’roar’

Just then, Leon heard a roar behind him. When he turned back, he saw a two meter long black bear growling at him from below the banyan tree.

"It’s a beast at the tenth heaven of the mortal realm, but it doesn’t seem to be in a mood to attack us. Probably it’s after the honey," John said gravely as he took out two axes from his back.

Leon looked at John, who was slowly retreating backward, and asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"

John looked toward Leon, who was still sitting on the ground leisurely with a swollen head, and his mouth twitched. "Don’t tell me you want to fight this thing too."

Leon shrugged. "I’ve been swinging my sabers straight for four hours. Do you think I will walk away just because some stupid beast growled at me?"

As he finished speaking, Leon decided on the shape of the sword spirit he was going to have and slowly pointed his finger toward the black bear.

The next second, sword qi poured from his finger and condensed into a fierce eagle made of dark red and silver metal feathers. Each feather was sharp like a blade. Its wings were wide and powerful, glowing faintly with a crimson aura that flickered like fire.

Its eyes burned bright red, full of killing intent, and its dark red claws were long and curved. Just by its presence alone, the qi in the atmosphere around it became extremely sharp and chilling.

With a long screech, the eagle bolted toward the black bear like a flash of red light, with crimson flames covering its body like a mystical glow.

When it moved, it was incredibly fast, and the air around it made a whooshing sound like it was being sliced apart.

Even before the black bear could understand anything, the sword spirit born from Leon’s vital qi passed through its body, neatly dissecting the beast in two.

After fulfilling its purpose, the sword spirit vanished into specks of qi which drifted away in the wind.

"What the fuck?" John cursed out in disbelief when he saw this.

Leon just smiled and extended his palm forward once more, and a mini version of the sword spirit appeared on his palm.

"Each feather in its body is equivalent to a sword, and it can even take action on its own without needing me to control it all the time," Leon mumbled to himself as he touched the feathers of his sword spirit, causing a small cut on his finger.

John was at a loss for words as he looked at the sword spirit hovering above Leon’s palm. He shook his head helplessly. "You kid, there is nothing to say. You simply are a monster when it comes to learning cultivation techniques."

...

On the tree top, the two women looked at the eagle sword spirit on Leon’s palm in disbelief.

"That red saber in his hand is only an ordinary mortal grade weapon, right? It doesn’t seem to be a life bound artifact," the maid asked in disbelief. She had been stunned more than ten times already and thought that it was over, only to end up stunned again.

A life bound weapon was a high level weapon with spirits of beasts caged inside it. These beast spirits could then be commanded to fight on behalf of the person who wielded it as long as qi was injected into the weapon.

The young lady shook her head. "That’s an intent spirit, not a real beast spirit."

"What?" The maid’s eyes widened once more. "But how is that possible? It clearly looks like an eagle."

Intent spirit weapons were weapons forged inside a cultivator’s body using extremely rare illusionary metals and were then bound to the illusionary soul sea of a cultivator. These weapons were then nurtured with corresponding weapon qi inside the illusionary soul sea like a cultivator’s core and would continue to be strengthened like how cores broke through to higher realms.

The young lady kept her eyes glued on the eagle and furrowed her brows. "It’s strange. I can’t sense any illusionary metal in the eagle’s body. It appears to be made just of pure sword qi and his own vital qi. Even if it is an intent spirit weapon, it is impossible to form one without illusionary metal to contain the sword qi, unless you use your own body as the container for holding the sword qi. But still, it doesn’t explain why the sword intent spirit he conjured is an eagle instead of a sword."

Weapon intent or weapon qi was a type of element like fire, wind, and water. This intent would have a silver color, and how much of its power a weapon cultivator could draw upon depended on his understanding of the weapon.

At the same time, it was impossible to study sword qi and conjure a hammer shaped intent spirit weapon, since sword qi could only take the form of something related to a blade. It could be a saber, scythe, dagger, sickle, etc.

As for sword qi transforming into a life like beast, that was stuff of legends, and the young lady hadn’t seen such a thing in her entire life.

...

Leon climbed the old banyan tree with a small wooden bucket and a rope on his shoulder. Using his saber, he cut out the honeycomb and filled the bucket before extending it to the ground using the rope.

