"I haven't formally introduced myself. I am Hua Cheng, you can call me Elder Cheng."
"Nice to meet you elder Cheng. I am Meng Ha...."
"Pff. Yeah yeah sure. MENG HAO."
Shaking his head, Yang Ze closed his eyes. The identity of the person in front of him was that of one of the elders of the Hua family. Not only was his strength unfathomable, but his observation skills were also terrifying. How could he be fooled by this brat?
"So... How long is the journey from here?"
Ignoring his reaction, Yang Ze looked at the city of Ignis which soon turned into a dot in the distance before asking the question.
"Well, if everything goes well, we will reach our destination in three days."
"Everything goes well? It seems there are some dangers on the road. Bandits?"
"Hehehe. If only there were bandits."
Elder Cheng gave out a hollow laugh.
"Seems like this job is not easy huh." For a moment, Yang Ze was wondering whether he should head back and forfeit this mission. But thinking about how he had no way to progress further without any spirit stones, he buried those distracting thoughts.
"If it was we wouldn't be paying three spirit stones."
"FOUR SPIRIT STONES."
"Yeah, four spirit stones."
The carriage soon plunged into an awkward silence. For a long time, none of them spoke.
"So, what brought you here? Life experience?"
Finally, Elder Cheng was the one to break the silence.
"Erm. You can say that."
"I arrived in the city yesterday and had to say I am impressed."
"Oh really? Well, thank you. What do you like the most?" It was rare for Elder Cheng to be so interested in someone's life experiences.
"I don't know. It was a different yet pleasant experience."
"Hahahaha."
The once awkward mood was soon swept by the laughter. To Yang Ze, this was perhaps the most fun ride he took after coming to this world. Both of them didn't know each other, yet were able to speak their hearts out, perhaps they couldn't speak with others because of their conservation, yet felt no discomfort with each other.
The day passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, the caravan stopped at the foot of the mountain. They were at the junction from where there were only mountains ahead. So to them, this was perhaps the only place to sleep peacefully.
At this time, all the carriages were arranged in a circle, and in the middle of that circle was a campfire. Sitting on the carriage with his legs hanging down, Yang Ze was lost in thoughts.
"Hey! How about joining us?"
One of the six guards that he met in the morning with Elder Chen suddenly came to Yang Ze before asking him.
"Okay."
After thinking for a while, Yang Ze nodded his head before agreeing. It would do him more good to have some small chats with different people. This would help him understand the world around him much better.
Walking to the group that was sitting on the right side of the campfire, Yang Ze patted his clothes before sitting cross-legged on the ground. At that moment elder Cheng also joined them.
"Cheers."
"Here, elder, try this. I bought this, especially from the south."
"Not bad, not bad.
Oie, Meng Hao, here try this drink."
Looking at Elder Cheng who was drinking with a wide smirk on his face, Yang Ze shook his head.
"No, thank you. I don't drink." Compared to talking with Elder Cheng, this time he changed his voice.
"Bah. What kind of man doesn't drink."
"Hahahaa."
"Yeah, the elder is right, what kind of man doesn't drink."
Ignoring the gazes of others, Yang Ze sat silently. After booing him for a while, the group went quiet for a moment before looking at Elder Cheng.
"Elder, how about telling us a story?"
"Oh? What kind of story do you guys want to hear?"
"That one ..... That one elder, where you fought against the beast for seven days and seven nights."
"Well, it's pretty good, but I have already told you that story many times." With a smug face, Elder Cheng was admiring the gazes around him.
"Then tell us about your battle with the evil practitioner where you destroyed the entire mountain."
"Yes. Yes."
Listening to them, Yang Ze almost thought he heard wrong. Not to mention destroying a mountain, even fighting for seven days and nights is an impossible task; even for him.
'Good guy. I should learn boasting from him. And why do these people believe everything that he says?' With these lingering thoughts, Yang Ze closed his eyes for a moment before speaking out.
