Alivar quickly followed his teammates while constantly scanning the surroundings. To his surprise, it only took him four days to become a cultivator; right now he was at the first stage of Qi gathering, and Yun Qiang had already promised to help him with his physical and combat training.
Normally, he would be elated; he wasn't a mortal anymore and could feel his body brimming with strength. Besides this, he was receiving guidance from a more experienced cultivator. These were all things that he had wanted for a long time.
However, with opportunities comes danger; their team had just received their second mission, and it was a scouting mission! The kind of mission where fights were more likely to happen.
Alivar had already survived a lot of scouting missions; however, this was when he was still a mortal and could hide behind others, run away, or fake his death if things went badly. But now he was a cultivator; if he threw himself on the ground and faked his death, there was no way the enemies would ignore him.
Furthermore, his captain had decided to only bring cultivators on this mission, so their team only consisted of four people. He couldn't understand why Yun Qiang would do that. Going on a scouting mission as a team of four basically meant being constantly outnumbered during fights. If it was a game, it basically meant playing on hard mode.
Alivar's body trembled with every step he took.
He couldn't believe it! As a mortal, he thought he would be safe as a cultivator, but now that he was a cultivator, why did he feel it was safer at all!
Just as he was complaining in his heart, Yun Qiang's voice reached his ear.
"Tell me, Alivar, what do you want to say?"
Alivar shivered and let out a fake cough.
"Nothing, Sir."
Even if he was constantly complaining in his heart, he would never dare to say it out loud.
Yun Qiang let out a long sigh.
"Alivar, tell me. I know you want to say something."
He paused for a second.
"I promise I won't punish you for speaking your opinion. So speak."
Yun Qiang felt a little exasperated when dealing with these new subordinates. He felt like he was dealing with a bunch of scared cats; they never dared to speak up or say anything unless Yun Qiang promised not to hurt them.
Finally, Alivar spoke up.
"Sir, why are we doing this with just the four of us?"
"This is a scouting mission; we will go in, check if there are corpses or resources, then go out. We won't pick fights against random people."
Alivar was stunned for a second before he asked something else.
"Uhh... Sir, what if someone ambushes us or tries to attack us?"
"If we are forced to fight, we will, but if the enemies are too far and notice us, we will run away. Considering how contested this territory is, they won't follow us. It's not worth it."
Alivar continued questioning him. This is usually what happens when someone bottles up their feelings or doubts. All of them come out in one go. In this case, all of the doubts that Alivar had hidden or suppressed came out as questions.
"What if we lose ourselves in enemy territory?"
"What if we find some allies that are fighting?"
"What if one of us gets injured while we fight?"
Yun Qiang listened to all of them, a nostalgic expression slowly forming on his lips as Alivar asked more. He had bothered Voss with similar questions when he spent his first night outside the Shard.
"If we get lost in enemy territory, then you should walk south, then west. South because it's the area where fewer fights happen, west because all of the allied fortifications are west of the Sacred Empire."
"If we see our allies in a fight, then we will help them... unless it's Lee Shan. If it's him, we won't help."
"If one of us is gravely injured, I have two healing pills with me. If it happens during a fight, we should move the injured person out of danger while the rest finish the battle as quickly as possible, so we can begin treatment."
Hearing this, Alivar calmed down a little before asking his last question.
"Sir, what do we do if we encounter a Golden Core cultivator?"
Yun Qiang stopped; his mind wandered into the past for a second before he answered.
"Then you run and I die."
Voss had given him a different answer in the past, but Yun Qiang decided not to repeat it. His eyes trembled a little as he remembered Lord Tang's death and the impact a Golden Core cultivator could have on the battlefield. People of that level were never alone; there was no reason to bow down and beg for your life, they would never notice the life of an ant.
He started walking again, while his group silently followed him.
However, he only managed to do a few steps before a dark needle was launched from a nearby bush, aiming for his head.Yun Qiang's sense went immediately to high alert, and with a swift motion, he moved out of the way. He pointed his spear towards the direction of the attack.
"Show yourself." his voice sounded cold.
The speed of the needle was fast enough to scare him but not fast enough to kill any Foundation realm cultivator.The attacker obviously wanted to attract Yun Qiang's attention but had no intention to kill or gravely injure him.
A man wearing a green coat came out of a nearby bush; his face was the same as a cadaver, complete with exposed teeth and falling skin.
"Good reactions, I hadn't expected less from Heng Lee's killer."
Sun and Lee had already fallen into a battle stance, ready to attack, but Yun Qiang stopped them.
"What do you want?"
