7 'state of Focus's

Hartley was greeted by Zhi Ruo holding a package standing at his door, "come in" he said.

Zhi Ruo came in and handed the package to Hartley, she then said "Go try it out and see if it fits, I rushed it a bit but I think it came out good considering the short amount of time."

Hartley nodded and went back into his bedroom..

After opening the package he discovered 2 beautiful yellow robes, embroidered with a Capital H right where the breast pocket should have been. Hartley changed into the lose fitting robe, stood in front of the full size mirror in his bedroom and swept his hair back with his right palm, he looked around and found a piece of string to tie his hair at the back then inspected himself, he was taken aback, he looked like a tanned version of one of those young lords of the Luo clan he despised so much during his younger days.

He returned with his hair tied neatly with the simple string, he pranced into the living room with his arms spread..

Zhi Ruo stared...

she couldn't stop staring, the wild youth she met earlier always had a mysterious element to him, but now he was standing in front of her, back straight and with those striking blue eyes staring directly at her.... It sent a jolt through her body, she blushed and tried to get out of there as quick as possible but Hartley held onto her wrist gently while saying.

"Thank you Sister Ruo," her body went stiff, she forced a fake smile while still looking at him, stammered out a few words and then left in a flustered manner.

Zhi Ruo stopped 5 paces from the door to catch her breath, she didn't think the wild youth would have been so strikingly handsome, she blushed once more just thinking about him and then left.

Hartley had a wry smile on his face, he had not had much interaction with other people for the last couple years so he was genuinely thankful for Zhi Ruo's help...

The strange thing was, he still felt a bit of an unknown feeling when thinking about her. "Hmm?" He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and continued to cultivate....

It was a quiet night, the occasional sound of a horse would travel through the night every now and then, the candle sitting on the wooden table had burned all the way to the end and extinguished itself in the liquefied wax that was collected and cooling in the candle holder. Hartley was diligently cultivating Blue Star Energy...He was on the cusp of getting back that familiar feeling.

BOOM!!!

The front door was blown to smithereens by a orangish and red fire ball projectile, it headed straight for Hartley....

Hartley squinted his eyes in concentration and BAM! another explosion went off, the only difference was this time the explosion was inside Hartley's head, no one else could have noticed it.

Hartley had broken through the first stage of time manipulation.. This was called "State of Focus" where Hartley could control the flow of time within 30 meters radius. Hartley was facing a fireball which was about 4 meters in front of him and closing in at a rate of knots, he could feel the sweltering heat emitted by the flames. His eyebrows started to be singed.

Hartley cried out "State of Focus" within his heart and every thing around him started to move in slow-motion, he then dodged to the side with blue star essence instinctively covering his body from neck to toe like a suit of armor..

If viewed from the outside, all one could see was a stunning fire-ball enter the room leaving a ripple of shimmering heat glaze then the youth who sat crossed legged on the bed seem to have teleported off the bed 7 or 8 meters to left with some kind of blue qi around him..

The fireball crashed into the bed with enormous flash of orange, that whole side of the room had turned to splinters and fire eliciting screams from the adjoining room.

Hartley scrambled to regain his bearings before finally sensing 2 people moving within his 30 meter range, it was unlikely that these were the guys responsible for the fireball but they were that person's accomplices circling with cross-bows, ready to execute anyone fleeing the inferno.

Hartley activated zero gravity

Everything not tied down began to float upwards including the 2 people on the other side of the wooden wall.. Hartley deactivated zero gravity which made everything start to fall downwards, the furniture in the room clattered down to the floor and splintered in chaos along with the 2 screaming and frightened targets.

Hartley used "Gravity Repel" on two of his throwing knives, this was a move that pushed gravity away from Hartley parallel to the ground and could be used on specific items as well..

The 2 knives flew out like bullets with an unstoppable momentum, The weapons went through the wooden wall with no resistance then accurately penetrated the 2 people in dark robes on the other side of the wall... went through both of them and ended up handle deep with a thud, quivering in another wooden structure across from the inn.. These people fell to the ground, their robes stained with a red patch, their faces shocked...They were dead, they just didn't know it yet.