Andrew came to after an unknown length of time and glanced to the side. The campfire had not gone out, so clearly not much time had passed.
"What happened to me? How strange."
Patting his head, Andrew sat up. That sudden lapse had left him rather puzzled. Putting his other thoughts aside, he began refining his battle-qi.
As soon as he began cultivating, Andrew discovered that something seemed to have changed within him.
"Huh? Why am I absorbing battle-qi so much faster? Compared to yesterday, it's at least thirty percent faster. And I can sense the lightning and fire elements around me more clearly. What's going on?"
Andrew was thoroughly puzzled. He had not made a breakthrough that day.
"Could my spiritual energy have broken through?"
Andrew himself was not quite certain.
Normally, sensing the elements in the air depended on two things. One was talent-the ability to perceive elements. The greater one's talent, the more elements one could sense. The other was spiritual energy. The stronger one's spiritual energy, the more clearly one could sense the elements. These two things were also the criteria used in magic academy tests.
Andrew knew the original novel well, so naturally he knew this. As he saw it, his talent certainly would not change, which left only his spiritual energy.
"How did my spiritual energy change?"
Andrew recalled his recent lapse. If his spiritual energy really had broken through, it could only have happened just then...
He thought for a while but could not work it out.
"It looks like systematic study is absolutely necessary. I may cultivate quickly, but there are plenty of problems in cultivation I don't understand. My strength is still low, so it doesn't matter much now, but later on, these things will probably become my weaknesses."
Andrew was someone who prepared for danger in times of peace. The moment this thought arose, he committed it firmly to memory and silently resolved to study at a warrior academy when he went to the imperial capital this time.
The night soon passed. When the first rays of the morning sun shone down, Andrew opened his eyes and smiled contentedly into the sunlight.
"A breakthrough in spiritual energy really is impressive. My progress this one night matched two days before."
Before long, Howard and Janice emerged from the tent. Seeing that Andrew had stayed awake all night, Janice reproached him with concern, "Your father is here too, isn't he? Why did you keep watch all night by yourself?" As she spoke, she also rolled her eyes at Howard.
Howard gave a wry smile, not knowing what to say. Andrew had to explain, "That's not it. Don't blame Father. I'm used to cultivating at night. Look, I'm no less energetic than you are now."
Janice woke the bleary-eyed Ling'er, and Andrew took her to wash up. Afterward, the family ate breakfast and continued west. The tent and everything else were packed away and placed back on the golden tiger's back.
Looking at the golden tiger carrying both people and baggage, Andrew felt quite fortunate. Luckily, he had taken it in. Otherwise, he really would not have known what his family could do.
It was another day of tedious travel.
Andrew immersed himself in practicing Explosive Steps, while Howard and the other two sat on the golden tiger's back. By noon, all three were weary and did not even feel like talking. Just like that, the day passed in silence. Apart from Andrew, who felt he had made some gains, the other three felt only exhaustion.
That night, just as the night before, Andrew kept watch.
Recalling his family's weariness at dinner, Andrew could not help frowning.
"This won't do. At this speed, we can travel roughly seven or eight hundred li a day. Even with a map, it would probably take a month to reach the imperial capital. What's more, we don't have a map now, so we've surely taken unnecessary detours. It'll presumably take even longer. I can stand this, but Ling'er can't."
Andrew had never expected the Yulan Continent to be so sparsely populated at this time. They had traveled over a thousand li in two days without encountering a single person or seeing a single city.
There was actually a reason for this. Over a decade earlier, a great battle between Deity-level experts had taken place on the Yulan Plane. That battle had been so devastating that its shock waves had sunk the other two continents. Although powerful experts had protected the Yulan Continent, its population had still fallen by well over half after the battle.
Ten thousand years later, in the protagonist's era, the Yulan Empire's population would never have been so sparse.
In the darkness, Andrew cultivated with complete concentration while also using his spiritual energy to sense the activity around him. Although he did not know any detection magic, his extraordinarily powerful spiritual energy still gave him a thorough awareness of his surroundings within a hundred meters.
Suddenly, Andrew opened his eyes and twitched his nose.
"There's a smell of blood!" he said with certainty.
The golden tiger also raised its head and gave a low growl, confirming his guess. Generally speaking, magical beasts were far more sensitive to the smell of blood than humans.
"The smell is coming from the northeast."
