Immediately after officially registering their mission at the Task Pavilion, the young novices began discussing their route as well as considering the possibilities of how to reach their destination as quickly as possible. After all none of them wanted to spend a whole day and a half just to get to the village, especially considering that their time was limited by the approaching return of deacon Gerhard.
They faced no issues with the route, thanks to Eyron's suggestion to buy a detailed map of the surrounding lands from the Outer Sect's Repository for a couple of spirit stones. Using the map, they quickly planned their path. However, their desire to speed up the journey met serious obstacles.
And it wasn't a lack of opportunities, there were no problems with that, the sect provided its members with plenty of options: you could buy Light Step Talismans or something similar, they didn't require a lot of Qi, so even at first level it is possible to use them, and at the same time they allowed novices who didn't know movement techniques to run three to four times faster. Another option was to rent a trained mount in the Nature Pavilion for a short period of time. There were a variety of animals to choose from, capable of moving at high speed and carrying passengers. And this service was popular even among disciples who knew movement techniques and were able to fly due to the fact that, firstly, animals were superior to humans in endurance, which meant they were better at long distances, and secondly, riding an animal allowed them not to waste energy on movement, which made it possible to be always in peak condition.
But both the talismans and the trip with the help of an animal had a serious drawback that did not allow most to use them - the price.
The Light Step Talismans cost one hundred spirit stones each, were single-use, lasted only twelve hours, and worked for just one person. Renting an animal was slightly cheaper at fifty spirit stones per day, but also required a deposit of one-third of the animal's value, which was usually several tens of thousands of spirit stones. This rule was introduced so that disciples and novices would not try to use animals in battles during their missions. After rental, the animals were inspected, and any signs of combat on it voided the deposit. In the event of the death of the beast, a member of the sect still owed the Pavilion the rest of the sum.
Considering their finances, Rand's group realized that neither option was really affordable for them, so they had to be content with just moving on their own two feet.
After planning their route and making preparations, the group headed to the sect gates, where gatekeepers recorded the details of their journey. Once outside the sect, they followed the same road Rand had used to return to the sect a few days earlier.
Most of their journey to the village was spent in silence. Even Balron, usually talkative, spoke little, and only Weed occasionally asked questions about cultivation and past events. But these conversations were not particularly active and did not last long, it was too uncomfortable to talk while running. The only notable event of their journey was that Balron, from the moment Weed forced Fara to apologize, began to look at him more warily and tried to talk to him as little as possible.
After more than a day of travel, they began noticing strange signs as they approached the village. Crops were unharvested, unlike in nearby villages, and they encountered several ruined and abandoned houses. Initially, they ignored these, but upon seeing the twentieth such house, they decided to investigate.
At the twentieth house, near the entrance, lay wooden planks, which had previously been the front door, with large teeth marks. But inside the house, except for a few broken chairs by the entrance and bloodstains on the wooden floors, everything was relatively intact. Balron, who inspecting the house, immediately shared his thoughts about what had happened:
"I don’t like this. The owners were killed, at least two of them. One stood by the door, while the other tried to hide in the corner behind the bed, but this did not save him or her. Both were... eaten right here, and with the bones. This is clearly the work of beasts. No, not just one, but many beasts. Not very strong ones, though, since they gnawed their way through the door instead of breaking it down. Still, we’ve passed how many abandoned houses in the last hour? Ten? Twenty? We should have inspected them as well. This doesn’t seem like the work of the fox we were sent after, even if it’s a Qi Condensation beast. Our task didn’t mention anything like this. I fear it might be more dangerous than we anticipated. Perhaps we should return and report this."
"You're overreacting, Balron. I’m sure these beast attacks are unrelated to our task. This often happens to those who build their homes far from the village to avoid taxes. My family owns several villages, and I’ve seen such beast attacks on loners many times. Besides, we should at least reach the village and talk to the locals before deciding anything. There’s no point in turning back now," Eyron disagreed.
After a moment's thought, Balron acknowledged Eyron’s point. "You’re probably right. I’m was trained as a city guard, so I know little about beasts or village life. But I still think we'll need to be on our guard from now on. If there's such a rampage of animals here, I wouldn't be surprised if they attacked us too."
