After more time had passed the three who were inside the palace came out and greeted the remaining members. Ji worriedly ran up to Shou to check for injuries, then he knelt down in front of Kirin respectfully and asked, "My lady, are things well?" Slightly glancing over to the blood red eyed man standing next to them.
"Mmm, He will be joining us on our journey, everyone meet Lord Xiezhi." She stated flatly while raising her head to the rest of the group with a slight smile on her lips. Varick felt a twinge ping his heart at the sight of her smile, it was as if that was all he needed for energy, to just see that smile on her lips. 'Ugh what is wrong with me! I really need to stop this train of thought before it goes wrong.' Slightly looking away he shook his head a bit to clear that little thought out of his mind.
This action absolutely did not go unnoticed by the crafty Ze who curled his lips up into a sly smirk at Varick. Oh he definitely wouldn't let this opportunity get away from him. "Hehe" softly chuckling at his own thoughts he began to form a plan in his mind.
Ruishi just shook his head at the kid, he knew of course, the way he looked at his mistress, he couldn't really blame the kid honestly. She was a beauty, kind, smart, powerful, any man would dream of her. Sadly , he really didn't have high hopes for this kid catching his mistress' attention, she was more clueless about the way men looked at her than a rock.
"My Lord are you ready to leave?"
Xiezhi nodded his affirmation after giving his servants a glance to convey the fact that they should take care of the palace in his stead. With that they left the palace and continued their journey. Shou this entire time had a deep frown on her brows, she really couldn't digest what he had told her today. She had no memory of any of it. *Sigh* she sighed at this thought and just tried to get the conflicting emotions to calm themselves to focus on her priority right now. They would have more time for this subject another day or in the passing days. 'Maybe my memory will return, he does seem to care for me so maybe… all of those people lied to me all these years?' she took a quick glance his way and sighed once again.
During the discussion earlier, Xiezhi mentioned in passing about a legend nearby that told of an artifact that held a strange power. Due to the limited information about it there were very vague descriptions about the area it was located, let alone the item itself. So they all opted to check it out and see if they could get their hands on this item.
"Given the current information that we have gathered it should be somewhere near the town of Shinai. It's located about a week's journey to the west from our current location." Xiezhi updated the group with the information he was able to gather. "We will be passing through a lot of different territories during our journey, we should stock up on supplies in the town at the bottom of this mountain range. It's a fairly quiet town that I preside over so we should not have any problems traveling there."
"What about the beasts here? We came across a few of them on our way up." Just as Jun spoke this query Ao Qing popped out and peeped at Xiezhi, effectively causing him to burst out in laughter at the little thing. It was almost as if the little bird was giving him a stern warning. Jun just helplessly sighed and patted her head to calm the little fiery thing.
Kirin just chuckled at her brother seeing his exasperated expression attempting to deal with his new little follower. The atmosphere within the group was quite lively at this point as they all chatted and got to know the newest additions to the group. Everyone found Xiezhi to be much more amiable than their original impression of him. I mean who wouldn't he be very charismatic when he wanted to be. That first encounter though… he really left a bad impression of himself.
Currently Xiezhi was wearing a traditional robe in the color of gold with red trim, it had the embroidery of a flaming cat across the back of it. The bottom edge had red flames reaching upwards. He carried a large broadsword with a single edge, the hilt had an intricate scroll pattern carved into it. It was held by a thick leather strap going from one shoulder to under the opposite arm and held the sword on his back. He also carried a small pouch on his waist secured by a rope belt. This pouch had a strange ability, it could hold a lot of items in it despite its size. The magic within it made the space inside as large as a mansion.
His long flaming red hair tied back into a simple ponytail secured with a cat clip along with his blood red eyes, stern features, strong jawline, fair white skin, and muscular build. Truly made him an exotic sight to see.
His eyes were trained on Shou the entire time, he really missed her. The longing and sadness in his eyes remained every time he thought about her lost memories and how he failed her. He wanted to just hold onto her and never let her go again.
Returning his thoughts to the task at hand he marched forward again while keeping Shou within his eyesight as they descended the mountain. "Yes there are those but I do not think we will have any issues with them, they are fearsome but with as many of us as there are it should be no issue." Xiezhi replied to Jun.
"Haha yea not with Akane here! Oh man Lady Kirin, Shou, you missed it. She is seriously one amazing fighter!" Entirely embarrassing Akane, making her blush scarlet red and lower her head again, Ji couldn't help himself when he boasted about her prowess. Just as he finished speaking Shou raised an eyebrow as she just now pulled herself out of her own head for a moment and noticed the newest member of their troop.
Glancing at Akane, Shou effectively sized her up. "Hey when we get to a clearing want to spar with me? I really need to test you out now." The excitement in Shou's voice couldn't be hidden as her eyes began to sparkle.
"Um, Shou.. you couldn't even handle Varick.. I really don't think you want to go up against Akane. Besides you haven't even been fitted into your new gear yet." Ruishi warned her with a worried look on his face for his friend. 'She really has no control when it comes to fighting… sigh.'
"New gear?" The look of shock plastered across Shou's face at that moment. They hadn't been near a town for a long time. That's when she noticed I was back. Sure she saw him earlier it just didn't register much at that moment.
"Yea.. I had something crafted for you, especially Shou." Ji looked up a bit at her and gestured to his bag that he was carrying.
"What are you waiting for let me see!"