June looked off into the distance and sighed. He had been walking for half a day, but there was still no signs of human settlements. The plains held grass everywhere and it seemed like there was no end to it. His stomach grumbled and he knew that it was time to eat, but he did not see anything that he could catch and cook. At that moment, he regretted the action of leaving the rabbits that he caught back at the pond.

June looked at the sky and smiled brightly as he ignored his hunger. He was alone, but he didn’t feel lonely or anxious anymore. This was a journey that he was looking forward to. He was all grown up now.

After ten more days of walking, June finally saw a small village from afar. He ran as fast as he could to the village, but he kept stumbling along the way. His hunger was at the brink of killing him.

Ten days of no food was too much for June. Luckily, along the way, he met with a herd of buffalos, but he realized after catching one that he was not able to cook it. It would be the start of a wildfire if he tried to light up a fire and he did not want that, so he ate the buffalo raw. The blood and meat quenched both his thirst and hunger, but it was quite sickening to him because he had eaten cooked food all of his life.

The guards in front of the gate of the village saw a person who had a beggar like appearance running towards them with all his might. The malnourished muscles on the person’s body told them that he was likely not a beggar and the blood on his face made them cautious.

“Halt! Stop where you are or we will stop you by force!” One of the guards yelled with all his might as he saw June. He thought that June was going to try and break into the village by force.

It surprised him when June suddenly fainted in front of him. The two guards looked at each other in surprise.

“What should we do Hau?” said the guard on the right. It was apparent that he was talking to the guard on the left whose name was Hau.

“Let’s take him in,” Hau said.

“But he looks dangerous!”

“Tie him up first and then we’ll get answers out of him when he wakes up. Wen, can you go get the rope?”

“Alright!” said Wen. This was the name of the guard on the right. The two were villagers, but they were one of the strongest men in the village, so they were appointed as guards.

After Wen brought a rope, Hau tied it on June very tightly. He wanted to make sure that June would not be able to escape. They carried him off into the small village. It was a village that held about three hundred people and 75 houses made out of wood, dirt, and hay.

Everyone saw Hau and Wen carrying a person towards the center of the village. They were all curious as to who that person was so they followed the two towards the center of the village.

By the time they reached the center of the village, about half of the people in the village was clustered there. Hau laid June on the ground and shouted, “Can someone get me a bucket of water?”

Sure enough, a bucket of water was handed to him in a short amount of time and he splashed the water on June’s dirtied face.

The water washed away some of the dirt that covered June’s face and woke him up at the same time.

“Food…” he bellowed.

Hau looked at him sharply and then he yelled, “Get this person some food!”

The villagers scrambled and brought food with quickness. After eating his fill, June looked at the villagers with thank in his eyes.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Who are you? What is your purpose? Why have you come?” asked Wen. The questions flooded June and he didn’t know which to answer.

“Calm down Wen, the lad can’t answer if you ask too many at the same,” stated Hau.

June looked around and he was startled with what he saw. There were many people around him. The different faces that flooded his sight made him quite confused. Living in the desolated forest for so long has made him quite timid in front of others.

In his confusion, he stated his name, “my name is June.”

Hearing him, Wen barked, “We don’t want your name! We want to know who you are and where you came from?”

June was lost for words. “Are all the humans rude like this?” he thought as he tried to remember the time when he visited Vern.

Seeing Wen’s rude behavior, Hau stepped in and said, “Please don’t mind him. We have to take caution to whoever comes in here from the outside, so may we please get your identity?”

“Ah, this person is nice,” June thought. “I don’t know who I am,” he said. It was a lie, but it didn’t sound like one because part of it was true.

Hau saw some truth in June’s words, but he was the type of person to think before he acted. Wen on the other hand blatantly shouted out, “Lies!” He was a character of doing before thinking. Quite opposite from Hau, but this was what made them good brothers.

“I sense some truth in his words. He may have memory loss,” said Hau. Wen looked at him and nodded.

“But he has blood on him,” exclaimed Wen.

Hau inspected the blood on June closely and laughed, “that is animal blood. He must have been so hungry that he ate what he caught raw.”

“Oh… he does indeed look really famished.”

