William saw the entrance to the village in the distance. There was a small palisade made from short but thick wooden logs built around the village, they only reached the two meter mark but their thickness made it evident that they could take a beating from at least normal creatures and qi beasts of lesser strength. The top of various houses could be seen past the palisade.

Outside the palisade were some farmland with people currently working in it. The farm land was quite big but was only protected by a short wooden fence. William and Victor managed to catch the farmers attention as they stopped working temporarily to look at the new arrivals. After checking them out for half a minute they started looking around their vicinity while paying extra attention on the edges of the forest. After seemingly being satisfied by their impromptu search they started working again.

As William came closer to the village he saw four people standing guard at the opened gate of the palisade. They were all wearing leather armors and holding simple wooden spears with a metal tip. Only one of them had a secondary weapon, which was a sword strapped to his side.

The guard with the sword soon took a step forward. He looked at William and Victor, seemingly searching for something. He payed extra attention to Victors equipment, which was even after several days of travel still as spotless as the day they left the clan. The guard having deduced that Victor was not a normal traveler started speaking politely but trying to keep a firm tone in his voice. Unfortunately for him, being at the edge of not only the territory of the clan but also the kingdom left him very inexperienced in speaking politely making his greeting clumsy sounding. His facial expression was an awkward mix as he tried looking steadfast but also clearly wearing a forced welcoming smile.

"Greeting travellers. I hope your journey has been free of any trouble. May I ask for your names and intentions?"

William didn't know what to do as the conflicting emotions of the guard made him feel awkward. He simply didn't have enough experience dealing with people. The people William had spoken to in his life were mostly either clan members who were like family to him or high ranking members from other forces who were good at socializing and could take the lead. An unfortunate consequence of the upbringing that he and many other young members of high ranking clans and sects had. A fault that this journey was meant to fix.

Fortunately for William, Victor was going to lead by example quickly responded to the guard and moving the conversation to a joyous topic.

"We are from the Aurora clan. We have come to support Rigel with cleaning up the infestation of the swift scythe mantis colony."

The joy that the guard felt couldn't be hidden as his awkward expression was immediately replaced with a wide smile.

While the numbers of the insects had been in kept in control. It still wasn't a pleasant thing to have a colony of Qi beasts live close to the village. Hunters, foragers and other people who commonly went into the forest had been restricted from entering certain deeper parts of the forest, and even if they didn't enter the parts of the forest where the colony had been sighted they were still afraid for their life, who knew if one day they would suddenly have the misfortune of encountering a wandering Qi beast. There was also the ever looming fear that the Qi beasts would attack the village. Even the clan hunters assurance that the creatures would keep to themselves hadn't been enough to dissipate all of the worry of the villagers.

The reason this village could remain as isolated and unprotected as it was, was because the native Qi beasts to this region had a gentle nature, some were even outright benevolent. Making this the first time many villagers encountered hostile Qi beasts. And ever since they had become aware of their new neighbors there had been a shadow left over their heart.

The other guards stood a little straighter and had smiles on their faces when Victor said that they were from the clan here on a mission to deal with their problematic neighbors. It also helped that the Aurora clan had a good reputation and was well liked by the majority of the population in their territory. Having Rigel live in the village had only reinforced this good image in the villagers heart.

The head guard quickly gave out a order to keep a check over the area while he personally lead them to Rigel.

William took the opportunity to look around the village while they were walking though it. The houses that William could see while they were walking were mostly made from wood, presumably harvested from the surrounding forest. But this was a novelty for William who was so sheltered. While William had seen the city next to the clan home before. There was a large difference between a city that could be called the capital of their region and a outlying village with nothing special going for it expect the vast woodlands around it.

They soon arrived at their destination. The house was close to the main gate of the village so that the villagers could quickly report if something was spotted in the area and so that Rigel could respond equally fast.

The house looked less like a proper house and more like a small wooden hut, in fact it wouldn't look out of place as a secluded hunters hut found in some deep part of a forest. It was enough for one person to live in. But definitely not a luxurious living arrangement. If someone said that a high realm cultivator was living in this building then people would probably think it was a joke. But for the minimalist Aurora clan it was suitable.

The head guard turned around after arriving, his way of talking was quite still stiff and polite because of his nervousness, but now joy had replaced the stern tone.

"This is were Rigel is staying, he should be inside at this time. I will go back to my post now, please feel free to ask any guard for help if it is needed."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Victor immediately went to the door and knocked while speaking in a loud enough that someone inside would still hear him.

"Rigel! It's Victor."

There was some shuffling from the other side before the door opened.

The man who opened the door was tall and thin, his face was clearly suntanned, something that was very unusual for people with a high cultivation level. He had unruly dark brown hair covering parts of his face and a deep scar going from his left ear across his cheek, only ending at the top of his lip. But something that overshadowed all others features were his eyes, they were small enough that one could hardly see that they were brown, but even as small as they were they still gave off a piercing aura. He was clearly smiling when he opened the door but the combination of his feature made it look like he was staring at you with malicious intent.

As if to clear the uncomfortable aura spread from his appearance to William he immediately steeped out from the house and bowed while speaking with respect and joy in his voice.

