novelThe Sun Faction
| ← Ch.049 | Ch.051 → |
This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.
"Hey, could we go down? It's boring up here!"
After flying for only a short while, Kaiser had already began to complain. They were surrounded by nothing but blue skies and white clouds, so he had gotten bored quickly.
It just happened there wasn't much to do sitting above the Dragons besides enjoying the scenery, and Kaiser didn't dare to sleep, fearing he might fall out of sky in his sleep, straight into hell to report there. It would be terrible.
Daylight heard Kaiser complaining, so he asked Void, "Would we be able to make it to the Symposium if we walk?"
Instead, however, Daylight saw Void looking strange.
He was practically lying on his stomach on Flame's back. On one hand, he grabbed a spike on Flames' back, and the other held Daylight's robe. His face was pale, his hands were trembling. Anyone who looked at him could tell he was scared for his life.
Void had, of course, never flown up so high in the air. Despite the fact he had seen Daylight flying countless of times, but it was still very different from experiencing it first-hand. Void was so nervous, his whole body was sweating.
"Void? You don't look so well, are you okay?" Daylight saw Void's pale face and then immediately asked in a caring manner.
In the world he came from, most mounts could fly, and there were also countless flying Mechas; therefore, there were rather few people who would be scared of flying. Daylight didn't realize Void was pale because he was scared of flying.
It wasn't until then that Void snapped out of it, and then forced a smile."I-I'm f-fine."
"Fine my ass! You're fine but I'm not. It's boring as hell, I'm going down!"
Kaiser sat with his back against Flames' large spike, and crossed his legs with a face full of dissatisfaction.
Liola, on the other hand, was holding Baolilong in his arms. It looked as if he was sitting quietly on Flames' back, but in fact he was busy communicating with Baolilong via telepathy. The little guy was very unhappy: not only did its master sit on another Dragon, even itself had to sit on the Dragon instead of flying freely.
Though Liola had already clarified that, due to Void's presence, Baolilong couldn't transform into a Dragon, but Baolilong didn't care. Liola's attempts to comfort it seemed to have failed, and he feared Baolilong would forcefully transform into a Dragon, so he said to Daylight,
"Let's just walk."
Seeing two of his companions asking so, Daylight was about to ask Void about whether they would have enough time, but then Flames told its master the little White Dragon's unhappiness.
Daylight then knew it was an emergency, so he hurried Flames towards the ground, in order to prevent Void finding out Baolilong's true identity.
"Ahh!!!"
The sudden descent made Void forget all his manners. He hugged Daylight's leg tightly with his eyes closed.
Kaiser saw the usual dashing Void was now hugging onto a leg, then immediately started to laugh unsympathetically. He would even sometimes yell playfully, as if he was riding on a roller coaster.
The child-like Baolilong also followed Kaiser's lead and began to yell, and these two let out a few crazed yells.
When Flames finally landed on the ground, Void couldn't even move his body. He sat frozen on Flames' back with his lips trembling, and didn't say anything for a long time.
Kaiser laughed loudly as he jumped down, and at the same time began to examine their surroundings.
It looked like they landed within a mountain range, and they were surrounded by mountains. However, the place they were was actually a grassland, and they seemed to be surrounded by forests.
Kaiser scratched his head, and turned to ask, "Hey, Void, where are we?"
Void stood up despite not being able to fully recover. He carefully examined the area for a while, and after seeing the dark brown tree trunks and nearly spherical leaves, he yelled, "Crap, we're in the mountains controlled by Bandits."
"Did we go the wrong way?" Kaiser asked impatiently.
"No." Void laughed bitterly, "It's even a shortcut of sorts."
Kaiser raised his eyebrows, "Then what do you mean by 'crap'? Don't yell if nothing is wrong."
Void explained bitterly,
"These mountains are plagued by Bandits. Anyone passing here is guaranteed to be robbed again and again, endlessly. Therefore, unless you're willing to pay their protection fees or hire a large amount of bodyguards, we have to go around it. It's just when we were flying, I was too nervous, and forgot to ask Daylight to turn..."
Void began to blush as he spoke. Remember what he had done moments ago, he turned around and said to Daylight, "Daylight, sorry, that was rude of me."
"No problem." Daylight smiled. He didn't seem to mind what happened at all.
"Bandits? Who's afraid of them?!" Kaiser grunted in disdain, completely ignored any threat Bandits may pose.
