Chapter 21

Two days later.

A long, winding dirt trail connected the wooden cabin and the Bindan Village central square. Surrounding it, a dense woods covered the landscape.

Zairen walked down this dirt path in the direction of the central square. As he walked, he glanced around at the surrounding vegetation. Many trees covered the area to his left and right, stretching far beyond his range of vision.

In the past two days, he had spent all his time refining pills. The reason was simple: he wanted to create pills that could hasten his training, save his life, and another new important reason - to let him treat that mysterious woman and last longer under her pressure! Thus, he refined pill after pill continuously. He was tireless, and ended up running out of spirit energy more than ten times.

But the results were worth it! He first created a large reserve of Spirit Building Pills - more than fifty of them! Each pill, after swallowed, was potent for a few days, doubling the recipient’s spirit energy gain during that time period.

This amount was good for at least a few months. After all, he didn't want to overuse them, as even the most potent supplements lost effectiveness when taken too often.

Next, he made sure to create some pills that he knew would be the most effective in treating the mysterious beautiful woman’s poison. He used the same pill recipe he had invented in his previous life, unoriginally named the Dragon Poison Antidote! However, the potency of the pill was drastically reduced to less than 2% of the original - how could the efficacy of the dingy supply of herbs he currently had access to compare to the rare hundred year old herbs in the enormous imperial supply rooms he previously could freely use? He even had to substitute in different herbs of the same attribute as he was missing many components of the recipe. This further reduced the efficacy of the pills.

In truth, Zairen didn't expect these pills to do much of anything. After all, he was up against King Ice Dragon Poison! But he had to at least try! Maybe it would at least work to prolong the woman’s life. That would be the best he could hope for at this point.

Then, he created a mountain of pills that recovered stamina, recovered spirit energy, healed injuries, and had other useful body-strengthening effects. Not only would these allow for Zairen to save his life in a bind, but could also allow him to bear the mysterious black-haired woman’s pressure for much longer, as he could regenerate his spirit energy and stamina much faster.

However, at this point, he felt that he was still much too weak to approach the woman without getting exhausted, even with these pills. He would have to increase his strength dramatically before he could attempt to do anything.

Finally, in a flash of insight, he created countless antidotes and cures for common and even not so common poisons and illnesses. Although he could always use the Heaven Divine Healing technique, that consumed a lot of time and energy and was not very efficient. It was also hard to use in an emergency. You never knew when you might need these cures! If you really did need them later, you wouldn’t even have a chance to regret!

In the end… Zairen ran out of herbs! That’s right, that huge sack of herbs that he had bought from Grandpa Dinran… was now completely gone!

He hated not having a spare supply of herbs in case he suddenly needed to make a certain type of pill. That’s why currently, he was heading toward the central square to find another source of herbs! He definitely had the money to afford it, many times over. Hopefully, he could find a source with a slightly higher quality and variety of herbs - even if he could only increase the percent efficacy of the Dragon Poison Antidote by only a few percent, it would still be worth it!

Zairen finally arrived at the entrance of the central square.

He stretched his arms - although they were still somewhat sore, after two days of rest, with the aid of his pills as well as using Heaven Divine Healing on himself, he had pretty much returned to his former condition. Actually, he could feel that he was now a bit stronger than before! Clearly, traveling through the mysterious woman's intense pressure had caused his body to build up some muscle.

He scanned the scene in front of him. Numerous stands decorated the area, and many different villagers loitered about.

His eyes suddenly flickered. In the corner of his vision he saw a familiar person: a boy who had a bushy head of blue hair, and a large, chunky body. Looking to be no more than eight years old, he was standing in the middle of the entrance, as if waiting for someone.

It was Finn.

Zairen furrowed his brows and kept his head down. The last thing he wanted to do was to get tangled up with Finn.

As he stood in the entrance, Finn appeared to be scanning the crowd in front of him. His head rotating back and forth, he was examining the many people passing by, as if trying to find someone.

A few seconds later, Finn shifted his eyes to a distant part of the crowd and noticed a hunched-over Zairen, who was walking past. An unlikely smile burst onto his face, and he suddenly called out in a loud voice. “Zairen! You’ve finally come.”

Zairen groaned inwardly. After what had happened the day before, he had a strong suspicion that he was the person Finn was looking for. Trying not to be detected, he had tried to sneak past Finn's line of vision.

However, he had no such luck. Finn had already noticed him.

As if aware of Zairen's thoughts, Finn ran out in front of Zairen and crossed his arms, trying to appear intimidating. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Zairen made a somewhat baffled face, as he was unsure as to why Finn would be waiting to meet him. “What do you want?”

“You’ve been very arrogant lately!” Finn snarled, making a fist with his right hand and pounding it against the open palm of his left. It was an aggressive-looking punching motion. "Today, I'm going to fix that!"

Zairen only stared incredulously. Was Finn going to attack him?

"I challenge you to a fight!” Finn maintained a malicious glare towards Zairen as he continued to speak. “If I win, you will never get in between me and Alivia ever again!"

“...” Looking at Finn’s clenched face, Zairen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Finn was seriously challenging him to a fight?

Judging from Finn's poor body condition, Zairen suspected that the blue-haired boy had seldom exercised in his life, much less fought. If Zairen were to fight with him, it would most likely not even constitute a fight! Almost certainly, Zairen would not even have to attack to win.

"Alright, I agree." Zairen laughed. "But how about if you lose? What will you do then?"

"If I lose?" Finn didn't hesitate. "There's no way I'll lose!"

"Okay." Zairen laughed yet again. "However, on the off-chance that I do win, how about this: you tell your father to buy me all the most expensive herbs he can find in the central square."

If Finn were to waste Zairen's time like this, Zairen might as well get something out of it!

Finn furrowed his eyebrows at Zairen's condition. He was not sure why Zairen would want herbs as his prize for winning the fight. However, he only momentarily hesitated before responding: "Fine! I'll do that. It's not like I'm going to lose anyway!"

He made a beckoning gesture. "We'll fight where nobody's around. Follow me."

Finn turned and left the square. He went straight into the woods, leaving the populated area behind. Zairen paused for a moment to shake his head before reluctantly following.

Although the two boys didn’t notice, two inconspicuous men dressed in black were sitting down at an outdoor table in front of a restaurant, staring directly at them.

Their eyes were fixed on the two children, and they seemed intent on watching them leave. After Zairen and Finn's figures had disappeared into the woods, they got up from their seats and quickly followed, entering the woods in the same direction Zairen and Finn had gone.

Oblivious to those strange men, Finn and Zairen continued working their way through the thick woods, and eventually, they reached a small clearing, about fifty meters in diameter.

A thick layer of grass grew through the clearing ground, creating a carpet-like mat of green. Tall, thick trees surrounded the clearing on all sides, creating a feeling of enclosure, and a fierce wind blew through the area, ruffling the two boys' hair.

Finn took a minute to catch his breath before speaking to Zairen. "You stand over and I'll stand over there. When I say 'start,' we begin the fight. The first person who loses consciousness or gives up loses!"

Zairen nodded. He chuckled on the inside; this 'fight' would not last long.