Time seemed to pass by slowly until it was close to getting dark in his surroundings which was finally the time that Leo felt that he could stop crying and was able to mentally bring himself back to normal, except this new him hated the Iron Will Sect and for the first time in both of his lives, the former hero wanted to become strong enough to exact revenge rather than to solely protect those he cared about since there was no one else left right now that he cared about in this world.
With nowhere else to go, Leo sits down and begins to look through his storage ring now filled with different things he chose to purchase in the village center for him and his mother as well as the two gold pieces that were now his only form of savings he had to his name. Going through the storage ring and with the experience of his previous life, Leo quickly realizes that he had enough food to last him at least for two weeks and maybe upwards of three weeks if he rationed everything out properly.
Not just that, but after searching through his memories once more, Leo felt that he could sell the random common items in his storage ring to a merchant for roughly ten gold pieces which was not enough to support himself, but at least his total worth was now twelve pieces of gold instead of just two since he would not be willing to sell his weapon or suit of armor.
A moment after taking a few deep breaths now that his current predicament seemed slightly more manageable, Leo quickly took out a small map from his storage ring and begins to work on deciding which direction he should go in and where his new destination would be since he could technically travel for up to two weeks in any direction before running out of food and water to sustain himself.
There were different options he had according to the map and so he began listing those options and the positives and negatives associated with each one. The first option was of course heading back to the Iron Will Sect.
Since he was considered a genius and the elders were willing to train him as much as they could to reach his potential, he could use the time to flourish, find their weaknesses and even eventually destroy the sect internally as long as he was able to control his killing intent which was absolutely a gamble given the situation.
Another option Leo had was to actually head over to where the Black Fire Mercenaries most likely were located even though they consistently moved around so that the local villages would be unable to launch a full-on joint sneak attack on them. Since he had a high affinity for the fire element, it was possible that they would help train him and even have many techniques available for him to learn.
However, the mercenaries also made their money by selling children on the black market and given his level of talent, it was possible that he would end up enslaved which was possibly worse than heading back to the village.
The only remaining options that seemed slightly more realistic was that he could find sanctuary in a weaker village in the same region but far enough away for the Iron Will Sect to not notice for at least several years. However, the reason some villages were much weaker compared to the Iron Will Sect was because they were more heavily targeted which realistically did not remove the potential danger he was already in as a twelve year old youth traveling alone with no allies or contacts that were still alive.
But, the most realistic option would be for him to head to Mist City, the city that was the closest to his current location and was roughly two weeks of travel away since he would have to take many breaks and sleep throughout the journey.
Since he had a high affinity for the fire element, it was possible according to his memories to join the public school within the city run by the Imperial Family. Given his overall potential as a cultivator since this region did not have anyone outside of the city able to have their own youths attend, it was actually possible for him to stand out within the school and slowly earn more benefits and resources including backing which later on when he becomes an adult he could use to crush the Iron Will Sect in its entirety.
Though traveling on a long journey seemed the most risky, it would bear the most rewards for him and so after debating with himself, he felt that this was his only real option that could assist him with all of the goals he had even outside of taking revenge for his family.
In his memories, he knew that there was an entry test for youths who tried to attend the public school, but there were rumors that given how weak this region was, that as long as a youth had an average affinity for any element, they would be treated very highly and Leo's future potential was of course several stages higher than that.
Plus, if he made it to the city, there was no one within a city willing to kill someone else outright due to the consequences so as long as he made it there in one piece, he would remain completely safe.
