*Yawn*

I just woke up it had been a few hours since the last incident, it would take around ten days for the carriage to reach the imperial city. I was really bored by now and was missing my smartphone. I observed the boy who was still unconscious and was lying on the carriage floor in front of me. He looked to be at the age of 14 or 15 years old and had decent facial features not too bad but also not too good.

I suddenly remembered about the pouch which the bandit had given me last night. I took it out of my inner pocket and opened it up. It contained jewels and money. Well, it was not much but something is better than nothing I thought and was about to put it back when something caught my eye. I felt a faint sense of spiritual energy from one of the items in the pouch. Intrigued I emptied the whole pouch on the floor of the carriage and looked for the source.

Soon I got it, it was a ring. I observed it for a while and not finding anything unusual I wore it, it looked like a normal ring with a spherical green stone at the top which was the size of a small marble. As a form of experiment, I took a small bit of my Qi and transferred it to it and it worked. My mind was suddenly transferred to a different space, it was a wide greyish-black area with a lot of space.

I observed the place and found a piece of paper lying at what seemed to be the centre of this place. I moved towards the paper and when I grabbed the paper my surroundings suddenly changed...I was back to the carriage but this time along with the ring on my hand I was also grabbing that sheet of paper which I had grabbed in that strange place...it took me a while to make sense of things and I finally got it.

It was one of those storage rings which was also in that novel that I read earlier. Good stuff, it will make a lot of my work easier in the future when I'll have loads of stuff to carry. I brought my attention back to that sheet of paper, there were words written on it. 

"My son's name is Ling Fan and I am the patriarch of the Ling clan. Our clan once was in a state of power because of the earlier patriarch having a good cultivation strength, unfortunately, my generation was unable to reach that strength of cultivation which made us good targets for people eyeing our resources. After the news about the previous patriarch dying while in his attempt to breakthrough became known to the outsiders people of the Hao Yue Sect without any second thought attacked our clan and knowing that we were all gonna die I sent my son to a secret hideout after giving him this pouch of jewels and added the spatial ring to it in order to disguise it well. Only people of the Ling Qi Layer or above would be able to notice it. This spatial ring was the last remaining thing of the previous patriarch, I beseech senior to take care of my fool of a son and forgive him if his actions had offended this senior till now. My soul would always be thankful to you."

Hmm...looks like this pouch initially belonged to this boy in front of me and the bandit traded it with me for his life..well I can't be too sure until I get to know the name of this lad in front of me. As to whether I will take care of him or not...I'll most probably just provide him with some stable source of income with which he could live the rest of his life as a normal person when we reach the imperial city. After putting all the stuff which I was carrying in the ring I disintegrated the paper with my Qi and then crossed my hands behind my head while resting my back on the wooden wall behind me while wondering what I should do when I reach the capital.

I don't think finding my father would be that easy and it's not like my aim of going there is to find him... it's to...hmm..have fun I guess. So it's not much of a matter if I find my father or not as long as he stays fine. In the previous novel, I read there were things like auctions that used to happen in big cities where a lot of good things are sold and a lot of people fight over it. Seems like a good place to pass time but in order to go there I'll need to have a good amount of money and I'm not even sure right if the jewels and the few low-level purity stones in my possession were sufficient for me to survive a week or two in the imperial city or now...because with the name like that the city is sure to be expensive.

Hmm well...with the ability to hide my presence which I got from the beast which my snake spirit devoured...I don't think I'll be needing to worry about money. I should be able to steal it easily provided I choose my targets wisely.

While Lin Feng was musing these things the boy who had been unconscious since last night started regaining consciousness. He slowly supported his upper body up the ground by pushing his hands on the floor and slowly observed his surroundings. He seemed to be in a carriage that was currently moving, he moved his head around and soon met with the eyes of Lin Feng who was also staring at him now.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked just to start a conversation.

The boy observed Lin Feng a bit longer and seeing that he seemed to be only a bit older than him he didn't feel the need to be on guard in front of him and replied while smiling foolishly, "Yeah it's been a while since I last slept that well."

"I got you when I dealt with those slave traders. What's your name?" I asked

"My name's Ling Fan big brother..." and started telling me his story even though I didn't asked for it...looks like he had a lot pent up in and just wanted to let it out. He just narrated the story about how when his clan was attacked his father sent him to a hideout from which he came out a few days later when he believed that everything was over but was soon captured by these people who were scavenging the remains of the clan to earn some profit. They decided to sell him to a slave trader in the imperial city and were taking him there when due to some stroke of luck and a series of incidents he was able to escape from the group and the rest of the story matches what that bandit which I let go earlier said.

"So what do you plan on doing now?" I enquired.

"I-I don't know..." the boy said sadly making me feel a slight sense of pity for him. Well since I got that ring from his father I might as well be a bit generous and help him out.

"Well, you can stay with me till you figure it out, though I hope you don't bring me any troubles and make me change my decision later on." I said in plain voice.

"Thank you big brother!! I will definitely never bring trouble to you and will assist you whenever you're in need." The lad shouted with a teary face filled with happiness as he thanked me profusely by bowing.