Lone Bear stopped yawning. He leaned in close to the others. "Did you hear him?" he whispered. His voice was filled with greed. "He admitted it. He is alone. No guards. No family nearby."
"And he has money," Chen Wei whispered back. His eyes were gleaming in the dark. "He said 'a little', but did you see how he paid for the map? He used a gold coin like it was copper. He has no idea about the value of money."
"That sword alone is a treasure," Lin Rou said softly. "It is a Spirit-grade weapon. I saw the runes on the blade. If we take it to the black market, we can get at least two thousand gold coins."
"Two Thousand?" Lone Bear's eyes went wide. He licked his lips. "That is more then we make in Decades."
"So, we agree?" Chen Wei looked at them.
"We agree," Lone Bear nodded. "We cannot let this fat sheep go. If he goes to the Tianming City, someone else will rob him. Why shouldn't it be us?"
"How do we do it?" Lin Rou asked. "Do we kill him now?"
"Not yet," Chen Wei shook his head. "Wait until he is in deep sleep. We don't want him to scream and attract beasts. We will wait two hours."
"What about the body?" Lone Bear asked.
"We will dump it in the boar trap," Chen Wei said coldly. "When the boars come tomorrow, they will trample it and eat it. There will be no evidence left. We will take his ring and his sword, and by tomorrow afternoon, we will be in another city."
"Perfect," Lone Bear grinned. "Tonight, we become rich."
They fell silent, sitting in the dark like vultures waiting for their prey to die.
Inside the tent, Ling Xiao was completely unaware of the dark plan outside. He felt safe.
He sat on his sleeping mat with his legs crossed. He was not tired. His mind was active. He was thinking about the fight with the wolves earlier that day.
"I was too slow," he thought to himself. "My sword was sharp, but my body was heavy. If there were more wolves, I would have been injured."
He looked at his hands. He was currently at the 1-star Qi Refinement Stage. It was the entry level for a cultivator. In the palace, this was considered a child's level.
"I promised myself," Ling Xiao thought. "I promised I would become strong. I cannot rely on others to protect me forever." He decided to cultivate.
He touched his storage ring. A faint light shimmered, and five small stones appeared in his hand. They were white and glowed with a soft, milky light.
Spirit Stones.
In the outside world, these stones were very rare. Regular mercenaries would fight to the death for just one. But Ling Xiao had brought a whole bag of them from the palace.
He held the stones tight in his palms. He closed his eyes and started to breathe rhythmically. He followed the cultivation technique his father had taught him.
"Absorb," he whispered in his mind.
He felt the energy inside the stones. It was pure and cool. It flowed out of the stones and entered his skin. It traveled through his arms, like a gentle stream of water, and moved towards Dantian of his body.
He felt the energy swirling inside him. It was warm and comfortable. The tiredness in his muscles started to fade away.
He pushed the energy. He wanted to break the barrier.
In cultivation, moving from 1-star to 2-star was the first small hurdle. It required enough energy to condescending the core.
Ling Xiao focused hard. Sweat appeared on his forehead.
Push. Push.
He guided the energy to hit the invisible wall inside his body.
Outside the tent, the wind was blowing through the trees, making a rustling sound. Because of the wind, the three mercenaries outside could not hear the soft breathing inside the tent.
Suddenly, Ling Xiao felt a vibration in his body.
Crack.
It was a sound that only he could hear. It felt like an eggshell breaking inside him.
The energy surged. His body suddenly felt light, as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders. The flow of Qi in his meridians became two times stronger.
He opened his eyes. In the darkness of the tent, his eyes flashed with a golden light for a second.
He looked at his hands. The five Spirit Stones had turned into grey dust. All the energy was gone.
"I did it," Ling Xiao whispered, a smile appearing on his face. "I reached the 2-star Qi Refinement Stage."
He clenched his fist. He could feel the power. He was stronger now. His hearing was sharper, and his vision was clearer even in the dark.
"This is good," he thought. "With this strength, I will be more useful in the hunt tomorrow. Brother Bear and the others will be surprised."
He wiped the dust from his hands and lay down on his mat. He pulled the blanket over his chest. He felt happy and proud of his progress.
He closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.
The night deepened, wrapping the jungle in a suffocating blanket of silence. Inside the small tent, Ling Xiao breathed rhythmically, the faint residue of his recent breakthrough still circulating warmly through his meridians. He had reached the 2-star Qi Refinement Stage, a small but significant step on his path. In his dreams, he was a hero, standing side by side with his new companions, slaying beasts and earning respect.
He was blissfully unaware that outside the thin canvas of his tent, the reality was far colder.
Lone Bear sat by the dying embers of the Glow Stone, his massive frame hunched over. He checked the position of the moon through a gap in the canopy. "It has been two hours," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the rustle of leaves.
"Is he asleep?" Lin Rou asked, her fingers idly tracing the edge of her dagger.
"His breathing is steady," Chen Wei confirmed, his eyes reflecting a cruel intelligence. "He hasn't moved an inch. The drug in the water should have made him drowsy, even if he didn't drink much."
Lone Bear stood up slowly, stretching his neck. A sickening crack echoed from his joints. "Good. Let's get this over with. I don't want to wait until the boars show up."
They stood in a loose circle around Ling Xiao's tent, three predators ready to pounce on a sleeping rabbit. The greed in their eyes was palpable. To them, Ling Xiao was not a person; he was a walking bag of gold coins.
But just as Lone Bear took a step forward, a strange sensation washed over the clearing.
It started as a vibration—so faint that it felt like a trick of the mind. The pebbles on the ground trembled slightly. The air, which had been humid and stagnant, suddenly turned cold. It wasn't the natural chill of the night; it was a biting, primal cold that pricked the skin.
Lin Rou froze, her head snapping toward the deeper part of the jungle.
"Wait."
"What is it?" Lone Bear growled, annoyed at the interruption. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet."
"Listen," she hissed, her face draining of color.
Lone Bear frowned and strained his ears. At first, he heard nothing. Then, he heard it. It sounded like distant thunder, rolling across the ground instead of the sky. But there were no clouds. The sound grew louder, a rhythmic, chaotic thrumming that resonated in their chests.