Audun stood there like a stone pillar, with people flowing like river water fleeing on either side of him. Most of them just instinctively went around him. The few who did notice his presence shot him looks of pleading and helplessness. It really hit him how low the bar of power was outside of the capital of the Baste clan. Average people would never leave the middling Nascent stage, so a peak expert of the true realm would be a lord to them. He could just imagine the wistful stories of immortal cultivators flying the sky being told to children, a fantasy to them. In his world, it was a common occurrence, just a thing that was for those who were strong. An Earth expert could fly with a treasure they imbued power in, and a Sky expert could literally take to the skies with their own bodies. It wasn’t until the Saint rank, however, that one would have sustained, indefinite flight.

Avari could see the crowd parting around one spot. and she could only assume that’s where Audun was. She felt a nudge of worry, not being sure if that's where he was and if he had encountered the bandits or not. It was stupid, sure, he was at the peak of the true stage. But she was older than him, if only by two years, and she could tell that she could defeat him if it came to it.  Her techniques far outstripped his own.

After several minutes, the crowd cleared and Avari made her way next to Audun. The gang of bandits then slowly came forward on their horses. There were a few outliers who who broke off to pillage the village, however a core group of three remained moving forward, stopping ten meters away from Audun and Avari.

They all had shocking cultivation bases, with the ones to the left and right of the main bandit having cultivation bases of the ninth and peak stages respectively. They both wore ragtag clothes of cotton, with the bandits salamander insignia across the left and right breasts. The one to the left had short red hair, while the one on the right had long blonde hair. The most shocking of the trio, however, was the one in the center, who had a cultivation base of the second level Earth realm. His figure was huge, with hair trimmed to the scalp and harsh, violet eyes.

“Some brave children want to play I see. I’ll give you both one chance, give me all of your valuables, and you leave with your lives.”

Audun had a look of stubborn determination in his eyes, while Avari had one of panicked contemplation. Both were unwilling to give up what they had, even if all he had was a special belt that could store valuables he would one day receive. He found it on the edge of the forest, and he could only assume some unlucky traveler met an unfortunate fate with one of the few demonic beasts in this world.

Avari, however, held a wealth of life saving treasures. In all honesty, she could easily escape here with one of them. It just happened she was unwilling to waste such precious items on such a lowly person. She would if it came down to it, but if they could somehow remove the two people behind the lead bandit.

“Hahaha, it seems you two have some spunk. How about this then, you two join my little gang, and we will only take half of your valuables.”

“You aren’t the one I’m looking for, too bad really. It would’ve been nice to have achieved that goal so easily.” Audun finally realized that this man was not the one who had broken him those many months ago. This one had an exceedingly weak foundation, and an injured one at that. He could tell from how the Qi reacted to the man that his power was only slightly above Audun’s own. A normal person would never know, but Audun was not normal.

“Hmph, I suppose that arrogant response is a no. And you girlie? It’d be a shame for someone with your beauty to die with this brat.” 

Almost as if by a sixth sense, Avari could feel Audun nudging her to press his temper. “As if, you ugly pervert. Do you really have to kidnap innocent 14 year olds to find a wife.” 

Before she had even finished speaking, Audun riled up the horses with world Qi, and had launched himself towards the peak true expert. Reaching out with his left hand, he grabbed the neck of the cultivator. and used the elemental Ki of air to burst his windpipe before he could get his defences up. He then kicked backwards off the dead expert’s horse, flipping away from the sword that was screaming towards him. Just as he seemed to get far enough away to dodge it, a shadow slicked off and left a cut through his back. Luckily it was just a flesh wound, but it stung like hell.

Avari was just barely slower, but her seconds of lateness allowed the ninth level expert to throw up a defense. Unfortunately for him, Avari had kunai that had the inscription pattern from a saint level beast carved on them. Inscriptions were a somewhat rare magic, that relied upon using a special bone in a demon beasts body to copy the inscription from. The inscription was how the demon beasts had special abilities, and the stronger one was, the stronger the inscription.

So the expert was dead in a flash of lightning, with some of the bolts trickling on onto the Earth expert. His eyes flew red with rage. In an instant, his two pillars of strength had been wiped out. He sensed these two children were strong, but he never could have imagined that they had the resources to finish both of his men in a flash. Now his bandit clan was destined for destruction, his damaged cultivation wasn’t strong enough to keep it afloat. But if his clan was doomed, he could doom these children too.

