After an hour of moving, Desper was slightly used to how to ride the horse. He was able to direct it himself. The only problem was..
"Do we have to move that slowly?" Desper asked Eland as their horses moved next to each other.
Right now, Eland was reading a large book about the monsters.
"We have to preserve the energy of the horses," Eland answered. "What will happen if a Spatial Crack appears or a Distress Signal is fired from far away while our horses are tired from running?"
Desper frowned, knowing they would definitely arrive late if that happened.
"Then, when will we reach our destination?"
"In only seven hours."
"What?!" Desper's mouth dropped. "You must be kidding me!"
"Try to occupy your mind with something until we reach."
Desper grimaced. He didn't have anything to do right now.
Suddenly, he remembered that the Crimson Horse could follow the group without the need for his lead. So, he asked
"Can I cultivate until then?"
"Yes, you can, but every two hours you should stop to refill your Origin using the Red Stones," Eland answered. "You don't want to face monsters while your Origin is empty, do you?"
Desper nodded. "Alert me when two hours pass."
"Okay, but what are you doing?" Eland asked when he saw Desper take out a black cloth and blindfold himself.
"I think I will feel better like that," Desper answered.
Eland was confused, but didn't suspect anything.
Usually, cultivators preferred to cultivate in a very calm place like the Silent Room. Desper's current situation was the complete opposite: the sky was very bright, the other members were talking with each other, and his body was shaking while the horse moved.
If he used something like the blindfold to reduce the interruptions, it would look weird, but not suspicious.
Under the blindfold, green veins spread through Desper's eyes. Although closing them was enough to hide them, Desper preferred to add one more layer of covering, as one small mistake could cost him his life.
He focused on his Origin and directed the Essence into his Channels. He had already completed cultivating his bones, so all of them were occupied with Channels. The next step was his muscles, which had few Channels within.
The stages of Muscle Cultivation were determined by the percentage of muscles occupied by channels. For example, 0% to 10% coverage meant that the cultivator was in the First Stage, 10% to 20% marked the Second Stage, continuing up to the Tenth Stage.
The same went for Bone and Organ Cultivation staging.
While the cultivator couldn't accurately gauge his own level, his token could.
Desper kept cultivating for two hours, forming more channels in his muscles before he felt something poking his shoulder. Desper took off his blindfold and found that it was Eland using the pole of his spear.
He held his head in annoyance. "I won't do that again."
The horse's shaking made him almost deviate some of the channels. Even his Bloodline couldn't help.
Eland chuckled and didn't say anything.
A few minutes later, Desper was so bored. There were still five hours of slow moving. He thought of talking with the other team members, but he couldn't think of any topic to open up with them.
His face lit up as he remembered something. He took out the New Disciples Book he had been given three months ago. After reading it on the first day, he totally forgot about it until yesterday; he skipped his cultivation session and spent the day reading it.
He looked at Eland and said, "Can I ask you some questions about what is written in this book?"
"Hmm?" Eland raised an eyebrow in a questioning expression.
Desper had a guilty look on his face and continued, "I know that I should have asked an instructor, but I really didn't have time for that."
Eland stared at him for a moment, then he sighed. "What do you want to know?"
Desper was happy. He opened the book and searched for the things he had marked.
"Okay. The first question is: Why are the M-Rank and O-Rank monsters attracted to the cultivators while B-Rank monsters aren't?"
The monsters preferred attacking cultivators, since consuming them would increase their Rank. B-Rank monsters were the only exception.
Eland closed his book and answered, "It is because of the cores. The B-Rank monsters don't have a core in their bodies; that is why they can't feel our Essence fluctuation."
Desper nodded in understanding, then he asked, "Is that why almost only B-Rank monsters attack the villages and towns?"
"That is right," Eland confirmed. "If they don't have an M-Rank or O-Rank monster in the group to lead them, they will move according to their instinct and attack anything. That is also why it is not allowed for any cultivator to stay in a village or a town without permission."
"I understand," Desper nodded and turned the pages. "The second question is about the Zlodei."
Eland frowned upon hearing the word "Zlodei."
