Chapter 26: Finding a friend.
Yao Jun and Yun Yantian started walking, they only had to follow this road to get to Great Xian City, so there was no need to pay too much attention to where they were walking. Yun Yantian took out a waterskin from his interspatial ring and threw it at Yao Jun.
“Here you go, that's the best wine in all of Endless Waves Continent. I promised you some good drinks, so I might as well take out the best.”
Yun Yantian spoke about the wine with great flair and passion, seemingly very proud about it. Yao Jun brought the waterskin up to his nose, carefully smelling it before he drank it. The wine had a faint smell of honey and fruits. After ascertaining that the wine didn't seem to be poisoned, Yao Jun took a gentle sip. The wine was both sweet and spicy, easily going down his throat and into his stomach, slowly warming up his body. The wine was fairly tasty, so Yao Jun took a few more large sips.
“Alright, alright. Calm down already, leave some for poor old me.... Fucking hell, one would think that you haven't had anything to drink for several years with the way you are chugging it. Have some finesse and grace, grace I say.”
Yun Yantian quickly snagged the waterskin from Yao Jun's hands when he saw how he was chugging it. Feeling how light the waterskin suddenly got, he couldn't help but curse out and shoot a glance at Yao Jun. This wine was expensive okay? Can't you have some grace when you drink it?
“Aren't you the one who told me that you would treat me to some good drinks, yet now you say that I can't even drink my fill, where is your heart?”
Yao Jun put on a wronged expression as he looked at Yun Yantian. He could tell that Yun Yantian had a rather strange personality, if he didn't he wouldn't have dragged the bandits to Yao Jun. But he could also tell that Yun Yantian was a very frank and straight forward type of person. A person like this was very easy to get along with, so Yao Jun immediately felt a connection with him.
“My heart is wherever my wine is. So what brings you to Great Xian City? Since you said that you had some things that you wanted to buy, it doesn't seem like you are planning to explore the mystic ruins.”
Yun Yantian drank a bit more wine before passing the waterskin back to Yao Jun. Since they were going to travel together for a few days, getting to know each other was a good idea. Yun Yantian also had an interest in Yao Jun, Yao Jun seemed like a very carefree person that lived however his heart told him to, such a person would always make a good friend.
“I need maps. I got sucked into a Spatial Node and transported to this continent. Without maps, I won't even know which direction I should head towards to get back home.”
Yao Jun drank some more wine as he shrugged his shoulders and explained. There was no need to keep his origins hidden. There were many people who liked to travel the entire world, visiting many different continents. Yun Yantian's own words even implied that he was from a different continent, the Endless Waves continent.
“How is your luck that shit? First you get sucked up by a Spatial Node, and then you get attacked by bandits, isn't your luck a little too bad?”
Yun Yantian gawked at Yao Jun's words. Most Spatial Nodes were rather small, rarely growing bigger than one meter in diameter. They were also easy to spot as the area around them would be completely empty. Yet he was sucked up by one?
“And just who's fault is it that I was attacked by bandits?”
Yao Jun passed the now empty waterskin back to Yun Yantian as he gave him a glare. Yun Yantian simply stored away the waterskin and pulled out a new one, drinking his fill of wine as he nonchalantly looked away.
Yao Jun and Yun Yantian traveled together, but they slowed down their pace, no longer walking through the night, instead finding a nice place to set up a camp and chat.
Yao Jun told Yun Yantian about where he came from and about his life, while Yun Yantian told Yao Jun about himself. Yao Jun had indeed guessed correctly, Yun Yantian came from the Endless Waves Continent.
The Endless Waves Continent was actually just a large group of islands that were located on the ocean next to Guanyu Continent. The continent was located in a very stormy part of the ocean, so the islands were battered by a large amount of waves, giving the continent it's name. The ocean surrounding the continent were also home to several types of underwater Demonic beasts, so many of the people that made their homes on the islands lived under constant threat, not knowing if their next venture onto the water would be their last.
If they kept their original speed, it would only have taken them about five days before the arrived at Great Xian City. But since they slowed down after grouping together, they had only managed to travel a bit over half the way after four days.