Wen trusted Hau’s judgement and didn’t say anything further, but he still kept a close eye on June.

“So your name is June? Quite girly for a guy,” exclaimed Hau. “We expect that you might have amnesia.”

June was jaw slacked because his half-lie actually worked. Seeing him in a puzzled state, Hau started to really believe that June might have amnesia.

“You say your name is June, but how do you know that. Are you really amnestic?” Question Hau as he squinted his eyes.

June started to sweat, but he held on and said, “That’s all I remember.”

Wen was starting to get impatient, so he yelled, “Let’s just kill this guy Hau. Nothing good will come about if he is alive. Just look at him. All dirty and he isn’t wearing anything except a skirt made out of leaves. He must be a war captive escapee. We should just kill him.”

Hau thought for a moment before saying, “You have a point Wen. It won’t do us any good if we keep this guy and he is quite mysterious. Alright, let’s kill him.”

June’s face paled at Hau’s words. “The guy seemed quite nice because he fed me food, but he is so merciless!” He was prepared to break the entanglement of the rope and run for his dear life, but a voice from afar stopped his actions.

“Wait!” The voice was high in pitch yet it held a domineering power. It was the voice of the girl who was running towards them. The crowd let her by and June saw her up close. She was young and looked a bit tomboyish. She stood at 1.8 meters and that was quite tall for a girl. Her long brown hair dropped down to her waistline and her black eyes glistened with life. If not for the fact that she was wearing a dress, June would have thought that she was a very girly boy according to her facial features. The sword that she carried also caught his interest.

“Father, don’t kill him,” plead the girl as she looked at Hau. June was shocked when she called Hau her father. They did not look alike at all. Hau looked pretty frail even though he was very strong. He looked like a scholar with great knowledge. It was different from both his daughter and Wen who looked like they were strong.

Hau looked back at the girl. “Tel… why are you here?”

“Father, you know i’ve always wanted a servant. You never gave me one because it would cost money, but this is a chance for me to have one for free,” Tel exclaimed.

“You can’t have him as a servant,” said Hau as he shook his head. “It is too dangerous.”

“It’s not dangerous,” she said. “Look at this guy. He looks so weak! Even if he has a bit of muscle… he can’t compare to me. You know this.”

Indeed, June did looked quite weak because of the lack of nutrition. He looked towards the girl named Tel and stare at her as he said, “i’m not weak.”

She laughed it off and rebuked, “You’re weak! Just look at yourself!”

“Tel, even if you are stronger than him, he is still suspicious. We will kill him and get this over with,” said Hau.

“Please father!” begged Tel with watery eyes.

Seeing her like this, Hau gave up. He trusted her strength and the boy named June looked quite weak. “Alright,” he said.

“Yes! Thank you father!” yelled Tel as she hugged Hau. After the hug, she grabbed June’s arm and pulled him away.

Seeing the two run off, the villagers started to disperse in disappointment. They thought that there would be some excitement today.

Tel brought June to her house. It was near the edge of the village in the south. It was like the other houses. There was nothing particularly eye-catching. It was a single room house and it had the essentials for living.

June was knelt on the ground with a rope around his body. It was tight, but he could break away from it easily. He eyed Tel with curiosity.

Seeing June look at her, Tel laughed brightly as she said,”I just saved your life! You’re my servant now. Got it?”

“I don’t want to be a servant.” His voice was quiet, but Tel heard it clearly.

“You don’t have a choice. Your life is in my hands,” she said. In fact, June could escape if he wanted to, but what good would that do? He did not want to be chased and even if he escaped, he didn’t know when he would find another place to stay. He did not want to starve again. There was also the chance of someone stronger than him in the village, so he was stuck in quite a complicated situation.

He could only sigh helplessly and say, “Ok, I will be your servant, but what do I do as a servant?”

“Its simple! You do whatever I tell you to do. Just serve me and you’ll have a good life,” Tel said as she looked at June with excitement. She saved June because thought that her Hau was being a bit too merciless. In the midst of her plea, she could only bring up her matters about wanting a servant. She knew that Hau would agree and planned to release June if he did not want to be her servant. Her words, “Your life is in my hands” was only a joke, but she would have never thought that June would easily agree to her demands. How could she know that June actually took her words seriously?

