Human contact

When Gaofeng was finally healed, he clenched his fist and felt an immense power surging through him. He definitely needed to acclimate to such power, and on his way back through the ruins and towards the portal he tested the power of his legs, moving hundreds of meters with each leap. The blade he had gotten from the inheritance was still clutched tightly in his hand, as he knew that such a sharp blade could easily wound him, and thus he didn't dare to simply put it in his pockets. He would have to have a tailored sheath made for it. When he finally reached the portal, he stopped for a moment to look back at the Golden Tablet, vowing in his heart that he would not disappoint the elder's expectations of him, and that when his power had grown far enough he would come back to take with him the tablet in its entirety. The reason he desired this, was because he had a growing suspicion that the tablet itself was a true and great treasure even excluding the content of it. His suspicion increased further after he refined his heart to become the Divine Myriad Changes Heart. The effects of this heart were already showing, as Gaofeng felt his blood was warmer than previously, giving Gaofeng the feeling of his body continuously improving without any effort being made on his part. After realizing this effect of the Divine Myriad Changes Heart, he stepped back through the portal.

When Gaofeng found himself coming back through the golden membrane of the teleportation device, he found that there didn't seem to be any signs of other people here. He let out a sigh of relief as he started walking back to where he had initially entered the room. The door opened soundlessly before Gaofeng even touched it, and closed equally silent behind him the moment he was out of the room. Following some simple signs, he quickly found the way to the living quarters. After his experiences in the world of the Golden Tablet he felt as exhausted as he did powerful. He had been affected by some techniques and magic which let him avoid sleeping while in the trial world, but such a technique wasn't omnipotent, and Gaofeng had gone through a lot of physical and mental challenges in this ambiguously long period of time. Thus, Gaofeng simply wanted to sleep for a day before assessing his new environment.

Gaofeng quickly arrived at the assigned living quarters, which were rows upon rows of brightly lit corridors that led to many private rooms. Seeing the numbers on the rooms, Gaofeng felt compelled to choose number 1. Although there wasn't any outward difference between the room, Gaofeng felt an aura of dignity connected to room number 1, making him instinctively desire to have this as his own room. What Gaofeng didn't realize at this moment was that the Divine Myriad Changes was the reason for Gaofeng's feeling, as the technique could let him observe some traces of the natural order and mysteries of the world, which included matters of divination and fate. The main way such a function actually benefited Gaofeng at this point, without Gaofeng actively utilizing it, was as a way to subtly point out beneficial situations, opportunities and things which would help Gaofeng in some way. For example, if 10 random items were laid in front of Gaofeng, with him only having the opportunity to have one of them, the Divine Myriad Changes would subtly suggest the item which would benefit Gaofeng the most.

Since Gaofeng had decided that this was his room, he naturally wouldn't bother to even knock. His reason for this was simple, if he knocked then it showed his lack of confidence in this being his room, and thus he would rather handle any situation that arose from him barging in on another person instead of revealing a weak hand by knocking first. The sight which appeared before his eyes was truly marvelous, as he watched a girl some years older than him bend over to stretch. She seemed to be in the middle of practicing a technique, or perhaps simply stretching her body, but either way she didn't turn towards Gaofeng when he entered. Since she didn't acknowledge him, Gaofeng decided to simply lay down on the bed and enjoy the view from a different angle. Although Gaofeng was tired, he didn't feel like he would pass out any time soon, so he simply relaxed on the bed in a sitting position, with a pillow behind his back. This girl was truly limber. She was bending and stretching in so many odd forms that Gaofeng was confounded on how she was able to turn or bend in this place and that manner. The girl had long charcoal colored hair, with a smooth olive-colored skin. Her legs were completely bare, as she was only wearing a simple white tunic, which Gaofeng soon realized was probably her night-gown. Gaofeng continued staring without the slightest hint of embarrassment on his face, simply viewing her stretches as a performance specifically for him. When first seeing this stranger, he had thought it was curious that there were someone on the tenth peak apart from the Head-Disciple Xian Wen and the Temple Master Shen Hai, however he didn't particularly care to the extent of prying for this information.

