Tea

Tea and Liu Ming stood staring at each other. The hustle and bustle of the nearby stalls seemed to fade away as Tea sucked in a short breath. Numerous feelings bombarded her. Pity for Liu Ming's poor condition being one of them. She frowned lightly, pulling her hood down.

"Hey, Liu Ming, what happened to you? Why are you using crutches?" Tea asked. "Oh, well, I may or may not have ran into a noble on accident. He didn't take lightly to our shoulders touching for the briefest of moments." Liu Ming gave a small chuckle, explaining his sorry state.

Liu Ming stared at Tea. He had never really looked at her. The way the sun hit her face made her look angelic, washing her features in a warm glow. Her eye's depths were unfathomable. Liu Ming's cheeks grew heated and he looked away. "These kind people took care of me over these last few days. My only current concern is Yan Bao's reaction." Liu Ming and Tea shuddered at the thought.

Tea glanced over at Liu Ming, fidgeting her hands. "I'm glad you're okay, next time watch where you're going. Or else Yan Bao will beat you as well for missing over four days of work. Which, just saying, is still on the table. I wouldn't doubt her beating you with a multitude of thick books." Tea laughed, thinking of Liu Ming's potential beating. Liu Ming huffed. "Wasn't my fault..." he said, dejectedly.

Old man Lian coughed, "It was." Liu Ming stared daggers at the man. He simply brushed off Liu Ming's reaction and introduced himself. "Hello young miss, I am Lian. This here is my wife, Ma." Old man Lian pointed to the elderly woman working behind the steamed buns stall. "A pleasure to meet you, dear." She gave a smile to Tea, setting her order of buns on the counter.

"S-so which noble put you in this state?" Tea asked, grabbing the buns, tucking them into her bag gently and paying. "A young man by the name of Yun. I swear on my heart, that I will beat him into the dirt one day." Liu Ming gritted his teeth, savoring the thought of seeing the noble's face being mercilessly smashed. Tea looked over at Liu Ming and approached him.

"We should probably go back and deal with Yan Bao. If that is okay with you two?" Tea said, looking at Old man Lian and his wife. "Of course, Liu Ming, remember your training begins in three days." Old man Lian sent Tea and Liu Ming off, staring at their departing.

"Do you think he'll go far?" Ma Lian asked. "Hard to say, exactly. The boy can go far, that much is certain. But how far his will will take him, is up to the boy himself. And whether or not he can survive his boss." Old man Lian said chuckling, grabbing one of the steamed buns and biting into it. Ma Lian lightly punched his shoulder, "If you keep eating these buns, we're going to go bankrupt." Old man Lian looked over at his wife, raising his lips slightly. She punched him harder, "Get your mind out of the gutter."

***

Yan Bao wasn't as harsh as Liu Ming thought when he had returned. She had sighed and started talking about the nobles and their attitudes towards the common people. But... Liu Ming was assigned one hundred percent of the chores for a week since Tea had to do them by herself for four days.

Liu Ming didn't mind, he had done the jobs perfectly fine by himself before he met Tea. However, this did mean he would have a few hours less of cultivation time. He was almost at the third stage of Qi Gathering. His passive ability to gather Qi somewhat offset his lower cultivation times, fortunately.

Liu Ming walked over to Tea's room and knocked on the door. He heard a small, "Come in." from behind the door. Opening the door, Liu Ming saw Tea sitting with her legs crossed on the small bed, cultivating. "Hey, I didn't know you cultivated." Liu Ming was inwardly hitting himself. Of course everyone cultivates. It's a way of life. Liu Ming sighed and walked over to the desk that he had promised to clean weeks before.

Tea opened her eyes and looked over at Liu Ming, her face had a sad expression on it. "I just don't want to be vulnerable anymore. When you s-saved me in that alley, something finally clicked. Now, I'm not so scared, I think I have a good chance of going somewhere. Where though, that will depend on how much I can do now." Tea looked down at her lap, her frown deepening. She clenched her fists, cursing her weakness.

