Chance encounter

Ryu froze on the spot while his heart raced, he was caught off-guard, if the man behind him had ill intention he would be dead. For a cultivator to be caught like this is a great shame, but it is a warning that the person on his back is much stronger than him.

He slowly turned his torso to see the person, his eyes landed on a long brown rob finely decorated with strands of gold, a signal that this person is not just a simple elder from the sect but someone from the high echelon. Ryu raised his head and the apprehension he felt previously raised many folds, he raised in a jump and kneeled before the man.

"Junior disciple greets sect master Enlil." Ryu said cupping his hands together and bowing deep to show respect.

"I've heard your greetings, you can stand now." Enlil said with a satisfied face.

Ryu raised his head and saw the man before him, he was shorter than Ryu by a small margin, but the aura around him made Ryu have the impression he was before a giant. The pupils of sect master Enlil were shining with a gold color, a single moment later it turned back to normal with a brow color.

"Interesting, trully interesting." Enlil said rubbing his chin with his left hand, displaying a pensive expression.

"May I ask what is interesting?" Ryu asked out of curiosity, but afraid to offend, a disciple questioning the sect master is not something that should be happening.

"It is nothing, I was just talking to myself. But, tell me, what were bothering you before my arrival?" Enlil dismissed Ryu's question shaking his hand.

At first, Ryu was hesitant to speak, however, avoiding a direct question from the sect master was not something a disciple should do, thus he expressed his preoccupation to not know what he should do to cultivate, he said that in the village it was easier to find an occupation. He ended up engaging with his own speech and said more than he should, saying he was lost as a cultivator, he was missing an objective to guide him.

When he finished, he realized he had been talking for a long time and apologized to Enlil.

"You are concerned with things that you should only think about in the future. If you force yourself too much to prepare for the future you will end up losing the present time, ... and the future after in a sequence.

You barely entered the life of cultivating and already want to be strong, to build your resolution, and face the world after adventures, this won't do, take your time to experiment with what this world has to offer, and chase what you love, your future will show by itself."

Enlil was turning to leave, he gave two steps and stopped.

"There is one more thing, you told me about a village nearby, but how the sect is different from them?"

Ryu lowered his head thinking how he should start pointing the differences, a second later he raised his head to speak, but the sect master was nowhere to be seen, Ryu was alone. He seated back on the rock to see the green lights, thinking. He realized, Enlil gave him a tip not a question to be answered.

'How is the sect equal to the village?'

Not long after, he went home to sleep, hoping for a new day with new adventures.

The next morning, strolling around the sect, Ryu's head was heating thinking about the tip Enlil gave him. The more he thought, the blurry the answer became, but he couldn't find the answer, and he was started to get angry with himself, thinking he was stupid. 'If I were someone smart as Nura it would be easy to get this clue. Why did the sect master have to speak in enigma? he could just give guidance straight, he have no consideration for stupid people.'

Without understanding the clue Ryu was roaming around the sect, when he passed to the last house going outside the sect, he found a woman crouched collecting flying feathers on the ground, but the wind keeps blowing them far, she was desperate, running after the feathers catching one by one.

Ryu went to help the woman collecting the feathers, it took almost 10 minutes to collect all of them because of the strong wind, when there were no more feathers flying, Ryu got closer to the woman and handled the ones he grabbed to her. Ryu got a closer look at the young woman when giving the feather, she had tanned skin and black hair running down to her shoulders, her face had smooth contours, and her eyes were big and round, in an enchanting black color shining reflecting the light of the sun.

"Yours eyes are so shinny." The woman was about to open her mouth to thank Ryu for the help, but he spoke first. He was not trying to seduce the woman, but he was hypnotized by the deep black color of her eyes, which made him speak in impulse.

"Th- thank you. For helping me, and for the compliment I guess." the young woman's eyes widened with Ryu's remark, she was caught off-guard. She tried to act cool, but it was clear she liked being praised.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you. But why are you collecting these feathers, is it part of a quest?" Ryu asked, but he knew the answer, he was just trying to break the ice.

"This? Yes, I picked a quest to collect feathers, I believe it was to be used in inscriptions. I tried to get a feather from a bigger bird to get a better reward, but it was way more difficult than I was expecting, when I get closer to the nest, the beasts around attacked me. All I could get was these, but each one only give 1 to 4 exp."

Like thunder falling in a tree, Ryu reached sudden enlightenment, he found what the sect and the village had in common, people in need of help. He overestimated his fellow colleagues' cultivators and assumed they were all-powerful beings that didn't need any help, reality was that he was far from the truth, despite being strong every single person in the sect were struggling with their own problems, their problems could be different from those of the villagers, but they were still in need of help.

"You are that girl with a wind slash skill, aren't you? I'm sorry but I don't now you name." Ryu said.

"My name is Cahya, and yes, I am 'that girl with a wind slash skill' ...I guess." Cahya and kinda upset.

"Sorry, about that. I was out of the sect for a while and lost contact here, I was just wondering if you improved with the skill." Ryu realized he made a mistake addressing Cahya.

"Not much, I picked this quest to practice the skill but it was useless." Cahya said with a sad face.

"What about if I go with you? I can take down the beasts on the ground and you deal with the bird." Ryu proposed.