With that brief conversation concluded, the group resumed their journey and reached the village within half an hour. The village was visible from quite a distance, because it was located on a small hill and surrounded by a five-meter wooden wall, which, judging by the novelty of the wood, was built quite recently.
Instead of gates, there was a small half-meter gap in the wall, next to which stood a young man about Balron’s age, dressed in leather armor and holding a long spear. He wasn’t a cultivator, having only slightly more Qi than an average person, indicating he practiced some cultivation method but hadn't reached the first level and formed a dantian.
Seeing the approaching strangers, the young man was visibly surprised, his eyes widening and mouth slightly agape as if in disbelief. He regained his composure only when the novices were within a few dozen meters of the wall.
"Wait. Really…Are you from the sect?" the young man asked.
Balron stepped forward and greeted the nervous youth, "Hello, we are novices of the Fire Dragon Sect. This is the village of Irbis, correct?"
Hearing about the sect, the young man nearly trembled with joy, his eyes welling up with tears. In a shaky voice, he said, "You finally came… We didn’t know what to do without you."
"Calm down, there’s no need to be so anxious. Were you expecting us?" Balron asked.
The young man took a deep breath and replied more calmly, "Sorry, I got a bit overwhelmed. Yes, we’ve been waiting for you. It's been almost a month since we requested the sect’s help, and we’ve been hoping for your arrival every day. If only you had come sooner, so many wouldn’t have died... Forgive my disrespectful words, esteemed novices. These have been hard weeks, and I find it difficult to speak clearly. Let me take you to the elder; he asked to be notified immediately upon your arrival."
Balron exchanged glances with the others and, seeing no objections, replied for the group:
"Alright, lead the way. We'd like to meet and speak with your elder as well."
"Please, follow me."
Passing through the narrow gap in the wall, Rand and the others found themselves inside the village, or rather what was left of it. Many houses were completely destroyed, leaving behind debris that no one had cleared. Those still standing were barely better: windows shattered, doors broken, walls damaged, and roofs missing.
For the first minute, it seemed the village was almost deserted — empty streets, no fires in the homes. This changed when a frail man noticed them through a hole in a wall. Seeing the fiery red-robed sect members and a person in imposing armor, he shouted:
"The sect has come to save us!"
Immediately, people began emerging from seemingly abandoned houses — one, then ten, then twenty, with numbers growing every second. Most were women and children, with very few men. All looked frighteningly emaciated, with sunken cheeks and extremely thin limbs, as if they had been starving for months. The terrible picture was completed by their skin, which was so pale that it made them look more like walking corpses than living people.
As they exited their homes and saw the young man leading the sect members to the elder’s house, the villagers followed at a respectful distance, not wanting to disturb their esteemed guests unnecessarily.
By the time Rand and his companions reached the elder's house, the only relatively intact two-story building in the village center, a crowd of several hundred villagers had gathered behind them, whispering among themselves:
"The sect's messengers, finally arrived. I thought they'd abandoned us."
"They came too late; so many have died, my Martha..."
"Better late than never. Now we’ll at least be saved, and our loved ones avenged."
"But they look so young, don’t you think?"
"You know nothing. Strong cultivators can almost halt aging. These messengers may look like children but are probably decades, if not centuries, old."
These whispers ceased as a tall, broad-shouldered man in his forties appeared from a nearby building. Unlike the other villagers, he didn’t suffer from pale skin or emaciation. Quite the opposite — he was muscular and almost as tall as Eyron. A bow was slung over his back, and a long dagger hung at his waist. Dressed in fur-trimmed leather, his appearance literally screamed that he was a hunter. Rand and the others immediately sensed he was not an ordinary villager but a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Condensation — a rarity in villages where even the best hunters rarely surpassed the third level in their lifetime.
The hunter stepped forward and addressed the novices:
"Greetings, novices. Where is your senior from the sect?? I need to speak with him immediately."
"We greet you as well, sir. Which senior do you mean? Only the five of us were sent on this mission."
Upon hearing such an answer, the hunter was stunned for a moment, looking incredulously at the novices standing in front of him, after which, in a voice full of bitterness, he uttered words in which there was no longer any respect for the members of the sect standing in front of him:
"I knew we shouldn't have waited for deliverance. After so many weeks of suffering, they've sent a bunch of helpless kids at the first or second level of Qi Condensation to help us. I have no words. You better go back and bring your seniors here, kids. You'll only get in the way."
