Dark Tidings

"Hello my young student!" Lan smiled and giggled slightly. She allowed her ale to slosh from side to side in her glass. She didn't even try to disguise knowing him any longer. He didn't quite blame her. Even though he had never introduced the Li siblings to Lan, they were aware that he had a master which supplied him with the resources that they used to help with their cultivation.

Hong Zhao knew that the siblings were itching to come to the table with him, yet they wouldn't dream of insulting the existence of an extreme expert like Lan. He could feel their eyes boring into the back of his skull as he took in his seemingly drunken master. "Don't you think such a look is unbecoming of a cultivator of your talents?" He asked bemusedly.

"Don't be silly." She said almost musically. "Once you get to the level I'm on, you can look however you want." She winked at him with a sly smile. "Have you been watching the fights?" Her demeanor switched instantly to business. Though the cultivators on this continent were just student ranked, she took everything as seriously as she would if they were the same strength as herself.

"I think you know the answer to that question." Hong Zhao raised an eyebrow. He knew that Lan had some way of knowing much of what he knew, but he decided to humor her slightly. "As I told the Li siblings, I'm fairly certain we are being targeted by Huang Yi, but I also believe that he is somehow targeting Huang Ji. Though that can't be easy." Hong Zhao thought more on the subject. Lan looked intently at the young boy as he tried to piece together a rather difficult puzzle. "Does Li Xiao have a disciple ranked cultivator hidden in the continent?" His eyes flashed with realization.

"You really are bright!" Lan brushed his cheek with her hand. She was clearly pleased with her choice to bring him to her world right then. "No one else on this entire continent has come to this realization, though the answer is quite obvious!" She took a small sip from the glass of ale and smiled gingerly at Hong Zhao. "There is a grand total of three disciple ranked cultivators on this continent at this time, two of them were your doing."

"So the last one can only be the City Lord of Yuan City!" The puzzle seemed to fit itself together fairly quickly when he realized why exactly Huang Yi could come back to the Village without fear of a disciple ranked cultivator. "Huang Yi must have gone to the City Lord of Yuan City to inform him of Huang Ji's decision to make Li Wen the Village Elder after he dies."

Lan nodded her head in approval. "The City Lord of Yuan City was planted here by Li Xiao hundreds of years ago. He has been at the peak of Disciple since he arrived. The only thing allowing him to stay the City Lord is if he remains the peak of disciple. If he becomes a first star warrior rank, he will be replaced with another disciple ranked cultivator."

"If he grows in strength, he would be seen as an equal within Obopin?" Hong Zhao guessed.

"Right!" Lan raised a finger. "Though he may be the City Lord, he is still a slave to Li Xiao. To raise his strength personally is to raise it against his master. But he is also here to maintain order. He is supposed to ensure that no other disciple ranked experts pop into existence here within the Yuan Continent."

"Likely, there's someone on the way back to Yuan City right now who knows about Li Wen and Huang Ji making it to the Disciple rank!" Hong Zhao began to worry for his new friends. He had given them power, yet it seems like he also planted a bulls eye on their forehead.

"Yes and no." Lan said before Hong Zhao jumped to conclusions. "Huang Yi is the courier and will leave with the small group he has with him. The City Lord will expect him back within a year to inform him of the changes within Rantori Village. After he finds out about the Village Elder, he himself will come to the village to wipe out the older generation, leaving only Huang Yi as the elder."

"Does Huang Yi know what's going to happen to his grandfather once the City Lord arrives?"

"Undoubtedly."

"What happens if Huang Yi doesn't make it back to Yuan City?"

"It might take a while for the City Lord to come to the conclusion that the young Village Elder has either been captured or killed. It might give you an extra half a year to gain strength." Lan said hopefully. "That would seem like the best case scenario."

"Good." Hong Zhao said darkly. "Then I don't have to take it easy after all." He had thought of keeping everything within the rules for the tournament, yet now Huang Yi had made it personal. He hadn't expected to have to use the knowledge from his old profession so soon, yet now he didn't see another way. He could attack Huang Yi out in the open, yet if he did, he would set a target on himself. If he was to get rid of this problem, he was going to have to be smart about it.

Hong Zhao had a feeling that Huang Yi was going to be able to worm his way back into his grandfather's estate. He could imagine that Huang Ji had already allowed him to return, so long as he didn't cause any trouble for the Li family. Technically, Huang Yi hadn't openly caused any trouble, instead he had gotten others to do it for him. He could just deny knowing any of the cultivators if he were called out on the attacks.

