Chapter 80: Mystery Man.
Haru entered the elder's hall. It looked the exact same as the last time that he had come here. The walls were stained brown wood and the large golden pillars seemed to reflect all of the light toward the front entrance.
The floors where shined white marble. As Haru looked down he could see his own face reflecting back up at him. As he walked along the marble floor each footstep echoed out in the empty hall disturbing the man sat crossed legged in the centre of the room.
He opened his eyes and looked at Haru.
"You are finally here. It is nice to finally meet you Haru." A voice called out.
Haru looked at the old man. He had long grey hair and a bushy stubbled beard. He had crystal blue eyes the contrasted against the pitch-black necklace he was wearing. He was wearing a long blue robe similar to the clothes that all of the sect members were wearing.
Haru didn't reply as he was on edge. Just who was this man? And what was he planning? He felt quite unnerved as he looked over.
"Come on, Sit with me. I have some things I would like to discuss with you." The old man said and then tapped the floor in front of him.
Haru took a few steps forward. With each step, he took toward the man he felt more and more nervous. As he reached the spot the man had tapped he sat down on the floor opposite the man.
"Did the sect master show you the transporter up in the mountain?" The old man asked and then relaxed a little bit. He rocked back slightly as he waited for Haru to reply.
His throat felt dry and course as he was about to answer. He gulped audibly.
"Ugh, Yeah. He told me that you wanted to see me? Do you mind if I ask what it is that you want from me?" Haru asked the man staring back at him.
"Relax a little. He doesn't mean to cause you any harm. Even if he did. I would never let him hurt my grand disciple." Lao's voice boomed around Haru's head.
Hearing those words instantly released the pressure he was feeling knowing that this man could kill everyone nearby and there would be nothing he could do to stop it.
His shoulders relaxed and he regained a neutral position on the floor. He sat up straight and slightly pushed out his chest. He didn't feel defenceless anymore but he still didn't want to piss the man off.
"Well, there are actually two things that I came here to talk to you about." He said and then waited for Haru, He didn't seem to notice his change in attitude.
"Then what are they? I'm a little confused about how you even know me. You are from the upper realms, right? How could you even know about someone as insignificant as me?" Haru asked the man.
The man smiled and looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh.
"Don't put yourself down too much. You are not insignificant at all. And for how I found you. Well, that is a tricky explanation. Feel free to interrupt me if you don't understand anything.
I should probably explain why I am in the lower realm anyway. Well, I am from a sect in the middle realm. We are not very well known but all registered sects under the divine palace hold a martial arts competition every fifty years.
The martial arts competitions main purpose is for us to collect new disciples from the lower realms. If they are from here the chances are that they are not associated with any of the divine palaces sects so we can feel free to recruit anyone we want to.
But that is beside the point. I am what they would call a mysticist. The job of a mysticist is to study fate. We devote our time into making predictions and seeing the future.
That is when I found you. I was studying something to do with… Ahem, That's not important. But when I looked at my prediction I was shown an image of you.
It was around three years ago when I first felt it but when I reached the lower realm a few months ago I found a trace of your essence and I have been following it ever since." The man said before Haru interrupted.
"My essence. What does that mean? Were you looking for something in particular?" He looked down at the dragon emperor ring and thought about the soul fragment of Li Jun. He hadn't come back yet but Lao reassured him that he was okay.
"Well, essence? That isn't quite the word. It's more like I picked up the scent of your blood. It felt rather familiar to me so I came to investigate." The man said and then looked into Haru's eyes. They were the same crystal blue as his own.
He smiled upon seeing them. But Haru only became more worried. It's not like his bloodline was a secrete. A few people had already seen it. And even the director had a phoenix bloodline, So it was probably a common thing right?
"Do you mean my phoenix bloodline? I didn't think people would be able to sense it. Do you think that it will cause me trouble if I carry on using the power?" Haru was straight forward. He doubted he would be able to hide anything from this man in the first place.
