140 Leaving the Fire Dragon Sec

With Tai and Huo busy preparing for the wedding procession, Ed was left with nothing to do. So, he decided to return to the mansion to meditate. Just as he was about to open the door to his room, he heard high-pitched giggling coming from inside. 'Did Hina sneak into my room?' He wondered as he slowly cracked the door open to peek inside.

'Eh?' His eyes widened in surprise. Unexpectedly, there was someone he had never seen before. It was a girl that appeared to only be five or six years old. She had pure white skin, bright blue eyes, and wore a set of blue robes similar to the ones everyone else in the mansion wore. Her long straight blue hair was tied into three braids, with one braid over each shoulder and a bigger braid in the back. However, the shocking thing was what she was doing in his room. She was riding Tao like a horse! Tao scurried back and forth, seemingly careful not to harm the brat atop its body. In fact, it looked like it was even enjoying the game.

'Is Tao really a mutant crocodile?' Ed wondered. 'Maybe he was a dog in his past life or something...' No longer feeling worried about who the intruder was, he pushed the door open. Tao and the little girl froze in shock as they slowly turned their heads to look at him.

After a brief moment of silence, Ed spoke. "So, who are you?" He questioned.

"Eeeeeeeeek!!!" The little girl screamed so loudly in such a high pitch that Ed thought the window might shatter. Shockingly, her body began melting. Soon, there was nothing but a small puddle of water left.

"Eh?" Ed sent his mana out and checked the puddle. 'Oh, so she's an esper that can turn her body into water. Reminds me of Mordy.' Grinning to himself, he sighed aloud. "Ah, where did this big mess come from. I guess I'll just have to wipe it up with a towel and throw it in the wash after."

There was only silence as the puddle refused to respond.

"Or maybe I'll just throw the towel out." He continued. "Washing would be a lot of effort..."

"Azure is not trash to be thrown out!" The puddle murmured, small round waves appeared in it as it did so.

"Wow! A talking puddle of water! I bet I can sell this for a fortune to some crazy rich guy!" He exclaimed.

"Stop pretending you don't know that azure is an esper!" The puddle angrily yelled in a childish voice.

"An esper?" Ed slowly turned his head from left to right, examining the entire room carefully. "Eh, that can't be right. All I see is a puddle?"

"Grr!" The puddle growled as the water slowly began to rise into the air, transforming back into the little girl. "Azure is the puddle!" She shook her head. "I mean, Azure is the esper! See!"

Having had his fun, Ed got serious. He leaned back against the wall while crossing his arms and placing a foot against it. It was a good stance for attacking or retreating if he needed to. After all, he knew nothing about this girl other than that she was an esper. Who knows? Maybe she was an expert hiding her age or a deadly genius? It never hurt to be too careful. "So." He frowned. "Who are you and why are you in my room."

"Azure already told you she is Azure!" She complained. "And I was playing with Tao! I haven't gotten to play with him since we were on the ship." She pouted, her cheeks ballooning outwards while turning red.

"On the ship" Ed thought for a moment but didn't recall ever seeing a child so young on the ship or even within the cage. 'How dangerous would such a young esper have to be to be sent to the cage?' He wondered as he put his guard up even more. "I've never seen you before. Did Tai recruit you?" He questioned, half-disbelieving he was having this conversation with such a small child.

"Azure is going to marry big brother Tai someday!" She proudly declared while holding her chest up high.

Ed's eyes widened in shock. He lowered his head and rubbed his chin. 'Well, Tai does seem to like younger girls... but not to this extreme, right? Hopefully right...' He raised his head. "But Tai is already marrying someone else? How are you going to handle that?" He questioned her.

"Azure will become 3rd wife!" She answered, her face lighting up with excitement as she continued. "And big sister will be the 2nd wife! Then, we'll be together forever!"

'Oh, good. Sounds like she just doesn't want to be separated from her older sister.' Ed sighed in relief. "And who is this big sister?" He asked while trying to smile.

"Azure's big sis's name is Rubi!" She happily replied. "Rubi and Azure will be together forever!"

"RUBI?!" He almost felt himself coughing up blood at the unexpected answer. He reexamined the delicate little girl. With her thin body and pale skin, she looked more like a doll than an actual child. Then he thought of Rubi's towering muscular body and spiky red hair. Superimposing the images over each other, he felt a shiver go down his spine. He couldn't help but feel bad for the little girl knowing she might grow up looking like some barbaric amazon.

'Ah, come to think of it. She was the one that piloted the mech tank?' He rose an eyebrow as he stared at her. 'She should be smarter than she looks, but that's probably normal for espers. Is she actually this childish? Or is acting childish just a ploy she uses on others? Even if she wanted to play with Tao, did she need to sneak into my room to do it? Wait, what if she works for Nexus?!' His eyes sharpened with killing intent for a brief second before returning back to normal. 'No, that's being a bit too paranoid. Still, with Sect Master Long communicating with Nexus, I need to be careful. Feather must've found out about the prison break and my escape by now. I doubt she'll just let dead dogs rest.'

Shaking his head to awake from his thoughts he pointed at the door with his thumb. "Go play with Tao outside. I need to train."

"Okay." She nodded and slowly walked towards the door, Tao following behind her. On his way out, Tao glanced at him and snorted, seemingly dissatisfied at having his fun time interrupted.

"Tsk." Ed clicked his tongue. 'Some guard dog you are, just letting anyone in my room. Maybe I Should turn Tao into an actual dog sometime.' With the incident over, he sat down on his bed and entered meditation. This time, he focused on trying to split his water mana so that he could go after the water storage meridian. Unfortunately, his mana control wasn't good enough. He would likely need to be in a water, snow, or ice filled area to succeed at his current level. However, the good news was that he was slowly making progress in controlling his mana as he practiced.

