It happened as we were going through a canyon. Apparently this was a known spot for ambush, but it was the only path through a particularly dangerous area claimed by mutation beasts. To go through here was dangerous, but to go around was suicide. Everyone knew this so we all had our guard up. The guards kept our wagons all close together and we all had been told before what to do if something happened. That said, our caravan had a large number of guards so we felt that any bandits would wait for easier prey. We were wrong.

The first sign of the attack was a storm of falling arrows. I missed it coming in, but was in the wagon second from the back and none hit us. After that those of us that were still left dived under the wagons. Any thought of circling up was gone as many of the drivers were hit. Several of the guards were hit, but they had armor and shields that protected them. Those that were left alive tried to group together under cover as another flight of probably fifty arrows landed among us. Then they came in.

Something came over me and I rushed out to fight with the Guards. I went wild slashing and cutting with my swords. Several fell by my hand, but I was not strong enough and a cultivator who was obviously in the advanced body cultivation realm knocked my swords away and then kicked me down. He sneered at me and then stabbed me in the gut. It was excruciating. I knew I was dead. He just looked at my shocked face, smirked and then walked to his next victim… Grave. I couldn’t watch and only had one option anyway. I was finally knocked out of my wild state and realized what I should have done from the start. I closed my eyes and played dead while I used Time Return. I had to make it work or this was it. I started to lose consciousness after about 45 seconds. I tensed up. Pushing myself to stay awake while I focused with everything I had. Just as I was about to lose it I felt my consciousness be pulled away.

It was 4 days earlier. I always set the return point in my mind every day for emergencies. I was currently in bed just having woken up in the morning. I looked around and it was surreal. People I had just watched die were walking around doing their normal routine. I felt tears fall down my face and I couldn’t help but grieve for something that didn’t happen… yet.

I went through the motions of the day. My mind was elsewhere. How could I change this? I could go back and just take a different caravan of course, but then all these people I knew would die. Even if I stopped them from going, another group would be taken out. How was that any better? I won’t say these people were my best friends. They were in general good people though. There was no government run groups that went out this far to make sure the road were taken care of. It was too far between towns, and bandits would just hide anyway. There was no one to report to ahead of time.

First I went to the head of the caravan, Harath. He didn’t believe me and even accused me of working with the bandits leading to me being tied up. One Time Return later I was right back where I started. I tried talking with Grave. I tried to pretend I scouted ahead and saw them, but no dice. I tried hinting about having heard of a group of bandits that used a barrage of arrows first before they came in. Still the battle went no better. This time, even though I wanted to fight, I hid and used Time Return. I spent several months worth of Time Return going back and forth trying to do anything I could to change the outcome or even just help my group escape.

I even took my life in my hands again. I traded grappling techniques for training in weapons to try to become strong enough to change the tide of the battle, but I couldn’t overcome the cultivator. Luckily he was always sadistic in his fights and never finished me off. Leaving me to die in agony. Each time I made it back with Time Return by the skin of my teeth. No level of technique could overcome our difference in power and speed.

Finally I went back to just before we left to try to hire extra guards to take with us. When I got back to that time though something strange happened. It was like my soul unwound. I didn’t realize how horrible I felt until it was gone, but something that had been pressing on me was gone. ‘What is this?’ I thought. Then it hit me… The cultivation technique! It was no longer confining my soul. With it gone several other things came to the front of my awareness. I had never experienced my Warrior’s Harmony state. During battle or fighting beasts, my clarity of thought wasn’t there. Even the choices I made like running wild into a fight like a berserker… It just wasn’t me. I was much more calculating in that kind of situation.

I still tried to hire extra guards. Harath wouldn’t let me bring my own as I think he feared I would try to rob him. I tried to pay him extra to hire guards, but he just thought me a fool as we already had more than normal and threw me out of the caravan. I even tried hiring a group to run parallel with them, but Harath wouldn’t travel in tandem with us. Nothing I could think of worked. I would like to say I finally came up with something, but in the end I was at a loss. Even with Time Return I felt helpless. I even went to find the Bandits ahead of time myself, but could never find where they hid.

Soon I found out why. I was traveling with the caravan one last time. Sad… knowing this was goodbye. I still tried to be upbeat though. Still sparing with my buddies. Teaching the lively Fey. Living with them one last time. Then… before the last battle… I slipped away. I said I was going to go hunt a beast for dinner and just didn’t go back. They waited a bit and even looked for me, but eventually they left. I followed them into the canyon the next day. I knew where the ambush would happen. I knew the terrain around it like the back of my hand. Once I heard the fighting I went to where I could see. To witness the deaths of the good people and know I had failed to help them. I had to learn something from this. I just wasn’t sure what.

