After the meeting with the captain of the guard Rowen, and his personal attendant old Wan. The two men and one boy took separate houses to sleep for the night, nevertheless, in the closest proximity to the village hall, where Adrian and the two others were at the moment.

At this very moment, Levis was in the house belonging to the old village chief. However, he could not sleep as he was clenching a small transparent pebble-like stone while scrutinizing it from all directions, so as to understand it better.

[This little stone has a lot of energy in it? Senior Wan said something like---, ranks 6, that is a lot, right? Compared to where I stand now, how much is it?]

[Yes, it has a lot of energy, if you are to compare yourself to it, as this soybean has the energy equal, to the dantian of your “Captain”.]

[Does that mean, if I absorbed these two, I will be twice as strong as captain Rowen?]

[I told you before, more energy means nothing if you don’t know how to apply it in battle, though that is not a bad thing, however, what is truly bad, is for you being found out, that you had absorbed the two soybeans of nutrients in one night. The best you can take is one-tenth from one of the stones, if you still have in mind to appear normal. However, if you want to beat him, just use my move and blow him into pieces]

[Only a small part, of one of the stones. How am I to grow strong if I limit myself like this.]

[When did I say anything to limit you, do not worry this stone will be useful to you later on. Now It is time to teach you about skin energy absorption, and go beyond just breathing, as it is far too slow and inconvenient, when you are required to absorb even more energy from now on.]

[Taking energy thru my skin. Does that mean I have to activate the cells of my skin?]

[Yes, you finely are starting to understand something about how to cultivate, even as this, is only too obvious. Now relax, activate your cells, release any restraint and let the impulse of hunger for energy take over, automatically.]

[Alright, I am doing it now!]

At the same moment, the skin of Levis’s finger started to become a sponge, as more and more energy, from the air encompassing him inside the house, was being seized by his cells as though innumerable starving men, who ate everything they could get their hands on.

Moreover, as time progressed, a small disturbance was observed by Levis, as the air close to his finger seemed to have a strange blur-like effect, making his eyebrows crease in the inspection of the sudden, and strange event.

[What is this?]

[This is the problem, that I have warned you about if you are to cultivate while putting no restraints on yourself. Your rate of absorption of energy is something that should not be possible, given the pitiful amount of energy in you, as a cultivator. Now stop, before the white hair boy will notice the strange flow of energy in the air.]

Not a moment later, the strange blur around his finger dissipated as everything became normal once again, though the eyes of the boy, were once again on the small transparent pebble between his fingers.

[So, how will I use this little stone, and absorb the energy in it?]

[You can crush it and make it release its energy into the air or send some of your energy at it, so it can release its energy into the surrounding area, or in your case put it in your mouth, and suck it like a candy, just activate your cells on your tongue and let them absorb the energy from the stone---, or you can keep it in your hand, it does not really matter in this aspect, just let it touch a part of your skin.]

[Alright just one-tenth of the—, how much is one-tenth of this?]

[Just go slowly, I will warn you when you are approaching the limit, any way it will take a few days to take it all. This way you will not suffer from too much of a jump in power, and screw with your perception of your ability. Now start already, and continue to leave one-tenth of your whole power to those things.]

[Yes, yes. I will begin now. Good night to you both!]

[Aha-aha, sleep well, and cultivate well, my disciple.]

Levis immediately took the pebble and placed it, in his mouth, as energy was flowing from it into himself at a rate almost equal to that of when he was unrestrained, despite him lowering the number of cells to absorb the energy from the small shard.

[ [Good night?!] ]

[ [Just take it as a good sign, of him finely opening to you.] ]

[ [What? Why to me? What about you?] ]

[ [I had no problem with little Levis’s actions, the only one, and almost every time, to make him angry was you, so you can understand that this is about you, and not me.] ]

[ [---.] ]

[ [What are you so shocked, that you are out of words?] ]

[ [------.] ]

[ [We will talk tomorrow then.] ]

While the few lights were going out, in the small village that was having a bit of life after some days of solitude and absence of human activity, the full blow cover of the night enveloped everything, as the moon was giving a soft light from its half white glowing side, making the trees and houses, just barely visible for any human eye.

Though the darkness could not stay for long, as time passed, and the moon was moving away as though moved by the weak glow of the sun, that could be barely made in the distance, over the opposite hill.

