Opportunities

"Damn it..."

Li Daoming sat fuming after his and Luo Shuchang's 'talk', head resting in both his hands as he massaged his temples.

'How? How would he know about that?!' he thought furiously.

Luo Shuchang had obviously come to this talk prepared, bringing up one of Li Daoming's darkest secrets from his past.

'Damn it! Only that bitch Long Jingfei should have known this secret, so how did he find out!'

Of course, Li Daoming had no choice but to do as he asked if he didn't want his dirty laundry exposed to everyone. Even if it meant going against his own father...

Sighing in despair, he got up and prepared to meet his father. If what Luo Shuchang had said was correct, this may be about that Great Void Sect he had heard about from him.

Either way, he'd have to be careful. If he acted too suspicious, his father might catch on to something, and if he failed, it would mean the end of his (social) life, in Yuliang City.

"Why is nothing going my way, these days...?" he lamented.

--

Luo Shuchang leisurely walked through the empty streets, making his way towards the Long family estate. He had one more stop for the night, but he decided to first checkup on how his lookalike was doing.

And if he perhaps wanted to join him for the 'treasure hunt' that he was planning for, later.

His plan to prevent the fall of the Luo family was now in the later stages, with everything already prepared, on his side. Now, he just had to wait for those from the Great Void Sect to start making their move.

Although it was technically the Li and Long families that facilitated his own family's downfall, it was only made possible by the backing that the Great Void Sect gave them.

In fact, without their backing, the Long family might have fully fallen, itself.

They were only saved thanks to the marriage between Li Daoming and Long Meiling, causing the Li family to offer their support. Though, this arrangement may have been part of the deal, in the first place.

Either way, the fact of the matter was that cutting the Great Void Sect's support would prevent the Li family, and by extension, the Long family, from making any moves against his own, at least for now.

Not that he hadn't already put safeguards in place to protect his Luo family's power, to the point where he might not even fear a move made directly by the Great Void Sect, itself; he just preferred to be thorough.

Soon, he would have gathered enough opportunities to not have to worry about changing the future drastically, at which point he'll start moving his family into position to be the top power in the area before he left.

But until then, he would continue to lay the foundations.

'Now, to see how agreeable he is in person,' he thought to himself in anticipation.

--

"Man, I'm beat."

Ryker yawned as he closed the door behind him, shuffling into his room and flopping down onto his bed. He was just about to doze off into his fluffy pillow when he heard a voice speak up from the side of his bed.

"...Did you not see me when you walked in? I thought I'd positioned myself to be easily noticeable..."

He opened an eye to see who it was, before bolting upright when he realized someone else was in his room.

"Woah! Who are you?" he said, jumping back to the other side of the bed.

"...And why do you look like me?"

Luo Shuchang, who was standing opposite him, just shook his head with a smile.

"I'd also like to know the answer to that question, but it's not terribly important, at the moment. My name is Luo Shuchang," he said, introducing himself.

"Sorry to intrude, but I had something I wanted to speak with you, about."

"Oh. Well, you coulda just came up and spoke to me, or something, instead of creeping around my room, but okay."

"Again, apologies," Luo Shuchang said with an apologetic smile, "I'm afraid I have to be careful about who sees me moving about, at the moment."

"But, allow me to just get to my point: would you care to join me in competing for an opportunity?"

Ryker scratched his head in confusion, looking up as he thought about what Luo Shuchang meant.

"Uh, an 'opportunity'? For what?" he asked, a little lost on the usage of the word, here.

"For you to grow stronger. That's usually the context we use that word in, around these parts," Luo Shuchang kindly explained. He'd gathered enough information on Ryker to realize he wasn't from this continent... maybe not even from this world.

"Of course, this all will be furthering my own goals, and I'll be using you as 'bait', of sorts, to obtain my own opportunity. But I wasn't lying when I said it was an opportunity for you, either... so long as your luck holds out."

"Hm..."

Ryker started thinking hard, wondering what he should do. Mini C was unfortunately still with Long Meiling, so advice from him was out, for the moment.

And if he remembered correctly, this Luo Shuchang guy was Meiling's former fiancee that everyone kept mistaking him for. What exactly was he doing here?

"So, you're talking, like, tonight?" he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Yes. I know it's a rather shady offer I'm making, right now, so I understand if you would rather not," Luo Shuchang answered with a patient expression.

"And you said we'd be 'competing'. Who'd we be competing with?"

