Louis barged into the room right at the next second startling both Yun Fao and Alex. The young French man was sweating heavily and breathing just as hard as he gave Yun Fao a stink eye of epic proportions. Then he shifted his gaze from Alex and then back to Yun Fao before speaking.
"Do you know what time it is Yun Fao! Do you have any idea what time of the day it is." Something obviously had Louis riled up, and the tone of voice he was using to speak with Yun Fao, more than showed that he was so angry and was quite close to reaching his tipping point.
Yun Fao turned his head to the left to look at a digital clock hanging on the wall of Alex's bedroom. And for the first time since they met, Alex saw actual shock on the face of Yun Fao. The boy quickly dropped his sword and grabbed Alex, and without any sort of warning, threw the boy over his shoulder and ran out if the room, straight down a hallway before coming to a balcony overlooking the main entrance to Alex's manor on a mountain.
Not one to care for stairs, Yun Fao jumped over the edge, moving down from the second floor all the way to the bottom in an instant. Louis was not that far behind, in fact he was moving a lot faster as he went past Yun Fao to open the massive mahogany doors of the manor, exposing the cool night breeze of the mountain peak. Laozi was waiting outside, and without another word he grabbed Yun Fao and the Louis and shifted his body slightly.
Alex felt the world tuned upside down as he felt the hangover cure threatening to come up once again. But he was not even given anytime to rest ad the world shifted again and again, happening for a record 9 times before coming to a stop. Alex couldn't handle it, and it seemed even Yun Fao was also subject to it as he hunched over with Alex and emptied all of the contents in his stomach. Louis looked a little pale, but he seemed fine as opposed to the other two.
Alex had no idea what was going on, sure the explanation of Louis and Yun Fao becoming members of a sort of personal guard for him had already been given, but what was the need for all the rush, even with how level headed he was, it took all of his willpower not to snap at both Louis and Laozi, demanding an explanation for their rough treatment. And then he heard his grandfather's voice.
"Yun Fao you were supposed to bring him here at a quarter to midnight, you're five minutes late. You're the captain of the guard, if you're incapable of keeping to time, how then do you expect the rest of your team to fall in line. You will be punished later for this, but for now you and Feng'er can join the others in the Dragon blood Qi pool. We will wait here for you.
Alex raised his eyes up and looked at his grandfather, the old man had a rather stern look on his face, and even though Alex wanted to say something, it was obvious the old man was not in the mood for a conversation. He stared right back at Alex with his gaze hard, almost as if he expected Alex to realize something, but Alex didn't know what. All his grandfather did was incline his head as if to ask Alex to go in.
However as Alex was about to turn, there was a whistling sound in the air, something that all of them heard, but where unable to stop, not even his grandfather could do anything as they all felt that someone was launching an attack. However whether by instinct, or something else, Alex raised his hands up and caught his walking stick without even looking in the direction it had come from. It was not in it's sheath form, so his swords were not there.
"What is that?" Louis asked surprised.
"It's my spirit mantle, the home of my spirit masks, and the spirits they hold." It was an automatic answer, Alex didn't even realize that he already gave an answer until Louis spoke up.
"So the spirit of Nezha lives in that ugly piece of wood? Wow!" Alex guessed it was a rather surprising development too. For all intents and purposes, Nezha was a god, maybe he wasn't showing his full power or had access to it, but a god none the less and he's living in a stick.
"You can not bring that in here, the Dragon blood Qi pool is not a place for such strange items, who knows what kind of evil reactions of poisons it might release. Second grandfather you have to see reason! This toy of second brother is not orthodox."
Alex recognized that voice, and as he turned to see his brother or rather step brother flanked by other cultivators, Alex had to resist the urge to go over there and slap him. And as if to respond to his rage, the walking stick turned red hot in seconds and caught on fire, startling everyone there, including Alex himself. Seems like with every day that passes, he was getting more and more connected to the mantle and to Nezha.
"Young man you're in no position to tell me to see reason or not, I was already slaying beasts by the time your 'grandfather' was a child. Do not patronize me, I have no mood for pretense, do you understand?" Zhang Sanfeng asked with his white beard swaying in the wind.
"Yes second grandfather." Lu Wan answered with his head bowed.
"Feng'er I know this mantle is of great importance to you and very powerful. However it is not of the sect and it's power is not understood either. You can hand it over to me for safe keeping."
Regardless of what was said, Alex didn't want to cause any problems for his grandfather. This juvenile snake Lu Wan seemed to have enough leverage to pressure his grandfather, so much so that his grandfather would even tell Alex to let go of the staff. Alex didn't like it, but he had no choice in the matter, at least he didn't think he did.
All of a sudden the walking stick began to burn, much in the same way you would expect paper or wood to, it turned into motes of fiery light that flew up into the sky and vanished. It cause another surprise, but none more than Alex who felt a surge of energy move through his meridians, before coming to a stop in his Dantian. A cursory inspection showed him that his mantle was right in the middle of his Dantian, covered and embraced by his Qi.
"Well if there's nothing else, I believe we should commence with the Dragon blood baptism." Another voice chipped in, and Alex looked up to see it was the second elder who had officiated the half Year sect competition.
It was then Alex notice where he was, the were at the food of a small hill, with a cliff directly over their head. It was about twenty maybe thrift feet in height, not that much of a problem for those in the open Dantian realm, however it was still possible to have your insides jarred a bit if you jumped from such a height. On the cliff face was a massive dragon head or rather the skull of a dragon and it's served as an entrance into a tunnel leading into the hill.
Alex looked around and notice there were quite a few rock pillars around, it was a natural formation, but with cultivators involved it's really had to be sure about some things. The second elder walked into the cave and the rest of the cultivators followed with Alex bringing up the rear. He looked back to see Louis waving him and Yun Fao good bye, with Laozi giving a small bow and his grandfather looking as stoic as usual. There was nothing of the warm man Alex had met outside of the sect, almost as if within the confines of the Wudang sect, Zhang Sanfeng was a very different person.
As soon as Alex entered the tunnel, the jaws of the dragon snapped shut behind them, throwing the tunnel into darkness. But once again the enhanced senses of a cultivator could deal with this much darkness and easily find their way. It was then that the Second Elder started speaking.
"For the sake of those of you who are new to the sect, and haven't studied long enough, I will give a short lesson. The dragon blood Qi lake was made by the father of former sect head and also a former sect master of the Wudang sect himself Zhang Woyu. He was a powerful cultivator during his time, and reached the peak of the heaven gate when he was just 700 years old, the youngest person to have ever achieved it on this planet, at least until his son former sect head Zhang Sanfeng did the same thing at half his father's age; at 318.
None the less Sect head Zhang Woyu traveled across multiple dimensions and worlds and even higher planes of existence hunting down the most powerful beasts with the bloodline of ancient dragons. He was even lucky to have some contact with descendants of the Azure dragon god of the eastern seas, and from them he was able to retrieve several essence blood and use it to create this pool.
With the help of some. Of the best array masters and alchemists, he was able to make a pool that for all intents and purposes could actually refine the physique and Qi of a cultivator. In extreme cases it has been know to awaken the sleeping bloodlines and talents of cultivators, however multiple uses would be required for such a thing to happen, and since the pool is a limited resource with each use reducing it's efficiency, such a thing hardly ever happens.
Once you're in the Qi pool, access to you Qi would be restricted by the power of dragon blood, you will only have your physical body to rely on and also your cultivation technique to absorb the dragon energy into your body. This is a valuable opportunity, and you have 24hours to make the best out of it. And so without further ado, I give you the Dragon Blood Qi pool."
Alex couldn't help his amazement, and a word spilled out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Wow!"