Song Zemin dressed in white stood outside his courtyard in the pink dawn, his hands folded behind him and his back hunched lazily as he stared at the dark outline of the rolling hills.
The trees swayed back and forth like a group of Hawaiian hula dancers and the fresh crisp morning breeze traveled across the landscape with the soft rustling sound of leaves.
Contemplation was vivid on his sagging tanned face.
The youth was of no significance he had told himself countless times but something nagged at him, a memory of a horror that was imprinted in his very soul. The youth was a proverbial ant in his eyes, he should be of no concern to someone like himself who was at the peak of the xiantian realm and had one foot in the saint realm, but the way the youth had escaped his blow gave him a flash of danger.
A danger similar to the one he had felt all those years ago when those three people had come to the capital, they had threatened to destroy it unless an unknown woman was returned to them. Some of the best experts the country had to offer had come to the aid of the capital and challenged the intruders, they soon fell at the feet of the strangers like wheat beneath a scythe.
No one could exchange a single blow with them, It was a chilling experience that brought sweat to his brows even now. Back then he was only a mediocre expert, an over confident and pampered 3rd layer xiantian accompanied by his mentor who was a 3rd layer saint, his mentor confidently challenged the most arrogant of the three, stating boldly that he was there to defend the honor of the fallen even at the cost of his life.
He witnessed his mentor unceremoniously split in two within a second. His severed body laying on the cobbled ground almost ridiculous in its horror, the revolting stench of blood turned his stomach, he stood there like a gawping statue looking at the ground gulping down the blood of the mightiest man he had ever known, from that time till now he hadn't cared about honor ever again, the scene flashed back in his mind and he shuddered. The way the strange man had moved that day was similar to the way the youth had appeared in the air and dodged his attack, it wasn't exactly the same but it was similar enough.
.
This was an event the wider public didn't know about and was covered up and kept secret by King Yulan, who publicly claimed the attack was carried out by a hostile saint from a neighboring country. The King was the only one to speak with the strangers and after, those three strange people left to scour the whole country searching for the mystery person, scything down any who stood in their way and eventually left. No one knew who they were, or who they were looking for, or if they had found her. Song Zemin closed his eyes for a while and inhaled a lung full of the fresh morning breeze.
The youth had to die, if for nothing else but his peace of mind, even if he was just being paranoid and seeing danger where there was none, the good would have to suffer for the bad...
He wouldn't dare invade the estate of Kang so he had given instructions for his people to covertly watch the comings and goings from a distance. He wanted to know the exact minute the youth left Kang's estate.
The following two weeks rolled away as fast as a runaway wagon,
Hartley's hair had grown back to a decent length but he hadn't made any headway in his pursuit of controlling his elemental power. The only thing he could do was reinforce his body and make it turn blue with the blue star essence.
Zhi Ruo had returned to her normal self, she was a little more cheery and that distant look in her eyes had receded but she had transformed into a cultivation fanatic like Qin Li, who himself was now approaching the thin line between sub-realms, even though she was still only a 1st layer xiantian, the fluctuations she gave off was getting stronger by the day. She had insisted that her daily knife practice with Hartley be conducted at 15x gravity, three times what she normally trained at.
At first she was struggling and couldn't complete the full hour but after a few days she got used to it and it showed, she made massive improvements over a short span of time. She moved lightly, making no more sound over the floor than a breath of wind and her strikes became fast and blurry, shadow images of her black knives manifested with every strike and her precision increased by a large amount.
It was impressive, the only down side was that, with her new found dedication for practice Hartley couldn't press down her body under him as much as he would like, he couldn't help but look on with a rueful smile.
Hartley told Qin Li and Zhi Ruo about elemental power manipulation and explained in intricate detail what he had seen Kang do to the indestructible training dummy with the technique, they too were trying hard to have a breakthrough on that front but it was proving as hard for them as it was for him. What they didn't know was that it wasn't as simple as Kang had made it out to be, Kang was an abnormal genius who was one of the only experts in Aidonia to have achieved it before the saint realm, he could see Hartley's potential and thought highly of Hartley so believed Hartley could achieve it as well.
