137 Gathering city

"OH…that must have hurt! Focus on your enemies Loyd, why would I step in and make things easier for you? Just learn from your mistakes and improve, take my priceless comments, and use them as guide notes for your future!" Said Nick, with his hands behind his back, looking like an expert teaching his pupil.

Loyd said nothing back and just looked at Nick as if he was looking at the most inhumane creature in existence. But Nick waved at him casually, and pointed behind him, mouthing the words, 'Get to work' to him.

"Ahhh, I will kill all of you!" Loyd's eyes turned red as he turned to the hand holding bandits, ready to vent all his rage out on those poor bastards.

Bang!

Loyd launched himself like a missile and punched the bandit that kicked him earlier in the face, flinging him like a rag doll, and by the time the man had stopped rolling on the ground, the bandit was deader than dead.

"Wait, please, don't kill us, we will do anything!" One of the bandits closest to Loyd cracked.

"Too late!" Loyd said hoarsely.

"Let's finish up here, Loyd. We have things to do in gathering city." Nick sounded serious for the first time. He would have normally dragged this fight out a little longer just to enjoy some friendly banter, but not now, Maggi and Dean could be in trouble for all he knew, and it wasn't yet time to enjoy the little things.

Deboning fist!

Cacha!

Nick flew ahead and went to the other side of the Bandit line, and struck one of the men in the neck instantly killing him.

But he didn't strike the second person though, instead, he asked him a question that had been bugging him this whole time, "Hey there, friend, why aren't you guys fighting back? Don't you know we are aiming to kill all of you? Or do you guys still think your formation can recover?" It just didn't make sense to Nick to see all these men standing their ground with no intention of letting go of each other's hands to fight back.

"Humph! I will tell you why! It's because we get constrained and can't use out hands for thirty minutes after the end of the formation. Otherwise, do you think you two would have had it so easy?! Both of you are just men with no honor that kill others while they are defenseless!" Said the bandit, trying his best to sound as bold and fearless as he could.

This was the bandit's last tactic for survival. He was hoping that Nick and Loyd had some sense of honor and dignity in them, and would not harm him or his fellow bandits while they were down. He was hoping that the two would wait for them until they got out of their constraints for a fair fight.

Loyd stood rooted to where he was, stunned. So, that's why killing these bandits felt as easy as killing a chicken.

"Do you guys think that anything would change if you escaped from the formation's constraints? Hmm, let's see if it makes any difference, then shall we?! I, Loyd, am an honorable man, and won't strike a defenseless man, let's wait and see if you do any better after you are free!" Said Loyd uprightly.

"Loyd, buddy, can I remind you that you killed their crippled and defenseless chief just earlier. You are far from honorable by this point, but if you keep on messing around like this, I will leave you here to fight them off all by yourself." Nick had no time to watch Loyd's bad acting.

"Cough, as you all can see, my partner has overruled my honorable decision, I hope that you guys can understand me, and become better people in your next lives," Loyd said and continued on his killing spree.

Nick had also killed another one as well and was running to get his next bandit, but he met a troublesome one this time. The bandit this time was apparently very skilled at using his feet for combat and kept Nick at an arm's length, unable to reach and kill him.

"Why the hell are you kicking so much?! Were you a donkey in your previous life, put your feet down and fight me with your hands, like a real man!" Nick felt irritated by this troublesome asshole. Anyone with eyes could see Nick was in a hurry to get to the Gathering city, but this selfish bastard still wasted his time like this?! Why can't people be thoughtful anymore?

"I kick here! I kick there! I kick you, everywhere! I kick high! I kick low! I kick you, and you're too slow!" The Bandit was desperate to survive and didn't mind what Nick was saying. No, he was too busy waving his feet like it was a whip, trying to scare Nick away.

