Chapter 45: A Year Later - 45
After a month on the road, Zhou Fan had finally made it to the next city on his path.
While the previous month couldn't be called dangerous, it was extremely hard to travel. During the entire duration, Zhou Fan was no different than a mortal.
Therefore, after walking across the ground barefoot for 18 hours a day, his feet were nearly destroyed. Luckily, Zhou Fan didn't have the ability to completely seal up his quick recovery.
Along the way, he had run into multiple travelers and even a few caravans.
One of the caravan owners was so kind as to give him a robe after seeing the state of his clothes. Although it was everything but elegant, Zhou Fan didn't mind as he continued his journey.
When he made it to this city, the guards looked at him with disgust as he walked past. Since there was no toll, Zhou Fan was able to walk straight through.
When he made it inside, Zhou Fan took a rest while sitting against a building. Since this wasn't exactly a wealthy part of town, no one bothered him.
As he rested, Zhou Fan almost fell into his thoughts. However, he managed to stop himself before he did. If he had a chance to think, he would surely talk himself out of his current actions.
All of a sudden, the sun that was shining on Zhou Fan's face was blocked. Looking up, he saw a child holding out an apple. Although he didn't speak, Zhou Fan knew his intentions.
"Thank you." He said as he took the apple and ate it. Although he could have lived without it, it gave a refreshing taste after so many days of struggle.
Seeing him eat it, the kid walked back to his parents who patted him on the head. On the road, Zhou Fan had to survive on wild berries and the occasional bread from passersby's, so it was a nice snack.
If anyone who knew him in the past were to see Zhou Fan right now, they wouldn't recognize him a bit. He was so skinny that nearly every bone in his body was visible.
If he were to take off the robe, one could see spiky spinal bones on his back. Although he still looked young, his face seemed as if it had aged a hundred years.
After an hour of rest, Zhou Fan stood up and continued to walk. He made it through the city unobstructed, but just as he was leaving, a caravan waved him towards them
Seeing them, Zhou Fan walked over.
"Where are you going young man?" The owner said with clear pity on his face.
"East." He said while pointing towards the almost fully rising sun.
"What a coincidence." The owner said. "We're going that direction too. Would you like to join us?"
"If it's not too much trouble." Zhou Fan responded.
"Hop on." The owner said while pointing to one of the wagons without a roof.
Zhou Fan gave a quick thank you and climbed into the wagon.
Not long after, the caravan started to move out.
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In what seemed like a blink of an eye, a year passed.
Zhou Fan had long parted with the caravan, and with a few more kind strangers and a lot of walking, he had made it to the last kingdom in the sword empire.
Over the year, Zhou Fan had traveled through thousands of cities, 50 kingdoms, and almost three empires if you count the sword empire.
At this point, Zhou Fan had grown accustomed, and almost happy, with his new life.
His understanding of the dao had reached a much higher level than before. Even then, he still felt as if he only took a small step along an endless river.
Right now, Zhou Fan was walking out of the final kingdom between him and the mortaniel empire. The journey through the sword kingdom was one of the hardest due to how tough the people here were. Of course, there were still a few kind people who would give him food on his journey.
There was a reason why Zhou Fan didn't buy any food, besides the fact that he didn't have money. He had a feeling that when he ate less, he became closer to the dao and comprehended it even faster than before. Therefore, throughout his entire journey, he had not spent a penny on food.
Feeling the constant starvation, he felt as though there was no worse pain to be experienced.
Although getting a bone or five broken can be considered to hurt more, the pain of starving is a different feeling. It's as if your body is empty and hollow. The feeling of watching your body decompose was also an indescribable horror, along with actually feeling it decompose.
After another month of travel, Zhou Fan finally stepped into the mortaniel empire. Looking at the luxurious city before him, he could tell that this place would be the best to be at.
One look and even a cow could tell that it was prosperous. Not to mention, from his memory, this was one of the lower ranked kingdoms within the empire.
As he walked through the gates, the guards nodded at him, trying to hide the disgust on their faces.
Although such a look may be disheartening for others, Zhou Fan had long gotten used to it. He could still remember when his face would burn up everytime he got such a look in the past.
Nodding at the guard, Zhou Fan walked into the city unobstructed.
Within the morantiel empire, there were no toll fees. Even the imperial capital was free for all to enter. Of course, everything was much more expensive there and almost every resident was filthy rich.
Zhou Fan explored the kingdom and was astonished at how much gold there was. On the walls, on the statues. When he took a look into the rich area, even the walkways were made of gold.
Like every other kingdom, Zhou Fan simply wandered through. This time, however, there were many more people who offered him food. For the first time in the last year or so, he felt full. At some point he even had to reject someone offering him food.
Chapter 46: Gautama Kingdom - 46
Despite how lovely it was, Zhou Fan didn't stay in the kingdom for long. The goal of this journey was not to find a nice place to live, but to experience and understand the very essence of the dao.
Zhou Fan left the kingdom in the direction of the imperial capital. He was very interested in how the number one place in the world would look.
