[ Orphius and his group ]

After running for a few hours, night befall them. They managed to successfully leave the forest. They secured a safe spot and began setting up a temporary camp. Orphius had a flying artifact which could have made them cover more distance but the current mental state of Orphius has been shaken too much and too unstable to operate the artifact. And since they aren’t Heaven Phase cultivators yet, so they can’t fly. At the camp everyone is quiet, and a gloomy atmosphere permeates, everyone is busy running, and not until now have everything that happened penetrated them. They lost a companion, not one of them was on friendly terms with Shin but they all treated him well. He is noisy, annoying, and has a lot of questions, he reacts to every little thing, and he contradicts lots of Orphius’ decisions but not one of them realizes that Shin’s liveliness have made their travels more bearable and interesting. It is true, that only when you lose something will you realize their value.

Orphius : “Y’all get some sleep. I’ll stand guard. We’ll depart early tomorrow.”

Barlock : “No second brother, you should go rest, you’re too injured to be the night guard. I’ll handle it.”

Orphius : “But you’re too tired from running all day.”

Barlock : “Don’t worry, this much is nothing to me.”

Orphius : “Alright, I’ll leave it to you.”

Barlock : *nod*

Orphius and the others head to bed while Barlock guards them. Nothing happened during the night watch. Everyone wakes up early.

Orphius : “The Blood Gate City is 2 months away from here at walking speed. We’ll ride my flying artifact to save some time. It would at least take us a week or so at the fastest or two weeks at the latest.”

Xingye : “Brother, you’re too injured to operate your artifact.”

Orphius : “Don’t worry I have these pills that my eldest brother gave us as a parting gift.”

Xingye : “Ah! Yeah, I remembered those.”

Orphius : “Get in the artifact, we’ll set out now.”

Orphius took one last glance towards the Mysterious Forest with a longing and nostalgic face.

Barlock : “Don’t worry brother, I believe that guy isn’t dead. He’s a scourge, and scourge won’t die that fast.”

Orphius : “………………… HAHAHA, right there’s no way that guy would just die like that. Let’s go! To Blood Gate City!”

“Brother Shin, I believe you’re still alive. I’ll wait for you at the Blood Gate City. I believe you’ll go there. We will see each other again.”

[ Present Time ]

“And after that we traveled forward to Blood Gate City, we held hope that Shin was still alive. After arriving at Blood Gate City we didn’t know what to do, we didn’t have accommodations and no tavern and the inn wanted to take a bunch of dirty kids. Though we had money we couldn’t use it at all. Still, it was a bit better since the adults didn’t take advantage of us and robbed us even after seeing us with money. Later we knew that it was the city’s rules to not allow kids under the age of 18 to be in taverns, and inns without guardians, unfortunately, we didn’t have a guardian at that time. Also, kids aren’t allowed at brothels either. Not like we’ll ever go there, hehe. At that time we still didn’t know the city’s rules so we walked for an entire day with no success, unknowingly we have came back from where we started earlier, and the tavern owner spotted us and offered us a room to stay separate from the tavern itself and since it’s not allowed to accept payment from kids he offered us to work at the tavern for some time. We are tasked to serve customers, fortunately, the adults that are staying at the tavern are good people, they helped us and shared some information with us, it was also the reason we have known some information about the city.”

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“The adults said that we need to get an identity token for the city and one of the requirements to get it is to get affirmation from 100 different verified residents. Those residents are people who have their own identity tokens, without an identity token one can only stay in the city for 1 week and can only enter again after 6 months. Fortunately for us, we serve quite a few people every day, and quite a few of them are verified residents. Most of them thought of us as a group of orphans trying to survive on our own, and though it was a misunderstanding it worked in our favor. Only after 5 days did we gain the affirmation of 100 residents and get our identity tokens. But the luck didn’t stop there after just a week we found Shin and Leo, I didn’t know what happened between them but they seemed close. It was one of the happiest days of our life. After the introduction we get to know Leo, Shin said that we were not really an enemy but also forced to join them, he said he was saved by Leo when the beasts were approaching but I doubt him else he wouldn’t be so friendly towards him in such a short time and my dragonic bloodline is telling me that this guy is not so simple. We’ve been together for some time now, I’ve been observing him, he seems to not bear any ill intent towards the group so I’ve let him join us. We introduced them to the tavern saying they were also war orphans and our friends who had separated from us before. Apart from him, we’ve also gained another friend in Blood Gate City.”

