The Way Things Are

Mastering shattering palm and hurricane kick was harder than Hong Zhao had originally expected. In order to truly train the techniques, he couldn't just use them on thin air. Though he got the form correct most times, he couldn't judge the effectiveness. He spent a great deal of time out in the forest. If one listened closely, they could hear the splintering of wood from his many punches and kicks. Yet the only one who had any time or inclination to listen was a large shadow panther who watched his master tear trees from the ground.

Hong Zhao wiped at his brow, noticing a mixture of sweat and blood. Though his attacks so far had been successful, using trees seemed not to be the ideal training tool. Though the sturdiness helped improve the force of his attack, he couldn't block all of the wood splinters which rocketed towards him.

Knowing he couldn't train his abilities much more in this fashion, Hong Zhao took a deep breath and ended his assault on the forest. No shadow panthers would meet him out in the open anymore. He could feel that they were in the darkness, yet when he moved to intercept them, the so called fierce beasts fled before he could meet them. He wished he had someone to practice his abilities on, yet wishing did not bring everything he needed.

That singular thought brought him back to his request he made of Lan. Though he had asked for a way to save Elder Huang Ji, she had not given any sign that she had received his plea. Instead, things had remained silent within his storage ring since.

"I was wondering how long I'd have to hear splintering wood." A familiar voice rang out from behind Hong Zhao. "Have you finally reached your limit training in this way?"

"Only if you are offering yourself as a sparring partner, Li Wuhan." Hong Zhao smiled as he turned to meet his friend. "Elder Huang Ji gave you a few abilities to train as well, correct?"

"Nothing gets past you, does it?"

The two friends headed to the open field at the exit of the forest. They walked at a steady pace and talked about their own training and cultivation. Li Wuhan was apparently at the bottleneck of the fourth star student rank. He was only waiting for something to happen for his cultivation to spring forth into the next rank. Hong Zhao remembered when such a thing happened to him, yet it was the fourth rank which had been more difficult. Even so, he didn't have the same cultivation materials that the Li siblings did now.

As they left the forest, a playful demeanor set upon the two boys. Both of them were itching to test their strength against each other.

"I am not the same boy you saved in the woods those two years ago." Li Wuhan smiled as he fell into his fighting stance. "I don't think you would have to save me again if the situation would repeat itself."

"I'm glad." Hong Zhao readied himself and smiled. "I would like to take you two with me when I leave this place, but I am not going to be a protector, instead, I would rather have two I can trust my life with."

Before Li Wuhan could be surprised by Hong Zhao's forwardness, the latter almost vanished before his eyes. Hong Zhao had activated his vortex thrust and quickly breached Li Wuhan's defenses, or so he thought. The young man spun to meet his newly acquired shattering palm with a defense skill he had not seen before. The area around Li Wuhan seemed to glow slightly as the impact hit solid air.

"That is a neat ability!" Hong Zhao admired as he retreated a few feet. "I still have no defense abilities. Usually my qi claws are enough to incapacitate an enemy, yet I never truly thought of what it would mean to not have a defense ability during just a regular match."

"You truly are always thinking of life or death situations, aren't you?" Li Wuhan smiled slightly. He had never met another eight year old who seemed as calculating as the boy in front of him. He hadn't even met a fully grown adult who put as much thought into every move as Hong Zhao did.

Activating his own vortex thrust, Li Wuhan met Hong Zhao. Though he had his defense ability, his father hadn't thought much else besides ensuring his safety. Instead of gifting him with an attack ability, he had only focused on his defense. Because of this, he attacked Hong Zhao with a barrage of punches and kicks.

Hong Zhao blocked and evaded most of the attacks, yet he let some fall on his abdomen, he needed to test the organs he had been strengthening with his qi. When the attacks fell, he felt them, yet they didn't hurt him. Li Wuhan had begun to see that no attack seemed to phase the small child, yet he didn't let up.

The grass blew around in neat paths where the two children swiftly danced around. Their movement abilities trailing gusts of wind behind them, blowing them in every direction, yet inevitably meeting together for another thundering strike.

Li Wuhan pushed himself to keep up with Hong Zhao, yet even though he had trained his own vortex thrust to the maximum he could within his ranking, the younger boy seemed to evade most attacks and push himself even further away. "Are you only going to run away from me?" He asked Hong Zhao incredulously.

Instead of answering, Hong Zhao evaded a punch and used the gust of wind at the tips of his feet to propel himself upward in a back flip, landing several feet away, then blasted back towards Li Wuhan. Hurricane Kick! His leg used the momentum of his vortex thrust, sending a gale of wind trailing after the attack. When it hit Li Wuhan, he was sent rocketing back, almost like a bullet leaving a gun back into the forest. The after effect of the attack was stunning, the wind picked up into a miniature tornado, which Hong Zhao knew he could use effectively if an opponent were still standing after that blow. He could use it to launch two or three more kicks of the same strength.

