Chương 78: The Kidnapped Girl and botched Deal

After our intense battle, Xhife walked up slowly, still breathing hard. He looked at me with respect shining in his eyes and asked for my support on his mission. However, his main reason was that he wanted to show me his Vestuto and make the vision burn, oh, I could have lost if he had truly gone Vestuto. As a vagabond, he had been tasked with retrieving a girl from an unorthodox sect.

This sect harbored an illegal plow-house business, occasionally taking beautiful women and forcing them into such unbecoming operations. I asked what that meant, as I only knew sects from what I had seen so far, and none of them involved plow businesses. He explained with a serious tone, "There are three groups that rule the vast lands of Zhongguodao.

First are the Orthodox, those are the great nations and established sects that follow ancient laws and traditions, led by powerful rulers who claim legitimacy through bloodlines and heavenly mandates given by the past progenitors or they create justifications.

Then come the Unorthodox, those are vile overlords and ambitious warlords who bend rules for power, often cruel but still bound by some small amount of honor and territory, and plow businesses are Illicit Fronts: Legitimate-appearing storefronts, that covertly operate as locations for commercial sex of forced individual's to partaking or get punishment. And finally the Evil Sects those are chaotic in nature, few in number but extremely dangerous.

They follow no laws, worship forbidden powers, and spread suffering for their own twisted pleasure. The girl was taken by one of those Unorthodox bastards." So with him we wandered into mountainous terrain outside the Virtue Bandits territory, since i was curious to see his true power and also to ravage those that harbor those unwilling. The mountain stood 1, 988 meters above sea level. The wind was strong and refreshing around us, carrying the scent of wild grass and distant rain.

The slopes were covered in lush green-brown leaves that shimmered under the sunlight, strong grass roots gripping the earth like ancient warriors refusing to fall. Above us floated beautiful white clouds drifting lazily across a vast blue sky, their edges glowing golden as the sun began its slow descent. The view from the rising path was breathtaking, endless ridges stretching into the horizon like the spine of a sleeping dragon. As we traversed we had a deep conversation.

I asked what Vagabonds are and why they do not Vestuto even if they can. He gave me a calm reply.

"Vagabonds are ke jun, sole mercenaries at least most of the time, sometimes they are bodyguards or sometimes they are assassins. The highest amount of Vagabonds in a group you will find out is three. The reason is simple. If too many gather, they can change the entire battlefield, as no Vagabonds trusts another. Vagabonds can be very powerful, so others fear of the other getting a deal from behind and betraying the other. We usually stay free and alone, taking jobs no one else wants."

I then asked who he thought was the strongest Vagabond he ever saw. He looked up at the clouds in the daytime sky which slowly was going down.

"Plenty… but the one I saw most recently was Xhxe the Passion Cannon. He was immeasurable in his strength. He destroyed twelve mountains and toppled them with his battle. It was two years ago…" I imagined what this man had to do to destroy so much land with high intensity combat.

"Woah… that must have been special momentum for a man to go that wild." He answered back with a proud smile, "Yes it was incredible and scary at the same time." Once we made it up high, the Temple appeared before us. It was so beautiful while old, built from osmium-green obsidian and gold accents, standing 33 meters tall and 300 meters wide. The structure had been erected with masterful skill, its pillars carved like coiling dragons and its roofs layered in elegant curves.

Xhife told me that he had found potential news on the way to the tavern where the deal was happening. Inside there, the deal was taking place. He was not a hundred percent sure the kidnapped girl was there, but two crates of opioids stood open. On one side were Virtue Bandits led by the last General student I had not had the opportunity to battle against yet, Thufue. He had nine other strong bandits with him. On the other side stood members of the unorthodox group.

Both parties had struggled for hours over missing coins and dirty dealing, one trying to force a lower coin price and the other wanting a higher amount of coin for the long wasted time. Now, seeing a vagabond and a Suren walk in, they turned hostile and made ready to attack us, each accusing the other. I Vestutoed immediately and fought the Virtue Bandits.

When I clashed with Thufue's swift sword, which was a strong iron-coal and mercury material weapon, I asked him while our blades locked, "Are you a Student of Jiong Sang?" He answered while quickly disengaging, "Yes I am a proud student of his." I put my sword back on my shoulder for a moment.

"Perfect. Then you are the Number 4 that's been missing." He froze.

"…You bested Suhhe Sang?" I nodded.

"Liufiana also?" I nodded again.

"Wuhliang?" I kind of nodded with a shrug in the mix. Rage filled his eyes, a suren from nowhere coming in here and now spouting lies. His light attribute Vestuto activated. His armor of leather and silk evolved into a radiant layer of stronger light highlights that pulsed like living sunlight. Small elegant wings of pure light formed on his shoes. He air-walked with terrifying speed.

"This is my Vestuto, the Light Step! Try to beat that liar!" he proudly roared. From then on, whenever he stepped on the ground or moved in mid-air, small, perfect circles of golden light appeared with every step, boosting his speed and agility to insane levels. His sword became a blur of light. He rushed me with a barrage of slashes that left afterimages in the air. I barely dodged the first few, feeling the heat of his blade graze my cheek.