The man put his hands up in a nonchalant way.
"You should know it. We already let you off for a week..."
Yun Qiang's face darkened. He swiftly took a battle position.
"You are one of the nuisances Lee Shan talked about?"
The man smiled; he didn't mind Yun Qiang's irritated voice. He liked seeing other people rage.
"Indeed, I'm Lee Sheng." As he presented himself, Lee Sheng made a series of palm seals before speaking again with a teasing voice."But you should think before you act. Do you really want to do this?"
As Lee Sheng's words fell, rustling sounded from the surrounding bushes before five living dead came out.
Yun Qiang scoffed.
"Only five? I thought more from you"
Even if his tone sounded arrogant, Yun Qiang was carefully sizing up the new undead. Lee Sheng clearly had more undead hidden somewhere.
"Oww, don't be so rude. I'm not like other cultivators; I'm a connoisseur, every undead that I control is something special."
He pointed at an undead that stood taller than the others.
"You see him, I reinforced his bones with black iron and spent five days positioning and attaching them together"
He pointed at another one.
"This body was from a cultivator from the Skyward Pavilion. He was my first kill here at the Rainy Fort"
Then he pointed at another body; his speech slowed, his voice became almost sweet.
"And you see her. She is my masterpiece, my magnum opus."
As he said this, the corpse of a female moved to stand nearby her puppeteer.
"She is beautiful; while creating her, I made sure to not leave any scars behind. She is completely natural; however, look at her soft hair and at her white lips."
Yun Qiang's disgust was already high enough when he started talking about her hair; however, when Lee Shan started caressing the dead body, his disgust reached its peak and he directly interrupted Lee Shan's monologue.
"How much do you want for a month of protection?"
Disdain and irritation were clearly written on Yun Qiang's face.
Lee Shan let out a small sneer.
"At last. Another one that doesn't understand my art..." his gaze lingered on Alivar before he continued.
"100 points for this month. After this, you will receive a new price; who knows, if you are loyal enough, you can pay less."
Yun Qiang was already fed up with the man and threw him his emblem while signaling his team to go around him.
"I won't help you deal with anything. Just don't bother me or my team." he paused for a second, then he let out a low threatening whisper.
"If you try to touch even one of my teammates, then I will come for your life"
For a second, their eyes met before Yun Qiang went forward, catching up to his team.
In that brief exchange, Lee Shan felt a strange chill run down his spine. For a second, he felt like he was staring at a raging storm and not at a human.
However, this feeling quickly went away when he saw the points going up in his emblem; then he started walking back to the Fort.
As he walked, Lee Shan laughed eerily before kissing his masterpiece.
He had already recognized Alivar and knew Yun Qiang was trying to build up his team, slowly filling it with cultivators; however, he didn't feel threatened by this.
Yun Qiang wasn't the first to try this, and he probably wouldn't be the last. Lee Shan found no reason to be scared; instead, he felt excited. He wondered what kind of surprises this new client could bring him. If he performed well enough, maybe Yun Qiang could even become part of his prized collection and be forever blessed to fight at his side.
Yun Qiang hurriedly walked forward, his steps splashing in the swampy water while fuming with rage. At first, he was set on fighting; however, after Lee Shan had unveiled his undead, Yun Qiang realized that he couldn't fight him. This wasn't because Lee Shan was extremely strong, but because his living dead were too close; there was no way Yun Qiang could kill Lee Shan before the undead killed at least one of his teammates. Besides this, there was no way of telling what trap or skill Lee Shan had set up for this ambush.
For this reason, he had decided to momentarily give up the idea of killing that pervert.
"Qiang?"
Lee's voice snapped him out of his rage. He quickly turned around towards him; however, he couldn't hide completely the fury in his eyes.
"I know. I'm calm now."
Even if Yun Qiang said this, it was clear from his tone that he wasn't calm; he was just pushing down his rage.
Lee gazed at his surroundings.
"Okay.... Then we should continue scouting..." Lee sounded uncomfortable with the situation; he clearly didn't know or want to deal with someone as angry as Yun Qiang.
Yun Qiang let out a low umph before announcing.
"One month from now, I will kill Lee Shan. In the meantime, you should train hard; I won't force you to help me, however, there is no way to say if they will try something to avenge him."
Everyone except Alivar nodded. Then Yun Qiang turned around again and slowed down his pace, making his steps as silent as possible.
Clearly, he still knew his priorities and could still manage to lead this mission.
However, even if he looked calm from the outside, a strong storm was brewing inside him, a cold tempest that he could only unleash a month from now.