Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 157. Unexpected Meeting.

“Whew,” Laien let out a relieved sigh and closed his eyes, then snuggled himself deeper into Yin’s silver fur. “It looks like our gamble paid off,” he said with a slight smile, allowing himself to relax just for a little bit. It would take a while before the full clarity of thought came back to him anyway, so he saw no harm in doing so. Additionally, he could tell that Yin was also not in a hurry to shake himself fully awake forcefully, so after coming to a wordless consensus, the two of them remained in the same position they had just woken up in for a few dozen more seconds.

Slowly, they felt their minds clear up and their heads become lighter; it was a pleasant experience, albeit not one they were able to enjoy for long.

Just as their thoughts started wandering towards the question of exactly how long had they been sleeping for and how were their friends and allies doing, the two of them sensed that their bodies were far more reinvigorated than usually. It was almost as if they were brimming with a strength that wanted to be released, made use of, and this sensation was becoming stronger by the moment.

“Wow.” It wasn’t long before the two inspected the internal state of their bodies and discovered that their flesh, bones, and even Qi Paths and Qi Origins had all undergone a qualitative transformation. Moreover, although they couldn’t confirm it without cultivating for a period of time, they had a feeling that their marital talents themselves had been uplifted and by no small degree at that.

Still, just as they were rejoicing, an identical question appeared in their minds at the same time. Somewhat frightened, the two of them resolved their respective levels of the Nine Refinements of Mortality. To their relief, however, they found out that they had worried for nothing. It looked like the Nine Refinements improved were the foundation and structure of both body and soul, whereas whatever had happened to them had only had an influence on the innate impurities in their mortal bodies. Having understood this much, the two of them relaxed once again and allowed themselves a brief moment longer in order to collect their thoughts and stop feeling dizzy.

Around a minute after they regained consciousness, Laien sat down properly while Yin transformed back into his human form. A few hundred meters away, alarmed by the movement, their two horses, one pure-black and one creamy-brown, raised their heads and looked in the direction of their masters. Seeing Laien gesture them to come over, the two magical beasts obeyed quickly. Usually, they would have been grumpy to have spent the past dozen-plus hours in full equipment, but at the moment they were in a thoroughly overjoyed mood, what Laien and Yin didn’t fail to notice.

Curious as to what the reason for their mounts’ unnaturally happiness was, Laien and Yin promptly extended their auras. The air about their mounts was easily different than they remembered, so they acted to confirm their hunch and as they half-expected, they found out that their two horses had advanced to the first Realm of Heroes. Feeling excitement brewing in their hearts, they exchanged a glance but soon returned to gazing upon their now very much elite mounts.

Just how rare was it for a horse to enter the Realm of Heroes? Perhaps one out of ten thousand horses had the potential to accomplish this feat and that was still only that, a potential! All in all, maybe one in fifty thousand horses would grow to become an elite mount, though things like selective breeding and special training methods could increase that ratio exponentially. However, perhaps more importantly, it was almost impossible to tame a horse which had broken through the barrier between the mortal realm and the Realm of Heroes.

The only roundabout way in such a case would be if the person was at the very least a martial or spiritual master of the sixth rank, and even then, the bond between the rider and the mount would be of questionable quality. As for the common way to have such a mount obey you, it was simply to be recognized by the horse as its master while it was still in the mortal realm.

Given such strict conditions, it was no surprise that even Rudford, with how much he favored Laien, hadn’t gifted him an elite mount back when Laien had been leaving the Sarkcente Kingdom.

When Laien thought back, there was also that scammy merchant who had claimed his horses to have a one-third chance of a breakthrough in the future, wasn’t there?

“One Mount, One Rider,” Laien said with a smile on his face. If he recalled correctly from the time he had tried to learn more about horses, right after he had encountered that weird merchant, this simple saying originated from the exact place they were now heading towards; the northern Eulene with its vast plains and grasslands. Unlike in the Sarkcente Kingdom, where the best of the best of horses were reserved for the very few of the richest and most influential, horses were an integral part of the daily life in the northern Eulene. According to Tei’ru, the fact that northern Eulene didn’t have their roads built nearly as well nor maintained as well as the Sarkcente Kingdom was another reason for the popularity of horses, especially amongst the common masses.

Alas, while Laien was still focusing on those pleasant and leisure thoughts, Yin stood up and stretched himself a little, then took on a serious expression. It was fortunate that after attacking them once, that Guardian left them off the hook, but there was no time to waste daydreaming. “How long do you think we’ve been out?” he asked half-rhetorically. He could feel neither hunger nor thirst, most certainly thanks to whatever or whoever had purified his body. If he had been sleeping, he would have been able to tell how much time had gone by, at least approximately, but he had been unconscious and thus his sense of time was fuzzy. He could tell that more than a day had surely passed and he was also sure that it had been less than a week, but more than that, he could tell close to nothing.

