Deep into a cluster of twisty brown trees off the main road Zhi Ruo and Hartley prowled over the soft ground that had patches of green grass and scattered dead brown leaves everywhere.
Every now and then the chilly wind would gently sweep away some of the dead leaves with a rustling sound like a rattle snake.
Hartley was one step in front of Ruo as they moved forward in a low crouching posture, they were hunters stalking prey. Hartley stopped, held up his right fist, then two fingers pointed to the sky and finally he pointed his index finger forward. This was a sequence of hand signals Hartley had taught her in the last couple of days.
With Zhi Ruo's new found dedication towards cultivation, she had flown pass the 8th realm of houtian and had broken into the 9th and final realm of houtian. Hartley had estimated it would take her months but come to find out she actually had some natural talent. Granted she had been supplementing her cultivation with pieces of high ranked medicinal dans given to core disciples of the Lou clan, but still this was an amazing achievement.
Hartley didn't know it yet but Zhi Ruo's father, the man whose silver sword he had been wielding ever since the death battle with Lou Lee, was also a talented cultivator and held the post of a bodyguard in the Royal family for many years.
A love triangle forced him to flee the capital but that was a story yet to be revealed and wouldn't come to their attention until much later on in their adventure....but lets not digress.
The hand signals just passed on by Hartley was to signify that there were two targets straight ahead. After discovering Ruo's quick cultivation Hartley had decided to start her combat training immediately and slow down the journey to the Pembroke province even more. Hartley had a collection of space rings and one of these space rings had a collection of weapons gained along the way.
He had laid out a plethora of weapons on the floor of the carriage and asked Zhi Ruo to chose one she liked, she chose two.
Ruo had taken a pair of beautifully crafted black assassin's daggers, they looked like rank 2 spirit weapons but Hartley wasn't sure, he himself hadn't learnt how to rate spirit weapons as yet.
Hartley had spent countless hours in the last couple of days teaching Zhi Ruo the most efficient basic strikes he had learnt through trial and error in the back mountains of the Lou clan.
Downward diagonal, upward diagonal, horizontal and vertical strikes.
The building blocks of his self taught technique.
"Strike in a fast straight line towards the target without any embellishment" he had told her.
Her strikes were perfect in rehearsal but now it was time for her to try and get her first kill.
Zhi Ruo's eyes were wide with nervousness, she was wearing loose grey robes with one of her best soft fitting armors she had made on this journey protecting her under the robe.
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She silently crept behind Hartley as the two low level fierce beast came into view. She gulped down her saliva and calmed her nerves. Hartley waited for her to come alongside him and then whispered.
"I'll take the one on the left, you take out the one on the right, I will be right there with you at all times, don't be nervous." he flashed her a calming smile and added "concentrate on the movement technique i showed you."
She looked him in the eyes and took a deep breath, there was no one on this earth that she trusted more than Hartley.
The targets were two type of wolf-like brown creatures. They had sharp claws and thick fur, the fierce beasts moved slowly sniffing the floor as they scavenged for food.
Two figures dashed out of the cover of the trees and assaulted the fierce beasts. The beast on the left immediately lost its head with a silver flash followed by a gush of blood.
The remaining fierce beast saw Zhi Ruo approaching and swiped its front claws at her, she elegantly danced to the side avoiding it. Zhi Ruo had a face full of concentration as she made a quick horizontal slash leaving a bleeding cut on the side of the wolf-like creature, it howled out loud and with reddened eyes rushed forward, its jaws wide open exposing dozens of sharp teeth. Hartley moved closer to intercept the fierce beast just in case...
Zhi Ruo still had a mask of concentration on her face, she instinctively made quick small steps almost on the tip of her toes to the right looking like a ghost gliding over the soft earth and patchy grass. The beast flicked up a tornado of dead leaves and dirt as it flashed pass snapping its jaws shut in attempt to dismember a piece of Zhi Ruo, it ran into and small tree which toppled over as Zhi Ruo landed a left handed horizontal strike on its rump.
It was a deeper cut this time causing the fierce beast to howl out in pain again.
Hartley let out a sigh of relief as he stayed close to the battle ready to intervene at a moment's notice. Then something amazing happened... After exchanging another few attacks and leaving bloody marks on the creature each time, Zhi Ruo looked more relaxed and a dull white glow covered her daggers as she left deep wound on the creature's body.
She had water elemental affinity, "no wonder she moved so elegantly" Hartley mumbled to himself. The wolf howled and collapsed to the floor as Zhi Ruo connected with an elegant right handed diagonal slash from low to wide-right which opened up a huge gash to its under-belly.
It fell kicking up a storm of dust and dead leaves as it wailed in pain.
The wolf-like fierce beast laid there panting and wriggling trying to get back to its feet, but it was futile. its eyes lost focus as it bled and panted heavily unable to move. Zhi Ruo's face lost the look of concentration and she too slumped to the floor breathing in big gulps of air. She looked at the beast with her eyes teary . Hartley came over and stooped beside her, he stroked her hair as she let her emotions go.
"Its ok Ruo," Hartley whispered. "It would have killed you if it had the chance."
Zhi Ruo just sat there and stared at the creature as it expended its last breath on this earth. Hartley hugged her.
"The good thing about fierce beasts is that they will always show their intent to kill you, unlike humans who won't always do so." Hartley whispered once more as he held her close for a while longer before letting go.
After she collected her self he looked her directly in her eyes and asked "how do you feel now?" Zhi Ruo wiped her eyes as she stood up and answered, "sweaty, really sweaty."
Hartley tilted his head back and let out loud laughter he wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they both made their way back to camp. Zhi Ruo had sheepish look on her face as she stole glances at Hartley, she was proud, not that she had killed the beast, but because she could see how proud Hartley was.
Hartley was truly pleased with the effort Ruo had made in such a short time, he couldn't wipe the smile off his face, She might not be able to reach his or Qin Li's level of strength, but he was relieved she would at least be able to defend herself competently in the future. He started to plan a new training regime for her.