Chapter 5- To Tread Upon a Path of Bones

As the pair of girl and bird continued their journey onwards Mingtian was truly feeling unresigned in his heart. Such a stark difference in treatment between himself and that oddball his disciple called a mother; he had no words.

Unfortunately it appeared despite all their talk of disciple and master, he had yet to truly earn Baiyue’s respect from the bottom of her heart. The only solution it seemed was to show off a little or else he feared she would truly one day treat his words as nothing but farts in the wind.

『Grampa Ming are you alright? You went quiet all of a sudden.』

『Little Yue I know you call me your Grampa Ming as a term of endearment but I want to hear you call me Master, if only once. I won’t ask that you bow or kowtow to me but I want our relationship to be more than a loose promise between individuals. I had no formal master when I first began my cultivation journey but that also meant that the number of setbacks and pitfalls I experienced are countless. With my experience as your guide I want to see you reach the peak of this world and then go even further.』

『Grampa Ming you are already my Master even if I don’t always say it, so why bring this up now?』

『Because Little Yue, I don’t think you believe in me. I think you’re fond of me, I think you find me knowledgeable and I think you treat me as your benefactor but, you don’t see me as someone you can rely on. Remember this little girl, the moment I accepted you as my disciple I swore in my heart to protect and nurture you to the best of my ability and because of that I will always be your greatest backer.』

『Grampa Ming I … 』

『It’s fine such things do not need to be rushed.』

After ending their talk Mingtian soon became deadly serious as he turned to look out towards the road far ahead of the moving carriages. Despite having the majority of his powers sealed it was possible for the bird to temporarily flex his divine sense, he made a habit of doing this at set intervals in order to avoid possible dangers.

Such dangers for example as how the scout of the Wolf Tide Mercenaries who had been travelling ahead of the caravan ran into trouble a moment ago with bandits. For the time being this was of no concern as the only ones nearby were wastes that Zhaomin and her lot could handle but …

『Little Yue it appears we have trouble.』

Suddenly becoming much more alert than before Baiyue furrowed her brows in confusion as she asked what he meant by that.

『Grampa Ming what kind of trouble are we talking about?』

『Looks like some rouge cultivators at the Qi Gathering Realm control a group of bandits around these parts.』

『Oh no that's terrible! We should hurry and let Big Sis Zhaomin know.』

Suddenly standing up Baiyue began looking in front and behind the carriage she was in so as to find where in the convoy Zhaomin had gotten to. While she couldn’t find the woman herself Baiyue saw one of her mercenaries riding a horse alongside.

『Mister! Over here!』

Turning to the source of the voice the middle aged mercenary rolled his eyes when he saw it was just a little girl.

『Haaah … What is it? If it’s a toilet break, we’re not scheduled to stop again for a while longer so just hold it in ya brat.』

Looking indignant Baiyue thought. “Who needs to pick flowers? The only one who needs to pick flowers here is you, from your head!” Regardless she did not give voice to such things and instead decided to let the man hear what she knew.

『Mister its not that! There’s bandits ahead with a cultivator leading them. You have to tell Big Sis Zhaomin!』

『A cultivator!?』

At Baiyue’s words the mercenary stirred in a panic but then soon calmed down when he really thought about it. In his mind there was no way a little girl like her could know if they were actually about to be attacked afterall.

『Brat, do you even know what a cultivator is? Make up wild stories like that again and I’ll find your parents and tell them to give you a right spanking. A cultivator honestly, if you’re going to lie at least make up a more believable excuse. Really what sort of cultivator is so poor that they need to go out of their way to rob mortals?』

🙦🙥🙧🙤

“God I’m so poor~” thought the bandit lord Nantian Xiao as he surveyed his seemingly impressive pile of loot. From a mortals perspective it could only be said that he was swimming in money, but cultivation was really not easy on the wallet.

While he had gathered an impressive mountain of silver and gold the exchange rate between these things and spirit stones was abysmal to say the least. What’s more anyone with half a brain wouldn’t agree to such a trade in the first place, a spirit stone could be used for a number of things from speeding up personal cultivation, restoring energy in a pinch or powering arrays, the limits were few.

Gold and silver though, they were what, shiny rocks? Their value in the practical sense was not really that great. This was without even mentioning the fact that if one knew the relevant martial laws they could just make their own with a wave of their hand.

