Odd.

Was the first thought that came to the cloaked figure, alongside two others, who was examining the carcass of the recently fallen wolves. Behind him, the few families traveling with the caravan had reset the campfires and had begun cooking. The guards were also cutting up the wolves for materials.

Ye Tian felt the firm tissue of the muscle, “Tough, but not tough enough. The wind blades might need some speed to dodge though. I hope you guys master the Qi Burning Movement Technique soon,”

The lady with mint green hair walked over with a smile, “Thank you, strangers. Would you all like to join us for lunch?”

The aroma of the food was not the best, but it was still better than the dry rations the trio ate on the move thus Ye Tian turned to the lady and agreed without much hesitation.

“Yeah, sure, my name is Ye Tian. This is Nan Feng and Yu Ling.”

The lady was immediately astonished by how young the three were. At the age of around 13, the trio was already at the blood stage. She came to the resolution that these talents must be befriended.

“My name is Vivian Windstom, the heir to the Ethereal Wind Conglomerate, a mid-sized conglomerate. Erm. Is something wrong?”

Ye Tian was no emotionless robot. Upon seeing the entrancing face of Vivian and her well-endowed body, he had been mesmerized by her beauty. She had a perfect face with fine eyebrows that were a boon to her light blue, almond-shaped eyes alongside soft, supple lips of the color pink and creamy skin. Her curvy figure and height, without a doubt, bestowed long, elegant legs that could make a man drool.

Ye Tian gulped and had his foot promptly stepped on by Yu Ling after she noticed his daze.

Ye Tian blushed, “Hm? Oh sorry. I was thinking of the food,”

Vivian chuckled in response as she didn’t feel much from this kid that was enthralled by her beauty.

A figure rushed over to the four, “Miss! Are you alright?”

Noticing Ye Tian’s blush, little Hua misunderstood and got in front of Vivian to protect her miss from this ‘lecher’. “Know your place, trash!”

Vivian frowned, “Little Hua, this kid saved your life.”

Little Hua turned to Vivian in shock, “What? This is the person?”

All she saw was a blur, and a silhouette in a green cloak had blocked the wind blade. Taking a look at the trio, little Hua had figured the kind, broad-shouldered Nan Feng looked like the type of person who would do such a thing.

“But, still, I will not allow this harasser near you, miss.”

The servant clearly cared a lot about her master and did not want Vivian to feel like she even remotely owed Ye Tian a favor. After all, who knew what this lustful male would ask for?

Ye Tian felt wronged, “I’m not a harasser, okay?”

“You’re not?” Yu Ling coldly jeered from the side.

Vivian calmed little Hua down and soon the group of five sat down around the campfire with porcelain bowls of stew, made from preserved meat and vegetables, on their lap. The smell was subtle, but the hot stew was flavorful as various spices had been added.

“Okay, serious business time. I’ll be blunt. You’re being targeted,”

Everyone looked at Ye Tian for what he meant by that.

Ye Tian explained, “The chances of a random beast developing into a demon beast is minuscule, much less 4 of them. There is even a lower chance of demon beasts escaping the nearby Shattered Hearts Forest. Someone clearly wants you dead, and it’s plainly obvious that they also want the corpses cleaned too. This way, even if investigations found a demon beast attack, there’s no way to trace it.”

Vivian frowned, “Are you sure?”

“I examined the corpses of the wolves. Their eyes had a slight tinge of red which shows that they were drugged, and the tense muscles also show extreme stress, possibly from the drug. Someone likely unleashed them when you guys were traveling by the Shattered Hearts Forest, so it could later pass as an accident of a freak mutation or escape from the Shattered Hearts Forest.”

There was silence and the mood took a turn for the worst.

Sigh. Conspiracies. Conspiracies everywhere. But why would anyone want to kill this heir of a mid-sized conglomerate? A competitor? But why now? Unless… there is a reason to attack now.

As Ye Tian’s eyes moved towards the wagons, Vivian’s eyes grew increasingly with apprehension. Noticing this, Ye Tian stopped and smiled while changing the topic, “Miss Windstom, your hair and name are very unique.”

Vivian was no idiot and could tell that Ye Tian had figured something out but also knew that he wanted nothing to do with it.

Vivian relaxed and smiled in response, “My parents were natives of the Hawksend province, but they moved to the Kaizhan province and set up the Ethereal Wind Conglomerate in the city of Ashurias. Now, the conglomerate has grown to mid-size and has almost a store in every city.”

Little Hua could not help but pump out her chest at pride from her master’s status. After all, these three were just a bunch of junior blood stages.

The world had 34 provinces with a capital city for each province while hundreds of cities were established throughout the world. As the extensive empire expanded over multiple geographies and all sorts of people, there were bound to be cultural differences.

“So, you’re coming home?” questioned Ye Tian.

“Yes, it has been a long time. I initially went out to get experience to take over the business eventually. I can’t wait to see how my close ones are doing.”

At this point, Vivian’s eyes grew fond and reminiscent.

“You must’ve gone to many places?” Nan Feng curiously wondered aloud.

“Yes. Oh, I have a lot of interesting stories to share! There was this one time when I went to...”

