Once I left the cave I took a walk around searching the area for any sprit herbs that had absorbed some of the Qi that was unleashed onto the world. With these herbs I could trade them or give them to a alchemist for pill making that would help our cultivation. I looked around the river with no luck and so I started back towards the forest thinking that would be the best place to look. As I approached the dark forest I heard voices approaching. I took this chance to hide myself away in the trees and waited. At that time 6 men appeared coming from the deep woods. They had machetes and swords in their hands and their eyes were wild as if they were looking for something. “Did you hear anything a second ago?” one of them asked. The bigger guy with a claymore like sword responded, “Yeah it sounded like someone was walking by. Let’s split up and take a look over there by the river.” As they started to move towards the river, where the mouth of the cave was, I knew I had to take action and insure our cave would remain safe for mom. As they slowly began to walk towards the river I stayed hidden in the forest, knowing that if I moved towards them they would be able to see me before I could make a move. I had to wait until they saw the mouth of the cave so that their attention was diverted away and I could approach from behind.

“Hey Jeff look there’s a cave up there.” One of the smaller men said. The bigger man with the claymore, named Jeff, said “Yeah I can smell something coming from that cave, let’s go check it out.” I could only say under my breath, “Damn it!” I then imminently began to move towards their rear with my knife in hand. As I came up to two guys still at the river I took this chance to slowly and stealthy take them out. I slashed one’s neck open from behind before he could speak. The other saw me and was about to scream when I rushed him and tackled him to the ground. With my hands I covered his mouth and suffocated him until he stopped moving. After a minute or two I knew I had to keep going and make sure nothing would happen to mom. I rushed up the small incline knowing that too much time had passed and that 4 others were now in the same cave as mom. Once I got a foot into the cave I could hear mother yelling and screaming. I knew that there was no time and ran in as fast as I could knife at the ready. I then ran up on one guy who started to turn around and I didn’t waste my time and took my knife and started from the bottom of his jaw as I sliced down as far as I could go. After his dead body fell on the ground the other guy saw and yelled at his buddies saying there was trouble. I then started towards that man and even though he had a sword he was not at all good with it. He slashed horizontally aiming for my head, but I dodge below and took my small knife and jabbed it in his chest. I left no chances for him to make a second slash. The other two men however were already in contact with mom and at this point I knew what this would turn into. Mom was being held captive by the smaller man while the bigger man, named Jeff, pulled out his sword and started to come towards me. “Listen boy. You really messed up by killing my men, but if you think you can kill me with that little thing you will be surely mistaken.” I did not look at this man threatening me. I could only look at my mom as the man had a machete on my mother’s throat. I took a deep breath, dropped my knife, and then looked right at the big man with complete and utter murderous intent. Even though I had no weapon in hand I made sure this big man knew his death was going to happen today. “Haha! Look Jeff he done dropped his only weapon on the ground. Kill him!” the man who held my mother hostage said. As soon as the little man said to “Kill him!” I gathered all the Qi I could in my legs and with a burst of unnatural speed I had rush towards him and took his machete away, and with that machete I then severed his head clean off without him saying another word. The bigger man named Jeff was completely speechless and was afraid to even move an inch. He stood there with his big sword in hand not daring to move. “It’s okay mom. Everything is fine.” I said to mom as she was balling her eyes out in my arms. I then pushed mom off for a moment and told her to hang tight right here. I walked slowly towards this man and with the promise of death he was feeling the man dropped his sword and went onto his knees begging for forgiveness. Once I approached him I had every intention of killing the man however mom screamed from across the cave saying “No John. He is begging for his life and you should give the man a second chance.” I turned towards mom and studied her for a moment. I was thinking to myself that mom has yet to understand what the world is like now. As I was thinking the man on his knees jumped up with a dagger in his hands. Without a second thought he rushed forward in an attempt to stab me. I didn’t hesitate an ounce and took the machete and lodged it in his neck. With that blow the big man named Jeff fail to the ground grasping at his neck trying to stop the flow of blood. He fought there for life for a few seconds before all his movements stopped. I stood there watching him, maybe even enjoying the sight of his death and could only think of one thing, “This is what happens when you try to hurt my mother.”

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After the altercation with these men took place I took a bit of time to calm my mother down and explain again that this is what happens when we show mercy to those who would do harm to us. I also took the time to again clean out the cave and the bodies. I took the bodies to the river where I then searched all their pockets and bags. I was looking for anything that could be useful in the days to come. I saw no real food other than some beef jerky, as far as anything worth a damn that we could sell in the days to come I could only find one thing. That man named Jeff had a yellowish gold demon beast core on him. I took the core and jerky and left the men by the river. Even though their blood and bodies could attract more beasts I knew we could no longer stay here for long. I went back up to the cave and told mom that tonight would be the last night in the cave and that we would need to move soon. I took the night watch and allowed my mom to get as much rest as she could. I spent the night replaying the scenes of this small battle with these men in my mind. Was there something I could have done better? Could mom truly survive in this world now without my protection? Even though I could think of a few different ways the battle could have gone, I could also think of a 100 ways it could have gone a lot worse. I knew at this time that being a wondering cultivator was not a safe place for mom and I can’t always be around to protect her. Knowing this, and even though I promised myself in my last life that I would never join a sect, I knew that this was the only way for mom to train and get the protection she needs to live in this world of chaos now.

When the sun was about to start rising I woke mom up so that we could get an early start. Mom didn’t sleep very well and was waking up very often because of nightmares so she didn’t look well rested but I knew we couldn’t wait any longer and needed to move. We packed up and began to move down towards the river. The bodies of the men were no longer laying there and you could only see blood left over. Knowing that something must have dragged them away I made sure we went in the other direction. “John where are we going now?” mom asked. “I need to take you to a place that will help protect you and help teach you some skills for living in this world now.” Mom stopped and looked at me in my eyes and said “There are safe places here in this world?” I then began to explain as a teacher to their students, “The place I am taking you too is called a sect. A sect is, kind of like a martial school, however you must swear to protect the sect in times of danger, you must swear to be loyal, and you must swear to listen to the orders of your senior sect members. It is a great place to learn from those who have cultivated in secret even before the world ended. Granted before the Qi was released onto the world their cultivations were all shallow but now that it’s been a few days they all should be well above us in terms of strength and cultivation levels. Given their ever watchful eye you need not worry about the dangers of crazy men again.” At first it looked like mom was happy but then I saw anger creep into her facial expressions. “So why didn’t we go to a sect right when all of this started to happen? You wouldn’t have had to kill those men if we had taken the time to go straight to the sect.” Speaking quietly I responded, “Even though we may find protection from the sect you also need to be prepared that just because we are safe from the crazy people here doesn’t mean it’s safe there. In the world of cultivation others will want to challenge us to see who is stronger. Understanding that the weak shall die and the strong will live is how life will work from now on. In sects it is normal for “accidents” to happen during training and people will die. I need you to become stronger mom and I need you to read through the lines and know that man will always think of themselves before anyone else. One day you may be safe there but another day you may be fighting for your life.” Listening carefully I could see that mom had accepted that she will need to become ruthless to live in this world. We walked in silence for some time as we traversed the land in search for a sect called Dragon Fairy’s paradise.