Chapter 353 The Coachman's Fortuitus Encounter

Three days later, Mark and his companions left Helios City and journeyed to the western neighbor, the Kun Empire.

As the empire's capital was far away from the shore, Mark chose the land route, traveling by the traditional carriages instead of LMV.

Those carriages and their respective coachmen were provided by the palace. Obviously, they weren't your typical horse carriages either. Both of the carriages were pulled by bicorns, which are 4-circle Spirit Beasts of the dark attribute. These dark horses with two horns could run faster than the maximum speed attained by LMVs.

Adding on top of that, the presence of the royal family's crest helped Mark to cross the border without facing any questions from the guards posted at checkpoints or worrying about the directions.

As a result, Mark not only got qualitative time alone with his fiancée and saved the effort of driving but he was also able to cross the border before sunset.

Of course, these Spirit Beasts can also travel through the darkness but Mark was against the idea, not because he thought it was unsafe or anything. It is just that he doesn't want to sit in a carriage all day long.

Hence, he ordered the coachman to stop nearby a pond and went on setting up the tent to take a rest for the night.

As a woman, Song Yue had a tent on her own and slept peacefully while the manticore stood outside as a guard and kept an eye on the surroundings.

Lan Ju had gone on a stroll in his beast form as he felt like it and no one objected to his decision.

And Mark ended up sharing the tent with his future father-in-law.

As for the poor two coachmen, they neither have the luxury to sleep in tents nor do they have the courage to rest inside the carriages. As a result, they could only sleep beside one of the campfires.

But, it doesn't mean that they were being mistreated or anything. Generally, all adventurers won't set up tents and campfires as they would attract unnecessary trouble. So, they were comfortable with sleeping outside, on the ground. If there is anything that is troubling them, it is actually the presence of the manticore.

These coachmen were just 3-circle realm Spirit Warriors while the manticore is a legendary realm beast king. It was no surprise that they were afraid of its presence. Hence, they slept as far away as possible from the beast.

Eventually, everyone fell asleep.

By around 3 a.m. in the morning, the flames were gone from the campfire and the cold air struck the two coachmen, making them shiver involuntarily. While one of them doesn't want to disturb his sleep because of the mere chilly atmosphere, the other one named Dai Qiu woke up and looked around.

Because the dark clouds covered the moon, there was absolutely no light around him and he couldn't see anything. Perhaps, the manticore was closing its eyes; he couldn't see the beast either.

"Too dark… maybe, I should relight the campfire. The chunks of dry wood are also nearby, although it would be tough to locate them in this darkness… Ugh… should I just go back to sleep, then?" As the guy was wondering what to do, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there was a light in the sky.

No… It wasn't just simple light. It was a portal that was emitting light. "What is going on?" Dai Qiu panicked and instantly tried to reach out to his left where his other colleague was sleeping.

It was just then, he saw two figures exit from the portal and started falling from the sky with their back facing the ground.

Dai Qiu didn't know what came over him. Instead of waking up his partner or caring about the manticore which also opened its eyes and was curiously looking at the portal, he just rose to his feet and foolishly rushed in the direction these strangers were about to fall.

Thankfully for him, the portal didn't disappear and continued to emit light. Hence, he didn't have a problem reaching the spot only to find two teenagers being enveloped by light as they were floating just one foot above the ground. They didn't crash and died.

"Phew… it looked like they were alright." Dai Qiu let out a sigh of relief and approached them.

The two unconscious teenagers suddenly fell to the ground and a floating ball of light appeared in his sight. Meanwhile, the portal disappeared and the darkness loomed over the region once again.

But for Dai Qiu, his immediate surroundings up to 5 meters are still visible. So, he clearly saw the appearances of the teenagers. One is a boy and another is a girl. The boy looked ordinary and had the attire of a martial artist while the girl was pretty and wore a luxurious dress.

Neither of them looked injured but seeing the boy's clothes torn apart around his right shoulder and waist, Dai Qiu wondered whether they have gone through the battle and if someone healed them before sending them through the portal.

"What to do with them?" Dai Qiu stroked his chin, not knowing whether to take them with him or leave them. After all, he wasn't with his adventuring buddies. He was on an official mission given by the king, and his clients were the royal guests of the kingdom.

He doesn't have the guts to even speak with them. Not to mention, that manticore that is constantly keeping him on his edge just with its presence.

Earlier, Dai Qiu only had the thought of saving the misfortunate, but now that he remembered his reality, Dai Qiu became clueless.

After much deliberation on the matter, he made his decision. Dai Qiu sat on the ground and spoke to himself, "Okay, I will guard these two until sunrise and then leave. At this time, let's try to wake them up."

Dai Qiu stretched his hand toward the boy. Suddenly, the ignored ball of light, which was on standby until now, suddenly flew forward and floated before his hand and moved left and hand.

"Eh?" Dai Qiu was taken aback. "You don't want me to wake him up?"

He commented just in surprise but didn't expect the ball of light would respond to his words by spinning up and down as if it was nodding its head.

"You can understand my words?" asked Dai Qiu while pinching his arm, not being able to believe the scene.

In response, as the ball of light spun up and down, Dai Qiu asked with curiosity, "What are you?"

The ball of light then released a bit of light attribute energy and shockingly wrote a reply in the air. It introduced itself as a light elemental spirit and has no name or master but was still a servant of the Wen sect.

Dai Qiu scratched his hair in confusion. He never heard of it and asked more questions.

As time passed, Dai Qiu and the ball of light continued to converse with each other. Perhaps, it was because it wasn't a human and the two teenagers were unconscious; Dai Qiu shared the stories of his small-time adventures with it while spending the time.

Eventually, the darkness in the surroundings started fading away and Dai Qiu saw that it was time for dawn.

Since he couldn't stay, he apologized to the ball of light and told it that he needs to go. But, to his surprise, the ball of light shot toward his forehead and he too lost consciousness.

"An elemental light spirit? Interesting indeed…" a voice came from above. A five-tailed scarlet leopard was staring at the figures from the sky.