But, a few minutes later, the place had regained its peace and quiet. Dead bodies laid everywhere, with Nick and Loyd being the only living things in the area. The fight shouldn't have lasted more than a minute, but that bastard with a leg fetish was skilled enough to keep Nick and Loyd at bay for a long time before they finally found his blind spot and killed him.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

After searching the bandits and Greg, Nick couldn't find anything useful, so he and Loyd took off both using the noisy Snappy feet technique.

The two kept on running for a while, and thankfully Nick's eyes saved them from anymore ambushed on the way, otherwise with both of them as exhausted as they are now, death was a certainty. Soon, something appeared on the horizon, prompting both Nick and Loyd to stop and stare.

"Brother Nick is that…the Gathering city you spoke of, brother Nick?!" Loyd couldn't hide his amazement. From the way Nick spoke about the city, it must have been something important, but all Loyd could see in front of him was a run-down looking village with wooden fences for walls.

"Don't judge a book by the cover, Loyd. Who knows, the inside might surprise you." Nick said, confidently. But only he knew how disappointed he was inside. All that running to come to a shabby-looking village?

"Let's go!" Said Nick, trying his best to keep the optimism to a minimum. If luck was on his side today, then it might reunite him with the twins, and maybe even Peter.

Nick and Loyd were still a little farther out from the city, but they could still see the long line of cultivators lined up in front of the gates. And although there seemed to be no need for an entrance fee, the city still seemed to require something since everyone was showing their cultivation bases before entering.

And soon, it was their turn.

Boom! Peter showed off his transcendence realm cultivation base proudly and grandly.

"Hehe, look at him showing off, what a dumbass!"

"Yeah, doesn't he know that there are plenty of immortal realm experts in the city right now?"

"Maybe he is a county bumpkin who doesn't know how the world works yet, hehe."

People began scoffing and laughing at Loyd the moment he showed his cultivation base so boldly and proudly. Every person here was a transcendence realm expert, and Loyd's over the top performance had amused them.

"I think he is missing a couple of screws in the head. I saw him giggling to himself earlier!"

"Really?!" The crowd turned to the person that said this with shock. They wanted to know if Loyd was really a madman and if they should step back from him accordingly.

"Hey, I am telling you what I saw. I also heard that he likes stealing other people's sandwiches!"

"Brother Nick, don't you think that you are taking this sandwich revenge thing too far?!" Loyd got upset, Nick had left his side the moment he heard others making fun of him and had joined the gossipers. Nick was also the one who told the people he was crazy.

"Aha! So, you admit it! You are a sandwich thief!" Said Nick as he turned to the people with a, 'I told you so!' expression.

"Brother Nick…" Loyd got interrupted when he was about to beg for forgiveness. He swore to never steal another one of Nick's sandwiches again till the day he died! Of course, those burger thingys were a different story altogether. He would steal those even if Nick flayed him alive.

"Go in already! It doesn't matter if your crazy or just stupid to us, just don't hold up the line!" One of the cultivators standing on the tower by the gate yelled at Loyd.

"Your turn, brother." The crow looked at Nick warmly. This man was their gossip brother in arms!

"Thank you all," Nick replied warmly.

Boom! Nick displayed his cultivation base with was lower than Loyd's, in a much grander way than Loyd, and he then looked at the crowd behind him cockily before rushing inside. Stunning everyone from the lined-up crowd to the cultivators in charge of keeping the peace.

"Holy shit!" Nick couldn't believe it. The inside of the city was even worse than its outside image! The houses here were all made from cleanly chopped wood and were swaying with the wind, showing that they were recently made, and had no foundation. The houses sort of resembled a bolding man's remaining strand of hair, sway with the wind freely.

The reason this city looked like this though was due to it being built in a hurry, because this city was created and built after the Secret realm opened after all.

"Brother Nick, where do we start our search?" Asked Loyd, but he was laughing inside at Nick's stupid speech earlier about not judging a book by its cover.

"Hehe, of course, we start our search here." Said Nick as he took something out from his storage ring.