Soon, the two of them walking side by side reached the outskirts of the village, twilight had set over the village and people all over were beginning to wrap up their daily tasks.
On the way there were no words exchanged between Shu He and Chao Shi, however Shu He was still curious about the man and had made some effort to observe him some more.
His strut was controlled and sharp and his stance taught like a blade, his chin sharp and shaved.
'Or maybe he doesn't even need to shave?' Shu He had no idea if a cultivator could prevent his hair growing or something needless like that.
The man resembled a 'sword' down to the T, if Shu He had to imagine a 'sword cultivator', this man would be it.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason Shu He thought that; he hadn't seen it before because he was always facing towards him, but the man had a long silver sheathed sword resting on his back, when he used his Keen Sight he could feel the same sharpness he felt in Chao Shi's Qi, only in a more concentrated and lethal feeling fashion.
'I wonder what that is, is it a different type of Qi? Maybe it's similar to my golden Qi…' Were the thoughts that were passing through Shu He's head, but of course he wouldn't mention this to anyone, he still had no idea if his gold Qi was a boon or a curse to him and whether it was normal or not, neither Dong Jie nor this Chao Shi had seen or mentioned it, and his Keen Sight allowed him to see things that he couldn't normally see with his blue Qi, so he'd now assumed it wasn't 'normal'.
It wasn't much longer before they reached one of the gates to enter the village, but Shu He was surprised as when he looked over there were two people he had also never seen before standing by them.
'The same robe' He observed the two figures, although the light had begun to dim he could see well enough with his normal sight to look them over, the first thing he noticed was that they had robes embroidered with the 'Metal' symbol, identical to the ones Chao Shi was wearing.
One male who wasn't particularly tall and a Female that was slightly taller than the male.
"There he is!" younger man shouted, pointing there way while glancing at the girl next to him.
The girl quickly reacted and began running over, the young man trailing after.
"Senior Shi, where were you? we were worried!" She said, the ponytailed hazel hair swaying.
'Senior?' Shu He's eyebrow rose at the way she referred to him.
'He doesn't look that old, is it because he's higher up in the sect than them?' He thought.
"YOU were worried, you mean; I didn't doubt that there was anything that could bring him harm" The young man crossed his arms as he scoffed at the girl.
"Oh please, you were trailing around more than me! "What if something has happened?" "We should go look for him"" She spoke grinning as she recalled earlier.
"Oh, shut it! That didn't happen!" He yelled back.
"Ahh, alright, alright you two settle down, sorry for the wait I was making my way here and would have been on time but…" Chao Shi spoke and gestured to Shu He beside him.
"I found an interesting little thing and got side tracked you see?" He smiled at the two making them settle as they stared at Shu He in confusion.
"Interesting? Huh? Who's the kid?" The girl asked, eyebrows raised as she looked Shu He up and down, the young man beside her also did so with a slightly grumpy look on his face as if he was thinking 'This kid is what delayed you?'.
"Right, let's do some introductions okay?" He walked behind the two and patted them both on the shoulder before looking towards the girl.
Her hair was hazel with it tied back in a ponytail, her eyes also the same hazel colour, she was just under Chao Shi's height and also wore a sword in the leather sheathe on her back, as Shu He observed her he looked between her and Chao Shi and couldn't help but think-
'Is she copying him?' The two looked very similar in the way they dressed, did their hair and wore the sword, though he assumed she was the one copying.
"This one is Yun Hua, like her name suggests she can have her head in the clouds sometimes but she's sharp when she needs to be".
"Senior Shi! Thanks!" She said, smiling.
"That wasn't meant to be a compliment…" The young man grumbled in return.
Chao Shi merely chuckled as he moved on to the young man.
"This one here is Bai Shun, he's quite dedicated to everything he does but isn't very honest with himself" He spoke before quickly backing away towards Shu He.
"Hey! I'm perfectly honest when I need to be!" Bai Shun grumbled.
"See what I mean?" Chao Shi shrugged as he spoke.
The young man was only a foot and a bit taller than Shu He was, only slightly taller than Huo Da was in fact, he had short black hair and teal eyes, his face was fairly plain; Shu He couldn't find a weapon on his person.
'Huh, I expected them to all use swords' His mental pattern crumbled down.
"And this one here-" He finally got to Shu He and put his hands on his shoulders making him slightly uncomfortable.
'We only just met, you're a bit close no?!' He retorted in his head.
"This is Shu He; he lives in this village but is actually a cultivator believe it or not! Sooner or later, he'll be your junior so remember him!" He spoke with joy, ignoring the reactions of the trio to come.
"""Huh?!""" The three spoke in unison, even Shu He.
"Wait, why are you surprised?" Yun Hua said with doubt, meanwhile beside her Bai Shun had began rubbing his head like it was in pain.
"Senior Shi… You've been told this before, but you can't just drag people to the sect whenever you want" He spoke like a mother admonishing his child.
"I never said I'd join…" Shu He also grumbled.
"I know, I know, but I just have a good feeling you know? This kid would do really well in our sect, so I want to at least make an impression" He explained, patting Shu He even more.
'I swear to god when I'm taller I'll smack this man' Shu He planned in his head while being annoyed by the constant patting.
"What's so good about this kid then?" Yun Hua asked, currently taking a closer look at Shu He and wandering around him like a dog trying to find a scent.
"His skill with the bow! When I stumbled on him he was training alone and for a child of his age, his skills are pretty good you know?" He replied while emoting like he was holding a bow.
"A bow? There aren't many cultivators that use a bow…" She said with some doubt.
"But there are some, just because it's unpopular doesn't make it bad" Chao Shi said.
"That's right, but you said 'for a child of his age'… So, what about overall?" Bai Shun asked.
"Hmm, I would say still decent; If we're ignoring his age then there are definitely mortals that are better than him with a bow, in fact I think he knows that himself…"
Shu He looked at him, confused at what he was getting at before he had a sudden realisation.
'Is he talking about my father? Yeah… I can see that, even now I haven't managed to reach the level I saw that day, there is just something I'm missing'.
"Is that so…" Bai Shun looked at Shu Li with curiosity, seeing this Chao Shi smirked.
"Are you interested, Bai Shun?" He asked.
For a second, the young man stood still, considering before he spoke again.
"Yeah let's do that then… Kid- no, Shu He".
"? Yes?" Shu He had no idea what was going on, of course, he's just being dragged around at this point.
"Tomorrow, I want to test you".
"… Wha?"
'???????????????????'
Shu He was left confused as to what he had been dragged in to.