17 Ch 17 The Green village

The explosion had immediately set the elder and branch leaders heading straight to the location of the explosion. The crater was acting like a basin for water, and now had a small lake at the center of it. The elders and branch leaders sent their soul sense into crater but failed to find the cause of such destruction. These kinds of craters were often formed as an after math of two supremely strong cultivators of at least Core realm but fights would usually last for many hours or days. Other reason would be, a cultivator was trying a new move and caused such destruction.

"Hey, lizard bastard. Do you think there is a rogue cultivator of such strength roaming in your territory?" A Shi clans elder asked via soul sense transmission.

"Seems so." The elder from Long clan replied. Although he was irked at the remark but current there were bigger problems at hand.

"Second head to the headquarters and report immediately. Use a light stone to record the scene and hand it to the clan leader. Also, notify Tian Long. His wife can send reports to the royal clan." The branch leader immediately gave orders. Ming clan and Fire school followed suite.

"This is either a false alarm or it is a great omen." The branch leader said as he immediately left the scene and headed back to the Salamander City. Soon, an old woman arrived on the scene and left swiftly.

A dark mansion near the other end of the beast mountains was also buzzing with movement. This was the headquarters of the assassin guild, the golden arrow. Messengers and assassin were moving with rapid pace delivering information and to receive new missions.

"Hmm, something is happening in Long territory. Increase the surveillance to maximum but cancel all missions to that area." The white robed man said as he looked at the projection of the crater Lan Long caused. "An emergence of a rogue power, this would symbolize the beginning of a storm or it would be nothing at all." The man mused as he concentrated on the projection.

Salamander city. Long Clan Branch

"Hmm, the ethereal Ki needs to be purged completely and be replaced with the Heavy ethereal Ki. Damn, so basically, I would be useless until all the Ki is replaced. Little Kong better get his fighting skill straight or else we are screwed in the beast mountains." Lan Long said as he prepared a few heavy beads as final resort. He then tied them to a string and made it in to a bracelet. He made his final preparations and began to set the Ki transmutation formation over his Ki gathering formations. Soon, Lan Long entire Ki sea was drained dry and was replaced with a few patches of Heavy Ki. He tried to move a stone a few meters away but failed. He was now only able to display the strength of a Peak Ki condensing body cultivator. If he used more strength than this, his foundations would be impacted. Soon, a Ki pressure enveloped the courtyard as Little Kong was making his breakthrough to Ki sea realm. The Ki pressure lasted about 10 minutes before vanishing.

Squeak. . .

Little Kong's sharp voice sounded with in the court yard as he popped out of Lan Long's sleeve and jumped around for a while. Jiang Long on the other hand felt the pressure at a really close range and was incapacitated by it. If other cultivator were present as close to Little Kong they would have burst in to a puddle guts and gore by now.

"Was that the rat?" Jiang Long guessed as he saw the hamster, jumping around.

"Yes. Also, Brother Jiang, have you made a breakthrough in your saber techniques?" Lan Long asked. He had wanted to take out Little Kong for another round of training but was now currently stranded with the strength of an ordinary peak Ki condensing realm.

"Yes." Jiang Long exclaimed proudly. He had finally adjusted to using the sabers but currently unable to dual wield without using up horrendous amounts of Ki. He was capable of dual wielding for about 5 minutes before his Ki reserves ran dry.

"Can you spar with Little Kong for a while solely using weapon skills? Little Kong is looking for a sparring partner to work his staff skills." Lan Long finally made his proposition clear. He had wanted to use Jiang Long as a moving target for Little Kong.

