People jostled and crowded at the entrance of the inn, all were interested in knowing what exactly took place inside but none were eager to enter and find out first hand. Hushed speculation-filled conversations ensued as the idle men, women and children present, yammered on about their wild theories of what had happened inside. There were mentions of people being possessed, while others were spreading rumors of the inn being haunted by some long lost soul unable to re-enter the river of reincarnation, some went as far as saying that an army of dead had awoken and had taken the occupants of the inn as hostages, this drew beads of sweat on the foreheads of the more gullible among the crowd, especially the children. An opportunistic man wearing a dirty cloak, half eaten by moths, even started to charge people to deliver the blessings of the Holy Matriarch upon them. The man then proceeded to spout gibberish while waving his hands around incoherently and collected a copper coin each from the more superstitious people in the crowd. The chaos died down after a while and the man left the area grinning, having earned himself a healthy profit.
Zhi Ruo and Qin Li flanked by the four armored escorts, whom she had never seen without armor no matter how early she encountered them, returned to the inn and were greeted with the sight of the stragglers of the original chaos forming a thin crowd still converged at the entrance in the bright afternoon sunshine milling about aimlessly and peeping through the inn's front door. With a frown she made her way through a path opened up by the four escorts and entered into the inn amidst a chorus of frantic warnings from the crowd, she paid no mind to the gibberish and silliness and ascended the staircase leading to the second floor passing some weird young people dressed in black led by a man dressed in white, tip toeing around in the corridors. The world have gone mad today, she thought in her mind. Qin Li and the escorts were giving each other quizzical looks as they all disappeared in their assigned rooms on the second floor.
The pale and tender skinned Hartley had now entered into the peak middle phase of the xanthian realm, one more breakthrough and he would be in the late phase, which consisted of layer 7 through to layer 9. A blue replica of Hartley, now half a meter in height, was sat crossed legged in middle of a lush green forest which itself was located in the middle of a circular plot of land mass about a thousand kilometers in diameter. Over half of it was a picturesque scene of natural beauty untainted by any living creatures. Mountains, rivers and forest had developed under the ever present glare of the Bright blue star sitting high in the inky black sky shining down like a sun, giving the region a blueish hue and a never ending daytime cycle. This was Hartley's inner world, the bigger this world became the farther the range of his gravity field would grow. His consciousness swept through the land like a gentle breeze, he could see that the newly formed land at the outer edges was as barren as a desert. This time he wasn't too worried because his cultivation speed was eight times faster than it used to be.
In the outside world, the real Hartley opened his eyes, his lips curved into a thin smile as he wrapped his fingers into a tight ball creating a fist that made popping sounds as he squeezed his knuckles together, he could feel that his physical strength had been increased almost three folds, strength surged through his entire body making him feel more energetic than ever, his physical body had made the step into the middle phase of the xanthian realm, his physique was now a 4th layer xanthian, meaning if he fought with just fists and kicks like a mortal, he would still be as strong as a 4th layer xanthian. His body had been rebuilt inside out, he gained an inch in height and the muscles on his thin frame were more defined and flexible. Hartley's awareness now stretched to cover a kilometer which was also the new size of his gravity field that could now apply 70x gravity onto the face of the earth. He couldn't even begin to imagine such a destructive force. He could now in theory wipe an entire district off the map, he was a walking artillery unit.
Before Hartley could conduct any further research into his new level of strength, the door handle made a noise dragging him back to his senses, the door opened and Zhi Ruo, the red haired beauty, entered dressed in a light lavender colored gown stretching down to her ankles. The beautiful garment hugged her body and was made of fine silk and had a light sheen that glistened whenever it interacted with the natural light source peeking through the window behind Hartley, making her look like a born noble woman. Hartley couldn't help but stare, she twirled around a couple times on the spot in happiness asking "do you like it?" Hartley said "yes, it is very appealing" with a cheeky wink, He couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt in his stomach but certain secrets had to be suppressed forever. Zhi Ruo then stopped, she was the one staring now, with short elegant steps she rushed over to Hartley and cupped his face with both hands as if holding fine jade, caressing his pale tender looking skin. "How?" she had a blush as she looked at the majestically handsome man up and down. Hartley laughed while taking a closer look at his own hands and noticing the difference for the first time. "I had a breakthrough in my cultivation, that must be the reason." he said as he shrugged helplessly. He then pulled her in close whispering "Ruo I have so much energy now" a blush spread all the way down to her neck as she interpreted his intentions.
The daylight gradually melted away beyond the horizon, the elder from the Hagley Martial School could find nothing suspicious about the stretch of corridor the stable boys were scared of and trembled every time they were near its location. The bearded manager went back to the front desk cursing his luck, the reputation of the inn was in tatters as rumors of ghost and haunted souls had spread through the local area, he sat there looking depressed, he still had to pay the elder from the martial school 20 gold coins and combine that with the fact that a number of customers had fled without paying carved an almost permanent frown across his face. Hartley still had no clue about this as he enjoyed himself with Zhi Ruo on the second floor. Qin LI, as usual, cultivated.
At dusk Hartley wearing a brand new black silk robe embroidered with circular patterns stitched in with red silk threads, went and invited everyone to go out to a restaurant and have some delicacies. Even though he invited the four escorts, he didn't particularly trust them as he suspected they might be spies here on the behalf of Viscount Sanzu, due to this feeling he had not gotten close with any of them, in fact he only knew the name of the leader Yang Yi. Hartley was secretly celebrating his breakthrough but he hadn't informed anyone of this fact only Zhi Yu knew, so Hartley wanted to eat at one of the best restaurants in the area, they asked around a bit, oddly the manager was no help as he just sat around looking in space and shaking his head giving no response, Ryu Hang who had been out all day arranging for the repairs of the carriage, couldn't help but frown and shouted at the manager in disgust, there was no response. The lights were on but no one was home.