“Time to wake up, young Levis!”

“Aaa—, w-who?”

[Idiot, take that thing out of your mouth.]

It was out of nowhere that someone called for the boy, to wake from his half-sleeping state that was more of a cultivation session than true sleep. However, as he was still having the small shard in his mouth, while he was questioning the speaker, only to be reminded of that, but he was immediately awake in shock, as he opened his mouth and spit out the transparent pebble.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“It is me, have you forgotten my—, did you just spit out the shard, from your mouth!?”

However, his action was still caught by the sudden intruder in the house, as the man was nonother than the old man called Wan.

“N-no.”

However, as the old man looked at the boy with a wry grin on his face, he began to massage his forehead, at this strange situation.

“Well, it is my fault for giving you the shards and not explaining how to use them. Anyway, prepare yourself, as the guards transporting the horses will arrive here any time, by now. We will leave immediately at their arrival.”

“Ahh, yes. I understand. Ahh— I will first go to my house, and then come to the hall.”

“Very well, if you have something that you might want to take, do it, as this is the last moment to do so. We will await you at the center of the village.”

“Yes, it will not take long.”

As the old man turned around once he took another weird look at the boy, Levis moved outside as well, though he began to walk toward a house near the exterior of the village, a rather small, and shabby-looking house, made out of wood, and mud, that looked like it was on the verge of falling apart.

However, as Levis walked inside, the first chamber, or better said the first half of the house was the kitchen in which, there was a mud fire stove, a big table, and three chairs surrounding the said table.

But as he continued to the second chamber, two beds that could be barely considered beds were occupying most of the space, nonetheless, what attracted the boy's attention was a shelf where three wooden carved figures were standing.

An angry and vicious wolf, a man with a weapon that could not be understood if it was a staff, spear, sword, or a blade, while the man was laughing or having a condescending chuckle, and in last, a mad man, that gave the feeling he was set on dying, if it meant killing you, all of them seemed old and gave the feeling of having been played with.

Although as Levis, walked over to the bed, nine other small and strange little statues were on the ground, evidently having fallen to the floor, from the small earthquake that happened to the village two days ago.

[What are these statues? Your toys?]

[No and yes]

As he grasped, one of the fallen statues, a stern, and apathetic fisherman, that had no eyes was in his hand, though Levis looked at it for a moment, before placing it once more, on the shelves next to the others, as he continued to take them, one by one, while also beginning to arrange them all twelve statues in a preknown order, by him.

[These are the little statues that grandpa had made for all my birthdays. I was searching for a soft tree to make me another one, for my thirteen birthday, however, this will be, all I will ever have from him.]

Nevertheless, as he was reminding himself of the life that he had lost, his eyes harden as he was forcing himself to stop any kind of emotion from surfacing at the moment. However, as he took one of the statues to his nose to smell it a small grin of happiness emerged, as he change the statue and check another one as he looked at a small cut of imperfection, to brighten his face still, only to calm down in an instant after putting back on the shelf.

[The medicinal smell from gramma Hel is still on the statue of the explorer, and the silent watcher still has the cut that I made with the old village chief knife, I thought I could make it better only to nearly cut my finger off and be scolded all day.]

Though he immediately turned around to move towards the other half of the house and returned with a small piece of cloth that he put on his bed before taking all twelve little figures and placing the above it, after which he folded the piece of cloth in a sack, and carrying them all in his improvised sack.

Ultimately he exited the house, with the sack on his back, though he did not move towards the center of the village, as he took a turn and began to descend down the hill, to where the village graveyard was located.

As he stood unmoving, looking at the graveyard's, new graves and some of the old ones, the countenance in his eyes changed and deepen, as though he was exchanging the innocence of the ignorant child, for the understanding of a cynic, skeptic, and unfamiliar young man.

“It will probably be a long time before I will return back here. When I return, my name will care a much heavier presence, actually probably not many will know me because of certain someone."

"However, until I will be---, and even after I will become the greatest man in the world---, I will not bow to anyone, “be it my father, my mother, a king, or god, not even in my death, but only to those that had shown me kindness and gratitude”.”

As he was making his small vow, Levis made a small bow towards the graveyard, as his eyes were slightly red, and his body was trembling in the most subtle way.

