"Young man… Thank you for coming to our aid. If not for you… We would have been… " said a voice next to the young man. His face was full of worry, thinking about the disaster that his village would have faced, had they not put that request up, despite costing a lot of money. But soon, his worried face vanished and was replaced with that of gratitude and admiration for the youth in front of him.
The owner of the voice spoke again, this time with enthusiasm.
"Young man, are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner? Although our food may not suit the taste buds of cultivators like you, but I guarantee you that we have the best dishes around here… it is worth a try, if you are not in a hurry!" The voice said to the youth with ardor.
"…" The youth in front of the middle-aged man had a troubled look on his face at this moment. He had the looks of hesitation to excitement and then unwillingness to happiness and finally to sadness. The looks on the youth's face keeps alternating until he finally let out a deep sigh under his breath.
'Haah… such a good chance to eat good food, but sadly, I cannot stay otherwise I would end up unable to complete my mission.' The youth lamented not being able to enjoy such free food even though he was currently dirt poor to even afford a simple meal.
After letting out another deep Sigh, the youth then said to the owner of the voice, who was middle-aged man, "Sorry, I cannot stay. I still have other tasks to complete. In any case, I was only doing what I was tasked to do and nothing more. You don't have to feel too much gratitude towards me. Someone else could have come and take this task if I hadn't anyway."
"Oh… What a pity." The middle-aged man was clearly disappointed that he could not make the youth stay for dinner, but his disappointment did not last long as he continued to speak, "In that case, you should be careful on your journey."
The middle-aged man then turned his head to the young lady next to him and said " Lingling, come and say goodbye to the young man, after all, he is the hero of our Luo Village."
The young lady had a flushed face at this moment as she hesitated for a moment before walking forward, she bowed and said in a low voice, almost whispering, "T-Thank you for saving our village and have a safe journey… Savior."
The moment the young lady finished talking, she hurriedly moved and stood beside the middle-aged man, her father, with her face slightly rosy red. The middle-aged man only shook his head when he saw how his daughter was acting at this moment.
This middle-aged man was the chieftain of this village, and he was the one who put up that request for the subjugation of the wolves that kept terrorizing their village.
This quest had been put up for quite a while now, but nobody took such a quest due to the payment of completing the task being so little and a waste of time, since they could be using that time to complete a task that offer more payment instead.
So, one can imagine how glad they were, when this youth in front of them suddenly came in the afternoon saying that he was here to complete a task.
They had a look of surprise on their faces throughout the whole ordeal, whether it be the fact that someone actually came to complete the task due to taking their request or the fact that the youth in front of them who seemed harmless, was actually so strong that the wolves were taken care of as easily as breathing to him.
Indeed, the youth in front of them was actually Shenyan, he came to this place as soon as possible because it seemed like the people here were not cultivators and also the task had animals that were not complete Spirit Beasts yet, so he decided to come here to test his skills, but he could not even use more than a single sword technique before finishing them off.
It was really a waste of effort, but nonetheless, he was glad that he could save this village from these wolves. There were also another benefits, but now is not the time for that, that would have to be checked later.
Right now, he had to bid his farewell to this village chief and leave to complete his other tasks as soon as possible. He only had three to four days to complete the tasks and that was accounting for the time it took to get here.
It took him more than half a day to get here and that was when his physical abilities were enhanced by his cultivation, which sped up his journey otherwise, he would have had to spend a whole day to get here.
After thinking about this, Shenyan looked at the two figures in front of him, the village chief and his daughter and finally spoke after hearing their words.
"Alright. I will be taking my leave now." Shenyan said as he turned around and left. His silhouette lingers for a while before suddenly disappearing in the distance.
The middle-aged man looked at the youth disappear with a solemn expression on his face. A few moments later, he turned to the young lady next to him, her appearance was eye-catching, she was indeed very pretty.
Even when compared to those female cultivators, she would not lose, but sadly, she was not talented in cultivation, otherwise he would have asked the young man to marry his daughter as thanks for saving their village. Thinking about this, the middle-aged man only shook his head, thinking it was indeed a pity.
At this moment, the young lady was also staring as Shenyan's figured finally disappeared into the horizon with an indiscernible look on pretty face. It was at this moment that she heard her father's voice resound beside her.
"Lingling, do you like him, the young man I mean." The middle-aged man suddenly asked as he looked at the dazed look on his daughter's face.
"Yes, he was very handsome." She instantly replied without thinking.
"…"
There was an eerie silence in their location, one could even make out the sound of the wind as it blows past them. At this moment, the middle-aged man had an astonished look on his face as his eyes were widen with surprise, he did not expect his daughter to answer his question so fast without hesitation.
Meanwhile, the young lady had just realized what she had said, and she hurriedly said.
"I-I mean, I-I like him as a person. T-That was all." The young lady ran away after speaking. With the illumination of the setting sun, one could clearly see that at this moment, her pretty face was flushed in Rosy-Red as she ran into the village. She was clearly embarrassed by her own words.
The middle-aged man was still speechless as he watched his daughter ran away in a flustered manner.
After a while, he let out a deep sigh, thinking that it was indeed a pity that his daughter was not a cultivator, otherwise she would have had a chance, but since she was only an ordinary person, there is no way she could be with someone who had a longer lifespan than her.
In addition to that, she could not protect herself from other cultivators, and would only be a burden to the young man.
Thinking about this, the middle-aged man shook his head as he followed after his daughter, into the village.
…
On the other side, Shenyan was currently running towards the Grey Fog Forest to complete the remaining of his tasks as soon as possible before the time limit. And very soon, he was standing in front of the entrance to the forest.
This forest was called Grey Fog Forest mainly because during the night time, there would be a fog-like smoke accumulated in the forest hindering one's senses. So, no dares to venture into the forest at night, due to the risks of running into some hordes of Spirit Beasts.
Shenyan was hurrying to complete at least one task today before calling it a day due to the time constraint, so even though the sun was setting, he decided to risk it and come to this forest.
After all, the sun is still up and as long as he does not delve too deep into the forest, nothing bad would happen, or at least he hopes.
Without wasting too much time, Shenyan headed into the forest. The task that he wanted to complete now was the Giant Boar's Task; those Spirit Beasts usually stay in the outskirts of the forest so there is no need to go deeper into the forest and with his current skills, Shenyan was confident that he would be able to easily defeat those Spirit Beasts and complete the task and take their cores at least.
Although, the academy gives a free storage pouch when one is on a mission, Shenyan also had a low-leveled storage pouch which he received from Wang Zhong during his time at the restaurant, it can store at least two giant boars according to his estimates and the pouch from the academy could store about five to six giant boars or maybe more.
In any case, Shenyan was determined to complete at least this task as there were no amount required stated on the task, so it was probably a recurring task.
Immediately upon entering the forest, Shenyan met the Giant Boars. They look similar to ordinary boars except that they had grown in size and their cultivation was lower than that of Fifth-Level Spirit Apprentice, so Shenyan was easily able to kill two of them.
[Vertical Slash]!
"Swish!"
With a single swing of his steel sword borrowed from the academy, a boar let out a high-pitched scream before losing its life shortly after.
"Squeal!"
It was at this moment, that a sudden sound from an animal resounded in the surrounding, the sound was so deafening that one had to cover their ears to prevent their eardrums from popping due to the shock waves that followed after the roar of the fierce animal.
"Growl—!!"
"Ugh! What was that just now?" Shenyan barely managed himself from falling over as he spoke while covering his ears from the sudden roar from the wild animal.