Previously in another part of the forest near a town, an old man could be seen fighting against 2 other men. The men had the very same expression and facial tattoo as a certain sect grunt our hero might recognize. They had obviously been fighting furiously as they were all drenched in sweat, fresh cuts, bruises and each one had multiple fractured bones. There was also another similar man lying dead nearby.

“Yo grandps just let us through you know we’ll get what we want anyways in the end. At least you could live. hahahha” said the man while deviously cackling. He wanted the grandfather to betray them so he could started build torment in his soul. Then later he could find him again and refine him into a hungry ghost under his command.

“You wont get your hands on my grand-children! You ghoulish bastards! I’ll die before I let you take them with you to your mad sect. I should of join that expedition to annihilate your sect 2 decades ago it’s one of my biggest regrets. How many of my fellow villagers did you lot cause the death of over the years.” said the old man yelled as he unleashed a wave of wind blades at them.

One the men successfully avoided it by ducking into a trench. The other man cut through the blades coming towards him with great effort with his spear. The old man was panting in exhaustion. It could be seen this old man was on a higher tier of power then these men but the difference was being overcome slowly by numbers.

One of the men summoned his refined ghost to try to attack the old man’s soul. The ghost got close but the old man dodged its attack many times. It just couldn’t seem to get close enough until the other man summoned a pack of higher ghouls. These ghouls possess animal like intelligence and their claws and teeth are filled with corpse poison. It's a mix of toxins, virulent bacteria, parasites and viruses. It would cause decay if it entered the blood stream of any being on the same level or slightly above it. He then had to juggle one ghost,10 ghouls and still and to watch to not leave an opening for the 2 sect fiends. The sect fiends had to focus as these summons were prone to disobeying if given half a chance.

So he fight went on as he fought trying to avoid exposing any openings to those fiends. He successfully impaled 2 ghoul’s skulls with a sword from his storage ring. He shattered the legs of 5 of them ,with a leg sweep empowered by Chi, drastically reducing their mobility as they had tried to mob him. He then tried finish the Ghouls only to find the ghost had hidden in one of them and it was possessing it. This ghoul started glowing abyss black as the energy form it’s summoners was taken through the bond. Slowly the ghoul started to evolve into a higher undead a type of unnamed vampyric creature. It was agile, cunning and possessed the characteristics of both the undead it was composed of. Both summoners were starting to run out of Chi. Soon the creature might break free of their control. So they made it attack him desperately. He still managed to dodge and parry most of its attacks but his own regular attack were no longer doing much damage. He had unfortunately had been scratched twice which caused damage to his soul and he now had to fight the poison in his body. Then something odd happened the corpse energy from all the other remaining ghouls visibly started transferring to the vampire. Slowly it changed again leaving both its owners with a pittance of Chi left. It now was assuming a more imposing form. It had almost finished when he decided to use his one time use life saving measure the vermilion bird scroll. The scroll suck up all of his remaining Chi.

“I have to do this to be able to go protect my grand kids. Who knows what they could of met in that forest while escaping. I know Aden has a good head on his shoulders but he’s only 6 years old. They can’t even train in Chi yet! I should of thought them Ki as a last resort consequences be damned.” thought the old man.

He then use the scroll by injecting his remaining Chi and reciting the activation sequence.

SCREEEEEEEEEEE! A loud screeching noise was released from the scroll as a horizontal pillar of fire with what seemed like a giant bird shot out of the scroll and towards the ghoul and one of the men. The man poured what was left of his death Chi into his spear which started resembling a scythe. He and the vampire summon then tried to counter the massive pillar of flames as they could not escape it. They withstood the pillar for less than 10 seconds as the pillar directly directly incinerated half the man’s body and all of the vampires body.

“My ghost NOOO! After all I had to do to get the sect master to help me refine it. What kinda bullshit is this! All the hours torturing the victim prior to it’s death. All the lying about his family already being massacred by us. All that work to insure the soul turned into a vengeful ghost after death. ALL OF THAT WASTED!” shouted the man.

“Junior brother! Dammit I need those kids. I can’t leave I need something to pacify the sect master’s anger from not getting the damn meteorite. Damn those lizards from the south. If I don’t get some pure souls for the sect master he may want to refine mine instead.” thought the man a cold shiver passing through his spine..