"A sect called the Great Void Sect. To summarize, they're a large sect from the eastern region that's looking to seize power here in Yuliang City, starting from the Li and Long families."

"I see..."

Ryker nodded in understanding, before pausing as he processed what Luo Shuchang had just said.

"Wait, Long family?" he said in confusion, "You mean *this* Long family?"

"Haha, yes, this is the only Long family worth mentioning, in this city," Shuchang affirmed.

"If you're worried about Long Meiling, I'm guessing the forced engagement is partially due to their involvement."

He paused for a moment, as if to think about whether he should proceed with his explanation.

"...They most likely have some influence on the Li family, and the Li family will be using the engagement as leverage to take control of the Long family," he finally decided to say.

Ryker brow furrowed intensely, trying to wrap his head around the implications of what Luo Shuchang was telling him.

"Man, this is a lot to take in," he said with a grimace, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side.

"Uh, do you think I could run by Meiling's room real quick and get back to you?"

"Hm, although we have a bit of time before we have to start moving, it's not enough to have a discussion with Long Meiling," he said, "Besides I'd rather not have her aware of my presence, right now."

"Uh, but I just have to pick up something--"

"Come now, what could you possibly need from her room? Please give me an answer now, or I'll just be taking my leave."

"Mmm..."

Ryker closed his eyes in thought for a while, rubbing the jade amulet in his jacket pocket, which caused Luo Shuchang to sigh in exasperation.

"You do want to help her, don't you?" he said, resting his hands behind his back, "This would be a good chance for you to do so, since it will involve disrupting the Great Void Sect's plans, don't you think?"

"Ngh... Fine, alright, I'll go!" Ryker said, grabbing his staff and sword and stuffing them into his bag.

Since he didn't have access to his dimensional storage without Mini C's help, Mini C put a temporary enchantment on his bag that expanded the inside space to be about 5 times bigger than it usually is.

"Excellent, I knew you could be tempted into going."

Luo Shuchang smiled at him and left the room with a spatial movement technique, appearing outside of Ryker's window and motioning for him to follow.

"Woah, cool!"

Ryker grinned and ran outside himself, catching up to Luo Shuchang who was walking towards the courtyard's exit.

"Yo, teach me how to do that!" he said, slowing down to match Shuchang's pace.

"Erm, you may be a bit lacking in qi to utilize a technique like the Void Crossing Steps," Luo Shuchang answered.

"Actually, do you know *any* movement techniques?"

"Oh, yeah, Captain Cheng gave me a manual for one a while ago," Ryker said, demonstrating his Whirling Leaf Footwork briefly with a quick series of steps.

"Hah! How's that?"

He grinned after showing off a little, to which Luo Shuchang chuckled good-naturedly.

"Well, it *is* rather impressive that you've mastered it to that degree in this short time, but unfortunately the Whirling Leaf Footwork is just a basic movement technique, and only suitable for short distances."

Luo Shuchang then put two fingers up to his forehead, concentrating while he exhaled. A glowing wisp of light appeared at his fingertips, glowing with a gentle pink color.

"Here, I'll transfer my knowledge of a superior version of that technique, the Profound Wind Walking Technique," he said, bringing the light at his fingertips forward.

"This will let you travel long distances like the wind, and it's also faster when using it for short bursts of speed."

"Okay. 'Transfer' your knowledge? How does that wor-- ghjkl!"

Ryker spasmed slightly as Luo Shuchang's fingers touched his forehead, and the pink light permeated through into his brain.

"Sorry, perhaps I should have warned you, first," Shuchang said, a lightly teasing tone in his voice.

"Urgh... N-no worries..." Ryker answered back groggily, eyes spinning.

After a few moments of getting his wits back about him, Ryker shook his head, lightly stepping to try out the new technique.

"Woah, hey! I'm doin' it!"

He zipped around feeling as light as a feather, the qi flow and movements for each step coming naturally to his mind like he'd done this hundreds of times, before.

Using just one step, he was able to cross the full length of Long Meiling's spacious courtyard in the blink of an eye, and he felt he could make hundreds of these steps before he even started to tire.

"Nice, this is way better than that leaf stuff," Ryker said, hopping back and forth within the courtyard with a grin.

"I'm glad you like it. Now, shall we get to our destination?" Luo Shuchang reminded him.

"Oh, right, we were going somewhere," Ryker said absentmindedly.

"Well, lead the way!"