Deep in the forest, a lone boar paced around among the freshly sprung plants and bushes, the sunlight peeking through the fresh leaves mildly warmed its thin coat of fur, its sense of smell was attacked by the many blooming plants as its nose twitched, sniffing, it caught a scent that it found odd.
It could tell that it wasn't something delicious, but it also didn't smell like a competitor, it almost made it feel relaxed however it wasn't going to let its guard down, it wanted to investigate.
However, before it could find what it was smelling-
*schwwwing*
An object came flying directly towards its line of sight, too fast for it to react, it felt a hint of pain as something pierced its hide, its instincts told it to run as it trotted along, quickly losing the liveliness it had shown before it stopped and flopped on to its side.
After a few seconds the bushes a goods tens of meters away rustled and out stepped a small figure clad in a cloak that was coloured green, a small bow was held in his right hand as he approached the boar.
"I did it!" He exclaimed with joy, he removed his hood to reveal Shu Hem, his brown hair had slightly grown in length and bronze gold eyes along with lightly sun kissed skin that glistened from the sweat, he knelt down and observed his catch.
The arrow had pierced the upper part of the boars skull, any higher and it would have gotten stuck in the thick fat surrounding its neck, which means it wouldn't have been a quick dispatch, he got lucky.
"You've gotten a lot better, your first hunt ends with a clean kill; you should be happy, when I did it I hit the leg and had to chase it for a while."
Following after him was Shu Li, similarly dressed, today was the day he took Shu He on his first hunt, he had helped at first with the tracking but after a little while his son had taken over and ended the hunt with his own skill.
It had only been three months since he first began teaching him and he had already reached this point already, he was incredibly proud of his son.
"Hm, a little high, still need a bit of work on your aim" He observed the carcass, he felt he had to correct his son lest he become overconfident.
"Yes.. I'm not quite used to firing at moving targets for longer distances yet" Shu He steadily pulled the arrow out of the wound as he replied, he shook as much blood off it as he could before placing it back in the small quiver hanging over his shoulder, arrows were a valuable resource so they would reuse them as long as they aren't damaged, he'll clean it better when he returns though.
'Hitting a moving target, let alone a living creature is still a little difficult, I only had the stationary targets to practice on back home' He reflected on the hunt in his mind, the tracking wasn't too difficult but in the end he needed experience the most, something he definitely had none of right now.
Shu He then bent down and wrapped his arms around the carcass and attempted to lift it.
"Hnnnnnnnng!" He gritted his teeth and managed to raise it in his arms as his face turned red from stressing himself, but then he couldn't do much else with it so he ended up dropping it and breathing in and out heavily.
"Haha, I'll carry it don't worry" His father said as he easily hoisted the carcass over his shoulder and began to walk home "It's just past mid-day, didn't you want to go there?"
Shu He stood with his hands on his knees with a slight sour face before being reminded about today by his Father, he then perked up and stretched before following along.
"Are you sure it's fine if I go?" Shu He asked, still unsure.
"It's fine I'll speak the guards and let them know you're fine, I can get them to make an exception" His Father replied with a confident tone, evidently he had no worries.
"Great!" Shu He smiled.
What was 'there'?
The Travelling Market of course!
It had arrived later than was assumed but it had finally arrived, and for Shu He it was perfect timing; He had just turned 6, and his Father had told him once he did, he would be allowed to go explore the market and he stuck to it.
Normally children weren't allowed to wander the place when they arrived, mostly because they could get in the way or could be used for mischief by others, a lot of the stall runners didn't want to deal with them so the caravan guards would keep them away; But Shu Li was quite popular with a lot of the members due to the pelts and other resources he would sell to them so he could specially request his son be allowed to attend.
The Travelling Market was essentially a caravan of merchants that banded together for various reasons, they make a round trip every year to many villages and cities, moving good from one place to another, they're very well-known and are incredibly popular, their arrival to an area is treated as an event similar to a festival.
As said before, Shu He had never been able to attend, after all he was only 6 now, he had only managed to attempt to sneak in once before last year but was quickly foiled by the guards that hounded around the perimeter day and night, so he had no idea what kind of good were sold there, he had his father sell some of his self-made medicine before for a small profit but this time he wanted to sell more.
Over the last three months he had been hard work, he made a good number of different types of medicine from his stored up herbs and managed to make a few batches of the clotting salve that he obtained the crystal root-flower from before for! His only gripe was that due to the murder incident he was banned from foraging in the forest alone, but he understood why so he didn't attempt to sneak out to do so, but due to that his herb stock had almost been run dry as he couldn't replenish them.
'Thinking of the murder incident, I didn't hear anything more about it; Father said I didn't need to worry but it was my only clue as to anything cultivator related, it's been three months with nothing, and the townspeople have mostly shoved it to the back of their minds and forgotten about it…'
He couldn't work out whether he was slightly disappointed or relieved that nothing more came from that event, he'd asked around about cultivators in the village but came up cold, the only ones he hadn't managed to ask were people like Dai Niu or Elder Cao since they were hard to approach.
'But, this is another reason to attend the market!' His eyes turned sharp; he had a very good reason to go there today.
Obviously one of the reasons was to make some money from the medicine he made but the other, more important goal to him was information! What his Father and Mother could tell him was limited, they had lived with a very small scope of this world their entire lives, but a market that travelled around with many people to talk to, surely he could find something about cultivation there! At least he hoped so.
So far his efforts in cultivation were essentially zero, at time he thought he felt 'something' when he sat down and meditated but in the end he assumed it was just his mind playing tricks, he tried all sorts of forms of meditation he remembered reading about in his past life, but no success was found.
'Ideally, I could meet a cultivator themselves and ask about their experiences, or maybe some record that explains about cultivation…' He imagined in his head the many scenarios he wished to encounter.
Before long they had returned home, Shu Li went to deal with the carcass although it really should be Shu He's job, but he was let off this time so he could go and prepare.
"Little He, are you ready? You didn't forget anything did you?" His mother asked out of concern, Shu He was stood by the door with a large pack slung on his back containing many different small containers.
"Nope! I'm ready!" He said with excitement, he could barely hold himself from running off already.
Eventually Shu Li came out of the shed, looking towards his son raring to go and smiling.
"Well, let's go then."
And so they departed for the Travelling Market.