Whilst Li Fen and the group was trudging along noisily through the thick grass, one of the boys looked back at her with an expression of dissatisfaction as he grumbled to the other boys in the group with a tone of annoyance at Li Fen for intruding on their 'adventure'.
Uncle Cheng sighed at the boy's behaviour as a helpless look appeared on his face as he consoled Li Fen, "Ahh, little Fen, don't mind the boy. He was just thinking this was going to be a trip involving just his friends that's all, so don't think about it too much."
Hearing Uncle Cheng's comforting words, Li Fen knew that he must be worried that she was being affected by the words of the boy but how could Li Fen whose mental age is much higher than the boys present be affected in any way?
If she, a grown woman was bullied by a bunch of kids, she would have no face left at all!
Li Fen knew this wasn't the boys ahead being sexist, or looking down on girls, it was just how children at this age range would act.
When children are younger they are naturally antagonistic to the opposite sex and tend to stick within groups of their own gender, and just like how boys would view certain sports being for boys, this is how they would view Warriors.
Generally in households, all the boys would be encouraged to train and would be raised with stories about Hero Warriors protecting the Kingdom and slaying their enemies from a young age as they all hope that they would be discovered to have great talent and ascend within the Kingdom.
Whereas for girls this is less focused upon them, as becoming a Warrior involves training the body and fighting which they are usually less interested in. There are also more Male Warriors than Female by a large margin, as in the beginning stages Men do have a biological advantage in becoming a Warrior.
Male Warriors also have a general advantage in Strength than the average Female Warrior of a similar level, which is similar to how a Male Martial Artist of a similar weight class would be naturally stronger than a Woman. However, there are still strange cases of a Woman being far stronger than Male Warriors of the same class, similar to her situation, which may be a result of a bloodline or them being gifted with great physical strength.
Though this doesn't make a Women's status comparable to what was found in Ancient China, in fact even though there wasn't complete equality between genders, the status quo between genders wasn't wide. This is because the number of Females Mages is similar to that of Men, and there are many influential Females who are also talented in other arts which are essential to the Kingdom.
These arts include medicine refining, enchanting and seamstresses. The seamstresses in this World is different, as one with talent in cultivation can infuse their essence into the fabric as they sow, making great light, natural armor for cultivators.
This means there are many powerful Female figures throughout the Human Empires which results in there not being a large status quo of genders.
Although Women are not favoured and are generally looked down upon becoming Warriors, they are still not viewed with being of an inferior status like in Ancient China.
Therefore, situations like the boys ahead of her was common, in poorer households they would put all of their hopes into the boys of the family as they have more of a chance of becoming a Warrior. This leads to younger children viewing it as a type of profession which is just meant to include boys.
So, Li Fen didn't feel troubled at all by the young children's attitude towards her.
Suddenly, Li Fen broke out of these thoughts when the loud voice of her Father said, "Alright, we're here boys and girl, welcome to the forest our small Town is famous for, Greenwood Forest!"
After the voice of her Father sounded, the group turned silent, as the boys gazed at the Forest with a look of excitement.
"We have finally arrived, I can't wait to slay the beasts the adventurers talked about!" A boy said arrogantly.
"Humph. I'm more likely to be Knighted than you slaying a beast, you'd probably wet yourself if you saw a wild wolf!" Sniggered Hui Bai said to the laughter of the other boys.
"You wait! When I become the strongest Warrior in the Town, I'd like to see you remain laughing!" The boy replied sharply.
Li Fen noticed Hui Bai sending her a quick glance, making her realise this was her cousins way of 'getting back' at the boy who was acting condescending to her.
A light smile emerged on her lips, as she thought this cousin of hers wasn't bad at all.
"Alright, that's enough boys, I promised your Mothers we'd be back before sunrise. So we don't have enough time for your squabbling." Hui Cheng said as he hurried the group to begin their walk into the Forest.
As they approached the entrance to the Forest, their group suddenly came upon a group of adventurers just as they were making their way out of the Forest.
A burly man who was at the lead of the Adventurers noticed their group and nodded.
With Hui Cheng at the lead, the group nodded back respectfully as the adventurers walked past, whilst the boys looked at them full of admiration.
"One day I will be like them, hunting in the Forest for beasts!" Voiced Hui Bai with longing, to the agreement of the other boys who obviously had a similar thought.
To these kids who lived in a small Town, becoming a strong warrior was their hope and dream!
Not only will it bring great honour to their families, it will bring status, wealth and envy.
In this World, strength symbolises power, in which if you had enough strength, then anything is attainable.
To these innocent children, it was an opportunity for them to bring their Families out of poverty and into a life full of luxury.
The interlude of passing the adventurers ended quickly, and they began to enter the depth of the Forests.
Soon enough they ran into their first beast, the most common type of beast in this forest Grey Wolves.
Unlike their counterpart on Earth, these Wolves were far larger and menacing.
