Forced to Take Action

Mayton woke up and instinctively called Angeza's name to wake her up. Then he remembered last night's events as his hands tightened around an amulet with strange carvings. This was the thing Angeza's master gave him, the traceless talisman. This talisman reminded him of Old Mert's pendant. The pendant Old Mert wore also had a strange carving on it albeit a different one.

Mayton sighed as he thought about Old Mert. There was still no news from Old Mert, and he was already fearing the worst.

'I really need to get stronger faster' he thought to himself as he proceeded to look at the other thing Angeza's master gave him, a worn out scroll. Mayton believed that the scroll contained a cultivation technique which was exactly what he needed right now. So he impatiently tried to read it last night. But he realized that he had a big problem. He couldn't read this world's letters at all. Thankfully, they were already on their way to the Flaming Heart City. There ought to be someone who can teach him how to read in the city.

'' Just stay safe for now. I'll definitely get strong enough to protect you in the future'' Mayton muttered to himself after looking blankly at the bed Angeza lied down last night, for a few seconds.

''Hey, Mayton wake up! We decided to move earlier than normal today.''

Mayton heard Zgar's voice as he sighed. He had some explaining to do…

Mayton got out of his tent as he thought about how to explain things to the hunters. Angeza disappeared overnight after all. If not explained properly this may cause some unnecessary panic among the hunters.

Mayton arrived at the center of the camp where hunters have gathered for breakfast. Most of the hunters looked haggard with some of them still in bandages. They obviously couldn't sleep properly. Everyone was already near their breaking points with the recent stressful events they experienced.

'' Everyone I have something I must announce. An incredibly good thing happened last night. Our fellow villagers who passed away can puff up their chests and proudly declare that one of their kin is a powerful cultivator, at the afterworld. Last night, a divine cultivator from legends descended from the heavens riding a cloud and took in Angeza as his disciple!''

Mayton tried to make it sound as positive as he can. He didn't want the hunters to become paranoid. This happened in the middle of the camp without anyone realizing. It was already hard for the hunters to sleep as it is, if they started to think that one night they could disappear abruptly, it would be impossible for them sleep peacefully for the rest of their lives.

After hearing Mayton, the hunters seemed confused at first, but after thinking how having someone from their village became a legendary cultivator, they felt good. Except for one of the youngsters. Zgar was stunned silly with a bleak look on his face.

Mayton already predicted Zgar to be devastated, but there was nothing he could do. Even though he was calm, he felt bad too, probably much worse than Zgar. The difference between them was Mayton's maturity. Unlike Mayton, Zgar was a true 10 years old kid after all.

'' Zgar, you really wanted to marry Angeza, huh. Your prospects don't look good now.''

'' Now, it would be fine if Angeza even remembers us.''

''Hmph, who knows, she might fail to cultivate and return to marry you Zgar.''

The other youngsters were talking with each other. They felt both pride and jealousy. They felt pride because being childhood friends with a cultivator was something unimaginable to average villagers. There were some demonic cultivators with humble backgrounds in the wilderness, but divine cultivators tended to be from various privileged families like aristocrats or members of sects and cults. They were jealous because all of them lived together all their lives, but instead of them, it was Angeza who got to be a cultivator.

Mayton didn't bother with those kids as he pulled Zgar to somewhere they could speak privately.

''Look, I don't want to give you false hopes by saying you can do anything in the world and nothing will stop you. What you should decide right now is how much effort you are willing to put in to chase after Angeza. It would certainly be hard to catch up to her and you probably won't succeed. But this doesn't mean there isn't any possibility of it happening. So make your choice and commit yourself to whatever you chose. Don't have regrets in your life when you look back and remember these days.''

Mayton said his piece and left Zgar alone to think this through. He did like Zgar but some advice as a friend and an 'elder' was all he could offer. In the end, Zgar himself had to work hard to achieve whatever he wanted.

After an hour of preparation, they were ready to continue traveling. Mayton took his place in one of the two ox carts left, together with Zgar and Ghorzhang who had to sleep since they didn't sleep at night.

As they were traveling Mayton didn't have anything to do, so he decided to check the situation of his cultivation. He learned that the ones who were responsible for the massacre in the village already left the vicinity from Angeza's master, Glittering Calmness. Coupled with the traceless talisman he got from him, he was confident cultivating will no longer be a danger to him.

Mayton sat cross legged inside the ox cart and tried to enter the mysterious state he entered when he first sensed qi inside his body. Even though the voices came from outside and shaking of the ox cart because of the bumpy dirt roads made it harder for him to concentrate, he gradually lost his consciousness as the little red particles appeared in his vision again.

This time, there were much more of them and if looked closely it was possible to see they were a bit brighter too. Mayton knew this indicated he progressed in his cultivation and he was now at the initial qi gathering phase. Actually, he already had enough qi to advance his cultivation to the early qi gathering phase, unfortunately, because he lacked a proper cultivation technique, he couldn't improve his cultivation right now.

Cultivation techniques had two primary functions. The first one was giving a way to absorb qi faster to the cultivators. The second one was teaching the cultivators how to keep the qi they absorbed safely. Even though Mayton could absorb qi much faster than other cultivators at his level, he didn't know a proper way to keep the qi he absorbed inside his body.

Mayton saw some of the red particles move to the edge of his vision and then disappear while some new ones came in from another direction. There was simply nothing preventing the particles to move around in his body. This made his cultivation unstable and when he was under the sun, with the increased intake of fire type qi, his cultivation became even more unstable. This was probably the cause of the pain he felt.