“No idea,” Laien answered simply, without bothering to share the simple details as they were being exchanged through the spiritual bond either way. “The question is what do we do now, eh? Thinking about where we are at should probably come first,” he said after a few seconds of pondering. There was no point in acting rashly, without any plan. First, they needed to figure out what might be waiting for them and based on that, they would then need to make a hopefully appropriate choice.

First and foremost, they decided that they couldn’t rely on Jasmine coming over to pick them up. In other words, they were alone. They hoped that she managed to escape from Abdain after stalling him, but at this time, they had no room to spare to worry about her well-being.

Then, they couldn’t be sure if the plan they had with Arslan had been postponed or if it was carried out.

By the same line of thought, they couldn’t be sure if during the time they had been unconscious, someone else hadn’t made their way to the northern Eulene in their stead.

Next, they couldn’t be sure if all of their pursuers had been killed. They had seen two of them die, but as for whether the Guardian had killed the rest, they didn’t know.

Finally, regardless of whether some of their pursuers were still alive or not, they could only wonder if Abdain chose to leave some people to watch the mountains just in case.

There might very well be experts waiting for them outside, ones they would have no chance of fighting against. However, according to Yin, there were only two ways to exit this region of mountains; through the main path or through the hidden path they had come through. Attempting to climb the mountains and go over them at some other place would end up in death, always.

At this moment, Yin chuckled in amusement and explained to the bewildered Laien. “The situation is complicated, but it’s not like we have many options to choose from. Let’s try to peek out from the main path, it’s far wider and offers spots to hide. We will take a look first and if we can’t see anyone, we will just try to make our way through to the north. With our horses as they are, even Abdain shouldn’t be able to catch up to us. Unless we are extremely unlucky and run into an encirclement of powerful experts, we will be able to break through any people they might have left in the area,” he explained, then waited to see if Laien agreed with him or if he had any other suggestions.

In response, Laien nodded after a brief second of thought; he had nothing to add and nothing else to suggest, so he saw no need to waste his breath on saying the obvious.

“Let’s give them some water,” Laien said while getting up. Truth to be told, be didn’t need to speak such words as all relatively straightforward and singular intentions would be clearly transmitted through the spiritual bond he shared with Yin, but it just felt weird not to say anything. Moreover, it was one thing during chatting discussing something or fighting, but usually, they wouldn’t pay much attention to each other’s state of mind and thoughts. Unless something attracted their attention, like one of them clearly intending to send the thought over, they wouldn’t read each other’s hearts.

“Mm,” Yin nodded, though before getting down to the flat road, he crouched slightly and just for a second, stored away the furs they had been sleeping on. Then, he took them out already folded neatly inside a fairly big wooden box. The winds around this area were strong, so he wanted to spare the Guardian the need to rush after the furs which he had lent them once they left. After all, it was safe to assume that the Guardian had no intention of showing his face to them again, otherwise he would have taken them to his house or stayed with them until they woke up.

“So thoughtful,” Laien said with a light chuckle. He leaped down the few dozen meters down the gentle slope and landed on the road, then took out a large bucket of water from his interspatial ring and placed it on the flat, rocky ground. “Don’t drink too much,” he told Bellicose once the black stallion came over. “We will be going on a crazy ride soon,” he added with a wry smile, but was surprised to see Bellicose stop drinking for a bit just to shake his head and snort at him, almost as if saying ‘yes, I heard you guys talking before, no need to nag me’… or at the very least, that was the impression Laien got from Bellicose’s reaction.

Not even two breaths worth of time later, the two horses stopped drinking from their respective buckets and after straightening up, they looked at them with anticipation.

“Say,” Yin said with a slight smirk. “Is it my imagination, or are they smarter now? They’ve always been rather smart, but now… I don’t know how to explain it, that look in their eyes? It’s as if they can understand not only our intentions now, but the speech itself,” he speculated, only for the two horses to neigh excitedly and shake their heads from up to down a few times, all the while stomping with their front hooves. Indeed, it looked like the two horses did understand the words and least to be said, they appeared to be very happy and satisfied with themselves.

“Hah,” Laien chortled a little bit and put the bucket away. He exchanged a quick glance with Yin before the two of them mounted their horses and rode back towards the Guode Yimarate. From one dangerous adventure into another, they headed without hesitation. As for something like holing up in this area for a few months just to avoid danger? Such an idea never crossed their minds.

A few moments later, when the two young riders rode a fair distance away, the tall, white-robed and silver-haired man appeared alongside a gust of the wind. “Those kids,” he murmured and smiled to himself when he saw the wooden box with his furs inside it. He waved his hand, pulling the entire thing into his interspatial ring, then after a second of consideration, he took one step.