Hong Zhao's expression had remained the pure picture of civility, yet inside, he was already thinking of ways to kill Huang Yi and his followers. He also had to figure out if Ren Cai truly was a friend to Huang Yi, or if she was her own entity. It wouldn't do to kill her if she had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on in Rantori Village. If she truly knew him, then she would know to stay out of his way.

"I never know what to think of you when you have that look on your face." Lan said softly as she took in her young apprentice.

"What look?" Hong Zhao raised an eyebrow as he looked at Lan.

"You look like you are just as likely to befriend me as you would kill me."

"That's because I am." Hong Zhao said without hesitation. "You are my friend as long as you stand with me, but the moment you turn against me, I will have no more use for you." He said with a smile. "I hope we can continue our friendship, I do value it more than anything in this world."

"I pity the City Lord." Lan said with a wink. With that, she promptly stood and walked herself to the stairs. Before she left, she looked back at him.

"Look inside the sixth room." Lan's voice whispered at Hong Zhao. Though she was forty feet away, he could hear her as if she stood next to him.

"She really is going to have to show me how to do that." He mused to himself as he walked back over to Li Wuhan and Li Wei and took a seat. Their meals had already arrived and Li Wuhan was gorging himself on a big turkey leg, or at least, that's what it looked like.

"I take it that was the esteemed expert?" Li Wuhan said after swallowing a fairly large chunk of meat.

Hong Zhao raised a hand to stop the questions that were bound to start pouring in. He wanted to do exactly what Lan had told him to before the tournament began again. Li Wuhan stopped any other questions and waited. He knew what Hong Zhao was like. He would only answer questions when the time was right. As of now, he had something else he had to do, so the young boy wouldn't press him.

Hong Zhao inserted a strand of Qi into his storage ring as he had done many times before. He then moved his consciousness after the strand, following in its path until he reached the room the ring held. Walking to the room which was marked 'Sixth Star Student Rank' he opened it and walked in. He noticed immediately the stacks of jade pill containers in the corner of the room. He had instantly thought of the many Qi Grasping Pills which he had already accumulated within the fifth star student ranked room. He figured Lan wouldn't give him more of the same pills, so he went to the table in the center of the room and picked up the slip he knew his master would leave for him.

"These are not your ordinary Qi Grasping Pills." Hong Zhao read to himself and rolled his eyes. He could have come up with that assumption on his own. "They are Qi Absorption Pills. Think of them as a disciple ranked Qi Grasping Pill. They are able to absorb ten times the amount of qi into your body as the Qi Grasping Pill. You have just become able to use these pills as a sixth star student ranked cultivator. If you were still a fifth star student, they may gather too much qi and you would promptly be blown to pieces. Think hard on that before giving any to your friends." Hong Zhao's face turned white at that last part. He was thinking about giving some to Li Wuhan and Li Wei, but now he had to wait until they reached his rank. He smiled bitterly at the cost of having friends. He not only needed to get his own strength up, but also that of his friends in a year, or hopefully a year and a half if he could deal with Huang Yi.

Noticing a jade slip on the table as well, Hong Zhao became slightly excited. He hadn't gotten another ability from Lan since he received Eagle Vision and Qi Shot at the third star student rank. He was happy with his Shattering Palm and Hurricane Kick techniques, but nothing compared to the skills he had been supplied with so far from Lan.

Hong Zhao put the the jade slip to his forehead and inserted a strand of qi into it. A brilliant white light shone through his eyes, then he lowered the slip. His mouth hung low for a moment while he processed what he had just learned. "Qi Explosion?" He couldn't believe his luck. The Qi balls acted much like a trip wire would work in his old world. If someone were to step on the Qi ball, it would explode with as much condensed Qi as the master of the ability could control. The downside was that the Qi required a steady flow to keep the ability going until it was activated. He would have to have a large reserve of Qi for longer use. He could easily see many uses for the ability. He could leave balls of Qi around the corner in the Huang Estate when night set in, at least after he mastered the ability. He would have to train the moment the tournament was over today.

Hong Zhao remembered the many Qi Stones he had found within the cave that the snake had brought him to in order to digest. He remembered reading somewhere that he could use the qi within the stone to cultivate as well as use the stones for currency. He would have to test out the strength of the stones when he had the chance. He would need as many advances as he could get in order to expand his Qi for his new ability.

Hong Zhao ended his trance from within the ring and looked back to the Li siblings who stared openly at him. "What?" He asked, suddenly feeling like a monkey in a zoo.

"Nothing," Li Wei said as she looked back at her plate. "It's just that usually when you have that look on your face, something is about to happen."

"Trust me." Hong Zhao took a bite of the meat on his plate. "You don't know the half of it."