After returning from that mysterious place that was owned by that mysterious person, Liang No went to the Inn he was staying and tried to sleep, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't. He twisted and turned in his simple bed, but his mind was soly on the that place.
"Haaaaaaa...." sat up Liang No with a restless look on his face. He looked down at his soft pillow and it was so unappealing to him at the moment, so he just sat up and went to the window to see the halfmoon slightly peeking out of a white cloud, as if a shyfull maiden and he couldn't help but wonder about that.
' Just like that far away moon that peek's through the clouds, I have to also begun to understand that tonight I have also peeked at the true meaning of cultivation.' thought Liang No as he put his hand in front of his face and could only feel disgust. 'I have wasted year's of my life with debauchery and drinking as I lamented my inability to open my meridians as I stagnated at the 3rd one, but this is what it was..... this is what it is to go against the heavens. Heh....such I fool I have been!'
As the moon started to fully unravel behind the clouds, it shined it's light upon all that resided in this world, but only a few received it's blessing. Surprisingly Liang No who practiced the ' Rushing Fire Torrent' technique which was a fire elemental cultivation technique also received some of it's blessing.
As he closed his eyes for a moment a wisp of Qi entered his eyebrows and he immediately went into a lotus position as he stared cultivating. His Qi slowly started to move through his meridians and started to complete a full cycle, but there was a problem. His Qi, the Qi he had cultivated all his life was contaminated with glutenous spots of black Qi that narrowed the walls of his meridians and slowed down his cultivation speed. Normally he would have been irritated at such a thing , but tonight he didn't think about it anymore and just continued to absorb Qi from his surroundings with a smile.
As he did that, the Qi which had entered his brow slowly started to unravel itself. At first it planted itself into Liang No's conciousness and started to shine a soft blue light, but when it met the fire Qi Liang No was circulating it immediately started to absorb it revenously and started to shine brighter.
"Guhhhhh.....
Liang No gritted his teeth as blood dripped of of his nose , mouth and ears, but he didn't stop cultivating. He felt that if he didn't continue to revolve his Qi he would loose something important, so he just gritted his teeth and beared the pain. With each circulation Liang No did the strand of Qi became brighter and brighter, until it couldn't anymore and finally settled into a sphere shape in Liang No's soul.
"Haah....haah....haah.....
Liang No breathed deeply as heavy sweat trickled from his forehead, to his nose and then to the wooden floor of the Inn he was staying. He slowly fluttered open his heavy eyelids and found out that hour's had passed in meditation and that the sun had already risen.
' What just happened to me.....' thought Liang No in confusion ' One second I was looking at the moon and the next second I fell into a deep meditation that.... that....the white sphere! It was because of that foreign Qi that formed into a white sphere , it was because of that....
Liang No first regained his composure and then he once again started meditating, scouring his conciousness for that white sphere and he found it. It lay there, quietly and undisturbed as it sometimes gobbled up a wisp of Liang No's fire Qi. He tried to poke it with his spiritual power to try to gain some understanding of this foreign Qi, but no matter how he poked it, it didn't react to Liang No's fiddling , so in the end he gave up.
...............
Two hours later after he had taken a bath, and had put the foreign Qi on the back of his mind for further investing and headed towards the Liam Ning trading group. The Liam Ning trading group was a type of merchant organization that was directly linked to the Ning Clan, one of the ruling clans of North Blue Mountain City and it specialized on holding the assets of lone cultivators like Liang No,or the assets of small groups or organizations. This of course made the Ning Clan quite rich, and although they didn't have an exemplary reputation, people trusted the with their money.
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Liang No looked ahead and saw the heavily decorated building of the Ning Clan. It was filled with jade and wood carvings of dragons that coiled all around the building and in front of the entrance stood two guardian deities with fierce faces, but Liang No who would have been envious yesterday of the splendor in front of him, was now just not that impressed.
"Heeh...
With little sneer, Liang No entered the building and immediately headed to the teller who was a young man 'Someone related to the clan for sure' thought Liang No.
"How many I help you today dear costumer?" said the teller with a big smile and Liang No just answered bluntly.
"I've come to collect all the items in my account. One Qi stone, 200 gold bars, one sword , armor , a 100 year ginseng, 5 recovery pills and 4 blood clotting pastes. "
The teller was taken aback by Liang No's request and asked him " Sir, are you sure you want to retrieve all your belongings? If you do that you will be charged with a 2% retrieval fee.....
"I know that!" Liang No cut him off " You just get me my things and I'll pay the fee."
The teller blinked a couple of times in surprise before he immediately clasped his hands and went to work. In less than half an hour Liang No had retrieved all his things and had put them in a wooden crate that he easily carried on his shoulder. This of course drew the attention of numerous passerbys , but all except one of them stayed away from him.
Suddenly , a voice made him stop in place "Liang No.... what are you doing?"
As he heard that that Liang No turned his head and saw a man that looked in his thirties approach him.
The man was 1,7 m tall, had a clean shaven face, black hair tied in a bun with only two strands of hair running down the sides and gleaming green eyes. He was wearing a type of grey leather armor that covered his upper body and on his back was a sword in a scabbard that almost touched the ground.
"Captain Zhao Jian, what are you doing here?" asked Liang No , surprised at the apperance of the man before him.
"What am I doing here....I should ask you what you're doing with that thing of your back. Did something happen......
"No, nothing happened. " said Liang No as he shook his head "I only understood something important lately and decided to change the way I live.
But enough about me, how have you been lately Captain Jian? Any new tale of heroic deeds?"
"Well, not really..." said Shao Jian as he furrowed his brows " Lately work has been boring and monotonous, so I have been bored.... but not for long I hope. Yesterday I received some news that after a dispute between two clans of Razorback Gorillas , one of the clan's was heavily hit and they have retreated not far from here.
If they are attacked right now , with their wounds they will be surely destroyed. "
Liang No was first surprised at the information he was receiving for free, but when he thought about it for a moment he understood.
"This.... Captain Jian, are you offering me a job?"
"What if I am...." answered Captain Jian with a gleam in his eyes.
........................
The day passed and the night fell again in North Blue Mountain City. Liang No wearing his armor and his sword on his hip was roaming the red light district as he traced his steps with a vague memory, entering and leaving numerous dark alleys, until he finally stopped. In front of him had appeared the same building with the same logo of human figure sitting on a golden lotus radiating a golden glow, a glow that welcomed him in.
' Here we go...' thought Liang No to himself as he entered the building with a heavy heart.Yesterday had felt like a dream to him, but today he was certain that it wasn't.
As Liang No ascend the golden stairs with excitement he again appeared in the room with the shelves, nothing seemed to have changed. The golden-robed man was also standing in front of him, his face obscured by mist as always.
"Senior!" said Liang No as he greeted Rex and Rex just nodded.
"So, you've returned.......
"Yes senior, I have once again returned. Today though I truly intended to by something." seriously said Liang No, but Rex didn't seem to mind.
"Hehe.... well, it's your choice if you want to by or not, but coming all the way here for naught would be such a waste.....
Anyway, I hope you find what you need."
As he said that, Rex disappeared from Liang No's vision and Liang No finally released a long breath. 'Huuuuuu...... that was intense. This senior doesn't seem to be a bad person, but I should also proceed with caution. I should get what I need and leave this place as soon as possible....'
And so, Liang No stared to look at medicine shelf thinking what would he need to by for the work he had just accepted , and in the meantime Rex was looking at him from a distance with a furrowed brow.
' Let's hope that you will by something today ,or I'll make sure that you experience hell....' thought Rex as he looked at his Qi-En which was pitiful.