Hong Zhao raced back into the forest searching for Li Wuhan. "Did I use too much strength?" He was slightly worried about his friend. He hadn't used that ability against another person, instead he trained only with trees which only meant that he was used to striking things much sturdier than a normal human being, let alone one who was still a student fourth star rank. "Li Wuhan, are you okay?"

Hong Zhao saw where Li Wuhan had blasted through. Many branches littered the ground from the impact, leading a few feet into the forest, yet when he made it to the impact sight, it was empty. He had this sneaking suspicion that the young boy was trying to ambush him. Smiling to himself, Hong Zhao readied himself from every direction. He closed his eyes and listened. Since they weren't using vortex thrust, the trees and grass were silent and still. He could sense no movement in the area for a good thirty feet, until he heard it a thunk from a branch above him.

Hong Zhao raised his arm in defense as a young boy launched himself from above. Their arms met and Hong Zhao used the older boy's momentum against him and launched a human missile out of the forest and back into the clearing. Activating vortex thrust, he sped back to Li Wuhan and stopped feet before reaching him.

The older boy was full of cuts and bruises. His left eye seemed to be swollen shut from the impact in the forest. His right eye was still filled with the intensity of battle. Blood ran freely down his left arm as well. It seemed that most of the damage resulted on that side. "Do you think we should call it a day?" Hong Zhao offered as he looked at Li Wuhan. "No one would blame you. I can see many cuts from the trees and possibly my kick. Why didn't you use your defense ability?"

"I did." Li Wuhan's right eye was wide. "Whatever you used would have killed me had I not used my qi shield."

Hong Zhao couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had thought that the attacks the elder had given him were supposed to be weaker than the ones he already had, yet the result was only slightly worse, and that was only because the other child had defended himself.

Taking out a recovery pill, Hong Zhao handed it to Li Wuhan. "You wouldn't happen to want an attack ability to use for the tournament, would you?"

"How did you even know that I was planning on attending?" Li Wuhan took the pill and popped it into his mouth.

"I had a feeling you would be, as soon as you came to spar with me. You must want power for some reason. Why not to join a tournament that is supposed to bring honor to your family?"

Li Wuhan smiled. "You have me all figured out, don't you?" The swelling seemed to be going down slightly already within his left eye. He could open it slightly and sighed in relief. "Wherever you get these pills, make sure to thank. You have no idea how rare they are."

Hong Zhao took out a jade slip and placed it to his forehead. He had decided since they began their spar that he was going to give Li Wuhan another ability. Since the last was a movement ability and had already been mastered to some extent, he decided to give him shattering palm. The attack itself was just as ferocious as hurricane kick, yet he knew it could only be more effective if used after a defense ability as good as qi shield.

"Have you heard what the village elder is doing for my family?" Li Wuhan's newly healed eye sparkled when he asked. Hong Zhao already knew where he was going.

"He is giving your father the village elder position when he becomes unable to keep it due to his illness, correct?"

"I guess there is nothing that gets past you, is there?" Li Wuhan smiled and shook his head.

"Do you know what his illness is?" It had been bothering Hong Zhao for some time now. He couldn't imagine an illness that could take out a cultivator. Not after all that he read about them. With every rank they went up, their longevity seemed to increase. After growing so old, Hong Zhao couldn't quite imagine what rank the old man was at. Since he couldn't feel Huang Ji's qi, he knew the old man was higher than him by quite a bit.

"He's just getting old." Li Wuhan said simply. "He is reaching his three hundredth year on this world. Which is the maximum life expectancy for a cultivator of the student rank." Li Wuhan said wryly.

"That can't be right." Hong Zhao murmured to himself. He had read in his studies that cultivators could continue to rank up through the years, past student and onto the second and third rank within the lower dantian, disciple and warrior. After which the average cultivator could break through to the middle dantian, which used an entirely new energy to train and fight called spiritual energy. This was also when a cultivator was able to find what profession he or she could obtain.

The middle dantian ranks were as followed, knight, king and master. After one surpasses master, they reach the upper dantian, where one attained duke, emperor and saint. The upper dantian had another mystical energy one trained. Though cultivating still required both qi and spiritual energy, it also took astral realm energy to continue.

The books Hong Zhao had been given were from a very old section of the book shelf. Most of the books he had seen in the village elder's estate had been in mint condition, yet the cultivation guidelines had been used to the point of falling apart. "I have seen many books within the village elder's estate that speak of surpassing the student rank and going on to power realms above."

"But how?" Li Wuhan seemed frustrated. Hong Zhao could tell that he was privy to the same knowledge, yet he didn't have the answers. "In our village, even in Yuan Academy, there hasn't been a single cultivator that has reached a rank past the ninth star student rank."