Liu Ming stopped cleaning the desk and walked over to the bed, sitting down and putting a hand on Tea's shoulder. "I can help you. I may not be very strong now, but I will most definitely do my best to help!" Liu Ming gave her a cheesy grin. Tea laughed seeing how stupid Liu Ming's face looked. "There, that's better. Don't mope, if you truly want to get strong, you have to work for it. That negative mindset will get you nowhere." Liu Ming said, replacing his grin with a look of determination.

Both of them sat there for a few moments, and realized something was amiss. Liu Ming looked over at the hand that was still on Tea's shoulder and promptly removed it. Both of them blushed lightly and Liu Ming got himself busy cleaning the desk. "During our free time I will teach you what Master Lian will have taught me. We will both improve ourselves." Liu Ming said this while shoving a bunch of papers into a bag.

The next few days passed by uneventfully. Today was the day that Liu Ming would visit Old man Lian and receive his tutoring. Liu Ming was somewhat excited at the prospect of training. He had always been weak in his past life. Now was his chance to redeem himself.

Liu Ming gave a brief farewell to Tea and Yan Bao, and made his way down the busy streets of Ziridia. The city's business was booming with the upcoming event. There were thousands more people walking the streets than normal. Many different races gathered and went, browsing the temporary shopping district set up for traveling vendors during the upcoming weeks.

Many smells and colorful lights made their way through Liu Ming's senses, letting him experience the wide amounts of cultural experiences this world had to offer. Liu Ming sadly couldn't partake of any of these vendor's goods as he was short on time. Not to mention their inflated prices.

Liu Ming made it to the front of Old man Lian's residence. He walked into the front garden gate and took a deep whiff of the flowers the dotted the yard. Their fragrance calmed him down and he spotted Old man Lian sitting in the corner of the garden cultivating on top of a covered object. Old man Lian and the covered object both sat on a large stone platform. Liu Ming figured this was where his training would take place.

Old man Lian opened his eyes. "About time you showed up, the grass has grown quite long." Liu Ming looked at Old man Lian stand up on the object and jump down. His robes fluttered in the wind as he looked over Liu Ming. He nodded to himself. "You're okay for your level, more than okay actually. Your body seems to be able to take on those multiple small stages higher than you. It's nothing I couldn't do at your age, but with your measly attempts at training I'd say you can at most take on someone two small stages above you without outside interference." Old man Lian gave his summary of Liu Ming's current combat capabilities.

Liu Ming felt put down, but this was what he had come here for. He was here to train so he wouldn't be weak anymore, and even if Old man Lian hit the nail on the head, he would prove himself capable, sooner or later.

"I'm ready to learn!" Liu Ming said, shouting out. "Good! Your first test is on reflexes, if you cannot pass this then there is no need for me to train you!" Old man Lian's words were like a tidal wave on Liu Ming's ears. 'I have to pass whatever test he has for me!' Liu Ming thought to himself, clenching his fists.

Old man Lian took the cover off of the object, showing a silver cage beneath. Inside the cage was a large, black wolf. It had four eyes and red teeth. This creature was terrifying! Liu Ming didn't know if he could take this thing on, especially as he is now. Fear gripped tightly Liu Ming, causing his legs to shiver.

Old man Lian looked on at Liu Ming's reaction, giving a small yawn. "Boy, get yourself together. This is a steel-mouthed midnight wolf. It's dexterity reaches the peak of the second gate as an adult. Fortunately for you, this one is a juvenile." Old man Lian gave a sinister smile, opening the cage's door. "Stay on the platform for 30 breaths of time and you pass the test, survive for 60 and I'll give you a reward. If you manage to kill it I will give you one of my best martial techniques that I learned at your age, that I've used all my life. I hope you do well!" Old man Lian fully opened the cage door, and the steel-mouthed midnight wolf let out a howl that shook the surrounding air.

"Oh boy, this won't be fun." Liu Ming took out his sword, and muttered those words.