Matt traveled through the land, zooming around and taking in the sights. The land was quite beautiful and there were many wondrous beasts and sights to see. He even found himself a waterfall to wash up in, then he tried cultivating under it but the progress was a lot slower as the water made it more difficult to transform Qi to the lightning variant. He thought to himself about his future, he wasn’t here for that long and he already almost died due to a wannabe Squidward. The sights were nice and all but spending most of his life as a couch potato while playing games and being as lazy as possible made it hard for him to change the outlook on his life. He was getting better but he still had the tendency to be lazy, though there was not much to do here besides crafting, fighting and cultivating.
*Well, I should be there in a couple of hours if I keep the speed up.*
His flying speed also increased with his cultivation as not only did he have a bigger spiritual energy gas tank, the quality also improved so he spent less while having more. He didn’t see other cultivators flying about on their swords, but that was natural as there weren’t that many core formation ones around, a foundation establishment person wasn’t able to fly much. But see a couple of flying ships, they looked like regular wooden boats and galleons but somehow they were able to move in the air as he did on his sword. Maybe he too could make something like that later one? Did the Dao of crafting include shipbuilding?
He shrugged and flew ahead, he sometimes wished that the cash store would have electronics in them, he could use his old smartphone or an mp3 player, these long trips had interesting things to see, but otherwise, it was quite boring. And would you know it, he got what he wanted as when he was passing by, he spotted a caravan, it looked like one of those merchant caravans that you would expect in fantasy settings. The caravan was stopped by the road, it was getting blocked by some group Matt knew how to hide his aura so that no one below his level could spot him by this point so he peeked down. All the cultivators were still in the Qi Condensation level but they were at a higher level then what the tribe people were ranging mostly from 5 to 12, There also was one person in the foundation establishment-level mixed into the bunch. He was a bit behind the others and was hiding his strength. The leader of the person at the 12th level was from the caravan and as Matt looked at the name above it read Lan Fei, that was a female name right?
He wasn’t sure what was going on and couldn’t see all that well from way up here so he decided to get a bit closer. He was quite the nosy person it seemed and the boredom was getting to him, as he got closer he noticed that the female cultivator was quite the beauty and how to put it she was quite stacked too boot. This, of course, made him use his heightened senses to zoom in on the lovely peaks, the woman had her cleavage exposed and all. She was wearing what looked like traditional Chinese clothes, just with more revealing parts and sticking to her shapely body quite tightly. He snapped out of it and looked at the group opposite them, they had smirks on their faces as they looked at the woman and the people behind them.
“This is Cheng Clan territory, you need to pay the toll if you want to pass!”
One of the thugs said while smirking at the busty woman who looked angry.
“What’s the meaning of this, the Cheng Clan? The only toll is by the city gates, everyone knows that! Plus this area belongs to the Zhang Clan”
Matt perked up at the mention of his so-called clan that he had no idea who was or wasn’t a member in, he found himself moving closer and closer as things got even spicier, he was totally not staring at the woman’s chest and totally didn’t stare as she was talking which made her ample bosom bounce in a lovely way. The Cheng Clan members noticed this too, so they started drooling themselves.
“Hehe, the Zhang Clan has its hands full in Spirit Spring City, they have no power in Moonlight city anymore.”
The woman frowned at the people in front of her, if this was true then they wouldn’t be able to get out of this without paying. They could not offend the ruling clan of this city if they ever wanted to do business here. But she didn’t like the way these upstarts handled things, the moment they got some measure of power they extorting money from people. She gave out a sigh and tried to be professional about it, being the caravan’s owner and a merchant herself. The sleazy ways of these people weren’t anything new to her.
“How much?”
The men were a bit surprised that the girly didn’t complain more but then grinned at her. They looked at each other and then the man in charge stepped forward and while looking at the woman licked his lips.
“100 low grade spirit stones”
The woman opened up her eyes wide and frowned, this was just plain extortion she wouldn’t pay more than 10 at the gate and this price was ten times the regular amount.
“Why don’t you just rob us, does your clan head even know you are doing this?”
The men chuckled to each other while standing.
“Well, we’ll drop the price to 10, if you give us some special service girly~”
The man licked his lips as he moved forward and looked at the woman like a predator. The people behind the woman started complaining but didn’t know if they could offend these people, the Cheng Clan might have been an upstart clan but they did have Foundation Establishment elders which they couldn’t handle on their own.
“Preposterous, Lady Fei lets just leave, we can just head to another city.”
One of the people from the caravan spoke while glaring at the Cheng Clan people, the woman started to think if that would be a good or bad idea, what if they go into the city and they get harassed more, you could never trust those power-hungry upstarts that did whatever they wanted. As she was about to make a decision one of the men in front of them walked out and she could feel pressure pushing her down it was a senior cultivator!
“Why don’t you stay, I insist.”
The real leader got revealed as the cronies made way for him, the man looked quite old with a wrinkled up face and beady eyes. He was just in the early stage, but this was enough to make the caravan people tremble in their boots. Now they were afraid, they would have no chance of running if this elder jumped in they would have to pay the toll but the problem wasn’t that. The Clan people had set their sight on their boss.
“How about your people gather the spirit stones while we have a nice chat over there?”
The old man grinned while poking a bit to the side into the bushes, he turned out to be an old pervert to boot as he also wanted in on that action. The woman showed quite the disgusting face in response while the people on her side took out their weapons, this could turn bloody any second.
“Am I interrupting something?”
Suddenly everyone heard an unfamiliar voice, everyone looked around to the sides but they couldn’t see anyone around but suddenly they looked up and there was one peculiar cultivator hovering right above their heads. He was standing straight up, hands behind his back and his feet planted on an expensive-looking flying sword. Everyone gulped as they realized that the man was a core formation expert, just from the way he was nonchalantly flying above them without a worry in his mind. They also could feel his overbearing aura emanating out that confirmed their concerns.
“Ah you see, we were just trying to collect the toll… “
The elder from the Cheng Clan started speaking while looking upwards while sweating bullets, the clan didn’t even have one core formation elder in their mids the strongest person being at the great circle of foundation establishment so he could not offend this senior that staring him down.
“Oh, toll? thought the toll was only collected by the city gate? Right?”
“Ah yes, that’s right. We must have made a mistake, Senior!
The Cheng Clan members were fast learners and could read the atmosphere. So they quickly gave up on the idea of harassing this caravan and turn tail to run. Matt didn’t say much just looked at the people backed away till they were gone, then he looked at the people from the caravan that looked surprised and maybe even shocked a bit.
*A righteous man always has to aid the downtrodden! Even more so if they have…*
He thought while trying not to stare at the woman’s cleavage.