail to breakthrough and injure yourself in the process. You could get crippled and lost your chance to cultivate again all your life. Or you could even explode and die outright.

Mayton already learned those things from Old Mert. What really surprised him was his cultivation speed. If his cultivation speed was considered slow, then people like Old Mert who spent their entire life on cultivation really did waste their time. This also made Mayton secretly happy. His cultivation speed caused some inconvenience now, but if he could couple it with a proper cultivation technique in the future, his power would probably skyrocket.

''What the hell are you b*stards doing?''

''Get out of our way!''

Mayton heard several shouts while he was daydreaming about becoming strong. After hearing the shouts, he stretched his neck from the gap in the carts tarp and looked out. There were about a hundred tough looking guys with dirty clothes and coarse weapons blocking the caravans way. From their bloodthirsty and savage looks it was obvious they didn't have kind intentions.

''What poor luck! A group of villagers without any b*tch among them.''

''Sigh, this is already the third such group in the past ten days. These poor b*stards at least have some youngsters in their group. Their belongings are unlikely to worth much but we can still sell those little sh*ts for a decent price.''

As the bandits talked among themselves, a bandit with a particularly big body stepped forward and said

''Now listen to me ya worthless dogs. I will give ya all a chance to f*ck off if you leave them lil doggies behind. I can't be bothered to waste me time with poor b*stards like you.''

Hearing the bandits, Mayton immediately tried to locate his sister. After looking around a bit, he saw Angeza in the ox cart behind him. This caused him to heave a sigh of relief. He didn't want Angeza to become the bandits' main target.

''We can pay you some money but don't you dare to go overboard!''

''Do you think we are that useless? Let's see how you try to take my nephews away.''

The hunters got ready for combat. There simply was no way for them to abandon their last kin. If this happened before the whole of their village got annihilated, there may be a few of the hunters who hesitated to take action. But now every villager left alive felt closer than ever to each other.

Seeing the hunters getting ready to defend the youngsters, Mayton also felt touched as he started to think of a way to win this fight. He was a former city guard, so he had some basic knowledge of tactics. For example, he knew that in combat, positioning was of paramount importance.

''Uncles, get between the ox carts, don't rush at them! Let them come to us instead.''

Mayton shouted with all his might. Even though his cultivation stagnated recently, he, with all the qi he recently absorbed, was still at the initial stage of qi condensation. While his cultivation level might not be worth mentioning before true experts, facing this bunch of crude bandits he was undoubtedly the strongest person present.

Since Mayton used all the power from his cultivation base in his shout, his voice was like a mighty boom resounding in the ears of the hunters. Coupled with the respect they felt for Mayton for his pivotal role in the recent events, the hunters instinctively obeyed him. No one saw him as a person from the younger generation anymore.

Mayton's group of hunters consisted of about thirty experienced hunters and a dozen youngsters if you disregarded Angeza. They had three ox carts with one staying a few meters in front of the other two. This left the hunters with two openings at their front and one opening at their back.

After Mayton's overly loud shout, the bandits stood stunned for a few seconds. This gave the hunters enough time to take their positions. Meanwhile, Mayton organized the other youngsters to ready their bows and arrows while he joined the experienced hunters with Ghorzhang, at the front.

''What are ya scared of you bunch of useless b*stards? Do ya believe I'll not cut you down if you don't attack right now?''

''Boss is right! Since when are we afraid of some villagers?''

''KIIILLL!''

While the bandits caught unprepared by the hunters' reaction, the bandit with the big body who spoke earlier was not really effected. He was obviously more experienced than the other bandits.

Suddenly swooshing were heard as the youngsters released their first round of arrows.

''Aaargh''

'' Kill! Kill those little sh*ts''

Since there wasn't that much distance between the hunters and the bandits, most of the arrows found their targets. But this also meant there wasn't enough time for the second round of arrows before the bandits came in close contact with the hunters.

Even though they consisted of riff-raff, the bandits still had more than a hundred people in their ranks. Thus they had the advantage in numbers. Unfortunately for them, hunters usually favored weapons such as spears and bows which were very well suited for defense.

''Haha! Do you think this is enough to pass by me? You can only pass over my dead body!''

''Brothers, we can't let them attack the youngsters! Kill those scum! ''

The hunters tried to stop the bandits at all costs while the youngsters released the second round of arrows and killed eight more bandits. In half a minute there were already many casualties on both sides. Mayton fought with fervor as he realized that he was starting to lose his cool. He saw one hunter after another got killed. This made him feel rage like he never felt before.

''Die, kid!''

A bandit stabbed Mayton's shoulder with his crude, bamboo spear while shouting. But Mayton just cut him down with his dagger in one move and proceeded to cut the hand of another bandit who tried to stab him with a pitchfork. If you looked closely, you could see that a redness was spreading in Mayton's eyes, starting from his eyeballs. Mayton went more and more berserk as his eyes became redder. He only focused on killing his enemies while disregarding his injuries.

