When Will returned to his cave, he found that it was very, very, hot. He'd left the stove (two hundred heat arrays) on. He stabbed the sword through the stone ground at the edge of the circle, turning all the arrays off. He felt really cool doing that. He had shut the poison doodad’s arrays off back at the mountain and thrown it in one of his left hand storage rings.

Will layed out the mat he'd stolen at a spot where the heat was just warm, and used it as a bed. He soon drifted off to sleep.

—

Will got up at noon. He felt refreshed and rested, ready to take on the world. Getting up, he took a look at his Document Storage. It had really filled out since he'd first gotten it. He realized he didn't put up the books he'd stolen for sale. He did that now, including the Demonic Lightning Arts. It seemed the novels couldn't be sold, though some of the torture books could be. He also put up his heat array. He thought it may be useful to someone. It was obviously pretty cheap, but for someone without a book on arrays, it could be a lifesaver, like the spiritual energy gathering array was for him.

Will stood up. He felt like it was a good time to practice footwork. Actually, now that he thought about it, he could practice his footwork while traveling. That settled it, he'd go in a random direction for a while and hope to find something.

Will tossed the snake head parts, the cultivation doors, and the pillowcase bag into a storage ring. He then took out a thick wooden board he'd taken from the storage room at the mountain and stuck one hundred active spiritual energy gathering arrays on it. It was thick enough that he could fit them on pretty cheaply without needing to make them too thin. The sword seemed to make it even cheaper as well. A sword was definitely better at carving things into wood than a rock at least, so it made sense. With his bait finished, he set off, running in the opposite direction of the Tacky Mountain. He kept an eye out for herbs and kept updating his map as he ran.

As expected, it didn't take long for a horde to start forming, though some slower beasts weren't able to keep up this time. He was hoping for more really giant snakes to show up. The ones with the crazy strong venom that he almost died from.

After he saw the beginnings of a horde, he split his consciousness even more. He had a piece on map duty, a piece on beast cataloging, a piece on plant cataloging and herb detection, a piece on managing the storm qi coming into his body, a piece focusing on the Wind Dance footwork, and finally, a piece reading one of the young adult novels he copied from the Sick Freak, because it made him slightly less bored.

An hour passed, and Will had gathered a pretty good horde. He hadn't seen one of those snakes yet, though. He had actually managed to pick up an herb in this hour. It was one of the ones he meant to avoid, but he wanted to gather dangerous poison now, so it was fine. He managed to get by with only a little poison in his body from touching it, which was quickly obliterated after being placed in his lower dantian. The poisonous herb went in the same ring as the venom gland.

By the time another hour had passed, he had managed to get two of those really giant snakes following him. He wasn't ready to cash out just yet, though.

After another hour, he'd found another herb. It was the same as the last one, but it was still a nice find. He'd also picked up another snake. He'd yet to see another snake quite as big as the super snake he'd picked up the first time, which was a shame, but he felt like there probably weren't that many of those.

By the fourth hour, he felt considerably faster. Will felt it was a testament to how bad his dexterity was and powerful the Wind Dance footwork was, that he was so far from getting it right even with the steps engraved into his mind, and that it had any effects at all with how poorly he did it. Well, it could also be that he was just bad at running before. He remembered in the other universe there was something about good runners having a certain way they did it, and his running experience was that of being bedridden and being a baby, so he certainly didn't do it well.

Over the next two hours, he managed to pick up a third really giant snake. He'd managed to get a whole bunch of other things too of course, but he was mostly focusing on the snakes.

After two more hours, he'd managed to pick up another poisonous herb like the two he already had, as well as another really giant snake. His legs were also starting to get a bit tired, so he felt like now was a good time to start the grand battle.

He chucked the board with the arrays to the side. He made sure it wouldn't break on impact, but he also made sure to throw it a good distance. Then he made sure to get out of the way of the horde.

