Chapter 140: Followed
As Feng Ling left the inn with his legs shaking, Xu Min went to the innkeeper and told him that he did not want to be interrupted unless it was something of the utmost importance or for food.
"Those people who want to recruit me to explain I am only in town for a short period. I will be leaving very soon," Xu Min sighed in exasperation. He left the innkeeper and once more vanished up the stairs and entered the room where Cao Cao and Ye Ling were waiting for him.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Xu Min finally sat down and relaxed. He instantly fell into a deep sleep on the bed.
He had been haunted for so long, traveled through danger zones, and finally reached a place where he could be considered safe.
While Xu Min slept, Cao Cao and Ye Ling positioned themselves right next to his bed their entire being was on alert and guard, so they could protect him.
The night passed, and dawn broke. Xu Min rose together with the sun. He felt much more relaxed now than he had since a very long time.
His body was no longer tense, his muscles no longer taut. His mind was clear, and his eyes shone brightly. He had slept well for a whole night, and nothing had happened. He was in no more danger than the average person right now or even less since his strength was way above the common cultivator.
As he awoke, he ordered a warm bath from the servants; soon the servants brought a wooden tub and warm water to him together with food for both him, Cao Cao and Ye Ling.
Xu Min went to take a bath while the two beasts started feasting on the roast sheep and other delicacies that had been placed on the tables. Both Cao Cao and Ye Ling were rather big beasts, thus they ate quite a lot of meat. However, for Xu Min, it did not matter how much of his gold he had to spend if he had to spend it all, then he would. The most important thing was for his friends to be happy.
He had no more family, all he had were these two beasts, and he doted on them like an older brother would with his younger siblings.
The bath allowed for the weatherbeaten and dusty Xu Min to finally be clean and refreshed. He felt much better afterward. Pleased, he went out to get some food. Life was good, but his eyes shone with determination.
"We are going to leave this city in a few days," he announced to the two beasts which had finished eating. They were now lying still, trying to digest the overwhelming amounts of food.
"We need to find a way to get to Ri Chu City. From there I can get to Honghe City and back to the valley where the Zhong family is located."
"You want to go to Ri Chu City first?" Cao Cao asked confused, "Is it because you miss that girl Meilin? If you miss her then there is nothing much to say about it, but would it make it harder for you to leave again. Instead, I say we should go straight to Honghe City and from there to the Zhong family."
Xu Min was silent for some time as he contemplated what Cao Cao was saying. In the end, though, he could only shake his head and sigh.
"This will be a life and death battle with the Zhong family. There is a chance that I will not return after going. I want to see Meilin just one last time before then," he sighed. Cao Cao, who at first had been against it, held his tongue and nodded his head.
"On the way, I want to visit my parents as well," he said with a sigh, "I owe them a good bye," Cao Cao sighed, and Xu Min nodded his head in agreement.
"In Honghe City, I will have to say goodbye to my master. Clearly, we should say goodbye to everyone we care about. It has been so many years since I was last at the Zhong family, I don't know how strong the head of the family has become, and I don't know how strong their young master has become as well."
"Although he wasn't exceptionally talented, he still was able to raise his rank rather rapidly by relying on medicinal pills. He might even be a problem for you guys to deal with."
Cao Cao and Ye Ling were silent. After a bit of time, the lion sighed and shook his head, "I left my home to follow you. Even if I end up going to the grave with you, then so be it. We are brothers and brothers stick together! We will go and say our goodbyes, and then we will have no regrets left as we fight against the Zhong family."
"We will be a blazing light that cannot be extinguished!" Cao Cao said. Xu Min could not help but smile. He truly had found his brothers. He felt much better after hearing what his two friends had said.
"Well let us find a map and figure out how exactly we need to get to Ri Chu City," Xu Min declared. He stood up and left the inn followed closely by the large Cao Cao and Ye Ling.
As soon as he entered the city, he was surrounded by a group of experts. These experts were all the seventh star of the Warrior rank. It was rather astonishing that anyone was able to gather that many experts of such a high rank.
Fortunately, Xu Min had fought many experts before, and he was not worried about having to face them all. Especially not now since he had Cao Cao and Ye Ling by his side, but his mood was getting sour. Could they not leave him alone?
