Henry quickly looked back at the home he had made with the girls for the past six months. He had grown in leaps and bounds from the instruction. He had been missing this ever since he entered this world. Goldy, who was supposed to be his master, kinda just fucked off and disappeared. If not for Gram Gram and the girls, he would still be stuck with that split cultivation and borderline insane lack of knowledge.
He smiled warmly at the girls. Even though they weren’t blood, he considered them all sisters. Well, he considered them step-sisters, sexy, scary step-sisters. He owed them a lot; they were essentially his masters in place of Goldy. No one had given him a helping hand like this before. He was always on his own in this life and the past one. Packing the different sets of clothes, he had been given into his spatial ring, Henry walked to the sparring ring where the girls were waiting for him.
“It has been a productive six months. You are still fresh as a morning dew, but I think you should be able to give a respectable showing at that rookie tournament.”
Lu punched him in the arm playfully. She had loosened up quite a bit during their time together.
“We all wanted to get you a gift master, kinda like a going away present,” Fen said; damn, she was adorable.
That would be what Henry would have thought until he remembered how many times she left him wholly trapped in his own body.
“Yes, master, you must represent the Dragonlands and show those clan idiots whose hot shit.”
“Your slang is improving, Hong,” Henry chuckled.
“Fuck yea, master, you’ll love our gifts,” Hong said, barely being able to contain herself.
“This one is mine,” she said, shoving what looked like a pile of unwrapped power bars into his hands.
“You need fuel for your gains, master, so I made you my patented Hong High Energy bars. One bar is enough nutrition for a whole week. I figure you’ll be traveling a lot, so this will be convenient for you.”
Henry looked at the bars in his hands. They were lumpy and misshapen, with little bits of what looked like tree bark. Hong looked at him with expectant eyes. She wants me to try some Henry thought.
He takes a bite of the little bars, feeling it crunch unsettlingly in his mouth.
“Yum, delicious.”
“You mean it, master? I used extra spiritual beetles for that nice mouthfeel; I'm so glad you like it,” the redhead said, beaming from ear to ear.
“Yeah, the beetles are a perfect touch, Hong,” he said, swallowing hard and fast.
Zi appeared out of nowhere and put a bracelet on his wrist.
“This is for you, master. It'll cloak your presence on command, and only someone of my level can detect you.”
The bracelet was dark as night and looked like twin serpents wrapping around one another. Little amythest twinkled menacingly at him where eyes were supposed to be.
“Thank you, Zi; the eyes match your hair; I love it.”
Henry went in for a hug, and Zi froze up as if lightning struck her.
“You're welcome,” she squeaked before pushing him away and pretending to fix her dress.
Henry felt a ki presence trying to strike his 8th meridian point. He spun around, hit Fen on her wrist, and tapped three points on her forearm. Half her face immediately drooped like he had thrown acid on it.
“Perfect, young master, always be vigilant, even when receiving gifts,” she slurred as she flexed her ki and freed herself from Henry’s lock.
“My gift is much more practical in the tournament, for when you need to be constantly vigilant.”
Fen pulled a long ivory needle out of thin air.
“This needle can detect and store any poison that you dip it into; I killed a unicorn for it,” she said with an innocent smile.
“Well, that's extremely unsettling to hear from you, Fen. Thank you anyway. Do you expect me to get poisoned a lot?”
“Oh, almost certainly, young master. If someone doesn’t try to kill you before the tournament starts, then Master Fei’s reputation is slipping.”
Lan walked over and placed the little leather-bound book she had written for him at the beginning of his training into his hands. She pricked her finger and smeared a little of her blood on the cover. The blood flowed into the papers inside and dyed them a deep red before turning into constantly moving letters.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’ve sealed the book. It will only respond to your touch to keep prying eyes away. I also included some interesting things about the clans you can use.”
“You put some blackmail in there, didn’t you?” Henry asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Maybe, you'll see.”
“Awesome, I never blackmailed anyone before. I bet those clan bastards have some terrible skeletons in their closets.”
“You have no idea, young master, and on that note, I want to give you my gift,” Lu said.
She brought out a simple pair of brass knuckles.
“Nothing special about these, just my old knuckledusters from when I was still stomping around on the streets before madam picked me up.”
She looked at the knuckles wistfully as if recalling a good memory of a bygone time.
“Try 'em on.”