The beasts rushed over towards it. Then the fight broke out. It took a while, about two hours. Will continued practicing his Wind Dance footwork in place while it happened, though a good bit slower to conserve stamina. It was mostly just to practice it, but was also to dodge any stray attacks that flew his way, though there were only two, both dodged easily. At the end of the battle, the winner seemed to be a giant wolf. It was a bit of an underdog victory. Not that Will cared. After standing on the board, the wolf closed its eyes. Will assumed it was cultivating.

Now it was time to get his rewards. Carefully. There was still a giant wolf that could kick his ass. He snuck over to the snakes, cut their heads off, and threw the heads in his rings. He kept an eye on the wolf as he did. He then pocketed the corpses of anything else that had seemed powerful in the fight, though not the really giant snake bodies since they wouldn't fit. Everything left over once his right hand's rings were filled up, he sucked the lifeforce out of, placing it in his upper dantian. He left the spiritual energy, in case the wolf attacked him for it, but he felt the lifeforce should be fine since the wolf likely didn't cultivate with that, and probably wouldn't be able to sense it like it would spiritual energy. His guess was correct, as the wolf continued its cultivation. His upper dantian hit capacity after the first few, though he still crammed in more after that.

Then, he continued his journey, leaving the wolf to his rightful prize. It had won the fight, so it deserved it. Not that Will could do anything if it didn't deserve it. He couldn't do anything if it took his lunch money and shoved him in a locker. Underdog it may be, that was against the horrifying monsters it was fighting against. It would certainly not be an underdog against him other than it being a dog under him after throwing him into the air like a wet rag.

Two more hours passed before he finally saw something. The edge of the forest was in sight. He was incredibly excited. He'd finally get to… well, he wasn't really looking forward to anything specifically, but a change of pace would be nice at least. He was still a bit away, but he'd reach it in another fifteen minutes.

After the fifteen minutes passed, he found himself at the edge of the forest. It was certainly an abrupt stop. The tall lightning trees just kind of abruptly switched to green grassland. Even the grass was different. The yellowish grass if the forest just stopped and switched to green grass like there was a line it couldn't cross. It was odd.

Stepping over the invisible line was even more jarring. The spiritual energy dropped drastically on the other side. It also wasn't evil and zappy. Looking into the distance, he didn't see any towns. It was disappointing, but expected.

He reoriented himself to be perpendicular to the edge of the forest, and started moving again, though at a much slower pace. He finally had new plants to catalogue, too, even though they were just regular grass and wildflowers.

There was a lot of nothing for the next two hours. Well, other than finally seeing bugs again. He hadn't seen anything even resembling one in the forest before. The bugs were the main reason he wasn't just going to bed, tired as he was.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Night had fallen a good while ago. That was another thing about the world outside the forest. It was dark. Everything in the forest was illuminated by the trees slightly, but here, he had the moon and nothing else to see by. It wasn't a problem with his eyes, but it was still pretty dark.

Two more hours had passed when he saw something perfect. It was in his top ten for things he was hoping for, a list that didn't actually go up to ten because he hadn't thought about it enough to come up with that many. It was a carriage. A carriage on a road. A carriage on a road being attacked by bandits. He would've preferred a weak beast, but bandits worked too. Even better, there was a woman and a young girl cowering in fear in the carriage.

That was the final straw that made him feel like it was a bit odd to be happy about this. Well, he was happy because he could save them and get lodgings from them, so it wasn't like he was a monster. He sped up to full speed and ran towards the scene.

“You really plan to save them?”

“Ah, I thought you were doing it out of a sense of justice.”

The bandits were currently in combat with two guards, two guards that seemed horribly outmatched. They were only spared by the fact that they were both fighting only one each, as the other three bandits were sitting back and watching.

Will entered the scene at full speed. He held the sword out to his left, running past the two who were engaged in combat. They got cut in half. He hadn't really expected that to happen. It was his first time killing anything other than a bug, too. Though, he had caused a lot of deaths from the two battles he'd started. These were humans too. He felt a bit bad about it. He had meant to just wound them, honestly.

