He's Late

"They should have already gotten back." Li Wei bit her nail in agitation. It was just like her brother to veer off track. If it were up to him, they would have already gone to clear the whole forest for strength. Ever since their last field training exercise that lasted six months, she tried her best to keep an eye on Li Wuhan. He had become increasingly more irritable within their time at their new home.

"I agree." Hong Zhao said behind her. He looked out the window as he leaned against the wall, his finger tapping impatiently on his folded arm. "He was only supposed to bring his team out to the giant snakes. Though, I can see him going for the occasional stone lion to sharpen the teamwork in his group." His brow knit as he considered. "He's become a lot less patient in the past few months. I've heard from other teams that he's trained that he pushes some of them much further than what we expect."

"Master," Shadow entered the door to the office with a platter of tea and various cheeses and a loaf of bread. "I could look for him, if you want." His green eyes met Hong Zhao's.

"Sometimes I forget just how good your hearing is." He sighed as he sliced off a thick slice of bread and took a wedge of cheese. "He is wearing a qi blocking uniform, much the same as the rest of us."

"I can track him by scent." Shadow said simply.

Hong Zhao smiled. "I guess it pays to have a shadow panther as a friend." He patted Shadow on the shoulder. "Will you need something of Li Wuhan's in order to track him?"

Shadow nodded lazily. "I can go to his room and gather one of his used shirts. This should be enough." Hong Zhao looked into Shadow's eyes. His friend said he could find Li Wuhan just as one would say he's going for a coke. If anyone could find him, it was Shadow.

"Good. If he is just looking for more fierce beasts, tell him to come back. The next team is already getting restless to leave, but I'm not about to lower the manpower within the village. I don't relish the idea of being caught off guard by the enemy because we decided to bend the rules a little bit."

Hong Zhao had ensured that only ten percent of the fighting force left for field training. Another forty percent left on patrols to cover more ground in case the enemy figured out their routes and tried to get around them. That left fifty percent of the fighting force that rotated out for sentry duty and off time. If they were to change the schedule, even slightly, it would affect the rotation of the whole camp. If one didn't work by the rules, they all suffered.

"If he's in trouble, gauge the enemy strength first. If it is too high a rank for you to handle, send a voice transmission." Hong Zhao took a small pearl out of his storage ring and gave it to Shadow. He put the small glossy white bead in his ear and nodded.

He sent up a silent thank you to Lan who had supplied them with voice transmission pearls when he achieved the second star disciple rank. At first, he didn't know what to make of them until Lan pointed out the small engraving within the glossy surface. He was just able to make out a tiny formation. She gave him a small sack with more than five hundred of them, as well as a master pearl which every pearl could communicate with. Each of the small pearls were claimed with a drop of blood, tying them to their owner, yet after the life of the wearer expires, the pearl cracks, no longer able to function without the original user's qi.

Shadow bowed on his way out the door. Hong Zhao sighed. "I really have to break him of that habit. It's not as if he's my servant or anything. You'd think that seven months would be enough to show him that we are all equals." No matter how hard he tried, Shadow continued to treat him as a master. He couldn't break him of the habit of sleeping in his bed, even though he had already set up a room for the shadow panther. The young magical beast only used it as a storage room for his beast cores until he used them for cultivating.

Hong Zhao had spent a lot of time with Shadow in the last seven months. He had gone on many training missions with the beast, yet he still didn't feel like he grasped the full scale of what his friend was capable of. He remembered the fight they had with Zi Bai, how powerful his friend had become. If he couldn't help bring Li Wuhan back, he knew it would be a large scale rescue operation. Yet he still hoped that Li Wuhan had only become arrogant and stayed longer than he was allotted time for.

"I hope he's okay." Li Wei ignored the entire exchange between Hong Zhao and the Shadow as she looked intently out the window. "Can't I just use my qi fans to fly above the tree line to look for him? I could use eagle vision to narrow Shadow's search." Hong Zhao could tell that she had given that a lot of thought, yet there was a flaw in her plan.

"Eagle vision wouldn't be able to pierce the qi blocking uniform," he said regretfully. "So you wouldn't be able to pick him up from above the trees." Hong Zhao said sympathetically. "You would just be above the trees staring out at a large expanse of green, and possibly giving the city lord's men a target. I'm sorry," He shook his head. He didn't like to see her worried. "But the best thing we can do right now is wait for a response from Shadow. I'm sure it won't take long." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Besides, I'll bet a hundred gold that he's just looking for stronger monsters to fight.