Death

All those people were dumbfounded except Great Baron Bobby who laughed. They thought Lander was stupid and ignorant when he ate those poison plants. We were even compared by him because he's as strong as us. Then when the potion maker said that only the Tonic Fate Mushroom could cure the other poison, you also told us that he's eaten that. Does that mean he has greater fate than us? Him? An outcast? Absolutely Ridiculous!

"So what about the last solution for the other poison?" The Great Baron Bobby asked with expectation.

"Aaaah, the last step.. Well.." Upon regaining her composure she wasn't sure if she would say it.

"What is it?" The Great Baron Bobby was getting annoyed.

Seeing this, the enchanting woman frowned and thought to herself, 'Why does he care about this man so much?'

Seeing the annoyed expression of the Great Baron, the potion maker quickly explained, "The solution for the Green Thundering Poison leaf is for the poisoned one to experience death. I don't know what it really means."

The Great Baron Bobby's face twitched upon hearing that, "Experienced death? How could he experience death? Dying?"

"I really do not know Great Baron. It is what stated in the book." The potion maker hurriedly answered afraid that she would be implicated and might get hurt or die by the Great Baron if she won't clarify this thing.

"I guess his fate was decided now," The enchanting woman expressed shaking her head.

"Hmmph!" The leader of the swordsmen snorted.

Lander who was in pain was still growling, still he heard everything and was at a loss. He thought gritting his teeth, "So is this it? Is this my final moment? So I really can't see you uncle? Cousin?"

"Goodbye then uncle, my cousin. I hope you're life would be much better without me."

"Grey.... Yan Yan... I'm sorry!" Lander tried his best to say and he closed his eyes.

"NO!!!!!" Yan Yan cried with beads of tears falling down her eyes.

"Master!!!!" Grey communicated and howled.

The Village Chief's daughter has also tears on her eyes, "Why? You still haven't trained me."

Lander who was in despair remembered his master's words a minute after he closed his eyes, "Young man, it's alright to be afraid but why would you feel despair? And death? Don't be afraid of it, for sooner or later we will all perish. If you're afraid of death then your will will never be toughen. If you're ready to face death then your'e will will be an insurmountable strength."

The words continued, "Death is the highest law. It can never be judged, whether it happened naturally or by someone. Death is the worst law. Justice or not, you're already dead. What can you do?"

Clenching his fists, he still believed there is still a way. He refuses to give up, this is his will. His will will never be broken by death.

He gathered some strength and tried to sat down. He closed his eyes, then right there that time, he meditated.

While meditating, the people got curious and stared at him, "What is he doing?"

"I don't know, why not ask him?" Someone answered.

Grey who was beside Lander communicated to the Panther, "Senior, please tell your master to tell the people around us to quiet down."

The Panther was startled and looked at Grey mockingly, "Why would I do that? Let your master suffer. He's just an outcast."

Grey roared and was agitated by the panther's words. He was trembling with fury, "Just because your'e a Rank C beast that you look down on me? Let's battle!"

"Audacious!" The panther roared agitated.How could a Rank D cub dare to fight with me? This cub was only a Level One Rank D beast and wanted to fight me? A Level Five Rank C beast? Insignificant!

"You! Shut up!" The Great Baron Bobby shouted angrily and used a magic art constraining the panther.

Then Lander opened his eyes, "What can I do? Then let me fight death! Despair isn't death, despair is giving up. And I will never give up."

He was about to stand up, but another greater pain surged throughout his body. "I must persevere!"

Then with his remaining strentgh, he got up. Gritting his teeth he managed to say, "Elder, undo your magic to that panther. I'll play with him."

The potion maker was thoroughly shocked, "How could this be? Shouldn't you be able to stand up based on your situation?"

Hearing his words, Great Baron Bobby undid his magic art and the panther was released.

Lander weakly stood up and pointed at the heaven and shouted, "I'm no coward! If death I'll face then death I'll fight."

"Face death? Hmmphh! Aroogance!" The leader of the swordsmen harrumphed.

Lander, still with pain all over his body, with great difficulty, he pushed his limit as he dashed towards the panther clenching his fists as he was about to punch it.

But before his punch landed, he was hit by a paw and landed a few meters away.

All the people gasped, they never expected that Lander would try to attack the beast. But what was more astonishing was that he was hit by the paw of a Rank C beast. "Sigh! He's totally dead!"

The enchanting woman was scared witless and knew that her mount would die in front of her if she wouldn't explain something to Senior Bobby so she shouted at her mount,"What is wrong with you? How dare you hit an injured man? Moreover, he was just an outcast."

"Master!!" Grey howled ready to engage in a fight.

Yan Yan who sighed when Lander woke up again was feeling fury now. Her killing intent gushed out and were noticed by the people around her.

