--- Chapter 3 ---
"Do you need anything else, young master?" Hong Guan asked at the front gate of Silver Lake City.
Hayate's mouth twitched and answered with an annoyed tone, "I'm just gonna visit another city, not going to a war."
"I don't need so many things."
Hong Guan chuckled and handed Hayate a purple spatial ring, which possessed more than 100 meters of cubic space. She stored so many things inside this, so she wouldn't have to worry about Hayate.
This purple spatial ring indicates how much money Silver Lake City has after two years of development. Hong Guan as the city ruler obviously became filthy rich.
Hayate has the largest share of Silver Lake City's profit, but he barely uses them and lets Hong Guan handle it.
What Hayate needed were dangerous profound beasts to create more Kaiju cores, some books, and enough food to feed himself. In short, He wasn't that invested in anything else.
Meanwhile, Hayate sighed tiredly and wondered about something in his mind. Hong Guan observed his attire and nodded her head in approval.
Hayate wore a black long-sleeved shirt, cream trousers, and a brown hooded coat. He wore slightly baggy clothes so that he could hide Kaiju's transformation.
That's just how Hayate outfits, even in his past, because his Kaiju's transformation caught a lot of attention. Not to mention this continent has branded strange things as a threat.
There was a so-called demon in this world, which he hadn't confirmed because only the powerhouse of this world knew about it.
"Then, I'll be going." Hayate's clothes fluttered with a breeze.
"Have a nice journey, young master." Hong Guan smiled gently.
Swoosh!
Hayate vanished like the wind and left behind a soft breeze, causing Hong Guan to wave her hand away.
Hong Guan walked back to the city and whispered, "Fufu~, now I can deal with those leeches without making the young master annoyed."
"Hmm, let's clean them quickly before the young master returns."
On a dirt roadway filled with lush forest on the side, Hayate's figure flew like the wind and passed through some carriages.
He used [Storm Zinogre], a wolf-shaped Kaiju, chimera core, and activated [Flowing Wind] ability to manipulate the wind around him.
Even though Hayate could go even faster if he combined [Flowing Wind] with other [Storm Zinogre's ability], this was more than enough for traveling between cities.
It's a B-grade core with several powerful abilities, but with Hayate's current physical strength and cultivation, he wouldn't have much problem using this core for a few weeks.
Hayate currently possessed a physique equal to or slightly inferior to the Earth Profound Realm's cultivator. Nonetheless, his cultivation was only at the sixth level of the Spirit Profound Realm.
Since he couldn't fight Sky Profound Realm's cultivator yet, he was at least confident enough to run away safely from them. Everything beyond that level is a dangerous threat for him.
"Hmm?" Hayate's eyes contracted a little.
A few hundred meters away, he could see a carriage nastily attacked by a small group of dog-like profound beasts.
He shook his head and kicked the wind, accelerating himself even more forward.
Hayate swiftly picked some knives out of his coat and threw them with a powerful force, leaving a faint trail of lights.
The profound beasts were stabbed and paralyzed because [Extreme Lightning]'s ability briefly was infused with the knives. He kicked the nearest beast and finished the rest quickly by breaking their neck.
A few small marbles fell from their corpses, and Hayate picked them swiftly. He glanced at the dead profound beasts and muttered, "As expected, they didn't disappear for some reason."
It was different when he killed three beggars because their corpses disappeared immediately and turned into cores, but the profound beast is an exception for some reason.
He moved his gaze to the half-broken carriage and asked, "Is there anyone there?"
"Whatever, it's not my problem." He added casually and continued his journey. "You can survive on your own now."
"W-Wait!" A woman hurriedly comes out with three guardsmen around her.
Hayate glanced at her and commented, "Oh, you finally come out."
He had sensed some presence inside the carriage and noticed three people were in a bad state.
'They probably got poisoned by something.' Hayate assumed because they matched characteristics similar to the medical book he had been reading for two years.
Since the carriage driver isn't here, that person likely ran away or is dead somewhere else chased by some profound beast.
"How bizarre... This route is usually safe." Hayate frowned.
"Thank you for saving us, savior." The woman bowed slightly.
She had a bitter expression before because they were dragged here by a fake coachman who worked with the bandits. After being stranded alone with her poisoned guards, some profound beast began to attack them.
"If you want my help, I would say no." Hayate suddenly opened his mouth.
"Eh, b-but." The woman stuttered.
"Eh, what?" Hayate sneered. "I'm just enjoying my fresh air and defeating those beasts for you, nothing more than that."
"I'll give you our money." The woman responded with a resolute tone.
Hayate shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Not interested."
He possessed a ton of money from Silver Lake City's profit, which surprisingly was enough to feed some families in this empire for several generations.
Not to mention Hayate wasn't interested in money because he blindly used and obtained them.
"Are you perhaps a noble?" Hayate asked. "Do you have something valuable with you right now, like martial arts or books?"
"Y-Yes, my name is Shui Rong. I'm from the Shui Clan." The woman answered nervously.
"I can give you some martial books I had with me, but can you save my people first?"
"Show me the books." Hayate crossed his arm casually.
Shui Rong sighed inwardly and brought out three martial art techniques from her spatial ring, which abruptly disappeared and appeared in Hayate's hand.
"I have accepted your payment." Hayate stored the books.
"W-What, how???" Shui Rong couldn't help but stare at the young man in front of her with a speechless expression.
He walked to the guards and poked their exposed fingers with sterile thin needles. He observed their blood and mumbled, "I see."
"Are you guys having trouble using profound energy?"
They nodded their heads, which confirmed Hayate's assumption as he picked some grass near the street.
"Eat this."
