The Road to the Jade Palace

They looked at each other at this sudden app notification.

"Should I download it?" Leon asked.

"I don't know." Wolfe shrugged.

Leon made another face. "You're the tech guy here. Is it safe to download?"

Wolfe made several taps on his phone, then he handed it to Leon. "Yeah. I'm about 80% sure it's safe to download."

Leon frowned. "Why not 100%?"

Wolfe scoffed. "At least it's past 50. That means good, just download it!"

He clicked 'Yes', and the app called Xiao Nezha's Guide to the Jade Palace was installed.

A 2D character that resembled the porcelain doll a little but has hair and clothes appeared smiling once the app was opened.

[Hello! I'm Nezha. Welcome new military recruiter! I shall be guiding you to the nearest Jade Palace from your location, and you shall deliver the trainee at the nearest station. ]

[Please press scan location now. ]

"Military recruiter?" Wolfe said, baffled.

"Nezha is a god, the young third lotus prince, and was also known as the Marshal of the Central Altar." Leon explained. "So he's basically a child warrior."

"I see, but.... Why are we military recruiters at the Jade Palace? Who was this app even for?"

Leon turned off his phone. "We'll find out soon enough. Get dressed, I'm pressing the scanner once we got out a few miles away from the house."

They finished their breakfast, and soon took a shower and changed clothes.

There was a black Chevrolet car on the parking lot, and the keys were thankfully included with the ones given to them. Leon pressed the open button and went on the driver's seat.

"Whoah, whoah! I want to drive!" Wolfe pulled at his sleeves.

"No."

"Please???? This bad boy is so cool, I NEED to drive it!" He insisted.

But Leon won't budge. "You'll get to someday, now stop whining like a kid and get on the passenger's seat. For now, I man the wheels."

"Why???"

"Because it's safer. Also, are you wearing your bulletproof vest properly?"

Wolfe patted his chest that made a hard sound. "Yep. Man, I'm getting excited..... this is my first time wearing one, it feels so fucking cool!"

Leon just looked at him with amusement. He finds everything so cool, it's getting pretty cute now, actually.....

Ahem, he means annoying. Yep, definitely annoying.

"Just get in the car." He said as he opened the door and pushed him in, then got to the driver's seat beside him. "Pray that you won't ever need that vest later."

"Have you ever been shot wearing these things? How does it feel?"

Leon just turned on the gas and said, "Questions right after the field trip, please. We gotta stay focused here."

Wolfe rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine---Whoah!"

As soon as the engine started, Leon had driven the Chevy off the parking lot and straight down the road faster than Wolfe's soul to settle down on his body!

He was racing at 90 mph like a madman, causing the guards that were securing their house's area to panic. Luckily, they raised the boom barrier on time.

"What the hell, Leon Mo!!! Slow down!!!"

It seemed like Leon couldn't hear him from the loudness of the wind behind them from how fast they're going. Or he was just being a prick and ignoring him again.

But eventually, the car came to a halt, and it stopped too quickly that Wolfe almost hit his head on the dashboard.

"You are a maniac. Next time, I'll drive." Wolfe grumbled, getting out of the car and slamming the door. "Where are we anyway?"

"In the middle of nowhere." Leon said. "We walk from here. We can't take the car, if the Jade Palace happen to be their headquarters, we should remain unnoticed."

"But what if its miles and miles away from here?" Wolfe complained. "The sun is already going to burn my skin off, Leon Mo."

"Then we better start walking before you turn into a roasted wolf." Leon said, taking out his phone and pressing the 'Scan Now' button.

The Nezha avatar said: [Scan complete. Nearest Jade Palace is 45.7 kilometers away. ]

"That's not as far as I thought." Leon grinned. "If we ran, we can get there at about 2-3 hours. Though that depends on how athletic you are, you'll probably slow us down to 4-5 hours."

Wolfe was flabbergasted. "You are not making me run 46 kilometers. Not in this leather jacket under this burning sun."

"You snooze, you lose, little Wolfe. Have you never even joined a marathon?" Leon said, as he followed the directions being given by Nezha.

By the time they reached half of the lap, Wolfe Fang could no longer feel his legs.

Meanwhile, Leon was up ahead, still running at an even pace and barely breaking a sweat.

He didn't even wait for him! He wasn't even prepared for this, he didn't bring any water or towel!

Leon looked back at Wolfe huffing and lying on the streets. He sighed, and ran back about 200 meters back to him.

"Come on, we'll walk the rest of the way. Maybe we'll find someplace to get some water and rest." Leon offered his hand to him.

Wolfe took his hand and furrowed his brows as he tried to stand up, but his feet buckled, and Leon caught him.

"You seriously need to excercise more if you want to be my 'investigation partner'." Leon joked, and took out a handkerchief from his back pocket, handing to him.

Wolfe rolled his eyes, and wiped his sweat. "Sorry that I am not up to your physical fitness standards then, sir. I'm not even that bad, you're just a beast, Leon Mo."

He started to travel at Wolfe's pace, paying attention to his surroundings while also mocking the poor guy at the same time. It's just so fun to make him look so infuriated, his cheeks puffed up and red both from the heat and anger.

They soon found a nearby store, and he bought them some water bottles and some snacks to recuperate. Then, they went back to running again.

Eventually, there were only half a kilometer left from the location. The sun was high up in the sky, past noon.

The place was a forest. But they can spot some fire at the distance, almost like a factory.

"Stay close behind me." Leon said, taking out a gun.

It was a good thing that his parents also provided him with these weapons and the bulletproof vests. As an Interpol agent, he wasn't authorized to use weapons, but he was no longer acting as an agent at this point.

This was something personal now. As they went deeper into the woods, they soon found a large building made of metal and with steel doors.

"Well, the Jade Palace turned out to not be made of jade after all." Wolfe joked, but in a hushed, nervous tone.

The phone dinged.

[You have now arrived to the Jade Palace. You shall be placing the trainee inside, and let the metal trainers handle them.

May the heavens bless you and the gifted children. ]