Rand, already starting to guess the reasons for such a reaction, decided to ignore the insulting attitude for now and remained silent. But someone in his group was deeply offended by the hunter's words to the depths of their souls and couldn't stay quiet.
"Helpless kids? How dare you speak to the sect's novices like that, you village oaf? Immediately…" Fara began to speak, getting more and more agitated with each word. But the hunter didn't let her finish her speech, cutting her off mid-sentence.
"Don't anger me. Girl, better shut up. Let me think."
Fara turned red with anger at such an insult. A few months ago, such words would not have elicited any reaction from her. After all, both she and this man were on the same position, or perhaps the hunter was even higher due to his cultivation. But now everything had changed. She was now a novice of a great sect, which placed her several ranks above him in the hierarchy. How dare he speak to her like that?
She was ready to unleash her fury on him when Balron decided to stand up for her, which greatly pleased her:
"Sir, I demand that you apologize immediately. We are here on an official mission, which means our presence here represents the sect itself, and whatever misunderstanding may have occurred here, treating us without respect, you are insulting not only us…
But the hunter didn't let Balron finish either:
"Trying to scare me with your sect? Maybe you could have done that three weeks ago when my family was still alive, but now I don't care at all. So, if you try to intimidate me again, I'll shove your threats right back down your throat… Actually, it's probably even better this way. So don't stay silent."
The hunter's words infuriated Balron, anyone who had interacted with him at least a few times could tell. His eyes almost literally blazed with anger, promising nothing good for the hunter, but the latter paid no attention to it.
Balron was about to respond to the hunter when unexpectedly, a short old man ran out of the elder's house and began shouting at the hunter:
"Gark, what are you doing here without me? Apologize to the esteemed sect members immediately."
"Esteemed? Old man, are you blind? They sent us pathetic, useless chicks. Not only will they fail to help us deal with the beasts, but they'll probably make things worse by dying here. You know how the sect handles such cases? Part of the blame for their deaths will fall on the whole village, and our village in its current state won't recover from that. It's better if they run back to their mountain and bring someone stronger, even if it's just to get revenge on me. When they come here, they'll have to deal with our problem. And don't worry about my fate."
The old man, likely the village elder, looked closely at the young novices and saw they were only at the first or second levels. His face darkened. He sighed heavily but still said:
"Gark, regardless, you must apologize to them. It's better this way."
"No, old man, that's not happening. Today, for the first time in twenty years, I'm going to say what I think and want. I don't care anymore, and it will ultimately benefit the village. Maybe after this, those arrogant, corrupt old bastards from the mountain will finally come to our village."
At that moment, when both the elder and the hunter fell silent, Balron, who almost did not listen to their conversation due to his overflowing anger, couldn't hold back any longer and loudly, almost shouting, said:
"I don't care what's happening here and why you decided to speak so insultingly to us, especially to my junior. I'll shove your words back down your throat myself, no need to call the seniors."
"The puppy threatens again. What did I promise you? It looks like I'll have to show you that without strength, all your statuses and words are completely meaningless. 'Wind Blessing.' "
The hunter immediately rushed towards Balron. After his first step, wind currents formed around his legs, giving him incredible speed. And with each step, the number of currents increased. If at first it was still possible, albeit with difficulty, for an ordinary person to keep track of him, then by the time he approached the Balron, he turned into an indistinguishable blur, difficult even for a first level cultivator to track, let alone react to.
In the split second the hunter was closing in on Balron, Rand, who was silently observing the situation, thought, "Should I intervene? No, better to see how Weed reacts when his 'friend' is attacked." As the hunter neared Balron, Rand solely focused on Weed. And although all this action took only a couple of seconds, it allowed him to gather a lot of information.
When the hunter Gark was close enough, he struck the young novice in the face. At the last moment, relying more on his combat instincts than his eyes, which couldn't keep up with the hunter, Balron managed to block the strike. However, the strength behind the hunter's punch was too great for someone at the first level, even if his cultivation method specialized in physical power and the opponent`s did not. Balron was thrown back several meters, stopping only when he collided with a house wall.
All this time, Rand continued to observe calmly, thinking about what he had seen just before the strike.