Even though Mayton didn't try to actively defend himself, he was only twelve and he wasn't some freak like Ghorzhang. This meant it was hard for the bandits to land blows on him in this chaos because of his small stature. If you also factored in his boosted speed and strength thanks to his cultivation, the bandits really didn't have a way to cope with him.

''De-demon spawn! This kid isn't human! ''

One of the bandits who just lost two of his fingers to a swing of Mayton's dagger, cried out as he ran away. Mayton really looked like he wasn't human anymore. On his body, the bandits' and his own blood mixed together to dye his tattered clothes completely red. There was also blood spilling down his face from a shallow wound on his forehead. Despite all that, what scared the bandits the most was his eyes. His eyes were like torches as even the whites of his eyes turned blazing red.

The bandits, after all, were not troops with proper training. They were originally poor people from the slums of the Flaming Heart City who got hungry and started to loot others whom they saw as weaker than themselves for a living. They were a cowardly bunch, they would rather die from hunger in the slums if the alternative was facing this demon. When the price they needed to pay was their lives for gaining some money, what was the point?

Things were quite the contrary for the hunters though. They had to fight until the end if they wanted to live. They had to fight for protecting the last few youngsters from their village.

Just when some of the hunters thought that today will be the day their village will get thoroughly exterminated, they saw Mayton dominate the bandits in the battlefield. After seeing a twelve years old youngster scare away grown up men, they felt heartened as they attacked with increased ferocity. Facing the renewed vigor of the hunters and seeing their comrades running away, the rest of the bandits also lost the will to fight.

The fight was over in a short time, two minutes to be exact, with the bandits getting routed. But ten of the hunters died and another six including Mayton were wounded in these short two minutes. If you consider that there were only forty one villagers left in the first place, losing ten more was quite a serious blow to the villagers.

After giving first aid to the wounded, it was time to allocate the medicine Mayton took from Young Master Renas. This immediately reminded the one armed hunter who had a small grudge against him. If he saw that the medicine was being used to save his fellow hunters right now, his grudge with Mayton would probably be resolved. Unfortunately, he already passed away, fighting against the bandits.

Mayton glanced at the dead body of the one armed hunter, as he heaved a sigh. These days, he already got numb to seeing dead people. What made him sigh was the kinship shown by these unsophisticated villagers who didn't think for a second before putting their lives on the line for the younger generation. Even when the odds were stacked against them. In his previous life, he saw lots of people abandon their friends, comrades or family members in the face of adversity. This made him realize that sometimes the simple people of the countryside were much more virtuous than the educated people from the cities.

The hunters tidied up the battlefield and buried the fallen hunters before sunset. Everyone was tired after the earlier battle thus they decided to stop traveling for the day and rest until tomorrow. The hunters prepared the camping ground as the youngsters started to prepare the meal. Today they had the 'fortune' of eating fresh meat after many days. One of the oxen got killed by a stray spear thrown by the bandits. While no one complained about eating meat, even if it's the hard and barely chewable meat of an ox, this also meant they had to leave behind one of their carts.

As Mayton and Angeza were eating their meal together with the other youngsters, Mayton realized Angeza's face was pale. She was tightly grasping the hems of her robe and didn't touch her meat after a few bites. This worried Mayton.

''Lil sis didn't I say you can tell everything to me? If you are scared just hug your big bro like you always do, and all the scary things will go away.''

Mayton said as he gently hugged Angeza's head. But contrary to what he expected, Angeza didn't break out in tears. Instead, she said in a determined voice.;

''Big brother, can you teach me how to fight like you? I also want to help everyone.''

She was scared. Terrified actually. Even though she saw countless dead bodies back in the village, it was still the first time she saw a brutal and bloody melee. The deaths in the village were extremely strange after all. There was no blood or struggle. It was first chaos and screams, then just a deadly silence. But what she was scared of wasn't death. She was scared of losing her only remaining family member in this brutal world.

When the fight with bandits was going on, Angeza was in one of the ox carts watching Mayton. Every time she saw someone attacked him, she felt like someone was attacking her heart instead. It was unbearable to watch for her. She almost stopped watching, but she knew that if she did stop watching and waited for the outcome, she will be destined to be protected by others all her life. Thus she endured all the bitterness she felt. She wasn't willing to be someone who always hid behind others. What she wanted was to take at least a few of the blows aimed at her loved ones. Thus she steeled herself and asked Mayton to teach her.

Unfortunately, Mayton didn't know of her resolve. He thought that she was just scared and wanted to feel safer by learning how to protect herself. So after giving some vague promises, he tried to coax her with sweet words and told her to sleep.

--------------------------------------------- --------------------------

''Haha, what a good seedling, what a resolute heart! I didn't go all this way for nothing after all. But this other brat may be a problem… Ah whatever, let's see if those old fogies will still gloat at my misfortune when I- no, wait, when we return. ''

While Mayton didn't understand Angeza's feelings, there was someone directly above them, standing on the clouds with his arms behind his back who saw through Angeza's heart.