Matt kept his hands behind his back while walking straight, he kind of didn’t want to keep this position anymore buy he wanted to at least look like a Master even though he was a total noob on the inside. He looked around checking out the wooden buildings. The buildings were mostly made from wood, with straw like roofs though for all he knew they might have been made out of some fantasy spirit straw and spirit wood, for some reason a lot of things had that prefix in them.
He glanced left and right, people were curiously looking out of their homes wondering what all the fuss was about, but they quickly ducked back in after they noticed the tribe elders in the front with solemn faces that were kicking everyone to the side that they came across.Matt didn’t really notice the rude behavior as it was a bit in front and he had a wall of muscular men from each side to block his view.
*What’s with this beef cake parade… couldn’t you bring out some curvy amazon ladies to do that instead…*
He lamented to himself as they walked through the village, the pace wasn’t too fast or too slow. They moved closer to the middle of the small town and Matt could see the marketplace that even this place had, though there wasn’t much what the people were selling besides animal pelts, meat, fruits and vegetables.
The whole thing got more awkward with each passing moment, he was surrounded by people and looked like some big shot with way too many body guards around him. The moved along the normal villagers kept their distance but also sneaked in glances while holding on to their kids, it would have been really unfortunate if one of them bumped into the tribe members that were on edge and sweating bullets not knowing if this strange cultivator would go berserk on them for any little thing they would do.
Of course a little ball rolled in the direction of the meat shield around Matt and one little kid was chasing after it, while the parents had their hands full with other kids, quite normal from the size of families that were around here. The ball fell right in front of the marching of the burly uncles and the child run up to them to grab it, this making them stop in their tracks and glare at the kid in front of them.
“How dare you block the way of this honorable senior!”
One of the men barked while the child looked up in fear, starting to cry in response. It was a little girl about the age of 5, her mother quickly arrived at the scene and grasped the little thing trying to protect her from the rage of the burly overbearing men. Matt did a mental facepalm as he saw the whole thing.
*What’s wrong with these people, it’s just a little kid, she’s just being a little oblivious to her surroundings like any kid that age. T-they aren’t going to do anything to her and the mother… right?*
He looked on with concern while keeping his indifferent looking poker face, he was at lest good at showing no emotions. He looked at the pleading mother and the crying child while the angry uncles were looking awfully angry, he gave out a sight as he would probably have to diffuse this awkward situation. Just as one of the big men was about to go towards the mother and child duo, he stepped forward. He was a lot faster then the other man, he grasped his shoulder stopping as he was stretching his burly hand out towards the other two.
“That’s enough, you’re scaring the poor thing”
Everyone stopped in their tracks as the cultivator moved forward to stop the tribe member from moving the child out of the way, the man in question did a bow while moving to the side while Matt moved over to the child and mother. He still had his poker face on, he picked the ball up from the ground and presented it towards the little girl.
“It’s okay you little rascal, the angry looking uncle won’t do anything to you if I’m around.”
He tried smiling a bit, but it looked more like a smirk, but thanks to being quite handsome and maybe thanks to the aura that he exuded the small child stopped crying as she took her ball back. The mother looked at the handsome man in front and blushed a bit, nodding her head at him as she backed away with her daughter in toe.
*Well, think that went well… I think.*
“Hey dude, no need to be so rough with kids, you lot have to chill out a bit.”
The tribe members looked at Matt, not really knowing what he meant with ‘dude’ or ‘chill out’ , did he want them to go under a waterfall? Or into the icy mountains?
“S-so… where was that hot spring again?”
He coughed into his hand as he could tell that the men were giving him odd looks, soon they resumed the walking towards Matt’s next destination. After they were away from the spot that they bumped into the child a lot of the villagers showed up, leaving their houses now when the coast was clear.
“Did you see that? He defended the child.”
“Yeah, he was also really handsome!”
“Think he is looking for a wife?”
“Who would want your ugly ass as a wife.”
The man that said that to the lady got socked in the face right afterwards and the people began laughing at him. The tribe members got lively after seeing the wandering cultivator in white, they got a good first impression as he seamed like a righteous person. They wondered what he wanted around here, they sure hoped that this was a sign that something good was about to happen to their village.
Matt was oblivious to the good impression that he made on the villagers as he just wanted to get to the damn bath and be left alone for the rest of the day, this was a bit too much human interaction for one day for him and he just wanted to wind down.He was lead to a wooden building after a while, after coming inside he noticed that this looked like a bath house that you would see in Asian countries, he could see the side for men and the side for females as also what looked like to be the innkeeper lady that bowing to him accordingly and greeting him while the tribe chief was giving her the stare down.
He was finally left alone in the changing room while the other men all left to wait outside, the surrounded the whole building making sure that no one else would come in. They also forced any people that were doing anything in the hot spring to leave. This made Matt sight a bit more as he still wasn’t used to the special treatment that everyone was giving him. He started removing his clothes, but he didn’t really need to place them in the changing room as he just placed them in his storage ring that he kept on his finger, he was sure that storage rings were water proof.
There was a big mirror in the changing room, which made him look at his new body and face. He didn’t get a good look at it yet, he placed his fingers on his chin and moved his head left and right while examining his new found handsome man face. He had a mature charm to himself, he wasn’t a bishonen or anything, his age made him look something between 25 and 30 , but he knew that people lived longer here and your aging started to slow down if your cultivation increased.
“Hm, not bad… but the most important thing…”
He looked to the left and then he looked to the right, shifting his gaze all over the closed of changing room before slowly moving his hands towards his undies. He had regular boxer briefs all in white like the rest of his clothes, he didn’t know if these type of clothing was the norm as he thought people in this kind of setting wore a loincloth or something. But he had more important things to think about now as he had to know the size of his little brother down there and with one quick push he revealed him.
*Woah, well this is an improvement over the old model*
The villagers provided some warm water and soap to wash of before going into the hot spring, you didn’t want dirty people going in there right of the bat without soaping up and rinsing themselves, so he did just that. After cleaning up he headed to the hot spring with a towel wrapped around his mid section, finally having some time to wind down as he lowered his body into the water and close his eyes while sighting. He gazed up at the sky, it was turning dark and he could see the stars and the unfamiliar moon above his head.