Truly it could be said that he, Nantian Xiao had fallen on hard times. Even so despite his embarrassingly low cultivation of 5th layer qi gathering, he could still become a small overlord of an area as long as he didn’t stick his neck out too much.

Deciding he had lamented upon his meagre wealth for long enough the bandit lord called out to his lieutenant, an obese man with greasy smile called only as Fatty Bo.

『Old Bo say, has the raiding party come back from its rounds yet?』

Lowing his head in an ingratiating manner Fatty Bo quickly answered.

『About that Lord Nantian … we have actually lost contact with the raiding party. They haven’t updated us with a messenger for the past two hours already.』

Rubbing his chin in thought Nantian Xiao looked at his loyal follower in an odd manner before asking again.

『Hmm, you don’t suppose they scored big on their latest trip and decided to split with my goods do you?』

Panicking at the implications of his lord’s words Fatty Bo immediately denied such a possibility.

『Milord they wouldn’t have the guts I assure you. Who here doesn’t know what happens to traitors, no if I had to say it’s more likely that they ran into trouble.』

Nodding his head Nantian Xiao too thought as much and merely voiced such things as a test to see if his authority amongst his men remained unchallenged. After all for a bandit leader running a tight ship was most important, have people doubting you and someone will slit your throat in the middle of the night.

『Old Bo have someone go and check on matters. No actually you know what, have Little Fang do some work for once. Damn freeloader, if he wasn’t my own son I would’ve killed him years ago. If just this much was enough get rid of him he wouldn’t be worth keeping around anyway.』

Wearing a queer expression Fatty Bo made sure to ask again just in case he somehow heard wrong.

『Fifth Young Master, is it?』

『Yeah that’s right.』

Doing his best to not show his true thoughts on his face Fatty Bo merely bowed again.

『It shall be as Milord commands.』

Waving his hand as if shooing away a fly the seedy looking man with black hair no longer paid any attention to his servant instead returning to his earlier task of assessing his loot. Said servant was of course just happy to be able to leave without coming out any worse for wear, he was the seventh vice leader of the Nantian Bandits in the end.

What happened to the other six vice leaders one may ask. The only answer they would receive is of course that they soured the Lord Nantian’s mood and quickly became stains upon the wall.

Fatty Bo after making a deceptively quick escape for one of his girth made his way to the room belonging to the Fifth Young Master, Nantian Fang. When he arrived he saw the eleven year old boy quietly reading by the sole window of his room.

Everyone of the Nantian Bandits was very aware of the Fifth Young Master’s strange temperament. Different from his four older brothers Nantian Fang did not revel in fighting and killing, rather he found simple enjoyment in reading and playing Go.

Fatty Bo supposed that he most likely picked up such things from his mother before she passed away. The bandit lord’s fifth wife was a noble woman he’d abducted while she was attending a diplomatic visit to the Rising Era Empire.

She was a woman with a soothing disposition and many of the other bandits actually enjoyed working for her as she practically oozed a sort of natural charisma that gave a feeling of confidence wherever she went. A shame she still died in the end due to illness, even so her son was the proof that she had once existed in this world.

Visually the boy had the well-formed aristocratic features of his late mother combined with the raven black hair of his father. As far as his personality was concerned though the general air around him could only be described as cold and this became especially emphasised after the fifth madam’s death.

Seeing the unexpected visitor in his home Nantian Fang asked what business the annoyingly familiar middle aged man had.

『Fatty Bo, what is it “that person” wants?』

『Fifth Young Master, Lord Nantian is still your father, the least you could do is call him as such.』

『Fatty Bo I do not have such a father. If I had the strength I’d go over and kill him right now.』

“For the normally indifferent Fifth Young Master to have such strong killing intent. It can only be said that he truly hates the boss with all his being.” Thought Fatty Bo as he watched the boy he’d seen grow up from a toddler practically spit venom at the mere mention of Nantian Xiao.

『The Lord has commanded for you to investigate the disappearance of a raiding party that we’ve lost contact with. He said if you could not manage even this then you were not worth keeping around in the first place.』

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『That so? That man probably thinks because I won’t leave until I kill him he can maybe get some use out of me in the meanwhile.』

Before Nantian Fang could manage to give any kind of meaningful response yet another person suddenly barged into his room unannounced.

