8 Shadow

"I believe it would be in my best interest to make you two as strong as I can." Hong Zhao said as he stretched out his sore muscles. He didn't know exactly how long he was in meditation this time, but the sun was shining overhead now, so at least the full night had passed.

Li Wuhan and Li Wei raised their eyebrows as three more jade vials each fell into their laps. "These are qi grasping pills?" Li Wei asked in astonishment. Hong Zhao only nodded his head. "Do you have some sort of martial arts master as a backer?"

"I suppose you could say that." Hong Zhao mused. When he didn't continue, the Li siblings seemed to deflate a little.

He didn't see a reason to keep Lan a secret, but he didn't think she would appreciate loose lips about her helping him. After all, she had only brought him to the world to live. She hadn't said anything other than that. He didn't expect too many special favors from her in the future. Besides, he had just met these two, he couldn't just tell him all his deep dark secrets. He could just imagine it. 'Hi nice to meet you! I'm a seventy year old assassin from another world reincarnated into a five year old child! Want to go for a coffee or something?' He almost chuckled at the thought. He briefly wondered what the equivalent of a loony bin would be in this world. If he wasn't careful, he might actually have to find out.

Before they could ask anything else, he took the two jade slips Lan had left for him and placed the first on his forehead. The slip glowed slightly as the information was given to him. Now he understood the qi shot ability. He then did the same for his eagle vision. After he finished, he took six of the jade slips which Lan left for him and put one at a time to his forehead and copied one technique for the kids.

"This is vortex thrust. He passed one of the slips each to the siblings. "Learn it and practice. If you can't fight yet, you at least have to be able to run away." It didn't feel right to let them have his attack skills, they had to develop on their own. He couldn't have copies of himself running around. Besides, he didn't know if Lan was going to leave something specific to their own cultivation the next time he ranked up. It would make sense since she left the jade slips and extra pills.

Li Wuhan and Li Wei took the slips and moved away from Hong Zhao to learn them. He knew they would thank him later, but right now he was just happy they took the situation seriously. Though he knew they would have wanted an attack skill first, they probably knew the importance of being able to escape. If they had an attack skill, it would only be good if the opponent was weaker than them. There wasn't much that was weaker than first star student. Yet with a movement ability, at least they will be able to escape if needed.

Having given the abilities to his new travel companions, Hong Zhao left them to wander the woods one more time before they left. He wanted to find more fierce beasts to test his abilities against, and he knew eventually they'd leave the woods behind. Though he couldn't wait to get out in the open for the first time in months, he was also a little apprehensive. The woods were all he knew. He didn't even know what kind of world he was now living in.

The only thing he could do is keep moving forward and adapt. The village they were traveling to would most likely have a library. He dearly hoped it did. He was severely lacking in information. If he was to live in this world, he needed to know how it worked. Was how he met Li Wei and Li Wuhan normal? He needed to know a little about the fierce beasts within the land too. If he remembered what the bandits had said, then the beasts were sentient. He didn't think wild beasts would care too much about carrying currency, so he had to assume there were some who were either born sentient or had somehow become sentient over time.

Hong Zhao didn't even know the name of the continent Lan had brought him to. He cursed her for the lack of information. If he were to live here as she had wanted, the least she could have done was to give him an overview of the world he lived in. She hadn't even given him the name of the planet himself. He was woefully unprepared.

As he absentmindedly wandered, he found himself near the two bandits he had left for the shadow panthers. He snapped out of his thoughts and noticed the blood stains on the grass which led in the distance. "They must have dragged the corpses away." He mused to himself. Since he was to leave the area soon enough anyway, he decided he may as well say goodbye to his battle partners.

Hong Zhao made his way through the dense woods and kept his eyes to the ground. He could see blood sticking to the grass below him. Some of it still glistened due to the dew on the grass, making it easy to see in the sunlight that invaded the treeline. The further he traveled, the darker it became. "These bastards sure know how to hide."

When it was almost completely dark, he began to hear soft tears and yowling. He was getting close enough to the panther nest now. "Maybe this will be close enough test my new abilities!"