“Alright! Let’s start with introductions first! My name is Tella Bran. What is yours?”

“My name is June,” he said.

“June? That’s quite a girly name for a guy. I’m just going to call you Jun,” Tel said.

June’s eyebrows furrowed because he thought that it was weird how people kept saying that his name was girly. In the end, he decided that having a nickname wasn’t bad.

“Can I call you Tel then?” he asked. He heard Hau called her that, so it was stuck with him.

“Of course not! You may call me Lady Tel,” said Tel as she held her head up proudly.

June shook his head helplessly. “This lady is eccentric, but it's nothing I can’t deal with,” he thought.

Tel looked at June closely and realized that he was almost naked. She blushed in embarrassment. She also saw his dirtiness and said, “You’re really dirty! Let’s get you washed up. My servant can’t look like a beggar. I will get my father’s clothes for you.”

June did exactly what Tel wanted him to do after she passed him Hau’s clothes. He washed himself of filth and put on Hau’s clothes. He was now clean and covered up with trousers and a simple shirt. It was the normal wear for a common villager.

When Tel saw June all tidied up, she was surprised because the guy who she thought to be a man was only a boy. He was handsome, but he looked frail because he was famished. The clothes covered up his muscles and this caused him to look weak.

“You- how old are you Jun?” she asked.

“As of this year, I am 16,” replied June. As she heard June’s age, she was shocked. She was older than him by 4 years, but she thought that he was older than her earlier.

“Having a young servant isn’t bad,” she thought. “Ok! It is about time for me to practice with my sword. All you need to do is to stand on guard with some water.”

Tel gave June a cup filled with water and told him to stand in place. She started practicing with her sword after she saw him doing what he was told.

The sword was swiftly taken out of its scabbard by Tel and she swung it around in patterns. June watched and was very interested. He did not know how to use any weapons. He didn’t have the chance to learn while being in the forest. He only had brute strength and that was it. It was sort of like having power, but not knowing how to use it properly.

After thirty minutes of practicing, Tel was covered with sweat. It permeated through her dress which stuck to her wonderful figure. June handed her the water and she gulped it down to quench thirst.

“You’re progressing wonderfully,” said Hau as he appeared out of the house. “The Bran family’s sword art is based on speed. You have to remember that.”

“I will remember!”

“The family has sent out a notice to all family members staying in villages to return. It seems urgent, so I am worried. We will set out tomorrow…. As for this servant… we will leave him behind to take care of the house,” said Hau.

“But father! Can we take him? He will be able to carry our luggage. I’m too lazy to carry anything anymore now that I have a servant,” Tel said.

Hau eyed June, but his perception of June had changed dramatically. The change in appearance was quite shocking for him. He no longer looked like a beggar or prisoner, so going out in society was acceptable, but this was a family meeting. Hau couldn’t possibly let a new servant come with them to a family meeting, so he sternly said, “He will stay and that is final.”

Tel hanged her head down in disappointment. She knew that when Hau sternly says something, he would not change his answer.

“Stay here and take care of the house, ok?” Tel said to June. He nodded his head and said, “I will wait here.”

Tel laughed happily as she exclaimed, “having a servant is quite nice! Thank you father!”

“Since your happy, it is ok, but you cannot have anymore servants. Start packing up your things. We head out tomorrow!”

The next day came quickly for the three of them. After packing the things they need, Tel and Hau went off to do their business and left June back at the house. In a way, they were quite irresponsible for leaving a servant who has only been their servant for one day alone at home, but the meeting was more urgent than the safety of their home, so they just did what they had to.

June also did what he was told. He kept the house clean and tidy. When he was done cleaning, he would sit down to cultivate. He felt like he was quite close to the middle spirit and matter stage from the Qi that he had accumulated.

A month passed by without much happening to the village. It was boring, but June was a patient. He learned that patience was a key to survival in the forest. This patience also helped him deal with cultivation and July with her eccentric persona.