『Little brother I just heard something very interesting! How about I go with you on this fun sounding trip of yours?』

Glaring at the newcomer Nantian Fang immediately recognized the sleezy voice’s owner. A teenager looking around seventeen or eighteen years of age that stood tall wearing a loose yellow robe and a feathered fan positioned in his dominant hand.

『Nantian Haoran don’t you have some poor woman to terrorize. Get lost I neither need nor want your help.』

『My oh my, so harsh. But you’re not wrong, normally I would have better things to do then hang out with the likes of you. Lately though I’ve been growing bored and I thought a trip outside might be good for a change of pace. Besides who knows, maybe I could even find a new toy or two, anything’s possible.』

Shaking his head Nantian Fang did not even want to look at the monster that had the gall to call itself his brother.

『You disgust me.』

『Hehehe, I’ll take that as a compliment. So~ are you coming … or not?』

“Bastard knows I hate crap like this. Still though it would be better to go anyway if only to minimise the damage caused by this psycho.” Nantian Fang took a moment to weigh the pros and cons in his mind before eventually giving his answer.

『Fine, I’ll go.』

『Oh yay~ some fun brotherly bonding. Don’t worry Big Bro here will teach you how to loosen up. I’ll keep an eye out for your type and even help you take them home if we get the chance.』

『Shut up, don’t talk to me.』

“What type? Like hell he would even know what my type is. Even so like he said anything’s possible. Haoran might even die, wouldn’t that be a hoot.” Such dark thoughts swirled in the unwilling Nantian Fang’s mind as he and his half-brother left the bandit camp following the road towards where the raiding party disappeared.

🙦🙥🙧🙤

Back with the merchant caravan a wounded mercenary limped his way along the road towards the moving carriages. A wary Fei Zhaomin called all vehicles to a stop in order to investigate the man’s injuries.

『Brother Four your wounds … what happened?』

Relieved to see friendly faces the gruff man soon relaxed and sat down on the ground as others tended to his wounds.

『Boss, it was bandits.』

『Bandits huh. I suppose I should’ve expected as much. Still though it looks like they did quite a number on you.』

With a sheepish expression the scout was quick to defend himself.

『Boss I of course wouldn’t lose to a bunch of ex-farmers awkwardly swinging around rusty swords. These guys are professionals, some of them even had a few attainments in Martial Foundation. I’m a seasoned veteran and even I’m only on my fourth attainment, bandits they may be, but they’re pretty well organised all the same.』

Zhaomin thought about their situation for a moment before giving voice to her main concerns.

『Not good. If they have members in Martial Foundation then it means they’re either a splinter group of the army that went rouge or they have a cultivator backing them. Either way they’ve probably got a camp around some unnoticed demi-spring and are launching raids to nearby roads using that as their base.』

Looking back towards the mercenary on the ground she asked about his opponents.

『Brother Four did you deal with your pursuers?』

Said man smirked cockily before replying in a somewhat proud tone.

『Don’t worry Boss I gave as good as I got. Even if I didn’t kill all of them those remaining were hardly in any condition to go anywhere either.』

『Don’t be too complacent. These guys having so many members in Martial Foundation wouldn’t have been possible without a spirit spring to heal them. Even a lowest level demi-spring would still produce spirit water, a bit of time and anyone you didn’t kill is probably up and walking around already after chugging a mouthful or two.』

『Even if that’s true Boss, if I could deal with them then with all of us together they don’t stand a chance.』

Zhaomin merely shook her head and decided to stamp out such thoughts from her subordinates.

『Heaven and earth is cruel if you wish to survive as a mortal then its important to have the correct mentality of a mortal. If they really have one or more cultivators backing them then even if they are only in Qi gathering no matter how many of us gang up, it will most likely still be futile in the end. No, if we want to survive and complete our mission then we need to pass through this area as quickly as possible before we stir any of the high ranking members against us.』

Almost as if to mock Zhaomin’s words the Nantian brothers along with the surviving members of the raiding party slowly stepped out of the trees.

『Oya, oya, what have we here? Could it be that a caravan was trying to pass through without paying the toll?』

Sensing roughly the strength of the teens in front of her Zhaomin was on full alert and immediately reached for her sword before going into a guarded stance.

