Chapter 22 - On The Move!

Raymond had assumed that the token was only some sort of identification, and he had been half-right. The token was indeed used as identification, but it also contained a sliver of profound energy. This profound energy was something that Raymond had no way of sensing, which is why he had assumed this token to be something normal in the beginning. Now that he knew that the token was something extraordinary, it was only natural for him to destroy the token, and to get as far away as possible.

The Dark Sabre Gang was a gang that had hundreds of members, and the members that Raymond had killed was only ordinary ones. This meant that he had managed to make hundreds of enemies that were on par with the 3 bandits that he had killed the day before. Not only that, but the Dark Sabre Gang had 10 lieutenants, a vice leader and a boss. Each lieutenant had 3 squads under them, with the squad leaders being in the 9th revolution of body-refining.

The lieutenants themselves were even scarier, having actually broken through the body-refining realm completely, and taken the first step on the path of spirit-refining. As for the vice-leader and the boss, they had gone even further, with the boss being at the 7th step of spirit-refining. A person with such a realm would naturally not care for a regular underling, but Raymond wasn't going to risk his safety to stay in a city that he barely had any attachment to.

Before leaving, Raymond bought himself a map of the Herus kingdom and started travelling to the north. Right now he was in Greencrest City, which was practically as far south as you could get in the Herus kingdom. According to his knowledge, there was a total of 12 provinces in the Herus kingdom, each with its own local capital. These provinces were ruled by the city lords who resided in these provincial capitals.

Such a position naturally came with a lot of power and resources, which meant that not just anyone could become a city lord over a provincial capital. That meant that the 12 city lords were all people trusted by the royal family, and they all had a cultivation that was at the limit of the spirit-refining path. As for the realm beyond the spirit-refining realm, Raymond had no idea what it was, since it was something that only existed in the royal family, as well as the sects.

The Dark Sabre Gang was naturally not something these provincial lords could tolerate, but since they were not operating within their sphere of influence, at least not on the surface, they didn't bother with them. This was naturally because they would suffer a lot of losses if they did so, and the losses might even outweigh the gain. Such an operation was not in their best interest. However, in the provincial lords' territory, the Dark Sabre Gang had to be a lot more careful.

Since that was the case, Raymond was planning on moving to the closest provincial capital. If the Dark Sabre Gang even had to be careful in the provincial lords' territories, then wouldn't they have to be even more careful in the capitals of these territories, the lords' actual residence?

The closest provincial capital to Raymond was Kredon, and it was also where he was currently headed. The only real problem was that Raymond had left in a hurry before knowing where he was going. If he had planned ahead a little, he would've bought himself a horse. Without one, it would probably take Raymond around two weeks of travel to arrive, and it might even take longer depending on how fast he walked.

Although he was a little discouraged at first, he was also determined. Going back now would be risky, and Raymond didn't enjoy taking risks. When he had left the inn, Raymond had told the owner that he was heading into the forest again. This was just in case he was asked or interrogated by the members of the Dark Sabre Gang. Maybe he could throw them off his tail a little bit.

The road to Kredon was long and winding, but there were plenty of people who came and went. One thing that almost all of them had in common was that they were travelling in a carriage or on a horse, there was barely anyone who would travel the entire way on foot. Raymond felt a little awkward every time someone passed him by. He had asked a few people if he could pay them to hitch a ride, but even though he was polite, no one wanted to take the risk.

The reason was fairly obvious, Raymond was a young man with a sword strapped to his waist. He looked like he was from a wealthy family, yet he was travelling by himself on foot. Although most people couldn't quite put their finger on it, they knew that something was a little off, and no one wanted unwarranted trouble. Raymond felt a little helpless, but he could understand where they were coming from, especially since most of them had little to no cultivation. No one would invite a wolf into a den of sheep.

Raymond could only continue his journey on foot for now. Since he had been in a hurry, he didn't prepare anything beforehand, this meant that he had to sleep on the ground most of the time. His cultivation time and martial arts practice was also cut down by about half, but he still persisted every day. This journey was neither long nor short, but it was not the greatest, Raymond was clear on that much.

...

Next to a small creek, a young man was patiently waiting for his clothes to dry. His expression looked a little haggard, but the look in his eyes was spirited, and also somewhat fierce. This was Raymond, and he had been travelling alone for the past two weeks. In the beginning, the journey was still somewhat bearable, but in the past two weeks, he had experienced a bunch of unpleasant things.

Because he was travelling alone, two separate groups of bandits had ambushed him, but he had managed to dispose of them all. Because of this baptism of blood, Raymond's sword seemed sharper than before, as it contained a sliver of killing intent that wasn't there before. The difference between a swordsman who only trains for fun, and one who trains to kill is immense, and this was something that Raymond had experienced first-hand.

After two weeks of continuous cultivation, Raymond had managed to completely fill up both the 11th and the 12th energy channel with spiritual energy, which meant that he had reached the peak of the 4th revolution of body-refining. To his disappointment, Raymond had noticed a slight slowdown in his cultivation speed. Thankfully, he had finally managed to gather enough money to upgrade his talent once more, which would hopefully solve this slight predicament.

According to his estimations, Raymond was only a day's walk away from Kredon, which would have a suitable environment for him to upgrade his talent in safety.. He had learnt from his past mistake, and he was not interested in leaving himself defenceless in the middle of nowhere.