"I have to reach the Emperor stage!" Hong abruptly rose to his feet, his eyes blazing with desire. The battle with the Azure Queen Boa had really etched the importance of strength into his mind. With that he exited the Mist Marshlands.

The exquisitely shaped armour on Min Su's body made her seem rather heroic and valiant. She stood there outside the Southern Sun tribe gazing into the far distance. Her figure became the centre of attraction and gaze from these rustic tribal youths.

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Ever since she arrived at this place, there had been no doubt that she became the prettiest girl around.

One youngster after another did their best to attract even just a look from her by showing of their strength and valour in her presence, but they were all bound to be disappointed, as they seemed invisible to this pretty girl's eyes.

"Miss Su is waiting for her young master, right?"

"Yeah. I overheard uncle Chen saying that her young master is extremely powerful. Over 200 of the Zhou Family's Bronze Guards were killed by him in less than 20 breaths!"

"Only someone in the calibre of such strength could be worthy of someone as beautiful as Miss Su."

"It's a pity that he encountered a Dan Formation spirit beast! Most likely, that powerful young master would be unable to survive the hurdle. When angered, such beasts can cause an entire town to change by charging into them and killing all its inhabitants. Uncle Chen and others were lucky because they fled quickly."

"If anything were to happen to him, and he dies, Miss Su would have to find another person to marry!" the tribe members of the Southern Sun tribe watched her from afar whilst speaking amongst themselves in hushed tones.

As far as they would have themselves believe, a girl like Min Su was like a celestial fairy…compared to her, other girls of their tribe were like trolls. Unable to hold a candle to her sun-like beauty.

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Min Su stood there, staring into the distant mountain forest. She was waiting, waiting for the most important man in her life. She was tasked by the most important woman in her life to watch over him, and now there was news that he might not return.

"Min Su." A figure built with powerful muscles strode out from a residence within the tribe. It was Min Hao, the other escort that came with Hong on this journey. He urged her, "Go get some rest, when he returns, the guards at the gate of this tribe would definitely alert us first. Moreover, it's so cold out here."

"No." she gently declined his thoughts.

Min Hao gazed at Min Su for a while before he chose a tree branch to sit on nearby. His forehead was bunched up in thoughts also.

After Uncle Chen returned, he had learnt that Min Hong had started to battle the Rhino Emperor, a spirit beats in the 6 Star Dan Formation stage. As to the results of the battle, no single person could tell.

Although in his heart, he still hoped that this young master would return, the logical part of his mind was telling him that Hong had most likely met his end in that marshland.

His theory was based on the fact that Uncle Chen and the others had returned two days and given his young masters speed, if he was truly not dead, it would have taken him only half a day to return to the tribe.

So, even if Hong wanted to distract the Rhino Emperor so that Uncle Chen and the rest could escape, he should have returned half a day after they returned! But he had yet to return.

"If the young master is dead…Min Su and I would most likely have to accompany him as well." He thought. If a master died, how could the guards continue to live? Local powers such as the Min Family have strict rules when it came to the wellbeing of their direct descendants or castle members.

"Unh?" Min Hao suddenly blinked, as he saw the shadow of a figure flashing here and there with lightspeed. The figure was within view almost instantly…it was the young master's figure!

"Young master!" Min Su had already rushed out.

"Young master?"

"Miss Su is already running over."

"Look there's someone approaching from that area. Could that be the young master Miss Su had been waiting for?" the youths standing guard at the gate whispered to each other, whilst others rushed in to inform the rest of their tribesmen.

Min Su watched as the fur-clad, smiling, young boy walked over. She had been constantly stifling her fears for the past two days, her nervousness and negative thoughts…and now, all these torturing emotions caused the warrior of a girl, to shed tears.

"Young master." Min Su spoke as if there was a lump in her throat and looked at Hong with red eyes. "I, I…"

"Hey, it's alright. I'm back." With an overpowered vision Hong saw Uncle Chen from over 30 metres away, he was currently walking over to Min Hong with the one-armed man that was with the hunting group much earlier.

He couldn't help but laugh, "So Chen already returned. Was he the one who told you guys that I was battling the Aquatic Rhino Emperor? Just because I came back a little later than them, you were this frightened?"

Min Su summoned all her strength to restrain her tears. She had grown to like this young master of hers in recent months. They've been travelling together for about seven months and she got to know him a lot better.

She noticed that Min Hong was a very nice, honest and truthful boy. He was respectable and straightforward. He also joked a lot, can be shameless on some occasions and savage on others.

All these attributes she noticed made her feel this boy was way more matured than his age, probably even more than she was.

