Following along the carriage tracks in the snow-covered road, two silhouettes stretch across the snow as the shorter shadow follows the taller shadow. While the sun hung high in the sky, the relentless bitter cold still lingered on the world.


    Long Tianyu and Yue Xin had been traveling for an hour on the road, while he led the way, Yue Xin held onto his sleeve as he had lost her once when she wandered off the road into the snow field, not long after beginning their journey.


    Turning his head around, he saw her covered in the fur of animal pelts to combat the cold, all that he had on him was some kind of demon beast fur. She diligently followed him with her eyes closed due to the sunlight reflecting off the snow, which stung her delicate eyes.


    Not long after being on the road, he soon saw black smoke billowing into the sky. Using the smoke like a landmark, he occasionally looked up to see if the way they were going was right.


    “Yue Xin, we''re almost there, hold on for a bit longer”


    She only nodded at his words and quietly followed him, he did not mind that she wasn’t talking much, they had walked on the road in a mostly quiet tone, except for the occasional gust of wind breaking the silence.


    Standing atop a hill, he saw the source of the black smoke, a town the size of a small mountain stood in the snowy plains with light grey walls protecting the houses inside. From his viewpoint, he could see more than 5 hundred houses, close to a thousand, and that is not even counting buildings that seemed like stores and storage houses.


    What stood out the most in the town were 7 smokestacks constantly spewing out black smoke and fire, looking down, a small forest stood in their way with the road cutting into it. Making their way through the forest, some parts of the forest were sparser than others, as he saw a convoy of carriages slowly move on the road.


    When he looked up at the sky through the leaves, he saw the black smoke covering most of the sky. In the distance, the sound of horses and merchants shouting reverberated in his ears. Leaving the darkness of the forest, rows of stalls selling various items and carriages lined along the road extending behind it even.


    Atop the walls were guards who looked into the bustling market outside of the gates, making sure that no troublemakers disrupted the flow of business. The town had two entrances for each gate, one to enter and one to exit. Next to the carriage was a smaller entrance fitting only one person where people lined up to enter the town.


    While a smooth flow of carriages and people exited the town, a thorough inspection of each cart at the entrance slowed the traffic to a snail''s pace and a plaque in black letters hung atop the entrances, “Eastern Gate”


    Exiting the forest, they both caught the attention of a few nearby shopkeepers due to the demon beast pelts that they wore and the direction they came from. Ignoring the gazes, Long Tianyu wandered the market searching for a shop suitable to sell the pelts.


    Tucked in a corner of the market, a carriage that had been turned into a shop had all kinds of demon beast skins hanging on its walls, and the smell of fresh meat spreading in every direction. Getting closer to the stall, a chopping sound could be heard as a man with gray hair slammed down a cleaver the size of his head on the chopping block.


    Cleanly splitting apart a giant piece of meat, the man noticed Long Tianyu and Yue Xin as they didn’t exactly wear the usual clothing around here.


    “What can I do for you, sir? I must say you have great luck to be able to hunt so many early stage, rank 1 demon beasts in the outskirts. It would have been my lucky day if my hunters even managed to bring me a half-eaten carcass, hahaha”


    Hearing the boisterous laugh, the shopkeeper mistook Long Tianyu’s age. Although it can''t be helped as he is taller and has a more defined body than his peers, it was also an advantage as he won''t be treated like one, either.


    Letting a chuckle escape from his mouth, Long Tianyu tore off his right sleeve made out of crimson fur, showing it to the shopkeeper. “How much silver teals can I get for this piece of fur, as it was a pain in the ass to hunt that red bear”


    The shopkeeper''s face became visibly shocked as he saw the crimson fur. Taking it off Long Tianyu’s hand, he pinched the strands of hair, feeling the texture, and brought them close to his nose, smelling them.


    “Sadly, this is only a juvenile Crimson Claw Bear demon, I can give you 30 taels of silver if you sell it to me”


    If that bear, twice his size, was only a juvenile, then his luck must have almost run out as he remembered the sharpness of its red claws slicing a tree, like a hot knife through butter.


    Without even negotiating the price, he exchanged the crimson hide for 30 silver teals. Holding the sack with more money than he had seen in his life, he soon found a stall selling a wide variety of clothing.


    A woman at the entrance smiled at them as they entered the large tent. While he searched for his clothing, he left Yue Xin in the shopkeeper''s care as he didn’t know how to choose clothing for girls.


    Simply grabbing a white inner clothing, then a pair of white inner and black outer robe. He found another shopkeeper and asked if he could use their storage room to change into the clothing.


    After a few minutes went by, Long Tianyu walked out of the room wearing his newly bought clothing and tied a red strip of cloth to his waist. Holding the demon beast pelts in his arm, he searched for Yue Xin in the tent.


