"I may be a fool, but I value my people more than untouchable things like power. I don't care about it at all." Arslan said as he smiled, being in peace with himself.
"Hm, nothing to say against that." John said turning his head towards Arslan and smiling back at him.
Both of them continued eating and, after some minutes, John left, heading towards his allocated cultivation room. The determination in his eyes was much visible than before... as if the talk with Arslan made him more resolute. He had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve.
'He is a nice guy after all. I shouldn't have judged the book from its cover.' Arslan thought as he watched John leaving.
He spent his afternoon training restlessly and he dedicated his evening once again to Qi refining. The Middle Stage of the Earth level was getting closer and closer.
--
--
--
The next morning, Arslan was woken up by someone knocking at his door,
"Yaawnn... Damn, I was so tired after yesterday's training that I didn't notice the sun was already high in the sky." He said as he noticed the amount of sunlight entering his room while yawning with his right hand on his mouth and a teardrop under his left eye. The knocking continued and Arslan, who at first thought it came from his dream, finally heard it clearly,
"Who is it that comes to knock at my door? I hope it is not Troy again." He thought as he went to open the door. At that moment, his face was a mixture of shock and fear,
'What is he doing here?' He wondered as he raised his gaze to look at the man's face. An old man with an unkempt mustache wearing a white robe... Elder Oak was at his right in front of Arslan.
"Hey little boy, did you miss me?" Elder Oak said with the uneasiest smile on Earth.
"W-Why are you looking for me?" Arslan said nervously as he knew Elder Oak wasn't a person to take lightly, 'In the last months he have never come to talk to me directly, but has always sent his lackeys to tell me what I was supposed to do. If he is here now, there must be a problem.'
"You know Arslan..." He started talking while stroking the hilt of his sword, making Arslan sweat as his eyes looked there automatically, "News reached my ears about you being suddenly on everyone's mouth here..." Elder Oak unsheathed his sword as he finished the sentence. He was so fast that Arslan didn't even see the movement.
'Damn it, is this the speed of a Sky-level cultivator? First Elder Song's pressure and now Elder Oak's speed... just how much do I still need to improve to reach their level?' Arslan wondered as he realized that in front of them he was nothing more than an ant.
He looked at Elder Oak while trying to stay as calm as possible, seeing that Elder Oak was visibly angry.
Elder Oak continued,
"I'm quite disappointed by you Arslan... I thought you cared about your little sister... but it seems you consider me like an id*ot." He said as his smile became a fearsome face, whose expression would have made everyone tremble.
"W-What does this have to do with her?!"
"Shhh, shh... You just need to remember in whose hands she is... so... from now on, don't attract unnecessary attention from other people," Elder Oak said while licking the blade of his sword,
I will give you another chance... use it wisely."
After that sentence, he left. Arslan remained on the threshold for some time while clenching his fists till the nails of his fingers pierced his palms, making the blood stain his hands.
'Why... Why... Why do I have to go through all of this?!?! I just wanted a normal life... to keep my sister safe and nothing else... but all of these b*stards won't leave me alone!!' Arslan thought as his body trembled in frustration, "I must become stronger... stronger than anyone else!" He said with all the determination he had.
He spent the rest of the morning training and, while he was eating, two people approached him,
'Oh... here they are, Elder Oak's lackeys...' Arslan thought as his expression got gloomy seeing them right after their boss. They were Elder Oak's personal disciples and, by being currently inner disciples, they were much stronger than him, despite having the same age Arslan had.
"Ptuh... Why do we regularly have to come to this shabby place?! It's so annoying." The one on the left said as he spat on the ground near Arslan's shoes.
"I agree, but it is Elder Oak's order, so let's end it quickly," The other one said looking at Arslan with a disdaining look on his face, "talking with this trash of an orphan is annoying for me too."
Arslan's eyes pointed to the ground as his gaze was lost in the void, after hearing such a degrading statement, but there wasn't much he could do against two Mystic-level cultivators.
"Hey trash, look at us. Elder Oak gave you another task. Go to the forest out of the walls and pick up 5 flowers of the dragon tail herb. We are in June, so it is the period for them to blossom." The disciple on the right said. Then he got closer to Arslan, who in the meantime raised his head as he was told, and looked at him in his eyes,
"Hahaha, this is quite funny... your eyes have the same color as those flowers. I guess it won't be hard for you to find them then." He said as he laughed.
"..." Arslan didn't answer back.
"HEY! Did you hear what he said?" The other guy intervened getting closer and bending his body's upper part, due to Arslan being sat on a bench.
"Yes, I did." Arslan said as his frustration rose.
"Good. Answer earlier the next time." The same guy said as he took a step back.
"That's all for today. Bye trash!" He said as he laughed and turned around to go away, not before spitting again on the ground near Arslan. The other one followed him and both of them disappeared from Arslan's line of sight.
'These disgusting b*stards. They are all the same! They consider themselves so high and mighty but they are only a bunch of useless b*stards. They don't even know what it means to be an orphan in this f*cked Empire.' Arslan thought as anger flowed inside his veins.