Unfortunately, there was a long way to go. The mortaniel empire was far bigger than any other.
For example, traversing from one end of the boundless empire to the other would take around 6 months if he didn't use a wagon.
Traversing from one end to the other in the mortaniel empire, on the other hand, would take around 2 years without a wagon.
Not to mention, it was also wider, and the overall surface area was more than 10 times that of the boundless kingdom.
Zhou Fan estimated that even if he traveled by wagon the entire way, it would take him 6 months to reach the imperial capital.
Based on the path he was taking, he would go through 5 more kingdoms, including the number 1 kingdom, the gautama kingdom.
After a couple tries, Zhou Fan was luckily able to hitch a ride to the next kingdom.
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After 2 weeks, Zhou Fan and the caravan he was riding on were halfway to the next kingdom.
In the distance, a line of people blocked the path. A look of fear and realization made its way to the owner's face.
Looking behind, another line of people were similarly blocking the way.
Sighing in resignation, the caravan owner moved the wagons towards the people blocking the front.
As they moved, the back line of people followed. When they finally made it to the front line, more people came out of the sides and along with the front and back line, a complete circle was formed around the caravan.
Hopping off of the head wagon, the owner walked to the leading man.
Clearly, these people were bandits.
"Hello sir, can I ask why you've stopped us." The owner said, despite knowing what was happening.
"Well good sir," The bandit leader imitated, "I've happened to take an interest in your products here. Tell me, are they for sale?"
The bandit leader had a mocking grin on his face as he played this charade with the owner.
"For sir, of course. What would you like." The owner said with a resignated smile.
"I was thinking.... everything!" The bandit leader said, swinging his sword down upon the owner.
The owner closed his eyes in fear, but the pain never came.
Opening his eyes, he saw the poor and starving man he allowed to join earlier, stopping the blade from advancing with his hand.
As the bandits were surrounding them, Zhou Fan had a decision to make.
A: Let these kind people die.
B: Unseal himself and save them.
Although Zhou Fan was unwilling to unseal himself, and was even planning to let them die at first. He realized he couldn't as he saw the blade swinging down.
In a split second, Zhou Fan unsealed himself and grabbed the blade of the sword.
As the bandit leader retreated in surprise, Zhou Fan spoke.
"Why don't we leave it here?" He suggested.
The bandit leader stood there for a second, both comprehending what happened and considering Zhou Fan's suggestion.
After a brief moment of hesitation, the bandit leader waved his hand and ordered a retreat. He had no clue what just happened and it didn't seem like a good idea to continue pushing his luck.
As the bandits retreated, the caravan owner took a look at Zhou Fan with cold sweat flowing down his face.
Just as he was looking, Zhou Fan disappeared from his eyes and appeared right back on the wagon, sealing himself.
When the owner looked back and saw him there, he gave a slight thank you nod and ordered the caravan to continue on.
As he expected, Zhou Fan didn't need a big thanks or to even be talked to.
Sitting on the cart, what Zhou Fan feared didn't happen.
Instead of his progress stopping after he unsealed himself, it went forward a large margin.
Perhaps his action of saving the man, even at the cost of stopping his progress, is what made him understand the dao even more.
'The Dao is merciful' Zhou Fan thought.
As the journey continued on, 2 more weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Seeing the city gates up ahead, Zhou Fan had some high expectations.
He had made it to the Gautama kingdom.
The first thing that was noticeable was the gold. So much gold!
The walkways were gold, the houses were gold, the city gates were gold. Even the clothes the guards had contained some gold.
As they reached the gate, Zhou Fan said goodbye to the owner. With a bow and a thank you, the owner bade him farewell.
However, Zhou Fan didn't enter the city. When they were riding earlier, Zhou Fan saw a man sitting under a tree with many others listening to him talk.
Zhou Fan went in that direction and after 10 minutes of walking, he reached the area.
When he saw the group up close, his first thought was that they were beggars. Each one of them were as bony as him, including the man talking.
Even though he walked up, none of them paid him any attention.
Since they were focused on the talking man, no older than 18, he too sat down and listened.
At first, Zhou Fan thought that the man would be saying nonsense. However, after just moments, Zhou Fan too fell into a trance while listening to him.
Every word the man spoke slightly increased Zhou Fan's understanding of the Dao. If he was conscious, he would be surprised at its incredible progress.
Unfortunately, the man stopped talking after another 10 minutes. As the people woke up from their trance, they bowed and paid their respects to him.
Afterwards, the group of 50 people started to talk with each other. Since they were now talking, Zhou Fan went up to the nearest people to ask them some questions.
"Who is that man?" He asked as soon as he came to them.
"He is Siddhartha gautama. He was the 3rd prince until about a year ago when he left his position. Since then, he has wandered around and meditated, understanding the ways of life. Eventually, people like us started to gather around him and ask him questions, leading to the current state." He said, looking at Zhou Fan.
"Thank you." Zhou Fan said before walking over to the man himself.
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