Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 20. Entering the Anarchic Lands.

“We are about to leave the lands of our Kingdom,” Ruan gradually made his horse slow down and spoke to everyone. “We can’t be as easygoing when traveling or camping anymore. We will need to have at least two of us keeping watch all time, be it when traveling or camping,” he warned very seriously, but could only sigh when he noticed that no one but the three guards from the Valius family were listening to him.

“Eh, and they were so docile yesterday,” Ruan groaned inwardly. They had spent the afternoon and a part of the evening on the horseback, then set up a camp in a safe place for the night. Those two had spent half of the night talking with each other… and now returned to being as carefree, disobedient and rowdy as before their visit in the Iron Fort. In fact, they appeared to be even more relaxed and easygoing than before, what was making him feel quite a headache.

“We will be on guard,” Laien assured with a chuckle. “There’s no reason to be so stiff all the time though, right? If you try to stay constantly focused you will get tired right away,” he pointed out, then briefly focused on the spiritual bond between him and Yin. Both of them had quite acute senses and to top it off Yin’s battle sense combined with his natural instincts pretty much guaranteed that unless the one ambushing them was a true expert in concealing his presence, they would be able to find out about the danger well in time to defend.

Without even looking at each other the two of them smiled in amusement; they could only guess why, but in the morning they had found their spiritual bond to have grown considerably stronger compared to the day before. Communicating uncomplicated intentions or simple thoughts was now incredibly easy as long as they were in a close proximity to each other, not further away than five or six meters.

“We will ride in the front,” Yin said lightheartedly and couldn’t resist exchanging a quick glance with Laien. They were both very strong for their age, but they lacked the true battle experience. They had thus come to an agreement that they would use the Anarchic Lands as an opportunity to hone themselves. There would be some danger involved, but unless they encountered martial masters, what was very unlikely, they would be pretty much safe given that Laien was a water element spiritual practitioner capable of healing himself and others.

“You guys…” Ruan opened his mouth, but all he did was laugh at himself as the boys passed him on both sides and took the lead. He would have objected to this idea very strongly, but he had seen them kill multiple martial masters the day before. He no longer saw those two as merely very talented boys; he saw them for what they were, true freaks of nature.

“Just be careful, okay?” Ruan pleaded with a helpless laugh. It would be really disastrous if one of those two got killed by a random, well-aimed and a bit lucky arrow to the head.

“Kay, kay,” Laien raised his hand and waved it without looking behind. “Want to compete to see who spots the ambush first?” he suggested to Yin, just about managing to make Ruan realize something and causing him to shake his head in disbelief. Those two… they wanted to ride in the front to provoke attacks, right? They really were using the Anarchic Lands like some kind of a game. This behavior and cheeky attitude of theirs truly was making people feel helpless.

“You think you can win against me in this kind of a game?” Yin asked, smirking a little. If Laien had awakened battle sense then things might have been different, but otherwise? He was doomed to lose this little competition no matter how one looked at it.

“If you are so confident then I might just win,” Laien responded with a laugh. How could he not know how good Yin’s senses were? If winning against him was so easy then the game itself would be very much pointless. The point was to have some fun while riding and to improve an important skill at the same time.

“Okay, I’m up for it,” Yin agreed and laughed a little. “So, what does the loser need to do?” he inquired, recalling that Laien was pretty fond of those little bets; and he needed to admit he liked the idea too.

“We can figure it out later,” Laien said with a laugh, quietly wondering what kind of a punishment game would be the most amusing.

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“Surprising,” Laien said while admiring his surroundings from atop of his War Horse. “I didn’t think the forests would be so thick in the Anarchic Lands. I mean I did learn about them, but I always imagined it as a more… lifeless wasteland kind of place, you know?” he mentioned, pretty much continuing the leisure chat about everything and nothing that he and Yin had been having for the past hour or so.