After this show continued on for a while, the girl finally stood up straight and opened her eyes. Gaofeng was looking at her side-profile as she came to from her meditative state. She was smiling satisfied to herself for a moment before noticing the figure in her peripheral, and subsequently she jumped like a cat before snapping her head towards Gaofeng. Her eyes looked like black pools attempting to drag people into them, but Gaofeng remained unaffected. She had released her aura as a threat to Gaofeng, but Gaofeng didn't move an inch. This made her even more furious, and she opened her mouth to harshly rebuke him. The moment she opened her mouth, however, Gaofeng firmly commanded her "Get out of my room." Hearing this sentence made the girl speechless, as she had already claimed this room. How could the room belong to this rude fellow? Her initial reaction to this was to snappily respond to Gaofeng "What do you mean your room? Clearly I already claimed it. Also, how dare you speak to me, the great crown pri…" She paused for a moment before continuing "Anyways, because my strength is the strongest of all the new disciples of the tenth peak I got the right to the first room. Now leave before I show you my true might!" Gaofeng simply chuckled in response, finding it funny that this cute girl was throwing around her weight in front of him. And how could Gaofeng, who is very observant, possibly miss her slip-up in revealing a part of her identity. Filling out the blank, Gaofeng realized that this girl was the heir to one of the thirteen kingdoms of their continent, Atamura. If she was speaking truthfully, at least. Gaofeng didn't care about her identity at all, however. How could the young master of the Shangsheng family possibly fear a simple crown princess?

To properly answer the girl, Gaofeng simply said "If you don't leave within 60 seconds, I will keep you behind as my serving wench. Don't think that I won't keep my promise." Due to this statement, the girl had simply had enough, and so she gathered a dark energy in her right hand before jumping towards Gaofeng and slashing her hand down at him like a blade. Gaofeng remained unfazed, sitting without bother, until her hand was nearly touching his forehead. At that moment, he simply reached up and grabbed her wrist in an iron grip which she couldn't remove herself from no matter how hard she pulled or how much energy she channeled. This action of grabbing her wrist stopped the girl's entire momentum, and the dark energy quickly dissipated as she collapsed on top of him. Droplets of sweat could be seen sliding down her forehead as she was gulping in air. Gaofeng shook his head at seeing this. She was truly inexperienced, even more so than him who hadn't even cultivated yet. The reason for her exhaustion was because in her enraged state she had used her strongest move to quickly kill or neutralize Gaofeng, rather than probing out Gaofeng's strength. Naturally, Gaofeng wasn't using his non-existent cultivation to stop her, but instead his new body. While the girl attacked him, he realized that her power seemed to pose no threat to his immensely powerful body, and her movements looked as if in slow motion. Thus, he easily grabbed her with minimal effort.

Due to being stopped so easily by this stranger, a feeling of helplessness welled up in her heart and she started quietly sobbing into his chest. Even though he was a complete stranger, she had felt that this man was quite pleasing to the eye, and although she felt frustrated with his presence, she didn't despite him personally. The reason she was truly crying was because of her own lack of power, as she had been strictly trained and focused from a young age on the importance of cultivation, and had strived hard to achieve her great strength at the young age of 16. However, her entire life's effort seemed like naught in front of this young man who seemed to her to be around her own age. She couldn't even struggle, that was true difference in power. Gaofeng didn't comment as he watched her sob. He had never considered himself to be a heartless man, but neither a greatly benevolent one. However, he couldn't help but sympathize with this girl and rather than punishing her for attacking him, he gently stroked her hair and began humming a tune which his mother used to sing for him when he was younger. The girl's sobs quickly vanished, and she was able to mutter a quiet thanks before passing out on his chest. Gaofeng appreciated the physical closeness of another person after his experiences in the trials, especially that of Shimmer, as he had spent what felt like an eternity without anyone to talk to, as to alleviate his loneliness. Because he enjoyed the contact he decided to not move her. He was also quite sleepy, and hence decided to simply go to sleep in this fashion.