A few more days passed. Huan Wei sat at home and practiced with pieces of wood. There had been no attack on his house. Nor had there been any moves from the man called Huan Manchu. His father also bought his own drinks. Huan Wei was alone most of the day.
The young man was bored. He couldn't spend his whole life hiding in his house like this. His desires and dreams were sinking deeper and deeper into him. Hiding in fear was not the solution.
So he made up his decision. "I will go to the forest."
He planned to search for energy fields. If he could at least reach the peak of the Traveler stage, he could try to overcome it with the new energy fields he would find. He was no longer in the Pedestrian stage. It would be easier to find the fields.
He got up and stretched his body a little. It was completely recovered now. Only traces of his wounds remained. He jumped a few times. It didn't hurt.
"At least I can run now."
He walked out of his room and into the kitchen. He thought his father had probably passed out at the table again, yet Huan Chao surprised him. The pot-bellied man was still drinking.
When he saw Huan Wei, he said nothing. The young man didn't say anything to him either and headed for the outer door. He had his hand out when Huan Chao called out.
"Where are you going?"
The young man calmly turned to him. "I'm going out. I'm tired of staying at home."
"You were crying when I sent you out."
"Do you want me to stay at home until I die? Will you take care of me?"
Huan Chao reached over the back of his chair and pulled out something long and threw it at the young man. Huan Wei caught it in mid-air. When he looked at what he was holding, his mouth opened in confusion. It was his sword. The sword his father had taken from him.
He looked at Huan Chao in amazement. "Didn't you sell this?"
The disheveled-haired man ignored his question. "If you are attacked, at least defend yourself a little. I've been ashamed enough of you alive, I don't want to be ashamed of you dead."
Huan Wei couldn't decide what to say. It was a good thing that he hadn't sold his sword yet, but the man's words made him think nothing good of him. So without saying anything, he put his sword on his belt and left the house.
He tried to silence his thoughts. Because he was confused. He couldn't decide whether there had been a change in Huan Chao. His analysis, which worked for everyone, was helpless against this man. Sometimes he even questioned whether the man was crazy.
He looked around. He could see the guards on the street. Still, he didn't go near them. He started moving forward, choosing the streets with the fewest people.
Most of the young people in Bitter Sea Town were servants to the rich. That way they could take everything they could from them. It was an easy way and comfortable for those without pride, but Huan Wei didn't think anyone in this town was worth that much.
He hadn't seen anything good from this town since he was a little boy. Except for Old Man Zihao, no one had ever done him a heartfelt favor. Huan Wei had always had to force them to do that favor. From an objective point of view, he couldn't even get what was rightfully his without a struggle.
Huan Quon had pestered him again the other day, but it was clear that Huan Fu was not going to do anything about it. Huan Dong and his men had come and raided his house, yet the young man had not yet heard of their execution. Huan Fu had a lot of authority, but apparently he didn't want to use it for Huan Wei. He was just brushing him off.
Huan Wei walked through the back streets. He kept his head down as much as possible, trying not to show his face to people. Fortunately, his reputation was not what it had been on his first day. No one looked at him when he walked now. So he made his way to the border of the town.
He traveled a long way. Whenever he saw other young men, he changed his path. If there was no other way, he would hide in a corner and wait for them to leave. He saw other boys being bullied, boys spending time with their girlfriends. He just waited for them to leave.
When he finally left the town, he kept checking behind him. He didn't seem to be followed. He had managed to sneak through.
With quick steps he entered the forest and walked until he disappeared into the trees. Finally, when he was too far away to see the town anymore, he stopped.
"I've done the entrance, now it's time to find an energy field."
He began to wander through the forest. He knew he had to go outside the areas he knew. With his sword at his side, there was less sense of danger. At least he could fight back this time.
He was careful not to trip over the tree roots that had surfaced. Occasionally he closed his eyes and tried to feel. He was focusing.
Energy fields gave off a feeling around them, letting them know they were there. It was impossible not to feel the intense energy. Huan Wei knew that he would never find a strong energy field in this forest. Even if there were, they would probably be in places the young man could never reach. Like a graveyard in the depths.
He thought of that demon as he walked. All the natural monsters had been scared away by it. It was like the king of the forest. A single blow had made Yuchi Meizhen vomit blood. It spewed flames from its mouth like a dragon. The young man admire the beast's power. If he had the power to go all the way to the depths, he would have wandered into that area. Who knows what other opportunities were there?
