Lying on a bed inside an improvised cabin made of fabric and wood, Tristan looked up thoughtfully. Lan had taken Yue away a few hours ago so he could rest in peace. But soon they would return, and he would need to come up with a story about why a child like him was in this mountainous region, so far from civilization.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to move his arms.
"Grasp... haaa," Tristan groaned in pain; he could barely move a finger.
*Sigh.*
He thought he was lucky not to have to amputate his arm.
'The Light cultivation must have prevented my arms from rotting or an infection from spreading.'
His stomach growled loudly.
'So hungry!'
Tristan clicked his tongue.
'Damn, I was such an idiot. I decided to take the shorter route because I wanted to reach the eastern region as quickly as possible. But now my body is completely broken. I should have tried to go around this damn area.'
The curtain of the cabin folded back, and a small child with blue hair and eyes entered, holding a tray with a bowl of soup.
His eyes lit up, and his mouth watered at the sight. The smell of food made his stomach growl even more.
"I brought you some food!" Yue said.
She sat down on the left side of his bed, took a spoon, dipped it into the bowl, and brought the spoonful of soup up to his face.
Tristan was so hungry that he had to fight with himself not to dive headfirst into the whole bowl. But instead, he just continued staring at Yue, not making a move.
She remained still, holding the spoon in front of his face.
The two stayed like that for a while until she finally said,
"Um... don't you like mushroom soup?"
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked in his usual neutral, emotionless voice.
"Uh, um, trying to feed you? I guess?" She looked at him, confused.
"I can do it myself," he replied.
Yue frowned and looked at his bandaged arms. "How?" she asked.
"Just leave it there. I can figure it out."
"You'd rather eat like a dog than let me feed you?" she asked indignantly.
"Yes!" he replied without any excitement.
Yue clicked her tongue and placed the bowl next to Tristan.
He leaned his body over, brought his head closer to the bowl, and started eating. He didn't care about Yue's presence. In this moment, the only thing that existed in the world was him and the bowl.
After some time, Tristan finished his meal, adjusted his body back, and closed his eyes.
Yue kept watching him; her indignation faded after a while, and curiosity returned to her eyes.
"How did you recover so quickly?" she asked.
Opening his eyes, he sighed a little and responded with his usual expressionless face.
"Light cultivation."
"You're a cultivator too, that's so cool! I awakened last year. I'm an Air cultivator. Do you have a master, or are you part of a sect? Or did you do it all on your own?"
"On my own."
"That's so cool! You're like me, then. I want to go to the city of Zaguhan to join the Flying Sword Sect. Do you also want to join a sect?" She asked Tristan.
What she said had piqued his interest.
"Are there sects nearby?"
"You don't know about Zaguhan?" She asked, surprised.
"I don't."
"Zaguhan is a big city; that's why this merchant guild's caravan is heading there to do business. There are several incredible sects there," she said to Tristan with excitement, her desire to reach the city evident.
"You're not part of the merchant guild?" Tristan asked.
Yue shook her head and said, "No, my family has a large farm in Zindan. My grandfather wanted to take me to Zaguhan so I could join a sect specializing in the Air element since there wasn't one in Zindan. So he managed to negotiate with the guild leader, and we joined this caravan heading to Zaguhan."
'It seems she awakened on her own and developed her own elemental technique; that kind of talent is quite rare,' he thought.
After two more days, Tristan was able to stand up. Occasionally, Yue would visit him. Since there wasn't anyone else close to her age, she probably didn't have many people to befriend. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't a normal child.
***
During these days, Tristan had a question in his mind, 'What happened to the beast core?' Well, the answer was obvious: the guild people had probably already taken it.
'So technically, my expenses here have already been paid,' though he thought this exchange was unfair since the core was much more valuable.
As he walked around the camp, someone approached him. She was a young girl dressed in elegant clothes.
"Dusk, right? I'm glad you managed to recover. You went through so much," Liu Feiyan said in a gentle tone.
"Look at that, the brat survived! But haven't you delayed us long enough? You're lucky old Lan is respected by the guild leader; otherwise, we'd have packed up camp and left a long time ago," Wang Liao, who was nearby, said.
Liu Feiyan gave him an angry look and said, "My father isn't that petty. Take back what you said!"
"Sure, sure, the boss would never let a kid who's making him lose money die," Wang Liao said before walking away.
"Don't listen to him. Yue told me you're a cultivator too. That's cool. I hope you recover soon," Feiyan said before bidding him goodbye and leaving.
As she walked away, her face turned in one direction.
Tristan looked in the same direction she was facing.
He saw a young man, around 20 years old. He was practicing martial arts with his sword. Jian pointed his thin-bladed short sword at a tree and then began running toward it.
He spun his entire body clockwise while slashing the tree with his blade. A diagonal cut appeared on the tree. Immediately after, he adjusted his posture and performed another full counterclockwise spin, slashing the tree again, forming an X. To slower eyes than his, it seemed like he had done it in just a few seconds.
But he could see Jian's movements clearly, and his eyes noticed something else: at some point, the center of the X had been struck with a piercing attack, hidden somewhere between Jian's two movements.
Tristan almost immediately thought, 'A Darkness movement technique!?'