"Weed easily followed all of the hunter's movements, indicated by his actively moving eyes. He even slightly stepped forward to intervene but hesitated and decided not to. He doesn't want to reveal his cards or was unsure of his strength? Likely the former. Keeping his secret seems more important to him than Balron's well-being. Interesting."
After hitting Balron, the hunter Gark didn't continue his attack. Instead, he mockingly looked at the other novices, who had taken combat stances and surrounded him, and loudly said:
"Weaklings and cowards. Even together, you can't defeat me. I'm telling you, better run back and bring your seniors here."
While he spoke, Balron struggled to his feet. His arm, which had blocked the strike, was twisted at an unnatural angle. Coughing, he managed to rasp:
"You bastard."
At that moment, Eyron turned to Rand and said:
"Oberin, use your artifact and kill this asshole. He's a hindrance."
The hunter immediately understood to whom these words were addressed, noting the direction of Eyron's gaze, and turned towards Rand. Being a cultivator for decades, the hunter knew that while artifacts could be extremely powerful, most of them required time to activate, so he instantly charged at Rand, not wanting to give him a chance to use anything.
Rand, seeing the hunter rushing towards him, merely smirked inwardly, understanding Eyron's intent.
"You want to leave me no choice but to fight, don't you, Eyron? You'll pay for this. Though I planned to do this anyway. Sure, forcing the hunter to fight Weed to gather more information would be ideal. But the situation is too uncontrollable, too many unknown variables, and my inaction as the strongest could negatively impact the mission. It's more advantageous to stick to the original plan, where Weed gets devoured in the forest, rather than changing it on the fly. So, I'll have to deal with this hunter myself."
The hunter's speed was still enhanced by his technique, so he reached Rand almost instantly and delivered the same punch that had sent Balron flying moments ago. But this time, the result was different.
At the last moment, Rand managed to dodge, slightly crouching and lowering his head so that the punch flew over him, then immediately counterattacked, aiming his fist at the opponent's chin. However, these actions only amused the hunter, as Rand seemed too slow in his eyes. He easily caught Rand's gauntlet-covered hand halfway to his face. But as soon as he did, he felt heat approaching his stomach.
While the hunter grabbed his right hand, Rand discreetly directed the hand he'd been keeping behind his back at Gark. He did this with a speed two to three times faster than his attempted counterattack. And on this hand was a bracelet glowing fiery red, emitting tremendous heat.
The hunter immediately realized he was in grave danger, but it was too late to prevent Rand from using the artifact. All he could do was release Rand's hand and slightly lean back, hoping the artifact's attack would only graze him. He did this just in time, as a blinding white flame beam about a few centimeters in diameter shot from the bracelet, scorching the hunter's side. If it had hit ten centimeters to the left, Gark would have a gaping hole in his stomach, as the fire was extremely intense.
The hunter exhaled in relief, but his joy was short-lived. Before he could do anything, the bracelet, which dimmed after the strike, began glowing red again. Gark had no time to think. He doubted he could dodge a second time; he had only gotten lucky before. He decided to use a defensive technique, relying on his higher cultivation. If he could withstand a few more beams, he would surely win. Such a powerful artifact undoubtedly required a lot of Qi, meaning the boy at the second level could only use it a few times before exhausting himself. He just needed to hold on.
"Air Shield."
Air currents concentrated before the hunter, forming a small triangular shield. A moment later, the beam struck and pierced it, along with the hunter behind it. A charred hole appeared in his chest, to the right of his heart, through which the elder's house behind him could be seen, now with two new holes.
Yet, the hunter didn't die immediately, thanks to his superhuman resilience granted by his cultivation. He fell to his knees, breathing heavily and clutching his chest. Meanwhile, Rand charged the artifact a third time, but as he was about to shoot and finish off the opponent, another person appeared before him — the village elder.
"Please, stop. He will accept any punishment, just don't kill him."
Under normal circumstances, Rand would have killed both the hunter and the elder defending him without hesitation, knowing the law would be on his side. But this time, he decided to act differently. He lowered his hand with the still-charged bracelet and said:
"Elder, don't you know the laws? By defending a criminal, you become like him."
"He had no evil intent; he hoped to benefit the village with his actions, please..."
"Enough, elder. I understand. I need to consult my juniors. Weed, what do you think? Should I spare him?"
"He attacked us and nearly killed Balron. How can such actions be forgiven, no matter his reasons? I don't think he deserves mercy."
