Jacob was in the the middle of a conversation with Epagogia when her Aunt Linda had come running. And thank God, because if she pressed him any more than that, she might give him a spanking, and not the good kind.

“Jacob!” his aunt’s face was red from the long run she had just taken. Mantis realm realm or not, Linda had just sprinted from St. Peter up to the Alchemical Garden in one go. Before the apocalypse, she would have probably broken multiple records, both for sprinting and running half-marathons.

“Oi, Linda!” Epagogia smiled brightly at the woman. A nice kinship had been born between the two since because they were both so fond of Jacob, even though in different ways.

“Joseph ran away!” Linda shouted.

“Uhm, what?” Jacob was confused.

“No one can find him. There is no letter. I thought he was simply training with his new master or something, but it’s been four days now, I think!” shame transpired from her expression. “I am not even sure! I have been so busy with the Sect and my own training that I thought Joseph was simply not coming home at the same time I did!”

Now, she looked seriously panicked, not just ashamed.

“I’m not sure if something I did tipped him off or whatever, but I—”

“Fuck,” Jacob swore. “I knew it! Fuck!”

He stomped a foot and swore again.

“What? Jacob, I—” his aunt tried to say.

“Fuck! It’s my fault! Fucking Tommy! Fucking idiot! AHHH!”

Jacob shouted aloud.

“You knew what?” Epagogia chimed in, curious. She didn’t care much for Joseph, but Jacob’s reaction definitely piqued her interest.

“Tommy, fucking Tommy,” Jacob growled, “the guy always said that a man can only become strong if they go on their own personal journey to cultivate their truths. I mean, not like he could say anything else since that’s what he did to the extreme. He probably told Joe the same and now we have a missing person. They didn’t tell us anything because I would have immediately gone to track them. We are not even sure how much time passed and Tommy is an expert in surviving the wilderness.”

Jacob stomped around, rubbing his hands nervously while looking for a solution.

“Isn’t Joseph safe with him?” Eudokia asked. “The First Martial Saint was a hell of a warrior.”

“Yes, he is. Or, at least, he is until Tommy himself throws him into some crazy dangerous situation that could kill him.”

“Would he really do that?” Linda asked worriedly.

“I hope not, but…” Jacob trailed off.

…

“Master! I’m going to die!”

Tsk! If you could die against a simple Intermediate Realm Demonic Beast, you shouldn’t be allowed to learn from me at all!

“Master, there are five Demonic Beasts!”

Joseph was desperately dodging and counterattacking while five Demonic Beasts attacked him simultaneously.

They were huge gorillas that lived in the forest Joseph had ended up in.

They are not coordinating, you dumb disciple. And look at their forms! Chimps!

“Master, why are we fighting goddamn Gorillas?! And how are there any Gorillas in Italy?!”

Joseph twisted his head and avoided another powerful punch that would have popped his head open like a watermelon.

Orange-Eared Demonic Gorillas, disciples. They are insanely strong for their cultivation level. The smart ones can even punch an Oriole Realm cultivator to death if they gang up on him.

“And isn’t this what they are doing?!”

Joseph had been tempted more than once to flee, but his master had been very clear after having steered him into that terrible situation.

They are faster, stronger and more resilient than you. If you try to run, more will come and soon they will use your skull to have a banana juice or something.

Joseph dodged another punch, but this time the gorilla went for a grappling move right after, almost managing to catch him.

First Martial Saint Martial Style, 1st stance – Foolish Dodge

“Goddamn chimp!” Joseph got angry and stepped inside the grapple as he had just stumbled, still a bit lower compared to the Demonic Beast’s muscular arms.

The Orange-Eared Demonic Gorilla stopped the grapple and instead went for another punch.

But that was exactly what Joseph had planned for.

His limbs had seemingly fallen randomly in the perfect place when he delivered a devastating uppercut to the beast’s throat, adding a blast Qi to the punch and shattering the creature’s windpipe.

That’s more like it.

Joseph hated the First Martial Saint so much for what he was putting Joseph through, but this was the first time he had pulled off the first stance so well.

Then, Joseph turned to another Orange-Eared Demonic Gorilla and tried to bag two swift kills.

First Martial Saint Martial Style, 2nd stance – Rippling Punch

Joseph felt all the Qi in his body move in unison, creating ripples and ripples throughout his Meridians, flesh, and bones. Then—

It fizzled out.

“Shit,” Joseph jumped backwards, almost killing himself onto another punch from another of those creatures.

Less like it, unfilial disciple.

While Joseph was fighting one inch from his death, the unthinkable happened.

If I remember well, I was once fighting thousands of these beasts. I mean, not thousands, probably more. I was never good at counting or eyeballing numbers. That’s because I never really counted the numbers in the first place after battles, so I always used as a measuring stick a general ‘oh that could kill me’ or ‘well, that shouldn’t really kill me’ and so on. But the most interesting thing about these guys much stronger cousins is that—

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’M THIS CLOSE TO BREAKING MY NECK HERE! WHAT’S YOUR DAMN PROBLEM, YOU LUNATIC! STOP CHIT-CHATTING!”

Joseph avoided another deathly blow aimed toward his nether region.

Oh, this is part of the training. You have to fall into a battle-state so deep you will be able to have conversation with yourself to kill time. It takes a lot of time to kill an entire horde by yourself. But don’t worry, you’ll thank me later.

Joseph screamed so hard he gave pause to the Orange-Eared Demonic Gorillas for a moment.

The massive monkey couldn’t really understand why the little pink creature blabbed and screamed when it didn’t look like he was talking to them. He was probably crazy or something, but at least he should made for a good dinner.