That's why over these past months they've spent adventuring and training together, braving all the dangers that they came across, which he mostly dispatched by himself, she had grown very close to him.

And she wasn't the only one, even Min Hao grew to like him as he was brave, valiant and even fearless to the extent that he seemed reckless most times.

Thus, they've grown extremely close. Min Hong himself sees Min Hao as an older brother and friend, because braving danger together with someone, most often than not being men closer to one another.

He also sees Min Su as an older sister and friend as she tended to his every menial request; she cooked, took care of his wounds most times and won't even sleep, until he had gone to sleep.

But Min Su was now extremely conflicted about her feelings towards this young master of hers. Her feelings bordered on the love of an elder sister and a romantic one, even if she knew it was as impossible as a mortal ascending the heavens on foot.

Regardless of whatever happens, she was already happy with the way she feels about him and the way he treats her, even though it was an emotion on two extremely different planes.

"It was just a Rhino Emperor. To yours truly, it's not worth mentioning." Hong winked at her, still beaming in high spirits.

Min Su exhaled sharply in shock, "Young master, did you kill the spirit beast?"

"Yep." Hong nodded in delight.

"Wow, a spirit beast. Young master, you killed a spirit beast." Min Su was really excited. "Young master, you're barely ten years old, but you killed a spirit beast. This…this…" as his personal guard/servant, Min Su's life over these months have centred around Hong.

"Don't spread the news." Min Hong whispered to them both, as he liked to keep his power level a secret from everyone, just as his grandfather had advised him.

"Right, right." Min Su and Min Hao bubbled their heads repeatedly as they hurriedly ended the conversation.

"Come, let's go take a look at the Southern Sun tribe." Hong said. Over the past few days, he had been in the mountain forest pondering the result of the battles he had engaged in.

He had realised some mistakes he had made in those battles and after careful corrections and some, small scale battles to confirm his theories, all his battle techniques; the [Willow Leaf Palm], [Song of the Wind Spirit] and [Chaotic Shadow Steps] have improved to another level.

A few more battles and he will achieve complete mastery in all of them.

"I, Shi Hai of the Southern Sun tribe, would like to thank mighty young master, for having saved the lives of our tribesmen repeatedly. All the tribesmen of the Southern Sun tribe feel boundless gratitude for your help…and we've been anticipating your return."

Hong smiled and nodded. "I'll be staying in your Southern Sun tribe for a while…and as for the rescue, all I did was help out in passing. Also…for the time being, I don't want to be disturbed. But if you need anything from me you can speak to either of them and they'd relay your request." He added as he gestured to Min Hao and Min Su.

"Understood…understood." the bald tribe leader nodded repeatedly.

"Chen." Hong looked over as the tall, burly, powerful Uncle Chen quickly stepped forward, seemingly excited for some reason. "Young master, when I saw that you returned, I…"

"It's alright" Min Hong laughed knowingly.

"You helped me for a month in the Mist Marshlands. And I told you that I was going to reward you greatly when I returned to the Southern Sun Tribe. Take this." Hong tossed his hand, as five pockets of gold was flung out of thin air. Shocking Uncle Chen silly.

Uncle Chen quickly caught the 50 pounds worth of gold coins, while the surrounding tribesmen began to stare at him with envious gazes.

"Let's go." Hong looked at Min Hao and Min Su, who ushered him to a residence within the Southern Sun tribe, which had been prepared for him before he arrived.

He could have easily given something very valuable to the tribe, but something of such value might bring destruction upon the small, Southern Sun tribe who were about a thousand people.

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Inside the residence… Within the Southern Sun tribe…

"Young master." Min Su poured some wine for Hong, with some grilled spirit beast meat and other delicacies. "During the past month Min Hao and I have been in this tribe, we've been contacted by the castle."

"Great." Hong nodded. Whilst adventuring, he had been instructed by Min Tian to always find a way to reach out and contact the scattered troops of the Min Family who were stationed in various positions all over the area.

"This is a letter from the castle." Min Su who was a spy, did the job of maintaining contact with the troops perfectly. She passed a scroll to Hong.

Hong received it and then broke the seal before unfurling it. Immediately he saw the content, he couldn't help but reveal a broad smile. This was a letter written to him by his family! It mainly contained some instructions and warnings from his grandfather, Min Tian.

Followed by words of concern from his mother, Min Rou. But after the life and death battle he just experienced, Min Rou's nagging filled his heart with warmth instead.

"Enough, Min Su. It looks as though you haven't slept in days. Go get some sleep." Hong said looking at Min Su's saggy eyeline.

"I'm not tired." She quickly refuted.

"Go." Hong ordered, before she instantly lowered her head, obediently entering her room to finally go get some sleep.