"How could she has this kind of killing intent?" One of them who paled was scared witless.

Great Baron Bobby was also clenching his fists, "Audacious!"

"Please! Senior spare my mount! I will compensate you." The enchanting woman begged as she clearly doesn't want to lose the beast that could only help her during the Centennial Ceremony. But the Great Baron Bobby didn't spare her a glance.

Grey, Yan Yan and the Great Baron was about to attack when they heard another word from where Lander landed, "Fight!"

"How could this be?" The potion maker was shocked innumerable times by Lander.

"He's not dead yet?" The leader of the swordsmen stated with dread.

"How did he survive that?" Another one exlaimed.

The enchanting woman, the Village Chief's daughter, Grey, Yan Yan and the Great Baron Bobby wore shocked expressions. Their eyes bulging wide open.

Even the panther was dumbfounded, it never occured to it that the outcast young man could survive his attack.

They never knew that Lander was already unconscious and only his body was acting on it's own. Because of the endless pain of sufferings he has acquired and the hit he received from the panther, his mind blanked out but his body couldn't be controlled. Before his mind blanked out, there was only one thing on his mind, the will to survive.

Lander got up, he was still in pain but the mind couldn't process it anymore. He went towards the panther wiggling slowly with dull steps. He punched the panther.

The panther who was scared by the Great Baron Bobby never tried to attack again as it knew that it might be implicated and worst comes to worst, would cause it's death. It also didn't dodge, freely accepting the punch.

"Bang!" The punch landed successfully and the panther stepped back twice howling in pain. It never thought that the punch of an outcast would be so strong.

"What!!!?" The people were yet again stunned. They never imagined that an outcast's punch would be so strong.

Lander didn't stopped and continued hitting the panther with his fists and kicks. The panther, now realizing that Lander's hits were brutal, it dodged some attacks and also tried to parry the attacks with it's paw, "Bang!"

The panther felt a pain on it's paw. Then the panther noticed that Lander was getting more agile and stronger with his attacks. The people around also noticed this.

Knowing this, the panther didn't try to parry again Lander's attack instead trying it's best to dodge until it was getting angrier and angrier that it lost control and counter attacked with his strongest, "Boom!"

Lander was sent flying again 8 meters away and landed on a tree. Before the people could react, they saw Lander blood all over his body and tattered clothes weakly stood up, "Fight!"

Lander went towards the panther again wiggling. His demeanor looked like a drunkard walking.

Shocked, stunned and appalled countless times, the people around don't know what kind of reaction they would give.

Grey on the other hand knew that Lander was fighting with just his will. He tried to connect to him but he didn't recieved any response but he wasn't worried because he knew that Lander was still there.

Lander attacked again the panther. This time, his attacks are getting slower and weaker but the panther gave again another slapped to Lander.

"Kacha!" The slapped connected and Lander was sent flying again. And a branch of tree was broken where Lander landed.

The people stood there dazed. They were getting immune by this scene playing countless times. And as they expected, Lander rose again, "Fight!"

"Why does he always say fight everytime he got up?" One of the people asked.

"Yeah kind of weird," Another one replied.

"Something's wrong?" The Great Baron Bobby reacted after watching the scene. He too was shocked innumerable times by this young man that he didn't stopped the panther from attacking.

"Wrong? What's wrong?" The enchanting woman looked at the Great Baron.

"He's fighting unconsciously!" The Great Baron Bobby answered with looks of incredulous on his face. This time, he noticed the eyes of Lander with no sense of activeness to it. He also noticed that Lander never blinked ever since he was sent flying the first time.

"How could that be?" The enchanting woman reacted thoroughly shocked as she also noticed Lander's eyes.

"This kind of thing is unheard of," One of the people shouted.

"You people wouldn't know about it because only a few knew of it. But if I'm not mistaken, this thing is called the 'Will of the Mind' and it is the hardest technique to master." The Great Baron Bobby enlightened them.

"Will of the Mind! Now that I think about it, but how could that be? Only the greatest monk can achieve this technique how could he knew about it?" The enchanting woman was even more shocked about this revelation.

"Because he's a disciple of a monk," The Great Baron Bobby answered with a full interest to Lander.

"So that explains it, but according to a monk who once visited the empire, the 'Will of the Mind' could only be accomplished through a century of training and hardships. From his looks, he's only older than me, maybe two years." The enchanting woman was bewildered.

"There are lots of things we don't know about this young man Milady, but I fancy him," The Great Baron Bobby answered smilingly.

While they were communicating, Lander was again on his way to the panther. This time, he's walking was so slow like a feeble old man and blood was oozing from his wounds, also there were blood gushing out from his mouth, ears, eyes and nose. He looked like a bloody demon.

At last, Lander stopped and slumped down on the ground with closed eyes. "Thump."