Gates

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Elaborate praise flooded from Lin Zun's mouth as his smile, distinct from his typical dull and expressionless face, showed his amazement. The recipient of the praise responded with a childish grin of his own, proud just because someone else acknowledged him.

This was a change. It was a change in Huo Fenhua's life, a change he didn't know had been waiting for. The few times Huo Fenhua had ever been genuinely acknowledged had been from his father. This time, it was from someone he was strangers with mere days ago! Someone who gave him unique knowledge and a path to power. Someone who taught him he was talented in something he found valuable, unlike language, the only specialty Huo Fenhua thought he excelled in.

"It's all thanks to your help, Teacher Lin!" He thanked with vigor in his tone, subtly upgrading the status of his senior. His dark-brown eyes seemed to gleam bright as he looked at the target of his words. A burning determination flared inside those eyes, born from having taken one step closer to his goal. His grand goal of having the strength necessary to protect everything he cares for.

'Maybe... some strong people are good.' Huo Fenhua thought with clenched fists. 'I will- must become even stronger than him and as just as I can be.' He steeled his growing resolve further than before, setting goals higher than the Immortal Mountains, goals that demanded him to reach peaks so high no one could look down on him or harm those around him. An ambitious desire from a kid who still has not seen the whole world.

Lin Zun placed a hand on Huo Fenhua's shoulder and said, "It seems you've decided your path. Let us see how fate alters that path as you live." Huo Fenhua nodded at his senior, then looked down to the ground as if to avoid embarrassment.

"There is only one path for me, the path where no one can harm those dear to me," Huo Fenhua responded, still looking at the softened soil underneath his feet.

Gazing at the hazy gray clouds covering the sky, Lin Zun moved both hands to his pockets. "That's a great one. After you surpass me, I'll go harm everyone else then!" He lectured, mostly kidding. Huo Fenhua laughed at his Teacher's words, unsure if fate would permit him to attain the strength to surpass Lin Zun. "Well, what if I hold the good people of the human race dear?" Huo Fenhua retorted with a joking tone.

For a moment, the world had muted as if it was required to register his statement first, then Lin Zun broke that silence, "Well, that wasn't much of a child-like answer. Though. It was a good answer... very well." He took his hands out of his pockets again; he held something this time. There was a bag in his left hand. From the bag, he pulled out a purple, perfectly spherical pill. "I accept you as my first disciple."

Lin Zun seized Huo Fenhua's hand and placed the pill in his palm. Then he explained, "This pill is one I refined almost two weeks ago. I've been carefully feeding it a little of my blood qi since I refined it. It can help those in the Body Tempering stage agitate their blood qi. It is probably the finest pill made since the inception of time." He informed as he sidetracked and began to jest towards the end, especially considering it was only helpful to those in the Body Tempering stage.

Still, a pill is a pill, and a pill should always be appreciated, "Thank you for the gift!"

"Of course, what's the point of having a disciple if you don't aid them?" He rhetorically questioned. Since he didn't expect an answer, Lin Zun partially shifted the topic and questioned Huo Fenhua, "So, Fenhua, have you considered what profession to pick up once you enter that fancy Great Sect?"

"I think... I'll go into alchemy and formations. The other options I know about don't sound like fun." Huo Fenhua explained before adding, "Of course, if I don't have the aptitude for it, I'll go hunt spiritual beasts." He sighed in his head, realizing he had a long way to go before he could create rules instead of obeying them.

Lin Zun touched his chin, caressing a non-existent beard as he thought. Before Huo Fenhua could coldly point out that his beard did not exist, he said, "It's decided then."

"What's decided?" Not understanding what that meant, Huo Fenhua curiously inquired.

"Eh. You'll find out when we get to the city." He said as an air of mystery surrounded his words with a smirk that quickly faded, shifting into that deadpan expression. "If you need me, I'll be preparing to breakthrough on the roof of the carriage."

From there, he hopped on the carriage in a single leap. That, however, alarmed the horse, causing it to jerk forward and a purple flame light up on its mane. It was a little majestic to see the purple color spread from that tiny spark, evolving to the point the entirety of the mane was covered.

Hei Rongxi, on the other hand, was not exactly content with that outcome. He raised his hand and shot a translucent-blue sphere at the culprit who caused the horse to be startled. Since Lin Zun was on top of the carriage and Hei Rongxi was not, anyone would've expected the sphere to miss, but somehow, he controlled the sphere to curve back and still hit its target. "What did I tell you about startling Spirit!" He scolded the man who flawlessly countered every move he made not even thirty minutes ago as he ran to comfort the horse, Spirit.

He whispered into Spirit's ear, and eventually, the horse was quiet again, not for Hei Rongxi; it would have already run as far as it could with the carriage, not expecting to have brought the one who caused it all with it. Wholly annoyed, Hei Rongxi mumbled something along the lines of "Why does this always happen."

Fenhua hurriedly moved, entering the carriage before Hei Rongxi had a chance to scold him as well for being too slow. Inside the carriage, he placed his necklace back on. Once he did so, an extremely dim red light shone in the dragon pendant's right eye. This captivated his attention very quickly. Sadly for him, he knew nothing about this necklace, so for now, there was no method to find out what the red light meant.

