The group travelled for half a day before finally setting up camp.
"We'll camp here for the night" stated the mustachioed man. "We'll head out again first thing tomorrow."
"Hey John, come here" called out Austin as he saw John about to walk away. John turned around and joined Austin at the campfire.
"What's up?" asked John.
"Here, have some. I cooked and seasoned it myself" said Austin as he handed a roasted piece of meat. The meat had a delicious aroma wafting from it, and John was quite hungry after a full day of traveling.
"Sure" replied John as he sat next to Austin and bit into the meat.
"Delicious!" exclaimed John. He hastily bit into the meat again, savoring its deep flavor.
"Haha, right? If there's one thing I'm best at, its roasting meat" responded Austin while laughing. He handed John another piece of meat before biting into one himself.
While eating the delicious meat, John heard Austin all of a sudden speak up "So, I have a very important question to ask you." Austin had a serious expression on his face, causing John to be slightly alarmed.
"What is it?" asked John. 'He seems quite serious right now. I wonder what this is about?'
Austin paused for a few seconds before speaking once more. "My question is...what kind of woman do you like?"
"Huhhh?" John almost fell off the log he was sitting on as he heard that question. He stabilized himself before flabbergastingly asking "What did you say?"
"I asked what type of woman you like. Me personally, I love beauties with nice, firm butts. You know, the ones you can.." Austin started enthusiastically describing all sorts of things. John just sat there in silence, unsure of how to respond.
After talking for several minutes, Austin paused before once more asking "Come on. You have to have a favorite type. What's your type?"
John thought about it for a moment, and was surprised to find out he didn't have an answer.
'I've always focused on raising my strength all my life, even before I could cultivate. I've never actually pursued any woman before.'
"To be honest, I have no idea what my type is" replied John with a wry smile. He had no other idea of how to respond to the question.
"Huhh? Surely you have to have a type? Everyone has a type" replied Austin with a sly smile on his face.
John had no idea how to respond. He truly didn't have a type, at least he didn't know for sure yet as no girl had caught his eye yet.
Austin noticed John's awkward silence, at which point a serious looked appeared on his face. He stood up with a flourish and stood before John. "If that's the case, just leave this to your older brother Austin. I'll help you with any lady troubles you have."
John could only give a wry smile and chuckle at Austin's antics, but a warm feeling crept into his heart. He started to see Austin less and less of a random person and more like an older brother that he never had.
"Sure, when we're done with this mission, you can teach me all you know about picking up girls" replied John.
A happy Austin cheered loudly before sitting back besides John and putting his arm around John's shoulder.
"Fear not. By the time I'm done teaching you, you'll be able to land any girl you desire" said Austin with a mischievous grin on his face. John nodded his head as he bit into another piece of delicious meat.
An hour passed before John finally decided to get up and go practice his second form of the Myriad Annihilation Scythe as well as the third step of the Five Step Movement Technique. He left the group and walked for fifteen minutes to find a remote spot in the woods to practice.
'This place will do. I'll practice the Five Step Movement Technique first, before switching over to the Myriad Annihilation Scythe'
Bang!
Dust was slightly kicked up as John dashed forward, unleashing the first step of the technique. While moving, John channeled Qi from his dantian towards a new spot on his legs and executed the second step.
Rapidly dashing forward, John once more channeled Qi into his legs and attempted to unleash the third step of the technique.
"Ahhh"
John went crashing forward after losing his balance. He stood up and brushed the dirt off his plain black robe before thinking about what he did wrong.
'With my essence cultivation in the middle Mist Creation realm now, I have enough Qi reserves to unleash this step. The problem wasn't the quality or quantity of Qi, it was the timing. I was slightly late on unleashing my Qi to the third acupoint, and as a result I misstepped and stumbled. I need to make sure to get this timing down perfectly so I can use it in combat.'
John prepared to unleash the technique again, but once more mistimed the third step and tumbled to the ground. The sound of John crashing into the ground continued for some time, and he had to replace his robe once already due to the dirt it had accumulated. Finally, two hours later, John succeeded in unleashing the third step correctly.
"Success!" yelled John as he came to a stop while panting heavily.
'The acceleration and speed of that third step is far faster than the second step, but the Qi requirement is quite brutal.'
John sat down and replenished his Qi reserves over the next hour before standing up once more. A dark black scythe suddenly appeared in his hands. It dipped in his hands as he grasped it, but far less than before.
'It feels quite a bit lighter now that I've grown stronger in both essence and body cultivation. Now for the Myriad Annihilation Scythe!'
'It's somewhat similar to the Five Step Movement Technique in that I have to time the second attack perfectly after the first one. The leftover momentum and power from the first attack builds into the second one, resulting in an even stronger attack. Lets try it.'
John took a wide stance and focused his mind before swinging out with all his might.
Che!
A strong beam of power was emitted from the scythe as he swung it forward. The beam carried on for a dozen yards before crashing into a tree and severing it in half.
Spinning around fully after his first attack, John retained the momentum of the first attack and swung his scythe out with great force.
Boom!
A small explosion of Qi appeared right in front of John, sending him tumbling back slightly.
"Mistimed it. Again!" said John as he once again tried to execute the attack. After several attempts, John put away his scythe and sat down to focus on recovering his diminished Qi reserves.
'I can feel that I almost have it down. I might be successful on my next attempt.'
An hour later, John was just about to stand up and try his attack once more when his eyes widened and he quickly dashed to the side.
Boom!
The earth was upheaved and a small crater had formed where John had just been. As the dust started to settle, John heard a voice call out from the distance.
"Jejeje, you're not a bad kid. I didn't think you'd be able to dodge that attack in time." A man clothed in all black from head to toe approached John, his eyes glinting with a murderous light.