"Well, if it isn’t the mad prince and his little lapdog."
Lu Feng stopped. A group of three men stood blocking the path. The leader was a man named Zhao, a distant cousin of a branch family that had always licked the boots of Lu Feng’s older brothers.
He was a mediocre cultivator, barely at the first stage of the Qi Condensation realm. He was the worst of the worst but in a world of mere mortals, he was a king.
"I heard the news," Zhao sneered, stepping forward. He was picking his teeth with a very thin splinter of wood. "Kicked out of your family like a stray dog. I’m very much surprised you didn’t just crawl into a hole and die, Feng. It would have saved the Lu family the embarrassment of your face."
Lu Feng didn’t react. He stood still, his eyes fixed on a point just past Zhao’s shoulder. He had heard these insults a thousand times. They were white noise.
"Let’s just go, Young Master," Han Lin whispered, her hand trembling slightly as she reached for his arm gently even though she knew he most likely wouldn’t react to Zhao’s taunts. "Don’t listen to him."
Zhao’s eyes shifted to Han Lin, a dark, ugly glint of fury and jealousy appearing in them. "Ah, Lu Feng’s loyal little slut. I heard Lu Bao wanted you for his bed. You should have stayed, girl. At least an old man’s concubine gets to eat in the Lu Family. Now you’re just a beggar’s underling. What’s the matter? Did the failure master teach you how to see blue boxes in the air too? Or did he just teach you how to crawl?"
The air around Lu Feng instantly dropped by several degrees. The insults against him were one thing, but the filth coming out of Zhao’s mouth regarding Han Lin triggered something in his chest. His presumed madness flared once again, not as a hallucination, but as cold rage.
Zhao laughed, stepping closer until he was inches from Lu Feng’s face. "What are you going to do, freak? Cry?" He noticed the pouch strapped to Lu Feng’s waist and knowing it was probably the family’s way of supporting him one last time, he grinned. "Give me ten of your gold coins and maybe I’ll let you pass without breaking your—"
Lu Feng didn’t wait for him to finish. He didn’t use a technique because he had none. What he did possess was fury. He used the raw, explosive momentum of three years of repressed fury.
He lunged forward, his hands snapping out like a furious serpent. He grabbed Zhao’s collar, the fabric bunching in his white-knuckled grip. Before the cultivator could even circulate his Qi to overpower him, Lu Feng pulled him downward with terrifying force while simultaneously driving his own forehead forward.
CRACK!
The sound of Lu Feng’s forehead smashing into the bridge of Zhao’s nose was sickeningly loud in the quiet street. It was the sound of bone shattering and cartilage collapsing.
Zhao didn’t even scream. His eyes rolled back into his head instantly, blood spraying across Lu Feng’s robe as Zhao’s body went limp.
Still, Lu Feng refused to let go. He held the man up for a second, staring into his unconscious face with cold fury before dropping him into the dirty ground like a sack of unwanted rice grains.
The two lackeys behind Zhao froze. They looked at their leader, a cultivator, downed by a single, brutal headbutt from a man with no talent. They looked at Lu Feng’s eyes—one blue, one green—which seemed to still burn with the same fury he’d used to headbutt Zhao.
"Get him out of my sight," Lu Feng said, his voice a low, vibrating through their entire beings.
The two men didn’t hesitate. They scooped up Zhao’s limp body and scrambled away, their boots pounding against the cobblestones until the sound faded far into the distance.
Han Lin was staring at him, her hands pressed against her mouth. "Young Master... your head... it’s bleeding."
Lu Feng wiped a smear of blood from his brow. His head throbbed with a dull ache, but he felt more alive than he had in the last three years. Yesterday, he’d verbally defeated his uncle and today, he’s physically dealt with this failure of a cultivator.
He looked at Han Lin and grinned. "I’m fine. Let’s finish our shopping."
After the incident with Zhao Wang, Lu Feng decided against going into the Slave Markets for the day.
’I should schedule it for tomorrow instead.’ He mentally noted down t himself.
They spent the rest of the afternoon in a strange, focused silence. They bought heavy wool blankets, a pair of sturdy daggers, one for each of them, and a map of the surrounding territories. By the time the sun began to dip behind the western towers of the city, they were back in the safety of their inn.
They sat by the small table in Lu Feng’s room, the map spread out between them.
"I’ve made my decision," Lu Feng said, tracing a finger along the southern road and pointing at a section of the map. "We’re heading to the city of Crimson Vale."
"Crimson Vale?" Han Lin asked. "But that’s a border city. It’s rougher than the others."
"Exactly," Lu Feng replied. "It’s far enough away that my family’s reach is thin, but central enough that it’s a hub for mercenaries and small clans. If we’re going to find what we’re looking for, it’ll be there. And we’re taking the carriage."
He looked at her, his expression serious. "I won’t have you walking for a week through bandit territory. My family might track us, but by the time they decide if I’m worth the effort of dealing with, we’ll be long gone. We leave tomorrow."
The evening was spent in a flurry of activity. They began arranging their packages, packing the dried food into linen bags and securing their new gear into sturdy rucksacks.
Lu Feng felt a strange sense of relief as he folded his last spare robe. He wasn’t just packing clothes but he was also packing away the boy who had been struck by his mother who claimed he was mentally unstable. He was packing away the trash of the Lu family.
As the candles burned low, Lu Feng looked at the countdown timer one last time before closing his eyes.
[29:44:12]
Tomorrow, they would leave the city and head for Crimson Vale City. And somewhere out there, his first heroine was waiting for him to change her destiny as well as his own.
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Author’s Note: Hello Dear readers. Trust you all are having a good time.
I’ll try to make this note short as it’s only assignment is to make a single request.
Please, support this book with your power stones. You can leave comments as well. I’ll be sure to reply to them as soon as possible. You have questions? I have answers.
There’ll be a big announcement in later Chapters. Look forward to it!
Thank you all!!