Yao Jun pulled his sword out from a bandits chest, the leather armor covering his body had offered him no protection from Yao Jun's sword. There were several other corpses on the ground around him. Some were hacked apart, while others had large burn wounds.
Not far away from him stood Yun Yantian, sword in hand as he fought against a few other bandits, his blade flowing freely like the wind. He was surrounded, but his sword managed to keep most of the bandits at bay.
Yao Jun had just finished killing the ones that were attacking him, but Yun Yantian was a bit slower. The main reason behind this was that Yao Jun had the advantage in power. He could use the Mist Eagle's illusions to confuse and disorient the bandits, while the Lightning Tiger gave him a massive boost to attack speed. In grace and fluidity he could not compare to Yun Yantian, but the lightning element was renowned for it's speed, so Yun Yantian could not compare to Yao Jun when it came to attack speed.
Yao Jun looked on as Yun Yantian fought against the bandits. If it looked like he needed help, Yao Jun would interfere, but if he looked at ease, Yao Jun would just watch, that was the agreement they had made. Yun Yantian undertook this journey to grow stronger, so constantly being helped by Yao Jun would not be good for him.
Yun Yantian managed to find an opening in one of the bandits defense, swiftly stabbing out with his sword. The sword pierced cleanly through the bandit's throat, ending his life with one swift stroke. Yun Yantian didn't notice that the stab had opened a hole in his own defense, giving one of the bandits a clear path to his back.
The bandit obviously saw this, swiftly moving forward and slashing down with his saber. Yao Jun who was watching this from the sidelines would obviously not allow this to happen. His eyes lit up with a gray fog and the bandit's mind suddenly fogged up, his vision blurring. With his vision blurry and his mind cloudy, he suddenly moved his saber sideways, slashing open a large gash on the chest of the bandit next to him.
The slashed bandit quickly fell backwards, large amounts of blood dripping out from the wound. With a wound like that, he would not be able to live for much longer than a minute. After slashing open his comrade, the bandit with the saber twisted the blade in his hand, burying it deeply into his own chest. When the bandit stabbed himself in the chest, Yao Jun's mind control stopped and the bandit regained his clarity. The bandit threw his terrified eyes towards Yao Jun, seemingly wanting to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat and he fell over dead.
Ever since arriving on the Guanyu continent, Yao Jun had used the powers of the Mist Eagle much more than he did while in the Cloud Wilderness. His control over his mental powers quickly rose as he became more accustomed to using them. Controlling people weaker than him was no longer a problem for him. He could even use his mental powers to completely destroy a weaker persons spiritual sea, turning them into a retard.
“Haha, I knew from the moment I saw you that you would be my lucky star Brother Jun, you saved my back once more.”
Yun Yantian quickly finished the rest of the bandits. The bandits were already terrified and exhausted from just fighting with Yun Yantian, seeing Yao Jun standing at the side, they immediately gave up any more ideas of fighting and fled.
“I'm your lucky star huh? Does that make you a malignant star? I managed to get all the way to the Xian Province with no problems, but the moment I meet you, I get attacked at every corner. Are you sure you aren't a jinx?”
Yao Jun scavenged through the corpses, picking up anything valuable. What he said could be considered to be a joke, but he was starting to suspect it being real. He had been traveling with Yun Yantian for four days, and they had already been attacked by bandits five times already. It seemed that after Yao Jun and Yun Yantian killed the bandit leader a few days back, some other group of bandit had started targeting all the money they scavenged off of the corpses.
“You can't blame that on me, you should blame it on you being so wealthy. If you look at it like that, it becomes positive.”
Yun Yantian spoke with a laugh as the sword in his hand dissipated. Yao Jun had saved his life a few times during the bandit attacks, so he felt that choosing to befriend this man was a very smart choice. He had also seen Yao Jun fight several times, and every time he did, he could not help but sigh in awe. Yao Jun's fighting style was rough and unpolished, but Yun Yantian could see that his fighting style was growing more and more refined with each battle. If it kept going like this, it wouldn't be too long before Yao Jun was his equal in sword technique.