In the time far shorter than one needed to blink once, he reappeared a hundred meters away, at the turn of the main road. He looked into the distance, his gaze piercing the heaven and earth and soon falling on the backs of the two youths, who by this point were more than thirty kilometers away from this place. In particular, his gaze focused on the green-haired youth, the expression on his face painted with worry and expectation.

“To think that one of the three main branches of our Shenlei Clan was destroyed and absorbed by the two others. It was a good decision on the part of the boy’s family to put him under the Beast God once they sensed the impending doom and the boy’s great luck that the man had taken a liking to him,” he thought quietly, but at the same time, his blood was boiling with anger. There were no people he personally knew in the current young generation of the Shenlei Clan, but some of his descendants were amongst them. As far as he could accept the Great Clans competing, even bloodily, against each other, he couldn’t view internal conflict with any degree of favor.

“I guess the Ancestor is of the same mind since he closed on eye on the Beast God technically interfering with the youngsters,” he added with a sigh, as always by this point, speaking to himself as per the habit. “Yin, huh… your talent is the greatest I’ve seen in my life, and I’ll keep that a secret for you and your partner… I just hope that you won’t get yourself killed because of revenge,” he mused in a mixture of helplessness and hopeful tones. He had gotten back here just a few minutes before those two woke up, but there was one thing that was allowing him to worry a little bit less.

“You’ve found yourself a good partner,” he muttered, thinking that during those short moments he had been able to observe Yin, he had seen no darkness in his eyes. Be it when he jumped in to protect his partner or when he had woken up a moment ago, his eyes were bright and clear. At the very least, he was confident that Yin wasn’t blinded with the desire for revenge.

Prompted by his own words, he unwillingly started recalling all those old memories of his. However, he was unwilling to think about all those bitter things, so he sealed them away once again, all the way in the depths of his mind. “Good luck to you,” he said somewhat formally, shook his head a little and disappeared once again, leaving the passage to the Forbidden Lands seemingly unguarded.

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“Wow, they really are fast,” Laien said in somewhat of an astonished voice. He and Yin might have already expected that their horses would be able to overrun someone like Abdain, who could sprint at over six hundred kilometers per hour, but to know something and to feel the difference in speed and swiftness were two very distinct things. “We’re already going at almost six hundred per hour, but those bastards still seem to have quite some strength to spare. We could probably reach close to eight hundred if the terrain was right,” he added, aiding himself with some Qi. Much less having trouble speaking, had he not had an unnaturally strong body for his level, he wouldn’t have been able to keep himself in the saddle with the kind of a wind pressure this speed created.

Thankfully, his body had been purified by some unknown means while he had been unconscious, so he didn’t need to worry about lacking strength. Before that mysterious event, at the current top speed of their horses, only Yin would have had no trouble keeping up with his mount for a prolonged amount of time. As for him, he would have likely struggled quite a lot. Luckily, now he needed not to worry about such a thing; even if they were forced into a mad chase again, he would be fine.

“Let’s slow down already,” Yin said after enjoying the ride for a moment longer. “We’re making too much noise,” he added. The plan was to scout the area before riding out of it, so as alluring of an idea as it was to simply gallop out at full speed in a ‘banzai!’ style, Yin had enough self-restraint and common sense to resist it. They had faced far too many dangerous situations with Laien recently to be risking jumping into yet another one.

The long explanation on Yin’s part wasn’t needed as Laien quickly understood what his good friend was worrying about. The two of them slowed down progressively, then after ten or so more kilometers, they stopped and dismounted. Aware that they should waste as little time as possible while they still don’t know what was going on with their friends and allies, they quickly hid their auras and put on greyish cloaks, one colored exactly like their rocky surroundings. They chose to move together, one for the sake of safety and two in order not to give the potential ambushers two moving spots to notice. They assumed low stances and hurried along the slopes, far away from the main road but not high enough to risk entering the upper danger zone.

They moved quickly and silently, their auras suppressed entirely and their presences erased. From a distance, unless one happened to randomly focus his gaze exactly at the place they were moving through at the moment, it would be impossible for anyone to notice them. Yet, the extent to which the two of them were moving stealthily surprised even the boys themselves. They were expecting to do well from the very beginning, but apparently, during their horse ride, they hadn’t realized just how much their physical abilities had improved. The five senses, the ‘sixth sense’ of the instinct, the strength, agility, flexibility of their bodies, all physical-related aspects of theirs felt extremely clear and sharp, their active use almost intoxicatingly pleasant and satisfying.

