Chapter 12: Encounter on the Road

It's a wonderful month as a patron transcendent has appeared: JC!

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It was a clear day, the wind blowing, clouds drifting, and small birds flying in the sky.

That was what Feng Qin saw and smiled at as he walked down the yellow patch dirt road.

"A great day, a good start." He remarked as he adjusted his burlap sack over his shoulder. He was wearing simple clothes; a white jacket and grey trousers with black boots. He hummed as he looked down at his small paper map he got from his parents, one that covered most of the land of the Heaven Dou Empire.

It's been two days since he departed from his family in River Scale City and since then, he'd been wandering around in the road; trying to find a place for him to train and find any lucky encounters. As of now, he had no exact destination to go but he did recall his parents recommending him to go to a city, northwest 30 kilometers away from River Scale City, called Wu Tan City.

He hadn't heard of that city before but apparently, from what he heard from his dad, that it's an ancient and once prosperous city that had miraculously survived to this day. It's said that the city had managed to keep going because of its rich establishments like auctions, arenas, ancient medical practices, etc.

But his dad said that the true reason was because of the search for the inheritance of the Flame Emperor. A great genius that had once shook the entire Douluo continent because of his achievements and might.

Feng Qin was curious and wanted to know more but his father, Feng Long, said that he didn't really delve deep into the legend of the Flame Emperor and he had only learned about it by passing travelers.

Speaking of his parents, he couldn't help but stare with half-lidded eyes, when he remembered how they easily agreed with his decision to go out in the wilderness to find an adventure.

But it was a norm for parents who had kids as spirit masters to go out in the world and be independent. Feng Qin just thought they would be more reluctant and not look so happy to get rid of him.

Well, at least they supported his decision...should he take that as a win though?

"Were they really that eager to get rid of me? It's not like I get between their sex life." Feng Qin grumbled as he stared at his map for a long minute, looked up at the road, brought out a compass from his pocket and stared intently at the map for another good long minute before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Fuuuck. I'm lost!"

He could fight, he could cook, he could serve a customer, but for the life of him he couldn't damn read a map! And what the hell does a northwest even mean? Go north and then west? This is some bullshit!

"I just have to get lucky to meet someone and hope they help me."

Fortunately, he did meet a merchant riding a carriage half an hour later that came from a different city. The merchant was a middle aged woman that was selling mostly food and beverage, with some little trinkets by the side.

Her name was Mao Chi, she was in her late twenties or early thirties and she looked beautiful; with long curly black hair, pretty facial features and fair skinned, and a sexy body; riped and voluptuous. She was kind and friendly–helping him by pointing and giving out directions towards his destination. He thanked her and went towards the direction where she pointed him to.

On the way, Feng Qin thought about being careful. Mao Chi had warned him that although the main roads to cities were mostly safe but roads to popular cities, like the Heaven Dou Capital City and Wu Tan City, are popular hotspots for bandits.

'Spirit beasts, I can handle. Bandits however...' Feng Qin grimaced as he sped up his pace and diverted his course into the foliage near the dirt road. 'I know I have to one day take a human life but I'd prefer it when I'm prepared and confident that I wouldn't puke right after killing the person.'

So for the next few hours Feng Qin travelled with nimble speed towards Wu Tan City with the help of the shadows of trees with extreme caution. Mao Chi had said that arriving in the city would take about a day or two by an average spirit master under three rings speed.

But with Feng Qin being afraid of encountering any unexpected predators in the wild; he was going to take a bit longer to arrive. Well, he was okay with it anyway. He wasn't in some kind of rush to get into that city.

"Besides," his lips curled up into a smile as he jumped onto a branch and then to another with a carefree attitude. "this is fun!"

It wasn't long before the sun came down and he stopped to set up camp for the night in the forest. Since he didn't want to attract any attention from any unexpected visitors, human or spirit beast, he set up a small campfire that would only last for a couple of hours.

"What should I cook for dinner?" Feng Qin muttered out loud, tilted his head and rubbing his chin as he checked his equipment and available food while in deep thought.

'I can't cook any meat for the night, it'll attract any nearby spirit beast with a strong sense of smell. Ah wait, I still have some cooked rice from this morning. I guess I'll have fried rice with eggs and hotdogs mixed into it as well. The hotdog wouldn't be enough to attract any powerful spirit beast anyway.'

And so, he prepared his equipment and ingredients. He took out a kitchen knife, a chopping board, a long metal spoon and finally the important one of all–the frying pan!(AN: Chicken dinner~ 🐔) He then took out the cooked and cold rice; vegetable oil; salt; pepper; one hotdog; a couple of eggs; and garlic, which he then started finely chopping it together with the hotdog onto the chopping board with the kitchen knife.

Feng Qin hummed as he placed the frying pan over the campfire, keeping it in place with the help of large rocks around the fire, and poured a bit of the vegetable oil into it and spread it around the surface of the frying pan.

Heating the oil for a minute, he then poured the chopped garlic into it, letting it turn a bit brown before adding the rice, and pinches of both salt and pepper, and mixing it around for several seconds. While he let it cooked, Feng Qin cracked opened two eggs into a bowl and started mixing it; he then made a circle in the middle and poured the egg into it and added a bit of pepper into it.

Cooking the scrambled egg for a bit, he then proceeded to mix it together with the rice, turning the cooked white rice into a delicious yellow; he mixed it around for a while before finally adding the delicious meaty sliced hotdog.

As the meal started coming along, Feng Qin wistfully smiled as he looked down at what he was making.

Although he was the child of two chefs, Feng Qin hadn't cooked many variety of meals in his life due to his focus on gaining strength and increasing his spirit power. He still spent time with his parents, to learn the things they wanted to teach him to survive in this society, but he had only learned a fraction of their knowledge.

When he has the time in the future, when his cultivation is going slow or he just misses them, he'll go back and spend time with them.

Because they're family. In a man's life, they should treasure something beyond anything that they have. And for him, "Family is not an important thing. It's everything." It's what his father, Feng Shui, taught him.

"So wait for me, Meng Liu." Feng Qin muttered as he took the frying pan out of the campfire and poured the fried rice onto another bowl. "I'll become stronger and catch up to you, my brother."

He chuckled. "Gods, why am I talking to myself? Sheesh, loneliness really does make a person go crazy."

As he put the frying pan to the side of a tree stump to let it cool down, he didn't notice the shadowy figures hiding behind the trees surrounding him. Their eyes glinting under the moonlight with malicious intent.

Smiling blissfully, Feng Qin picked up his pair of chopsticks and picked up the bowl of fried rice.

"Well, time to eat–!" He didn't even manage to pick up a single grain of rice before blacking out from a powerful force to his temple, his eyes bulged, and the last thing he saw was the big bright moon shining on him.

Several figures appeared, surrounding the unconscious body of Feng Qin. They were mostly made up of five men and three women.

"What's the quota for this week again?" One the men asked out loud, coldly staring down at Feng Qin.

"10. This boy is our sixth. We need to hurry up, the deadline is in three days..." One of the women nervously responded.

"I know that! Tch. Fuck, why was this kid all alone? Most kids would group themselves with others when they want to head someplace far, even runaways would do that."

"There's no use in knowing. Let's just get this kid into a sack and bring him back to HQ."

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