Yang Yi was at the peak of the houtian realm but had already passed the expiry date for stepping into the xiantian realm, there was nothing he could do in terms of upgrading his strength so he had to settle for upgrading his skills with the guards at the training field behind the stone castle. He quickly fell into a routine of daily training and challenging the other guards. He had been told by Viscount Sanzu early on that Hartley would rise up to be one of the top experts, at first he was skeptical but after traveling with Hartley for while he had come to believe it. This was his opportunity to latch onto the coat tail of Hartley and rise up to a dominant position, or so he thought.
Hartley became more and more frustrated as the days came and went, he felt like a turtle hidden in its shell, he knew he couldn't stay here forever and was thinking about moving on even if he didn't make a breakthrough.
One day after countless frustrations Hartley sighed, he stopped his training experiments and wandered around the estate to clear his mind, he found a secluded spot among the mini forest at the far east of the estate, he sat there under the shade of a tall tree, legs crossed and arms folded across his lap as his black robe fluttered in the stiff breeze, he stared out and admired the stunning layout of Kang's estate.
All his stresses bled away and tranquility claimed him. He closed his eyes as if he were in a trance and when he opened them again, everything was tinted with a slight hue of blue, to his shock he was in his inner world. He had only ever entered his inner world during his cultivation where he was represented by a small blue replica of himself but this time, he was there, the real him.
He looked out across the chaotic mountains and streams, the flat lands and the barren desert-like outer areas. After seeing Kang's estate an idea popped into his head, He stretched his hand forward and willed the mountain to move. The Blue star that hung high in the sky over his inner world began to shine brightly, the earth rumbled and shook, his eyes in turn started to shine brightly. His head started to hurt like it was on an anvil and an enthusiastic blacksmith was pounding away.
He felt a strong resistance. Gritting his teeth in determination he willed the mountain to move as if he was a God in this world. Then after 15 seconds when he was washed with sweat, there was a loud crash within his mind, it felt like a dam had broken. The star tattoo imprinted over his heart shone brightly and his body turned to a whitish blue, his hair turned golden blonde and though he didn't know it, it was the same shade as his mother. The mountain melted away from sight for a second and then emerged at the place he willed it to be. His blue tinted world felt different, it now felt malleable, it felt like something that was apart of him physically, something he could shape and mold like clay, he stayed there and arranged the land rivers and mountains the way he saw fit.
Sat under the tree in the real world Hartley was gleaming blue like a star in the morning light. Hartley had broken through to the 7th layer of the xiantian realm like a spear point through sheet-thin armor. Of all his break throughs, this was the easiest, in gaining control of his inner world he had also gained control of his elemental powers and in the chain reaction, broken through. He opened his eyes and looked around at the stunning landscape and a thought crossed his mind: he wondered if this landscape was Kang's inner world. He quickly dismissed the thought as ludicrous and started to explore his strength.
Sat between the vibrant blues and greens of grass and sky. Hartley was sheltering in the shadow cast by the canopy of a tall tree on the fringes of the mini forest. He could feel power burning through every single pore on his body.
Eyes closed he lightly punched out and a blast of wind swept dust into the air, uprooting a patch of manicured grass sending it flying away towards the mansions.
There was a sound like a whip cracking through the air, a vortex of swirling dark blue lines formed around his fist as it moved forward. This was his first attempt to execute spiral circulation. it wasn't bad but he could tell it still had some power leakage.
Hartley continued to experiment with the technique for an hour and then moved onto trying out the compressed circulation technique, he engaged advanced state of focus and tried different ways to coil his power, he found the way he was most comfortable with and threw out a testing punch at the tree that had given him shelter.
The fist whined and whirred and gurgled its way through the air, heading for the sturdy tree, then there were two bright strobing blue pulses around Hartley's fist, one after the other, precisely as it made contact with the tree....BOOM!!..... Every tree for 20 meters turned into to match sticks.