Chapter 16.

Leaving the village, we took a carriage and headed to Spring city.

Reaching there, we moved straight to the Spirit Pagoda, where old Lin was already waiting for us with a few children and their family members, seeing us he nodded and greeted us while asking us to wait since there are others still need to come, hearing his words we just waited on the side while Village chief started to impart some words like what to do and what not to when you get to the Academy, while I nodded all the time.

Like that time passed, it was already an hour since we joined them, and many people came earlier than us, so they were getting impatient, and old-Lin was calming them. At this time Chen Rong came back with a few carriages and inside the carriage there were few children, seeing this we knew everyone has gathered, and since the ones who haven't come until now will be left behind, so I said my goodbye's to the village chief and moved towards the carriage, while village just said

"take care of yourself."

The same partings were happening with everyone who came here, as they parted with their children and gave their blessing while hoped them to reach a high level and be able to take care of themselves.

After a few minutes, all the children sat on the carriage, there were in total 20 children, and there were 5 carriages each big enough to carry 7-8 people, we were divided into 5 people per carriage, and I sat on the carriage in which Chen Rong was responsible as since we were close he would first take me safety if something happens, which is also the reason there are spirit warriors inside every carriage, that is to take care of unexpected, while we sat on the carriage Old-Lin rode his horse in the front.

Seeing that everyone has boarded the carriage, the old-Lin started the journey, by ordering the carriages to move.

Watching the carriage is moving Village Chief waved his hand to me, I smiled back at him and shouted.

"Take care Grandpa."

He was stunned when he heard my words since this was the first time I called him Grandpa, which also means I acknowledged him. I had recognized him very early but kept it in my heart and wanted to say it at an occasion like this, which will soothe his anxious heart worried about my safety. Coming back to his senses Grandpa laughed loudly while I heard his laugh inside the carriage and smiled while Grandpa quickly disappeared from our eye-site as the carriage was moving very fast.

Seeing the environment begin to blur because of the speed of the carriage I looked back slightly trying, To whether I could still see Grandpa, but even with Demon's eye technique, I couldn't see him as the Carriage has already neared the Gates and passed through it. Turning my head back to the front I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky while clenching my fists hard.

I thought.

' It's time I start looking forward towards the first part of my journey, let me see what this journey brings me, what adventures and challenges are waiting for me, this should be fun.'

As I thought of this I slowly let out out my breath and relaxed my clenched fist, while excitement filled my eyes looking forward to the next journey.

.....

It was nearly sunset while inside the forest Old-Lin ordered the carriage to stop and asked a few spirit warriors to look for a place to camp tonight.

While the carriage stopped I was bored and got out of the carriage to take a look, It was not only me who got out but there were also some brave and curious children's who came out to take a look at the surroundings since this will be the first time for most if not everyone to come to the forest, while the timid ones just sat inside the carriage afraid to come out since have heard many terrifying stories from childhood which the elders use to stop the little guys from causing trouble.

But still, we were not to run around and stay still, not to cause any troubles, some little ones didn't take these words seriously and were caught sneaking around, and got punished by getting sealed inside the carriage for the whole journey, that is for a whole three days. This information about the time this journey may take, I got it from Chen Rong who was in the same carriage and since I was bored I asked many details regarding this journey from him.

According to what he said we are currently in a forest called Gir, where from time to time some idiotic beasts sneak around, they do not have much strength but more ferocious but overall much of a challenge to our carriage, this is a shortcut if we go through main roads it might take a week or more to reach our destination.

We will cross the forest and head straight to a city called Nanga, this city is not very famous and we are also not staying there, we cross it and once again enter Gir forest, crossing the forest we will connect to some villages on the other side from where we will enter the main road before reaching our destination, the provincial capital Barak city.

All this may have taken a long time, but because 100-year-old beasts pull the carriage we are riding at a fast speed and we can reach the destination in only three days.

While I was musing the Spirit warriors have gathered and are reporting somethings to Old-Lin. He nodded hearing those while sometimes he frowned, sometimes he shook denying somethings, after a few minutes he dispersed the Spirit warriors and ordered them to follow him, everyone who got outside rushed back to their carriage while a spirit warrior came to count our numbers, seeing that no one was missing the carriage followed Old-Lin.

He took us to a clearing in the forest beside a small stream where there were no beasts in our site which was confusing but reassuring since every wild water source will always have some beasts near it, which I heard from grandma.

Everyone got out and was assigned to a spirit warrior to built their own tents. I was still in Chen Rong team, we were five children following him in which there were 3 boys including me while the other 2 are little girls, although they wanted to talk with me, I didn't want to since I don't have the time chat with these little ones just like I didn't with the children's in the orphanage. I will only make friends with those who can keep up with me, I don't want my friends to drift apart because they weren't able to keep up with me. This my arrogance that only others can't keep up with me, this won't the other way around, It is my pride as a traverser and also the confidence in various techniques I have.

So I ignored or just nodded at them and silently followed Chen Rong, I helped him with building a tent while he took the other 2 boys to the forest to get some wood to lit up the fire, while the 2 girls stood by watching around.

I built a tent for us boys and another for 2 girls Chen Rong can only build his own, as he returned with a few logs and placed them in front of the boy's tent, and before I could even start building his tent, he asked me to stop and said he will deal with it himself. Then he asked to go to the middle of the area while he followed us, reaching there Old-Lin and others were making our dinner, which is nothing but heating up the food they bought in the morning. After a few minutes, the food was heated as they passed the food to us as we ate it quickly, finishing our food we returned to the tent as we boys and girls got inside our respective tents while Chen Rong built his own, getting inside I didn't bother the other 2 and sat crossed legged and started practicing Qi gathering technique, while the boys looked at me weirdly and got into bed ready to sleep while the wooden Logs burned outside as Chen Rong was on the night watch.