Though they may not be able to fight amongst the rank-X individuals in Aklan Academy... but while they were here, even Daylight alone had not lost a single fight, and now Liola was awake too.
'Bandits? Who knows who'd be robbing whom if we run into them!'
Void was still very worried. Although he knew Daylight was strong and he himself could also fight, Bandits were never alone, and they often came in hundreds.
Void thought even enough ants would be able to bite an elephant to death, not to mention they were practically on the Bandits' turf. He had also heard the leaders of the Bandits were actually powerful people who chose to hide away from the rest of the world.
"I think we would be better off taking a detour, even if it takes more time. If we rush at full speed, we can still make it to the Symposium."
"Rush at full speed? No, thanks! If there's a shortcut, we're taking it. We could walk slowly, so why would I want to rush?" Kaiser snapped in response.
Seeing how stubborn Kaiser was, Void felt very helpless. He slowly understood why Daylight, as the eldest and stronger than Kaiser, would often look helpless in front of Kaiser.
Void could only turn to look at the second eldest, who had actually convinced Kaiser before, hoping he could persuade Kaiser again.
Liola, however, was deep in his own thoughts. He felt the scenery around here looked familiar, especially the strangely shaped trees.
When had he been here? Did he simply pass here before, or was his target here?
He thought about it again and again, but Liola was unable to recall anything.
Kaiser hurried them impatiently, "Let's go, I still want to go play in a few cities. There's nothing here but trees. Boring."
"Playing in a few cities?" Void heard and his face changed, as if he was having some difficulties.
"What? There's a problem with playing too?"
"No, just the money Master gave i-is a bit limited, and we have to pay a fee just to go into the city... I had originally planned to just stay in the villages..."
Void's face blushed again.
Taoists didn't make much money, especially when they often helped voluntarily, therefore losing even more than making an income.
Despite the frequent appearance of monsters, and the thankful people in the city had donated quite a bit of money to the Overlook, but it only slightly relieved their financial problems... Minus the money eaten away by Baolilong with its endless pit of a stomach, there was not much more money than usual.
"Damn, don't tell me the money that geezer gave isn't enough?" Kaiser looked as if pain ran through his body as soon as he talked about money. He then pointed his finger at Daylight and started blaming him,
"All your fault! Don't know you know to get money for getting rid of demons? You were unpaid each time you did it, and now, look at us! We're forced to sleep on the streets."
Hearing Kaiser's accusations, Daylight said without any hesitation, "Maintaining justice is a Knight's responsibility."
Void was stunned, and murmured, "I said villages, not on the streets."
Unfortunately no one heard his clarification. Kaiser glared angrily at Daylight, whom plainly looked back, not thinking he had done anything wrong.
"Don't care! I'm going to play. I'm in an alien world, and what the hell am I doing here if not look around!"
Kaiser said without caring whether Void would find out the truth, because he cleverly spoke in the language in his world.
Daylight frowned, and responded in his native language,
"How could we play? Master Lee's request hasn't been taken care of, and we should get to the Symposium as soon as possible to see what we could do to help. I don't want the more important business to be delayed by playing around. If those monsters use my absence to their advantage and attack around, things will be bad."
Void felt anxious too. Even though he couldn't understand their conversation, but judging from their facial expressions, Void knew they were in a heated argument. However, Void didn't know what to do to stop them.
"Some people are fighting not far from here."
Liola said after being quiet for a long while, but he sank back into silence. It seemed to have attracted Daylight and Kaiser's attention, especially Daylight, who said with an almost worried tone, "It's not someone getting robbed, right? Liola, where are those people?"
Hearing Daylight ask, Kaiser immediately felt something was wrong, but before he had time to stop Liola, he already pointed in a direction. Daylight had already called forth Flames, and charged towards the direction Liola pointed.
Kaiser didn't even have time to grab Daylight's sleeve. The only thing he could do was stare at the smoke left behind by Daylight with his mouth wide open, and it was a long while before he said,
"Damn! I knew the Aklan Troublemaking Squad changed leaders."
* * *
As soon as Daylight had gotten a direction from Liola, he went immediately. The reason why he went so quickly was, other than fearing Bandits would hurt someone, Daylight knew Kaiser would oppose him rescuing people. But he knew as soon as he was engaged in a battle, even Kaiser would back him up depending on the situation.
Without running for long, Daylight heard the sound of battle coming from afar. He took a moment to be in awe of Liola's power. 'Being able to notice people were fighting from this far away, what kind of ability was that?'