For now, he chose to meditate quietly in the carriage, almost as if he was preparing for a breakthrough as well. Instead of meditating just to keep a sharp mind, he meditated and focused on his blood qi. Each individual movement it made, the feeling of when it was agitated and when it was dormant. The natural flow. All of it was analyzed.

...

The sky held a dark hue. Within the darkness, a countless number of stars shone with brilliance. It was night. More specifically, it was the third and final night of the journey. It was the only night that Huo Fenhua woke up.

'I fell asleep?' The child questioned himself groggily, rubbing his eyes since he had only just now woken up after falling asleep while meditating. Outside the carriage's window stood tall many trees that shook their red leaves as the wind was in chaos. What was vital to the scene were the leaves that floated in the air, spinning around the carriage.

At that moment, a calm voice uttered only a few words, but each word itself was power. "Wood, water, heaven, life."

It was Lin Zun's voice.

Fenhua rushed out of the carriage to stand witness to what was happening. A breakthrough from a mere Blood Qi Realm to the Limit Breaker Realm.

Pills floated like celestial bodies, hovering around the body sitting with its legs crossed, each pill bearing a different color and pattern: green, brown, blue, and white. Tiny pieces of the pills would detach themselves and slowly fly like a river into that body.

"Lightning." He said.

A sigil was inscribed into the air above Lin Zun. The sigil seemed to be having an internal struggle, switching between yellow and blue. Huo Fenhua quickly brought his arm over his eyes to shield them from what was next. And then...

A booming strike of lightning struck Lin Zun's body, brightening the world itself. None of the energy reached the carriage as it was all captured by the recipient.

"Lightning. Lightning! LIGHTNING!" Three more sigils appeared as his voice raised louder, becoming crazed. The wind trashed about even more crazily, and the trees joined the wind in its chaotic dance.

Then, a bolt of lightning came down.

White light shone off the top of the carriage. It was blinding. The thunder that came afterward was deafening. Huo Fenhua felt the direct effects of the loud sound. He had been long forced to the ground by the first bolt. He covered his ears and screamed in pain, a scream that was entirely muffled out. His eyesight was no longer his main problem. Tears streamed down his face as an unstoppable agony had become a reality for him. Fortunately it was only a few seconds.

Hei Rongxi noticed this and quickly picked Huo Fenhua up off the ground with a single hand and a remorseful expression. He promptly fed Huo Fenhua a pill to heal him and then quickly went through over thirty different hand signs in a single second as he hurriedly muttered undiscernible words.

Once that singular second passed, a sapphire-colored light wrapped around Huo Fenhua, protecting him from the effects of the lightning. "I'm sorry." He expressed with a quiet tone the moment the lightning halted. It only stayed like this for less than two seconds.

It seemed like he wanted to say more, but he knew it would only fall upon deaf ears as more lightning came down. At the very least, he placed Huo Fenhua down, allowing him to stand on his own two feet.

Lin Zun's armor was devastatingly shattered. More lightning continued to strike his body, completely bypassing the unblemished shirt and pants, each lightning strike more ferocious than the last. Yet his focus was not broken as he meditated with his eyes shut.

The dim blue light shined on Huo Fenhua's body. It dimmed the white light that continued to shine brightly, and it toned the deafening thunder down to safe levels. It was as if he was ten kilometers away.

Lin Zun then opened his eyes, and the colors of his iris swapped from its default amber color to a new golden hue. Not only that but in front of his chest were five translucent, marble-sized spheres, each dyed a similar golden shade and floating. The five spheres were instantly recognized by Huo Fenhua as gates, something important in the Nine Meditative Gates methods. The five gates quickly spun in a circle in front of his chest in preparation. "sixth gate, awaken." He calmly said as the lightning abruptly stopped.

His left hand clenched for his heart instinctually as his expression scrunched into agony.

Yet he continued.

Fenhua whispered something he'd find himself saying often in the future as he stared at his new Teacher, "This is the price of power." As if sparked by his words, the red light in the right eye of the dragon pendant became slightly brighter, its glow gentle, almost soothing. Then, like magic, Lin Zun's expression shifted instantly to a controlled one. The change in facial expression was noticed by all three of them, yet the difference in the dragon pendant's expression was only noticed by the two seniors.

The pills that previously floated around Lin Zun were no longer there as they had already been consumed. Red wisps of mist-like energy emanated from his body; each wisp became golden as they parted. The independent golden wisps all congregated together in the center of the five gates... forming the sixth.

Despite how much was occurring at once, Lin Zun's expression remained unchanged.

"Brother Rongxi." He said with the utmost composure. "I think- I'm sure I can do it." He asserted, causing Hei Rongxi to react quickly, entering the carriage almost instantly. He plunged his hand through a specific board in the carriage, causing it to flip and reveal a hidden compartment. From there, he tugged out a grey-mist-colored sphere. Just peeking at it, one could figure out it was valuable.

Hei Rongxi, even faster now, as if he was racing against time itself, exited the carriage, leaped into the air, and placed the item on top of the carriage.

Right beside Lin Zun.

[Word Count: 2129]