[Now let's go back to your tent and continue with the absorption of energy, we still have a long way before you can become the big man that you want to be.]

[Alright.]

While the wounded village chief was resting, as his wife was taking care of him and the hunter was taking his standing as the head of the village, little Levis was returning to his monotonous breathing exercises in high spirits as he was eager to correct his mistake and help village chief while also thanking the vice-captain.

But in the center of camp, next to Rowen’s personal tent, stood a similar size tent nearly as tall but far more vast, as in the inside of the said tent, were the chained bandits caught by old Wan, as well, as the almost dying two newcomers.

Though as Rowen was standing on his feet looking at them, the old man was personally inspecting and treating the stabbed bandit wound, but as he retracted his hand from the stabbed torso, blood was on his fingers forcing him to clean his hand in the bucket of water not too far from him.

“So, how are they?”

“Hmmm?”

But as the question from Rowen came, a frown appear on the old man's face as some confusion and a revisiting of memories seemed to occur.

“The one with the squarish face, he is in the most critical condition. When I’ve seen him first, he was a rank 3 cultivator, now he is just a mortal, he had his dantian explode, leading to many internal injuries but none fatal. I have treated him the best way I could so he is stable but he needs a more powerful medicine to survive.”

As the old man described the condition of the man, Rowen was listen attentively even though he was genuinely surprised at the survival of the man.

“As for the second one, the stab wound had dealt a lot of harm, though it is not as serious as it appears, as, for his dantian, it is still in the 4th rank, though it is shuddering from the clash of energies. However, his entire body seems to have been beaten, as his entire physique, bears signs of a harsh fight, even his internal organs have not been left unchecked. And as of right now he is hovering between consciousness and unconsciousness”

However, Rowen was growing more confused at the weird descriptions of the two's condition.

“I can arrive at only one conclusion. They were under a slave contract.”

“Are you sure!?”

“Yes, I am most definitely. During your battle, I have been able to observe the manifestation of the killing restriction on his body, that was the only reason he survived the stab from you, having used the slave contract as a shield to soften the blow. As for the other one, he had used the detonation of his dantian as a way to dissipate the contract, as the contract needs energy from its host to remain active or else it will vanish with time. However that is nothing short then suicide, I am amazed at the fact that he did not die and he is still struggling to live.”

“Can we get anything from them? This whole situation of only a rank 5 coming, does not smell good to me.”

“Do not think of doing anything, your rank 6 is still unstable and you need at least a weak to stabilize after what you just did.”

But the old man looked at Rowen with a displeasing frown, the young man shrink back as he knew that old Wan was ready to knock him unconscious if he were to do anything else that would put himself in jeopardy.

“Yes, Yes. I know, after this I'll just return and put a notice to the guard captains so that one of them will come and kill the rest of the bandits. But for now, I want to know what has happened.”

“Hmmm, very well. That being said, I can not help them much, as I am not proficient in the art of healing, while all the medicine I have is either too weak or too strong. They will have to endure the pain with the weak medicine. We must wait till tomorrow, if the stabbed one won’t come to consciousness I’ll jolt his mind and see if he can become fully conscious.”

“Alright, tomorrow it is.”

As they had decided on a course of action, the old man took various liquid vials a poured them down the throats of the two bandits while applying ointments on their bodies, as to help them as much as possible in their recovery.

“All done?”

“Yes, now all we have to do is wait and see if they will heal or not, that applies to you too, I have some specialized medicine ready to heal your body, from your insane act of eating a drop of immortal breaking elixir.

“Y-Yes.”

But in the face of the adamant old man, Rowen could do nothing but to yield, as he himself knew better than anyone how his body was after the sudden breakthrough, as his initial feeling of power had transformed into a storm of pain ravaging his whole body.

As the day was moving on, Rowen was recouping from his self-inflicted damage while Adrian was seeing to the reports of the guards and the villagers, as to assert their conclusive situation after the battle with the bandits.

But as the sun was slowly moving west and as the dawn of the day was closing in, Adrian announce his presence to Rowen as he enter his tent where old Wan was preparing tea.

“Excuse me, I have all the information necessary to give a full report.”

