Hong Zhao's hands fell to the ground as his head felt as if it would burst open. The cultivator's qi felt as if it wanted to burst through as it savagely tore at his insides. "Kill them with the qi claws my ass!" Hong Zhao painfully and slowly moved his way off the path, just in case anyone got curious. Using the trees to support his weight, he went from one to the next to walk a few minutes into the dense woods. When he felt that he had made it far enough, he sat in the lotus position and took out one of the new qi stones as well as a qi grasping pill and began cultivating as soon as he popped the pill into his mouth.
A funnel of qi appeared over his head the moment he began. Such qi normally began to appear over time, the funnel growing slightly larger after each hour, yet this time it seemed like he had already been cultivating for a full day. The qi funneled into his dantian and mixed with the savage qi of the two deceased cultivators. When they touched, the entire qi pool condensed in on itself until it couldn't anymore. He began feeding any stray qi into his organs, toughening them as much as they would allow. Even this would not end the stream of qi which entered his body.
Hong Zhao began to worry that Lan had set him up to over fill himself with qi and cripple his dantian, but soon the never ending stream of qi seemed to taper off. Sweat poured from every pore and steamed off into nothing. He could feel more than just the sweat, but also impurities leaking from him. His eyes opened when he felt what such a revelation meant. He must have broken through!
Looking within himself, Hong Zhao saw that his qi spiral had indeed grown significantly. He felt stronger, as if he had worked out every muscle for two years straight. "How?" He looked at his hands in question. Defeating two men should not have been enough to break him through to the first star disciple rank, yet somehow they did.
"Consuming the qi of those ranked leagues above you has made you shoot straight through into the next stage of cultivation." Lan said behind Hong Zhao, making him jump. "You did something that shouldn't be possible for a ninth star student rank, and you did it quite easily." She smiled.
"You knew this would happen." Hong Zhao turned to appraise his master. "Now that I'm a disciple ranked cultivator, I'll be able to build my strength in order to fend off the next wave that the City Lord sends our way."
"Yes." Lan said simply. She brushed a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. "But, how will you prepare? I cannot tell you what comes your way in the future. It will now be something for you to figure out on your own."
Hong Zhao considered it for a moment. He had relied on Lan for subtle hints of what was to come since before the tournament. He had become too reliant on her intel until then. If he truly wanted to keep those of Rantori Village safe, he would need to build up a network of information. He would need to send villagers out to gather rumors and gossip. He would also have to oversee training to ensure they were equipped well enough to handle a fight, should one occur. One thing was for certain, he could no longer do this alone. Even with the power he had gained from this windfall of luck, it wouldn't be enough to handle what came next. "When the City Lord finds out that two cultivators of the second star disciple rank won't come back to him, he will multiply his forces and possibly increase their strength."
"So what will you do?"
"I guess I'll just have to train a company strong enough to fight whatever comes next." Hong Zhao said thoughtfully. "I could teach them a little of what I know from my previous life, and teach them the abilities you've given me so far, so that we might be able to stand a chance against the next wave."
"You will train a sect?" Lan looked at him skeptically. "You are still a little young for that, don't you think?"
"Tell that to Li Wen and Huang Ji. I doubt they would believe you." Hong Zhao smiled at the thought. "They've known there's something off about me since I entered Rantori Village. If I show up with a lot of tactics and abilities, I doubt they would think much of it."
"How will you get the word out? How will you build this sect?"
"How indeed." Hong Zhao's brow furrowed. "Maybe we'll just recruit those we save from Yuan City and farther still. Who says the sect has to be well known. As a matter of fact, I'd rather it not be known. It'd do better as a shadow sect."