"Huh?" The guards stared silently at the grass.
How can random grass on the street heal them?
"Hurry up. I want to continue my journey." Hayate told them with an annoyed expression. "You can save some of the grass and let your clan identify it later."
"It's called cow tongue grass and a solution for your poison."
"By the way, The poison is a mixture of toxic frog's venom, green clover, and yellow tree's root."
"Eat it. We can trust this person for now." Shui Rong instructed her guards.
They reluctantly chewed on the cow tongue grass and tasted an extreme bitterness with a disgusting aftertaste. Hayate notified them not to throw up and waited for a few minutes.
The guards felt better miraculously and stared at Hayate with disbelief on their faces because random grass really saved their lives.
They weren't really in danger because the poison only disturbed their profound veins and weakened them. Hayate gave them the cow tongue grass, which had the effect of roughly cleansing one's body.
It's effective because they are drugged with paralyzed poison, though.
"What?" Hayate stared back at them.
He shook his head and said, "I'll go now, bye."
Hayate disappeared from their view with a wind blow, but a group of bandits came after them a minute later.
Of course, Shui Rong doesn't have a problem because her guards surprisingly were healed. These weak bandits won't cause a problem for them.
"What kind of person actually is he?" Shui Rong watched the quiet road.
Hayate consumed the cores he just obtained and gained two abilities, [Leading a pack] and [Bite].
"What do I even expect?" Hayate was disappointed and stopped at the first settlement he saw.
Cyan Forest Town neatly was written on the front plaque, and Hayate entered the place without any problem.
"Heh." He scanned the place with a smile.
Cyan Forest Town is small and far away from other cities. Still, This town really was considered a necessary route when traveling. It is close to the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range.
"Rumor said a dragon quietly lives inside the prohibited area of Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range."
Hayate's ears perked, and intrigued at such information, wanting to meet a real dragon. There was no such thing as a dragon in his past world because he was the apex predator there.
"Well, it's not hurt if I sent the Onyx Eagle to check it." Hayate shrugged his shoulders.
He summoned the Onyx Eagle and commanded it to fly over Scarlet Dragon Mountain range. Hayate walked to the nearest restaurant he could find and waited for good news from his Kaiju.
"Sir, here is your tea." A waitress came to him.
Hayate nodded and ignored her almost immediately.
"Hmm, A cave?"
Onyx Eagle flew to the prohibited area and saw a cave on the mountain's side, which released hot temperatures. As soon as he wanted to check the cave, a violent flame burst out and killed his summoned Kaiju.
Hayate gritted his teeth because he shared a vision with Onyx Eagle and felt the scorching pain. "That's more like bad news for me." He sipped the tea.
He frowned because something was weird in this tea.
"Ah, that's why."
"To think they'd use the same tricks against me."
Crack!
Hayate clenched the cup to dust and glanced at the waitress, who became nervous as soon as their eyes met each other.
He smirked and put a Purple Profound Coin on the table, which exactly was worth 100 cyan profound coins.
Bear in mind that one Cyan Profound Coin is easily worth 100 Yellow Profound Coins.
'Now take the bait.' Hayate walked out casually.
He walked around the town for an hour and suddenly stopped in the nearest forest, where some people had gathered to ambush him.
"I assume you guys are the same group of bandits who poisoned a lady with three guardsmen?" Hayate observed them and noticed only one of them in the true profound realm.
That guy has also barely reached the second stage of the profound realm.
A rough-looking man in his early thirties laughed and pointed his blade at Hayate. "So what?" He said.
"You have drunk our poison. You won't be able to use your profound energy properly." He added confidently. "Even if you have higher cultivation than me, it means nothing to us."
"What a shame." Hayate took one knife out of his coat.
"What's the chance of me being an expert in the medical field?"
Swoosh!
Hayate's body flashed to the supposed leader and whispered indifferently, "Truly... What a shame."
The bandit leader couldn't even blink his eyes, and his heart abruptly was destroyed by Hayate.
Destroyed is a strong word, but the bandit leader's chest had disappeared entirely from his body, leaving a bloody hole.
After two years, Hayate resolved to kill annoying people in his way. This world is where the strong stood on the top, and the weak sadly were trampled on the ground.
The bandit leader's corpse fell and turned into marble, which caused the rest of the bandit to look at Hayate in fear. They tried to run away, but a small white dog-like chimera with white furs and soft black ears suddenly chased them.
"Koro, kill them all." Hayate's golden eyes shone in a sinister green luster.
The bandit ran away as fast as they could because their lives depended on this, but when one of them tried to look behind. A small white dog has transformed into a bulky monster with sharp teeth.
"M-Monster!"
"GYAAA!"
"My Arm! That monster ate my arm!"
"BLERGH!"
"AARRGGHH!"
Hayate wiped the blood off his knife and saw a small white dog approach him with blood all over its body.
Hekatonkheires is a powerful B-grade Chimera Kaiju with powerful regenerative and transformation ability, possessing the strength around the same level as himself.
Hayate created this Kaiju with several profound beasts and a cute dog as a base, naming it [Koro] because Hong Guan asked him what this creature's name was in the past.
"Haaa... Look how messy you are." He sighed and cleaned Koro's body with the cloth in his hand.
Koro slowly tilted its head and naturally stared at Hayate with glistening black eyes. Who would have thought this cute creature just killed ten bandits a few seconds ago.
"!!!" Koro wiggled its body.
"Okay, I won't put you in my inner world." Hayate smiled and brought Koro to his shoulder, making the small Kaiju roll in excitement.
He glanced at the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range and added, "I'll come back when I'm strong enough."
"But for now, Let's go to the Floating Cloud City."