8

Two months!, two entire monthss ! That was how long he had spent creating his garden. He was stuffing his mouth while Xiao Ning'er began recounting what had happened during the time of his absence.

Apparently Nei Li had already used the purple haze grass to make an absolute killing. Not only that , he had also presented recipes for five pills that were used to improve the rate of cultivation and temper the body, which was the rage right now.

She also told about her personal life. About her annulled engagement with Shen Fei, her new cultivation technique and her family's stand with Nei Li and the alchemist guild.

"Burrp!"

After finishing all the food cooked by Ning'er and stuffing a few pounds of roasted demon beast meat , Hong let out a huge belch interrupting her talks, then feeling completely satisfied , he sat cross legged infront of Xiao Ning'er before looking her directly in her eyes.

"Miss Ning'er, why are you here?"

"I'm here to ask you to join our house, my father had heard a lot about your talents through me. So he's interested in you"

Hong was about to open hi mouth to reject her offer, but what she said next made him shut up.

"Before you reject, do take into consideration that i didn't tell my father about how you copied my cultivation technique or touching my body"

'This BITCH!! She was awake the whole time'

Hong began seething inwardly. And after considering the offer for a few seconds, he let out a defeated sigh.

He was currently at the time of his most vulnerable time. He looked at his noodle arms again. He would need resources to build more muscles in his body,then he would need more resources to temper his body and he would need even more to create the body of tumultuous gold, or in his case, body of unyielding bronze. And he would need access to a forge to craft his weapons as well as there was a need for cultivation techniques to make a better suited technique for himself. And to do that he would need a sponsor, like the winged dragon family.

"Sure, let's go talk to your family patriarch then" he began dusting off his body , then under the astonished gaze of Xiao Ning'er, he completely digested all his ingested food bringing his bulging belly flat .

"but wait till i finish using the bathroom" he added much to her amusement.

The talks with winged dragon clan leader went different from what he had expected.

"I want you to stay around my daughter all time when outside, and even though though you can teach her sword arts, your main job is to protect her every second , is that understood?"

Although the patriarch had never spoken out for Xiao Ning'er, he actually cared for her greatly. And now that she was already five star bronze level ,he had an actual reason to show care for her.

Hong was quite pleased and happy with this development. But to make sure, he made sure to ask an important question.

"Does that mean if Shen Fei tries to do anything to her, i chave the permission to beat him up?"

This was a very important question which required the patriarch to be decisive.

"Make sure to not cause too much damage" was all the lease he wanted.

Patriarch had personally witnessed his strength, which he had capped at martial master level. Needless to say , he had left the patriarch impressed. He had agreed to provide his conditions, given that he protects Xiao Ning'er all the time when they were outside.

Hong spent the next days just following Xiao Ning'er and eating food and special medicines he had ordered during day and exercising till he drop at night.

He also had to make time to teach Xiao Ning'er the way of martial arts. He had chosen the Nine Yin Thunder sword technique as her path since she had shown remarkable affinity to lightning attribute in the story.

"Move like Lightning, LIGHTNING! You are not supposed to move like a wet noodle."

"Sword path should be straight and sharp, meaning that the strikes should hit hard precisely. You need to use your full strength accurately,"

"This is Yin Lightning, where is the killing intent? Where's the strength?,"

Except teaching cultivators how to use martial arts was like teaching cats to follow orders. Finally giving up on making her use qi, he recreated the technique to use spirit force for power and gave her a few Katas to strengthen her body at the necessary areas without making her lose her figure.

After leaving her to her own devices, Hong went to the small forge that belonged to the winged dragon clan.

There were only ten days left till the exams in the fighter apprentice class, and he needed to have his weapons ready before that. Especially since there was a chance that the sacred family's Shen Fei might try to pull something funny, and he needed to take care of it without making a fuss.

The patriarch had lent Hong the forge for a few days after he told him about his designs. So he could get to forging his weapons without being distracted.

Gauntlets, boots , a straight sword and a few flying knives were his chosen weapons. Gauntlets must go well with his fist, palm and claw arts and his boots needed individual toes to facilitate his climbing and movement arts. The other two weapons were of normal design that could be seen almost everywhere in murim.

The divine sun energy technique, as the name suggests is an energy art that focuses on creating yang fire attribute that reaches tremendously high temperatures. And unlike other martial arts, it contains both body refining and energy arts in one, because if one was to use the art with a weak body, they would be burned from the inside out.

The art uses normal fire to temper their bodies, but when it was first created, the users had to swallow the fire from the forge and use it to hammer the steel continuously. This made the bodies of the first generation divine sun energy art users to be tempered like steel, and be clean of all impurities.