"I greet the Grand Elder and the fourth Young master! I hope your journey has been comfortable!"

William was much more used to this greeting compared to the guards awkward greeting earlier. Most people had a fervent kind of respect towards his grandfather and so any time he encounter other people while being with Victor there tended to be at least a handful of people who greeted them like this.

Victor quickly tried to change the conversation to a more casual one.

"Don't worry, it was pleasant. It's been a while since we saw each other but there's no need to be so formal. How did it go with your enlightenment, did staying here help you achieve it any easier?"

Rigel calmed down a bit but when Victor asked about his enlightenment the joy in his face sprung up again, but this time it was mixed with immense pride. He looked a little like a child who had managed to get a perfect score in their exam and was now telling their parent about it.

"Yes I managed to perfect my sword technique around a year ago. It's a original technique and I think it's a High-Mystic grade!"

As a martial artist talking about techniques was almost a sure fire way to get more familiar with each other and ease up the mood. His response was said in one go as if he couldn't wait any longer to brag about his technique. But if he was correct about it's grade than he had the right to brag.

Techniques were commonly divided into different five different grades. With the three lower grade techniques being the only ones that normal people would ever see in their life.

There was the common Mundane grade which was were most techniques grades landed, these techniques usually didn't require one to channel Qi to use, or they did require Qi then there was very little in it and usually the purity of Qi didn't matter.

Then there was the Spiritual grade which was still common but had a much higher power and usually involved mixing Qi into the technique, likewise, the Qi purity in these didn't matter but a higher purity of Qi did improve the power of the technique.

The third grade was Mystic grade, there was a large gap between this grade and the Spiritual grade. This grade tended to involve very complex Qi circulation and if the user didn't have the required Qi purity and affinity then they would be unable to use these techniques. Another thing to take note of was that these techniques were normally not made by a single person but was either a result of the research of several people or the work of several generations of master and students each making small improvements on a technique. Or if one person was the maker then the technique tended to be a variation of another technique, making the new technique related to the original.

For example, almost all of the Aurora clans sword techniques were made by different clan members with Victors original technique as the framework making it the parent technique and all the others techniques derivation of his. Of course this only meant that the new technique would be different from the original, nothing guaranteed that the new technique would be better than the original, something many clan members had harshly learnt.

Victor had a smile as he spoke to Rigel.

"That's good, very good. We should test it. Maybe a little spar before we go hunting, or maybe after. I'm sure we will have more time then."

Victors eyes shined a little brighter when he suggested sparing. As a sword sage he was always enthusiastic about new sword arts.

Rigel responding equally as enthusiastic.

"I'll try not dissapoint you."

Victor waved William forward after their short talk.

"Come William. You should personally introduce yourself to Rigel."

William was quite nervous as he went to introduce himself, mainly because the man in front of him was a opportunity to get the poison attribute before his core was formed and therefore having a dual attributed core. The difference between simply having an attribute and having that attribute be part of your core was immense, since the core would be the basis for further cultivation.

"Hello Sir, I'm looking forward be taught by you."

"It's a pleasure Young master. I'm sure you will be a delight to teach."

"Alright enough of that formal nonsense, you will be spending a large amount of time together so better get comfortable as soon as possible."

Victor seem to be have had enough of the stale greetings and interrupted them before they could continue their conversation.

"Well you two working together should help you get along better. Rigel do you need to do anything before we start dealing with the insects?"

"No, just let me get my stuff before we go greet the village Chief."

Rigel quickly went in to the hut before coming out in a dark brown cloak and a bow and quiver over his shoulder. But there was something unnatural about how he moved. It was as if he floated as there was no swaying from his cloak nor could William see anything below it as it covered everything about him except his head, which was not covered by the cloak hood.

"I'm ready, let me show you the way."

As was expected from such a small village the walk to the Village Chief was a fast one, only taking a few minutes before they were at the center of the village. He was sitting on a wooden chair outside a slightly larger building, made from the same wooden material as the rest of the village. There were a dozen or so very young children sitting in the large stone courtyard infront of him. From what William could hear he was teaching them something. William couldn't hear what exactly as the lesson stopped as their little group approached them.

The chief tried to stand up and greet them before Victor stopped him since he looked old enough that standing might break him. Rigel was about to introduce them before Victor interrupted that with his own introduction.

William was too distracted by the children's whispering to each other their guesses about who they were, or rather who Victor was since he stood out the most with his red equipment, the closest guess William heard was that he was a swordmaster from the Aurora clan. But there they were interesting enough to distract long enough that the talk between the chief and Victor was over. And they were now fast on the way out of the village.

"So do you think you can handle the talk with the next Village Chief William?"

William was confused for only a moment, this journey had been about him gaining experience so talking with Village Chiefs in their territory was of course part of that. It only took one look to confirm that Victor had a teasing smile on his face as he looked at William. He had clearly seen that William wasn't paying the two old men any attention while they were conversing, and was now playing with him. But William was confident that informing an old man that they would deal with the village problem would be easy enough.

"Yeah of course grandpa. Leave it to me!"

"Good, good. Then the next Village Chief is all yours."