『Stay where you are! Another step and my brothers and I will fight you to the last!』

Of course her threat only seemed to amuse Nantian Haoran more than anything else. With a smile he carelessly looked away from the mercenary group and spoke to Nantian Fang instead.

『So feisty~ Say little brother does she tickle your fancy? A strong independent woman is the most fun to break afterall.』

Despite saying so much already Nantian Fang still didn’t respond to his half-brother’s provocations and merely stared forward at his prospective foes.

『How boring, well more fun for me then I guess. We’ll just have to keep looking, maybe they’ll be a winner hiding amongst the carriages. Something in the future to look forward to, after we deal with this pretty looking swordswoman of course.』

Thinking of the innocent grey haired girl she’d recently become acquainted with Zhaomin was enraged by Haoran’s words. Deciding to no longer waste her breath on the pair in front of her she charged out with a battle cry that was echoed by her fellow mercenaries.

Zhaomin’s real weapon was a large greatsword even taller than herself. It was because of this that she normally didn’t keep it with her and was thus unarmed when she met Baiyue.

The sword itself was usually carried by her second in command Brother One but the moment she detected the approach of the bandits she instantly grabbed her weapon from him in preparation for the battle ahead. As it was now she used that oh so very great sword to swing down a powerful diagonal slash hoping to cleave both brothers in two and end the battle before it started.

Reality is often different from expectations however as Nantian Haoran used his seemingly flimsy fan to casually redirect her strike away from his body and towards one of her own comrades. The mercenary who became the new target was barely able to avoid losing an arm at the last second but was still inflicted with a massive wound to his side.

『Damn! All of you make space these bastards are hard to deal with. Take Brother Nine with you and give him the spare spirit water, he’s bleeding out too fast at this rate.』

Some of the mercenaries behind her did as instructed pulling their injured brother to the back of the battle. The injured man himself Brother Nine objected to the use of the spirit water though.

『Guh! Boss … this doesn’t … look good … you should keep the spirit water for yourself. It was my fault for being careless, don’t let me drag the rest of you down!』

『Enough! Shut up and leave things to us. Brother One help me deal with these clowns, the rest of you have the fodder.』

『『『Yes Captain!!!』』』

Following that chorused shout the battle resumed all around. Zhaomin was not wrong to call the rest of the enemies fodder, in terms of both quality and quantity the remnant raiding party stood no chance against the Wolf Tide Mercenaries.

The problem was not here though, in a world where cultivation is the mainstream the outcome of a battle is usually never decided between the number of enemies but rather the strength shown by the higher ups.

In her brief exchange of moves with Nantian Haoran Zhaomin quickly became aware of a huge problem. Again strongly feeling the cruelty of fate, the mercenary leader had a question she couldn’t help but ask.

『You, the pervert in the yellow robe.』

Despite the mean spirited title Haoran made no effort to deny such an accusation and instead only replied in high spirits.

『What is it darling~?』

『You’re actually in the Qi gathering Realm aren’t you?』

Chuckling at the pointed question Haoran asked one of his own meant to tear down at her spirit.

『Why do you want to know? Jealous? Merely six and a half attainments, that’s my measure of you and do you know what that tells me? It tells me that you’ve been stuck there for a looooong time, just look at my constipated little brother here only eleven and already caught up to me at the 1st layer. You, you don’t have spirit roots do you?』

Having her greatest shame poked and prodded like that Zhaomin bit her lip hard almost to the point of drawing blood. In the end though the experiences she built up as the leader of the Wolf Tide Mercenaries helped her to keep her cool and not immediately charge out again without a plan.

Those at the Qi Gathering realm were able to absorb energy from their surroundings and store it inside their dantian. This energy or qi as it’s called when circulated through the meridians would have an extreme reinforcement upon the body allowing for far and above enhanced strength and senses.

Even so their bodies would only be a little tougher than someone who had achieved Skin Fortification and as such Zhaomin knew that a well-placed blade carried with enough force would be enough to land a killing blow. Easier said then done however as proved by Haoran’s leisure as he parried her slash, enhanced senses and speed meant that from the brothers’ perspective she may as well have been moving in slow motion.

Such was life though as despite knowing the height of the wall in front of her Zhaomin had no choice but to climb anyway.

