Destination I

"Sir Peddler, it seems like you managed to sell a lot of medicine today."

Shi Feng turned his head to a middle-aged man who bought a jar of medicine that will make his soldier stand in attention.

"Hehe, it seems so."

"Oh, are you closing up shop? Are you going to find somewhere to stay? If so, I can refer you somewhere good."

Shi Feng turned to him and smiled before pleasantly refusing his kind offer, "My daughter and I need to move, we will be leaving town soon. Thank you for the offer though."

"Is that so?"

He was getting ready to leave, it was night and the nearby forest will have pretty good places where he can pluck fruits for his daughter to eat.

While Shi Feng was taking care of things, he stood up and then groaned all of a sudden. He staggered and had to support himself on the wall that was beside him."

"Hey, are you okay!?"

'Shit!"

An ugly expression could be seen on his visage. His body was aching all over, blood was discreetly spurting out of his wounds.

The man approached Shi Feng, but Shi Feng merely raised his hand as he laughed his current situation off.

"Haha, I am fine, do not worry about me. My feet simply fell asleep because I was sitting for too long, haha, it seems like I need to move around more."

"If you say so. Oh yeah, if you and your daughter are going to head out now, I urge you to avoid the Brokeback Cave East of the Forest. I heard some unearthly ghosts is residing in that place." The middle-aged man drew close to him and whispered to Shi Feng's ears, "I work for the Town Hall and I'm not supposed to tell this because the Town Lord has prohibited us from speaking of anything to not arouse any panic. But if you're going to leave, then you have to hear this."

"What is it?"

Shi Feng's attention was drawn to the middle-aged man. He intentionally drew his ears close to him so he can listen carefully.

"Savage Beast and Human Hunter Carcasses were found littering the place. Those we sent to gather information inside the place didn't return and we fear a Demonic Beast had emerged from the Cave."

"Is that so, then we will be very careful about it. Thank you for the thoughtful observation."

Shi Feng nodded his head as he saw the man off. Keeping everything away, Shi Feng staggered but kept his body upright. He was in pain and yet it was not enough for him to stop.

"Rong'er!? We're leaving" He called for his daughter and Yuan Xiurong who was busily observing the passing townsfolk came to him with light steps as if she was prancing about,

Her visage carried no expression other than passiveness and the burn scar made other look at her weirdly.

"Are we leaving already, father?"

Her voice was stiff. It was devoid of any intricate emotion as a human should have, but it was enough to communicate with.

Shi Feng does not need Yuan Xiurong to be verbose nor does he need her to be eloquent. For her to speak at this point is something of a gift the heavens had given him.

"That we are, my princess. We are leaving early so we can reach our destination. Three more weeks of traveling and we'll be able to reach it."

"Yay." Try as she might, her expression of emotions was limited.

Yuan Xiurong held onto Shi Feng's hands. They exited the town and their figures disappeared into the tree line. The sun might set and the moon may replace the sun, but Shi Feng cannot rest.

As Yuan Xiurong fell asleep, Shi Fen stopped his steps and laid her down beside a tree. Covering her with a soft cloth, Shi Feng brought out a purse containing a green powder and sprinkled it over Yuan Xiurong.

This powder is something Shi Feng concocted to drive away Savage Beasts. He does not want anything to happen to Yuan Xiurong like the incident three months ago. This will not work against Demonic Beast, but such monsters are rare to come by in this part of the Continent.

Shi Feng also brought out the bells and handed it over to the sleeping Yuan Xiurong. The bells would protect her from any harm. Shi Feng could only wish she would ring the bell once she sees an enemy. Leaving a lantern by her side, Shi Feng showed a soft smile.

With that finished, Shi Feng decided to prepare himself. He left for somewhere relatively far so that Yuan Xiurong would see his pathetic figure.

As he undressed his upper body, the white bandage that went around his body was now black. Sharp pain was intruding his body, he could his body falling apart and his cultivation had long plummeted down.

Taking off the bandages released the repugnant smell of rotting flesh. Half of his torso had already turned black. It was rotting from the inside and out. His current situation is not pretty. Even if he dunks himself in a barrel of numbing ointment and drink gallons of medicines, the pain surfaces as quickly as it disappears.

No longer is he in a state to even fight. He was weakened and his body was crumbling, his speed was not what it used to be, and his strength is nothing but a fragment of what it used to be.

"Come on, Shi Feng, who are you!? You're the Soul Inquisitor! This is nothing but a scratch, that man let you destroy a part of his body to give you this chance! Do it! For him, for your daughter and wife! If you this right, maybe, you can finally rest easy!" He did what he could to draw out what remained of his body.

Shi Feng did his best to clean out the flesh that had rot too much. Bandaging his body as tightly as he could, Shi Feng began to move.

Weaving through the trees, Shi Feng found himself in front of the cave where the man in the town explicitly told him no to go to, in Brokeback Cave.

The cave had a wide entrance and a chilling air escaped its gaping front. An ominous presence pervaded the dark and dank cave.

Shi Feng got himself ready and tried peering through the darkness of the cave. However, nothing could be seen. He stepped inside and just like prey that stumbled in a spider's web, Shi Feng felt that something was wrong.

His body twitched as his figure darted forward into the darkness.

The cave was damp as it was eerie and with every step forward, he took, the more he found proceeding forth increasingly onerous.