In comparison each of them was comparable to an adult Bengal Tiger, whereas in her previous life a whole Wolf pack of Grey Wolves could be wiped out just by a Tiger by itself.
This shows just how formidable a pack of these things were.
Although the people in this World were capable of mythical strength, these beasts to ordinary people who don't have a cultivation technique were deadly beasts that posed a great threat to them.
Although they are not Magical Beasts, each of them were comparable to a six to seven Ranked Apprentice who had a decent cultivation technique, so they were pretty strong for Wild Beasts.
Although her Father could handle one on his own, a pack of them would pose serious trouble to him.
Though unfortunately for the Wolves, he was not alone, and even without Uncle Cheng who had a Rank 1 Journey cultivation base they would be able to handle this pack of Grey Wolves.
A Grey Wolf who was in front of the pack of the Wolves let a menacing growl as it eyed the group of with hunger.
The confident boy from earlier upon witnessing firsthand the threatening appearance of Wolves began to nervously twitch as he felt tense.
"Ugh. Uncle Cheng, you can handle those Wolves right?" The boy said nervously as he eyed the intimidating figures of the Wolves.
"Hmm. You doubt me do you boy? I've seen far more formidable beasts than this boy, if your scared of a bunch of wild beasts who don't even posses a beast core, then don't think of becoming a Warrior!" Uncle Chen responded sternly.
Although this seems harsh to do so towards a bunch of young children, to people of this World it was normal.
After all the World wasn't a peaceful one and being a naive greenhouse flower would do you no good, war and the dangers posed by Magical Beasts was common, so young children naturally had to mature early in preparation.
You can't be scared stiff of a Magical Beast upon sighting one, otherwise you'd lose your life very quickly.
Especially to the young children who want to be Warriors, although it appeared glamorous and heroic in stories, it is filled with danger and the threat of death in reality.
Many Warriors have been killed brutally by the Beasts, but stories will only remember the Heroes whilst nobody will remember these Warriors who died tragically to make it a possibility.
Whilst Uncle Cheng finished speaking the Grey Wolves began to move, as they began to circle the group looking for an opening to attack, her Father Hui Bingweng took a step forward in preparing to battle the beasts.
Li Fen began to observe closely as this was the first battle between cultivators and beasts she has seen within this World.
As the group made their preparation a Wolf lunged at Hui Bingweng aiming to take a bite out of his arm, which Hui Bingweng quickly stepped aside as he swung his blade cleanly leaving a large gnash in the side of the beast who growled in pain.
But, before it could even recover from receiving a wound, one of the other men in the group cleanly teared open its throat as he thrusted his spear into the beast ending the life of the first Grey Wolf.
The pack howled in anguish, as the pressure intensified as numerous Wolves began to launch attacks, in an attempt to wear the group down with their superior numbers.
Her Father, Uncle Cheng and the others acted with an experience and began to mow down the pack of Wolves calmly and efficiently under the amazement filled gazes of Li Fen and the boys.
'I really underestimated my Father' she though as she stared at his calm face, although her Father strength in terms of cultivation wasn't remarkable by any means, his battle experience was amazing and it was clear he has fought wild beasts numerous times by the way he was dealing with the Wolves.
However, although she felt impressed by her Father, Uncle Cheng proved to be far more ruthless, perhaps to impress his niece, or as a means of showing his capabilities after being doubted by the boy from earlier, he viciously cleaved every Wolf who dared to approach him in two.
His strength was a clear notch above the rest and was in a league of his own.
'So this is the power of a Journeyman Cultivator with a cultivation technique' She thought, as she stared at Uncle Cheng who was easily dealing with the Wolves, in fact he even seemed to be holding back a little as if he hasn't even needed to use his full strength yet.
The leading Grey Wolf seeing its side clearly suffering losses and realising that the battle is getting no where howled to retreat as the Grey Wolves left one after the another as they knew they had no hope of victory against these 'tough' opponents.
Seeing the previously scary Wolves treating with their tails tucked in between their legs, the boys cheered loudly in victory as if they were the ones to who beat down the Grey Wolves into retreating.
Uncle Cheng had a look of satisfaction on his face as he voiced, "Eh Uncles, not bad am I right? Little Fen aren't you amazed by your Uncle?"
"Hmm." Li Fen replied absent mindedly as she was lost in thought.
Uncle Cheng proud expression vanished as the other men snickered in amusement.
"Looks like Little Chen is not amused!" Said one of the men.
"Yeah, look at her face, I've seen her more excited when Granny Lu handed her some chocolates." A middle aged man sniggered.
A downcast expression emerged on Uncle Cheng's face as he felt depressed by Li Fens reaction , at least pretend to be impressed!
Ah, what is with that bored look on your face as if you were watching the most uneventful thing in the World!
"Father, I though you were amazing!" A boy said.
"Hmm. Your not Li Fen though are you?" Uncle Cheng replied, seemingly to forget that this is his own son.
The boy had an aggrieved look on his face as if he was to say, have I been replaced or something? Are you sure I am his biological son?