In that month, June was able to advance to the middle spirit and matter stage. Cultivation was unlike skills. For example, to be proficient with a sword, you would have to put in effort and hard work, but it also required comprehension and enlightenment to progress. If people reach a certain proficiency and they are unable to progress, then they will be stuck in a bottleneck. This does not apply with cultivation because cultivation is only accumulative. As long as June was able to accumulate enough Qi to nourish his soul, then he would be able to progress smoothly, but the process of accumulating Qi required talent, so there would be differences in the amount of time people would advance.

(Fyi: When Franz said that the average amount of time it would take a human to get to the spirit condensing stage is 30 years, it was only meant for people who had excellent talent.)

June’s spirit was now the size of a small ball and he could feel a change in the way that he could control his Qi. He felt that he was more proficient, so accumulating Qi became easier.

He quickly celebrate with the food in the house. “I’ve made progress,” he thought. “One step closer to meeting father and along the way… I will definitely find a cure for July’s curse.”

The door to the house let out a creak and it was opened abruptly. “Jun! I’m back! Come greet this Lady of yours,” Tel yelled out with happiness.

“They’re finally back. I have to greet her… “

June quickly went to greet Tel with a bow. “Welcome back Lady Tel!”

Tel laughed, “And here I thought that you would run away!” She patted June’s head in delight. She did not think that June was actually this loyal.

“Seems like we can trust him,” Hau said as he looked around the house. “It's clean and nothing is missing except the food.”

“Yes!” shouted Tel. “Did you hear that Jun? You can really be my servant now! Father finally accepts you! Don’t worry, as someone older than you, I will make sure that you will not suffer and take care of you.”

“I don’t know if this is good or bad, but as long as I can get information by staying with them, then I am willing to be a servant. Definitely not here for the food…”

“Thank you!” said June with a bright smile. “I don’t have anywhere else to go so… thank you.” Of course, June could go out and hunt for food, but there was still the situation with information. The villagers around him seemed to keep a distance away from him because of his mysteriousness, so he could only rely on Tel and Hau because they seemed like people who had connections.

“I wonder what type of family the Bran family is… are they influential? I have to ask.”

Before he could ask anything, a pair of arms wrapped around his body and pulled him.

It surprised him that Tel had suddenly hugged him.

“Poor boy! You have nowhere to go to. If I remember, Father said something about you possibly being a war captive escapee. You must have gone through a lot! Don’t worry! As I’ve said, I will take care of you,” she said.

Hau was on the side nodding his head. He seemed agree that war captives have a hard time.

“Erm… Thank you” thanked June. “Lady Tel… may I ask what you a question?”

“Ask away,” she said.

“I was wondering what you were doing in the past month.”

Tel suddenly laughed out, “Although I can’t tell you the content of the family meeting… I’ll tell you that i’ve gotten stronger in the past month.”

“Stronger?”

“Yep! I am now a rank 8 body refiner,” Tel said proudly.

“What’s a body refiner?” June asked with teeming curiosity.

“You don’t know what a body refiner is? How have you been living till now?!” Tel was shock that June didn’t know what a body refiner was, so she told him.

“A body refiner is a person who uses Qi to refine their body. They are split into ten ranks. Every rank is decided on the amount of weight you can carry. At rank one, they have to carry 100 pounds worth of weight and at rank 8, it is 800 pounds. When a person is at rank 10, they are able to carry 1000 pounds. At that point, their body is strong enough to hold a stronger spirit. After gathering enough Qi, they would need to nourish their soul and when the soul reaches the size of a fist, they could be considered as a spirit condensing cultivator.” Tel was very excited when she mentioned spirit condensing. It was a goal that every person who refined their body would want.

On the other hand, June was excited on the knowledge of body refining. July hadn’t told him about it because he was already passed that stage. It was like running before walking.

“Can you keep refining your body after you reach the spirit condensing stage?” he asked. He wondered if he could refine his own body, so he asked excitedly.

“You can, but I don’t think anyone would be willing to waste their Qi to refine their body after they reach the spirit condensing stage because by then, their body would already be used to the Qi, so they would not have much improvement. Their Qi would be a much better use for battling and nourishing their spirit. To put it simply, there would be too much effort for the reward to keep on refining the body after reaching the spirit condensing stage.”