Although he was in awe, he didn't stop. It wasn't long before he could see people fighting.
Daylight was fervent in maintaining justice, he knew he had to observe the situation before jumping into the battle. So he stopped to carefully examine the situation.
It was fortunate Daylight stopped, because the situation was a mess. It wasn't something like what Daylight had imagined: a few hundred Bandits surrounding a dozen of people.
Instead, it was a few hundreds fighting a few dozens, and it looked like they were evenly matched.
To be exact, the few dozens of people were wearing conforming clothes: white, short-sleeved shirt and green pants, and there was an icon in the shape of a sun on their chests. The few hundred people did not wear anything similar, and their clothing looked rugged.
Additionally, there were two conspicuous people inside: a man and a woman. They were not wearing matching clothes, their attires were more luxurious.
The man had outstanding looks with his elegant eyebrows and starry eyes. His face was also carrying a bit of pride. With his silk-woven white shirt, he was dashingly pushing back enemies with his long sword.
The woman was no ordinary person, either: she was dressed in a fiery red, and she carried a long whip. The whip was ferociously beating the people with rugged clothes like a viper.
Even though the hundreds of people had the numerical advantage, but their individual's capability to fight was inferior compared to those few dozens, and far lower than that of the man and the woman.
Although the dozens of people seemed to be at a slight advantage, they were still facing hundreds of people. If the situation continued, when the hundreds of people were all dead, then they wouldn't have many left either. Seeing the situation, the man and the woman seemed a bit panicked, but at the same time also helpless.
Daylight, who was observing on the side, couldn't seem to decide. He wasn't sure which side he should be helping.
He'd help the ones losing, but they were the ones who had the bigger numbers, and they didn't look like they were the friendly kind of people. He could also help the other side, but helping the ones who had advantage wasn't something Daylight could do. So he simply stood there, trying to resolve his dilemma.Kaiser's high-pitched voice suddenly exploded behind Daylight. Although he was trying to catch his breath, his loud voice didn't change. It was loud enough to draw the attentions of those hundreds of people. They had not originally noticed Daylight there, but now they were all looking in his direction. The battle had frozen temporarily.
Kaiser saw these few hundreds of people looking at them, and he immediately yelled unhappily, "Look, look! You troublemaker, now you've messed with hundreds of people."
'Did I mess with them?'
Daylight was yelling injustice in his mind. Despite the fact arriving at the scene first, the person who drew their attention wasn't him. Even Void and Liola both thought the person who caused all this was someone else.
Some of the people there used this opportunity to attack their opponents. In an instant, the battle resumed.
Since the two sides were almost evenly matched, no one really seemed paid any more attention to the few of them on the side, especially since one of them looked simply like a child, and thus probably no one strong.
"Wow, a few hundred people battling each other is quite a good show." Kaiser's eyes shone as he looked around.
Daylight asked strangely, "Haven't we already seen a few people in battle? Did you forget the time when Violet Academy ambushed us?"
Kaiser rolled his eyes at Daylight,
"It's not the same. It was either Mechas or Knights fighting one another, and it wasn't nearly as good of a show as this. These people are fighting with fists and knives, and they are using all sorts of moves. Haha, look over there, they're even using 'Monkey Steals the Peach'."
[T/N: A martial arts technique where one drops on his knees with one arm up to block, and the other hand is thrust into the opponent's crotch, often resulting in the end of the fight. ]
Daylight was just about to criticize Kaiser's immature mentality when Void suddenly yelled in shock, "People from the Sun Faction?"
As he yelled, the man and woman both looked in their direction. But due to the tense situation of the battle, they didn't look for long.
"Sun Faction?" Kaiser seemed very curious.
Void nodded and answered, "It's a quite famous faction in the world of Martial Arts. The sun on their clothing is the symbol of their faction."
Daylight looked towards the battle, and surely enough there were a sun symbol on their white shirts.
Daylight asked immediately, "Then the other sides are Bandits?"
Void looked towards them, then nodded with certainty, "Judging from their outfits, they should be a group of Bandits in these mountains."
"Hmmph! Despicable Bandits."
Daylight yelled as he grabbed the pike from his back. And after another rush Kaiser couldn't respond to, Daylight had jumped into the fray.
At first, neither side know whether he was a friend or foe; but after Daylight swung his pike around a few times and beat the Bandits onto the ground, the people from the Sun Faction cheered, while the Bandits grunted.
