41 Gong Lan Returns

Cha Ming didn't need to wait very long. As he returned to his courtyard, he was welcomed by a pretty girl dressed in red leather armor. The dark red armor complemented her short black hair perfectly, and her exposed legs and midriff caused impure thoughts to surface in Cha Ming's mind.

He stopped ten feet away from the entrance to his courtyard, where Gong Lan was napping while leaning on the front door. His placid smile turned into an impish grin at the thought of scaring her awake. That thought quickly disappeared as he was instantly overwhelmed by a baleful aura.

"Aiya! Sorry about that Cha Ming!" Gong Lan got up and patted the dust from her armor and bare skin. The air in the student residence was quite dusty, and a light film of fine powder had accumulated on her red outfit during her nap. "You surprised me, so I lashed out instinctively."

Clearly, the baleful aura had emanated from the formerly gentle girl, Gong Lan. As he looked at her, he observed a stark change in her demeanor. Her previous kind and courageous aura had transformed. She now seemed aggressive and incisive. Wang Jun had told him that she'd taken the news of his disappearance very badly, but wasn't this a little too badly?

Cha Ming quickly regained his composure and invited her in for tea. He received an awkward look from her as he walked into the house. Only when he went to boil water did he realize that he was still maintaining a white-knuckled grip on his staff with both hands. Huxian, observing Cha Ming put away his weapon, relaxed his bristled fur and started prancing around to obtain pats from the pretty girl he'd met before.

A short while later, Cha Ming and Huxian were seated in a small living room. He didn't have much. He did, however, keep stock of a few good teas and some dried fruits, which he occasionally took out to serve guests. Gong Lan returned from a small guest room a short while later. She had used a small side room to wash off the dust and grime that had accumulated on her figure during her travels. Such a thing was child's play for a water cultivator, but it would have been improper to wash herself out in the open.

"So," said Cha Ming while pouring two cups and a bowl of tea, "it's been far too long. I heard that you've been traveling for the past couple of months?" He was very curious as to what could have changed her so much in a short period of time.

"Yes, I traveled with my brother to a city called Clearwood. I asked him to help me train, so he taught me a… unique cultivation technique that he was familiar with. He had used this cultivation technique in the past to make a name for himself over a decade ago," she replied.

"Oh? You changed your cultivation method? Such a thing is very risky, to say the least," Cha Ming said.

"Yes, normally it would be. However, the prerequisite for this technique is an existing water-cultivation technique to use as a foundation. Therefore, there was no conflict," Gong Lan explained.

"What's the name of the technique?" asked Cha Ming curiously.

"Blood World Scripture," she replied in a soft whisper, sending shivers down Cha Ming's spine.

"Blood is mostly water," she continued. "As a result, there is a high compatibility with water-cultivation techniques. The technique is used to refine my control over my own—and my opponent's—blood. However, it can only be cultivated during life-and-death battles. As such, I went to Clearwood's underground arena to fight many matches. Because of this intense training regimen, I've now reached the sixth level of qi condensation. This is all without using any medicinal pills."

Cha Ming lifted an eyebrow in surprise. They were both third-grade talents. In truth, Cha Ming was a grade 3.4 talent. Why would there be such a huge disparity? His blood began to rush with excitement as he realized that she would be the perfect sparring partner for his new staff and movement arts. Then he remembered that he was also a body cultivator at the 6th level and let out a depressed sigh. Defeating her should be quite easy now that he thought about it.

"We should definitely take the time to spar sometime," Cha Ming said. "While I'm only at the fifth level of qi condensation, I've made quite a bit of progress. The only thing I'm missing is a test dummy."

Gong Lan's eyes instantly lit up. Her dormant fighting spirit was kindled, and Cha Ming could sense a disturbing amount of bloodlust seeping out from her. He shivered involuntarily while instantly regretting his decision.

"Let's go now!" she yelled. She literally dragged Cha Ming out of the courtyard. Huxian followed behind them dutifully, looking unconcerned.

A short while later, Cha Ming followed Gong Lan and Huxian into an empty arena. Huxian scampered off to the side as a spectator. Once the path was clear, Cha Ming turned and readied his heavy staff.

He laughed. "I haven't had a fight in days! It'll be nice to finally… blow off some steam." This was the wrong thing to say, because she immediately took out her blood-colored sabers and licked one of their edges.

Oh shit. Why does she keep giving me the willies? thought Cha Ming.