    “Sir, behind you”, hearing the shopkeeper call from behind him, he turned around to see Yue Xin walk through a curtain. Once again he was captivated by her, even when she only wore a simple light blue inner and a dark blue outer robe, she is worthy of being called an immortal jade beauty.


    Lightly coughing, he looked away and grabbed a wide rim straw hat with a veil to protect her eyes. But deep down, he knew that it was only an excuse to hide her beauty, so as not to attract any unwanted gazes.


    Paying a silver tael for the clothing made the shopkeepers turn pale as they didn’t have the change for it, a tael of silver was worth a thousand bronze coins. Scratching his head, he told them to give him all of their bronze coins and they could keep the rest.


    Walking out of the tent, he held a string with 100 bronze coins in his hand. With the amount of silver that he had on him, it could feed a family of 5 for 10 years. Looking back, he saw Yue Xin already grabbing hold of the red cloth on his waist.


    Making their way back to the old man, he sold all of the pelts in his arm. The ones inside the ring, he wouldn’t dare take out in case someone finds out what the ring is capable of and kills him for it. He had to be careful when using it inside cities or towns, if a cultivator stronger than him saw it, then all he could do is wallow in regret and fight for his life.


    While he was exchanging the pelts for coins, behind a nearby tent, a figure peeked at them. The man hiding in the shadow quickly sprinted away, when he saw Long Tianyu place the string of coins into the bag where he kept the rest of his money.


    Long Tianyu happily strolled the markets with Yue Xin after having better clothing to wear, and when he found something interesting, he would tell her in detail, not leaving her out of the fun.


    When the sky darkened, the shopkeepers would light lanterns, illuminating their wares and showering the market with a warm glow. The market is still lively as if the passage of time couldn’t quell the hustle and bustle.


    Stopping at a food stall, they sat facing each other at a table. Ordering some simple food, he focused on his hearing and listened to the people around him talk. Word of mouth is the fastest way to gather information, and the best way to do it is to get to the right place and simply open your ears.


    Waiting for the food to come, he poured a cup of water for Yue Xin, as a table next to them started to talk about something that caught his attention.


    “Old Li, today at work I heard some of the guys talking about an alchemist residing in the Purple Cloud association building, do you think that’s true?”


    The man called Old Li wore rough clothing and had an ordinary face. On his clothing were black smudges and he smelt like burned coal.


    “Bah, those greedy merchants are only doing it to grab attention. They and the Red Steel Forge have been butting heads since they settled here. I’m not surprised if this is one of the Purple Clouds tactics”


    Drinking a cup of wine, the man talking to old Li popped a peanut in his mouth before talking again. “The rumors might be true, I have seen the young master of the Purple Cloud Association talk to a man in red robes before they disappeared to the back of the association”


    “If it''s true, then we will see the association sell new pills soon, but how did they manage to secure an Alchemist. Even the king has to pay his respects to a rank 1 alchemist”


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    While listening to the conversation, the waiter placed two plates of food on the table. He then placed a bowl and chopsticks in Yue Xin''s hands and filled her bowl with stir-fried beef. Only when he saw her eat did he begin eating.


    After hearing the conversation, he planned to enter the town tomorrow and visit the Purple Cloud Association. He wasn’t a stranger to pills as he had seen Uncle Lei bring them home before, but the quality of the pills was questionable.


    He had heard of alchemists before, when peddlers would share bits and pieces of news from the outside world to his village. Even when scouring the first floor of the Martial Library, he couldn’t find any book mentioning alchemy.


    After filling his stomach with food, Long Tianyu placed his bowl down and glanced at Yue Xin as she also placed her utensil down. Tossing a few coins on the table, he guided Yue Xin back to the forest where they had come from as he needed a hidden place to take out the rest of the pelts.


    While on the way, he bought a brown cloth and a rope before making a simple backpack. Wearing the bag diagonally across his back, he placed the bag of silver inside but secretly used his spatial ring to store it instead.


    When he was wandering the market, a solution popped in his head on how he could use the ring without grabbing too much attention. The snow crunch under his foot as they left the warmly lit market back into the cold and dark forest.


    Carefully sweeping the snow and making a way for Yue Xin, his ears twitched when he could hear a few extra pair of feet walking on the snow behind them. Breathing out, he feigned ignorance and slowly made his way close to the forest.


    In his mind, he carefully thought about why people would sneakily follow them in the darkness of the night. As far as he remembers, he didn''t offend anyone in the market.


    ‘Did the assassins find me? No, that can’t be them, they wouldn’t make another mistake and give me a chance to escape. Did someone recognize the ring? No, that can’t be it either’


    Breathing out, Long Tianyu turned around and scooped Yue Xin in his arms, causing her to yelp in surprise before dashing for the tree line in the distance.


