Having fun

Nie Li hadn't had a good time those last few weeks. Well, they hadn't been particularly bad either but it irked him something fierce that he hadn't been doing as well as he had hoped would happen due to him reincarnating into a setting he knew like no other, literally.

And yet, here he was. Despite having gathered a small group of two friends and all of them, including himself, had advanced a little in their cultivation, he couldn't help but grit his teeth at not having made any progress on the front that was his one and true love, Ye Ziyun.

After the altercation two weeks ago, where he had been outed as a reincarnator, which barely anybody had believed but still, his plans had atrophied quite a bit.

His plan had been to show of his knowledge to both his friends, his love and possible business partners in order to out himself as the one true genius, and pull them all into his inner cycle. Not only because he knew of the real threat in the form of the sage emperor that he would confront one day once again and whom he needed help against, but also because Nie Li had been average at pretty much everything in his youth, and only his luck had elevated him to the level he had reached in the end. Thus, he yearned to be something more, someone better, even though he knew that only his ego was speaking at those times when he thought about his situation.

Instead of surpassing all in but a matter of weeks however, and smearing some ridicule over some of his potential enemies faces along the way, he had been met with a factor he hadn't even known existed the first time he had been around.

That boy, whoever he was called Hao. He still remembered when he had confronted him, intrigued after seeing someone in his class that hadn't been there in his previous life. Obviously, Nie Li was aware that life was pretty much unpredictable and nothing was set in stone but it still came as quite a surprise to him when he had spotted that boy he couldn't get a read on at all at the time.

Hence, he had approached Hao. What a bloody mistake that had been! Intrigued by the fact he couldn't feel even a smidge of soul force on Hao, even though his senses were as fine tuned as could be, he had stumbled upon someone that had scared the living shit out of him, no matter how much admitting that fact irked him and bruised his ego.

Hao had, without even the smallest indication of difficulty on his part ripped right into his mind, supressing Nie Li's own mental fortitude and soul force without any trouble whatsoever and literally ripped into his memories with an ease that spoke of years upon years of practise, let alone with a technique that Nie Li didn't even know of, which he thought to be an impossibility after his time studying for years inside the temporal demon spirit book!

Naturally, his outing as a reincarnator had promptly burned quite a few bridges for Nie Li, but he was nothing if not resourceful, so he was sure to turn this all around somehow. His loss stung something fierce however, no matter how much he tried to overplay that small fact in his mind.

Hence, in order to overcome his troubles, Nie Li had sought out the Alchemy Association and after passing the test for the master Alchemists had made quite some progress in his future endeavours.

On his way back towards the institute however, he was surprised to find a crowd gathered around a party of men that seemed to be pretty damn agitated for some reason and quarrelling with another party.

Curious as he was, Nie Li approached and took a closer look at what was going on. It surprised him quite a bit to see his one and true love Ye Ziyun stand together with her former best friend Xiao Ning'er against older members of what appeared to be Xiao Ning'er's family of all things.

'I wonder what this is all about? I may have to step in if things get too out of hand. Urgh, this would suck though. I haven't advanced far enough in my cultivation yet to truly do much. Sure, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve I prepared after Hao's attack on me, but they are more to stall for time than do much damage to an attacker. Tch, damn it!' Nie Li thought while his face remained mostly blank though his eyes spoke a whole different story for those who knew what to look for.

Just when the argument reached its zenith however, and Nie Li prepared himself to protect Ye Ziyun from the worst of it, another figure stepped into the ring of people that kept gawking like monkeys.

Hao. Once Nie Li spotted the boy, a shiver of remembrance ran down his spine and he consciously had to prevent himself from taking a step back when the memory of their last meeting popped into his mind.

Gritting his teeth, Nie Li calmed himself and chose to simply keep observing for now, simply because he had to revaluate the whole equation now with another player joining the game.

It seemed however that Hao wasn't unknown to the group of men, judging by the fact that Xiao Ning'er swiftly joined Hao's side while the elders seemed to get even angrier by her actions of standing up to them so clearly.

Once the elder decided to approach Hao, after the boy burst into laughter at their insults, Nie Li unconsciously knew something was going to happen. The only question was, what that was. Hence, in order to prepare himself, Nie Li pulled one of the scrolls he had stored on his person discreetly out of his backpack and unrolled it in one swift motion.

One bite to his thumb and a swift swipe of his bleeding finger over the whole length of the inscription on the scroll brought forth a sheen of shimmering light all around his person, which would serve as a shield that would protect him against attacks that would have otherwise harmed him strongly, though it had the problematic side effect form denying him most of his agility. He could still walk, yes, but he couldn't dodge swiftly, let alone fight efficiently.

As he looked on, he saw that the elder had nearly reached the distance that would enable both parties to attack, which was a distance you kept from breaching with any martial cultivator that you didn't know, unless you wanted to be attacked immediately.

At that action, Hao seemed to tilt his head as if in askance if the elders were truly committed to their course of action while that damning smile was fixed on Hao's face like a mask that hid something lurking behind it.

And they were. The elder crossed that invisible line and promptly a presence descended from the heavens Nie Li hadn't felt before. Due to his attuned senses, he was able to spot everything that most people standing around them were oblivious to, only including Hao obviously, the elder that was on the receiving end and Nie Li.

The presence radiating from Hao as a focal point crashed into the elder and literally smashed him into the ground with all the grace of an avalanche. There the elder knelt, wide eyed, his head bowed with rivulets of sweat running down his forehead like rivers with Hao smiling down on him with no change to his expression.

Nie Li meanwhile had cold sweat run down his spine at the might that radiated off of Hao, presenting barely a glimpse into the dark abyss that slumbered under the presented surface.

'W-what!? What the hell is this!? This much soul force not even I possessed when I confronted the Sage Emperor! Who the fuck is this boy!?' Nie Li thought furiously, trying to come up with an explanation, while he kept a near death-like grip on the formation scroll that protected him from the passively wafting of strands of soul force Hao kept directing at the elder who, by the looks of it, used everything he had to not crumble into a babbling and drooling mess right then and there.

As soon as the pressure had arrived however, it vanished once again. Only then did Nie Li realise that someone had stepped next to Hao and laid a calming hand onto the boy's shoulder.

The elder, vice-headmaster of the holy Orchid Institute, thusly ended that small confrontation, after giving the guards that nearly rushed Hao in defence of their elder an unmistakable sign to get the hell off the grounds, which they did after holstering the elder upon their shoulders, who was still out of it.

Nie Li could have kissed the vice-headmaster at that moment for his timely intervention. Thus, Nie Li cancelled his formation with a small flex of his wavering soul force and turned around to leave the whole scene behind. He needed a drink after that experience…