The trio listened, with their interest enraptured, to Vivian as she talked about the good times and the bad times during her trips.

***

A horntail ox galloped through the dirt road amidst the forest, kicking up storms of dust. A silver figure anxiously urged the beast to go faster with every passing moment, but the ox was already giving its all.

“Miss Vivian!” the figure shouted from the back as the caravan came into his vision.

The group of 5, still eating, turned to see a long-haired, rugged-face man with stubbles for a beard.

It was Hao Nan.

“Eh?” Hao Nan let out a surprised sound as he drew close to the group.

The trio stood up and saluted Hao Nan as the ox stopped beside the three, “Sir!”

Vivian looked at Hao Nan and then the trio before asking in surprise, “You guys are part of the Ashurias military?”

Hao Nan explained, “These are specially picked troops by me for the city lord’s faction. Hm? You guys are already blood stage?”

Ye Tian explained, “Sir, we met with some fortunate encounters.”

Hao Nan nodded and didn’t inquire any further as it was common for soldiers to acquire certain things from their missions. Allowing the soldiers to collect loot encourages more to go on missions which helps bring peace. Also, the system ensured that the city didn’t have to pay the soldiers as much. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

Hao Nan then turned to Vivian, “Miss Vivian, are you alright? I was sent by the city lord to receive you, but I didn’t see you on the road where I expected thus I rushed here.”

“My caravan was attacked by four rank one wind wolves. Thanks to the heroic actions of these three, we were able to turn the tide. The remains are now fully harvested in those,” Vivian pointed over to the boxes and storage jars.

“I see. Good job, you three. When you guys come back, there will be extra rewards at where you usually collect monthly allocations,” Hao Nan knew something was wrong from the attack and turned to Vivian to talk.

Being a smart person, Ye Tian knew that his superior was about to discuss important things thus he excused his group, “Well, my squad should get going now. We’ve just finished our food too.”

Seeing the tactful Ye Tian, Hao Nan nodded with satisfaction.

However, Vivian stopped the trio, “Ah, wait, before you guys go, I’d like to gift you guys some pills. Little Hua go get some rank 2 elemental eruption pills.”

Little Hua looked at Vivian in shock, ”Elemental eruption pills? For them?”

Hao Nan also interjected, “Miss Vivian, there’s no need. They will be rewarded with spirit stones later.”

Vivian shook her head, “Without them, my life would have been lost. My life is worth more than elemental eruption pills. No?”

It was both gratitude and trying to forge relations with Ye Tian’s trio.

Little Hua dejectedly went to grab a pill bottle from one of the wagons and gave it to Ye Tian while grumbling, “You got lucky lecher. These pills can help one breakthrough to the elemental stage.”

Ye Tian excitedly received the pill bottle before thanking Vivian, “We will not forget this gift, miss Vivian.”

Vivian shook her head, “No, consider it a debt paid.”

The trio saluted Vivian and swiftly departed for the Shattered Hearts Forest.

***

Crunch! Crunch!

Underneath the shade of many trees with glimmers of the sun shining past the leaves, a red goat, at least 10 times its normal size at around 20 feet, munched on the thick vegetation that coated the ground.

Suddenly, the goat raised its head from the ground to see a green, cloaked figure step out from a tree that was 100 feet straight ahead of the goat. The goat sneered at the human figure. Well, if you could call it a sneer and if goats really sneered.

The goat was no amateur and had experienced such an attack multiple times in its life before.

The human figure began to swiftly close in upon the goat which opened its mouth and released a faint red light that began to charge up.

80 feet! 60 feet! 40 feet!

At this point, the light, in the goat’s mouth, was already fully charged with a blinding light. With 40 feet left between the two, there was almost no way for the human to dodge.

Suddenly, at 20 feet and right as the goat was about to fire, the figure launched himself over the goat.

The goat held the blast and quickly turned around.

A stream of molten lava was shot towards the human in midair.

The human twisted his body and dodged the direct stream.

The bits of lava caused the human to roll around to put out the fires.

While the goat was relishing at the human’s pain and charging up another molten stream, another strike, from behind, went towards the goat’s leg.

Having been distracted by the first human, the goat turned around in anger at the new assailant.

Another stream of lava blasted out but this assailant was more nimble than the first.

Suddenly, the goat felt a piercing pain at the side.

A giant broadsword penetrated into the side of the goat.

The human figure wielding the weapon let out a grunt and drove the sword across the goat’s side.

Guts spilled out and the goat let out a sound of anguish before collapsing.

By now, the first attacker, Ye Tian, had gotten back up and walked over.

“This job sucks. Why can’t Yu Ling be the bait? She’s clearly faster than me.”

Yu Ling coldly looked at Ye Tian, “It’s what a lecher like you deserves.”

Oh boy, is that my new name now?

Nan Feng gave an apologetic smile, “Sorry, Yu Ling doesn’t want to do it.”

Ye Tian grumbled, “At least, you two are the ones getting dirty while harvesting the resources.”

Yu Ling didn’t move while Nan Feng silently got to work with chopping up the rank one molten goat. Seeing this, Ye Tian scratched his head and got to work too.