...

Several days passed before someone knocked on his door. "Ed!" Tai yelled. "It's time to go. Everything has been prepared."

Ed woke up from meditation and hurriedly cleaned himself using his powers. He opened the door and saw Tai wearing a different robe than usual, and it was even flashier than the sect robes. The red robes were decorated with ornate gold trim patterns that formed different flowers and Chinese dragons. The bright colors made him stand out when compared to the ordinary colors of the mansion's white and brown walls.

"What do you think?" Tai smiled, pulling out a new red and gold fan with a golden dragon printed on it and waving it towards his face. "Surely any woman would fall for me when I look like this, right?" He smiled.

"Mm." Ed nodded. "Any woman with a love for decorative Christmas ornaments would fall in love at first sight." He joked. "No, but seriously, what are you wearing?" He smilingly questioned while trying not to laugh.

Tai frowned. "This is traditional Chinese wedding attire." He answered. "It's not like America where men wear tuxedos and women wear white dresses. In China, both the man and the woman wear red with gold patterns. It's tradition."

"Are you supposed to dress up like that before even getting approval? What if they don't want to hold the marriage for a few months? Or if they turn you down?" He questioned.

"This is to show my sincerity!" Tai proudly exclaimed. "How could they possibly turn me down when seeing me make a fool of myself like this? It's a romantic gesture of the highest magnitude." He sighed. "You just don't understand good romance."

"Maybe not." Ed laughed as he followed him down the stairs. "So, when are you marrying Rubi and Azure?" He asked.

Suddenly, Tai tripped over himself and stumbled several steps down. "Marrying who?!" He questioned, his voice cracking as he did so.

"Azure told me she would be your third wife and Rubi the 2nd." Ed grinned. "I have to say, I didn't really take you for somebody with such... diverse interests. But I suppose China has its own culture after all..."

"Stop joking!" Tai shouted. "Yuki is the only woman for me! Rubi will just have to get over it. And Azure is just a child. She's obviously just trying to make her big sister happy."

"Tsk." Ed clicked his tongue while placing his hands behind his back. "You're no fun to mess with today. The wedding has got you all stressed out."

Tai looked down for a moment before nodding. "Maybe you're right." He sighed. "Let's go." He turned to leave.

Ed leisurely followed behind him, wondering how things would go at the Purple Origin Sect. He doubted things would go easily, otherwise, why would Tai be so stressed and go to extremes to show his sincerity? 'I'm kind of looking forward to the show.' He chuckled evilly to himself. 'I bet Dupe would love to see it too.'

Exiting the mansion, Ed's eyes widened in surprise as he saw how the area had changed. The once empty road was now filled with cultivators wearing formal robes of various colors. There had to be at least several hundred of them crowding the street. Elephants pulled large trunks filled with various gold, gems, swords, and other goods behind them. Who knows where the Fire Dragon Sect had been hiding such massive animals. All sorts of orange flags and banners were being waved, each one having a red dragon painted on it. There were even musicians in the crowd, loudly banging drums and blowing trumpets as the procession moved forward.

"This way." Tai said. He led Ed through the crowds towards the front where many strong horses were waiting. The others were already there. Rubi held her little sister in front of her atop a horse. Flair didn't seem to want to ride a horse, and so she walked on foot by herself. There were several espers Ed recognized from the cage as well.

"Here." Tai pointed towards a dark brown horse.

Not particularly caring about which horse he had to ride, as they all looked the same, Ed tried to climb atop it. Never having ridden before, he felt awkward and out of place. If not for his strong body, he probably would have fell straight off. 'Why do people ride these things?' He complained to himself, his groin feeling great discomfort.

Suddenly, a miniature red Tao scurried out of nowhere and appeared in front of the horse. "Humph!" He snorted at the lowly beast as his body grew bigger in size. Soon, it was far bigger than the horse, though still smaller than the elephants. It glanced up at Ed, seemingly encouraging him to ride the best of all the beasts.

'Such a strange croc...' Ed thought as he happily climbed down from the horse. He sat cross-legged atop Tao's back, and it made him stand out amongst the crowd.

Tai glanced at Ed and shrugged, not seeming to care whether he was upstaged or not. At the end of the day, it's not like riding a crocodile gave off a noble image or anything of the sort. He climbed onto his own horse, which was the only white one amongst the bunch. It's pure white coat and imposing body could almost make one mistake the horse for a mutant at first glance, but it really was just an ordinary animal.

"Let's move!" Sect Master Long's voice boomed through the crowd. He sat atop the front-most elephant by himself.

The banging of the drums grew louder as they began to move. As they walked, Ed did some mental calculations in his head. 'It should be just over 1000 kilometers or so between here and Beijing. Add a few more for the distance to the mountain...' He looked around at the espers, most of which were only going at the typical walking speed for humans. 'We're barely moving five kilometers an hour. Wouldn't it take us around 9 days to reach there even without breaks?!' He shockingly realized. 'The animals and some of the weaker espers will need rest too...' He groaned aloud. 'This is going to take at least two weeks!'

Knowing that it was going to take a long time, he was all the more grateful to be riding the comfortable Tao. 'Ah, I guess I won't turn him into a dog after all.' He thought to himself. 'Might as well practice during the journey I guess.' And so, he closed his eyes in meditation, hoping to improve his mana control and maybe unlock another storage meridian.