He didn't really care that much, though. They were just bandits. He'd probably cry if he'd killed someone really nice or something, but these were Sick Freak tier people. Okay, maybe not that bad, but they certainly weren't good. One of the three unbisected ones was even licking his lips while looking at the woman and young girl. That was icky!

After running past the first two, he did a sharp turn and ran past the others. But they all dodged. Well, it worked better in an ambush.

“Get that kid!” one of the bandits yelled.

Then the bandits all charged at him. He wasn't that scared. They couldn't really do much. They tried chasing him but he just ran around. They couldn't keep up. But he also couldn't attack them with the sword. If he did, they'd be able to counterattack. Then he had an idea. He threw a poison herb at one of them.

The bandit was confused why the kid was throwing a plant at him. He caught it on reflex. Then he understood why the kid was throwing a plant at him. It was poisonous! He panicked, trying to circulate his qi to expel the poison. It barely worked. He was done for.

Will concluded that the poison worked well. Sadly, it probably wouldn't work again. He doubted any of the bandits would grab something when the only thing they knew about it was that the last guy who grabbed it foamed at the mouth and fell over. He'd need to figure out something else.

Will took out the ingot he'd taken from the storage room, and hucked it at a bandit's face. The bandit had only a moment to react before his nose was replaced by an ingot like some kind of blacksmithing-themed snowman. He fell over backwards and didn't get up.

The last bandit took this as his cue to run away. The two who were cut in half? They were both taken by surprise mid-fight with someone else. The fact that they couldn't catch the kid? It was just a kid who could run fast, and none of them were that fast. The poison? The kid either built up a resistance or took an antidote beforehand. All of it was just a kid getting lucky. Then someone got an ingot embedded in their face. That wasn't something you did by luck. You had to be a cultivator for that. The fact that some brat that looked like he was still a toddler was a cultivator made it even more terrifying.

His best shot at living was to run and bet on the kid not bothering to chase him. He wasn't really planning to die here. He'd went into this with the resolve to, like, maybe get a cut or two, not die.

Will didn't bother chasing him. He seemed pretty young, and more importantly, he wasn't really planning to kill any of them in the first place. It just turned out like that. As long as he was gone, Will was satisfied. Will turned around on his heel, faced the carriage, and did a stage bow. It would've looked better if he wasn't holding a sword, but he didn't really have a choice. The people in this world probably didn't even have bows like that, anyway, so it was fine. He hadn't seen it in the manners book at least.

The reception was… well, it wasn't applause, that was for sure.

“Nice, you scared the shit out of them.” the sword jabbed.

“I guess so.”

The woman in the carriage was currently debating how to refer to this individual. They could be called senior, like even young cultivators often were by mortals like herself, but it felt like they were too young for even that. Calling a toddler like this senior would just seem condescending! Why was communicating with cultivators so tiring? She didn't even know what this person wanted! And why were they bowing that low!? A cultivator shouldn't bow that low to a bunch of mortals they just saved! And why did they just leave the one bandit? This whole thing was confusing and she really didn't know what to say.

Her daughter had less reservations. Or, more accurately, felt it would probably be ruder to just stare at them.

“U-um… g-greetings esteemed, um, cultivator…”

Will, up from his bow, replied.

“Hi!”

At least this strange cultivator seemed friendly. That was good, at least.

“Um, uh, th-thank you for saving us! Um, we promise we'll do whatever we can to pay you back!”

“Dat’s gweat!”

Will noticed that it was a bit easier to talk after all the lifeforce he'd taken in. He felt that with a bit more practice, he wouldn't have to speak like a baby anymore.

He ran up to the carriage with his Wind Dance footwork, greatly frightening everyone. He hopped onto the carriage through the cloth curtain at the front, because he actually had to jump to get up to it, and landed in front of the two terrified individuals. The young girl looked to be around fourteen to sixteen, while the woman looked to be her mother. They were both pretty good looking. Neither seemed like a jade beauty like the novels always talked about, but they both looked good enough to be in a stock photo. He didn't see anyone else other than the coachman and the guards with them.

The woman and the girl prostrated themselves before him, shivering. The girl spoke.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! Please don't kill me!”