“Instead of japing the whole time, how about you speed up?” Liza suggested from behind, her voice clearly revealing how frustrated she was. “Do you intend to spend three months going through the Anarchic Lands? Because at this peace that’s how long it will take us to cross them,” she said angrily and clicked her tongue. She was getting paid for escorting those two to the Eclipse Academy; the amount of money she would receive wouldn’t change whether they completed the task in three months of took a whole year to do it. Although, it didn’t need to be said that she would rather get it over with quickly and not waste much time on admiring their surroundings and chatting about pointless things while moving at a snail’s peace.

“Annoying,” Laien murmured quietly but paid Liza no heed. From all those guards of theirs, he only liked Ruan; he didn’t trust Liza and Jin, or that strange mute black-cloaked expert from the Cail family. He didn’t care much about those three guards from the Valius family either.

“Looks like I win the first round,” Yin said brightly, his gaze focused on a few spots much further down the forest road.

“Huh? Did you spot someone? Where?” Laien asked after a few seconds of trying to make out any suspicious shapes in his field of view and failing to do so.

“Don’t look with your eyes, you won’t see anything like that from so far away when they aren’t moving and are wearing clothes that blend in,” Yin explained with a smile. “Try to focus on the presences that shouldn’t be here… and when you find some, only then try to spot the man,” he suggested, seeing that Laien didn’t quite know how to go about searching for their ambushers.

Laien frowned a little and tried to do as Yin told him to, but failed to pick up anything unnatural. They rode like this in silence for good thirty or forty seconds and just when he wanted to speak up again and ask Yin where those guys were, he noticed a few presences. First only two, but then after a few seconds, he quickly found ten more. “They are still over five hundred meters away… and Yin noticed them three hundred meters before I could.” Laien sighed at the thought. He might have overestimated himself a bit too much; at this rate, he wouldn’t have a chance in this spotting game against Yin.

“Twelve of them?” he asked, now focusing on finding the exact spots those people were hiding in. Some were on the ground, crouching in bushes, others were waiting on the trees, some were further away from the road, but still close enough to shoot a bow or crossbow.

“Fourteen,” Yin said and laughed quietly. “Two of them aren’t leaking any killing intent, so it’s harder to spot them. One is in the trees to the right, just beside the road, three hundred meters away from us. The other one is hiding with others behind those rocks,” he pointed Laien to the places and could tell that Laien recognized the presence of the two just a few seconds later.

“What to see who kills more of them too?” Yin suggested lightheartedly. He would never kill someone innocent, but he couldn’t care less about bandits and criminals.

“Nah, let’s just have fun. It would make fighting too erratic,” Laien replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Yin was incredibly fast and had his movement art, so if he would be forced to use long-distance magic to kill as many people as he could. He would even most likely end up killing more bandits than Yin, but that would be no fun at all.

“Fine, let’s do it normally.” Yin nodded, lowering his voice by another level of volume. “I take care of the left side, you of the right side. Then we meet at the rocks. Good?” he suggested, preparing to withdraw his twin swords and jump from the saddle and into the trees at any moment.

“Good,” Laien agreed with a quiet chuckle. He was pretty sure Ruan and the others had been listening to their talk just now, so he didn’t bother telling them not to intervene.

“They are irredeemable,” Ruan thought resignedly but didn’t worry much. Those robbers of the Anarchic Lands had little to no martial training and very rarely practiced any good martial arts; even fewer of them were magic users. With the strength of those boys, they could afford to face them alone. Worst case scenario they would intervene and help them, but unless multiple martial masters appeared to attack them out of nowhere there would be little for them to do.

“Hmph, bluffing and trying to get themselves killed,” Liza commented with a snort but kept her voice low. She didn’t believe those brats found out about the ambush as soon as they did; she was pretty sure they were bluffing just to impress one another. So what if they had the battle strength of someone at the ninth mortal realm? They were talented, but if enemies swarmed them they would panic and start crying for help. She couldn’t wait to see their faces once they screwed up and were saved by her and the others; oh how satisfying that was going to be!

“Shouldn’t we go and help them?” one of the three guards riding in the back brought up quietly. “I know they are strong, but shouldn’t we at least assist them?” he added, concerned about Laien’s and Yin’s safety.

