Mingwei spent a day packing his belongings for his trip. He may not come back for a while if he is successful. He packed his favourite toy, a small wooden boat. The rest of it were clothes, mostly clothes. Then the greenduck liver, and the writing equipment. It was heavy, but he should be fine.

‘First thing I will do once I hit 10,000 Qi is forge a spatial ring.’ Mingwei mused, his small body seemed like it might break from all the clothes on his back. At 10,000 qi he should be able to make a small spatial ring capable of storing these essentials.

“Oh, you’re ready.” Mingjian walked with him, he too had a small bag on his back.

“Such a small bag, brother? Is it sufficient?”

“Our two elders both have a spatial ring, he’s already stored some of our things.”

“Ah.”

Mingjian walked him to one of the Green Insect Blade Sect’s buildings. Two wagons and four horses waited for them, but thankfully, they were not the last. Mingjian quickly introduced him to the two elders.

“Mingwei, this is Elder Wang and Elder Hu. Say your thanks.” Mingjian said, and Mingwei bowed.

“It is my honor to meet you two, Elder Wang and Elder Hu. Thank you for letting me come along for the trip, I must be imposing.”

The two elders smiled. “Ah, I had the impression you’re a lot more playful, young Mingwei.”

Mingwei blushed. “Sorry?”

“Your father often told us you only seem to enjoy playing balls and chasing after your friends.” Elder Wang laughed. “He must be glad to see you finally decided to settle down and work on something.”

Mingwei bowed. “I... I apologise for the trouble.”

“Well, don’t have to. Our wagons are not full anyway. We could’ve easily taken a few more.”

“Thank you again, Elder Wang. Thank you too, Elder Hu.”

The two elders smiled. They looked relatively middle-aged. Perhaps in their 40s, but he could sense that they are around 6-star. It felt like they were on the lower end.

The two elders sat in the first wagon, and it was quite clear the first wagon was a much better one. It had proper furnishings for 8 people, storage, and small wooden lacquered tables for them to have their tea.

The second one was a lot more basic, and so it could fit 10 people. Mingwei would share the wagon with his brother, and five other outer disciples. Later, two core disciples and three inner disciples arrived, and they sat with the elders.

“Alright, let’s go.” The elders announced and they set off.

-

The journey was really quiet. The outer disciples spent their time cultivating in the wagon, and so did his brother. It seemed that they were quite competitive, and all of them were at the 3-star stage.

The trip to Northstar City would take 5 days by wagon, and would pass through West Tigerriver City. The Green Insect Blade Sect and the Red Tiger Temple of West Tigerriver City are pretty much rivals, though they have not descended into outright battles. The two would often have small tournaments for the two sects to fight it out, but other than that, they are cordial and polite to each other.

Mingwei couldn’t do much, he decided to cultivate as well. But because he could not set up his formation in a wagon, his cultivation speed was slow, crawling at 10 Qi a day. It’s incredibly slow, compared to the outer disciples who are clearly eating some other things to boost their cultivation speed.

The next day, they arrived at West Tigerriver City. Two elders from the Red Tiger Temple came to say some greetings, and they seemed to have exchanged some gifts. They didn’t stay long, and were out of the City on the same day.

Now, it was just the open plains.

The 2nd day they continued cultivating. On the 3rd day, one of the outer disciples took a break, and that’s when they finally made conversation with Mingwei.

“So, you’re Jian’s youngest brother?” The outer disciple asked. She looked like a girl around Mingjian’s age as well.

“Yes.” Mingwei nodded. She was probably the second weakest of the 6 outer disciples in the wagon.

She stared and looked at him quite intently. “Hmm, so why did you choose a sect like the Longbow Sect?”

Mingwei, of course, didn’t know much, so he just nodded. “I wanted to join a hunting sect.”

“Why a hunting sect? Those sects spend more time travelling and chasing monsters than actually cultivating. Their techniques aren’t that great either, usually they work better against beasts.” She asked.