Henry slipped them onto his hands, and the metal melted and reformed on his knuckles like a second set of skin. He threw some punches and noted how the extra weight helped him deliver the strikes with much more snap than usual.
“Nothing too crazy, young master, just a little memento of our time.”
“Oh, stop,” Henry said, throwing his arm around her. “You are all my retainers, and when I get strong enough to compete with those other scion bastards, I’ll be right back here, and you can beat the shit out of me more.”
Lu gave him a smile that looked like a million bucks. The maids all piled on him, giving him one big bear hug.
Rousing them from a very touching moment, Henry heard the gentle coughing of a very annoying butler. A door was in the middle of the air, and Sebastian’s perfectly neutral face held it open.
“Young master, I would hate to break up this heartwarming moment, but Madam said to come fetch you. Master Fei and Lord Yinglong are awaiting your presence.”
“You know you are the biggest cockblock I’ve ever seen.”
****
“Presenting young master Hen Ri,” Sebastian said in the most disrespectful, respectful tone possible. Henry felt like he owed the guy money.
In front of him sat Gram Gram, Yinglong, and the Northern Sky Breaker.
“Come here, dear boy, and hug me,” Gram Gram said, getting up and moving towards him.
He was by her side in a flash, helping her get up.
“Reveered Grandmother, let this useless grandson help you up.”
Gram Gram looked delighted, Yinglong surprised, and Fei perplexed by Henry’s words.
“What? I’m trying to fit in with all those Clan fucks, and this is how Lan has trained me to speak.”
Gram Gram burst into laughter while Yinglong just looked smugly at Fei.
“Oh dear, you almost had me there; Lan would have deserved a raise if she could have broken all your bad habits.”
“Mother is right; it is passable, but you must work harder at humility, Henry. There will be some old monsters at that tournament.”
“I don’t think this will work, Uncle; he is too weak. Who will believe he is my son, let alone my other children? They will tear him apart.”
“Your Uncle and I both agreed, Fei, this is the only course of action if Hen Ri is not to be immediately murdered when he goes back to the south.”
“Gram Gram, I mean no disrespect, but any idiot could tell this boy has never spent a day living in the North.”
Yinglong poured himself a glass of wine for his mother and himself. Taking a deep whiff, he drank it all in one gulp.
“That is why, nephew, you will take him back home and impart what it means to be a Northerner. You have one week before the start of the tournament.”
Fei just gaped at his uncle. One week, what kind of nonsense was this? There was no way this idiot boy could pass for one of his kids in that short of time. Not just pass but fool his siblings and assert his dominance enough so they don’t murder him in his sleep.
“I believe Hen Ri is a quicker study than you give him credit for Fei, and honestly, most Southerners think of you as some trumped-up boogie man. I doubt they even know how a Northern acts.”
Henry had been silent this whole time, absorbing all the information from the three powerful beings before him. Fen had taught him the value of being patient and biding your time until the perfect moment to strike.
“If I might be so bold, why not sell the fact that I am an estranged son of the Northern Sky Breaker who lived his life in the South? That would at least explain my strange behavior, and besides, everyone seems to be so scared of Brother Fei that they will pretty much bend over backward to accommodate him.”
“Never call me that again, mortal; I am not your brother; I only allow this farce to happen because of deference for my Grandmother and dear Uncle.”
Lightening was crackling around Fei, splitting the ground. Henry could taste ozone in the air. He knew, though, that if he backed down now, Fei would shit all over him the rest of their time together.
Henry closed his eyes and let his ki awareness spread before injecting little bits of his ki into the charged field around the other cultivator. The lightning dispersed as Henry’s needle-like ki pierced through them. It was like the exercise he did with Fen. The littlest amount of ki disrupts the flow of your opponent's energy.
“Very interesting,” Fei said as he dropped his cultivation. “How did you do that, boy, make your ki so thing and sharp like that?”
“I never have that much ki to work with, so the little I do have needs to be as efficient as possible.”
“What other tricks do you have, boy? " Fei asked now, his full attention focused on Henry.
“Teach me how to be a little Northern Lordling, and I'll show you.”
The Northern Heavenly Sky Breaker raised his fist and punched a hole into the fabric of space and time. He grabbed Henry by his shoulder and leaped into the cold, gaping darkness.
“Mother, those two seem much more similar than they care to admit.”
Lady Tiamat, Queen of the Dragonlands, just sat there in silence, a little smile on her face. Her two grandsons would soon make wonderful scions if they didn’t kill each other first.