Nevertheless, his back straightened, as he took the road thru the trees, while he reached the village in a few moments, while also carrying the sack full of his little statues, moving directly toward the center of the village.

At the same moment, in the middle of the village, Rowen was looking at the small and impoverished village, as it was the first time he had seen such habitations, as the night he had arrived he had not put much attention to his surroundings, however, he could not focus for much as the figure of Levis running towards him while carrying a sort of irregularly shaped sack, captured his whole attention.

“Is that everything you will take with you?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, it will be strange to walk with this, give it here, I will keep it for you.”

“What? There is no need for you to do so, I can carry my things.”

“Just give it to me, and you will see how I will carry your sack.”

“Alright, if you want so much to do it.”

However, as Levis gave his sack to Rowen, the latter, however, had a change in his eyes as they become somewhat odd, as out of curiosity he checked the strange sack, only to see a dozen wooden figurines.

“Is this all you have---, want to take? Cloths, a weapon, or money?”

“My clothes seemed to have been taken, probably by the aunty village chief, for a weapon all I have is this carving knife of my grandpa, for the money you are talking about—, I don’t have any, old Village Chief had said, the in a place where a lot of people live, they use circle metal stones called money to trade, however here there is no such thing.”

“Ehh!!!?”

However, at this moment he did not know how to react as he had the impression of hitting an empty wall of ignorance and poverty named Levis. Although he had known that the villagers were somewhat ignorant about the outside world, he had never imagined meeting someone like this.

Even as his eyelids were twitching in sequence one time for the right and another time for the left, he could not lose himself at the mere moment of stupefaction made by the boy. As he took a somewhat small black cube and touched the sack with it, making it disappear before Levis's shocked eyes that glittered with amazement.

“Is that—, a space stone?”

“Yes, how do you know about the space stones?”

However, a slight doubt immediately sprung inside Rowen's mind as he heard Levis's words, which seemed out of place when contrasted with his image of an ignorant child.

“I heard from it from Hubert and the others when we were eating---, can you store a lot of things inside of it?”

“Ahh—.Yes, yes, it is very useful for carrying objects, however, it is far too expensive if you think of wanting one, before you reach the Immortal stage, it is better to focus on cultivation, we will talk again at that time. It seems it is time to leave.”

As Rowen gave a nod with his head, Levis turned towards the road leading out of the village to the south, where old Wan was coming alongside ten other guards, while some of them had an additional horse, while two other horses were dragging a wagon towards them.

The guards that came for them, did not stop for rest, as they immediately move to transport the wounded Adrian on the wagon, where many thick blankets were stacked on one another, to make the ride more comfortable for him.

While others brought the meat, from the horses, that the scout had butchered, as Rowen used his space stone once more, to hold it, for the journey back.

“Alright! We leave! Levis, on the wagon with the driver, the rest formation front, formation back, protect the wagon as we move. Depart!!!”

However, not even five minutes after the guards had arrived, they were ordered to turn back, as Rowen, old Wan, Hubert, and the scout took a horse for each one of them to ride back, while the guards divided themselves at the front and at the back of the wagon.

Yet, the ride could be said to be extremely boring, as thanks to the wagon the speed was reduced significantly, forcing Levis to change stares between the river going east, the hills and the mountains in the far distance to the north, or the almost boring grass of the prairie that seemed to never end.

Although, the situation was made worst, by the fact that no one was talking, while the day was simply passing by.

From the young captain Rowen that seemed relatively close in personality with that of Adrian, though caring a far greater resolve in its eyes, to the senior Wan, who despite being calm, his unpredictable looks at their surroundings did not escape Levis’s sharp eyesight. From the ecstatic grin on Hubert's face that seemed to be daydreaming, to the scout that gave the feeling of someone, that had started to lose heart for the action of the field, or from the guards that appeared to be tired, there were no words to be heard.

As silence was prominent on their entourage, Levis was forced to slowly cultivate, while breathing in the most moderate way possible, as Urger had warned him about the possibility of being eyed by senior Wan, even though, he himself did not know how powerful the old man was, or if the age that Urger had given him was true.

In face of everything, Levis had no choice but to stand in the front sitting place of the wagon, from the moment the sun was up, to the moment that it was down, as night had caught them, while they could just barely make the encampment in the far distance.

“We have arrived! Let us move, it is time to rest!!”