Flying Fish town was a small, almost negligible town located in an almost forgotten corner of Grand Quan continent. It was part of the Great Yan country, which in turn was located in the Bai Province.
Being located in such a forgotten corner of the world meant that the town rarely ever got any visitors, so most of the residents had lived their whole lives here and everyone knew everyone. Barely any clan would make branches here, the only reason Flying Fish town had a branch of the Yao clan, which was one of the major clans in Great Yan country, was because someone who belonged to a branch clan of the Yao clan had moved his family here hundreds of years ago and set up a new branch.
Most of the buildings in the town were simple wooden buildings that were colored a faded red. The streets of the town were barren and silent, nearly devoid of life. Most of the residents were over the age of 30, once a child reached a certain age, they would be either sent out of the town to a larger clan or head out on their own to adventure and experience life, making the town a quiet and boring place.
This quiet and boring atmosphere was the reason Yao Jun's parents had chosen to move here when his inborn spell was discovered, hoping that the quiet town would allow Yao Jun to lead a life where he wouldn't be bullied for his bad inborn spell.
At the start, this quiet life was indeed something Yao Jun enjoyed. But as he walked the empty streets now, he simply found this silence to be suffocating. It reminded him of the eyes of the townspeople, even the others of the Yao clan, used to look at him. Whenever someone saw him, they would look at him with pity in their gaze, some of the people in the Yao clan even looked at him with scorn hidden in their eyes.
At the start, these looks had unsettled Yao Jun, but as time went on and he thought it over, he came to accept it. He could understand them, they looked at him with pity for having such a bad inborn spell when his parents were so outstanding and they looked at him with scorn because he was so useless that his parents were almost forced to move out to this forgotten corner of the world.
Every time Yao Jun closed his eyes, he could see those looks of pity and scorn, and every time he saw those looks in his mind, he would open his eyes and return to training, pushing himself a little harder. With time, Yao Jun was ostracized by the townspeople, partly by his choice, partly by theirs. Due to this, mixed with the shame Yao Jun felt whenever he faced his parents, Yao Jun was certain that he was the only one who knew just how hard he worked to change his circumstances, to allow his parents to return to their home.
Yao Jun walked briskly through the streets, at his waist hung a longsword made of polished steel, a gift his father had gifted him once he turned 5. Yao Jun carried the blade everywhere with him, looking at it would remind him of how long his road still was, giving him the motivation to push on a little harder. Letting his parents return home wasn't enough, he wanted to let them return home in triumph, changing the looks of pity and scorn he got into looks of reverence and admiration.
With these thoughts in mind, Yao Jun left the town. Not far from the town was a forest inhabited by normal animals and some low-level Demonic beasts. Yao Jun would head into the forest every day as part of his training, hunting some normal animals to train his patience and concentration.
Standing in their little cottage at the edge of the town Yao He could see his son leaving town and couldn't help but heave a sigh. Looking at the lonely back of his son he couldn't help but feel guilty. That day they left the main Yao clan, they never bothered to ask him how he felt about it, simply dragging him away and giving him some false encouragement.
He could see how the atmosphere of this town was suffocating him, he could see how hard he worked every day, how hard he trained. He and his wife had long wished to tell their son to stop, no matter how hard he trained it wouldn't work, a Warrior couldn't become stronger than a Mage. But every time they wanted to tell him, they would see his stubborn determination to keep training and their words would get stuck in their throat.
Their son was ashamed to face them because he felt that he was inadequate and had betrayed his parent's expectations, and they were too ashamed to face their son because they felt that they had given him false hope and then dragged him away to a forgotten corner of the world. And before they noticed, this vicious cycle had gone on for seven years, making it so that they didn't know how to break out of it.
Yao Jun was walking through the forest silently, his footsteps not producing any sound even as he stepped on the fallen leaves. It was already autumn, so the entire forest was colored in magnificent shades of red and yellow, leaves covering the entire ground. Yao Jun had spent seven years of his life in this forest, he knew the outer perimeter like the back of his hand, but today he wanted to go a bit deeper.