The group of experts continued to follow him around him. No one took action, so Xu Min just ignored them, but Xu Min was becoming more annoyed as the time passed with them.
"Let us go to the mercenary guild," Xu Min decided. Together the three went for the mercenary guild where they could get any information they needed to.
Xu Min purchased a map and spent a long time looking at it before he sighed and rubbed his temples. "Dear teacher, I appreciate that you helped me to escape, but did you have to send me to the middle of nowhere?"
Xu Min was indeed far away from the border of the Ruins of the Immortals, but he was also very far away from everything else. He was in the middle of a mountain range thousands of miles away from Ri Chu City.
Sighing deeply, he had no other choice than to travel through the mountain range first, then travel through various regions and then finally reach Ri Chu City.
From there on the trip would be simple, but until then he would have to travel through danger zones that had been marked on the map. These danger zones were not dangerous to him, but they were dangerous to caravans because they were a no man's land where bandits reigned and laws constantly broken.
Sighing again, Xu Min lifted his head and nodded to the person in the mercenary guild before he left the guild and started returning to the inn. "We could also just buy provisions now and leave the city instantly," he finally said, irritatedly.
He still felt he was being surrounded no matter where he went, and it started to truly annoy him, but he also knew better than start to wage war with this city's lords.
Cao Cao and Ye Ling just shrugged their shoulders, allowing for Xu Min to decide on his own what he wished to do. He was the leader of their group, so he made the decisions of what was going to happen.
"Sorry guys, I know you enjoyed life at the inn, but being constantly observed like this makes me unable to relax," Xu Min explained. Instantly, Cao Cao and Ye Ling both spoke up at the same time, exclaiming, "It is not your fault!"
"Because those puny humans are interested in you they dare to break our relaxation!" Cao Cao was annoyed with these humans, but he did not take any action. All he did was hiss and complain.
"Well then, let us change our direction," Xu Min decided. He went to buy all the provisions they would need. Even though it would be possible to hunt beasts in the wild, the beast meat tasted the best with seasoning, and he also needed other necessities.
As he finished buying all the items, he returned to the inn once more to see if he owed them anything. He had, after all, caused them to slaughter quite a few animals to feed his two beast brothers, and he also had requested a lot of hard work from them. However, the innkeeper refused to accept more gold. Xu Min had no other option than to simply accept it and go away once more.
As he stood outside of the inn, he unfolded the map once more and started to look at it. He memorized the path he was to take and after neatly folding it once more placed it in a storage treasure. After all this, Xu Min and his beast brothers left the city.
The moment he left the city, the ones who were following him stopped. They did not instantly disperse but stayed at the gate until Xu Min had long since vanished from their sight. They then returned to the mansions from which they came from to inform their masters that the unknown expert had left their city.
Leaving the city, Xu Min found himself on a mountain trail. It could not be considered a real road as it was not paved, but it was never the less rather trafficked. Caravans moved to and from the city.
Groups of mercenaries could be seen everywhere as they went out to hunt for magical beasts, and random travelers also made their path towards the city.
Xu Min blended in with the crowd. He had once more suppressed his cultivation level to appear as a six-star Warrior, and the two beasts by his side had been placed in the satchel so that they would not gather too much attention. Xu Min never knew who might be following him from the Ruins of the Immortals. Consequently, he wanted to conceal his true identity as much as possible.
Traveling through the mountain range was in no way a difficult feat. During the day, Xu Min would walk on the roads; when it started to become dark, he would enter the forest, release Cao Cao and Ye Ling, hunt for food and relax. The following day he would once again place the beasts in the jade satchel and traverse the road filled with people.
The further away from the city, he became, the fewer people he saw. They had crossed many small villages. Many of the travelers and mercenaries never traveled further away than they had to. The only traveling company that Xu Min found now were large caravans that moved through the landscape.
Xu Min had found it weird that so many caravans would brave all sorts of danger to reach such a remote city. Even more astonishing he thought was how rich the removed city was. However, after a bit of research and conversation with some of the caravan guards, he found that the city was famous for its weapons. Weapons from that city were used all across the entire kingdom; they were revered as being the best quality. The iron the swords were made from came straight from the mountains below them.