Eyes open slowly and see the vast blue sky up above, green birds with extremely long tails fly over, making her pay attention.
She tries to move and is greeted with pain, but it is manageable.
"You are awake," She hears a man's voice and immediately turns her head to see a young man with long black hair and black eyes looking back at her.
She instantly gets up ignoring the pain in her body and creates some distance between herself and the young man. She looks down to see that her clothes have no bloodstains, but they are still ragged and destroyed.
"No need to be afraid, they won't be coming after you anymore," The young man says, catching the girl by surprise.
She looks around and starts recalling yesterday's events.
She was being chased by a few assassins who were after her life; she got heavily injured while trying to defend herself.
She then remembers running up to this point and collapsing. The last thing she saw was the face of this man as she begged him to save her life.
The girl looks around again and looks back at the young man.
She notices that he is just a 7th-level Qi cultivator.
"What happened?" she asks.
Nothing makes sense. Why is she still here? How is she alive? Where are her assassins? Who is this young man? How is he alive? And what happened after she collapsed last night?
"Like I said, they won't be bothering you anymore," The young man says with confidence.
She still doesn't understand and gives the young man a confused look.
"For fuck's sake, woman, I killed them," Brax says out loud, startling her.
"But-" she suddenly stops herself from asking as she recalls that some cultivators like to hide their real cultivation level to not attract attention.
'I got very lucky,' The girl thinks. Not running into this young man last night would have been the death of her.
"Thank you senior! You saved my life and I will be forever grateful. Please tell me if I can do anything for you?" she asks as respectfully as possible.
This young senior saved her life, so she must now repay this kindness by any means possible
"No," Brax says, catching the girl by surprise once again.
"What do you mean, senior?" She asks nervously.
"You will do nothing. I do not know you. You do not know me. In fact, we have never met. Do you understand?" Brax asks firmly.
The girl understands what the young senior is implying, but this doesn't sit right with her. This man saved her life. She can't just do nothing and ignore it.
"I understand senior, but please, take this," The girl says and takes out a gold medallion from the ring on her finger. Brax's eyes shine, not because of the gold medallion but because of the ring.
From his memories, he recognizes what the ring on her finger is. It's a spatial ring used to store inanimate objects and from what he recollects, they are incredibly expensive.
'It makes sense,' He thinks as only a girl from a rich and elite family would be subjected to assassination.
He then looks at the medallion and sees the crest of a swan-like bird with four wings etched on it. 'A family crest?' He questions.
"This is my family's crest. If you are ever in Horuboro City, this might be of help in case of any unwanted situation," the girl says.
Brax thinks about it for a second and takes it. There is no harm done and it can be of use to him in the future if he ever visits this Horuboro City.
"Fine, and remember, you do not know me and I do not know you," Brax says and leaves.
The girl just stands there and watches Brax leave. "I didn't even get senior's name," she murmurs as her heart beats a little faster.
A classic case of developing feelings for your savior, but this should just be temporary as the chances of them ever meeting again are slim.
________________________
Brax is on the road again. He looks at the medallion in his hand and studies it. He finds it to be special as it has a unique Qi pattern embedded in it. 'Must be for authentication' Brax concludes. As for the material itself, it is nothing unique, just gold mixed with some alloy to make it strong.
He puts away the medallion.
"Too bad I didn't get anything from those corpses," he sighs. Before disposing of their body in the river, he searched the bodies but found nothing.
They were only there for one thing, and that was to kill that girl. They must have purposefully not carried anything so that things don't get traced back to them if things go wrong.
At least, the beasts in the river got something to eat.
_________________________
Another day goes by and Brax starts noticing ash white trees on the path. These trees are called Whiteworro, and yes, the town he is visiting is named after these trees.
These trees are special because they only grow in this part of the country. As to why? The people of this world never bothered to figure it out.
Brax, though interested in learning why, didn't bother with it either. He has other things to focus on.
Soon he found himself in front of a small town gate. The gate is made of Whiteworro wood and the name Whiteworro town is engraved on it.
He enters the town.
Mortals are walking around, busy with their daily life.
Brax immediately attracts the attention of everyone as he looks regal and heavenly compared to these mortals, as cultivators have the aura of Qi surrounding them unless they purposely want to hide it.
These mortals get excited seeing him. Some of them got on their knees and started worshiping him, while some of them trembled in fear.
Brax is surprised. He never gave it much thought, but there is a clear difference between mortals and cultivators.
To him, these mortals look just like humans from back in his previous life, but to these mortals, he looks like a transcendent being.
Brax sees a little child run up to him and stare at him with starry eyes. Suddenly, his mother runs up to him and shields the child with her body.
"I am extremely sorry, oh great lord. Please forgive him. He is just a child. He didn't mean to block your path!" The woman starts begging him for no reason.
Brax looks around and sees the other mortals look at the mother with pity and shake their heads as if she is doomed.
'Amazing,' He thinks. The fear that these people have for him is deep-rooted in their souls.
There is an unspoken rule in the cultivation world. Not to harm mortals. But even with this unspoken rule in place, it is not rare to see a cultivator kill mortals.
Cultivators sometimes kill a mortal just on a wimp, so it is not so surprising to see a mortal mother beg for her child's life even if he hasn't done anything.
"Stop this. Where is your chief's house? Take me there." Not wanting to see the scene in front of him anymore, he spoke out.
"Thank your, oh great lord, thank you," the woman starts thanking him, bowing down multiple times before finally getting back on her feet while still keeping her head down.
"Please follow me, oh great lord," she says and guides Brax to the village chief's house.