It went how it had gone a every other time before. The arrows and the initial charge. The fighting and the cultivator taking out any strong fighters. Never killing them out right. He really was a sadist. In the end, all but one was dead. Fey was injured, but having avoided the initial barrage of arrows had fought next to her brother. The cultivator had killed Grave, but only knocked her out. The bandits then looted the bodies, tied up the still unconscious Fey and then started to head back the way they had come. This was the first time I was seeing this. I hadn’t wanted to see anything worse and so hadn’t known Fey made it through the battle alive. As soon as they were out of sight I ran down and took the armor off of one of the dead bandits. It was damaged so no one had taken it, but it would serve as a disguise. I then followed the bandits.

As soon as I did that old familiar feeling I hadn’t even known I was missing was there. My Warrior’s Harmony or whatever Morgianna had called it. I was clear again. What I saw next explained why I could never find the bandits. Even when I left as soon as I could after getting to this world. They headed into a cave that I knew hadn’t been there before. I snuck in after them and then the big cultivator came back and I watched him take a tool out of a hole in the wall and set it up inside the cave. Then a barrier that looked like a rock sprung to life. I had heard of this. It was known as a formation. Some formations could put up barriers, and others could set up healing fields and still others could even increase the amount of Qi in an area to help with cultivation. Formation masters were rare, but you could occasionally buy very expensive tools like this that would set up a formation over and over again. You could buy ten cultivation techniques for one of these tools. They were insanely costly. I was sure the bandit cultivator had stolen it.

I made my way inside the cave looking for Fey. I found her tied up in a corner with a bandit watching over her. There was no way I was going to get her out of here. I would have to kill the guard, get passed everyone else and the cultivator and then disable the tool I didn’t understand and then run away. Not a chance. Clear as my mind was, I knew my chances. Under the influence of the cultivation technique I might have tried. Not now though. I wasn’t fooled.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I used Time Return to when I had split from our caravan. I then sat and tried to figure out if there was a way to save Fey. I had failed everyone else. Surely I could do this much. After much deliberation I came up with a plan. I wasn’t sure it would work and it would take a lucky break I didn’t know I would get. I had to do this though. I was desperate to do something to take away some of the pain of my failure. I also shuddered to think of what would happen to Fey if I didn’t.

First I ran to where the cave was and waited out of sight. I don’t know how they knew the caravan was coming, but right on time the formation came down and the bandits marched out. One of the bandits stayed behind to keep back the horses they had in the cave and stay on watch. I had to use Time Return a couple times to make it happen, but I was able to sneak up on him and take him out. I then grabbed a couple horses and changed into the dead bandit’s armor. On a whim I also grabbed the formation tool. At least after this they wouldn’t be able to hide anymore. I led the horses back to near where the fighting was and tied them to a branch. By the time I got back to the battle Fey was down. This is where I needed a lucky break. I watched for a time when everyone was focused on something else. When I saw one long enough I used Time Return and then at just the right moment I ran in, grabbed Fey, and ran back. I tied her to the saddle when I got back to the horses and took off. There was only one direction that we had a chance. Out into the domain of the mutant beast.

At first I traveled through an area of the canyon I knew. That allowed me to at least hide our tracks somewhat. After we left the canyon though I dispensed with that and just headed deeper in to the wilderness. I really had no idea where the beast might be, but I knew its territory was large so there was a chance we could hide for at least a little while. I thought of an idea as we rode and I soon found what I needed to make it happen. A place to hide until the bandits gave up looking for us. It was a small cave. Hardly could even call it that. It was enough for the two of us and the horses though. It only had the one entrance I could see and I knew how to take care of that. I pulled out the formation tool and played with it a bit. I finally got it to work by guiding some Qi into a symbol on its surface.

Finally, I could rest. I didn’t realize how much of a strain all this had been… constantly trying to find a way around the Bandits. Failing over and over again. Even though we weren’t exactly out of the woods yet I had at least saved one person. Even if that was all I could do, it was enough to lift my spirits.

I carefully took Fey down from her horse and tended to the gash on the side of her head. She moaned a bit when I was cleaning it, which I took as a good sign. I wrapped it up and then brushed the horses and sat down to cultivate. I was no longer using the balanced cultivation technique. Even though it was much faster and I could use Time Return more frequently without the cost of using Crystals. I refused to be changed and forced into that other mindset. It was not me. Even if I was to die, I wanted it to be as me. I didn’t care if I never found a cultivation technique the fit. I would remain as I am.