"All right, I'm ready!" he called out. She instantly charged toward him, launching out a surprise attack. One of her blades aggressively slashed toward his chest, forcing him to step back quickly with Burst Step. She continued to press the advantage and chased after him. Her movements were unusual and quick. Cha Ming suspected that she had a gold or silver movement technique. She closed the gap in an instant, threatening to decapitate him with a twin-bladed strike.

"Tch." He chose to respond to her onslaught with a flawless defense. He instantly combined Wading Through the Reeds with White Willow Shade, deflecting her blades to the side and stepping around her with ease. This was just a warm-up, of course. Gong Lan quickly used the momentum from her missed strikes to spin in a half circle, jumping up to deliver a diagonal strike with both blades.

He continued to evade her, deflecting her increasingly aggressive attacks with his staff. He couldn't keep this up for long, though, as her rhythmic strikes were speeding up.

Fine, if you're going to play this way, I'll just have to jam you up! He quickly changed his strategy and quickly switched to using the Trapping Staff Art.

He immediately regretted his decision. The vicious strikes contained far more power than he originally expected, and they knocked him off balance. He took advantage of her fierce blows to slide backward. A thin ice blade had formed beneath his feet. He used them to redirect his backward momentum and swung around toward Gong Lan. Seven Cloud Steps! Shearing Staff Art! He quickly pushed himself forward, using the burst of speed to unleash a violent blade of wind.

Much to his surprise, she easily chopped the blade of wind in two with one of her sabers.

"Looks like I have to get serious!" he yelled.

Instantly, the white rosary on his wrist burst into pieces as sixty motes of light flew out to surround them. Unfortunately, he didn't have a wood-based manifestation with offensive capabilities. However, he knew that earth had a destructive interaction with water. Thirty-six of the pearls he unleashed formed a quaking circle, which he reinforced using both fire qi and wood qi thanks to his high-grade cultivation technique.

The quaking power rattled Gong Lan's rhythm, but she gritted her teeth and charged nonetheless. While charging, she cried out and unleashed six consecutive strikes with her blades. Six bloody blades of qi burst out from her swords and attacked Cha Ming from afar. He was forced to dodge these sharp qi-blades, granting her precious time to close in on his position. Her charge was perfectly timed, and she caught him in a precarious position.

Not wanting to be outdone, he quickly used his Shearing Staff Art to push down against the floor, launching himself fifty feet up into the air. While Gong Lan was surprised that he could use wind qi, she had seen the move before and remained unperturbed.

His maneuver didn't end there, however. As he reached the peak of his trajectory, he quickly jumped in midair using Seven Cloud Steps. He took advantage of gravity to gain momentum, which he was preparing to unleash in a single blow.

***

Gong Lan's expression turned grim. Seeing his vicious approach, she quickly stepped back to ruin his approach angle. In response to her movements, however, she noticed that the quaking pearls, which had constantly been hampering her movements, suddenly began glowing with a frosty light-blue color. To her horror, she was frozen to the floor by the element she was most comfortable with—water, in the shape of ice!

Normally such a crude ice field wouldn't pose a problem. However, she currently had less than half a second to react before his staff came crashing down. She gritted her teeth and decided to unleash her most powerful attack: Blood Saber Art—Twin Decapitation!

This was a technique that she would normally only unleash when she intended to kill her victim. However, the old her was no more. She was now relentless, unyielding. She braced herself as she poured blood-red qi and killing intent into her twin blades, accumulating her full power to unleash in a single strike.

***

Cha Ming, who was swiftly plunging down toward her, felt his blood run cold as a vicious killing intent swept through his flesh and blood, paralyzing him momentarily. This greatly reduced the momentum he had struggled to build for this single strike. Unfortunately, he was committed to the attack. Therefore, he gripped his staff on its end with both hands, sending the remaining five feet crashing down with unparalleled might.

Quake Staff!

His most powerful strike collided with hers, forcing them both back like kites with their strings cut. Both he and Gong Lan coughed up blood as they stared at each other, both of them weakly climbing up on one knee. Cha Ming was shocked by her ferocity and killing intent. Clearly she had not just fought normal battles over the last two months. No, she had been fighting death matches!

The thought overwhelmed him with sorrow. Why had such a pure and innocent girl transformed into a such a berserker for his sake? While it was her decision to make, he found it to be a huge shame. He had liked the gentle side of her, but it now seemed remote or nonexistent. It was like the old Gong Lan was dead.

No words were spoken as they sat down cross-legged to recover. Cha Ming revolved his Healing Circle manifestation, which quickly improved their rate of recovery.

Once they had completely recovered, Cha Ming let out a reluctant laugh. "You're pretty tough! At this fifth level of qi condensation, I have a ludicrously high soul force, and I've trained my body to the sixth level, yet we're evenly matched! I'm impressed!"

