The minutes quickly passed by and soon a smaller crowd formed nearby Quin. When Pei finished gathering everyone he thought was needed he approached Quin and said, “Everyone’s here, come.”

“Alright,” he replied and walked back with Pei.

“So, let’s begin our meeting,” the captain of the guards started. “I doubt that our situation needs much explanation and our next main objective is also quite clear, as it is explained in the orders of the army.”

While Pei was speaking, Quin looked around the crowd sizing its members up. Hm, it seems like every person of power is here, the mayor, the trade guild’s representative, the leaders of the more influential families and- His eye suddenly stopped at the two people he had not seen since his battle with that Shrieker: the pair of silver-haired strangers. Them being here should mean that they do have some status even in our duchy? Or... Yeah, it also possible that Pei simply saw how strong they were and then it would be quite a sensibly move to invite them as well.

“So, as you probably all know, in the event of a major attack, especially one that could be considered an invasion -- and I think calling what happened here as that is completely justified -- we are to regroup first to our closest main city. There, depending on the severity of the situation we’re required to head back to the capital, but in the case of Hounxi the closest main city would be Crows’ Road.” Most of the gathered people were aware of this fact and the crowd nodded in almost unison. “Under normal circumstances the travel would take a few months, but with a forced march we can decrease it to about a single month.

I’ve also notified our headquarters about the situation, but it’ll take a day or two to receive a reply from them during which our required duty will be what I’ve just told you. Now this means that our biggest question is not what to do, but how?” the captain asked and looked toward Quin.

The meaning of this gesture was not lost on Quin: on the one hand this gave him quite a bit face, as the captain of the guards, -- the highest position in the city while at war or in a situation like this one -- Pei, asked him first about how they should proceed. On the other, it obviously acknowledged his strength and to be fair it was rather sensible. If Quin did not agree with something, he could simply ignore the orders and use his own power to force others to do as he wanted. Fortunately for the captain, Quin and him had a friendly relationship, moreover Quin was not the kind of person that would not realize how much experience and knowledge mattered.

He stood up and after looking around the crowd once more, he said with a boosted voice, “I trust your judgement Pei and I plan to cooperate with what you’ve got in mind. Well, after I manage to take care of one matter: my friend should arrive here in a few days so I’ve to find her first.”

The captain looked at him for a moment, probably reconsidering the plans he had made before.

“Alright,” he answered after a sigh, “that’s a pity, but understandable. How long do you reckon it’ll take?”

It was no surprise that Pei was not fond of this, but he was a soldier, an experienced one at that and knew that the most important thing in a similar situation was focusing on solutions.

“She’s supposed to come on foot, so a couple of days worth of travel at most?” Quin thought for a moment, calculating the distance and estimating his speed.

Most of the cultivators had some kind of movement techniques. They could not use it constantly nonetheless their speed greatly increased compared to simply walking which meant that the distance he was talking about was calculated with that kind of speed in mind.

“I’d say under twelve hours if nothing happens,” he said finally.

“Only a few days?” It was not Pei who cried out, but someone from the gathered people.

“That’s crazy!” A couple of similar exclamations could be heard, but quickly only whispers were left wondering if this meant that he was a Spirit Forming cultivator.

Their shock was due to various reasons, first of all, even though they had seen or at least heard about Quin’s strength they still were used to Qi cultivators, whose reserves were a lot more limited. Thus if he had said a few days, the others would not have been that surprised because that amount of time obviously included the rest needed to regenerate one’s Qi.

Twelve hours on the other hand? Among the people of Qi Culmination sub-stage and below that was simply impossible. They would not have enough Qi for a few hours of constant use, not to talk about half a day! What’s more, even if a cultivator miraculously had unending reserves, the round trip would take far longer than that.

This was, however, no issue for Quin as his body was far stronger and faster than probably any other human’s and stamina was definitely among his specialties. Although other places did not share the same healing type wild energy of the lake, Quin could still utilize basically any kind of wild energy as a resource. He has also just discovered how to actually create his very own wild energy and one set of those strange moves generated plenty to use.

“That’s rather quick,” Pei noted and did not pursue the topic, “And honestly, good to hear. I’ve already sent a couple of scouts ahead and they should be back by dawn. The time I’m planning to set off is not long after that and with their intel we shouldn’t have many problems during that period. Of course, if you met something bad on the road I’d very much appreciate you notifying us.”

Pei motioned to one of the guards standing nearby, who then ran quickly away and in just under a minute returned with a small greyish package in his hand. Next, he delivered it to Quin and then walked back to his original place.

“You know the basic military code, right?” the captain asked Quin, who answered with a nod. “Our current cyphers are inside that package.” With that Pei was done, at least with the matter regarding Quin.

Inside this package was several smaller orbs that when crushed would emit a highly visible one, or multiple colored pillar. This was a basic, but highly efficient communication system that the army often used and due to each color having different meaning each time secrecy was no issue.

Quin stashed the item into his clothes after reading through the note about its instructions and then left the crowd. Before leaving Hounxi he told his mother what he was going to and tried his best to reassure her. It was by no means an easy task, but she was aware how important Leyn was to her son and this kind of personality was something she was truly proud of.

I’m still full to the brim with wild energy, so I guess I can leave right away, he considered for a bit just to make sure he was not missing anything important and then set off.

BOOM!

A loud sound of explosion signalled Quin’s departure and even a smaller crater was left behind on the ground as he launched himself forward.

Let’s see how fast I can get! he wondered with a confident smirk. I didn’t really have an opportunity to test how my speed is on a long distance. I just hope... Thoughts of Leyn appeared more and more on his mind while his worry was simultaneously growing as well. It was not that he has not thought about her since the start of the attack, only that he was actively suppressing it. At that time he had more immediate concerns: saving his mother, his friends or simply surviving and focusing on them meant his mind did not have much space left to be occupied by other matters.

In contrast with before, Quin’s main focus was Leyn now and the more time passed without finding her, the more worried and nervous he got. Shit! Shit! I have to hurry! It did not take long and his previous calm -- or at least seemingly calm -- demeanor vanished and was entirely replaced by fearfulness. His mind became clearly one-tracked and outside of her the single thing he concentrated on was increasing his speed. Faster, I have to go faster! Submerged in this state he did not even pay attention to how fast he was actually going or just how much ambient wild energy he was absorbing.

Time passed, first minutes and then hours, yet Quin has not even realized it. Who knows how much time has gone by until he was broken out from this sort of trance.

Leyn!

A person’s silhouette appeared ahead of him and though due to his speed he saw it only for a second, it was still enough for him to recognize Leyn. This sudden shock combined with his previous mindset resulted in a not so graceful stop. Quin simply lost control over his body as he tried to come to a halt, crashing into the road after an uncontrolled slide. A loud noise followed his meteoric fall that spewed dust and bits of the road in every direction managing to scare the life out of the unexpecting girl.