A Change in Strength
Spending a little more time with Zhu Bai, Hong Zhao chatted about random topics in order to drop the seriousness of the previous discussion. Though he had plans for his friend, his ambitions would not be met by impatience. Instead, he had dropped the subject of Zheng Guo all together and smiled through a pleasant conversation.
When Zhu Bai excused himself to take care of his other daily tasks, Hong Zhao waved him farewell before dropping to his back with a sigh of contentment. His visits with Zhu Bai had always had a hidden agenda, yet within the past two years, he had formed a true bond with the boy. Though he had tried to keep himself closed off since Li Wuhan, afraid he would be doomed to make the same mistakes, he still found himself drawn to a familial bond. His mind went back to his old partner Michael Jennings who quite literally shot him in the back.
The thirteen years he had spent within the continent of Yuan had changed him slightly. Though it did not make him soft, his situation always seemed to force him to make more and more friendships, if not partnerships. Hong Zhao stared up at the blue sky, small clouds flowing lazily above. His thoughts seemed to keep pace with them, letting them wander above where they would be less significant. The thoughts of Li Wuhan had drudged up others expectantly. He couldn't help but wonder how Li Wei and Li Wen were doing in his absence. They also had Shadow to keep them company, along with the shipment of qi grasping pills in order to replenish the stock they would have had with Li Wuhan, so their security and growth were well looked after, even if he wasn't able to see them.
Looking up at a solitary cloud, he let his thoughts drift only to Li Wei. Though he saw her more like a distant sister, he still had to admit he had missed her while he was away. Through what Shadow had reported through his shadow puppets, he could tell that Li Wei was somehow spearheading the sabotage of the city lord within the outer villages. Most assassinations were carried out by a qi fan, if not the silent whisper powder that Yeng Feng had made for him.
Over the past few years, Hong Zhao had capitalized on his alchemist friend. Though they made a point to not meet in person, he always had a shadow pupped trailing Yeng Feng. The man had done well for himself during the last few years. He had made a modest shop outside of Yuan City, yet after his concoctions met the market, his growth had jumped by leaps and bounds. Though Hong Zhao used him primarily for qi grasping pills and silent whisper powder, he could tell the man had unlocked more secrets within the alchemy book. He had even heard that the man's old master had paid a visit to enlist him again. He chuckled as he remembered Yeng Feng telling him of his guard throwing the man out on his backside.
When Hong Zhao had a shipment, Yeng Feng would make the shadow puppet disappear, signaling Hong Zhao that there was a storage ring in their usual meeting place. Once a month he would pick up the ring and place it on a tree stump in the forest where Shadow would pick it up and give it to the sect. Though they never saw him, he had seen all of his friends from a distance, watching them grow stronger. With the ever growing strength of his shadow puppets, he was just on the precipice of being able to sense qi ranks through them after they dispersed. He had watched Li Wei train every once in a while and could say she was almost his match.
Hong Zhao raised his hand as if to reach for the clouds. "Almost as strong as me?" He closed his fist, feeling the strength of a sixth star warrior roiling within him. He had made many strides with the qi grasping pills and lowering the beast population within the forest. He had stopped helping Xuan Hua reach higher levels as he became a fifth star warrior rank. Though he enjoyed the older man's sparring, he could not allow someone to become stronger than him quite yet. He didn't know who Xuan Hua would support if Li Xiao sent someone to check up on Yuan.
As that thought hit him, he brought his fist down to rest on the grass beneath only to see a large bird flying through the sky. His eyes followed the beast as it flew further away towards the distant forest. An uneasy feeling settled within the pit of his stomach as he tracked the large bird's movements. "Things are going a little too easily." He muttered under his breath.
Though the rather large bird put him slightly on edge, Hong Zhao mentally catalogued the situation for a later time. Though he had never seen the species of beast before, it didn't mean that the type of bird wasn't native to Yuan. He hadn't yet visited each crevice of the continent yet after all.
Getting up from his bed of grass, Hong Zhao stretched out his limbs. An hour had passed since Zhu Bai had left, his arms and legs had become somewhat stiff from the inactivity. Before setting off, he did a set of a hundred pushups to get the blood pumping once more. He chuckled when he finished. "It's like I'm an old man again." He shook his head slowly while activating vortex thrust. If anyone were watching, they would still see someone standing where he had once been, yet it was just an after image from the speeds he had reached within the last two years.
He had advanced vortex thrust a year ago. The advancement allowed him to use the air around him to create a stable copy of himself that would stay intact until either someone disrupted the wind or he cut off the qi flow which held it together. As he ran through the city, he mentally cut the flow of qi to his doppelganger and allowed it to dissipate.
Using his movement ability, Hong Zhao launched himself up into the air, far past the roofs of the city below and looked at the expanse. The massive leap threw him up high enough for him to hang in the air only for an instant before he once again found gravity. He looked up slightly as he longed for the next rank in his cultivation. When he became a knight he would be able to fly for at least a short distance with the use of the next stage of energy. From what Lan had said, it seemed he would be getting a middle dantian unlocked, allowing him to cultivate energy within something called a soul well. Though he would be able to fly, it would use up whatever drops of spirit energy he would receive from days of cultivating.
Keeping his eye on the bird for a moment longer, he began to fall back to the world below, all the while never taking his eyes away. Having gotten a good picture of the bird in his mind's eye, he catalogued it for later when he'd be back within the library of the city lord. Goosebumps formed on his arms as his feet softly touched the grass once more. His instincts screamed that this silent peace was close to being at an end.