After a couple of hours cultivating one wisp of Qi at a time, Fey finally came too. I heard her breathing change and moved over to her with a water bladder. She opened her eyes and I said “Don’t move. You have a nasty cut on your head and have been out for hours.” I then had her drink a little water.

She looked me in the eyes and said “My brother?”

“I’m sorry. By the time I came up on the fighting he was dead.”

“Where were you? We needed you!” She asked with pain in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Was all I could say.

She turned her head into my leg and started to cry. I sat there stroking her hair for several minutes until she calmed down. “Where are we? How did we get away?”

“I came upon the fight and saw your brother dead and you knocked out next to him. There was no way to fight the cultivator so I grabbed you and ran. I stole two of their horses and brought us here.”

“Where is here though? Won’t they track us.”

“They won’t dare because this is in the territory of the beast. I have a tool that will hide us in this cave from both the Bandits and the beast until we decide it’s been long enough for us to safely make a break for it.”

She nodded at that wincing from the pain in her scalp.

After that we spent the next week in the cave waiting. After actually exploring the cave in the back I realized my initial impression had been wrong. It connected to a bigger cave in the back with an opening in the roof letting sun in. There was a pool of water and even grass for the horses. I wasn’t sure what sort of luck brought us here, but I couldn’t be happier. I had enough food for us for a week. I hoped it would be long enough. Fey was up and around within a couple days and I suggested I try to teach her how to cultivate to see if she could. She was shocked and said she had tried before, but had never met a cultivator who was willing to teach her. I knew she could because while I been taking care of her wound I had been focused and noticed her passively absorbing Qi… right into the wound.

I started the same way I had with Yandel. First I described what too look for and how too focus. I then put my hand on her abdomen and sent a string of Qi towards her skin. When working with Yandel we had discovered that, even more sensitive than the hands, this area right below the naval could sense Qi the best. We had no idea why.

Fey had a tough time feeling it, but felt like something was there. On a whim I tried a different type. At first I had sent a yin affinity Qi to her. I tried a yang affinity type next and she said she felt that much stronger. After a couple of days of this she was actually able to feel Qi on her own. I then taught her how to lead it into the meridians in her body and she was off to the races. All this made me reflect on the difference between her experience and mine. It took her much longer to feel Qi even with my help. How much better were Earthlings at this? Why didn’t we practice Qi cultivation on Earth? Also, how many people in this world didn’t cultivate because of how hard it was to even start? I had a feeling there were a lot of potential cultivators missed because of this.

All this led to me experimenting more using Time Return to try various ways of teaching cultivating. My biggest discovery was something I hadn’t done with Yandel as I didn’t know about the difference in Qi before I used the balanced cultivation technique. I helped Fey feel the difference between yin and yang Qi and had her try to lead yang Qi to the yang meridians and yin to yin. She said it was much easier and fast this way. It seemed to clear more out as well. Five days later when we were ready to leave she had already cleared her first meridian. I couldn’t believe the difference in speed between her and me. I knew it wasn’t talent because I had felt Qi much quicker so my talent was greater. It was just the way we went about using Qi. I would need to look for more patterns like this in the future. Experimenting with cultivation using Time Return I could do experiments no one else could. Maybe I could find faster ways to cultivate no one else knew about!

When we finally came out of the cave it was pretty anti-climatic. No one was waiting for us. No mutant beast was ever seen. We bypassed the canyon and went back to the road on the other side and continued to Chunwa. We found water pretty quickly and I hunted beasts for meat. Like that we traveled until two weeks later we saw Chunwa in the distance.

When we finally came into view of Chunwa Fey, who had been there before, said “There it is! Finally we’re safe!”

“Looks that way. I’m glad we didn’t have any more trouble on the way.” I looked at Fey “What will you do now? Do you have family you can go to?”

“No… I don’t have family. Without my brother…” She looked down still obviously mourning. She shook her head and then looked at me with a serious look. “Will you continue to train me? I want to be a cultivator. I never want to lose people I care about to the likes of that bandit scum.”

I stared back at her. ‘Well…’ I thought ‘this is my job after all. Can’t make it too easy though.’ “If you will promise to work hard and aid me in my work then I will continue to train you. What do you say?”

“What is your work? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say.”

“I am researching cultivation techniques. I need to identify, record and compile as many as I can.”

“Are you working for a sect?”

“Something like that. What do you say?” I asked and stuck out my hand.

She looked at it and then me and then gripped my wrist in the formal way you accepted a deal here. “I accept. I will work hard.”

“Excellent” I said… “let’s get to work!”