"Sure." Jiang Long said as he moved to his personal training grounds. He took out the saber and assumed a low stance. He was calm in the face of the creature that had shamed him that day. He was also excited to face the hamster again, this time he would be ready. Little Kong squeaked as he grew to a normal hums size and stood on his hind legs and looked at Lan Long. Lan Long immediately took out the staff Little Kong had used the previous day and threw the staff at him. Little Kong immediately grabbed the staff and held it at his waist level. Soon, both Jiang Long and Little Kong moved at the same time and clashed at the center of the training ground. Jiang Long expertly moved his saber and moved the staff away from his body and in a swift motion attacked Little Kong's face. Although Little Kong was nowhere near Jiang Long's skill level, a beast reflexes were not to be underestimated by any means. Little Kong lowered his head and attacked Jiang Long's legs. To this Jiang Long immediately jumped and executed another attack at Little Kong's side; almost expecting this attack, Little Kong didn't stop his staff but allowed it to travel around his body and continued to attack Jiang Long's exposed side. Jiang Long had not expected this and had to immediately cancel his attack and assume a defensive stance with his saber. The staff and the saber connected with a huge noise and because Jiang Long was in the air. He had to take a few steps back to stabilize himself.

A surprised look flashed across Jiang Long's face as he stepped forward and attacked Little Kong in a weird angle. Soon, Jiang Long had manipulated the fight into his favor. Little Kong was only able to defend and didn't have any opportunity to attack a single time. Unlike the cultivator Little Kong had faced earlier, Jiang Long was a prodigy of saber. He was extremely adaptable to fight conditions and had trained with a sword from his child hood. Jiang Long was still adapting his saber to be as fast as Little Kong's reflexes and was almost reaching that point. Little Kong too was adjusting to Jiang Long's immense skill with his saber. Although, Little Kong was unable to get a single hit in, Jiang Long also face the same problem. He too couldn't land any hits on Little Kong. They both reached a stale mate and were exchanging attacks at frightening speeds, with neither side being able to gain any upper hand.

"Okay. Stop. That's enough." Lan Long said as he stopped the fight and took away Little Kong's weapon. He looked at Jiang Long who was breathing heavily and inside his sleeve Little Kong was also exhausted.

"Let's do this once daily. It would be good for you as well as Little Kong." Lan Long declared as he walked back into the house and concentrated on inscribing the formations. Jiang Long was meditating on the insights he had gained from the spar. The fight had revealed many of his flaws, if he could amend these flaws, he would increase his fighting prowess even further. Little Kong with his low intelligence could not visualize and analyses the fight but he too realized his fighting prowess was lacking. He popped out of Jiang Long's sleeve and broke off a small twig from a tree outside and began to train with that. After, a few hours Lan Long had completed his formations and was looking at Little Kong who was trying to practice with a twig in his palm sized body. Little Kong soon gave up out of frustration and scurried out of the room.

With nothing to do Lan Long put on his mask and visited the Cloud Inn and ordered the best dishes and fruit wines. He then visited a clothing line and gave a very peculiar order of an English suit, 3 pieces of course and several orders of t shirts and shorts and jeans. The tailors were baffled at such variety of clothing; these clothes were tighter than what women's dresses and very uncomfortable. Tailors made those orders in a matter of minutes and handed them to Lan Long. He paid the bills and headed to an accessory shop and looked at things before leaving towards the weapons shop and repeated the process for nearly every business line with either strange orders or none what so ever. Lan Long spent his very first day behaving as a normal teenager but without friends of course. Lan Long even visited the slave market, in the city, he pitied the in slaved but chose not to free any of them. These people were trained to only respond to their masters and would eventually go crazy id they were to be ever released. Lan Long also visited the beast trades men where he saw beast varying from a normal cat to a seven-headed python with its each head a different color. He also visited a martial art library and bought a few basic level staff arts for Little Kong to study. He was not able to find any sort of beast manual pertaining to the cultivation of a beast.

With that final shop the day ended, Lan Long returned to Jiang Long's courtyard and was about to enter his room when he heard the voice of Su Ming.

"Yes, it would be fine. Besides we would have brother lazy accompanying us." Su Ming said in a quite exasperated voice.

"That's not the point. We would instinctually be expecting his help in a crisis and it would hamper our own development." Jiang Long argued back.

"We can ask him to not help us unless we absolutely had no choice or are about to be killed." Su Ming suggested.

"It might work but true adventures are often sought alone." Jiang Long said in a very intelligent fashion. Lan Long laughed and entered the room and took a seat in front of both of them. He then produced a glass and poured a fruit wine for himself. Lan Long took a small sip and looked at both Jiang Long and Su Ming who were shocked to see Lan Long just enter into the room and act so casually.