“You both will regret not taking my kindness.” All of the sudden, the light skinned bandit leader turned black as night, seemingly absorbing all light that tried to touch him. This darkness trickled off of him, and his sword had transformed into a long sickle. By this time, the other bandits seemed to notice what had happened, and they all chose to flee. When the leader was like this, anyone in his sight would die.

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Audun gasped at how much power radiated from the man, it was astonishing. He could only sense a sixth of what the bandit was displaying now. One of the biggest differences between the True and Earth level was that the Earth level was able to manifest their ki into a visible form, and in turn the Ki would be hundreds of times more potent. Only in special circumstances, like with Audun’s spirit ring that was infused into his left hand, could one manifest Ki before the Earth realm.

The bandit vanished from Audun’s sight for a moment, causing him to panic for a split second. He then quickly used his world sense to find out where the bandit was, and just barely rolled out of the way of a scythe aimed at his head. He struggled to keep the bandit in his view for a few more strikes, before he realized that this was the first fight that he would have to use just his sense. Slowly, the bandits crazed scythe swing missed by more and more.

Avari stood on the sidelines in amazement. “He is gaining enlightenment in the midst of battle, he truly is a genius.” She was not lost in amazement although, she had another kunai ready, for whenever it appeared it was too dangerous for Audun. It wouldn’t kill or seriously injure the expert, but it will be enough to get Audun and herself to safety.

Audun found himself enjoying the thrill of the fight like never before. This was certainly not his first engagement, nor the first one where the odds were as stacked and high as they are now. He had faced his share of demon beasts, but this was the first time fighting had brought him such pleasure. Smiling, he decided to launch a counter attack.

This is just what the bandit wanted. Audun leaped forward, preparing a world Qi pressure point strike, a strike that used world Qi to clog the Qi pathway and render it unusable, when the shadows in the center of the man launched out in retaliation. Three spikes lodged themselves into Audun, and the bandit prepared to finish him off, when Avari launched her kunai.

To her surprise, when it hit the man, he toppled over. A person of the second level Earth realm should not be felled this easily, but when the shadows disappeared, she saw the truth. He was a broken man, breaking himself further to take down his enemies. But she did not care about this, as Audun was bleeding fairly heavily.

“Arimasen, you arrogant little idiot! You could have been killed!” He smiled sheepishly, and as she came over, the bleeding stopped. The wounds were still there, but the bleeding was closed off.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a few flesh wounds.” Avari rolled her eyes, and went into her interspatial ring, retrieving a few medicinal ingredients. Audun let her apply them, and although they stung a bit, the wounds closed up. Audun then stood up and walked over to the fallen bandit.

“You’re not dead, get up. I need to ask you a few questions.”

“If I had any kind of Qi left, you’d be dead. I’ll answer nothing.”

A dark look flashed over Audun. He was a child, but the forest had tempered some of his childlike tendencies. He raised his left hand toward the man, and heated the air that was going into his lungs. The bandit's eyes opened wide, and he screamed. Audun tried his hardest to not let his sympathy show, but he couldn’t stop his hand from wavering. Avari saw this, and a look of motherly gentleness swept over her eyes.

She lightly grasped his arm. “What do you want to know, Arimasen? Is it about the bandits that killed your family?” Reservation swept through his eyes, but then a look of trust entered them.

“Ask him about bandits that attacked close to the inner courtyard of the Baste Clan, and destroyed a noble child's dantian. I overheard the leader bragging about it, and that probably is more descriptive than some no name village.” Audun left Avari there with the bandit, not looking back. He couldn’t show them his tears, although he is sure Avari saw them welling up. He may be strong, but he is too young. He found a spot outside the village, a spot that overlooked a valley that one would have to cross to get to Joka territory, and sat down. He imagined that his journey was through there next, unless he could convince Avari to take him to the Bandits hideout. That probably wouldn’t happen though. He would be fine not going right away, however. The stronger he is, the easier time it will be getting revenge.

Avari found him around an hour later, with a grim look on her face. “Well Arimasen, I have some bad news. He knew exactly who you were speaking of, and the leader of that group is the direct Vassal of the King of Thieves, Handen Vance. The King is a fifth level sky expert. I’m sorry Armisen, but there is no way we are going to be able to take him on alone. If you come with me to the Joka clan, and train hard, you could become a Sky expert yourself within twelve years. At that point, our clan would allow you to take a group of experts, and you could get your revenge.”

A frown fell on Audun’s face, but he also felt a sense of hope. For the first time, he had a goal that was in his sights. He looked up at Avari, and allowed a big smile to engulf his face. He ran up and hugged her.

“Thank you so much Avari!”

“Let go of me or I will kill you for touching a main branch family member.”