The following morning! Ning Qi woke from his sleep a bit later than usual, and they came back at around 11 p.m. Then he went to drop off Yi Ran and Jia Li at their room, which is actually very close to Ning Jing's college area.
Li Ping was the one who usually dropped them, but after all the walking, their bodies finally began to complain. So he first dropped Li Ping at their home before dropping the girls again, which made it even later as he slept at around 3 am after doing some practice on the divine strengthening technique.
He checked the time and saw that it was already 10 a.m. He quickly got up before asking Li Ping about his work, to which he simply grunted and said that he was taking leave for the day.
"Alright Then! I'm going out, and I won't be coming back for the night. I will ask Aunty Wang to deliver some breakfast to you here on my way." Ning Qi said as he walked out of the room before closing it.
He then went to Aunty Wang's restaurant and had some breakfast before asking her to deliver one to Li Ping, who is also a regular customer of hers.
"It's alright, Ning! I will send little Wnag to deliver it around 11." Aunty Wang promised Ning Qi, which kind of confused him.
Because that kid has school, and it's Monday... But he didn't mention anything, as he doesn't know any reason to breach their privacy.
If he can help them financially, he will do it. But from what he understood, this family of two was never the type that would take the free money unless they were in a precarious situation.
"Thanks, Aunty Wang! Also, if you have any trouble, don't forget to call my number." Ning Qi said, before walking away under the worried and troubled face of Miss Wang.
She looked at his back as though she wanted to call him back to say something. But in the end, she held herself back and shook her head before going into their restaurant plus house.
Ning Qi then slowly made his way back to the sect. But surprisingly, he found none of them present in the sect. He couldn't help but look around the area before finally finding them near the foot of the Reed Flute Rock Mountains.
He used his speed to the fullest, as he caught them by surprise. Only Nangong Xu responded instantly, jumping back about five meters to put some distance between himself and that shadow.
"Enemy... No! It's the sect leader." Nangong Xu's first words after landing are to warn both of them, who are still stunned by their senior brother's sudden jump and an unknown presence standing right behind them.
When they heard the words' enemy from their senior brother's mouth, their bodies got quite tensed up, as they knew how dangerous it was to give their back to the enemy. But soon their bodies calmed down as they heard the next half of the words from Nangong Xu.
"You both still need to train your vigilance. Your senior brother reacted quite quickly, and I expected you to have at least some reaction. But you both didn't even flinch, which is very dangerous when you are fighting someone who is not our people."
Ning Qi commented as he walked in front of them. But he didn't scold them, as he also understands that things like this will come with experience. Only an oddball like Nangong Xu can do something like this after practicing for 15 or so days.
But he told them in a gentle manner so that they would keep themselves more alert the next time. He knows that it is also not good to keep your guard up, even when you are in a safe place, or else they will always live their lives keeping their guard up, even in front of their loved ones.
"But! Senior brother is way stronger than us..." Shen Yue said this in a complaining manner, as she felt Ning Qi was giving them a lesson. But she stopped herself in the middle of her words, as she felt weird glares from everyone.
"He is strong, but not on a level where you can't even react, while he already created some distance from the 'enemy', right?" Ning Qi asked as he felt quite troubled by this rebellious girl.
Shen Yue knew she spoke wrongly, she simply stuck her tongue at Ning Qi, making everyone roll their eyes.
"I'm sorry, sect master! I will be careful next time." Kang Xuan hurriedly spoke, as he felt that he performed poorly in front of the sect master.
"No! I don't want you guys to be on alert, even when you all are somewhere safe. I just want you to train it so that it will become instinctive... instead of always on guard. But don't get too worked up about it. It will take time to get there."
Ning Qi felt a headache and quickly corrected him, knowing this big guy misunderstood his intentions.
"Oh!..." Kang Xuan was relieved as he nodded his head. Shen Yue simply felt it was confusing to understand what Ning Qi was saying.
"It's alright, sect master! Once we do more missions, we will get more experience, and also, who would dare attack us at our own sect with you here? Hehe."
Nangong Xu said with a laugh, making Ning Qi nod his head, and he also wanted to give this guy a good beating for such a wretched laugh, as though he were expecting something.
"Alright! What are you all doing here? I thought you were all either practicing in the martial arena or in the main hall." Ning Qi asked casually, as he still didn't get to know the reason they were there.
"We are just practicing our fighting skills in the open area, which will have a much wider range to put all our strength and speed into full effect." Nangong Xu reasoned, making Ning Qi nod his head.
"Alright! I will just sit near that tree. Once you are done, I have something to discuss with you all." Ning Qi said as he walked to one of the nearby trees to practice the divine strengthening technique, not bothering with them anymore.
They all looked a bit confused, as the last time Ning Qi announced something, it was about the missions. But they have done their first mission not long ago, so they don't know what it is this time.
"Alright! We will know once the sect master informs us! Let's concentrate on our own strengths first... Even if it is one more mission, we need to increase our own strength to the fullest, as I have the feeling that the mission we will get in the future will be tougher than the previous ones."
Nangong Xu's face, which always smiles, turned a bit solemn as he said those words.
"Hm! I will increase my practice time by one more hour from today onwards." Kang Xuan said, as though he is both informing them and also, at the same time, telling himself.
Shen Yue rolled her eyes at her old junior brother, who had just put a little more pressure on her. She also secretly decided to increase the time she put into her cultivation by one hour.
Nangong Xu smiled upon seeing their determined faces before proceeding to continue their sparring session.
Ning Qi simply ignored them, as he finally got a good chance to look at notifications from the system.
"System! Open my panel." Ning Qi commanded in his mind.
Personal stats:
Name: Ning Qi
Race: Human
Title: Sect Master of the Taohua Sect
[ Passive: Effect - Have the aura around the host that causes those who don't exceed more than 3 levels to feel intimidation and makes them unable to move. Over time, the ones that are under the aura will die. But the host can withdraw or release his aura with just a thought ]
Range: 10 meters and not effective on those who don't have cultivation]
Cultivation: Foundation establishment layer 3 (800/1000) *XP required for leveling up [every 9 levels the host undergoes a qualitative change].
Life Span: 28/200
Health: 6900/6900 (cannot increase with stats) (can only increase with particular requirements and leveling up) [600 points every level up in the foundation establishment realm]
Body stats:
Strength: 45 (4500 kg)
Agility: 42 (360 m/sec)
Intelligence: 38.2
(The average human has stats around 1).
Special Stats: (Available: 0)
Time affinity ( Earthly ): level 0 (6/10)
Law Ability :
Time shifting (passive): The host can shift an object's state from present to future. The host can only manipulate an object's state for up to 3 seconds of its future.
Range: 100 meters around the host (outside of this range, the host will lose the ability on the object).
Darkness affinity (Earthly): level 0 (0/10)
Martial Techniques:
Divine Strengthening Technique - Stage 1
Skills: 1. Master-level hand-to-hand combat techniques - UPGRADABLE (27/100)
2. Master-level Gun mastery - UPGRADEABLE (7/100)
Unique ability: Eye of spirit.
Overall Strength Rating: Can fight against a foundation establishment level 4 cultivator and overwhelm him. With the activation of law ability, can kill those in the golden core realm 4.
"That is not even activating my divine strengthening technique. And I will be able to reach foundation establishment realm 4 today, hehe!"
Ning Qi felt quite satisfied with his own growth, which is quite fast. It's only been about 20 days or 3 weeks since he got into the cultivation world.