"Can you tell us who was the strongest person that you ever met? What was he or she like?" Till now, there weren't many strong people that Yang Ze met. Excluding the father of this body, Old Xie was the only person he saw in the Qi Guiding realm. The Elder Chen in front of him was also a Qi Guiding realm based on his title as an elder of the family, but he wasn't sure about his strength.
After his statement, the time seemed to stand still for a moment. The guards along with the people who were sitting some distance away from them suddenly stopped their activities and quickly gathered around the Elder Chen; their intention was obvious.
"Haha." With a hollow laugh, Elder Chen gulped down the drink in his hand before his expression suddenly became solemn.
"Well, it is a tale from my younger days. I was around thirty-six years old when I stepped into the realm of Qi Guiding. I was considered pretty talented for stepping into the Qi Guiding at such a young age." With this statement, his eyes seemed to linger on Yang Ze for a moment before shifting away.
"After consolidating my realm for a year or so, I decided to travel around to see much of the world. It was at that time I came across the news that a cave was found near the Western Swamp areas. So, without any further delay, I made my way toward that place."
"When we reached there, a crowd was already in place. We don't know why they were just standing there instead of rushing to the cave as soon as possible. But we soon found out that there were restrictions that would open after a fixed time. It took a while, but the restriction finally opened and soon the conflict escalated into an all-out brawl.
Since I was already strong enough, I joined in the fight. Initially, everyone thought that it would be difficult to find a winner, and perhaps it would take days. But it was then... when I saw something that I still remember to this day..." Taking a deep breath, his voice grew a bit hoarse as his hands trembled with excitement. Swallowing another mouthful of the wine, he suppressed his raging emotions and finally spoke again.
"I saw a man walking in the air leisurely."
"What?" This statement was like dropping a bomb in a calm pond. One of the burly guards suddenly shouted. "How is it possible to walk in the air?"
"Elder, are you sure he was walking on the air and not you hallucinating?"
"Hehe." Elder Cheng laughed for a bit before ignoring them. "The moment he appeared, everyone stopped fighting. For a moment, everyone there thought that they were hallucinating or it was a unique vision due to the opening of the cave. A few brave souls even thought that it was just an illusion and wanted to destroy it."
"But before anyone could act, we felt a pressure akin to being crushed by a mountain. Not to mention taking action, we couldn't even breathe. It was as if we were facing against a god."
" Some of us even begged for mercy, hoping for the man to let us go. The man didn't say a word, but his actions alone were enough. The pressure kept on getting bigger before all of us lost consciousness."
Taking a deep breath, elder Cheng refilled his glass before gulping it down.
"When we came to our senses, everything was over. There was no more cave or that person anymore."
Everyone went silent for a long time. Till now, they had heard stories of valour and courage from the elder Cheng. This was the first time they heard something that was out of their imagination. For them, Qi Guiding Realm was already the limit of what humans could reach, yet for someone to crush these powerful people without moving their hands, seemed to be out of a fairytale.
"Did you find out his identity?"
After a long time, it was Yang Ze who spoke. Even though he had imagined people stronger than himself, he didn't know it was to this extent. With his current strength, he couldn't even walk in the air, not to mention crushing people without doing anything. This gave him a new perspective of the strength in this world.
"Yes." Elder Cheng nodded for a while before smiling bitterly.
"It was only after I went back into the academy, I came to know about it. The cave was some kind of inheritance of a strong man and the person who came to claimed it was an Elder from the Xuanwu Martial Academy."
'Huh!' Yang Ze's eyes narrowed for a moment before returning back to normal.
"Now do you guys understand the difference between the academy formed by the alliance in Ignis City and the true Martial Academy?"
The scene soon plunged into the silence. Everyone knew their martial academy wasn't as strong as the True Martial Academy, but they still had hopes that they were somewhat similar in strength. But after hearing Elder Cheng, this small hope of theirs was brutally extinguished.
"What do they call the realm after the Qi Guiding?" It was at this time, that the young woman who was silent the whole time spoke.
"HEHE"
With a bitter laugh, Elder Cheng put down the glass of wine and stood up. Looking up at the sky with a profound gaze, he said in a voice that was full of longing.
"INNATE."