Then, he spun into a whirlwind kick that caught me in the side and sent me crashing into a pillar. The temple shook. I answered with heavy swings of my sword-axe, but he stepped out of reach every single time, his Light Step letting him reposition instantly. When I tried to use my Elsa di Fuoco flame aura cut, he danced around it effortlessly, the light circles flashing beneath his feet as he closed the distance and stabbed toward my ribs. I twisted at the last moment but still took a deep cut. Blood flowed.

The fight dragged on for many intense minutes. He was extremely fast and precise, combining sword slashes with powerful kicks that carried the weight of light itself. Every time I tried to overwhelm him with raw power he slipped away like sunlight on water. My stamina started dropping while his remained high. Frustration built inside me. Finally I saw a real opening in my desperate position. I deliberately tanked his sword going straight into my ribs, the blade sinking deep into skin, blood pouring from the wound.

The pain was blinding but I held it in with pure will. With a roar I performed a full 360 horizontal slash using my strongest Elsa di Fuoco i could muster. The massive fiery aura cut exploded outward. Thufue tried to pull his sword free but it was too late. The blazing wave slammed into him at point-blank range. He was launched backward like a comet, crashing violently into the big mountain wall outside the temple and shaking the entire foundation.

I pulled his sword out of my side with a grunt, blood dripping, and planted it into the ground. My ribs burned but I forced my weaker self to keep moving. I ran deeper into the shaking temple. I saw the Vagabond Xhife already in his Vestuto fighting.

He had transformed into a majestic wind monkey warrior his design was sleek grey-green armor that flowed like living gusts of wind, long flowing silk ribbons trailing behind him like tails of a storm, an elongated and powerful lower body built for insane jumping power, and his iron-coal staff now wrapped in violent swirling wind currents that howled with every swing. He fought two Vestuto users at once with unbelievable agility and called for me to go down and help secure the girl as he heard her screams from far.

The others were starting fleeing down the mountain, trying to escape with their prizes. I charged deeper inside while still in my every second weaker turning Vestuto. My ribs slowly healed and the bleeding finally had stopped. I reached the exit at the bottom of the mountain in just three minutes and saw a dense tree section with thick brown leaves and lush green grass that made visibility terrible.

I could not find them immediately, as it turned out when running around that they had not been moving forward and were hiding. I was calling them out, like, "Cowards! Hiding away from a boy, if your leader saw you he would cry!" But there was nothing, just silence. They were not provoked out into the open, but knowing they were hiding somewhere close by and my Vestuto was regaining itself again, I knew I could bring them out with one method only.

I unleashed fire cuts all over in powerful, vertical fire-line ways that tore through the canopy and thick grass like a blazing sword from the heavens. The flames forced the hidden warriors out into the open, finally showing themselves.

"You... dirt munching bastard Suren made an enemy of us the Hardened Steel Sect! You will rue the day as you courted your death! Attack!" they roared in fury. The battle with the eighteen warriors was brutal and chaotic. They came at me from all sides, their weapons flashing. I fought like a demon, swinging my sword-axe in wide arcs that sent flames exploding outward. Trees cracked and fell around us. I cut down several in the first rush, then took a heavy blow to the back that staggered me.

I spun and countered with a flame aura cut that burned through four more. The fight lasted a full fourteen minutes of relentless combat as i lost my Vestuto. My body grew heavier, my Animo lower, but my will only grew stronger. One by one I beat them down with my wounds left behind. I finally grabbed one random warrior lying on the ground and slammed him into a tree. He laughed with several teeth missing, blood running down his chin.

"Our fastest member Shifan Steel Feet is already out with the girl and drugs! You're too late, Suren! You have wasted your chance, hahahaha" Funny though was that same laughing idiot suddenly looked furious. The fastest one, Shifan, had turned back instead of escaping with the girl and drugs. He attacked me in revenge for his fallen brethren, prioritizing member safety over completing the mission. The laughing warrior shouted at him in anger, "You idiot! The mission comes first!"

My fight with Shifan Steel Feet was extremely intense. Since my stamina and Animo were running on fumes while his was still at his peak, he threw knives with deadly accuracy and followed up with lightning-fast sword strikes, hitting my body every now and then. I tried dodging desperately; luckily, the blades aimed at my face whistled right past. Finally, I closed the distance, overpowered him with a desperate measure, and knocked him out cold with my weapon's hilt.

I then found the girl hidden high up in the canopy and brought her safely back down the mountain, carrying the crying child on my back. I told her a friend would bring her back home and carry her to him, right as she noticed the blood on my back and its constant dripping down. The scared girl was happy, potential freedom shining in her watery eyes. The vagabond Xhife thanked me thoroughly and said he hoped to meet me again soon for a real battle once this was over.

I told him I also wanted to fight his Vestuto version one day. He looked at me with a wide smile, which I returned. He then turned around and ran with the Girl out of this territory. In the now deep night, I headed toward the other territory, the Hardened Steel Sect, to rampage as much as possible there.

"Let's see how strong they really are…" were my thoughts as I walked the stairs down again.