“I’m not a fan of fighting each other.” Mingwei said, but inside, he knew it’s a skill that he needs to pick up. Simply because it’s just impossible to avoid it, and if there are traitors, agents of the Devourer, he would have to fight them. Still, his hopes were perhaps a dragon, or an array or formation capable of protecting the world from the devourer.

In truth, fighting a beast is a lot harder than fighting other cultivators, because each beast has different limbs and appendages. Some have horns, and well, it’s a lot more difficult to predict beasts.

“That’s a stupid reason.” The outer disciple said. “You can’t avoid fighting, and joining a hunting sect won’t be without fighting either.”

“I know.”

It was then, one of the other outer disciples too joined in. “Leave the boy alone. Why’re you challenging his life choices like you’re some sister-in-law?”

The girl blushed. Mingjian was unfazed and continued to cultivate.

“No I’m not!” She denied it.

Mingwei just nodded. “I believe in what I’m doing, thank you for your concerns, elder brothers and sisters.”

Thankfully that was the end of it, and the rest of them left him alone till they arrived at Northstar City. Northstar City was larger, easily bigger than the West Tigerriver City and the Green Snow City combined. It had massive walls, and the city gates were large and fortified with Qi-arrays.

“Alright, brother. This is where we part. You’ll be able to find your own way to Redmaw Town?”

“Yes.” Mingwei nodded. The rest of the Green Insect Blade Sect had more to do in Northstar City, so after a quick goodbye, they were off. Mingwei stood at the city gates, and looked at the gates itself.

It was massive, and clearly enchanted. He quickly noted the presence of little symbols of many of the walls, and more symbols throughout it. Strength and toughness symbols, very large ones. It would take at least a 6-star cultivator to break through one of these walls, though before a 8-star cultivator, these walls would just be paper.

He reckoned, perhaps 80million Qi needed to break through the walls?

He walked a bit and followed the Qi inscriptions throughout the entire fortification. As someone with memories of so many crafters, builders and array masters, this was massively fascinating to see a different style of array and defense. He took note of the different inscriptions and committed them to memory.

“You spend a lot of time looking at the wall, young man.”

Mingwei stopped and turned to see an old man looking at him. He radiated a good amount of Qi, but then just as quickly it vanished. “Ah... nothing. I... I happen to enjoy architecture. It’s fascinating to see these old constructions before I was even born.”

“Really?” The old man sounded like he didn’t believe it. “So, what do you like about it.”

Mingwei looked up. “The towers are nice. It’s so high too.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

The old man suddenly had his hand on his shoulder. “It’s not good to lie, young boy. Tell me, why were you staring at the Qi inscriptions? I saw your eyes follow the inscriptions.”

Mingwei’s body couldn’t move. The old man clearly used a technique. “I... I was just looking at them. It’s... fascinating.”

“Who are you, where are you from, and what are you doing in Northstar City.”

“Mingwei, from Green Snow City. I’m headed to Redmaw Town to join the Longbow Sect’s Trials.”

The old man paused, and he lifted his hand. “...you’re a cultivator? You look like you can’t even hurt a fly.”

Mingwei felt absolutely offended by that statement, though he did believe it was true.

“Heh.” The old man sniggered. “Still, why were you looking at the inscriptions? I saw you clearly following them.”

“I... I thought I saw something so I walked along the walls to look closer. That really was it.”

The old man shook his head. “Fine.” He lifted his hand from Mingwei’s shoulder.

“There was no sign or warning that I couldn’t look, right?”

The old man smirked. “Parents these days, clearly don’t know how to educate a young child.”

Mingwei felt offended at the attack on his parents, but this old man was clearly strong, perhaps at the 5-star to 6-star stage, so he decided not to pursue it. Mingwei reluctantly bowed and quickly ran off.

That night, Mingwei used some of his money to pay for an inn. He would look for transport to Redmaw Town the next day.