Andrew soon determined its direction. At that moment, the wind was blowing gently from the northeast, carrying the smell of blood with it.
Now Andrew hesitated, unsure what he should do.
"Go investigate? What if an enemy comes while I'm away? Stay here? That would leave me a little too passive."
Staring at the firelight, Andrew could not make up his mind.
But soon, someone made the decision for him...
"Roar!"
The golden tiger's low growl interrupted Andrew's thoughts. He looked up in displeasure, then suddenly caught sight of indistinct dark figures in the distance out of the corner of his eye.
"Someone's coming!"
Andrew sprang to his feet and grabbed the long saber beside him.
"Golden tiger, wake my family and protect them!" Andrew moved toward the dark figures as he gave the golden tiger its orders.
The golden tiger growled softly to show it understood, then darted into the tent and woke Howard and the other two...
By now, Andrew was more than ten meters from the tent. Worried about his family's safety, he stopped and waited quietly for the dark figures to approach.
"Two people?"
A moment later, he finally saw them clearly. In the darkness, two people were walking toward him, one behind the other.
Without thinking, Andrew hurled a fireball. It flew over a hundred meters and landed beside the two figures, illuminating their forms.
"A mage and a warrior..."
Before the fireball went out, Andrew got a clear look at the newcomers. One wore a black robe with a rather distinctive design-the fabled mage's robe. Had Andrew not seen Janice's mage's robe before, he would not have recognized it. This person should be the mage. The other held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, clearly a warrior.
At the sight of Andrew's fireball, the two figures quickened their pace somewhat.
Once they drew a little closer, Andrew shouted, "Who are you? Take another step, and I'll attack!"
"Please don't misunderstand." In the darkness, a gentle voice carried on the wind to Andrew's ears. "We mean no harm, and we are not enemies."
Behind Andrew, Howard and the other two also emerged from the tent. Howard came to Andrew's side, a hint of unease in his eyes. Janice and Ling'er hid behind the golden tiger, quite frightened.
Andrew calmly watched the newcomers gradually approach, growing ever calmer within. He knew that whether they were friends or enemies, fear would be of no use now.
At last, the two stepped out of the darkness and into the area illuminated by the campfire.
"Hello," the mage said modestly. "We are instructors from Divine Grace Academy in the imperial capital. My name is Bandeni, and this is Polite. We are truly sorry for coming unannounced and disturbing you."
"Might I ask why you two have come here so late at night?" Andrew asked evenly. He saw clear bloodstains on the shield of the warrior named Polite. Connecting them with the smell of blood earlier, he thought it very likely that these two had fought and killed people before coming here. But why had there been no sound just now?
Bandeni explained, "We are instructors at Divine Grace Academy, sent by the academy to the Far East Prairie. Having completed the academy's assignment, we were preparing to return. We haven't seen a soul along the way. Just now, I spotted the firelight here and grew curious, so I thought we would come take a look."
Andrew watched his every move, judging the truth of his words. On the surface, Bandeni appeared very sincere.
"Then what was that fight just now?" Andrew pointed at Polite's shield and asked coldly.
Understanding dawned on Bandeni, and he immediately said, "You've misunderstood. Just now, Polite and I found several corpses in a pit over there. Polete used his iron shield to bury them, which is how it got bloodstained. If you don't believe us, you can go take a look."
"All right, I'll go with you." To establish whether they were friends or enemies, Andrew decided to inspect the place himself. Bandeni and Polite behaved quite openly, turning to lead the way without showing any wariness toward Andrew. Somewhat reassured, Andrew comforted Janice and Howard, left the golden tiger behind, and departed with the two men.
After walking several thousand meters or so, the three reached the pit Bandeni had mentioned. Andrew shot out several fireballs to illuminate the surroundings and discovered that there really were no traces of fighting, only a freshly filled pit. This confirmed that Bandeni had not lied just now.
"I'm very sorry. I was overly suspicious!" Andrew immediately apologized.
Bandeni smiled gently. "You did nothing wrong. In your place, we couldn't immediately trust a stranger who suddenly appeared either."
Polite, who had not spoken a word the entire time, also nodded, expressing his understanding.
Andrew felt embarrassed and said apologetically, "Thank you for understanding. We also came from near the Far East Prairie, and our destination this time is the imperial capital. We haven't seen anyone else these past few days, so we've been a little more guarded. Since we've met here and share the same destination, why don't we travel together?"