Huang Ying lightly fondled his chin in silence for a bit after Li Jun gave his suggestion, thinking it over. The woman in front of him continued to smile sweetly at him, quietly waiting for Huang Ying to continue talking just in case he still had more questions that she could answer and hopefully charge him for. After spending a few seconds thinking it over, Huang Ying let out a quiet mutter and directed a question at the woman.

"Fuck it, sounds fun so let's do it. Excuse me, could you tell me where the Fierce Flame Academy is and how I can get there?"

Huang Ying came to the conclusion that Li Jun's words were indeed true, joining an academy was one of his better options right now. Not only would it help him get his hand on more resources that would aid his cultivation, but it would also allow him to see more of the world and to likely meet a large number of interesting people, which were all things that he wanted.

As for why he chose to ask the woman about the academy instead of Li Jun, it was simply because he didn't think that Li Jun would know how to get there. He didn't doubt that Li Jun knew the path to the Fierce Flame Academy, but he didn't believe that Li Jun knew about any caravans or the like heading there. The woman retained her professional smile as she answered, but she was a bit disappointed that she hadn't earned anything from this customer yet so the smile no longer reached her eyes.

"Fierce Flame Academy is located in the Burning Clouds city, which is located to the northwest. If you were to follow the road, you would have to head west to Willow's Whisper city and then head north for a bit until you reach Burning clouds city. You could head there on foot, it should only take you about a month or two to reach it, but our agency offers transportation services that will bring you from city to city, at a certain cost of course. We have one caravan leave each day in the evening, the price of a seat is about 75 copper, what do you think?"

The areas outside the cities were the territory of Demonic beasts and bandits, moving alone unless you had unparalleled strength was nothing short of foolish. Huang Ying only gave it a few short seconds of thought, opening his mouth just as Li Jun gave him some more advice.

"You should accept, moving on your own with your current strength is suicidal."
"Alright, I'll take a seat on the caravan leaving tonight."

The red-dressed woman's face bloomed with a bright smile as she stood up and gestured towards one of the counters at the other end of the room, leading Huang Ying over. She accepted the copper coins and wrote him a letter as proof that he had paid for his seat, stamping it with a special green stamp before rolling it up and sealing it with some wax.

"Here you go, just show this to Yang Anju, the caravan leader at the western end of the city, he usually spends his time in the Golden Hog, and he will prepare a spot for you. The journey should take about half a month in total, but don't worry, the cost of food and water is covered by the fee you just paid, please have a pleasant trip and return whenever you need something."

Huang Ying nodded his head and thanked the woman, sweeping the inside of the agency with one last glance before leaving. Stepping onto the packed street once more, Huang Ying took in a deep breath, the scent of people mixing with the scent of food coming from the various stands along the sides of the street. Huang Ying put the rolled-up letter away, storing it safely inside his robe before clapping his hands.

"Alright, let's get some food before we head to the caravan!"

He'd already been walking through the city for a bit, and coupled with the fact that he had already been walking for three days to reach this city, eating nothing but dried meat and stale bread, he was starving for some actual food. He quickly located a vendor that caught his interest earlier, one selling meat and vegetables roasted together in spices before being stuffed into a round bun of bread that had been hollowed out.

He bought one portion of the strange dish as well as half a waterskin of fruit and vegetable juice that the man made on the spot when Huang Ying ordered it, nibbling at the two while making his way through the city and taking in everything with sweeping glances. By the time he finished eating and drinking, and half-ignoring Li Jun's urging, he reached the western exit of the city, where multiple inns were located.

It wasn't hard for Huang Ying to locate the place he had been directed towards, the Golden Hog, it was marked by a two-meter wide sign engraved with a golden boar that almost seemed life-like. Huang Ying pushed open the double-doors and entered a rather bright bar, a long counter standing on the other end of the room, shelves of alcohol lining up behind the bar while several tables surrounded by chairs filled up the rest of the room. The air was thick with the smell of alcohol, causing Huang Ying's nose to scrunch up slightly as he called out.

"I'm looking for someone known as Yang Anju, is he here?"

Evening was still three or so hours away right now so there were only about 15 people currently in the bar, some eating but most were drinking and chatting. One of the larger groups, one consisting of nearly seven people, turned towards Huang Ying as he called out, waving him over.

"I'm Yang Anju, you someone looking to get on the caravan leaving later on?"

Huang Ying nodded his head and walked over to the group, which consisted of four burly men, two slim yet muscular women, and one man who was nearly two meters tall but had a rather well-proportioned body. The tall man was Yang Anju, the one who waved Huang Ying over, and he had a bald head, bronze eyes, and three straight-line scars going diagonally over his left eye.