Ignoring Desper's clan, the Zlodei were the worst kind of cultivators. They used some vile technique to absorb others' cultivation. Above that, they also allied with the monsters to cause chaos in the world. While the sects were doing their best to protect humanity, the Zlodei did the exact opposite.
Desper proceeded, "It is written that some were invited to become a Zlodei and some were tested. What does that mean?"
Eland exhaled deeply, clearly annoyed by the question, but he still answered.
"To be brief, they invite the talented and use the weak ones to cause damage in the sects, such as leaking some important information, killing a team, assassinating an Elder, and others."
Desper grimaced as he heard that. "That is horrible."
He sighed inwardly, 'My clan is still worse than that.'
After that, he kept asking more questions. Eland, who seemed to be bored from his book, answered all of them.
Finally, after eight hours of moving, Desper could see their destination.
"Is that the Beacon?" Desper asked in confusion.
It was just a small gray building with nothing special.
"Yes, it is," beside him, Eland confirmed.
Desper was a little disappointed. He thought it would be much larger than that.
The Beacon looked like a normal large house, but with a tall pillar arising from its roof. On its walls, there were many shapes and patterns emitting faint light. Twelve horses were tied along the walls; two of them were Azure.
Desper could see two men sitting near the Beacon and another two on the roof. One of them noticed Desper's group and told the others.
Five minutes later, Desper and his team reached the Beacon. In front of them were six men on their horses. All of them were dressed in the Angry Tiger Sect's uniform.
"Finally, it is done," one of them stretched his stiff back. "I really hate the Stationing Missions."
A man with a firm face, riding an Azure Horse and holding a Detection Disk like Eland, said, "The watch is yours."
"Thanks for the hard work," Eland replied with a nod.
Eland was about to get off his horse, but suddenly, both Eland and the other leader looked at their Detection Disks. Desper and the others could hear peeping sounds coming from the disks.
"We are done here," the leader of the other team uttered. "That is yours."
Eland didn't need his statement and yelled, "A Spatial Crack! Let's go!"
He quickly turned his Azure Horse and ran south. All of the other members of the team followed.
'That was quick,' Desper thought. 'We've just reached the Beacon, and a crack has already appeared!'
This time, they didn't move slowly, but as fast as the horses could. Desper was amazed by how fast they were. He forced his lips closed, but air still entered his mouth.
After six minutes of running, the peeping sound coming from the Detection Disk stopped.
"The crack has opened," Eland shouted.
All the members prepared for the fight.
Eland screamed, "Ten O-3… thirty M-7… fifty M-1 monsters!"
Chills ran down Desper's spine after hearing that. 'That is a lot.'
During his life in the village, only a few B-Rank monsters attacked them daily. Forty of them were considered a lot in a single day. He was shocked that this number of monsters could appear from a single crack.
After another minute, Desper could see many silhouettes from far away.
"Humans?" he murmured in confusion.
It wasn't strange for him to wrongly identify them, as they seemed like humans from a far distance: they had a head, a body, two arms, and stood on two legs. However, when they became closer, he started to see them clearly.
The monsters had the head of a lizard, their skin was gray, and they had a thick tail. The most striking part of them was that some had one hand morphed into a green blade, some had both hands morphed, and some had normal hands.
Behind the horde, Desper noticed a spot in space that was unclear and distorted. The scene behind it was mixed and squeezed. In the center of the distortion, there was a black crack that was rapidly shrinking.
"A Spatial Crack," he muttered.
That was the first time for him to see one.
Eland looked at Desper and said, "Desper, you won't participate in that fight."
As a new disciple, making him fight these monsters was just like sending him to his death.
Desper stopped his horse and watched.
When the team became closer to the monsters, the monsters noticed them.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
They growled and launched at them.
"Like we always fight," Eland shouted.
Everyone leapt from their horses and started running on foot, except for Zen, who jumped from his horse and landed on the back of the Azure Horse.
The Crimson Horses were too good for traveling, but they were the worst for fighting because they were cowardly. Unlike them, the Azure Horse didn't fear any battle, so Zen, as an archer, used Eland's Azure Horse in every battle.
The team rushed into the horde of monsters, with Eland, Taros, and Silas in the front, Bron and Arkan behind, and Zen supporting them with his arrows.
A few seconds later, blood started spraying on the ground.