It was only half an hour after the two had covered themselves under the sheets, after putting mosquito repellents outside the tent to fend off the thirsty menace.
Their camp was peaceful and silent, mostly as only some nocturnal animals came out to hunt while most had gone to sleep with them. The sun acting as the almost ever-present clock of nature, with the moon taking over during the nights. 

Dried up leaves and sticks cracked in this silent environment, once and then twice and then many more times as was natural…...

‘What is going on? Is it a predator? Or a human?’ Edward thought to himself as he slowly uncovered himself and woke up his Adel. She moved to the back of the tent away from the sounds of sticks snapping.
He waited with bated breath, with a butter knife in hand. He wasn’t a paranoid man by nature but since this had been his first camping trip, as well as the only permanent one, he had decided to always carry at least a small knife on him.
He eventually heard something.

“Get in positions, surround them before the boss wakes them up.” A man whispered those orders to the rest as they walked as silently as they could to surround the tent.
It wasn’t hard for Edward to figure out who was here, after hearing the whispers.
‘Damn it! My phone! I connected to the internet! Shit!’ He swore at his stupidity in his mind after realizing that he had brought Mike and his father here.
‘They would be possessive like that and not allow us to simply leave. Crazy fucks!’
“Sis... Get out the back onto the cherry tree. They won’t get there. “
'Hopefully' Ed completed the sentence in his mind.
Adel nodded as she picked up her small knife and held it close to herself. In the meantime, as she slowly and silently unzipped the tent. Meanwhile, Edward tried to take the sheets an the pillows to make a figure, he stacked them and balanced them on each other before figuring that he had done well enough, time was running low and he didn’t need it to be perfect just distracting.
He didn’t wait for everyone to get in position and aim their guns at him. In the fastest possible speed, Edward unzipped the tent enough for his hands to fit in before tearing it open and jumping out. Some had already reacted but Ed’s speed caught them by surprise.

“They’re awake!” Yelled the leader of the three goons.
All flashlights turned to face the tent missing Edward who had blasted off to the Woodpile to pick up his hatchet. He wasn’t invisible but the high tension and the narrowed focus the light of the flashlights provided made it so that their brains ignored, in a way, Edward, as they saw a figure sitting down, it’s back hunched, its hands in front of its mouth.

“Get out you bitch or they are gonna shoot!” Mike’s father yelled the moment he saw that figure, deducing that his little toy was in front of him yet again.
The silence in the scene didn’t last for much longer as a cry of utter pain came from the third goon on the right of the tent. Blood spurted everywhere as the man screamed and thrashed around as he fell down to the dirt. His voice cords quickly turning hoarse.
As the leader of the goons had actual previous experience and training he quickly shifted his gun and flashlight to the casualty, seeing Edward standing there with a bloody ax in his hand. Blood was dripping down his clothes though most of it stuck on him.
The whole scenario made Edward almost puke in disgust, though his anger and adrenaline held it back as his already extended arm flew forward releasing the hatchet and sending it flying to the leader.
The leader managed to get one shot off before the Hatchet smashed right into his chest. Bones cracked and broke as the leader feel down with bug amounts of blood gushing out of his mouth.
“AHHHHHH!” {BANG! BANG!}

The other goon screamed in terror as he shot at Edward and missed the mark by a longshot as the bullet flew by towards the cherry tree.
A muffled groan of pain sounded out, silent enough that only Edward’s enhanced hearing was able to pick it out the mess. Bullets from the terrified goons as well as Mike and his father were flying all over the place but still, Edward could tell.

His rage quickly took over as he howled like a beast at these men, his eyes seeming to turn red.
He bounded towards them in speeds greater than ever before, the small knife having already flown away from his arms and sticking right into the lust goons skull. Letting him drop down without making any sound other than the splashing of blood and brain matter.
“No! Get! Away! You monster!” Yelled Mike as he walked backward at Edward’s approach.
Before anything more could be said Edward reached Mike’s father. Two bug and strong arms extended forwards as the whimpering average in height and a slightly chubby man got his neck twisted.
His head made a 180-degree turn, his dead and utterly terrified eyes staring at his son.

“AHHHGHGHHH!” Mike yelled before his leg slipped. A scream of fear echoed in the valley as the spoilt, arrogant and broken young man fell.
Edward didn’t pay any mind to anything else the moment as every immediate threat disappeared. He rushed to his sister’s side.
He saw her sprawled on the ground with her back supported by the cherry tree. Blood was pouring out of the bullet wound in her thigh. Which she had tried to put as much pressure on as she could.
Edward’s focus sharpened, his breathing turning erratic to measured. He rushed and grabbed all the first aid kits he could as well as a big flashlight. He placed the flashlight in his mouth and aimed at the wound.

He didn’t even look at Adel as he poured cleaning alcohol on the wound burning any bacteria already there. Edward then completely ignored the groans and screams coming out of his squirming sister as he forced those tongs in and with surprising precision took the bullet out.
Though that was where Edward’s knowledge on the subject pretty much ended as he took bandages and tightly wrapped them around the wound.