    Behind him he could hear people shouting. “Shit he’s making a run for it, call out the hounds.


    Including the noise of running, there was also the sound of barking chasing them from behind. When he neared the forest, a shadow lunged from his side and bit down on his right arm, dragging him to the ground.


    Holding Yue Xin in his arms, he protected her from the fall before rolling a few feet away to make space. Once Long Tianyu came to a standstill, he immediately took out the rusty spear and held it in his left palm while protecting Yue Xin with his bleeding right arm behind him.


    Not long after rolling in the snow, the footsteps that were following him revealed themselves. Seven men wearing black coarse clothing walked up to him, holding single-edged curved sabers in their hands.


    Swiftly darting his eyes around, he spotted four brown dogs circling him, baring their teeth and growling at him. Pointing his spear forward, Long Tianyu opened his mouth when he saw the hounds and their weapons, he thought about yesterday. “Are you the bandits that ambushed a merchant convoy yesterday along the outskirts of the green ocean?”


    Silence filled the air, except for the growling of the hounds, before the one-eyed man at the front laughed widely. “So you found our little handywork huh? Doesn’t matter if you know we did it or not. You are going to die here either way, my little birdy here saw you hold a lot of silver in that bag of yours, hand it over and we might even let you go.


    From their tone, Long Tianyu knew there was no other way out than to fight. The thought of running away didn’t even come across his mind when he could hear the soft breathing against his back.


    The man seeing the determination on Long Tianyu’s face smiled even wider. Whistling in the air, it sent the dogs into a frenzy as they all dashed towards their target.


    Long Tianyu quickly swept his spear in a half circle in front of him, pushing away three of the dogs charging him. Before turning around and grabbing the front leg of the hound jumping at him with his right arm and throwing it into the air.


    Stabbing his spear in the air, he missed the hound''s head as he didn’t aim correctly and grazed its back leg instead. Focusing back onto the three dogs, he extended his spear forward.


    The Hound jumped to the side, escaping Long Tianyu’s spear before lunging at him. changing his grip to a reverse hold on the pole, he turned the but of the spear forward, hitting the dog in its stomach, sending it flying backward.


    While he was dealing with the left dog, the one in the middle closed in and clamped its maw on the left side of his stomach. Letting out a grunt, he held his right hand out, intercepting the hound coming from his right side and held its jaw closed.


    Moving the qi in his dantian to his right hand, he crushed the jaw of the beast before holding its lower mouth and throwing it to the left. Letting go of the spear, Long Tianyu similarly circulated qi to his left hand before forming it into a fist and striking the head of the dog with its maws on the side of his stomach.


    When his fist struck its head, a cracking sound could be heard as the beast fell limply to the ground unmoving. Picking his spear up from the ground, he clutched the wound on his stomach before letting go. In that momentary distraction, Long Tianyu didn’t notice the hound that he grazed with his spear lunging at him from behind.


    Before he could turn around, Yue Xin dashed and held onto his back, a painful groan escaped her mouth as the beast left a deep claw mark on her back. Letting go she smiled weakly at Long Tianyu with a teardrop forming at the corner of her cloudy eyes.


    “I can''t let Big Brother protect me all the time, otherwise I would feel too guilty”


    He could see a trace of light green in her eyes from this close, her face was exposed to the chilly air because the straw hat had flown off her head when they fell. He called out to her softly, his face plastered with remorse as he saw the wound on her back. "………Yue Xin"


    Breathing in and out, Long Tianyu clenched his right hand tightly, Blood dripped from his fist as his fingernails dug into his fist. Facing the remaining dogs and the seven bandits, he reached his right hand into the bag, taking out the sword from his ring and stabbing it into the ground.


    When the clouds parted and revealed the full moon in the sky, the last two dogs sprinted at the same time, closing the distance quickly. Lowering his body, Long Tianyu waited for the hounds to get closer.


    Once the dog with its jaws crushed neared him, he slightly rotated his left wrist, causing the rusted spear blade to face the moonlight. Performing the first move of the 9 thunder spear martial arts, a light flash filled the dog''s eyes as it blindly ran into Long Tianyu’s spear, not even knowing how it died. In the first move, the light reflected off its blade when it was held at a certain angle, making the opponent blind for a split second, coming and going like a flash of thunder.


    Shaking the hound''s body off his spear, he quickly circulated his qi when the last dog jumped at him and aimed its jaws for his neck. The grey knife formed quickly in his right hand, but this time its blade was a bit longer and looked more like a short sword.