Immediately after officially registering their mission at the Task Pavilion, the young novices began discussing their route as well as considering the possibilities of how to reach their destination as quickly as possible. After all none of them wanted to spend a whole day and a half just to get to the village, especially considering that their time was limited by the approaching return of deacon Gerhard.
They faced no issues with the route, thanks to Eyron's suggestion to buy a detailed map of the surrounding lands from the Outer Sect's Repository for a couple of spirit stones. Using the map, they quickly planned their path. However, their desire to speed up the journey met serious obstacles.
And it wasn't a lack of opportunities, there were no problems with that, the sect provided its members with plenty of options: you could buy Light Step Talismans or something similar, they didn't require a lot of Qi, so even at first level it is possible to use them, and at the same time they allowed novices who didn't know movement techniques to run three to four times faster. Another option was to rent a trained mount in the Nature Pavilion for a short period of time. There were a variety of animals to choose from, capable of moving at high speed and carrying passengers. And this service was popular even among disciples who knew movement techniques and were able to fly due to the fact that, firstly, animals were superior to humans in endurance, which meant they were better at long distances, and secondly, riding an animal allowed them not to waste energy on movement, which made it possible to be always in peak condition.
But both the talismans and the trip with the help of an animal had a serious drawback that did not allow most to use them - the price.
The Light Step Talismans cost one hundred spirit stones each, were single-use, lasted only twelve hours, and worked for just one person. Renting an animal was slightly cheaper at fifty spirit stones per day, but also required a deposit of one-third of the animal's value, which was usually several tens of thousands of spirit stones. This rule was introduced so that disciples and novices would not try to use animals in battles during their missions. After rental, the animals were inspected, and any signs of combat on it voided the deposit. In the event of the death of the beast, a member of the sect still owed the Pavilion the rest of the sum.
Considering their finances, Rand's group realized that neither option was really affordable for them, so they had to be content with just moving on their own two feet.
After planning their route and making preparations, the group headed to the sect gates, where gatekeepers recorded the details of their journey. Once outside the sect, they followed the same road Rand had used to return to the sect a few days earlier.
Most of their journey to the village was spent in silence. Even Balron, usually talkative, spoke little, and only Weed occasionally asked questions about cultivation and past events. But these conversations were not particularly active and did not last long, it was too uncomfortable to talk while running. The only notable event of their journey was that Balron, from the moment Weed forced Fara to apologize, began to look at him more warily and tried to talk to him as little as possible.
After more than a day of travel, they began noticing strange signs as they approached the village. Crops were unharvested, unlike in nearby villages, and they encountered several ruined and abandoned houses. Initially, they ignored these, but upon seeing the twentieth such house, they decided to investigate.
At the twentieth house, near the entrance, lay wooden planks, which had previously been the front door, with large teeth marks. But inside the house, except for a few broken chairs by the entrance and bloodstains on the wooden floors, everything was relatively intact. Balron, who inspecting the house, immediately shared his thoughts about what had happened:
"I don’t like this. The owners were killed, at least two of them. One stood by the door, while the other tried to hide in the corner behind the bed, but this did not save him or her. Both were... eaten right here, and with the bones. This is clearly the work of beasts. No, not just one, but many beasts. Not very strong ones, though, since they gnawed their way through the door instead of breaking it down. Still, we’ve passed how many abandoned houses in the last hour? Ten? Twenty? We should have inspected them as well. This doesn’t seem like the work of the fox we were sent after, even if it’s a Qi Condensation beast. Our task didn’t mention anything like this. I fear it might be more dangerous than we anticipated. Perhaps we should return and report this."
"You're overreacting, Balron. I’m sure these beast attacks are unrelated to our task. This often happens to those who build their homes far from the village to avoid taxes. My family owns several villages, and I’ve seen such beast attacks on loners many times. Besides, we should at least reach the village and talk to the locals before deciding anything. There’s no point in turning back now," Eyron disagreed.
After a moment's thought, Balron acknowledged Eyron’s point. "You’re probably right. I’m was trained as a city guard, so I know little about beasts or village life. But I still think we'll need to be on our guard from now on. If there's such a rampage of animals here, I wouldn't be surprised if they attacked us too."