“You already lost your minion leave already before I decide to truly use everything I still have on me, consequences be damned, to end your miserable life. You fucking piece of shit Death’s way cultist.” said the old man trying to act composed and overbearing.

Looking at the old man, the cultist had finally recognized him. He was Alexander the ex governor of Kingston. There were so many rumours about why he had quit no-one truly knew the reason. Everyone knew he had had the strength and means to repel a sect invasion with his colleagues. Without a second thought the cultist used a smoke chi bomb to mask his escape as he ran as if he had met a reaper in the flesh.

The truth was that Alexander was just about all out of Chi but had used a masking technique during the fight so the cultists couldn’t know his true reserves. He barely had enough for accelerated movement. But he truly had no other choice during this battle, he would be useless to his grand kids if he died. He had been poisoned in the last year and even though he had been cured he now had a trickle of his usual regeneration of Chi. While thinking of his grand kids he let his spiritual sense out only to find them running away from 4 wolves.

“Nooo!” he yelled as he started running towards them at a fraction of what he should of been able to do before.

“I’ll never make it at this rate.” He thought as he observed his grandson trying to fight them off with a stick. He realized he was going to lose them too. He had tears in his eyes. He remembered that the devils had killed their parents 2 years ago in front of them. The devils had escaped from town before he could rally the guard. He remembered how grief stricken they all were afterwards. He had almost sunk into a depression at the loss of his daughter. He had seen how much they needed him to be there for them. so he had quit his governing job ASAP to raise them and to make sure they never wanted for anything. He had tried his best and they had just started to be able to smile again. He felt his heart slowly breaking when he observed an odd looking kid appear in a tree near them. At first, he appeared to be observing something until he seemed to realize something and decided to jump in. Then the oddest thing happened he fought all 4 wolves single-handedly. He even swore the kid once used energy to attack. He kept rushing toward them. Feeling relief from the bottom of his heart. He then started wondering about the kid’s intentions. Hearing their conversation once he got close enough.

“Well yeah I kinda woke up in the forest with no real memories of my past or my parents. But for some reason I had fighting instincts and I knew how to hunt. So I spent my days fighting and eating gradually stronger beasts until I was chased out one night by some giant lizard. I lost count of the times I was injured. I seem to heal pretty fast. Once I was out of the forest I followed a small river and that's when I happened upon your situation and decided to help. If you could answer some of my questions it might help me understand my situation better. I have been asking myself sooo many questions without answers lately”

He couldn’t believe the story he heard. He knew the boy was hiding something but also saw that the boy was conflicted when he spoke around the parts he was hiding. Truly a kid not used to lying. He couldn’t sense any ill intentions either just curiosity, some pride when the boy looked at the remains of the battle and some genuine interest in learning about his grand kids. He then noticed the tail the boy had rolled around himself as a belt. It was unusual in these parts as the closest beast-kin clan lived in Newfoundland and he definitely was not wolf-kin as they were. The more Alexander observe him the more questions he had. He decided to observe them for a while.

Cade gathered the wolf corpses and carried them with him. They left the forest and found themselves in an open space. He decided to make camp here as it was getting dark.

“you guys know how to clean wolf meat to cook it?” Cade asked much to the surprise of both kids.

“Yo you you’re going to eat them?” mumbled Elena.

“They tried to eat you why not return the favour? Plus i bet they are tastier then the fish I've been eating the last week.” Cade said.

“NO MORE FISH!” He said louder then he intended. Not realizing that he was dripping saliva from the corner of his mouth. He still hadn’t eaten anything as good as that first boar. He still dreamed of eating more. He was slowly becoming a foody.

“So do you know how?” Cade asked again.

“No grandpa makes our meals usually.” replied Aden who was now starting to worry that his grandpa still hadn’t come back.

“Oh well I'll have to improvise.” Cade said as he grabbed a rock and chipped at it to create a makeshift knife. He then started cutting the meat and preparing it to eat. He would have to bleed them out first then he could cook them. He also found 3 partial cores in those wolves which he would eat when alone. He put them in a pocket.” An hour later the meat was rotating over a fire. He made sure to cook it less bloody then usual for his guests.

“Here try some guys” he said “its nowhere near as tasty as that boar” he muttered.

They all wolfed down their meal. Even elena who was apprenhensive could not resiste the allure of hot food after running for so long. They ate in relative silence too focused on the food to offer up conversation.

So they sat down to eat and to treat any wounds they had. He then asked his first question.