John, who was on the ground, emptied the contents of the bucket into the large barrel, and Leon once again pulled the empty bucket up to fill it once more.

This process continued until seven in the morning, and by nine o’clock in the morning they had already collected all the bee carcasses into two large leaf sacks and tied them to the center of a bamboo stick to bring them back to the village.

Even though there were still untouched beehives filled with honey on the old banyan tree, due to lack of containers they had to stop here and let other wild beasts benefit from their hard work.

"Let’s go back. My stomach is growling non stop," Leon said as he slung the huge barrel containing around two hundred and fifty liters of honey onto his back.

Although this might sound like a scary weight for a person from Earth, in this world filled with qi, people naturally had strong frames, and this much weight was nothing to them.

"Yeah, I’m also starving," John said. He also stood up, and after supporting each end of the bamboo stick on their shoulders, they began walking back to the village.

...

Back at John’s house, Leon and John started separating the bee wax and the honey.

After the initial processing was done, Leon picked up a wooden bucket and scooped up a bucket from the large basin containing about five hundred liters of honey.

After Leon had taken the honey he needed for his household use, John untied the leaf sacks and began dumping the bee carcasses into the large basin as Leon stirred the thick honey with a large stick, ensuring the bee carcasses were mixed well with the honey.

"The next step is to add the herbs for extra vigor and taste of the wine. I can handle that myself. You go home and eat something. After working so hard all night, you must be tired," John said as he wiped away the sweat from his forehead.

Leon did not refuse, and after taking the bucket of honey, he walked back to his house.

Just as he reached some distance from his house, his brows furrowed when he saw a crowd outside his house.

Leon had a bad premonition as he quickened his steps.

........

"Our squad leader is giving scholarships to outstanding talents, and I have given the name of this little girl as the candidate from the Stone Fort Village. Instead of appreciating my goodwill, you bunch of fools actually dare question my intentions," the head soldier of the soldiers stationed in the Stone Fort Village said coldly to the group of people blocking before Leon’s house.

Grandma Mercy, who was always kind and gentle to everyone, now held a kitchen knife in her hand as she yelled back at the soldiers furiously, "Get lost. Her brother is more than capable of supporting her studies."

The head soldier’s brows knitted, and he raised his hand to slap the old woman.

Bang.

But the next second, the head soldier was sent flying by a powerful kick.

.....

When Leon rushed back, he saw Uncle Sal and his other neighbors standing protectively in front of his house and a burly old man with copper like muscles standing in front of the soldiers with one of his legs still in a kicking position.

"Village chief, what happened?" Leon rushed toward the old man and asked anxiously.

The burly old man, who looked even more jacked than any bodybuilder Leon had seen in his entire life, put down his leg coolly and said with a light smile, "Nothing serious. These idiots want to deliver the little girls from our village to their squad leader to please him. Last time I reasoned with them in the kindest voice that I could muster, but it seems they don’t know how to cherish it."

"Hahaha. We served in the Asura Devil Army for years. Even though we opted for a peaceful life now, if we say a word, our brothers from the army will rush here for our aid. So if you think just having a squad leader behind you is enough to act arrogantly in Stone Fort Village, you are terribly mistaken."

Uncle Sal also stepped forward. Following him, five more people stepped forward. All of them were retired soldiers who once served in the Asura Devil Army.

The old village chief also laughed heartily as he lifted the head soldier with a single hand by his neck. "Kid, unlike sissy soldiers like you who have never even seen the battlefield, I have lived there for half of my life. Even though I am old, killing a bunch of bastards like you won’t be a problem for me, and even your higher ups won’t dare lay a finger on me."

All the soldiers stepped back in fear as they sensed a mighty aura coming from the old man, which belonged to the early iron realm.

The head soldier, who was gripped by his neck like a chicken, struggled to breathe. "S...sorry, senior. I was...forced. Please...spare my life."

The old man squinted his eyes and threw the soldier to the side. "Get lost. If any of you try to make a move on one of the children from Stone Fort Village, you will know the temper of a veteran who has battled demon beasts for the good half of his life."