Liang was happy to finally leave the frozen mountains and enter the small trading town. It had been a very successful trip, but after three months of training and three more months of hunting his mind was weary and he needed to rest.
After the stone apes, the old man did not stop and had Liang fight many other savage beasts such as, Sabretooth Sloths, Razor Tailed Leopards, and White Tusked Yaks. Each was a difficult opponent and each battle brought upon a marked improvement in his skills.
Every beast he fought for the first time exploited a weakness he had to overcome. Whether it was strength, speed, coordination, or movements each battle allowed him to refine his techniques. As the battles became less challenging, the old man decided it was time for a break. He told Liang the next level up was not something the current him could handle.
The constant training allowed his body to absorb the qi in the air quickly but the mental strain of fighting for three months straight was beginning to show. The old man told him his strength was nearly at the peak Foundation Stage but he was no match for Core Formation level opponents yet.
They collected an incredible number of beasts and Liang surmised he would be able to earn a tidy sum, which the old man was already planning to spend. With the hundreds of beast cores along with their fur, armor, tendons, and bones, it was a very profitable trip. Crafters made use of every part of a savage beast’s body.
However, they would not sell their items in the small trading town, as they would be leaving to a larger city anyways. The old man told him it was probably better to sell them at a merchant’s guild or a shop that dealt in these sort of things. They would also fuse the stone ape cores to Liang’s body as well.
Liang killed over a dozen stone apes and the old man kept the two best cores for the fusion before handing him the others. They decided to wait until they arrived in the next city, as the old man was unsure of how long it would take Liang to recover.
Xiamen City was considerably larger than Tian City and was nearly 2,000 Li to the west. With a population of 1 million people and surrounded by numerous powerful sects, the old man was hopeful he could find a few ingredients there
Liang was curious about the strength of the sects so the old man told him, “These sects at the city we’re going to are most likely only local powers or branches of larger sects. I haven’t been here in a long time but we’ll meet both strong and weak sects along the way, just depends on the region.”
“Either way they’ll only be at the Dao Connection stage, not really a big deal. It’s more important to take their resources. They’re always holding competitions to show how strong they are or recruit new suckers into their sect. Winning a few of those will be good experience and some may have some useful things.”
Before entering the trading town to retrieve their horses, the old man took the bodies of two Green Eyed Razor Hares, a Raccoon Bear, and three Silver Wolves from his ring along with their cores. He wanted to avoid being bothered so he told Liang to take them to the merchant post and sell them there. Storage rings were relatively rare in this area and most bandits would not bother for such a paltry amount.
The haul looked rather pitiful for being in the woods so long, but almost nobody paid very much attention to him. Most cultivators were here to train themselves; earning money was secondary. Once Liang came back with 137 small spirit stones, they went to a small shop and spent more than half of it on items they did not really need.
In the end, nobody bothered with them and for the first few days, they did not see a single person on the road. During the evenings, the old man forced Liang to spar with him exploiting any issues he saw. His coordination was still somewhat lacking but every day it improved.
On the third night, the old man took Liang’s shield and began to show him some of its functions. He held the shield to his stomach and said, “This is a small shield, doesn’t cover much of your body by itself which has its advantages and disadvantages but go ahead and try to cut my throat right now.”
He did trust the old man but Liang was hesitant, however, after several moments of the old man’s childish taunting he shot forward with all of his might chopping towards his neck. He swung down when he was arm distance away but his sword was knocked out of his hand and his body fell backwards 4 or 5 meters the moment he struck.
“That’s a qi shield boy. Once you can manifest qi you’ll be able to activate the arrays and cover your entire body. You can also use it to deflect a portion of your opponents strike but that depends on how much qi you put in and how powerful your attacker is.”
“It’s not without limits though. You’ll need enough qi to activate these arrays. After fusing the cores to your body, you’ll be able to activate it around 4-5 times an hour. You’re still too weak, but against opponents similar in strength you can probably deflect close to half of their blow back onto them 2-3 times.”
“It’s also a weapon. The reason you dropped your blood on the shield was so you don’t end up killing yourself with it. The qi extended from the arrays won’t harm you now and they can manifest blades, spikes, sharp edges and a few other things. This goes for your sword too. They’ll grow as you grow and you’ll be able to activate other arrays as you gain strength.”
His hand was numb and his body ached from the blowback of the shield but Liang was ecstatic. If he was able to activate the qi like the old man said, their hunt would have been much easier. He was looking forward to the fusion of the cores.
For the rest of the trip the old man left Liang bruised and beat up every night. However, he began questioning why he enjoyed the harsh beatings that came from the training. The old man told him some people have weird fetishes but he did not believe he was one of those people.
The seventh day of their journey they started passing merchants heading toward the city and carriages pulled by powerful beasts started passing them. The old man would click his tongue whenever a carriage blew past them but he never told Liang why.
When they finally arrived, Xiamen city far exceeded Liang’s imagination. Surrounded by a wall that stood nearly 30 meters high the city looked impenetrable. There were several rows of merchant carts entering and exiting the city and the carriages passed through the gates freely.
They however, waited in line with hundreds of others trying to enter. The old man told him cities like this always have long queues for loose martial artists and travelers. Merchants normally held entry tokens to the cities they traded in and the carriages most likely carried important people of the region.
There were so many carriages passing them Liang asked the old man, “Why are there so many carriages entering the city? Is it always like this?” However, before the old man could answer a woman with gray hair and a few wrinkles around her eyes and the corners of her mouth turned to them.
“It’s because of the competition. The city holds a competition every 5 years where the top 10 are given prizes and have the chance to enter a sect. I heard this year the first prize is the city lords daughter, that’s just the rumor going round though, can’t say I know for sure.”
The old man raised an eyebrow at the statement and finally asked, “Old woman, do you know what the other…” However, before he could continue the woman’s face turned red and she shouted, “Old woman! Your daughter is an old woman! Your granddaughter is an old woman! Your whole line of descendants are old women! You damn antique, who are you calling old?” She spat on the ground right after and walked away.
The old woman’s actions left the old man in a daze and Liang had to look down to conceal his grin and hold in the laughter building in him. After a few moments the old man said, “How rude! Some people have no manners at all! Damnit! Call me an antique! If she’s not an old woman what is she!?”
Seeing the old man’s indignant behavior did not make it easier for Liang to hold in his laughter. Thankfully, not long after many in the crowd began to clamor at the latest arrival. A young man flanked by three middle-aged men wearing black robes passed them on horses that had two horns. It was apparent the young man held no one in his eyes from his look that said, “I’m better than you”.
When the middle-aged men saw the old man’s tirade they watched for a moment before given a, “humph” and continuing. Liang knew from experience the old man was sensitive about his age and was not surprised when he heard him mumble, “This guy.” He thought the old man would act up but thankfully, he did not move.
He only smiled towards the new arrivals that were passing them before whispering into Liang’s ear, “Looks like you’ll be entering in that stupid competition. Good opportunity to gain some experience against bastards like them.” Liang did not expect that, but he also wanted to test everything the old man taught him. He was looking forward to it.