Her expression turned gloomy as she responded, "All I had to do was lose myself. That's the price I paid." She then averted her gaze as though ashamed of what she had become.

As Cha Ming wracked his brain to recover from the awkward conversation, their silence was interrupted by loud yipping noises from Huxian. Cha Ming also received a mental message. He laughed wryly as he lifted his staff over his shoulder. He sighed. "Huxian is so impressed that he wants to fight a two-on-one now."

"Oh, a two-on-one? I guess I can fight the both of you if you like," she replied. Her doting expression implied that she would go easy on him.

"You misunderstand. He'd like to fight us. Unfortunately, he's much stronger than me," Cha Ming said.

"How is this possible? He's only a three-month-old spirit beast!" Gong Lan asked in disbelief.

Cha Ming walked beside her and took out his staff.

"You'd better be ready, Gong Lan. Since it's two of us, he might actually take us seriously."

Cha Ming gulped as he manifested a metal-reinforced freezing circle targeting only Huxian, as well as two preemptive healing hands. After all, this was really going to hurt.

***

A while later, the three of them met Wang Jun and Hong Xin at a nearby restaurant. Hong Xin had not seen Gong Lan in ages, so they chatted about all sorts of things while Cha Ming and Wang Jun spoke for the second time that day.

"You really weren't kidding when you said a mutual friend would be coming by soon. She's seriously strong, so much so that we're evenly matched," Cha Ming said quietly.

Wang Jun lifted one eyebrow as he digested this piece of information. "So, she beat you up?"

"I said evenly matched! But then again, Huxian beat us in a two-on-one afterward. Still, she's seriously strong."

"Are you talking about this big sister?" Gong Lan interrupted with a proud air.

"Big sister, my ass! Huxian beat up the both of us, and I'm his older brother. You're definitely the little sister in the pecking order," Cha Ming snapped back.

As if wanting to confirm Cha Ming's words, Huxian dutifully jumped up on his lap and started licking his hand, causing the whole table to burst into a fit of laughter.

"So does this mean our dear little sister is going to accompany Cha Ming on his trip?" asked Wang Jun.

"What trip? Cha Ming never told me about a trip," Gong Lan said while shooting Cha Ming an evil glare.

In response, he coughed lightly before replying. "I never got a chance to bring it up. This bloodthirsty little sister dragged me to the arena five minutes into afternoon tea. Then she decided to try skewering me with her sabers. Finally, we fought Huxian, and we've been recovering from his 'beating of love' ever since.

"Anyhow, like Wang Jun was saying, Huxian and I are going to Fairweather County for an adventure. There's apparently some excitement there, and while I'm at it, I need to go commission some medicinal pills and get a staff forged. Unfortunately, Wang Jun can't come along this time because he needs to take care of some family business."

He didn't mention Hong Xin. From what he could gather, she'd been so emotionally scarred by the event in the woods that she had given up all attempts at cultivation. Now she cultivated with minimum effort, barely driven by the fact that cultivating would help her maintain her youthful looks.

"How convenient!" Gong Lan exclaimed. "I heard that there's a lucrative mission happening in Fairweather. Many mercenaries in my brother's company will be traveling there in three days. We can just join their group to travel there."

It was too convenient, in fact. If Wang Jun hadn't explained how fate was basically begging him to travel there, he would have suspected a conspiracy. From the sounds of it, this "lucrative mission" was exactly why he had to travel there.

The matter was quickly settled. He spent the last three days visiting with friends and saying farewells. He made sure to visit the Hong family for supper one night, where he was pestered with questions about the mysterious Wang Jun that Hong Xin had started dating.

For some reason, Cha Ming couldn't help but feel he might never return to Green Leaf City again. This feeling was reinforced when he visited Elder Ling. Elder Ling essentially trapped him, forcing him to play several games of Angels and Devils while concurrently lecturing him on talisman crafting. Before parting, Elder Ling gave him a strange object. It was a glowing ball containing swirls of black and white. He was instructed to open it only once he reached foundation establishment.

When Cha Ming asked why he was giving him such a precious gift now, Elder Ling only replied that it was destiny, and that he would know the reason in the future. At this point, Cha Ming was fed up with destiny. However, he obediently accepted the gift and kowtowed three times to his teacher. Would they ever meet again?

The next morning, Cha Ming, Huxian, and Gong Lan walked out of Green Leaf City with ten Fierce Blood mercenaries. It was time for another dangerous adventure, one that would change their lives forever.