It has been a week since the convoy left and everyone resumed their own duties. The men were back to hunt the nearby monster beasts. Herb picking people are also going deep places in the forest to sell them for money to the Ming and Tai families.
On this day, when the sun was high up in the sky, Ming Jian was attending to some village duties while Ming Shin went outskirts of Juuko to practice his sword which his brought for him.
It is a one meter long high grade sword which was sharp enough to cut down level 2 monsters like tofu. Ming Jian acquired it at a great price for his son to practice swords. Suddenly he heard a movement.
A young man was gasping and running and suddenly fell over. Ming Shin approached him cautiously but seeing the huge claw mark on his back and half his abdomen cracked open, he hurried to help him turn over.
The young man coughed out blood and his eyes were already blurry " the c-convoy coughs is attacked by a large n-number of beasts".
"What?" Shin heard a thunderbolt crash his mind. But then quickly calmed down as he knew that many powerful figures were escorting the convoy and his mother should be safe.
"Which way is it? Did you see how many beasts were attacking?" Ming Shin questioned.
"Around s-sixty miles down south, there are battle remains and many dead bodies. There are at least cough hundreds of the-" the young man trembled and gasped in pain and soon his eyes became lifeless.
Ming Shin slowly closed his eyes and felt sad for this brother. Now he started to panic. No matter how strong you are, moving forward while fending of hundreds of beasts is problematic.
He buried this young man's body nearby and thanked him for surviving so long to spread the news.
'When push comes to shove, who is willing to lay down and protect some one's life?' Ming Shin remembered on how Bai Mei once lectured him to not be always self righteous.
Right, especially how condescending they looked at us like barbarians, they might even use the village people as bait to escape. Ming Shin gritted his teeth and had red eyes. He spurted his way forward while thinking of what situation was being played.
Right now, five thousand miles away from the village, the convoy was speeding up with Wu Lao and Ping Lao fending off the monsters. Though they are just level 3, there are hundreds of beasts and have already lost nearly 10 condensation guards trying to distract them.
The young people and other merchants were panicked hearing the battle noise and irking monster growls. The smell of blood is in the air and they could not even have proper food with iron in the air.
Three of the twenty carriages were already lost and they are hastily moving forward. They need to cross another thirty six thousand miles to cross the border where the terrain is good to move easily and can defend against such odd number of beasts with both their power.
Nearly after a day's worth of walking, Ming Shin replenished himself with some fruits to quench his thirst and hunger. Noticing it was dark and not good to move forward during this time, he found a high top tree and rested on a thick branch and made sure he wouldn't fall off.
Ming Jian who was waiting for Ming Shin to come home did not see him anywhere. He was told that by some passerby that Ming Shin was last seen going outskirts of the village.
'The beads haven't gone off. Which means, he should not face much danger. A plant in greenhouse cannot weather the storms' Ming Jian contemplated.
The next day Meng Kai and Du Baoji came to play with Ming Shin but they were told that he was training vigorously after his failure. Meng Kai clenched her fist "Brother Shin, I-I too shall study well and become a strong person" and burned with the passion of martial might.
She bought lot of wooden weapons such as spear, bow and arrow and some small swords. She requested her father to assign a strong man to teach her. Where can meng Haotian not understand his daughter's thoughts.
'Going after that man's son is not so easy' he thought as he remembered the day ten years back when he first Ming Jian who saved them from the monster beast attack on the brink of collapse.
It was then that he saw his favorite woman fall in love with an outsider and was outraged. But he only suffered defeat after defeat in martial might.
He did not the purpose of Ming Jian coming to a place like this, more like he was not even qualified to speculate on it. In all these years he could not even fathom that man's depth.
But still he loved his precious daughter very much and requested few skilled weapons expert elders to teach her what she wanted. Meng Kai was more fascinated towards small swords and bow and arrow.
Du Baoji felt lonely and could not find much interest in anything and was used to his free nature of wandering around. He was much interested in the notion of observing humanity from a third perspective and found their plights interesting.
He started to bring out the ink and few papers he purchased and painted the busy markets and the noisy villagers day to day life. This inevitably brought smile and comfort in his lonely life now.
Early in the morning next day, Ming Shin quickly woke up as soon as the first light has hit the sky. He was vigilant the whole night though he was resting. For some reason, he felt like he could sense the surroundings even with his eyes closed.
Soon he finished his morning activities, had some nearby fruit and carried some in a small sack on his shoulder. Xiao Lan still seems to be sleeping sound. He carefully moved forward without making much sound.
Finally around late in the afternoon, he observed some carriage track imprints which were heading down south. as he moved ahead, he started seeing many dead bodies of the monster beats and some are still alive but heavily injured.
He quickly killed them with the sharp sword he was carrying. He never wanted to leave his back open no matter how wounded the beast was. For all he knew, the monster beast might just be putting on an act to pounce on him when he relaxed his vigilance.
Also, the low growls of these monster beats might attract the other ones. Ming Shin knew this path he is going to lead to a bunch of monster beasts. But he is willing to do everything he can to make sure his mother is safe.
It has been four days and all he can see is only corpses of the monster beast. So far, it seems the strong people of the convoy have managed to scrape through. Suddenly from his right a sharp shining claw tried to cut off his face.
He immediately duck forward while swinging his sword behind. The monster lost it's right leg in the front and half of it's neck and started heavily bleeding with a thud. He turn back immediately and separated its head.
His robes were now covered with various monster blood and dirt these days and he does not have any other set of clothes to change nor can he wash himself in this jungle. The only path is for him to move forward following the tracks.
It has been two more days he has fought off lot's of level -1 monsters with ease and getting the hang of the sword. On this day, he encountered a level 2 monster beast and this would be his first hard battle.
The beast which looked half wolf and half bull is not much agile but possessed mighty strength. He tried to fend off and slice it's front legs to cut off it's mobility, but he received severe thrashing in the process. His left abdomen was swollen and he is slowly running out of stamina.
Fighting for more than twenty minutes with such pressure, he had to clear his head devoid of any thoughts and solely focus on the opponent. Even though the beast avoided major injuries, It had lots of cuts and losing quite an amount of blood.
The beast wanted to retreat but it's instinct said that the moment it turned around, it would be sliced up by this small creature. After another ten minutes of heavy panting and hard duel, the moment Shin waited for has arrived.
Due to heavy blood loss, the beasts mobility decreased even more though it tried to maintain it's brutal strength. The moment it charged forward, he used all his strength his legs and kept his body low and push the sword from it's left nostril all the way to it's brain.
Ming Shin was also hit hard with it's head due to inertial and heard a crack in his ribs. Despite this, he immediately sprung up to take immediate action with a bloody face. The beast slowly died after whimpering for a while.