Hong Zhao swatted away a hand that poked him in the face, then pulled the covers over his head. The hand still poked him in the face through the sheets.
"Damn it you stupid house cat, you've gone too far!" the nine year old yelled out as he threw the covers off and stood upright on the bed, only to find Li Wei's blushing face as he noticed he had nothing but undergarments on. "Li Wei!" Hong Zhao reached down to grab the blanket to cover himself. "When did you get back?"
"What's a house cat?" Li Wei cast her eyes to the floor as Hong Zhao took his black and gold robe from his storage ring.
"Never mind." He jumped from the bed and threw his arm through the sleeves, tying the robe to his body.
"I have never seen a structure built like this." Li Wei commented as they walked down the stairs into the living room, which led out to the front yard. "When did you have the time to become Eighth Star Student Rank after building such a place?"
Hong Zhao opened the door to the shower stall and took off his robe once more, as well as his undergarments and took the slate from the barrel, letting cold water pour onto him from the barrel above. "It didn't take long at all to make the house, maybe a week?"
"A week?!" Li Wei looked at the home in front of her in a new light. "This looks almost the size of our main estate building."
"I suppose it is." Hong Zhao smiled as he put the slate back under the barrel, cutting off the trickle of water. "Is it really that impressive?"
Li Wei let out a sigh of exasperation as she decided not to continue. She knew that if she did, she would breach secrets that Hong Zhao wasn't ready to divulge. 'It's not as if we didn't know this boy wasn't normal.' She thought to herself as Hong Zhao put his robe back on and activated Vortex Thrust, launching himself up and out of the shower stall. He raced around the gated in area a few laps before stopping beside Li Wei once more.
"Is Li Wuhan here yet?" Hong Zhao moved his hair out of his eyes and tied it in a ponytail at the back of his head.
"Not yet." Li Wei's eyes went towards the entrance to the base. "I hope he is doing okay."
Hong Zhao patted her shoulder in sympathy. He knew that they hadn't been separated for any longer than the two weeks he had them training in the forest before the tournament. He had always seen them together. Six months was a long time to be away from a sibling at the age Li Wei and Li Wuhan were.
Upon closer examination, Hong Zhao noticed that Li Wei had gotten slightly taller since he had seen her last. Her skinny build was much the same, but he could tell that she had grown quite a lot in strength. He checked her Qi strength and saw that she had made it to the Seventh Star Student Level, even more than that, she was half step seventh! "You didn't waste your training, did you." He said matter of factly, he let out a low whistle and smiled as she blushed slightly.
"I owe a lot to your Qi Fan ability." She smiled as she took the compliment. "I would have been dead many times over in the last six months if it wasn't for this ability." She brought her hands to her chest and had a dreamy appearance. "There's so much of the world I can see when I'm on my fan." She let some childlike glee into her mood as she thought of the many nights under the starlight she had while on her Qi Fan, even if it were only for a half an hour at a time, such an ability was priceless.
"I hope Li Wuhan is going to be able to say the same thing about his own ability."
"What were you saying about a house cat earlier?" Li Wei asked
"What?"
"You said something about a house cat batting your face. I think you said Shadow's name a few times before you woke up." She smiled nervously, obviously thinking that he had lost his mind in his six month training session.
"Well, Shadow has been going through some changes in the last few years." Hong Zhao scratched his nose as he tried to think of what to say that wasn't going to freak this little girl out. He knew that magical beasts were known to be the rulers of the world, he didn't know exactly how he was going to break the news to his two friends.
"Master, I have breakfast." A low purring voice from behind Li Wei made her jump ten feet in the air before she turned around. When she did, she saw Shadow in his half-panther form while he carried a plate of what looked like fried mushrooms.
"Are you sure those aren't poison?" Hong Zhao looked skeptically at the plate. His eyebrow went up as he watched his shadow panther take one of the mushrooms took a small bite out of it. He then chewed and swallowed. "It is good, Master." He offered the plate again.
During this comical exchange, Li Wei's face paled three shades as she backed up. "That's!" She pointed at Shadow who was wearing a pair of leather pants over his black fur, as well as a vest that was open, showing his childlike lean muscles. His greasy black hair went to the small of his back, with black panther ears sticking out atop his head.
"Oh, Hello Lady Li Wei." He gave a nervous smile towards the small girl. "I hope your training went well?"
"This is Shadow?" Li Wei's eyes went from Hong Zhao to Shadow. She stayed frozen in place, ready to take off in a moments notice to find her brother.
"I know what you think, and yes, this is Shadow. He saved my life." Hong Zhao waved his hand and tried to calm her down. "He is a good magical beast." He could hear in his own voice just how childish that sounded, but he was talking to a nine year old after all.
"You saved his life?" Li Wei calmed slightly at this news.
"Yes I did." Shadow said simply. "He challenged a stone lion magical beast named Zi Bai and was going to die, so I helped." He gave a toothy grin giving an appearance of a child who just helped carry the groceries inside.
"You were in a situation where you almost died?"
"That does tend to happen from time to time in life, you know." Hong Zhao said flatly. He still didn't like the fact that he needed to be saved.
"But you never need saving." She looked in shock from Hong Zhao to Shadow.
"He was a Third Star Disciple Ranked magical beast."
"Who was a what, now?" a voice sounded from behind the three.
Li Wei turned to see Li Wuhan walking towards them. She ran to her brother who opened his arms to accept her. "Brother!"
"This is a nice home," Li Wuhan said as he raised an eyebrow. "Is this what you've been doing all this time?"
"That's it!" Hong Zhao raised both of his hands in exasperation. "Li Wei, fill your brother in on what's been going on." He grabbed the plate from Shadow and moved towards the open door. "I'm not going through this a second time." He entered and shut the door, leaving two siblings outside to catch up.