Talking off his shirt, Hong took out the pieces of black iron he had brought into the kiln. Then putting on pair of leather pants made from the skin of a gold rank beast he had hunted dome time ago, he grabbed the hammer and moved the anvil towards the kiln. Soon the iron turned glowing yellow from the heat . Hong moved closer to the kiln and moved his qi according to the black sleeve fire technique he had created based on the divine sun energy art.

As the energy circulated, a black sheen, like charcoal appeared throughout his entire body, and with every time Hong took a deep breath, fire moved out of the kiln into his body through his nose before being expelled from all the pores in his body making him look as if he was on fire. Then reaching into the blazing kiln with his bare hands, he pulled out the now burning piece of metal. Every time he hammered the piece of metal, sparks flew around like glowing fireflies, and with every breath he took pulled more fire into his body .

Soon the area Hong looked like it was covered in a fire storm, but thankfully no one was there to see it. Instead Hong spent all his time hammering away at his creation, only stopping when he needed more fuel to keep the fire from going out. Until then he spent his time inside his fiery storm of creation like the god of smiting, hammering away without a break.

After three days of hard work, he had completed his creations. Two form fitting adjustable matte black gauntlets with pointed claws at the end of the each finger, interior and palm area made of black gold beasts leather for strong grip and flexibility. Boots that looked like they were feet, with all toes made completely to his measurements, and could be adjusted with age. The sole was also made of black gold beast leather to get a good grip on any surface.

The sword was almost a meter long, Damascus patterns were defined along the entire length of the blade, while the handle was wrapped with demon beast leather, to avoid slipping and to stop any electric attack from conducting.

The flying knives were only long as a pinky finger, perfectly balanced and razer sharp. He had created flying knives to have a stealth weapon he could use without being noticed , so he had only created ten.

Creating a small qi thread, he connected it to one of the knives at his feet he began moving it. And as if it had come to life, the knife too began moving up, down, spirally and jagged paths. Then shot at a nearby tree completely piercing through the three feet of wood easily before shooting back at his owner.

Hong looked at the destruction caused with a slight satisfaction. He would most probably use these more than other weapons to break them in . But looking at the results ,he was quite satisfied.

Now he had weapons that won't break from his own energy, even if he reached youth retaining level. So he equipped his weapons and spent the next few days training with them.

At least until he remembered about Xiao Ning'er. Hong had given her a new type of martial art, one that utilised spirit force instead of qi. He had noticed that this world only rely on skills granted by demon spirits, inscriptions, artifacts and innate soul skills. There were almost no martial arts in the entire glory city, except perhaps the ones Nei Li knew after fighting for a long time.

Curious to see the results she had managed to attain these few days, he left the forge and arrived at the training ground to see a collapsed figure in training clothes.

Only when he noticed the long signature orange hair did he identified the figure to be Xiao Ning'er. Looking at her collapsed body, he couldn't help but feel a happy. His first disciple in three lives, and she was a hard working student who followed his teaching till she collapsed.

Moving close to her , he placed his hand on her wrist and sent a strand of healing yang energy through her veins. And sure enough, she woke up in a few minutes looking absolutely refreshed.

She remembered, she had collapsed while she was training at early morning,and looking at the position of the sun, she had been asleep on the in her dirty clothes for about five hours. She looked to her left and when she saw Hong standing infront of her, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed presenting herself in such manner infront of a boy her age.

"Good morning"

A casual greeting found it's way to her ears breaking her out of her train of thoughts.

"Good morning, I'm sorry to present myself in such manner, could you wait a few minutes till I ready myself?"

She asked, hoping Hong will not find her current state too troubling.

"I could, but I won't recommend it."

He replied making her confused. Only then did she notice a long box in his hands. Seeing her attention on the object he had brought, Hong smiled .

"I want you to show me how far you have progressed with your sword art" making Xiao Ning'er, who was distracted till now focus . " and if you impress me i will give you this gift I had created myself , and belive me when I say it will be quite useful to you."

Xiao Ning'er looked at the box with curiosity. Hong had known how to manipulate her , after spending some time with her, he had found out that she had a morbid sense of curiosity, and so he had decided to close his reward in a wooden box to arouse that curiosity.

That's why Xiao Ning'er found herself in the training grounds pointing a wooden sword at her teacher. She looked at Hong , who stood a few meters away from her and noticed the lack of a wooden sword .

"Aren't you going to take a sword"

"Not necessary, " Hong replied while waving his hand, and then looked at her before she could speak.

"I'm not looking down on you or anything, I just want to test my new gauntlets. " and Ning'er saw shiny black gauntlets adorning Hong's arms till his elbows.

"So what, do I have to beat you to win ?" She asked making Hong almost double in laughter. Who was she kidding, how could a five star bronze rank fighter beat a zenith level martial artist?

Then seeing that he was being disrespectful, he quickly composed himself.

"No ,you just have to impress me with just your sword art." "Now our little chit chat is going to have to stop. Come at me",

He ordered Xiao Ning'er, before putting his hands behind his back.