Because of that, Laien and Yin couldn’t help but wish they could try out their newfound abilities in a spar. How good would it feel to forget about all their troubles and forget the world while exchanging blows with each other? It was tempting, very tempting. Alas, they couldn’t afford to do such a thing now, but on the other hand, they quietly promised themselves to have a good, serious spar, maybe even a duel, as soon as all the pressing matters at hand had been dealt with.

When a few minutes passed, the two of them found themselves at the entrance to the path, just by the border with the Guode Yimarate. What they were met with was, luckily or not, an old forest that looked like it had been untouched by the human hand for many centuries. By the looks of it, the significance of this place as one of the paths leading into the Forbidden Lands was enough to deter any peasants and nobles who wished to find more land to cultivate. Though, that was only their assumption and in reality, there could be other reasons for this state of matters.

“Can you see anyone?” Laien asked after a brief moment, sensing Yin’s uncertainty. Yin’s eyesight and other related senses had always been superior to his own, so it wouldn’t be strange at all if Yin managed to spot someone while he couldn’t.

“I’m not sure,” Yin replied in a whisper. “I can’t see anything, but… I’ve got a feeling that there are many people in this forest. This feeling is somewhat… ominous? I don’t think they are the forest’s natural inhabitants,” he explained as well as he could. In the end, it was just a hunch, and not all that useful of a one, but there was also something very important that he could tell with a fair amount of confidence. Thus, he added a few more words to what he had already said.

“I don’t think there’re any people strong enough to threaten us there. They might all be entirely erasing their auras and presences so I may be wrong, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

“It’s good for us then,” Laien said with a content smile. He trusted Yin absolutely and Yin was already very honest with his predictions, so he didn’t think twice before making his mind up. “Let’s go get our horses and charge straight out through the forest. I suggest we go to the closest Yali Kingdom and only move to the Bolan Kingdom within the Holy Union’s borders. We won’t waste any time and it will be far safer,” he proposed straightforwardly. They hadn’t talked about it, but they knew it would be far more risky for them to try and return to the Ruishi Federation than to cross the remaining three thousand kilometers or so that separated them from the Holy Union’s southern border.

“Fine,” Yin replied a few seconds later, having thought their simple plan through once again just to make sure that they weren’t forgetting anything important. He looked Laien in the eye, then the two of them nodded before retreating from the area just as stealthily as they had come to it Not all that long later, the two of them returned, accompanied by the relentless sound of hooves clashing against the solid road. Moving at roughly five hundred kilometers per hour, but knowing that they would need to slow down once they entered the narrower and rougher forest path, they charged right in.

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At the same time as the two young riders approached at a high speed, just at the outside of the old forest, the few people waiting directly by the forest’s edge were shaken awake from their stupor. They had been staying here for two days on Abdain’s orders, told to pay attention and not let anyone slip out of the path unnoticed. However, they couldn’t see this mission as anything else than a huge waste of time. Given that their elite captains who had been chasing after those two boys never returned, how could the kids have survived the absolute death zone called Forbidden Lands?

The two long days of waiting and doing nothing but looking at this deathly silent landscape, far away from any danger of war their masters were fighting, had made them careless and caused them to grow rather bored. Some of them had gone as far as to take out some of the alcohol they were carrying in their interspatial rings along with some snacks just to pass the time in a more pleasant way. Never would they have expected that all of the sudden, those two boys would show up and ride towards the forest in a gallop so fast no normal horses would be capable of it.

The first reaction of many of them was to think that they needed to try capturing those boys, that they needed to inform the groups that were stationed further in the forest of the boys’ appearance. However, they soon remembered what they had heard of those kids’ strength, of how they killed Wind and Lightning Brothers, the two elite martial masters of the fifth rank, in a two on two fight. Paired up with all the other rumors that were floating around those two kids, the few men stationed here quickly abandoned the idea of fighting them. What they needed to do was to report this piece of information back to their master!

They wouldn’t be able to stop those two boys from getting to the Holy Union, but their master surely understood this much when he had assigned the manpower to this area. Their duty wasn’t to die needlessly but to report to Abdain and allow him to prepare appropriately for what was to come.

Still, just as those six men made their minds up, three of them who had been spread out to the south died one after another, all within the timespan of mere seconds. Their heads pierced through by what seemed to be an incredibly sharp dagger, their bodies were laid on the ground, their deaths happening with no noise, no bloodthirst and not even any signs of peculiar movements within the forest. Before Laien and Yin had even made their way to the forest itself, the remaining three men were disposed of in the same way, all of them killed in the same manner, by the same man.

Yet another second later, a grey-cloaked man appeared a few hundred meters in front of Laien and Yin, just at the entrance to the forest and directly in Laien and Yin’s way. The man raised his hands, gesturing the two of them to stop, and at the same time, he aided himself with some Qi to limit the noise and spoke with a voice that was vaguely familiar to the two boys.

“Stop, we need to talk.”