"Phoenix bloodline!? Ahem. Yes, that is it." The man shouted and then coughed. Haru looked at him slightly confused.
"That is the first matter I came here to help you with. I wanted to help you conceal the power. Would you come a bit closer?" The man asked of him.
"Sure." Haru nodded his head and then shuffled across the floor toward the man.
As soon as he became within the man's reach he held out his hand and placed it on Haru's forehead. He was quite surprised and almost pulled away in fear.
"Just try to relax. It will only hurt a little bit. But It will benefit you." The man said as Haru relaxed his shoulders once again indicating the man to start with whatever he was planning.
After a few seconds, a blue light emerged from the man's hand and washed over Haru's body. It seemed to be concentrated on his head but some of the light spilt out.
It felt warm and soothing but then after a few seconds, it felt like someone had taken out a needle and begun to poke around inside his brain. He wasn't sure what to think about it. It didn't exactly hurt nearly as much as he thought it would.
Then something strange happened. It was like something was forced into his head. He couldn't quite feel what it was but there was a slight coldness that washed over his body. A few more seconds went by before the man took his hand away.
"Well, that is solved. No one should be able to sense the power from your phoenix bloodline unless they are nearby." He said and then smiled lightly. It seemed like something was paining him.
The man didn't say anything else. He just looked at Haru with a gentle smile. Haru couldn't explain it but he felt like he had seen this man before. But he just couldn't place it. He definitely looked familiar though.
"Um, You said there were two things?" Haru asked him. He looked like he had forgotten all about it as he seemed to snap out of a daydream. He looked at Haru before gathering his thoughts.
"Oh, Yes that's right. I was actually hoping that you would come with me and join our sect. I know it's a big thing to ask for but I feel like you will be able to aid us one day. You don't have to decide right now. Just think about it." The old man said and then waited for Haru to think it over.
It didn't take much time for Haru to decide. The obvious thing was that he didn't know this man. Why would he go anywhere with him? And the other thing was he had already decided to go to college and make his parents proud.
He didn't want to just vanish to the upper realms right now and never see them again. Not to mention his girlfriend. He couldn't leave her either.
"No." He said bluntly.
The old man seemed kind of surprised and then stared at him once again. This time with questioning eyes.
"What made you decide so fast? I'm kind of surprised." The old man said.
"Well, It's simple. I don't really know you so it would be weird for me to just pack my bags and go with you. And I still have friends and family. I don't want to leave them behind." He explained.
The man stopped and thought.
"I made the right call coming to see you. You are determination. You want to make your parents proud of you before you go off on your quest for power. I see you have a special woman in your life. Hehehe. Make sure you treat her right." The old man said.
He looked down at his hand before a flash of light emerged from his finger. I small red bag appeared from his storage ring.
"I have to get back. So take this as a parting gift." The old man then handed the bag to Haru and began to stand up.
Haru stood up after him.
"Thank you for your help with hiding my bloodline. If you could sense it from the higher realms I'm guessing quite a few bad characters could sense it too?" Haru asked him.
"You don't have to worry about that. You will do just fine. Here's some advice from an old man. If you follow your heart everything will turn out just okay. Don't live a life you will regret."
"So you are going right now?" Haru asked. He found it quite strange that he had waited a whole week for Haru to get her but was going as soon as he helped him out a little bit.
"As they say time is of the essence. Oh, And one more thing. Try not to make your mother worry. She has always been the type to put her family before everything else. I don't want hurt to get hurt once again." The old man said and then smiled.
"Wait, My mother? How do you know my mother?" Haru asked in a panic.
The old man smiled as his body disappeared from where he was stood.
"We will meet again." The man's voice called out as a flash of golden light came through the windows.
Haru ran over the window and then looked out to see what looked like lightning striking the peak of the mountain.
He looked down at the bag the old man had given to him and then opened it up.
It was a bag that seemed to possess the law of space. It had hundreds of pills inside and then a strange-looking chunk of metal.
'What is this?' He thought before the doors to the elder's hall came flying open.