“If anything happens, we immediately go in. Until then, let them test themselves,” the leader of the three decided quickly. He was just as worried as his friend, but he trusted the boys wouldn’t get killed so easily by some common thugs. There should still be more than enough time for them to intervene if the need arose.

The man who voiced his concern appeared not to be satisfied but didn’t argue any further. He frowned and focused on the boys, intent to jump in the moment any serious danger appeared.

“And so we enter the Anarchic Lands…” the black-cloaked man mused to himself, his lips moving ever so slightly. “The second of the trials awaits you here. I wonder which Shade they’ve assigned to be your preceptor?” he asked himself, revealing an ever so slight smile. “Give it your best, little boys. What was thrown at you can be seen as a calamity, but it can also be a great opportunity…” he thought in amusement, recalling the spectacular battle between those two at the Royal Arena.

“The Guild values talent, so who knows which side they will choose if you do well in your trials…” he mused with a dark smile on his face. He was Fohan Cail’s subordinate, true, but above that, he was his master’s disciple and one of the many Shades. He didn’t care about Fohan’s ‘orders’, the Shadow Trials needed to be performed according to the rules of the Guild and it would only depend on those boys and their innate talent if they would die in them, like the majority of those tested, or if they would join the ranks of Shadows… or maybe even Shades.

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“Look at their hands, each and every one has an interspatial ring!” a man whispered, unable to hold back his excitement. He could already imagine how rich they would become after killing those careless travelers; he would finally be able to afford good life! He would be able to return to his family and feed everyone! His hardships would finally end!

“Shut up you retard. What will you do if they hear us?” another man barked a quiet, angry warning. A one in a decade chance was presenting itself before them on a silver platter, so they fucking it up wasn’t an option! He would kill any of those idiots if they were found out too soon because of them!

“Both of you shut up or I will castrate you regardless,” a woman hiding behind the rocks hissed at the two men in the trees above her.

The two men grew visibly paler when they heard the woman’s reprimand; from the looks of it she must have pulled through with her threats at least one time because the two of them didn’t dare to do as much as breath too loudly anymore.

The woman nodded in satisfaction and carefully approached their boss. She withdrew her draggers with the interspatial ring and stood there, motionless, waiting for the riders to come close enough for their men to shower them with arrows from behind and from the sides simultaneously.

“Why are those kids riding in the front?” the tough-looking boss of the bandits asked himself without speaking out loud. He cautiously watched the group of nine approach; he could tell those guys weren’t from the Iron Fort. Those soldiers had a different air about them, but even without that Iron Knights would never let two adolescent children ride in the front. It was so stupidly careless… that for a while, it made even him to consider calling the attack off. Not to mention those boys, a good half of the guards behind them looked bored and relaxed, unlike anyone else who dared to trespass their territory.

“Are they merchants? No, they don’t bring kids around. So is it a trap? No, those kids look too carefree for it to be a trap. Then what?” the man kept wracking his brain, but the only sensible answer he could come to was that those boys were some arrogant young masters who paid a bunch of mercenaries to go and hunt the bandits in the Anarchic Lands with them. Such things had happened a few times every decade, but for the young masters themselves to be so young was something new and pretty strange.

“Ah, whatever. If they prove to be too much, we can always run. They can’t know these forests as well as we do,” he decided, the sighed of well-made and pricy clothes the nine were wearing causing him to grow greedy. He had killed many people in his career in the Anarchic Lands and he knew that there was little point to judge one’s wealth by their interspatial rings or other jewelry. The truly rich people would never wear uncomfortable clothes; they could forsake their looks and wear something less flashy, but they would always have something comfortable and made from a good material on.

“With some luck, I could go buy a tavern for myself in some city in the south and live my remaining days in leisure and happiness,” the man dreamed, already imagining himself with enough gold to make all his dreams come true and never need to work hard for little to no pay ever again.

Yet, this dream of his puffed when suddenly, the boys he assumed to be overconfident young masters manifested weapons in their hands and jumped into the trees, both of them slaying one of his men with one swift blow. Given that they attacked without warning and after allowing their ambushers to grow confident about being hidden, this result wasn’t all that surprising. However, it certainly was enough to throw the whole remaining bunch into a state of chaos and panic.

