A Day Off

"I will continue to oversee their training and ensure that they are undisturbed.

I will also send word to Master Li and have him come and assist us with the matter of this mysterious expert." Ji Tang decided as Ji Wang sank into one of the shadows of the trees in the area and vanished.

Ji Fang, on the other hand simply left a few snaky sparks in his wake as Ji Tang found himself alone with two kids atop the largest mountain in the demon continent's outskirts.

---

Ji Tang rose from his meditative posture and walked toward the edge of the mountain peak, and from here he gazed in all directions as if mapping the entire area within his mind.

"This place should do it." He murmured to himself before a wave of mental energy burst out of him and spread out in all directions.

His sea of consciousness kept spreading out until it finally engulfed the entire mountain.

"Now, nothing can go in and out of this mountain without my knowledge." He added as he scribbled some words onto the ground and summoned some additional materials beside himself.

After ensuring everything was in order, he then returned to his meditative state and shut his eyes to reminisce upon everything he had discovered earlier in the day.

---

It was the chirping of birds and the illuminating rays of light passing through the slit of the tents that woke Ji Min up from his slumber.

Ugh!

He groaned slightly as he held his head which pounding like it was a sword being hammered on an anvil.

He tried to open his eyes, but the sudden influx of light turned his vision blurry as the pounding in his head tuned up a notch causing him to grab his forehead with both hands this time.

"You are awake."

A sweet but somewhat weak and soft voice floated into his ears from the side as he turned around to see who it was, but his blurry vision only turned blurrier as he struggled to sit up.

But before he could sit up completely, a gentle yet firm hand touched the back of his head, whilst another palm delicately pushed his chest back to sleep.

"You need to rest more." The voice said once again with a level of sweetness that soothed Ji Min back to sleep.

A few hours later, Ji Min's eyes finally fluttered open, and this time, his vision was clear, but at the same time, his head was still pounding, albeit in a much bearable manner.

"Can you sit?"

The same soothing voice he heard earlier asked from the side as he finally turned to see a stunning Ji Qing sitting just beside him.

"What happened?" He asked as he squinted his eyes and tried to recall the last thing he could remember.

Thus, he began to review everything that had happened since the time he was last conscious, but when everything ended, he could only remember up to the point where one of the white rodents had slashed him in the jugular.

Then just as he was about to speak, a series of foreign memories began to flood into his head, overlapping with his own memory, causing the bearable headache to tune up another notch once again.

Argh!

Ji Min grabbed his head as Ji Qing quickly rushed over to him with a wet towel in her hand which she placed on his forehead.

"Do you need to rest some more?" She asked with a painful frown and concerned tone.

"No, I'm fine." Ji Min replied as the flood of new memories finally stopped and his brain connected everything together like pieces of a larger jigsaw puzzle.

"So that's how everything went down unh." He muttered to himself subconsciously.

"Unh? What are you talking about?" Ji Qing who heard his mutterings asked in bewilderment as Ji Min's finally remembered that he was not alone.

"It's nothing." He said before turning to look Ji Qing in the eyes.

"Ahem!" Ji Qing cleared her throat after Ji Min had been staring at her in a daze for too long.

Her face was red as Ji Min's stare was bordering on infatuation, whereas he was simply staring at her as all her actions back at the forest replayed in his mind like movie preview scenes.

"Oh, sorry; how long was I unconscious?" He asked as he finally turned his gaze towards the open slit in the tent's curtains.

"I don't really know, but I woke up yesterday morning." Ji Qing answered as she returned to her sitting position.

"An entire day unh?" Ji Min muttered once again.

"I don't think so; I feel like we've been sleeping for about three days now." Ji Qing added from the side as Ji Min froze in shock.

"Oh, three- wait, what? Three days? Wait, where are we?" Ji Min asked as he rushed to his feet.

"What happened with the rodents?" He asked pretending to have no idea of everything that happened afterward; at least not until he had cooked up a better lie to tell her and his grandfather.

"Apparently, Grandpa had to come to our rescue."

Ji Qing heaved a heavy sigh as she answered him, while Ji Min stepped out of the tent to see his grandpa sitting in a meditative position at the edge of the mountain peak.

The moment they stepped out of the tent, Ji Tang opened his eyes but said nothing and instead allowed them to walk over to his position.

"I see both of you are up and ready." Ji Tang spoke softly as the duo nodded and stood beside him.

"Come, sit with me; it's not every day one gets to enjoy such beautiful sceneries." He added as Ji Min and Ji Qing looked toward one another before sitting beside him.

"Grandpa..."

"Don't worry, there will be time to discuss anything you want to say later. For now, you both can have the rest of the day off.

Try to enjoy the blessings nature has given us today, I'll be heading down the mountain for a bit." Ji Tang said as he left the duo at the mountain peak.

Ji Qing and Ji Min sat there watching the blue skies and the patch of beautifully formed clouds slowly fleeting across the sky.

They both sat there, side by side, as they enjoyed the view of the pretty avian beasts that flew past them.

"Thank you." Ji Min suddenly said out of the blue.

"Un." Ji Qing responded as she shifted her bangs to the back of her ears to reveal her sickly face which seemed to exponent her sheer beauty at the moment.