With that brief conversation concluded, the group resumed their journey and reached the village within half an hour. The village was visible from quite a distance, because it was located on a small hill and surrounded by a five-meter wooden wall, which, judging by the novelty of the wood, was built quite recently.
Instead of gates, there was a small half-meter gap in the wall, next to which stood a young man about Balron’s age, dressed in leather armor and holding a long spear. He wasn’t a cultivator, having only slightly more Qi than an average person, indicating he practiced some cultivation method but hadn't reached the first level and formed a dantian.
Seeing the approaching strangers, the young man was visibly surprised, his eyes widening and mouth slightly agape as if in disbelief. He regained his composure only when the novices were within a few dozen meters of the wall.
"Wait. Really…Are you from the sect?" the young man asked.
Balron stepped forward and greeted the nervous youth, "Hello, we are novices of the Fire Dragon Sect. This is the village of Irbis, correct?"
Hearing about the sect, the young man nearly trembled with joy, his eyes welling up with tears. In a shaky voice, he said, "You finally came… We didn’t know what to do without you."
"Calm down, there’s no need to be so anxious. Were you expecting us?" Balron asked.
The young man took a deep breath and replied more calmly, "Sorry, I got a bit overwhelmed. Yes, we’ve been waiting for you. It's been almost a month since we requested the sect’s help, and we’ve been hoping for your arrival every day. If only you had come sooner, so many wouldn’t have died... Forgive my disrespectful words, esteemed novices. These have been hard weeks, and I find it difficult to speak clearly. Let me take you to the elder; he asked to be notified immediately upon your arrival."
Balron exchanged glances with the others and, seeing no objections, replied for the group:
"Alright, lead the way. We'd like to meet and speak with your elder as well."
"Please, follow me."
Passing through the narrow gap in the wall, Rand and the others found themselves inside the village, or rather what was left of it. Many houses were completely destroyed, leaving behind debris that no one had cleared. Those still standing were barely better: windows shattered, doors broken, walls damaged, and roofs missing.
For the first minute, it seemed the village was almost deserted — empty streets, no fires in the homes. This changed when a frail man noticed them through a hole in a wall. Seeing the fiery red-robed sect members and a person in imposing armor, he shouted:
"The sect has come to save us!"
Immediately, people began emerging from seemingly abandoned houses — one, then ten, then twenty, with numbers growing every second. Most were women and children, with very few men. All looked frighteningly emaciated, with sunken cheeks and extremely thin limbs, as if they had been starving for months. The terrible picture was completed by their skin, which was so pale that it made them look more like walking corpses than living people.
As they exited their homes and saw the young man leading the sect members to the elder’s house, the villagers followed at a respectful distance, not wanting to disturb their esteemed guests unnecessarily.
By the time Rand and his companions reached the elder's house, the only relatively intact two-story building in the village center, a crowd of several hundred villagers had gathered behind them, whispering among themselves:
"The sect's messengers, finally arrived. I thought they'd abandoned us."
"They came too late; so many have died, my Martha..."
"Better late than never. Now we’ll at least be saved, and our loved ones avenged."
"But they look so young, don’t you think?"
"You know nothing. Strong cultivators can almost halt aging. These messengers may look like children but are probably decades, if not centuries, old."
These whispers ceased as a tall, broad-shouldered man in his forties appeared from a nearby building. Unlike the other villagers, he didn’t suffer from pale skin or emaciation. Quite the opposite — he was muscular and almost as tall as Eyron. A bow was slung over his back, and a long dagger hung at his waist. Dressed in fur-trimmed leather, his appearance literally screamed that he was a hunter. Rand and the others immediately sensed he was not an ordinary villager but a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Condensation — a rarity in villages where even the best hunters rarely surpassed the third level in their lifetime.
The hunter stepped forward and addressed the novices:
"Greetings, novices. Where is your senior from the sect?? I need to speak with him immediately."
"We greet you as well, sir. Which senior do you mean? Only the five of us were sent on this mission."
Upon hearing such an answer, the hunter was stunned for a moment, looking incredulously at the novices standing in front of him, after which, in a voice full of bitterness, he uttered words in which there was no longer any respect for the members of the sect standing in front of him:
"I knew we shouldn't have waited for deliverance. After so many weeks of suffering, they've sent a bunch of helpless kids at the first or second level of Qi Condensation to help us. I have no words. You better go back and bring your seniors here, kids. You'll only get in the way."
