Cultivators? No, Body Builders.

Full from a hearty breakfast consisting of water, some soup, then some more water, Lin Songmei joined Yan Mingqing as they made their way out. Crossing some of the bridges from the floating central district down to the northside of the city, the two exited through the large gates that marked the entrance of Westriver.

Wilderness...

A beaten dirt path stretching out in front of them, Songmei and Mingqing were... unsure of what to do next. Outside the tall walls and heavy gates of Westriver, civilization hadn't stretched too far.

It was like going from the modern age to the stone age over the course of 10 steps.

Not at all in a good direction! Into the direction of having no toilets!

With their weapons, camping tools, supplies, and most other possessions in their spatial storage rings, Songmei and Mingqing walked down the path, discussing what to do next while taking a look at their surroundings.

Although it was winter, because Westriver was on a plateau near the bottom edge of the northern continent, the climate was quite temperate, it was chilly, but there wasn't snow, and the trees all still had leaves on them.

Around Songmei and Mingqing, there were... a lot of trees. Without much undergrowth, it was still easy to traverse, the main trail having carved a straight line through the trees. Moreover, with the unique Qi of the plateau, the monsters were weak, only the strongest of them having moved past the lowest stage, and those monsters were stagnant, having reached the peak of their strength.

Equipped with a bow, quiver, and dagger, Songmei kept herself alert while scanning the wilderness, trying to take in as many details as she could. So far, Songmei hadn't seen many animals, she had seen some rabbits—that were wayyy too big to be normal rabbits—and some two-headed, two-tailed lizards.

"What are we even doing..." Mingqing murmured out loud, her hand on the sword by her side. "Our mission is to just kill some animals, some of the harmful ones."

"I don't know... we're just wandering around for now," Songmei sighed, lamenting the... emptiness, and strange silence that was this wilderness. "They said some of the ones to look out for are the overgrown vulture, the twin-shelled snail, and the land crab."

"Those are some boring names," Mingqing shook her head, an unimpressed look on her face, "Who even named these? I know they're the most basic of spiritual beasts, beasts that have barely been strengthened by Qi, but... c'mon, give them better names."

"True..." Songmei nodded, scanning the sky for any signs of... any birds. The area seemed devoid of any avian life, strange, as avian life was usually everywhere.

Something was up with the forest...

Songmei had, after racking her brain for the past few moments, put a finger onto the problem. There weren't... many sounds in general. There weren't any birds, chirping and flying around, there weren't any roars of beasts, hunting for their prey, any mating calls of animals, there weren't any insects... doing their insect things.

Songmei hated insects, despised them with all her heart.

Growing up in the "Government Funded Home For Those Without Homes", bugs were... a sad fact of life. Moving every year as she went up an age group, Songmei had lived in... guess what, 16 homes!

Each of them weren't dilapidated to the point that bugs would be crawling across the floor every moment of the day, but there would still be bugs showing up every few nights, forcing Songmei to grab a tissue and fight for her life.

Telling Mingqing about her thoughts, Songmei found that Mingqing had just been thinking the same too.

It was uncanny.

Seeing a rabbit run by in the forest beside the path, Songmei and Mingqing sighed, realizing that they couldn't just kill it and call it a day, even if it seemed savage.

It had bloodshot red eyes and was frothing at the mouth for heaven's sake!!

Wasn't that like... sign of a not super survivable disease 101?

-----------

Wandering for another 15 minutes down the path that seemed to stretch on forever, Songmei and Mingqing were considering splitting off from the worn route to find their own way through the forest and look for something... anything at all.

At least in this area there were more sounds of nature.

Hearing the sounds of shouts up ahead though, Songmei and Mingqing looked at each other, pausing for a second.

"Go?" Mingqing asked, her hand already on the handle of her sword.

"... Sure..." Songmei sighed. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone that she didn't know, but... it would be good to help.

Running along the path before splitting from the path and running into the forest towards the sounds of confrontation, Songmei and Mingqing came to a stop at the edge of a small clearing.

Out of breath, after sprinting over to the clearing, Songmei who had managed to beat Mingqing by a small margin held out her hand, telling Mingqing to stop.

"I don't think we need to help..." Songmei murmured, watching the scene of carnage unfold in front of them.

"Yeah... I think we're not really needed." Mingqing agreed with a sigh, her hand falling back to her side, keeping her sword in her sheath.

With thousand yard stares, Songmei and Mingqing watched, as a single vulture got... slaughtered, by a group of five disciples.

Wearing normal clothes, the disciples all seemed older than Songmei and Mingqing by a fair amount. Maybe one or two years?

At a glance, Songmei could see that each one of the five disciples were wearing a bright, neon, absolutely shining, reflective orange armband, signifying that they were all direct disciples of the Flame Ocean Palace, a second-tier sect on the northern continent.

Looking at the bright orange armband that seemed to flash every time it was hit by the sun, Songmei thanked the heavens once more, rubbing the small, dark-blue bracelet she had that represented her status as a direct disciple of Starlight Lake.

"They all remind me of Lu Qiang..." Songmei whispered into Mingqing's ear, watching the five disciples. Out of the five of them, two used their fists only, two used a sword only, and there was one, who... used a literal war hammer!!

What was the point of a five person party if EVERYONE needs to be kissing the opponent's ass in order to do damage??

That just seemed inefficient...

Songmei could really relate to Liu Xueli's derision towards the recent trend of everyone only focusing on individual strength...

Though, Xueli couldn't say too much... she was a martial artist who only used body techniques either, having never touched a weapon in her life. Somehow, she still had a vast amount of knowledge on every single weapon though, maybe it came from... combat experience? From her totally not long life.

Turning to leave as the vulture fell to the ground with a shriek, gushing blood from an uncountable number of cuts and... crushed parts, Songmei and Mingqing were stopped after one of the disciples called out.

"Hey!! What are you two doing around here? Are you trying to steal our kill or something???"

WHAM.

Songmei froze, turning after hearing one of the disciples get slammed into the ground.

"Hey, girls, want to hang around us? We're strong, so you'll be safe with us!"

Songmei couldn't help but let out a long sigh in unison with Mingqing...

... Ew...