The duo of cultivators could be seen crossing the vast, monotonous plains. They'd been moving for well over a month at this point, and the dull nature of the plains were beginning to drive them mad, or it would have, if they were not cultivators. As it was, both Fang Hu and Jiahao had pushed their cultivation ahead by miles, or whatever the cultivation world uses. As weird as it would be for them to use imperial, it woulds still be weird for them to use metric. As far as Fang Hu knows, they only judge distance by how long it would take to walk there, which is... inconsistent.

~~~

Fang Hu

15 yrs old

Roots: Non-elemental 15.09%

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 5/13 20.03% Poor

Body Cultivation: Qi Gathering 0/13

Techniques: Basic Snake Breath Cultivation Technique

Spiral Snake Striking Fist

Powers: Understanding

Theoretical Test

Background: An exiled disciple of the Spiral Snake Scholar Sect, now wanders as a loose cultivator. Scholar.

Potential: Low-High

~~~

Fang Hu had never actually cultivated before this journey. He had the techniques drilled into him from his backstory, and understood them completely thanks to his two powers. Cultivating itself, however, turned out to be an eye-opening experience. The 'understanding' power helped in his review of his methods, but the 'Theoretical Test' proved itself to be invaluable. Fang Hu found himself using countless times, finding optimal ways to cycle his qi or to focus his breathing the best way possible. Hell, he definitely wouldn't have been able to refine his dao pillar without it. He had used this method to rewrite large swaths of the method, and wouldn't be surprised if the system defined his method as being entirely different from 'Basic Snake Breath Cultivation'.

Besides all that was special about himself, he also had the spiritual water to help blast past the 4th stage of qi gathering. Although it stopped helping as much after breaking past the 4th stage, Fang Hu still drank it, partly because getting those .01 percentages up was addicting, but mostly because it was his drinking water, you want him to stop drinking or something? At this point, Fang Hu didn't exactly know how to compare his strength to his old world, it was like comparing superheroes: there just isn't any way to compare to real life. He was beginning to wonder if he could stop a speeding bullet, though he had no way of answering that, as he had no idea of how fast bullets went and no accurate way of measuring himself...

As Fang Hu was musing to himself, people began surrounding the cart, at first Fang Hu was concerned it was the Heavenly Fan Sect, but he was told otherwise when he noticed that they were much too weak for that. Hell's Bells, only one of them was a cultivator, and the mortals shoddy weaponry was not threatening at all towards the two. There were over twenty of them, but that confused Fang Hu even more, this was a cultivation world, and numbers rarely mattered. Even in giant wars, the victor was usually decided by a few elites battling it out. If it wasn't for the cultivator, they wouldn't be threatening to a well armed mortal.

"HAND OVER ALL YER POSSESSIONS AND YER DEATHS WILL BE SWIFT."

"Master Fang, allow me to handle this riffraff."

*If you want to, man.*

"Do as you please."

Fang Hu didn't find himself particularly caring about what happened to the cultivator, he knows enough about killing intent to recognize a murderer when he sees one, but he hoped his disciple spared the mortals. He didn't bother telling him that though, Jiahao knows enough about his master to know he hates needless killing. That's right, Jiahao had moved from being a thief to being a disciple in less than a month. It wasn't that hard, after all, Fang Hu had been intending to train Jiahao from the start. It only took a few conversations for them to warm up to each other, Fang Hu because the old man could be pretty funny, and Jiahao because he realized Fang Hu was nothing like the murder happy cultivators he was used to dealing with. A lot can happen in a month's time, Jiahao had even managed to redeem one of his life debts through a series of hijinks including a magic potato, paper tiger, and a firetrap. Shame they couldn't have gotten the magic spud, that could've made their eyesight two times as strong.

~~~

Jiahao

67 yrs old

Roots: Non-elemental 17.35%

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 2/13 85.97% Trash

Body Cultivation: Qi Gathering 0/13

Techniques: Basic Lower Dantian Cultivation

Basic Fist Reinforcement

Powers: Hardy

Background: A disciple of a loose cultivator, picked up because of his potential and circumstances.

Potential: Mid-Mid

~~~

Jiahao was a different man than he was years ago. Master Fang's techniques had revitalized him, well that's what he thought anyway. It was really his 'Hardy' power that infused him with life energy, Fang Hu would have corrected him, but he didn't know he was being attributed with Jiahao's amazing recovery. His bald patch was growing back, and Jiahao grew by an inch as his spinal column realigned itself. Normally, all that would happen is the expelling of toxins in Jiahao's body and a rush of power and energy, like what happened to Fang Hu. Fang Hu had let Jiahao drink the 1st stage spiritual water when he agreed to become his disciple, that combined with natural cultivation and Jiahao's natural skill allowed Jiahao to cultivate all the way to late 2nd stage. 'Basic Lower Dantian Cultivation' also had the benefit of not needing meditation to cultivate, allowing Jiahao to cultivate-on-the-go!©

His opponent on the other hand...

~~~

Lin

34 yrs old

Roots: N/A

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 1/13 68.24% Trash

Body Cultivation: Qi Gathering 0/13

Techniques: Demonic Life Draining Technique

Powers: N/A

Background: A man who found a demonic technique one day and started forming bandit clans to help his cultivation.

Potential: Low-Low

~~~

Fang Hu quickly scanned the effects of the technique before Jiahao went into battle.

~~~

Demonic Life Draining Technique

Allows one to use the life essence of a being to raise your cultivation level. Only works on recently killed targets.

~~~

Fang Hu was relieved, if that was an attack technique, then he'd have stepped in. As it was, the fight went exactly as one would expect just from looking at their respective statuses. One thing was different, however, Jiahao wasn't raised in 'a more civilized' society. Here, if a murderer tries to kill you, then you kill him back. Fang Hu wasn't going to stop him either, trials were for people who operated under a functioning government. If they brought him to the free city, then he'd hang in the gallows. After the fight was over, Fang Hu stopped the mortals from running away, gathered their weapons, broke them, and sent them on their way. Before they left, Hu reminded them that the only end for bandits is death, judging from their reactions to his killing intent, they got the message. Fang Hu wasn't trying to judge them for their life choices or anything, it was a simple statement of fact, almost all bandits get massacred at one point or another.

After Fang Hu insisted they bury Lin, for he was now a firm believer of reincarnation, they headed back toward the road. If they were getting ambushed by bandits, then they must be closer to the city then they thought.