『Brother One hold off the younger one as long as you can! I promise I’ll deal with this guy quickly and go over to help you after.』

『Sure thing Boss but do hurry yeah! This pretty boy gives me bad vibes.』

Zhaomin too found herself silently agreeing with her subordinate when she thought about it “That black haired brat may not have made any moves so far but he hasn’t shown any openings this entire time either. Is this the so called lion using all its strength even when hunting a rabbit? Please give me a break”.

It appeared the time for complaints was over however as Nantian Haoran soon lost his patience and charged forward with a sadistic laugh.

『Hahahaha~! Talk is cheap, show me how you can follow up on your words!』

『Damn it!』

With no other choice Zhaomin grit her teeth and decided to meet him head on. A flurry of steel met with the flutter of a fan as several moves were exchanged in an instant. Like before the mercenary captain came out behind only this time with several deep gashes along her arm to show for it.

『So your fan had blades hidden under the feathers huh?』

Analysing her wounds in a dispassionate manner Zhaomin did not let her injuries discourage her.

『Exactly, see it’s just like me. As deadly as it is beautiful.』

Following his words the teen spread the fan wide showing off the row of dagger like points along its edge.

『You really must try harder darling~ You’ll never beat me at this rate.』

『Shut up you bandit scum!』

Despite showing a tough attitude on the surface, in her mind Zhaomin couldn’t help her rising worry “As much as I hate to admit it that perverts got a point. He’s way too fast for me to catch, if I want to beat him I’ve gotta keep him still somehow.”

Looking around for a means to escape her deadlock the short haired woman eventually raised the corner of her lips when she noticed the way her flamboyant opponent was cooling himself with his battlefan.

“That’s it!” with a decisive gleam in her eye Zhaomin grabbed her sword firmly with both hands and charged forward at maximum speed. Noticing the assault of his opponent Nantian Haoran prepared himself to parry the incoming strike as he had before.

Surprisingly enough though Zhaomin did not actually attack the teen himself but rather stopped a metre away and struck at the ground with all her accumulated force. The strength of her blow knocked massive amounts of dirt and dust into the air causing something of an improvised smokescreen.

As it was now Haoran could barely see in front of his own face but even so he was far from worried if anything he only found the situation hilarious.

『This was your plan? To blind me and then attack while my guards down? Hahahah~ A street urchin could see through you!』

Despite his jeers and deliberates taunts however he was met with only silence in response. Beginning to grow bored with playing around the bandit prince decided that enough was enough and he was going to show that wannabe mercenary her place in this world.

『Bitch you want to ignore me!? You think your soooo clever right? Well how about this, my weapon’s a fan and do you know what fans are best at? Blowing things away!』

Using all his strength of the first layer of Qi gathering the yellow robed teen pulled back his arm. Greatly telegraphing his movements, he swung his fan hard blowing away all the dust from his surroundings.

It was at that exact second though that Nantian Haoran saw the spectre of death. At the moment the cloud was cleared the figure of Zhaomin standing in the same spot she was before a bit over one metre away became visible.

As the tip of his bladed fans passed within only an inch of her face the fearless woman swung in time with him. Haoran had put all his strength behind his arms and because of that it was impossible to react in time.

When her greatsword glinted past it left a thick spray of scarlet in its wake. Clutching his side where the near fatal slash continually stained his yellow robes, Haoran felt as much confusion as he did pain.

『How did you do it!? How the hell did you move faster than me?!』

Looking down at her victim with eyes like chips of ice Zhaomin was not above taunting a fallen enemy.

『I didn’t. I knew there was no way to outpace you so I just made you walk in front of my blade instead. I, swung, first.』

Realisation dawned in Haoran’s eyes as he put the pieces of terrifying woman’s trap together.

『The dust cloud wasn’t just to blind me was it? It was bait, to make me move like you wanted me to. But how did you know I would react that way!?』

With her blood coated sword raised high the veteran mercenary slowly walked towards the proverbial execution block. Seeing the approaching steel Haoran wanted nothing more than to escape but his wound made it impossible to even stand let alone run.

Zhaomin stopped right in front of the whimpering bandit and before finishing the job threw his earlier words back at him.

『I’m really fuckin clever … bitch.』

The greatsword fell as a scream echoed all around and on that day a rare moment occurred. A cultivator’s head rolled because they strangely enough made the unfortunate mistake of picking a fight with the wrong mortal.