Chapter 10: A warning!

“I just saw her crying outside. They didn’t take her with them?” Luo Ling looked around, but aside from Mother Yi, he saw no one else. The entire orphanage had gotten oddly quiet.

“Take her! To where? She is only nine years old.” Mother Yi shook her head. “The sect won’t accept them until they are sixteen years old at least.”

“Sixteen? Then what’s the point of the talent assessment being done now?” Luo Ling wondered out loud.

“The sect is a place to groom talented cultivators, not a kindergarten.” Mother Yi shook her head. “The purpose of talent assessment is indeed to find children with potential. However, whether they are qualified to join the sect will depend on their efforts in the coming seven years.”

Luo Ling furrowed his brows and appeared confused, not understanding what she meant. But Mother Yi didn’t explain herself and brushed past him, walking away. She didn’t even answer his earlier question on Xiao Ru. This left Luo Ling, who wanted to know about the selection procedure, a bad taste in his mouth.

He shrugged and returned to his room after lingering around the door for some time. He was not interested in knowing what made a little girl cry anyway.

-~X~-

It was still early to tuck in. Luo Ling blew off the candle and sat cross-legged on the bed. Before he called it a day, one last thing needed to be done in his daily training routine: Meditation. For a Martial Master, meditation is the way to increase their mental force and then refine their bodies with it.

But Luo Ling had not reached that stage yet. For a second-rate martial artist like him, meditation only served one purpose— practicing self-control.

As he had already walked through that path once, Luo Ling knew the troubles he would face when he stepped into the Martial Master realm in the future. It takes hours to refine one’s body with mental force— an agonizingly slow process. The practitioner must stay idle throughout the process without even flinching a muscle. If they do, then, they would have to start over again.

Back then, Luo Ling spent more than a year just to pass through the first hurdle of the Martial Master stage because he could not sit still for more than a few hours.

This time around, he didn’t want a repeat of what happened back then. Luo Ling was determined to accomplish all stages of the Martial Master realm within a year or less. For this lofty goal, he was doing his best to teach himself patience.

Breath in. Breath out.

Luo Ling echoed in his head with his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell rhythmically as he concentrated all his focus on an imaginary dot inside his mind. Since he had yet to awaken his mental force, he didn’t have a solid target to focus on.

He didn’t enter his inner world as there was no meaning in doing it.

Time passed with a languid crawl, and after two hours of unwavering meditation, Luo Ling felt a growing numbness in his back. His eyes grew heavy, the weight of the day’s relentless training finally pressing down upon him.

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Letting out a yawn, he loosened his body and laid down comfortably. Within a few minutes, he was out like a light.

-~X~-

Luo Ling welcomed the next day with a determined look.

Getting off the bed, he beelined to the backyard of the orphanage, hoping to get his morning routine done before the kids awoke. He dreaded the inevitable chaos that would ensue and had no desire to face a horde of whining brats so early in the day.

Today, Luo Ling decided to go out into the forest to hunt. The meals he had in the village didn’t have the necessary nutrients he needed. Besides, he was also running low on money.

Luo Ling completed a round of the Iron Muscles Steel Veins Body Forging Technique, gaining a point in proficiency. While the improvement wasn't drastic, he didn’t mind. Even the smallest droplets can fill a bucket given enough time, and he had all the time in the world.

His other morning routines were a quick affair. Thanks to the body-forging exercise, his metabolism had far surpassed an average human’s, resulting in a better breakdown of food. Luo Ling’s body hardly had solid waste to excrete these days.

Back in his room, Luo Ling dressed in tight-fitting clothes and secured his ankles and wrists with strings. The forest was teeming with insects, many of them poisonous, and he couldn't risk them getting to his vulnerable organs. If even one managed to infiltrate his body, nothing but a slow and horrible death would await him.

Luo Ling had witnessed such things happening many times in his life, both in Murim and here. Needless to say, he had developed a healthy fear of them.

Next, he picked up his trusty bow and the quiver with metal-tipped arrows from under the bed. He usually had them hidden so the kids in the orphanage wouldn’t stumble upon them by accident and hurt themselves.

Buckling up the quiver to his back, he slung the bow over his shoulders. The stone dagger was strapped to his belt, carefully hidden away from sight. Luo Ling treated it as a sort of hidden weapon for emergencies.

Looking down at his getup, Luo Ling nodded in satisfaction. He appeared presentable as a proper hunter.

Now, it’s time to hunt.

-~X~-

At the towering gates of the village, Luo Ling met a familiar man whose shiny bald head and unkempt beard stood out like a sore thumb. Gatekeeper Daluo cut a valiant figure as he patrolled the entrance.

Luo Ling’s appearance immediately grabbed his attention and he flashed a smile. In response, Luo Ling acknowledged him with a nod before continuing on his way.

“Wait a second, Ling.”

Suddenly, gatekeeper Daluo’s raspy voice echoed, stopping Luo Ling in his tracks.

“Yes? Is something the matter, gatekeeper Daluo?” Luo Ling said, raising his eyebrows.

The burly man jogged over, wearing a solemn face.

“Be careful when you are in the woods. Rumors of a man-eating beast are circulating among the hunters in the village. A few people have already fallen prey to it.” Gatekeeper Daluo cautioned.

Luo Ling pulled a frown, furrowing his brows. Man-eating beasts were usually more ferocious and powerful than their regular counterparts. Since they hunted humans, who were known for their intelligence, these beasts possessed ample cunningness.

“What beast it is?” He inquired. While dangerous, Luo Ling had confidence that with his experience and strength as a 2nd-rate martial artist, he could protect himself against any maneater. Knowing about the beast would make it easier to defend himself.

However, to his disappointment, gatekeeper Daluo shrugged his shoulders in response.

“I don’t know. No one got a good look at it and those who did are no longer among the living. Some claim it’s a wolf and others insist it’s a leopard. Either way, the truth remains that it’s a cunning son of bitch.” The gruff man cursed, scratching his neck in annoyance. It could be seen how he was affected by the sudden appearance of this unnerving beast. “Ling, how about refraining from going there for a few days? Lord Chief has already requested help from the cultivators in the city.” He advised good-naturedly.

Luo Ling took a deep breath and shook his head, wearing a bitter smile. “I have run out of my supplies and money, gatekeeper Daluo. My training demands a high-nutrition diet which the orphanage couldn’t provide. They are not having it easy either. I have to go no matter what.”

They both went silent, each occupied with their thoughts.

A moment later, this silence was broken by a deep sigh. Gatekeeper Daluo’s massive hand squeezed Luo Ling’s shoulders softly. “I hope you bring back some good games today, Ling. I’ll be buying them no matter the price.”