Rand, already starting to guess the reasons for such a reaction, decided to ignore the insulting attitude for now and remained silent. But someone in his group was deeply offended by the hunter's words to the depths of their souls and couldn't stay quiet.
"Helpless kids? How dare you speak to the sect's novices like that, you village oaf? Immediately…" Fara began to speak, getting more and more agitated with each word. But the hunter didn't let her finish her speech, cutting her off mid-sentence.
"Don't anger me. Girl, better shut up. Let me think."
Fara turned red with anger at such an insult. A few months ago, such words would not have elicited any reaction from her. After all, both she and this man were on the same position, or perhaps the hunter was even higher due to his cultivation. But now everything had changed. She was now a novice of a great sect, which placed her several ranks above him in the hierarchy. How dare he speak to her like that?
She was ready to unleash her fury on him when Balron decided to stand up for her, which greatly pleased her:
"Sir, I demand that you apologize immediately. We are here on an official mission, which means our presence here represents the sect itself, and whatever misunderstanding may have occurred here, treating us without respect, you are insulting not only us…
But the hunter didn't let Balron finish either:
"Trying to scare me with your sect? Maybe you could have done that three weeks ago when my family was still alive, but now I don't care at all. So, if you try to intimidate me again, I'll shove your threats right back down your throat… Actually, it's probably even better this way. So don't stay silent."
The hunter's words infuriated Balron, anyone who had interacted with him at least a few times could tell. His eyes almost literally blazed with anger, promising nothing good for the hunter, but the latter paid no attention to it.
Balron was about to respond to the hunter when unexpectedly, a short old man ran out of the elder's house and began shouting at the hunter:
"Gark, what are you doing here without me? Apologize to the esteemed sect members immediately."
"Esteemed? Old man, are you blind? They sent us pathetic, useless chicks. Not only will they fail to help us deal with the beasts, but they'll probably make things worse by dying here. You know how the sect handles such cases? Part of the blame for their deaths will fall on the whole village, and our village in its current state won't recover from that. It's better if they run back to their mountain and bring someone stronger, even if it's just to get revenge on me. When they come here, they'll have to deal with our problem. And don't worry about my fate."
The old man, likely the village elder, looked closely at the young novices and saw they were only at the first or second levels. His face darkened. He sighed heavily but still said:
"Gark, regardless, you must apologize to them. It's better this way."
"No, old man, that's not happening. Today, for the first time in twenty years, I'm going to say what I think and want. I don't care anymore, and it will ultimately benefit the village. Maybe after this, those arrogant, corrupt old bastards from the mountain will finally come to our village."
At that moment, when both the elder and the hunter fell silent, Balron, who almost did not listen to their conversation due to his overflowing anger, couldn't hold back any longer and loudly, almost shouting, said:
"I don't care what's happening here and why you decided to speak so insultingly to us, especially to my junior. I'll shove your words back down your throat myself, no need to call the seniors."
"The puppy threatens again. What did I promise you? It looks like I'll have to show you that without strength, all your statuses and words are completely meaningless. 'Wind Blessing.' "
The hunter immediately rushed towards Balron. After his first step, wind currents formed around his legs, giving him incredible speed. And with each step, the number of currents increased. If at first it was still possible, albeit with difficulty, for an ordinary person to keep track of him, then by the time he approached the Balron, he turned into an indistinguishable blur, difficult even for a first level cultivator to track, let alone react to.
In the split second the hunter was closing in on Balron, Rand, who was silently observing the situation, thought, "Should I intervene? No, better to see how Weed reacts when his 'friend' is attacked." As the hunter neared Balron, Rand solely focused on Weed. And although all this action took only a couple of seconds, it allowed him to gather a lot of information.
When the hunter Gark was close enough, he struck the young novice in the face. At the last moment, relying more on his combat instincts than his eyes, which couldn't keep up with the hunter, Balron managed to block the strike. However, the strength behind the hunter's punch was too great for someone at the first level, even if his cultivation method specialized in physical power and the opponent`s did not. Balron was thrown back several meters, stopping only when he collided with a house wall.
All this time, Rand continued to observe calmly, thinking about what he had seen just before the strike.