    From a distance, the grey sword was nearly invisible in the night''s darkness. He reached out with his right arm, allowing the final dog to leap into the grey sword. When the dog''s body hit the ground, the sword broke free and disintegrated into the air. He heard a clapping sound and turned his attention back to the bandits.


    The man at the front clapped his hands for a few seconds before unsheathing his saber and stabbing it into the ground. “Impressive, surviving three lower rank 1 Fanged Mountain dogs and 1 middle rank. Even I, one-eyed Wu would have it hard fighting against them, but your luck ends here, bastard”


    With a nod of his head, the bandits unsheathed their sabers and ran at him. Long Tianyu breathed in deeply, holding the spear with both hands, his heart pounding against his chest as this would be the first time he needed to kill a human being.


    ‘My Combat experience fighting against demon beast won''t help me here, I need to be careful’


    Taking a few steps forward, he used the range advantage of his spear to stop the first bandit in its track. Using the blade of the spear he cut a gash across the second bandit''s chest to the left pushing it back.


    Blocking the saber of the fourth bandit with the spear’s shaft, he hooked his right foot on its back knee and then pulled his leg back causing the fourth bandit to fall forward. Seizing his chance he held his spear blade down and spun in a full half circle upwards cutting the bandit from its lower left stomach to its chin.


    Falling over backwards the fourth bandit held his neck as blood continuously gushed out. The sixth bandit ran past him towards Yue Xin in the distance, ignoring Long Tianyu.


    Holding the shaft of the spear in his right palm he pulled it back and filled the muscles in his right arm to the brim with qi before throwing it. When the spear left his palm it tore his sleeve into shreds, traveling in the air it pushed the snow in its course away in a spiral motion.


    In a split second, a scream filled the air as the sixth bandit''s left leg was torn off by the spear. 3 feet next to Yue Xin, the weapon was embedded into the ground leaving only half of its pole exposed to the chill air.


    ‘I lost over 15% of my qi in one throw. After that move, I should have somewhat more than one-third of my qi remaining’


    Turning around he faced the remaining 4 bandits, his right arm pulsating from the amount of qi that was pumped into his muscles. Shock and fear filled the bandit''s eyes as they stared at Long Tianyu’s calm face.


    “Boss Wu, he is in the qi gathering 2^nd rank, we won’t be able to defeat him. Let’s retreat and come back with the rest of our brothers”


    One-eyed Wu scoffed at his underling''s words and glared at them, “So what if he’s in the 2^nd rank, I am in the 2^nd rank too. I’ll be right behind you guys, continue fighting him”


    The bandits reluctantly followed their boss''s order and slowly closed the distance. Long Tianyu took a few steps back and pulled the rusty sword out of the dirt. Once the bandits neared him, they increased their speed and surrounded him.


    The first bandit swung his saber diagonally with a loud shout in front of Long Tianyu before another shout came from behind him. Raising the rusty sword he parried the saber before turning around and knocking the blade downwards with the butt of his sword.


    The bandit who was pursuing him from behind staggered forward after losing his footing. Long Tianyu grabbed the bandit''s neck with his left hand, circulated qi into his grasp from his dantian, and snapped the neck in his hand.


    Throwing the limp body to the side, he dashed forward and in quick succession clashed his sword against the saber. At the corner of his eyes, he saw the glint of a blade aimed at his neck.


    Ducking his head backwards he barely managed to dodge the saber before he felt a kick to the back of his knees. Rolling forward Long Tianyu recovered from the fall and stood back up.


    Seeing only two bandits in his sight he felt a rush of wind behind him. Reacting quickly, he lowered his body out of the way of the saber and twisted his waist along with his sword around. Feeling the dull edge of the blade cut across the stomach of the bandit he then kicked the body away, making space for himself.


    ‘One more behind’ With that thought he felt another rush of wind behind him, but this time he couldn’t move in time. The bandit saber cut across his back, as he felt the warmth of his blood seeping out.


    Turning around he clashed his sword with the bandit’s blade before an opening appeared on the left side of the bandit. Taking his chance he kicked the enemy in front of him down, and when it fell on the snow, Long Tianyu leaned forward and pierced the neck of the bandit with his sword.


    Standing up he pointed the tip of his sword against the last of the boss Wu’s underlings, and seeing as its brothers died too easily the bandit threw his saber away and sprinted away in the opposite direction.


    Holding the sword like a spear he aimed it at the back of the running bandit and only used 5% of his qi to throw the sword this time. Long Tianyu only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the sword piercing the neck of the last bandit in the distance.


    “Brother!!!!!!!!!!!”, hearing Yue Xin’s shout, he snapped his head around and quickly found where it came from. One-eyed Wu held a sword to her neck as he grinned widely, “Hahahaha, throw that bag of money over here or otherwise I’ll slit this little lady’s throat”