While Qiu Ling was imprisoned in his inner self, dreaming of his beloved, and his advisers worried about him outside, not knowing what they should do, Jing Yi was on his way out of the Wu state. Or, well, maybe it would be more accurate to say that he had left the Haibin town.

The wife of the man’s cousin was called Si Fen. She had come over in the morning when they wanted to set off and taken him to meet everybody else. Other than her, there were another two merchants, a dozen servants, and almost two dozen guards.

Jing Yi greeted all of them and then looked at Si Fen to tell him what to do. The woman just laughed and told him to sit back though. After that, she went to help the servants with putting the goods on the carts.

Jing Yi’s eyes widened when he saw this petite woman lift up heavy bags, carry them out from the storage room and over the courtyard and then hauling them onto the carts.

This … He really couldn’t believe that this was the woman he had met the other day. Back then, she had looked as if a gust of wind would be able to blow her over but now, it turned out that she was actually so strong. She was looking as if she wasn’t even breaking a sweat. If this was him … He wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t struggle profusely.

Watching her work, he couldn’t help but feel that he really had failed in his attempt at becoming a hero. A small woman like her was able to do something like this and he still hadn’t managed to become a cultivator or practitioner after five years in the Yun Zou Sect.

The chances he had gotten seemed to have been completely wasted. How was he supposed to become a hero like this? In fact, instead of not getting closer to his goal, he felt that he was even getting further away. After all, he had managed to get Qiu Ling involved and probably even hurt.

Thinking of that, he couldn’t help but feel down. Even though senior martial brother Yu had gone to look for him, there was no guarantee that he would find him. There also wasn’t a guarantee that he would be able to help him even if he found him. And all of that was just because of him. He really had to make up for it in the future.

Jing Yi sighed to himself but then picked himself up again. Just sighing wouldn’t solve anything. If he wanted to change something, then he had to work for it. Motivating himself like this, he went over to Si Fen once again, asking her to please let him help her.

Seeing that the boy seemed to be serious about it, Si Fen couldn’t help but reach over and rub his head. "Well, if it’s so important to you, then I guess I can’t say no. Come on then, you can take some of the smaller things." She waved him with her into the storage room and pointed at some small chests that were standing at the side. "Just carry them over to the carts. The others will lift them on there after the heavy things are secured."

Jing Yi nodded and got to work right away. Si Fen watched him for a moment but then just nodded to herself and continued with her own work. Well, at the very least, the boy was trying to help. As long as he didn’t cause any trouble, she definitely wouldn’t mind letting him do that. Anyway, a helping hand was always welcome even if it wasn’t a strong one.

Finally, everything had been carried outside and Jing Yi also helped with securing the goods after the servants showed him how. Since he knew that he would be traveling with these people for a long time, he felt that he should use every opportunity to learn and help out, even if he could only do some small things just like he had done it with Qiu Ling.

Then, the merchants and Jing Yi, as well as the servants, sat down on the carts, keeping an eye on the goods. Meanwhile, the guards had their own horses and rode close by, ensuring that they would be able to react as early as possible to any threats. In this way, the group finally left the Haibin town and started on their way.

With some of the goods being fragile, they couldn’t move fast though and thus, it took them a long time to even reach the next town. And when they finally arrived there, Si Fen had to go and meet up with the owners of some shops. She would have some of the goods unpacked, sell them off and buy other things that she would take with her to the next place before the process repeated again.

Normally, it took them at least one day to do all that in one town before they could leave again the next morning. Thus, their travels stretched further and further. Jing Yi couldn’t help but become anxious when he noticed. He didn’t know what had happened to Qiu Ling. He didn’t know if he might be alright again or if he was still hurt and trying to recuperate. Not knowing anything made him more and more nervous.

If he could, he would have rushed straight to the capital city but even if he walked, it wouldn’t be much faster than using the horse-drawn carts and the most important thing was that he wouldn’t know the way. He could hardly just follow the coastline, could he? If he followed Si Fen, he would at least be able to leave the Wu state and reach the next one. Maybe she would even be able to help him find somebody else that could take him closer to the Long kingdom. That way, he would be sure to arrive there.

It was the only way of going about this that he could currently think of. Unfortunately, it would indeed take him months to reach there. His guilty conscience toward Qiu Ling grew with each day that he spent on the road. When they saw each other again, he definitely had to apologize profusely.