In the middle of a forest, beneath a tree, sat an exhausted young man in his twenties.

His clothes were soiled, and he held a rusted sword in his hand.

He had deserted.

a coward who fled battle.

a leech that lived off the kingdom's resources while refusing to reciprocate.

But that's what most people think of when they hear the term "deserters."

Zaki had never wanted this war, and he had no desire to take part in it.

He wasn't even from this world, let alone the kingdom for which he was forced to fight!

Unlike Earth, which relied on science to advance its civilization, this kingdom, this world, and its civilizations relied on "spiritual energy" as their foundation.

Spiritual energy can be used for anything from cooking, heating, and transportation to weapons, energy shields, flight, and interstellar travel.

However, the most important applications are longevity and personal power.

People in this world use it to give themselves supernatural powers; of course, it's considered supernatural by earth's standards, but it's common sense in this world.

There are numerous paths one can take to achieve longevity and power, the most common of which are energy refining, body refining, and mind cultivation.

Spiritual energy is used by energy refiners to fly, move at high speeds, cast spells, and so on.

Body refiners refine their bodies with herbs and treasures, greatly increasing their strength and making them impervious to spells and weapons.

Mind cultivators use their mind power to move objects, cast spells, and so on.

These people are called cultivators.

Zaki is at the fifth level of the Meridian Tempering, which has nine minor levels and is the initial realm of the Energy Refining Path.

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The kingdom's weakest soldier is in the acupoint opening realm, which comes after the meridian tempering.

In other words, with Zaki's trashy strength, he wasn't supposed to be on the battlefield, especially since he was far weaker when he was conscripted.

The kingdom's army in Zaki's province was much weaker than the invading enemies, so the commander ordered a large-scale conscription of weak mortals to blunt the enemy army's initial charge and waste their stamina and energy.

Zaki was used as cannon fodder.

In a cultivator army clash involving up to forty thousand cultivators on the kingdom's side and even more on the enemy's, the number of cannon fodder needed to be at least ten thousand to make a difference, given how easily cultivators kill weak mortals.

To be safe, the commander used force to conscript 20,000 mortals with no cultivation up to mortals with 2nd- to 3rd-level body tempering or equivalents. (Meridian tempering/mind nourishment)

During the battle, the kingdom's soldiers stood behind the cannon fodder with their spears raised, discouraging anyone who considered fleeing.

In the battle, their futile resistance was crushed by overwhelming force, but they were successful in slowing the enemy's initial momentum and wasting the enemy's energy with their flesh and blood.

It's a sad reality for the weak, regardless of where they live.

Zaki, along with barely a tenth of the other cannon fodder, survived and fled the increasingly fierce battlefield!

But their lives did not get better from there because desertion under the banner of the kingdom army, whether voluntary or conscripted, cannon fodder or elite units, noble scion or common slave, has only one result: death!

Zaki stood up from his resting spot and looked around at the other deserters who were resting in the forest under the shade of trees.

It had been two weeks since the battle, and the group had started with more than 150 people, but there were now only a little more than seventy left.

The ones who died were either the elderly with waning vitality or mortals who couldn't even reach the first level of cultivation, the body-tempering realm, or its equivalents.

"I know you're all tired and need to rest longer, but if we don't move, the hunters will find us."

Zaki spoke loudly enough for the band of seventy to eighty deserters to hear him.

"We need to go east, cross the border, and get to the free city, where the hunters can't touch us!"

"There, we'll be free of the kingdom's clutches!"

"There, we won't have to live in fear of being slaughtered by the hunters!"

"There we will make our fortune and live as free people."

"FOR FREEDOM AND FORTUNE!!!"

Zaki hollered as he began to speed away to the east.

The deserters picked up their rusted, damaged, or outright broken weapons and began to follow Zaki at a slightly faster-than-jog pace.

"Even though the provincial guards' powerful cultivators were conscripted to fight the battle and the ones hunting us are body-tempering mortals, we still lost half of our group..." Hopefully, we'll be able to make it to the "free city,"' Zaki thought grimly as he waded through the trees.