“Come in.”

Though as Adrian entered the tent, the seated Rowen frowned, as he noticed that a certain someone was missing.

“Why is Levis not here?”

“That—Captain, I have been to his accommodation, however, I have been unable to wake him up as he seemed to be in a deep sleep.”

“Sleep!?”

"Yes.”

“---He must be mentally tired, from the stress, it is not every day that you kill someone and put the life of someone close to you at risk.”

However, the frowning on his face did not disappear, but as he was about to say something else, old Wan interjected in their conversation causing Rowen to relax.

“Alright, will leave that to tomorrow, tell me how things stand as of now.”

“Yes, Captain. The vast majority of the guards are either wounded or physically and mentally fatigued, the worst of them are the two rank 4 vice-captains as they had taken more enemies on their own to ease the burden on the lower ranks, however, both of them have been pierced and cut, as such, they will require more time recovering, as for the rest, all could be said, is that they are in a more or less same situation, but far less severe. This will postpone our return to Green City. As for the villagers we had a high number of injured men, however, nothing life impairing or as severe as the Down River Chief. As for the bodies of the bandits, we had them buried in a mass graveyard two kilometers to the north, we had taken all that was of value and collected it in a nearby tent, as for the horses of the bandits, several villagers are taking care and seeing to them outside of the camp. That is all, Captain.”

“You don’t need to call me “Captain”, now that we are just the three of us, and you did well. As for the assets of the dead bandits, if it is related to cultivation we will take them, the rest will go to the villagers.”

“Yes.”

However, as they ended their conversation, Adrian did not leave the tent or sit down to have the tea that the old man had prepared for the both of them, making Rowen to raise his eyebrow in question, at the action of the stationary Adrian.

“Is there something you want to ask?”

“Yes, if you’ll permit me.”

“You can ask, it is not like I can stop you from observing and scrutinizing things.”

“About the prisoners.”

“What about them?”

“Have they revealed why no other high-rank bandits have come?”

“Sit down and drink the tea, otherwise old Wan will get angry from not consuming it.”

As Adrian looked at the smiling old man that was looking at him, a glint of seriousness flashed in his eyes as he knew that the reason for no death to appear in the battle today was because of the senior in front of him, even though he knew the old man as being an attendant of Rowen for along time while anticipating him to be an old cultivator, but the prowess and flow of his killing techniques were not that any old cultivator could do. But as he took the seat offered, and consume some of the tea prepared for him, his eyes immediately widen from the rich flavor of the tea and the refreshing high content of energy that was not escaping in the air.

“Good, it seems that you liked my tea, then I have spent well my energy shards at the spice shops in the city.”

But at the mention of energy shards, Adrian nearly spewed back the tea out of his mouth, as his entire salary from becoming a vice-captain guard, at the service of Captain Rowen had made his yearly salary raise from five shards to twenty, however, at the mention of energy shard being spent for the tea, had almost made him lost his composure in the face of the two.

“No need to feel uneasy with this, enjoyed while it last, still it is good of you to ask about the missing leaders of the bandits. As of now, I have no more information than you, the two surviving bandits are unconscious, and we need to wait till tomorrow to see if they can regain consciousness. For now, you can absorb the energy from the tea, it might help you go beyond the wall that you are facing currently.”

However, Adrian did not need anything else, as he immediately closed his eyes and begin to circulate his own energy following his circulatory system in absorbing the mild energy from the tea, but he was not alone as Rowen followed him as he closed his eyes and begin to meditate while taking sips from the cup of tea in front of them.

Leaving old Wan to look at the strange scene of the two youths with their closed eyes while frequently taking sips from the tea he had prepared.

Nevertheless, he could not stay with his eyes fixed on the two youths as he moved his gaze to the northwest direction, into the deeps of the Border mountains, as unease, worry, and uncertainty were evident on his face as he was looking in the faraway space beyond the material walls of the tents he was in. As a mumble of words that only he could hear, came out of his mouth.

“I hope the bad feeling, will pass.”

But somewhere else in the camp another maniac was cultivating even harder, as he was in dialog with an unknown denizen of the camp that could not be seen.