“It isn’t bad to think about this, but you should focus on refining your body before you think about the spirit condensing stage,” said Tel as she looked to June. “It’s never too late to body refine your body. I will help you.”

June smiled wryly at her words. He didn’t need her help, but he followed along with what she said.

“So I can still refine my body. I will start today! The stronger I am, the better.”

His body was not used to Qi refining it because he was naturally born with a strong body. In fact, every mystical beast would refine their body at some point, but June did not have anyone to guide him on this. He did not even know that Qi could be used that way. Boa and July did not teach him much about cultivating and he could only ask what he knew.

It was his own effort to cultivate. His book of inheritance was of some help, but that could only gave him the process of cultivation and not any concepts or ideas.

While the two were conversing, Hau went immediately went to sleep. The past month was tiring for him, so he wanted some rest.

Tel saw that June was sitting down while staring at her. He was waiting for her guidance. Seeing this, Tel felt like a teacher in front of her student and this made her arrogance rise.

“Hehe, since my servant wants to learn from the great me, then, I will teach. Since you don’t know what a body refiner is, then you probably don’t know what Qi is either. Well Qi is…” Her voice trailed off in June’s mind. He didn’t listen to what he already grasped. He could already control Qi, so he only listened to the body refining explanation.

On the other hand, Tel kept going on and on with her concepts and theories of Qi. After about thirty minutes of that, she finally begun to explain body refining.

“Ok, after you know what type of Qi you have, you can finally start body refining. You can use world Qi to refine too, but the benefits of refining with elemental Qi will be lost if you do that. Body refining is simply just accumulating Qi in the dantian and spreading it throughout your body. Let your body soak in the Qi to get stronger. Elemental Qi gives great benefits to body refining. Let’s say, a person refines their body with fire Qi. They will get the explosive power of fire. If they refine with earth Qi, then their body will be sturdier than others. To simply put it, they will get the properties of the element they use. That is why you should not refine your body yet. Wait until I take you to our Bran family estate in the Erl Kingdom to find out your type of Qi. Until then, do not cultivate, ok?”

June listened to her and said, “Ok.” He said this, but on the inside, he was already starting to accumulate his Qi to body refine.

“After I accumulate my Qi, I should let my body soak it up. I got this.”

Tel smiled when she saw him comply. He was her first personal servant , so she wanted the best for him.

“Alright, until we find out your affinity, you can train in the Bran family sword arts with me,” she said as she handed June a 4 feet double edged sword. The hilt was a feet long and it had a leather grip. It’s pommel(the end of a sword) was spade shaped with a dragon marking. The blade was one and a half inch in width.

Tel proceeded to hand June the scabbard. It was made of wood, but the engravings that it had made it look all the more so magnificent. The two were similar to Tel’s own sword and scabbard, but her stuff was a bit more girly.

“Do you like it? Its my spare,” she asked in embarrassment. She had the chance to buy him a sword when she went to the family meeting, but she didn’t think that he would be so loyal and stay. She could only give him her spare sword that was more or less for women to use. If he didn’t like it, then she would have to buy a sword from the village blacksmith.

“I like it,” said June as he looked at both the sword and scabbard in his hands. It was the first sword he ever had, so he said, “I’ll treasure it.”

“haha, good! It’s already night, so we can’t practice today. Get some rest so we can tomorrow.”

Morning came slowly for June. He stayed up all night accumulating Qi, but he was also excitedly waiting for Tel’s guidance in her family’s sword arts. Tel woke up with a yawn. She went outside to only see June excitedly waiting for her. It was early in the morning, so she was not in the mood for practicing, but when she saw June’s pitiful eyes, she laughed and brought out her sword.

“Okay, let’s start. First, you need to know that the Bran family’s sword art is called ‘Sword in Tempest’ and it is based on speed. It would be good if you have an affinity with the wind element like me, but even without it, you can still learn,” explained Tel.

“Remember, the sword art is all about speed. I’ll demonstrate a few moves for you to see.”

Tel swung her sword and it made a sound as it cut through the air. The sound was sharp and shrill. Her swings slowly became a mirage as the sword moved erratically.