Will felt like that was a bit much. He just hopped on a carriage. Well, he was holding a sword.

“I need a wide.”

The girl heaved a sigh of relief. So that was why they came over here! Just wanting a ride was great! They wouldn't even have to go into debt for that!

The older woman spoke next.

“You mean you seek to ride in our carriage?”

“Yeah! I need a nap, too. But thewe's bugs out hewe.”

They didn't know why an esteemed cultivator would need to use someone's carriage for naps, but it didn't matter. It turned out that this cultivator was just a child with more power. That was easy to handle. They seemed like a good kid, too.

“We owe you our lives, giving you a place to rest is the least we can do.”

The woman moved to a box in the back of the carriage and pulled out some makeshift bedding, a pillow, and a sheet, laying them on the ground in an empty spot.

“Here. I'm deeply sorry that this is the best I can offer you.”

Will looked at the makeshift bedding. It was the nicest bed he'd seen since coming back to life. That wasn't much of a compliment to the bed, it wasn't even a bed, really, but he really had only seen the one bed in the hut, and that was in a state of utter disrepair. He went over to it and got in. It was really damn comfy! So much comfier than that bed in the hut. As Will was about to head to sleep, he suddenly realized he didn't know where these people were actually going.

“Wait. Whewe awe yu headed?”

The woman responded.

“Oh, we're on our way to Rising Dragon Village. We plan to stop there before moving on.”

Will felt like he'd heard that name before. He remembered! His parents had been staying in the inn there, then the people they were on the run from found them, and they ran into the forest. The pursuers didn't follow them, just stood outside the forest to make sure they couldn't come back out, probably assuming they'd die in there. Which they were mostly right about. The parents died, but he was alive. He didn't know whether he'd be chased by them if they found him.

He felt it depended on what his parents actually did to get chased. If they'd just insulted someone, they would probably consider him punished enough after being stuck in the forest. They may even try to recruit him or something. He was sure that being able to escape that place at his age was probably considered pretty impressive. It wasn't actually impressive. Nothing in the forest even bothered with him since he was too small for sustenance and didn't have enough spiritual energy or qi or whatever for a cultivation resource. But they wouldn't know that. He had a feeling the beasts of that forest probably acted a bit strangely. If all it took to gather a horde of monsters that would all fight to the death and be left for the taking by the last one standing was walking with a spiritual energy gathering array, that would be a huge mess. The sword wouldn't have thought he was the Beast King's disciple when the horde followed him either.

On the other hand, if his parents were being chased because they were of a cursed bloodline or something, then they'd almost certainly want to kill him. His young age would just make it easier for them in that case.

He honestly didn't know if his young age would get him leeway at all. He knew it was a normal thing in the novels he read for children to be killed off to prevent them coming back with a grudge, but he felt like it might be different since he was too young to really know his parents that well. He wasn't really that attached to them, either. They were pretty bad parents.

Anyway he was curious about why they were heading to Rising Dragon Village, so he decided to ask.

“What fow?”

“Oh, we're planning to get some rest in Rising Dragon Inn and then buy some rations for the trip to Dragon Flame City.”

Will didn't know that one.

“Wuzzat?”

The woman was a bit surprised that the cultivator didn't know what Dragon Flame City was. She wondered how this young cultivator had ended up out here without knowing that. She felt like it couldn't have been anything good. But it wasn't her business to pry.

“It's the city where the Dragon Flame Clan is. They're the clan that controls this region.”

“Oh. Okay. How faw is Wising Dwagon Viwwage?”

“About three days at our current pace.”

“Okay. I'm gonna go to bed now. Wake me up if mowe bandits come, okay?”

She felt a bit worried about waking a powerful cultivator up, but thinking about it, it would probably inconvenience them more if the one waking them up was a bandit. She nodded.

“Got it. If there's ever anything else you wish for, just let me know.”

“Mhm. Goo'night.”

Leaving a bit of consciousness managing the storm qi as always, Will drifted off to sleep.