Void saw Daylight had joined the battle, and thought the Sun Faction actually had a decent reputation in the Martial Arts world. Considering he had been involved in Martial Arts for years, he felt it was necessary for him to help the Sun Faction, and thus he drew his long sword and went in after Daylight.
At first, neither side didn't seem to care about two young men who had joined the fight, because they thought it wouldn't have affected the battle much, but they soon realized their mistakes.
Void's strength was already comparable to the man and woman there, not to mention Daylight, whose power was considerably beyond Void's, especially because he was holding a pike with a wide attack range. He would swing it around and put many people to the ground. Had it not been Daylight's merciful heart, he would've used all his power and aura, and the battle would've ended in an instant.
Nevertheless, this was enough to swing the battle towards the Sun Faction's favor.
The Bandits saw something was wrong. If they let Daylight and Void continue to participate in this battle, they would lose for sure. They glanced around, and saw Kaiser and Liola standing on the side.
The former had a child-like face, despite being twenty. They thought he looked sixteen, seventeen at most. Liola also looked like the delicate type, and if anyone had to guess, most would say around twenty, not to mention the five-year-old child on Liola's back.
These three people, in the Bandits' eyes, were the best people to be taken hostage to get the two out of battle.
After looking at each other, about a dozen of them broke off from the battle, and charged towards Liola, Kaiser, and Baolilong.
The man in the battle who saw their intent, he yelled, "My friend, your companions are in danger."
Daylight and Void heard and looked towards Kaiser.
Sure enough, a dozen or so Bandits held their blades and charged at him. Void was a bit worried. If Kaiser used his fireball, would the Sun Faction become suspicious of such supernatural spells?
Daylight glanced at them, and said a few prayers for those Bandits, then went back to fighting.
Kaiser looked at the people charging at them, and said with raised eyebrows, "Hey, Liola, you do it. I don't want to use magic and then get treated like a monster. Don't forget, old man Lee asked me not to use fireball, right?"
Liola nodded, and took a few steps forward.
When the dozen Bandits reached him, they pressed all their weapons against his neck. Then Liola's figure warped a bit, and after a dozen cracks, the Bandits were all frozen. Then their bodies all fell to the ground along with the noise of their weapons hitting the floor. Liola was once again standing next to Kaiser.
Unfortunately, very few saw this spectacular scene. Even the man who warned them before had not noticed anything because he had his own battles to fight.
In the place where yells and shouts covered the air, the sounds of a dozen bodies and weapons fell to the ground was far too miniscule to be heard. Everyone just realized the dozen Bandits had been defeated, and secretly said to themselves the two standing on the side were not as harmless as they seemed.
After a while, the Bandits could no longer continue with their losses. The few leader-like Bandits yelled loudly, "Retreat! Retreat!"
These Bandits had been wanting to run for a while because they couldn't handle their opponents, and they feared they would receive cruel punishments for doing so. But now they heard their leaders asking them to retreat, they ran faster than they had ever ran before.
After the command for withdrawal was given, every Bandit dropped everything they did and ran.
"Damn! You damn Bandits, don't run!"
The woman yelled with rage, but no Bandit would even acknowledge her. After she pursued them for a while, the delicate man yelled at the woman, "Sister apprentice, stop, don't forget these are the Bandit Mountains."
The woman stopped with dissatisfaction on her face, but she had no choice but obey her brother apprentice's orders.
Seeing the Bandits had backed off, the Sun Faction people sighed in relief, and showed how exhausted they were. The man said something to his people, and a few dozen of them moved to rescue the injured, then put up a few tents to treat the wounded.
After commanding the others, the man immediately walked towards Daylight and others. Kaiser and Liola had already walked to where Daylight was. The man showed a very handsome smile, he then bowed and said,
"Thank you, everyone, for lending us a hand. I am Auyan Dri of the Sun Faction, and on behalf of everyone, thank you for what you have done here today."
Knowing the people behind him don't know anything about the Martial Arts world, Void stepped forward to be their spokesman.
He knew this man should not be neglected, because Auyan Dri was the son of the leader of Sun Faction, and also one of the young prodigies in the Martial Arts world.
Void immediately returned the formalities, and said courteously, "No, no, Hero Auyan Dri, we are both in the same Martial Arts world, and helping each other is something we should do. Hero, you do not have to be so polite."