On the second floor of a lavish local restaurant called the Flying Cow, two long wooden tables were pulled together at a corner facing two stained glass windows to create a larger table resembling a buffet line, the pleasing smell of fine cuisine lanced through the air and bombarded the nostrils of the diners in the almost full to capacity dining hall, There were still a few empty tables scattered through out the lavish settings that Ryu Hang had discovered just by the crowd entering the premises. Covered silver pots and steaming bowls were abundant down the length of the table and the waitresses were bringing more, taking away the half empty dishes and replacing them with other delicacies amidst the clanging of the ceramic bowls. The other diners on the floor looked over at the party of eight at the right corner of the room gobbling down the food like starving beast, this elicited frowns from the prim and proper nobles on the floor as they turned up their noses in disgust.
At this exact moment the patter of footsteps rained on the ears of the occupants as multiple people ascended to the second floor. Almost all heads spun to stare in the direction of the team of people who just entered. It was five students plus the elder of the Hagley Martial School, their eyes surveyed the dining room scanning slowly from left to right. "Master Lingwei, should we leave and find somewhere else? It looks like there's no space here." A student dressed in a black robe that stood a pace or two behind the elder said as he noticed the empty tables were scattered around the room so if they wanted to dine here, their group would most likely be scattered across the room.
Offhandedly Master Lingwei waved his hand saying "no problem, we'll just ask some people to leave so that we can sit together, this is the best restaurant in the area and we just made a lot of gold coins. Lets order some wine and delicacies then celebrate. We are from the Hagley Martial School No one would dare..." he said the last sentence with a sneer. The black hair and clean shaved man of short stature dressed in a pristine white robe slowly made his way down the middle of the floor followed by a trail of students dressed in black robes, back straight and chest out as proud as a peacock, the occupants hailed him by name with respect in their voices hoping that the distinguished elder would not embarrass them by demanding their tables, he gave them a slight nod and moved on, audible sighs of relief could be heard as he passed each table. With squinted eyes, a frown took form on the face of the elder, everyone in his presence had shown proper respect except for a party of eight sat at a corner gobbling down food and drink without giving him so much as a second glance.
"You unrefined swines," the elder said with a face full of contempt as he pointed to Hartley's double table. To Master LIngwei this group looked like a spoiled young master and his entourage not putting him in their eyes, trying to stomp on his prestige. "Get out," he shouted with a red face, then gave a signal to the waitresses posted by the entrance of the kitchens "we'll be taking this table, clean it up quick and prepare it for us." The waitresses scampered off into the kitchen and returned with the manager after a few seconds. "So its you master Lingwei," a round faced pudgy man said as he took quick strides out into the dining hall, before the man even reached him Master Lingwei shouted in irritation, "I want them out, we're having that table for a special celebration tonight." he pointed towards Hartley's group, hands shaking with irritation at how long it was taking to get his way.
The pudgy man gulped as Master Lingwei identified his targets, the table in question had spent lots of gold and kept the staff busy all night, this was what the manager loved most. Making lots of money and getting his money's worth of labor from his lazy staff, those people had even tipped the waitresses with gold coins making them enthused and worked faster than he had ever seen, it had to be known that Master Lingwei highest tip was a silver coin if the staff was lucky, but this was Master Lingwei from the Hagley Martial school, he had no choice but to kick out the cash cows. How ironic he thought, he had named the restaurant The Flying Cow.
Ryu Hang and the four escorts looked around nervously as the whole restaurant was silent waiting for the eventual embarrassment of the nobles who had no manners. Hartley, Qin Li and Zhi Ruo kept on eating without uttering a single word not fazed in the least. The pudgy manager marched over to Hartley's table and started to stutter out a few words, "hmm hmm gentlemen and ladies.. I mean lady," the man talked nervously as he rubbed both palms together. "I'm sorry to inform you that...." At this point Hartley's head flicked up in annoyance, he gave Qin Li a silent signal while he ducked down his head to continue eating again. The pudgy man was standing on Qin LI's side of the table, Qin Li stood up as fast as lightning without even knocking over his own chair and landed an open palm slap on the right jaw of the pudgy man, a loud sound of PA! exploded through the air, the man rose a meter in the air parallel to the brown concrete floor as if he was levitating, spinning horizontally as he flew backwards clanging into a neighboring table, the diners at the table scrambled away screaming out in horror as the manager crashed into the chairs and tables setting off a chain reaction of bowls and chopstick flying away in all directions, the pudgy man rolled to stop on one of the flattened table with his face in a bowl full of soup, making gurgling sounds as if he was drowning in the yellow savory liquid. People scrambled to help the man from drowning in a bowl of well-seasoned soup that had been cooked to perfection. A weak-hearted woman dressed in an elegant red gown sat nearby, screamed and grabbed her chest with both hands, her eyes bulged and she fainted at the sight, knocking even more ceramic bowls onto the brown floor, the sounds of smashing bowls echoed around the quiet room. Not even Master Lingwei had expected such a scene to happen in front of his eyes, his mouth was wide open dripping drool, his shock suddenly turned to fury, that slap to the manager's face was like a slap to his own face.