If Mayton ignored the pain and all the risks involved, theoretically, he could absorb qi until his body adapted to the increased amount of qi entering and exiting his body. But not only success was unlikely, even if he succeeded, his cultivation would still be unstable.

Mayton never liked to take unnecessary risks. Since he was now safer than ever with his traceless talisman, it didn't take him too long to decide to not continue cultivating before he learned the cultivation technique he got form Angeza's master.

While Mayton's group were inching closer to the Flaming Heart City, at their destination a big incident was about to take place.

''Hey did you hear that? They said today the eldest daughter of House Maiken is going to marry Sir Labjare. ''

''Sir Labjare? Isn't he a knight of House Maiken? Why did the House Maiken agree to marry their daughter to someone with such low rank of nobility? ''

''Heh, you really know nothing. According to rumors when His Lordship was still healthy, Sir Labjare saved his life not once but twice. After that, he and eldest miss of the house fell in love. His Lordship learned of that from a servant and immediately arranged their marriage. But enough talking let us hurry or we will miss the free feast.''

Two peasants were talking to each other as Charbel* walked past them. A frown could be seen on his old face. Even though there was little time left until the marriage, instead of walking towards the venue, Charbel was walking hurriedly to the opposite direction, towards the governor's mansion.

The thing Charbel feared the most happened in the end. He got forced to make a choice between Young Master Renas' interests and House Maiken's collective interests. He loved Young Master Renas' just like his own son, but he was also fiercely loyal to the family.

''Mister, I am afraid you can't enter without getting permission from Sir Governor.''

A spear blocked his path as Charbel realized he was already at the front door of governor's mansion. Governor's mansion was a huge, pitch black building complex with an eye catching white gem situated at top of its highest building. It had high walls around its garden and dozens of city guards were patrolling the perimeter.

''Oh, yes please inform Sir Governor his humble servant Charbel from House Maiken is here to pay a visit for an urgent matter.''

Charbel said as he woke up from his thoughts.

The guard startled. Charbel's name was well known in the Flaming Heart City. They said he was even stronger than the captain of the city guards. There were countless offers for his service but he rejected them all and chose to be a lowly steward of a Young Master from a declining noble family. According to the rumors, one time governor himself invited Charbel to be his personal guard and even offered a knighthood to Charbel but in the end, he still got rejected.

''Please wait a moment sir. I will inform Sir Governor of your visit.''

the guard said and went to inform his superiors.

Charbel absentmindedly nodded his head as he started to plan what to say to the governor. There was no way the governor wasn't aware of something of such magnitude. Not even the richest family in the city would dare to slight the governor. This is also what worried Charbel the most. Since they wouldn't dare to slight the governor then they must have offered enough benefits to him.

''Sir, I am sorry but Sir Governor said he won't accept any visitors today. He also wanted me to say this to you, sir; If you are unsatisfied with your current employers, you would always be welcome here.''

The guard said as he came running. From the governor's answer, the guard suspected that there was something weird going on but he dared not to think about matters of the governor.

There were two kinds of governors who got appointed to the distant cities of the empire like the Flaming Heart City. The first kind was the young and inexperienced governors who got their promotion recently. Those governors tended to rule justly and tried to get a promotion. The second kind was people who offended someone they shouldn't have offended, and as a result, got exiled. Those kinds of governors did whatever they wanted without any regards to law and generally tried to amass as much wealth as they can before retiring.

The current governor of the city, Sir Trich, was the second type. Everyone knew that he was a despot, who ruled the city with an iron fist. He also had corrupt dealings with a few merchant families. And Charbel was here because of one of the merchant families. The Aras family.

The Aras family was one of the richest families in the city. But they lacked a noble title. This limited their influence. In the empire, only nobles had the chance to come in contact with the real rulers of the land, divine cultivators. With that their children had a tiny chance to be selected by a sect or cult. Having a divine cultivator in the family guaranteed the prosperity of the family for generations to come. This caused the Aras family to have ambitions of getting a title. The easiest way to accomplish this was to usurp the title of a declining family. Thus they targeted the House Maiken.

''I really don't want to do this. Young Master why do you have to...''

Charbel heaved a deep sigh. Young Master Renas was lustful and had many mistresses. What he didn't know was one of his favorites were heavily indebted to Charbel and alerted him to Renas' plans. Renas made a deal with the Aras family. According to the deal, the Aras family would support Renas to make him succeed his father, in return of getting the eldest miss's hand in marriage.

The Aras family's plan was obvious to Charbel. He knew that after Renas succeeded the title he won't live much. Renas and all his brothers will die for one reason or another. With all the male heirs dead, the title will pass to the eldest miss and thus to the Aras family.

When Charbel learned their plan, his first impulse was to try convincing Renas to cancel the deal. But he knew Renas better than everyone in the world. He knew that there was no way Renas would listen to him.

Then he thought of informing his lordship, but if he did that Renas would definitely get executed. After realizing there was nothing he could do to cancel the deal from the House Maiken's side, he decided to try to pressure the Aras family using the governor to make them withdraw from the deal. Unfortunately, this also failed.

But his visit to the governor's mansion wasn't for naught. He learned a crucial information. The governor tacitly approved the Aras family's ambition of usurping the title. This meant unless something unexpected happened, House Maiken was done for. Even though Charbel liked Young Master Renas very much, he was still first and foremost, a man of House Maiken. He couldn't watch at the side while the family he served for all those years get destroyed by petty schemes of an immature descendant.

So he was forced to use his last resort.

* Charbel was in chapter 5. The dude who said Mayton to find him if he ever comes to the city. Servant of Young Master Renas from the House Maiken.