[ 2 weeks ago ]

Since we’ve got our identity token we’ve been trying to find a house to live in so we won’t have to live in the room provided by the tavern owner. Oh, his name is Moore and he had a daughter named Cindy. And Cindy was the reason for meeting this new friend. Cindy is of the same age as us, and she’s also a cultivator but only has a low cultivation level at the 2nd Stage of Human Phase, she’s kind and beautiful, and she was also loved by the customers for her kindness. Moore said that Cindy had a talent for cultivating and was previously selected by an elder of the Blood Gate City Mansion but she refused to and chose to stay here at the tavern, this might also be the reason her cultivation stagnated as she did not enough time to cultivate because of the work at the tavern. Since the tavern is old and famous in the city many people come by making the job really hectic. Moore tried to convince Cindy to continue her cultivation but Cindy refused time and time again, making Moore no choice but to give up the idea.

We had a day off that day when this new friend arrived at the tavern, he was actually an old employee of the tavern who went out to take on some task and was away for quite some time. When we returned to work the day after we initially thought that Mr. Moore got a new employee turns out that he was actually an older employee than us. We talked to him and he was actually a good guy and easy to get along with. His name is Daniel. We also noticed that Cindy feels different since this guy came. She was always shy whenever they had eye contact or when they pass by each other, it was the same with Daniel, they both looked awkward.

Xingye : “They like each other!”

Barlock : “How is that possible, they are just the same age as us. Aren’t you mistaken sister?”

Xingye : “Since when did love have an age restriction?”

Zordick : “Useless emotion!”

Shin : “Brother Zordick I bet you haven’t had a crush before.”

Zordick : “Wanna die?”

Leo : “Y-You aren’t impotent aren’t you?!”

Leo’s voice was so loud that almost everyone in the tavern heard it.

All : “…………………………………………………………………….”

Zordick was too embarrassed to even look at the crown and just bowed his head slightly.

Seeing the embarrassed Zordick, Leo made up something just to get away.

Leo : “Oh someone is calling, I think he will order something. I’ll go there first.”

Zordick : “……………….. Where do you think you’re going? COME BACK HEREEE!! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!”

Everyone : “HAHHAHAHAHHAHA”

That short unforgettable interaction made the atmosphere really lively. Now everyone calls Zordick as the Impotent Killer.

2 days after that hilarious incident Leo and Shin finally managed to get enough affirmation to get their own identity token. On the way back to the tavern Orphius’ group encounter Daniel.

Daniel : “Oh? Where did y’all come from?”

Orphius : “Ah, we just turn the requirement for the identity token of Leo and Shin.”

Daniel : “Right, you aren’t from the city. I also noticed that you’ve been going out frequently this days, is everything alright?”

Orphius : “About that, we’re actually taking turns to go out and look for a place to stay, we don’t want to inconvenience Mr. Moore any longer.”

Daniel : “Well you could stay at my house.”

Barlock : “You own a house?!”

Daniel : “You could say that. Actually, it’s from my father, but since he died in the secret realm 2 years ago it was left to me to take care of.”

Xingye : “…………. Ahem, I’m sorry for discussing such a sensitive topic brother Daniel.”

Daniel : “Not really, it’s been some time already so I’m all good now. If you want you can all stay at my house, it’s two storey and has quite a few empty rooms it can accommodate y’all. It used to be filled with renters but since my father died they all moved out saying it’s bad luck to live in a dead man’s house. It works for me also since there would be no other people living in it and I can do all I want.”

Leo : “We’ll pay for the rent.”

Daniel : “You don’t have to really.”

Barlock : “No, we can’t be freeloaders, we’ll pay our dues.”

Daniel : “But--”

Orphius : “My brothers are right. We can’t just stay without paying, this city is too crowded and has too many visitors and tourists, and finding a house to live in is a challenge having someone offer us a place to stay is already lucky, we can’t abuse your kindness.”

Daniel : “O-Oh alright, if you say so.”

After having a place to stay Orphius and others move out from the tavern. They got close with Daniel pretty quick sharing experiences and advice with cultivation. They also talked about the eldest brother of them all Luo Kai and how amazing he is in Orphius and the other’s eyes. Leo, Shin, and Daniel can’t wait to meet him and see how amazing he truly is.