In the outer perimeters lived nothing but normal animals, and they simply didn't pose a challenge to the current Yao Jun, he wanted to try to go a bit deeper and see if he could find a weak Demonic beast. If he managed to kill a Demonic beast, he could sell its parts. Even though he didn't need any money now, once he saved up enough, he could head to a larger city and spend the money on medicine that would help him in his training, bringing him a step closer to returning to the main Yao clan.
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Steadily and stealthily making his way deeper into the forest, Yao Jun strained his perception to its utmost, this wasn't the outer perimeter where the most dangerous animal was the occasional wild boar. In here he could meet actual Demonic beasts, getting caught off guard would most likely mean death.
Before he noticed, the sun had already reached the edge of the horizon, slowly turning day into night. Noticing this, Yao Jun hesitated for a bit before climbing up the nearest tree and finding a large and solid branch that he could rest on. This wasn't the first time he had spent the night in the forest, but it was the first time he did it so deep into the forest.
Laying on the large branch, Yao Jun barely slept, mostly just resting enough to keep himself in perfect shape. After switching between light resting and meditation to absorb the surrounding Raw Qi and circulate it through his flesh, the sun broke through the horizon and brought the dawn with it.
The main difference between a Warrior and a Mage was that while a Warrior circulated and stored the Raw Qi in their flesh and blood, strengthening their body, a Mage circulated and stored the Raw Qi in their inborn spell, slowly strengthening it. Yao Jun had tried circulating and storing Raw Qi in his inborn spell, but it simply seeped out of it after he stored it there, seemingly completely dead.
After dawn broke, Yao Jun continued through the forest, but he no longer dared venture deeper, instead traveling sideways inside the forest. After traveling without seeing a single animal, much less a Demonic beast, Yao Jun was slightly demotivated, but it also raised his caution to new heights. He had read about how some Demonic beasts would designate certain areas as their territory, not allowing any other Demonic beasts or animals to enter.
After spending a bit more time traveling, the sun started approaching the horizon, bringing with it the dimness of dusk. Yao Jun wanted to climb up a tree to rest again, but his eyes suddenly caught hold of something that shone with a purple light in the setting sun. After a bit of hesitation, Yao Jun moved closer to the purple light. After reaching the purple light, he saw that it came from a small rock that was located a few meters up on the slope of a small mountain.
After thinking it over for a bit and checking the surroundings, Yao Jun calculated how much light there was left and how much time he would need. Gritting his teeth, Yao Jun quickly made his way up the small mountain, hopping up the rocks like a mountain goat, until he reached the purple light.
Upon closer inspection, Yao Jun saw that it was a bit of purple fur that was stuck to the rock. Seeing that it was just some fur, Yao Jun gave a low self-deprecating chuckle and was just about to head down again when he saw a purple blur out of the corner of his eye. Quickly reacting by putting his arms in front of his chest while jumping backward, Yao Jun managed to dampen the impact, but the force of the collision still sent him tumbling down the slope.
Tumbling down the slope and hitting the ground, Yao Jun quickly rolled backward and into a crouching position, staring straight ahead. Not far away from him stood a beast that was a little smaller than him, with a length of about 1,75 meters, covered in purple fur with black stripes, a bloody maw filled with sharp teeth and claws that gleamed in the light of the setting sun.
Standing face to face with this purple tiger, Yao Jun felt a chill go down his spine as fear started creeping into his heart, he finally found out what it felt like to come face to face with a true Demonic beast.
The thought of escape slowly started to revolve around Yao Jun's mind, but he quickly threw out the idea and drowned the fear that crept into his heart. Looking at the Demonic beast in front of him, it was clearly not an adult yet, the power behind its earlier attack wasn't too strong either, so Yao Jun was certain that his odds of victory were rather good.
Yao Jun narrowed his eyes and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, he had lost too many long nights training, heard too many words that cut him like knives, to simply give up the moment it seemed slightly dangerous. If he simply ran away now, it would only prove that his parents were right to take him away from the main Yao clan, that he wasn't someone who could handle pressure and stress, someone who could never amount to anything and fulfill their expectations. With these thoughts in mind, Yao Jun drew his sword and stared at the tiger, figuring out his plan of attack.