"Well then. I suppose you were discussing about when I am to help you out." Lan Long said with a smile.

"Brother Lazy, we were discussing if it would be better for us to adventure on our own." Su Ming tried to break the awkward atmosphere.

"well, for the next 6 weeks or so, I would not be of any assistance of what so ever. I am consolidating by foundation and preparing for a breakthrough so no Ki expenditure for me." Lan Long said as he took another sip of the wine.

"So, you are going to stay here." Jiang Long mused out loudly.

"Sadly no. I am still leaving for the village and I will venture into deeper reaches of the mountain. You guys will eventually have to adventure with me but not now. Where else do you thing I will find such quality sparring partners for Little Kong." Lan Long said with a smile.

"Brother Lazy you can't just be careless about preparing for a breakthrough. What if something happens during the break through, you would need assistance of an elder." Su Ming said, genuinely worried about Lan Long.

"There is nothing for. . ." Lan Long didn't get to complete his sentence as Little Kong broke through the door and began to squeak loudly, almost trying to say something to Lan Long. He also had a small cloth sack in his hands. Little Kong in his palm sized body had an even small cloth sack in his hands. It was barely the size of a pebble. Little gently set it down and pulled out a baby kitten size of a pea. It still had not opened its eyes and was looking quite dull for a mewling Kitten.

"That's a baby palm cat. Little Kong where did you find it." Su Ming said as she sat down in front of Little Kong and looked at the small kitten.

"What there are such a small species of cats?" Lan Long said in a surprised voice.

"Yes, these things are used for their aesthetic value and nothing else. They have a measly life span of half a year and are quite rare. No one in Salamander city would breed these things. They require a lot of care for same glorified gifts. Their species will soon face extinction as no one will be breeding these things." Jiang Long said and he looked at the kitty from afar. Lan Long had immediately decided to save the kitty as Little Kong had brought her in. Lan Long gently lifted the Kitty and placed it in his palm and immediately began to heal it. Soon, the kitty's skin turned pink as its breathing became no visible. The kitty slowly opened its eyes and looked at Lan Long before it went to sleep. By the time, it was comfortably sleeping in Lan Long's palm, he had already decided to keep it. Lan Long immediately ordered a servant to bring so milk and carefully fed the kitty drop by drop. Lan Long started to inscribe it with the formations as soon as it had finished drinking. Soon, the night had gone by and a new day begun. As promised, the three met at the Salamander City's main entrance and left for the green village.

During the journey, Jiang Long and Little Kong sparred daily, sometimes even Su Ming helped out but most of the time she would quietly train in her sword arts. Only ever sparring to confirm her insights or to disprove them. Su Ming would often hold Little Kong and Little Qing, playing with them till her heart's content. Lan Long would spend his day lying down and concentrating on gathering the heavy Ki. The formations that converted the elemental Ki to ethereal Ki would be working constantly but the formation to convert Ethereal Ki to heavy ethereal would only work only when his normal Ki would gather about the required limit. The conversion would convert his entire Ki reserve worth of into a tiny one percent of Heavy Ki and to gather and to gather that much Ki required him about a day. This meant that Lan Long was trapped at his current predicament for about a little more than three months' time. Even with his level of insight in to the dao, Lan Long was only able to maintain this rate. A normal Ki sea realm artist would require about 3 to 4 days to replenish his entire Ki reserve from scratch, considering this this, what Lan Long was doing was absolutely amazing. In an ordinary fight, Lan Long could last up to 4 time longer than any other person with heavy Ki if that person didn't have Lan Long's level of insight in to nature.

Soon, a month passed and the trio finally reached the Green village. They soon discovered that almost all the villagers busy setting up blockades and placing traps and digging trenches around the Green Village. Ignoring the commotion, the trio made their way to the herbalist family. This was the only place that had a semblance of peace in the entire village. The whole mansion was covered in layers of formations and the material of the buildings were of much higher level than the village.