Willard arrived at the residence of the village’s chief, he stared at the scenery that he was now used to. The gardens, the maids, the adornment at the villa, everything seemed tranquil to him. The maids and family members of the chief had gotten used to his presence, upon seeing Willard arrive, they had gone to contact the chief.

The chief promptly came and began practicing according to Willard’s instructions. Willard took some steps back and continued watching the chief practice the movement martial skill. Willard originally decided to make the lessons crude which intentionally made them more difficult to grasp. He had done so to buy enough time to practice if in case the village chief or anyone else had ill intentions towards him. As time went, Willard had started making it easier for him to grasp the various aspects of the skill.

While the chief was practicing the skill, Willard sat down in a meditative posture. He was currently cultivating the natural energy of the world. During the past month, Willard had increased from a peak level 4 warrior to a mid level 5 warrior. If anyone knew he had increased by that much within a month, they would have labeled him a demon. It was uncommon for anyone to increase in strength that fast, and by regular logic, the higher you go in cultivation, the longer it takes to grow. Of course, Willard was an exemption, he had a godly soul which was many times stronger than any mortals, and he also had devised a way to get spiritual energy to further nourish his soul.

After the fight with Quin, during the graduation ceremony, Willard had forcefully opened a path to cultivate elemental energy. After that day, Willard had noticed he could now more freely gather elemental energy. Usually, one would have stabilized their natural energy level, by reaching the 10th level, and then focus on cultivating elemental energy that they had an affinity to. Willard was a massive exception to this rule. Because of his soul, he was able to sidestep this required process. He had continued cultivating earth elemental energy and now had reached the late level 2 stage of earth elemental energy.

Willard continued meditating at his own little corner. Occasionally, the chief would get stuck and come ask Willard for some help, who in turn will offer some advice in the guise of assisting. By the end of the session, Willard said his goodbyes and made his way straight for home. While walking home, Willard started making plans for his final move out of the village. Willard could sense that he only required a month’s time for him to breakthrough to the 6th level of natural energy, and after attaining that level, and adding his elemental energy cultivation, he would be qualified enough to get into some schools. “It’s almost time for me to use my third demand.” Willard thought while smiling.

The Yellow Hew village could be said to be lifeless. Nothing rarely ever happens that could be considered worthwhile. The days went on as usually, weeks came and gone. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed. Willard was sitting some distance away and watching the chief perform the martial movement skill. The chief’s training had gone well according to plan, it could be said that he had almost mastered the technique.

“Chief” Willard called, “I will be leaving the village tomorrow to try and enter a martial school in Marquis city,” he said in a somewhat respectful manner. “Please remember my third demand.” He concluded.

The chief had a strange look to him, he had his right hand on his chin and stared to the ground in a contemplative manner. After a couple of seconds, he stared Willard directly and said “As agreed, I will assign five warriors who will escort you to Marquis city.” The chief said and paused. He later then continued, “They will be waiting for your departure by the village gate, in two days time.”

Although the chief was originally angered by Willard’s demands, but after spending some time with Willard, the chief had come to realize how crafty he truly was. At the back of the chief’s mind, he was secretly happy having Willard leave the village. Now that he had practically acquired the martial skill from Willard, he could care less where Willard went. The chief was happy to send him away while having people monitor his prospective endeavor.

“Thank you, chief.” Willard said while bowing to the chief. The chief nodded in approval of Willard’s action and began walking back to his villa. Willard made his way back home, he had previously told his parents of his plan to leave the village and had made adequate preparations to do so. Tonight was going to be the last night he would spend with his parents for a while.

When Willard arrived home, he immediately noticed the banquet-like dinner his mother had prepared. There were lush delicacies scattered all over the table. Although the Wuldag family could be considered poor, tonight’s dinner was a vast contradiction to that statement. Willard sat and enjoyed dinner with his family, they chatted about several things and recalled distance memories of things that had past. It was concurrently a joyous and somber event for the family. At the end of the dinner, Ryga had prepared a gift for his son. “I got you this gift for travels,” Ryga said while stretching his hand towards Willard. In Ryga’s hand, he had a ring with a peculiar green gemstone that he purchased at what seemed to be a good deal. Willard graciously accepted his father’s gift with a smile.

Something struck Willard as off with his ring, and he immediately decided to briefly inspect the ring. To his surprise, the ring was void of any energy. Usually speaking, any crystal created in the mortal world would have a trace of a source elemental energy, but this his ring had no elemental energy. That struck him as odd, but he this wasn’t the place and time to think about it. Willard spent the rest of the night chatting with his parents before they all went to bed.

Early the next morning Willard was set to leave the village. He said his goodbyes to his parents, and immediately made his way to the village gate. On reaching the gate, Willard could see five figures standing in front of the gates. As Willard got closer a sinister smile appeared on his face. His plan had worked smoothly. Of the five warriors that the chief had sent to escort him, Azeya was one of them. Willard still had the same resolve as Thanus the god of destruction. One of Thanus’s policies was that he will punish all that offended him.

When Willard had asked for escorts, he had a rough estimate of how many warriors would be free to join him. Azeya who had finished tutoring his class was free. He had asked the chief for a large enough number of warriors, so it would definitely include Azeya. Willard stared at the bunch like a beast staring at its prey. “Let us head out,” Willard said while leading the way.

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Thanks for reading :)