"Weed easily followed all of the hunter's movements, indicated by his actively moving eyes. He even slightly stepped forward to intervene but hesitated and decided not to. He doesn't want to reveal his cards or was unsure of his strength? Likely the former. Keeping his secret seems more important to him than Balron's well-being. Interesting."
After hitting Balron, the hunter Gark didn't continue his attack. Instead, he mockingly looked at the other novices, who had taken combat stances and surrounded him, and loudly said:
"Weaklings and cowards. Even together, you can't defeat me. I'm telling you, better run back and bring your seniors here."
While he spoke, Balron struggled to his feet. His arm, which had blocked the strike, was twisted at an unnatural angle. Coughing, he managed to rasp:
"You bastard."
At that moment, Eyron turned to Rand and said:
"Oberin, use your artifact and kill this asshole. He's a hindrance."
The hunter immediately understood to whom these words were addressed, noting the direction of Eyron's gaze, and turned towards Rand. Being a cultivator for decades, the hunter knew that while artifacts could be extremely powerful, most of them required time to activate, so he instantly charged at Rand, not wanting to give him a chance to use anything.
Rand, seeing the hunter rushing towards him, merely smirked inwardly, understanding Eyron's intent.
"You want to leave me no choice but to fight, don't you, Eyron? You'll pay for this. Though I planned to do this anyway. Sure, forcing the hunter to fight Weed to gather more information would be ideal. But the situation is too uncontrollable, too many unknown variables, and my inaction as the strongest could negatively impact the mission. It's more advantageous to stick to the original plan, where Weed gets devoured in the forest, rather than changing it on the fly. So, I'll have to deal with this hunter myself."
The hunter's speed was still enhanced by his technique, so he reached Rand almost instantly and delivered the same punch that had sent Balron flying moments ago. But this time, the result was different.
At the last moment, Rand managed to dodge, slightly crouching and lowering his head so that the punch flew over him, then immediately counterattacked, aiming his fist at the opponent's chin. However, these actions only amused the hunter, as Rand seemed too slow in his eyes. He easily caught Rand's gauntlet-covered hand halfway to his face. But as soon as he did, he felt heat approaching his stomach.
While the hunter grabbed his right hand, Rand discreetly directed the hand he'd been keeping behind his back at Gark. He did this with a speed two to three times faster than his attempted counterattack. And on this hand was a bracelet glowing fiery red, emitting tremendous heat.
The hunter immediately realized he was in grave danger, but it was too late to prevent Rand from using the artifact. All he could do was release Rand's hand and slightly lean back, hoping the artifact's attack would only graze him. He did this just in time, as a blinding white flame beam about a few centimeters in diameter shot from the bracelet, scorching the hunter's side. If it had hit ten centimeters to the left, Gark would have a gaping hole in his stomach, as the fire was extremely intense.
The hunter exhaled in relief, but his joy was short-lived. Before he could do anything, the bracelet, which dimmed after the strike, began glowing red again. Gark had no time to think. He doubted he could dodge a second time; he had only gotten lucky before. He decided to use a defensive technique, relying on his higher cultivation. If he could withstand a few more beams, he would surely win. Such a powerful artifact undoubtedly required a lot of Qi, meaning the boy at the second level could only use it a few times before exhausting himself. He just needed to hold on.
"Air Shield."
Air currents concentrated before the hunter, forming a small triangular shield. A moment later, the beam struck and pierced it, along with the hunter behind it. A charred hole appeared in his chest, to the right of his heart, through which the elder's house behind him could be seen, now with two new holes.
Yet, the hunter didn't die immediately, thanks to his superhuman resilience granted by his cultivation. He fell to his knees, breathing heavily and clutching his chest. Meanwhile, Rand charged the artifact a third time, but as he was about to shoot and finish off the opponent, another person appeared before him — the village elder.
"Please, stop. He will accept any punishment, just don't kill him."
Under normal circumstances, Rand would have killed both the hunter and the elder defending him without hesitation, knowing the law would be on his side. But this time, he decided to act differently. He lowered his hand with the still-charged bracelet and said:
"Elder, don't you know the laws? By defending a criminal, you become like him."
"He had no evil intent; he hoped to benefit the village with his actions, please..."
"Enough, elder. I understand. I need to consult my juniors. Weed, what do you think? Should I spare him?"
"He attacked us and nearly killed Balron. How can such actions be forgiven, no matter his reasons? I don't think he deserves mercy."
