6 - Evil

Right behind a scraggy shack, inside a wide and barren clearing a teenage boy huffed and puffed as he punched at the air and curved his kicks.

Qi flowed from his wiry muscles which glistened in the morning sun. He took step forward and punched with his muscles taut and his feet spread.

Sometime later the boy stopped to take a breather and sat down on the ground near his waterskin from which he took a gulp and two and heaved a breath of relief.

"I have decided, we will leave in three days." The boy clenched his hands relishing in his newfound strength.

–"Why wait three days, why not leave now?"

The question arrived in his head but he was to it now so even as he still felt the method of communication wierd he replied calmly, "The clan distributes a month's worth of nutritional pills every third day of the month to those who are below 18, and if we are going out, we need to crub the need to forage for food and focus entirely on hunt."

–"Good line of thinking boy, so do you have any Spatial ring or some hidden artefact, because now might be the good time to make use of it."

The boy, Xuan Wen stilled and letting a weary smile he replied, "Unless you gifted me one secretly, I am not sure I possess one."

–"Thought so, well I have a technique that I can impart to you, it's called One Will"

"One will...?"

–"Yes, its a pretty neat technique, one that will attune your body and mind in a synchronisation. In short it gives you almost perfect control over body, every muscle, every fiber, and even your hormones to some extent."

"That sounds cool." Xuan Wen could imagine what effects such a technique could bring. This effectively turned difficulty of hunting from 80 to 20. 

–"Then you should start your preparation, I will impart the knowledge tonight at dusk."

"Yes, senior."

°°°

Wu Xing pulled at his soul force and circulated it around his soul, nourishing and healing the damage. His connection to the spirit was a tad bit stronger than before and he could spread his senses a bit further.

After Xuan Wen broke through to the Meridian refinement realm, he refrained the boy from buying any more blood. One reason was that he was simply broke and whatever he could batter would likely be inconsequential. The other was avoid rousing any suspicion, he didn't want people to get curious about what the boy needed so much blood for. Curiousity was bad.

After that he had still him helped by providing him with a simple set of exercises to thoroughly integrate the Qi in his body and speed up his cultivation even by a tiny bit.

Three days later, Xuan Wen collected his supplies, using most of the leftover money to buy a satchel, which he used to carry his Nourishing Pills, a set of robes and some bug repellent. He also brought a cheap Iron sword.

If possible Wu Xing would have liked the boy to use near limitless storage of [Cosmic Refining Cauldron], but he didn't mention it due to two reasons. One the boy wasn't actually the master of the artefact yet, not that he would ever be and second that even if he were one, it was near impossible to make use of it without sufficient Qi to open a [Rift Formation].

Before leaving the clan Xuan Wen registered his name and age as was mandatory to when a clan member was to leave. Fortunately they didn't ask the reason, not that it would have mattered much, but Xuan Wen wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible.

°°°

The light scattered by the dust particles illuminated the desk. All across the wooden table lay a multitude of papers haphazardly. Right behind the desk a young man wearing neat black robes and rough looking face eyed the old man seated accross from him.

"How was the trip, hope you didn't run into any trouble." The man asked, his tone amenable.

The old man holding onto the cup of ginger tea sipped the liquid and felt the hot tea rush down his gullet and disperse in a cloud of Qi. It would have a very substantial effect had the Qi been not so minimal compared to his oceanic reservers.

"It was good. Leaving after a long time of secluded cultivation is liberating."

The man in the black robes nodded his head and then asked, "How was my daughter, I hope she did well."

"Hoho, you worry too much Xuan Yun, she performed remarkably, better than your son's did, she is guaranteed a position among Core disciples. Enough about that, you tell me, how has the expedition been going on?"

The man named Xuan Yun frowned, his gaze gaze downward at the unremarkable piece of paper and said, "Not good, I just received the news that we lost two more members. I am sure that it's definitely not a beast, the deaths were too clean, I might need to make a trip of my own."

"Hmm, that had eh, guess we have some evil cultivator on loose. If you want I can lend you a hand."

Though the old man offered amicably, the man shook his head and refused. Since it was within his clan borders, it needed him to solve it, relying on the old man before him would label him as incompetent.

"Then I guess it my time to leave, it was pleasure meeting you Xuan Yun, hope you can head this clan one day."

Xuan Yun stood to send him with a few good nurtured words and a short bow while cupping his hands which the old man reciprocated by a similar gesture.

After the old man left Xuan Yun picked the letter and read it one more time.

"...Nightshade Forest!"

°°°

"Nightshade Forest."

–"Is that where we are going? Why there?"

"Because it's close and if we remain near the border we can logde in Silen river Village and make it our homebase."

–"Hmm, that is a good idea."

Xuan Wen trudged through the rough roads of the mountain. It had been hours since they left the clan and although he wasn't fatigued, the uneven sloppy of forest road was tiring him mentally. He hesitated a bit but then opened his mouth.

"Senior, may I ask a question?"

–"What is it?" The spirit replied.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but it seems that senior doesn't know a lot of things, like our clan or that we lived in Rising Wind Mountains, why is that? Is it that senior has simply forgotten or that senior was privy to such knowledge in the first place." It wouldn't be a lie if he really wasn't in the know, since technically he was a 'spirit' and maybe his master didn't deem it necessary to share such knowledge.

–"Good question, but the answer is that it's been a long long time that the place I used to know no longer exists. Can you imagine how the world would like if you wake ten thousand or hundred thousand years later, no right, that's how it feels to me."

Hearing the explanation Xuan Wen nodded in thoughtfully. It really was possible that times could bring such a change, after all even those fabled cultivators with star crushing strength vanished in ashes, what was to say of the relatively fragile world and even more fragile mortals.

The pair continued the idle chatter as they approached the village.