When Huang Ying reached them, he saw that the group had a map of the empire spread out on the table, the empire on the map was split into four parts, two smaller and two much larger ones, each one marked with a different symbol. Huang Ying handed Yang Anju the letter, allowing him to look it over for a bit before he nodded his head and handed it back.

"Alright, I'll prepare a nice spot for you once we leave. As I said, I'm the caravan leader, Yang Anju. These six'll be our bodyguards on this journey, they'll do their best to keep all of you safe until we reach Willow's Whisper city and pick up the rest of our bodyguards while dropping off about half of the people in the caravan and pick up a few more before heading to Burning Clouds. I've worked with them for years and trust them with my life, so you can do the same. Should things turn sour, we'll draw all the attention so that you can do your best to flee."

The six people around Yang Anju nodded their heads at Huang Ying and introduced themselves in a casual manner, one of the two women even offering Huang Ying a cup filled with something that smelled like hard liquor. Huang Ying politely declined the liquor and inspected the six people for a quick second before turning towards Yang Anju.

"Sounds like you're expecting a lot of bandit attacks, especially if you're looking to pick up even more guards."

Huang Ying could sense that all six of these people had quite a lot of Qi hidden within their bodies, almost as much as Xing Tang had when she last visited. From this, he could guess that they had likely reached the 6th or 7th Step of Mortality, which Li Jun told him was a very high level for a place like this. But contrary to what Huang Ying expected, Yang Anju shook his head as he responded.

"No, we're expecting the exact opposite. But because we're expecting the exact opposite, it means that any bandits or beasts we face will be stronger than the norm."

Yang Anju's words caused Huang Ying to tilt his head slightly, unable to understand what he meant by his strange choice of words. Yang Anju seemed to be a rather relaxed and patient person, tapping the map on the table and explaining when he saw that Huang Ying didn't understand what he meant.

"See these four divisions on the map? This southeastern one is the one we're in now, it goes all the way from Green Willows village to Sand's Embrace city that's about three cities to the west, the Willow's Grasp bandits roam and control all 1615 km of this area, all the bandit groups within here are technically controlled by this bandit group. Normally we stock our caravans with enough guards that they'll only demand that we pay a toll, not too willing to start a battle. But right now they're at war with the Cliff Reaper bandits that control this northeastern division, the division is a bit smaller, but the Cliff Reaper bandits are just as strong as the Willow's Grasp bandits."

Yang Anju slowly moved his finger across the map of the empire, his finger tapping the two smaller divisions as he patiently explained, seemingly rather enjoying teaching someone else what he knew. As Yang Anju spoke, Huang Ying couldn't help but wonder about the Wolf's Claw bandits that he devoured as his body was remade, none of their memories contained anything about these Willow's Grasp bandits. Could it be that the Wolf's Claw bandits were not under their control? Yang Anju couldn't see Huang Ying's thoughts so he tapped the two larger divisions, both nearly five times as large as the two smaller divisions, and continued explaining.

"It's these two that are the problem here. This southwestern division is controlled by the Cloud Shredder bandits while this northwestern one is controlled by the Ocean Dancer bandits. The thing is, the Willow's Grasp and the Cliff Reaper bandits are actually controlled by these two forces, each of them controlling one. So now that they've broken out into a full-force war, there is a chance that these two larger forces will send over some helpers, which we might accidentally encounter while traveling. And even if we don't encounter them, the war of the bandits means that there are places where their presence has thinned so much that the Demonic beasts have started to reclaim it, meaning that we might face some strong Demonic beasts that have just come back from staying in hiding so long. All in all, we shouldn't encounter any enemies, but any enemy we encounter is likely to be troublesome."

Yang Anju took a swig of his beer while he was talking, wetting his throat so that he could continue talking without problem. Huang Ying listened intently to him, learning about the world and experiencing as much as possible was one of the things he wanted to do now that he had the chance to do so, so this was right up his alley. Yang Anju was just about to continue talking when one of the two women dug her elbow into his side, gesturing towards the door with her eyebrows. Yang Anju wore a puzzled expression for a bit before slapping his forehead and quickly standing up.

"Ah fuck, right, I gotta load up the wagons and prepare the horses, thanks, Lui'shu. What do you say, kiddo, wanna learn how to saddle up and how to take care of a horse? I can teach you the basics of riding and controlling a wagon while we move, it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it."

Huang Ying quickly agreed to Yang Anju's suggestion and followed him out of the bar, learning how to ride and handle a wagon would make it somewhat easier for him to travel in the future if he could get his hands on a horse. The two left the bar and headed for the stables, they just had to prepare the wagons and wait for the rest of the people and then they could leave, it shouldn't take them more than one or two hours.