Auyan Dri was just about to pay back his respect, when Kaiser suddenly interrupted,
"Hey! Damn Void, don't tell me you're telling them we don't want any compensations? If you dare to make us do unpaid work again, I'll skin you alive! I'm warning you!"
Upon hearing Kaiser, both Auyan Dri and Void were stunned.
Void looked towards Liola with a bitter face, whom had no idea why Void always liked to ask him for help. He was obviously the one who was least familiar with Void, but Liola knew he had to do something. He then covered Kaiser's mouth, ignoring his muffled cries and struggles.
Void looked at Liola thankfully, then resumed his courtly manners with Auyan Dri, "M-my companion loves to joke. Hero Auyan Dri, please don't take him seriously."
Despite the fact Auyan Dri looking at Liola as he covered Kaiser's mouth suspiciously, but he didn't forget to reply to Void, "Ah, so that's why. That brother's sense of humor is quite interesting."
* * *
"Wow, what is this? So cute!"
The woman yelled out in surprise, and then ran towards the little Flames.
Daylight had been in shock, and knowing the prideful Dragons don't like to be touched by humans other than their master, Daylight immediately grabbed Flames and tried to comfort it via telepathy. He hoped Flames wouldn't get angry and shoot out a few fireballs.
The woman who grabbed air didn't seem to give up, and thought Daylight wouldn't let her hug Flames. Her face went red from anger, and grunted unsatisfactorily, "Such a stingy man."
"Sorry, miss, Flames doesn't like to be touched by others. I don't want him to harm you."
Daylight smiled apologetically and explained. Seeing Daylight's smile, the woman felt she couldn't really go against a man with a smile, especially when the smile was from a man as handsome as Daylight, even if he wasn't quite as handsome as her brother apprentice.
With his amiable personality and earnest smile, she really couldn't muster up any hatred. Most people who saw Daylight would probably feel the same way.
"I am Long Yulie." Long Yulie, with a faint blush, seemed to act a bit more shyly unlike she did before.
"Yulie? I am Daylight." Daylight smiled lavishly.
Hearing Daylight call her name directly, Long Yulie complained with a flushed face, "How could you call my name directly?"
"Huh?" Daylight was shocked and he didn't know what he had done wrong. He had always called people by their names directly, even for the Princess Lanski, Daylight would only add a title for Knights.
Long Yulie wasn't actually serious. Seeing Daylight's shocked expression, she burst out in laughter.
Auyan Dri seemed a bit angry. He looked at Flames and frowned, "This... what is this?"
Void hurriedly explained, "I am from the Sky Overlook from Sky City, and we are actually all Taoists. This is a demon converted by Daylight and became his helper."
"Taoists? So that's why." Auyan Dri nodded, but still showed some hatred towards Flames, especially after knowing it was a demon.
"Why has Hero Auyan Dri come into the Bandit Mountains? In my humble guess, these are your servants, and they're not the helpers you could use against these Bandits."
Void thought it was strange. Even though with the Sun Factions' strength, they wouldn't be afraid of entering the Bandit Mountains, but at least they shouldn't be here with only servants?
Auyan Dri smiled uneasily, and his eyes looked over to Long Yulie. He said,
"This was my mistake, I had overestimated myself. Because we were in a hurry to go to the Martial Arts Symposium to help the Alliance Leader, I took the shortcut, thinking I could handle the Bandits or simply scare them away, who knew..."Seeing his actions, this bad idea was probably from Long Yulie, and Auyan Dri probably didn't want to seem weak in front of the lady, so he really did charge into the Bandit Mountains.
Although Void knew Auyan Dri was lying, Daylight had no idea. After hearing Auyan Dri, he really thought it was true, and nodded rapidly,
"You are right. The sooner we all get to the Symposium, the better. How about we travel together? That way no one would fear Bandits."
Of course, he was talking about people on Auyan Dri's side. Daylight had no fear at all. No matter how many Bandits there were, there wouldn't be enough to overcome Daylight and Void. In worst case scenario, they could use Flames to escape, and not to mention they still had Liola.
Auyan Dri, of course, wouldn't refuse such an offer. Just having Void and Daylight was very helpful in the battle before. He then invited Daylight and others to lunch.
Kaiser, whose mouth was covered, was struggling to refute Daylight's suggestion, had quieted down as soon as he heard Auyan Dri was inviting them to lunch.
Liola let go of him too. He knew Kaiser had been convinced by food, and therefore probably wouldn't say anything ridiculous again.
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