Those who were closest to Laien and Yin quickly shot at them with their crossbows, whereas the six who were hidden in other spots released their arrows and bolts towards the riders.

“Impossible!” the boss of the bandits exclaimed loudly, seeing how the two boys effortlessly cut the bolts in the air… and how those guards of theirs used their bare hands to catch or deflect the projectiles as if they were shooing away some annoying insects.

“Ma-martial masters!” the woman said, completely terrified; and as she did, the two ‘young masters’ cut down two more of their men.

“Run!” the boss of the group yelled, but he could have as well kept quiet as his remaining subordinates had already begun fleeing for their lives. “Why did we need to be so unlucky?! Why did we need to attack some crazy kids guarded by martial masters?!” he cursed at his bad luck, however, before he or any of the closest six of his subordinates got far, four more cries sounded from within the crowns of the trees.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw one of his men falling down from a tree, his torso bisected by a slash of a sword. He saw some remnants of the sparks of lightning and another subordinate of his; a woman he liked to bed at night, having her head cut off by that girlish-looking boy with green hair. To the other side of the road he saw one of his men just as a spear was being withdrawn from his chest and another one who was falling down, apparently having been struck by some kind of long-range attack.

“So fast…!” he thought in alarm. He had hoped to be able to run since the martial masters didn’t look like they intended to get involved, but the speed with which those two little monsters killed six of his men left him with no delusions. They wouldn’t be able to run! “Stand and Fight! Fight or be cut down from behind!” he yelled desperately, retreating and watching how the two boys were rushing towards them at speed much quicker than should be possible for children as young as them.

“So far easy enough,” Laien mused quietly and swept with his hand mid-jump, sending multiple large ice-spikes flying at the front row of the six fleeing bandits. Two of them who had begun running before anyone else were thus impaled into the ground, while the remaining four halted their steps in terror.

“Spiritual master! That’s impossible!” the woman shouted in disbelief, truthfully considering if she shouldn’t fall down to her knees and beg for forgiveness. Right now it seemed to her that two bored Gods sent their avatars to play around in the mortal world; this whole thing seemed like one huge nightmare. It just didn’t make any sense for mere boys to be so strong!

“Wrong,” Laien said with a chuckle and swept downwards with his spear. He met the sword a man raised to guard himself with and instantly shattered it into countless icy pieces, then smashed the man’s head into his torso, killing him in one gruesome blow.

“Wai-!” the woman cried out, but her arms got sliced off and a deep wound was cut into her chest by one lightning-quick sword strike. One more followed the very next instant, beheading her and killing her for good.

“So I get the leader?” Yin thought happily and kicked the ground, assaulting the man who was just a few steps away from him. Unlike everyone else who hovered around sixth and seventh mortal realms, he was a practitioner of the eighth rank and unlike the others, he didn’t completely panic yet either. However, despite that… all it took was three slashes; or would it be appropriate to say it had surprised Yin it took him as much as three slashes?

The first one shattered the man’s sword, the second one cleaved his shoulder and cut into his neck, but failed to kill him. Only the third one which basically cut through his chest and caused his internal organs to be completely devastated robbed him of his life.

Laien on the other hand, being relatively slower didn’t bother to chase the last survivor; he sent a few shards of ice the man’s way and easily enough ended his life. He smirked and looked around, making sure they didn’t miss anyone. They did kill all fourteen, right?

“It won’t be much of a training if we don’t meet any stronger groups,” Yin brought up and put his twin swords back into the interspatial rings on his hands.

“Yeah, they were super weak,” Laien agreed carefreely and also put his weapon away. The two of them began walking towards their horses, not concerned or disrobed by the slaughter they just committed.

The things were very different for the three guards from the Valius family, and for Liza and Jin. The five of them stared at Laien and Yin, some with reverence in their gazes, some with surprise and ill desire and others with shock and disbelief. The kind of strength those two had displayed was enough to place them within the threshold of martial masters of the first rank; this kind of performance was enough to shake even those who thought they had seen everything in their lives… and it wasn’t even all the strength in Laien and Yin’s disposal.