“What do I do? Do I take you to a hospital? By putting you on a bike???”
Edward was distraught about how to make sure Adel was safe.

A soft and soothing hand, albeit covered in blood, started caressing his cheek at that moment. Edward finally looked at his sister. Her face was as beautiful as ever with her, dark blue eyes and her long and straight black hair.
“Don’t worry Ed… Knowing them they came here with a…. car as far up as they could…” She said before the pain started taking over again. Just because the bullet was out didn’t mean that the pain from the wound was suddenly gone.
Edward understood what Adel meant as he rushed to Mike’s father’s corpse and took his wallet out of his pocket, as well as anything else precious from his body, thus getting the car keys he was searching for. Following that Edward slowly and carefully picked up Adel, in a princess carry, as he started steadily walking down the path. He walked in a certain way so that he didn’t bounce up and down and his sister was as stable as possible.

If the Bicycle had something other than a small basket at the front he could have used that but she wouldn’t fit in that and even if she did her legs would be bouncing around everywhere bringing with it excruciating pain.
It took more than half an hour but the car parked on the dirt path finally appeared in Edward’s view. He picked up the pace in excitement as he without hesitation, after reaching the car, unlocked the car and opened the door before placing his sister on the front seat before he sat down in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
From there he drove as carefully as possible while going at the greatest speed the road could take, so not carefully at all. It took one more hour before he finally reached the closest city by road, as he entered the town of Mianyang. He searched for the hospital on his phone, yet again as he drove straight to it.

“Anyone! It is an emergency! Can you please take this patient in!?” He yelled as soon as he came in through the main doors of the hospital.
“What are you yelling for? Everyone will wait in line!” A middle-aged, pot-bellied, man yelled back from behind the desk.
“How do you even know it’s an emergency? Are you a doctor?” A woman in the reception desk as well added to the man’s yelling.
Well just look at her leg.” Edward said back this time without yelling as he understood that he had been rude. He slowly placed Adel down before opening the now bloodied bandages and showing the wound.
“Please. I beg of you to call a surgeon.” Edward said yet again, this time with both knees on the ground.
He hadn’t expected behavior such as this from medical staff, so he had come in rushing to get his sister to safety without knowing that safety was a long way away.
“I… I can pay!” He said, not knowing if this would work in his favor or not. But after seeing the smiles on the receptionists' faces, he understood that he was in the clear. Edward quickly showed them the stolen golden credit card as well as all the jewelry he had taken as a way of showing that he was being truthful.

Seeing the highest tiered bank card and from an American bank at that, the two were ecstatic as they called in a surgeon. Who also learned of Edward’s assets and assured him that his sister would be as good as new right away.
As she entered the operation room, Edward rushed to a bank to take out money. Usually, such a thing wouldn’t work since when someone got his Credit card stolen, he would call the bank to cancel it, and even if he didn’t the thief would have to know that accounts PIN.

Currently, though the owner was dead and Edward had heard the Pin from Mike so many times that he had committed it to heart.
In the bank, he was informed that he could make transfers from that account but unless he went to a central back in a bigger city he wouldn’t be able to take money out. Thus Edward transferred huge amounts of money to the three greedy fucking pigs at the hospital, and while he was at it he took out all the money he had and turned into RMB since they would be useless as dollars, though somewhere still left as dollars back at the camp.

Having finished with that he returned to the hospital, only after stopping at a market and buying to juices.
He waited outside of the operating room in silence for the surgeon to come out. He had finally calmed down after a very hectic night.
If Edward were to be honest he would probably say it was tough. The fear of losing the only person he cared about probably took the cake but his first murder was surprisingly up there even though it was completely out of self-defense. He could still hear those pained screams of the men he killed. It didn’t feel good, he thought about the fact that he would never have the same trouble again since the two of them were gone but he still couldn’t get himself to feel good about it.
‘It goes to show how good of a man Adel raised me to be… props on her then.’ Edward thought to himself as he settled on the fact that it was good that he didn’t feel any sort of positive emotions from taking someone else’s life.
As Edward was thinking about all of that stuff he managed to notice that the Qi inside of him was moving around more than usual. It had become depleted from the extreme physical and mental excursion and it was currently regenerating but Edward felt that more than that was happening, it almost felt like it was moving around, showing affirmation to Edward deciding it was not good to kill no matter the situation. 
 
‘Did it have a mind of its own?’ Was the first thing that Edward thought off but he quickly let that thought go as a different thought took over.
As an avid reader, even though it wasn’t scientific nor were the things he had been reading completely based on Taoism and Buddhism but he felt as if he knew what was going on.
‘Everyone follows their path in cultivation, in those web novels, it is usually treated as a static ordeal, wit clear paths that should somehow converge the better the MCs understanding of them got. Though in real life it would be obvious that it didn’t work like that. A person’s path is essentially the life they live, the things they believe in, the actions they take, and the emotions they feel. There may be a static element to it but for now, I think that I walked one small step down my own path. A path of many branches that would eventually all connect t