The Starseeking scriptures also seemed to have additional effects of strengthening as the trio did feel stronger, although not by too much, than the average blood stage. As a result, the trio had confidence in fighting these demon beasts that were similar to qi stage. All it took was some additional planning.

It had already been days since the three entered the Shattered Hearts Forest. Every day consisted of killing, harvesting, and cultivating at night before resting at dawn and the cycle restarts. The freely roaming demon beasts were resources just begging to be harvested for the astral qi gathering ritual.

Ye Tian had spent 60 spirit stones on 60 pounds of stargazing flowers. The weight of the flowers had been properly distributed into each of the three’s sacks that they carried. With the previous unused 5 pounds of stargazing flowers, there was actually 65 pounds which translated to 65 days of cultivation.

The cost of repairing their clothes was 9 spirit stones in total and along with 60 pounds of stargazing flowers. The 81 spirit stones turned into 12.

Ye Tian’s heart was in deep pain when he had to make the purchases.

The pill bottles that Ye Tian carried did make him feel better as he could feel the value of the three elemental eruption pills.

As Ye Tian cut apart the goat, he tried to familiarise himself with fast and efficient harvesting methods.

After all, the three were going to be spending a long time in the forests.

***

One long wooden wall stretched as far as the eye could see and split a forest into two halves. An unmoving white-robed man stood on the wall with an apparent look of boredom as he stared into the Shattered Hearts Forest. This was his job. A mere bone stage guard that watched over the borders of demon beast territory and human territory.

The truth was that the demon beasts were smart enough to never come close to human borders thus the man named Jiang Jun was essentially useless. However, the damned superiors still wanted the guards on the walls to watch over the Shattered Hearts Forest even though the guards wouldn’t be able to take care of any beast.

Jiang Jun’s only job was to ring the bell beside him if any problems occurred, and he knew that he would probably die before the squads even reached his position. It was a good thing that nothing ever happens.

Jiang Jun cursed his superiors under his breath as he watched the forest with anticipation for the transfer that he would soon be undergoing. Just a few more days and Jiang Jun would never have to see this boring place ever again.

Jiang Jun yawned from the boredom before freezing.

‘Huh? What was that?’

Jiang Jun listened closely. It sounded like… like… tremors…?! He quickly snapped to attention and looked into the Shattered Hearts Forest while preparing to ring the bell at any moment.

‘Damn! Why!? Just a few more days too...’

Soon, Jiang Jun saw a silhouette of a gigantic beast approaching and it was approaching fast!

ROAR

A gigantic, white ape at the height of around 24 feet slapped away the trees in front of it and appeared in front of Jiang Jun.

‘SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!’

Jiang Jun recognized this beast. It was the rank one Guardkiller ape and as for why it was called Guardkiller? The name was fairly self-evident. Every time this ape appeared, squads of bone stage guards are unable to fatally injure this ape with abnormal defense and qi stages weren’t in every squad, especially in this run down place where nothing happens. As a result, these squads were massacred without much resistance. Jiang Jun rang the bell, but he knew that it was unlikely for him to make it out even if the squads arrived on time.

‘It’s over.’

The Guardkiller ape charged at the wooden wall which was around the height of the ape. The ape raised its hand to take a swing at the wall to smash apart the structure along with Jiang Jun. The shadow of the ape’s hand cast over Jiang Jun who closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate.

A moment passed. Nothing happened.

‘Huh?’

Suddenly, Jiang Jun heard a voice.

“Wow… The power of Qi Gathering Strikes isn’t too bad.”

When Jiang Jun opened his eyes, he saw a youth in tattered white-robes. It couldn’t even be called robes anymore. The sleeves were missing and holes revealed the fine abs of the youth.

Beside the youth, there was the Guardkiller ape, except the body was split in half. Jiang Jun shivered in fear and awe. This youth had done that?

Behind this youth, another youth, with an even better-built body and dragging a huge sack, wearing similarly torn robes had walked out from the forest while followed by a girl with robes in a much better condition.

“Ye Tian, I don’t think it was a good idea for the environment to have the ape tear apart a road in the forest.”

“It was the fastest way.”

Yu Ling rolled her eyes in annoyance at Ye Tian’s crude method.

The trio had spent a full three months in the forest. During this time, the trio had gone through multiple life and death experiences which helped the group bond while each of them broke through to the bone stage.

The bone stage combined with the additional firepower from the Starseeking scriptures and Qi Gathering Strikes had granted them quite the power. The large sack carried by Nan Feng had contained their extra spoils from killing the demon beasts.

It was time for the three to return.

Ye Tian turned to Jiang Jun.

“Sorry for the inconvenience and scare. You can have that. The sack can’t carry anymore anyways.”

Before Jiang Jun could speak, Ye Tian walked away with the other two. Just like that, this odd sequence of events came to an end for Jiang Jun.

Right when the trio left, a squad dashed over. The man at the forefront, the leader, looked at the corpse of the Guardkiller ape and then at Jiang Jun with shock.

“Is that yours?”

Jiang Jun stammered, “I-I guess?”