Huan Wei walked around for a few hours. He had left the house without eating anything. He thought of the traps in the forest. Perhaps Huan Quon's men had left the traps alone when they found out that the young man had not left his house.
On a whim, he went to where he had put one of the traps. He pulled aside the grass but could not find it.
"What?"
He searched everywhere, yet there was no trace of the trap. He realized what had happened.
"They stole my traps. Perfect," he said to himself. He would never have enough money to buy new traps. Fortunately, that was not the main problem he had to think about now.
He kept walking in the forest. He found some fruit that was not poisonous. He climbed a tree and ate them. It wouldn't fill his stomach completely, but it would keep him going for a while.
His search in the forest lasted almost until evening. Finally, he sensed an energy field nearby.
He headed there before the last rays of the sun were gone. He almost ran. His sword was in his hand as he moved a little deeper into the forest. There might be wild animals, if not natural monsters.
He came to an area of trees with bushy leaves. All the trees were bearing huge fruits. The earth looked more alive. Huan Wei was sure this was the place he was looking for. An energy field... And no one was using it...
He quickly gathered some stones and twigs and built a fire. He wasn't sure whether he should surround the fire with stones or not. He had seen this forest extinguish itself. He used the stones anyway. After lighting the fire with some leaves, he sat down and sat cross-legged.
He closed his eyes and focused on the energy flowing around him. He felt the river of energy flowing in the trees, under the ground, in the air. It permeated everything.
He began to pull it to him. The energy flowed into his veins and from there into his meridians. The moment he entered the pool of energy, the young man's fight with his soul began again.
The more he tried to assimilate the energy he was pulling in, the more of energy was being consumed by his soul. Huan Wei focused harder. He tried to absorb more energy than the destroyed part. Otherwise he would have left his home in vain.
He paid no attention to the sounds coming from the forest. The fire should have frightened the wild animals. Because it looked like the young man was going to spend the night here.
He meditated until the moon reached the top and was halfway down. He had absorbed the last bit of energy from the area into his body. His soul had left him with only a quarter of the energy. It had consumed the rest.
"Okay..." he said to himself. "I've passed from the middle to the late stage, now it's just a matter of gathering more energy and moving on to the Wanderer stage."
He was tired. He threw a few more twigs into the fire and waited for morning. When the sun rose, he got up. He climbed one of the trees to eat and ate some fruit. He had not yet met a wild animal.
At the same time he wondered. Why did people spend so much time in these stages? Even for someone like Huan Wei, if it only took one night to move from the middle to the late stage, why did they stay in these stages for years? Yes, they might have had trouble finding energy fields, but they certainly didn't have trouble taking pills. Why wasn't Huan Quon still in the Explorer stage?
The young man was sitting on the branch of the tree eating fruit when he heard a crunching sound from below. Something was stepping on the branches on the ground.
He quickly stood up and hid in the thick foliage. He could hear a few people approaching. Soon two young men arrived. One had two daggers at his waist and the other had a spear on his back. They came to the campfire that had just gone out.
The one with the dagger bent down and looked at the fire. "It's still smoking. He can't have gotten far."
The youth with the spear stirred the ashes with the tip of his weapon. "Why are we getting involved in this? I don't want to kill anyone."
"You want Huan Manchu to kill you? He just got out of prison. We're lucky he'll take his anger out on Huan Wei. Let's find him. Then we'll go home."
They got up and started looking around. They were searching the campsite. Huan Wei was watching them from the tree.
"Damn," he thought. "I didn't come here stealthily enough."
Who knows how many people were in the forest now? He didn't know anything about this Huan Manchu guy, yet it was clear that the other young people were afraid of him. As he had thought, he had come after him.
Huan Wei did not regret his decision. The life he wanted and the dreams he dreamed of, the anger and resentment inside him, the loser he had to get rid of... He couldn't overcome it by lying at home. For 14 years he had lived by holding back. He didn't want to cower in his place anymore.
He drew his sword silently and leapt towards the youth with the dagger. He was worried about his speed. He raised the sword with all his strength and stabbed it with the effect of gravity. It was plunged into the youth's flesh up to the hilt. The one with the dagger died before he could fight back. The other quickly drew his weapon and turned on him. He stared at his dead friend in shock.
"Hu-Huan Yongzheng!" he said as he thrust his spear toward Huan Wei. "You killed him!"
"Yes," Huan Wei pulled his weapon out of the corpse and held it out to him. "And you see, my sword is still so dry."