Hong Zhao activated his vortex thrust and propelled himself up a tree to conceal himself. After, he tried his new eagle vision skill. Dense qi clouded his eyes, making it look as if he had gone blind, yet to his astonishment, it did the opposite. He could see at five hundred meters in front of him like it was only an inch from his face. "Why couldn't I have had this ability in my old world?" He remembered the assassination missions when he was forced to bring a cello case with a sniper rifle dismantled inside it. Setting up the rifle only took him a minute, but having it in the first place was always the challenge. His favorite area for his hunt was always the opera, seeing as though it would be less conspicuous to carry a cello case around there. It took them only a few years to catch on to his tactics, then he was forced to get more creative. If he had these abilities there, he wouldn't have even needed the weapon!

Hong Zhao let his mind wander slightly as he watched within the treeline for any sign of the beasts. With his new ability, he could tell that he could force his vision further than five hundred meters, but not by much. He watched for a few minutes before he saw a blur of black within the darkness. "Got you." He smirked as he readied the second technique.

Qi blast required a finger for a spike of qi and a full hand for a more damaging effect. While keeping his eagle vision activated, Hong Zhao pointed his finger at the blurry outline of a small panther, yet hesitated a moment. "Is that not just a small one?" He jumped down from his perching place and let go of his eagle vision.

He heard a small growl the closer he got to the shape. "Hungry?" He asked encouragingly as he brought the mother shadow panther's corpse out of his ring. He wouldn't be able to store it there indefinitely, at least he didn't think he could. He would have to do some research into storage rings when he had the chance.

A baby shadow panther came out of the shadows near Hong Zhao and sniffed the corpse. There was no recognition of who the older one was, instead he saw the little one tear large chunks off of it. "I guess food is just food here." If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn the panther nodded. Though it couldn't have, he doubted all of the panthers he had faced up against were sentient.

Hong Zhao sat leaned up against a tree watching the shadow panther eat. He was surprised no other beast had come to join the little one. If food was just food, shouldn't they also come to eat? Maybe they just recognized his scent after the many battles they had over the past few months, or maybe it was the scent of the slain shadow panthers that made up his robe and clothes. "I guess I could have taken it slightly easier on them, huh?" He chuckled slightly. The shadow panthers had helped him train his abilities in the past, so he supposed he should thank them for their sacrifice.

He had slain hundreds of the fierce beasts. Enough to make bedding and furniture after his clothing had been made. Enough to have a good supply of food for a long journey. Maybe he should balance the karma? "Would you like to come with me? There wouldn't be a shortage of food by my side."

Hong Zhao could see glistening green eyes look up at him while eating. He could almost imagine the beast debating. After a good long moment, the small beast ran to him and ran up his arm, resting on his shoulder. "I take that as a yes!" He stroked the fur of the small panther cub as he got back up and started walking back to camp.

If all that mattered in this world was strength, maybe the fierce beasts realized this as well. The small cub may just be acting on its impulse to gain strength. Or maybe he was just looking into things too much and it was more like a cat from his old world. He couldn't say for sure quite yet. "What should I name you?" He asked the small panther. It only licked his ear. The small rough tongue reminded him of cats at least. "Are you a girl?" He didn't feel like tipping the beast over to find out, and didn't think it would allow him to check anyway. "Are you a boy?" He could feel a small purr coming from the panther. "I'll take that as a yes."

They walked a short distance. The shadow panther stayed perched on his shoulder the entire time, almost as if it were a second set of eyes.

Hong Zhao briefly wondered just how much of the population of shadow panthers he had killed in his time in the woods. If he had only seen this one panther on his brief excursion from the camp, how many would they come across when they left again? Hong Zhao remembered when he could walk a minute out of the camp and have three shadow panthers attack him at once. Now they either knew his scent, or they were too few in numbers now.

As Hong Zhao thought over the slightly disturbing thought of population decimation, the small panther laid down on his shoulder and purred contentedly. He wondered how this one could be anything like the ones he had killed. He had a hard time imagining one his opponents coming up to him and cuddling instead of trying to bite his head off.

"Hong Zhao, what is that?!" He heard Li Wei cry in the distance. Suddenly, she and Li Wuhan raced towards him using their limited knowledge of vortex thrust. They looked incredulously at the shadow panther which was nestled on his shoulder.

"What, this?" He looked fondly at his new shadow panther cub and pet her head. "This is shadow, my new friend."