“This move is called ‘Mirage’ and the concept behind it is that you need to be able to produce a shrill sound with your strikes to confuse the enemy. It’s all in the wrist and waist.”

She proceeded to show him the abstract waist and wrist movements for Mirage.

June watched her movements like a hawk watching it’s prey. He made sure to memorize them and engrain them deep inside his memory. At this point, he couldn’t even hold his sword properly, so teaching an advance sword art to him was useless, but Tel showed June the particular skill ‘Mirage’ because it would be easier if he started to work on producing the shrill sound before he mastered the basics. That way, it would be easier for him to learn the advanced skills in ‘Sword of Tempest.’

Seeing June copy her movements, Tel nodded in satisfaction. In her eyes, June had talent for the sword. To be able to copy her movements after seeing it once was pretty amazing.

However, she did not tell him that because she did not want him to get over his head.

On the top of her head, she planned a regime for June. It was based on the strength that she thought he had, but before she could tell him, a cry from afar was heard.

June and Tel could see Hau running towards them while yelling, “Bandits!” repeatedly.

He was the guard for the gate of the village, so he was required to be there early. June even greeted him in the morning, but that was not what June thought was strange.

When Hau reached Tel, he desperately said, “Milady, you must run! The bandits held weapons and armor that they could not possibly get on their own. It must be the detestable Ker family. They must have found us out after we went back from the family meeting. I was sure we weren’t being followed. How could this happen?!”

Hau was calling Tel, “Milady.” This made June dumbstruck because he thought that Hau was Tel’s father, but now that seemed to be not the case at all. He already thought that it was weird how they did not look similar at all, so he quickly calmed down and looked at Tel.

Her face was dark and gloomy. The bright tomboyishness that she had was gone and in its stead was a cold and domineering face.

“Those damned Ker’s… forcing me this far... “ she cursed out loud.

“Milady, you must get back to the Bran family quickly. Even if it is not completely safe, it should be safer than here,” said Hau with a worried look on his face. “I will hold them back for as long as I can. They have at least a thousand in numbers…”

Hau was a rank 10 body refiner, but against a thousand bandits, even if they were all ordinary people, he would still die.

When Hau stated the number of bandits, Tel decisively ran with a dark look on her face, but before she could, a hand caught her. It was June who had caught her.

“Let’s fight with Hau. We can’t leave him alone,” he said. The sudden personality change from Tel shocked June and he felt like she was a completely different person, but that did not stop him from wanting to help Hau out.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Tel coldy. At this point, half of the town was already burning and the screams of the people filled the air. Like he said, Hau had already ran off to block the bandits.

“I-” Before June could say anything, she cut him off. “You can leave if you want to. This is the real me. A cold hearted person who does anything for her goals. I’ve only taken you in because I wanted people to see how benevolent I am, but in a sense, you are still my personal servant and my first at that. It is unlike Hau over there who is my family’s servant. His life and death is not of my concern, but yours is because you are my servant and I promised that I would take care of you. Sadly, I can’t keep that promise, so I will give you a choice. You can run away in another direction and save yourself or you can stay with me. We have no time, so choose quickly.”

June was going to say that he was a spirit condensing cultivator, but when he thought about it, he was not confident. It was not that a spirit condensing cultivator couldn’t handle a thousand people. It was because he did not have the experience to determine if he could handle it or not. Seeing Hau fighting off in the distance, June bit his lips and said, “I will go with you.”

When she heard June agree to go with her, Tel’s eyebrows raised in surprise. She definitely thought that he would have chosen to escape by himself, but then, she remembered that he had waited for her for a whole month when she had gone to the family meeting.

She let out a frightening smile as she looked with amusement at the bewildered and unsettled youth in front of her and said, “Good, good! Remember this, you are my official personal servant now. Your name from now on will be Jun. You are mine and only mine. If I die, you will die.”

Then, she picked him up in one fell swoop and turned towards the mountains behind the village. With haste, she ran at the mountains without any hesitation. June let her carry him and this made it easier on Tel. He did not want to let her know his true strength yet. With this, he did not take her words seriously at all, but he felt that a string was tied between them. He felt the powers of fate at its fullest.