Nearly a week had passed since the group had left Border City and so far their trip had been rather uneventful. Liu Zhu's most pressing duties had consisted of making sure nothing fell off the cart, helping set up camp, and helping with some odd jobs whenever they stopped in a village. All in all he'd had plenty of time to chat with the others during the day and cultivate when they stopped for the night. These days of calm travel were interrupted a week into the trip, when Liu Zhu woke up in the middle of the night, a familiar pain spreading throughout his head.

As Liu Zhu woke up to feel the antlers that had inconvenienced him weeks ago begin reappearing he unconsciously scowled. He'd bought a turban in Border City in case this happened again, but he really didn't want to stand out. Especially not when he was with a group of cultivators- it'd be much more likely that he'd make a mistake and have the new addition to his forehead discovered here than last time. Liu Zhu nervously lay there and focused on his forehead, futilely trying to stop the antlers from growing. Much to his surprise, what he'd thought was wasted effort seemed to have some effect. The antlers were only about half the length of last time, and they were disappearing much faster than before. He wasn't sure if this was due to his efforts or just a coincidence, but either way he was thankful. He didn't want to don a turban again and stand out for the entire trip. The Northern Wastes were still a ways south of The Deserts and even if he insisted that it was a fashion thing it would put people off.

This process took around half an hour, and at the end of it Liu Zhu felt oddly exhausted. After making sure the antlers had disappeared completely he sighed and closed his eyes, immediately falling back asleep. He woke up around dawn, the sounds of everyone packing up their things and gathering for breakfast forcefully awakening him from his rest. Feng Jun greeted him as he joined the rest in eating. "Morning. You look tired, you sleep?" "Mmm... yeah, I slept fine. Just out of it this morning." Liu Zhu tiredly grabbed a bowl and started shoveling porridge in it as he woke up, still a bit groggy from the incident the night before. As Liu Zhu began eating and coming to his senses, Feng Jun asked whether they were still going to spar this morning. After some slight hesitation Liu Zhu shook his head, muttering something about not feeling up to it before returning his focus to his porridge.

Liu Zhu was back to normal an hour or two after waking up. His earlier exhaustion had surprised him given his normally exceptional endurance, but he didn't think much of it and just did his job. On this day in particular, his job was to part from the rest of the group, hunt whatever beasts he found in the nearby forest, vicious or otherwise, and then bring their corpses back. Normally they'd only hunt enough so that there would be fresh meat for their meals, but they happened to be arriving at a small village this afternoon. That made the matter of transporting the meat less significant since they could sell or give away anything extra, and so Liu Zhu just killed whatever looked like it might taste good. By the time they arrived in the village most of the group had animal corpses slung over their shoulders and many of the majestic creatures of the forest were now destined to someone's meal.

Upon arriving in the village the group split into three smaller groups. One went to talk to whatever merchant was supposed to collect the goods they'd hauled there and see if they had anything they needed them to escort to the next village up the road. The answer was generally a yes. Another group went to look around the village and look for work. If it was a job big enough that they needed everyone that'd be for the best, but everyone was permitted to do odd jobs if they didn't take too long- they might hold the group up for a little while, but as wandering cultivators their primary focus was earning money. It was important to get to their destination, but if they were told they couldn't pick up some work along the way then the group might just fall apart. The last, and smallest, group was made up of those not particularly interested in work. They'd generally do whatever they felt like and then meet up with everyone else later in the day.

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Liu Zhu wasn't particularly in need of money and wasn't assigned to help with the merchant at this village, so he fell into the last group. He had quite a few hours free, so he'd look around the village, see if any of the locals had any interesting stories, and if nothing came up inevitably cultivate when he ran out of other activities to do. On this particular day Liu Zhu's cultivation was interrupted by another member of the group. Apparently one of the farmers was complaining about some sort of beast showing up and eating some of his farm animals at night and at this point was desparate for someone to deal with it. The cultivator who heard about it didn't mind helping, but he decided to look around for somebody to help him out first. Since Liu Zhu was the nearby and had nothing better to do, this task had fallen upon him.

Liu Zhu wasn't really that interested but figured that he may as well kill the beast if it would help someone out, payment or not. "Does it sound bad enough that you need my help? I'll go either way, but..." The battle-scarred cultivator that Liu Zhu was speaking to shrugged. "Kid, when you do this for long enough you learn a few important things. One of them is the buddy system! Based off that guy's description that beast might not even be as strong as a Flesh Tempering cultivator, but that doesn't mean shit. Maybe I get injured by accident, maybe another beast shows up that I wasn't looking for. If that happens I need someone who can either help me or get more people who can help me out. That's why I'm bringing you along. I'll split the money with you too, losing a coin is better than gaining a scar."

The two returned to the farm and a followed a set of small tracks left behind by the beast they were tracking. They followed these tracks into the forest, passing through generic patches of bushes and trees before coming across a small stream. While following the tracks they hadn't bothered to conceal their presence, as they didn't think there was a reason to. Unfortunately there had been a reason to. They'd expected the beast they were tracking to be as strong as a Strength Rendering cultivator or maybe a Flesh Rendering cultivator, but it was actually equal to a Middle Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivator. Even worse, instead of them finding the vicious beast, it found them first- as the two crossed the stream in order to continue following the tracks, the vicious beast, a small, green panther, shot out of the underbrush and dashed towards them.

The two were caught by surprise, but fortunately the area around the stream was mostly clear. They both caught sight of the panther as it rushed towards them and immediately pulled out their weapons, hurriedly counterattacking. Liu Zhu hastily swept out with his guandao to intercept the panther's dash towards him, while the man besides him pulled out his sword, slashing towards its side. The beast growled at the two of them and its claws shot out at both of their weapons, forcefully pushing them aside. After pushing through the attacks it went for Liu Zhu, aiming to tear his throat out and get rid of their numbers advantage early. Fortunately this attempt was intercepted by the man next to him, whose sword cut down once again and aimed to maim the panther. The panther forced back this strike before it landed, but the time it bought allowed the two to draw back and engage the beast on more equal terms.

As the two settled into a defensive stance, the man next to him let out a worried sigh. "...Thank god for the buddy system."