Hong Zhao's eyes flashed white as he opened them after a night of cultivating. He was grateful to his higher cultivation base, allowing him to go a prolonged time before sleep. Even as he watched Ren Cai's steady breathing from her bed, he still felt well rested. He felt as though his qi spiral had grown again, only by a little. Having to replenish his qi before improving seemed to take hours, even though he could feel that he was cultivating faster than he had ever done so.
Getting up silently with practiced ease, he stretched his sore limbs. He might feel well rested, but his limbs having stayed in the same position all night seemed to lock them up a bit. He looked out the window and noticed that the sun had yet to rise. The stars still stood out brightly to the black sky as he climbed his way out and made his way to the roof.
Having completely regained his qi, he was overflowing with energy. Instead of just putting the qi suppressor pendant back on, he decided to practice. He activated his devouring qi claws, sending pure white qi the same quality as the stars in the sky shooting out of his knuckles, forming claws. He practiced stances and lunges he had come up with after the many years using the same ability. Having stretched out his limbs well enough, he began doing pushups. He began to breath slightly heavier when he reached five hundred pushups. When it seemed he pushed himself enough, he lay on his back for sit-ups and went for the same number.
By the time the sun rose, his body was shining with sweat in the new day's light. As he trained, he kept his senses tied to the room below where his companion slept. He could still sense that she was sleeping and decided to climb back down and take a bath of his own. The grime of the days before still clung to his skin like leeches. He took the qi suppressor from his previous clothing and placed it upon his chest. Taking a deep breath, he sent the remainder of his qi to the pendant. He then took the qi decoy pendant from under his pillow and drained it of qi as well before sending it into his storage ring.
Taking his clothes off, he dropped himself lightly into the tub next to the one Ren Cai had used. The water in her tub was still murky from the night before. He washed himself thoroughly and noted that his water turned just as murky, if not more by the time he was done. He sighed as he put his head back and soaked his road worn hair. He could see pieces of leaves and small sticks falling into the water as he washed it back into its straight locks of black hair.
Getting out of the tub, he dried off with a towel that was left for him, then got another outfit from his ring and changed. As he put his used clothes away, he heard a groan from the other room. "Good morning." He said flatly. "How are you after your night of indulgence?"
Ren Cai came into the room rubbing her eyes. When she blearily looked at him, she smiled. "It looks like just as well as you feel."
Hong Zhao stared flatly at her as he tied his belt, securing his black and gold robe in place. With his hair tied back in a tail, he looked like he could be any young lord of a wealthy family. Ren Cai on the other hand wore a white traveling robe with azure clouds on it. Her belt was red, which stood out in comparison with the rest of her outfit. Her dark hair flowed past her shoulders. It wasn't too far of a stretch to believe the two were related, both of them had unnatural hazel eyes within a world of dark eyes.
Hong Zhao looked her up and down. She looked not even older than him, yet she carried herself with years of experience packed within that small body. If anyone could send shivers down his spine, it was her.
Opening the door, they both headed down to the main floor to join the rest of the residents for breakfast. Hong Zhao took a plate and loaded it with eggs and sausage. Since Ren Cai seemed to be fine after a night's rest, he reasoned that he could trust the food enough to eat. They sat down at their own table and ate until filled.
Just as they were to set out again, they heard a commotion at the front desk. It seemed that Lang Xinyue was having a hard time with a customer. "Don't worry about the cost old man, we'll take five rooms from today on." A man chuckled as he walked past, waving on his four companions.
"Sir, you must pay just like anyone else!" Lang Xinyue blocked the man, but he was thrown aside easily.
"Ninth star student ranked cultivators." Hong Zhao sighed.
Ren Cai nodded. "It seems it would be a bit difficult for just us to stand up to them, at least the way you are now."
"I bet this is the reason he was so adamant on us staying the night." Hong Zhao looked at the innkeeper who looked at him pleadingly. "I really don't want to get mixed up in other people's affairs." He complained as he took his spirit sword from his ring and tied the baldric in place, resting the hilt of the sword at his left shoulder. Though he muttered that they should leave, he still moved towards the cultivators.
"Load up, boys." The leader of the group laughed as they pilfered food from the table. Other cultivators looked on in disgust at the five men. Were they lower than the ninth star student rank, they would be easier prey for them, but since the five were stronger, they were able to intimidate the others into staying out of their way.
"Excuse me." Hong Zhao snapped most people out of their silent curses with those two words. He tapped the man on the middle of his back, which was as high as he was able to go with his short arms. "I believe old man Lang Xinyue asked for you to pay first."
The man looked behind and below to see Hong Zhao smiling a dimpled grin at him. To anyone he looked like just a young boy who wanted to point something out to him. "Whosever kid this is, get him now. This is your only warning. I won't take it easy on him just because he's a child."
"Oh, sir." Hong Zhao said kindly yet he let out just a small amount of sarcasm. "Please, don't take it easy on me." He moved to the entrance of the inn and stared at the men. "Come show me how strong you five are. But if you lose, I expect one gold per person."
"One gold, are you crazy?"
Hong Zhao took a pouch from his clothes and counted out five gold coins. "If you win, you can have this." He let the gold shine within his palm.
The man's face which was only moments ago showing annoyance slowly settled into a greedy grin. "Fine, but I'll take more than that for your insolence. You'd better give us all that you have if you wish to get out of this alive."