1589.What is worse?

~Surprisingly lenient of you. You know that will heal in a couple of hours?- Seth spoke to Mina using the <Marriage Bond>. The pelting she head dealt wasn't much for a cultivator, even if he was only in the early stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Mina chuckled again.

~ It wasn't my goal to maim him physically. We are on vacation; picking a serious fight with a sect of that size would be annoying. I only made sure he would have something lasting,- the assassin said deviously. She ate a piece of meat off a skewer with a satisfied smile.

~I managed to trigger the <Curse of the Lover> on that guy. He will never “dual cultivate” again.- she explained the reason for her smugness.

~That was dangerous; you could have triggered <Offspring of Darkness>, too- Seth warned her, somewhat shocked. After all, <Offspring of Darkness> also had an instant death effect. Not picking a fight would have been impossible if it had triggered.

~Don't worry, I was only wearing the Ring of Nyx.- Mina assured him. With one of the rings, the set effect skill would not be triggered.

~Okay, but are you guys sure we didn't pick a fight? Those guys don't seem like the reflective bunch,- Fin, who had been silently bunching half the food on the table, entered the chat. While helping their beaten comrade, those guys kept shooting reproachful gazes at them.

~Eh, leave it be. A good brawl here and there might spice up our vacation,- Seth gave his opinion, gaining Fin's excited agreement. This wasn't enough for the whole sect to suddenly come for revenge, unlike the situation at hand if they had killed someone.

There might be a senior brother, or elder later on, but those guys would first have to find and identify them. It would take ages until they heard again of the Crimson Demon Palace.

The three stayed at the inn to make sure the five troublemakers would leave quietly before leaving themselves. Fortunately, the troublemakers went the way Seth and the others came from, so they wouldn't awkwardly travel alongside each other.

--- 2 days later ---

Traveling to Doushi was calm for Mina, Fin, and Seth. So far, there were no more burned villages or arrogant cultivators who crossed their path. What was blocking their path now belonged to neither category.

“Is that an orc? I have never seen one this big,” Fin commented at the beast sitting in the muddy pit that cut the road before them. It was huge and obscenely obese, with rough, darkish brown skin covered in durable bristles.

“i think you forgot what orcs look like. They are green and don't have pig noses like that one; it looks more like a boar demi-human...” Seth argued. The carriage had stopped, and they had stepped outside to have a look at the problem.

As they talked, the giant beast rolled around like a chocolate marble on top of a chocolate fountain, except that it was a giant pig in a pit of mud. Its beady eyes focused on the trio and Abeja on the coach box.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Pay the toll! Booze and Produce! Booze and Produce!” it chanted with an earth-shaking voice, its mouth opening wide as if it expected them to feed it. The three looked at it and shared a glance, before looking back at it.

They were unsure whether they should pay the toll, or just kill the toll collector. Fin shrugged and simply threw a bottle of his private booze and a prepared meal from Link in the beast's maw. The maw closed, eating the bottle and dish along with food and booze.

“Good, good.... You may pass,” the beast said and rolled out of the way like a vault door. Not just that, the mud magically receded, revealing a pristine road where a muddy whole existed just a moment ago. The three shared another glance.

Seth was somewhat tempted to slaughter the pig for materials, curious what it would drop, but they ultimately just entered the carriage and continued. They all agreed that it was best to leave this bizarre sight behind them as quickly as possible.

However, this was the start of various beast encounters, most actually being beasts they knew from their own home. The closer they got to Doushi, the more the countryside was overrun by beasts. This also meant most villages they came through were abandoned.

“But why are there even more beasts here? Konan was pretty much fine...” Seth mumbled on the second day after they met the pig demon. They, or rather Abeja and the golems, had just dispatched a pack of Gale Wolves, the fourth beast attack of the day.

“The magic concentration is higher in this place,” Fin mentioned, looking out the window, more or less bored. The landscape was beautiful, but they grew numb to the beauty after a couple of days in the carriage.

A higher concentration of mana in the air often led to more gates opening, or beasts from other regions migrating here. That was one plausible explanation for the metric shit ton of monsters in this area.

To some extent, one might also call this their fault, since they got rid of a major part of the cultivators in this region, who could have taken care of the situation and managed the monster hordes, maybe.

“At least we are ahead of schedule,” Mina said with a frown. Being ahead of schedule because they didn't want to stay at the abandoned or outright destroyed villages was no happy reason. Although they had stopped to glamp with furniture from their inventories, it wasn't the same as staying at a nice inn.

“Right. At this pace, we should reach Daoshi the day after tomorrow,” Fin said, looking forward to the big city. Especially since they were dropping carriage travel entirely, for some time, once in Daoshi. After their stay in the big city, they would be using flying ferries to travel to the bigger attractions of the province.

But until then, they were doomed to drive through picturesque mountain ranges, filled with monsters, and enjoy the untouched nature.

BOOOM

The idyllic scene was disrupted by a beam of blue light that cut through a nearby mountain slope, like a hot knife through butter. Gone was the peaceful scenery, as the mountain had turned into a pseudo-volcano.

“Was that a guy?” Mina asked out loud, too surprised to use telepathy.

“Yup,” Seth answered in kind. Thanks to Theia's Vision, he was able to see the figure on the human missile quite clearly before they were embedded into the mountain, with an explosion that partially liquefied said mountain.

“Carriage, go faster!” the bard commanded, not eager to get drawn into this battle. The next moment, Fin, Mina, and Seth were pressed into the backseat, as the carriage accelerated. Abeja on the coach box was barely able to hold onto the outer frame when the carriage jumped to maximum speed.

The scenery outside was just a green blur, as the vehicle shot down the road. Once at top speed, the trio was able to peel off the seat.

“How long will we go on like this?” Fin asked, her voice distorted by the bumpy ride. This was also the reason they didn't go top speed before. Since the tech they could build into the carriage was limited by the need to conceal it, the suspension was not the best, especially not on these roads.

As if to answer her, they heard another explosion behind them.

“Until we don't hear the fight anymore?”