Then, all of a sudden, Shi Feng stopped his steps. He drew out his scimitars and got ready for combat. Currently, he was in a dark and damp place where the only thing he could hear was the chilling breeze of the wind.

The passage was no longer as wide as before, it was narrow and chilling air gave him the impression of despondence.

As he stood there with his senses at its peak.

"HAH!"

Shi Feng made his move, lifting and twisting his body he jumped and slashed directly below.

Clang!

The swords created sparks and for a moment, Shi Feng saw an old man's face whose skin had turned pale as if he was a dweller of the underground and his eyes showed no light.

As for what weapon the old man used as he clashed with Shi Feng, it was set of sharp and pointed claws.

Darkness returned to stillness. Silence prevailed and Shi Feng gathered his heavenly essence on his limbs and enhanced his senses to its limits.

"Hup!"

As soon as Shi Feng finished getting ready, he kicked the ground and once again swung his scimitar. His ears twitched and this time around swung his weapon to his left.

Clang!

Shi Feng's scimitar was stopped and once more, sparks exploded. He got a clear view of the old man in the darkness.

"Die." A simple remark with a cold and unfeeling tone. He swung the scimitar and tried to take the old man's head.

However, his body trembled as his scimitars hit the abnormally hard cave walls that limit his swings.

'Damn it.' Shi Feng cursed as his failed swing created an opening for the old man to take advantage of.

Using the walls as footholds, the old man kicked it and darted forward like a straight arrow heading for Shi Feng's forehead. His sharpened fingernails headed for Shi Feng's head and finish this in one shot.

Swoosh!

Shi Feng cannot see, but his ears are working. His neck was at stake and make a wrong move and do something stupid and his head will fly, he can no longer move his hands, but he has his cultivation.

"Helios Imoogi!" the dark yellow tattoo on his back wriggled and swan around his body. The Imoogi tattoo swam to his head and then covered his neck and head.

The old man saw this and creased his forehead before having his nails bounce off his body. The old man jumped back but as he retreated, he decided to take one of its enemy's fangs and broke a scimitar.

"A Soul-Beast Cultivator?" staring at Shi Feng whose head is wrapped with a layer of a dark yellow tattoo, the old man became apprehensive, "So, you're a fellow cultivator. I don't think us fighting here will lead to anything fortuitous, why don't we just stop this and—what the?"

The broken scimitar was thrown and cut through the air. Shi Feng did not bother with communicating. He no longer has the ability to see but with the old man talking useless rabbles, he can pinpoint his location with ease.

Shi Feng threw the scimitar to his enemy and use the remaining one to cut through the air.

"That's not going to hit!" The old man jumped back as soon as he could gaining distance against Shi Feng.

Not caring about the distance, Shi Feng swung his sword. The wind began to roar in the wake of this slash and before the old man could notice, a crescent blade flew out!

"He can control an element?" The old man cursed aloud. The wind blade cut through the wind and eventually reached his shoulders cutting through his pale skin resulting in blood to spurt out.

A single sword slash was deadly, but as Shi Feng gathered enough heavenly qi he began unleashing a barrage of crescent wind blades and had them scintillating through the wind.

The sharp echoes of the blades reached the ears of the old man. Before the old man can even regain his posture, crescent wind blades rained upon him.

Clang! Clang, Clang, Clang, Clang!

Despite his ability to deflect the sheer amount of wind blades was enough to drive him back. Slowly, cuts were showing, but the old man was persistent. Not letting anything to cut any deeper than a few centimeters and then observing Shi Feng with keen eyes.

'A Soul-Beast Cultivator…how come he's not using his Soul Beast? He should be at Heavenly Lake Realm by now, so, why?' The old man had been in the darkness for a long time, he grew up in the darkness and cultivated in the darkness.

His eyes could see through anything in the dark, his pale skin was its testament. He had been cultivating for 200 years, he can tell that if Shi Feng uses his Soul Beast, then, he can turn this situation around with relative ease.

But he is refusing to do so because of unknown reasons.

It was then that Shi Feng spoke for the first time in this whole fight, "I'm going to speed things up now! Dance of the Crescent Moon!"

Just like what Shi Feng had said, the flow of his scimitar became faster than before. Dozens of wind blades flew out, more and more came out. The pressure became stronger as the number increased.

The old man groaned and tried moving the side, but even then, his movements caused sound to echo giving away his location. Shi Feng did not let go of the opportunity and targeted him without fail.

The crescent blades were growing in number and the old man was moving through the walls like a grasshopper. He can't turn his back or else the wind blades will bombard him from behind. He can only keep this up until he can no longer deflect any of them.

As time moved forward and more and more sparks appeared from all sides of the narrow cave, the old man misstepped and before he can regain himself, he was assaulted from all directions!

"Bastard!"

The old man was got drawn to a trap, the pressure he was under was something unimaginable.

Boom!

The cave began to rumble as the explosion of heavenly essence and the wind became reached its target. Dust abounds as Shi Feng's crescent blades hit he old man but that his hands did not stop despite this fact.

Instead, his speed increased.

'Dammit, stay down, stay down, stay down!'

His hopes increased by the passing second, but then, a burst of maniacal laughter echoing entered his ears.

"Nyihihihihi, I see now." The dust settled and the old man appeared, he looked at Shi Feng who swung his blade as soon as he laid his eyes upon the enemy. But the crescent blade was simply slapped away by the old man without a problem.

Shi Feng had an ugly expression as he found himself in a rather sticky situation.