Unexpected Visitors

For many days Zhong came and watched the young man, growing more intrigued and fascinated as the days flew by, instead of solving questions even more popped into his head. Did he never participate in the rankings? Who would join the Mistfire Sect and not aim for the inner court? Was he even aware of the day and year? Just how long had he been here?

Every day before he left his three lovely inquisitors they would question him, they soon realised that he had found something interesting but wouldn't breathe a word of it. Very rarely did Zhong leave on a recurrent basis, instead choosing to stay in his herb gardens and enjoy the peaceful solitude, this was making them insufferably curious.

Something that could make Zhong act this way was truly fascinating.

The only days that Zhong regretfully couldn't go and watch the youth was when he guided the girls on their cultivation or refined pills that the sect needed. Ming and Mei had long since shown exceptional talent in the study of alchemy and plant keeping whilst little Min who could kill even the most hearty of plants was a natural prodigy when it came to formations.

Truly he was gifted to have three such daughters, and they used that knowledge to leverage him at every possible moment to find out his secret. So far he had been lucky and no one else had noticed his odd behaviour, as he was always classed as being a bit eccentric, but what would he do if anyone else did notice?

Flying through the sky Zhong stuck close to the clouds and hid his soul sense as best he could, anyone with a cultivation lower than his wouldn't be able to find him whilst those with a cultivation similar to or greater than his could, but only if he was unlucky and they took an interest in where he was flying too. For this reason alone he had told the girls that he may be away for a few days, but not before they had extorted a few more things from him with their sweet smiles.

Zhong finally arrived at this familiar glade, even he was beginning to enjoy the tranquility and solitude here. For days this young man hadn't moved at all, he just simply sat there and revolved his essence slowly cultivating.

Finally the young man had moved, with a slow controlled breathe he savoured the taste of day and basked in the morning warmth of the sun. Zhong was fascinated after his new friend had finally moved.

His eyes opened next, clear green eyes overflowing with serenity and wisdom, seemingly packed full of light and life. These eyes drew Zhong in and made him more fascinated, he could tell that this youth at the oldest had just hit his early twenties, just how did he obtain such clear and pure eyes though.

Eyes were often the windows of the soul for cultivators, Zhong himself had clear white eyes belaying his age and showing the health of his soul and yet this cultivator had eyes that nearly matched his, even after his very long and adventurous life.

What had made this youth move suddenly? Sending out his soul sense Zhong scanned around only to find a demonic beast nearby, it was just a rank 1 Iron Furred wolf and yet this man had awoken for it.

Watching the wolf draw closer he was fascinated to see that it was a hybrid, a cross between the two wolf species on this mountain, the Iron Furred wolves and Dark Fang wolves. This hybrid was quite a rare sight as both species hated the other and yet somehow a hybrid had been born which would, unfortunately, be hunted and hated by both sides regardless of its birth circumstances.

The Mistfire Sect kept different levels of demonic beasts on the mountains for this reason, it made the mountains closer to the outside world and promoted disciples to fight demonic beasts to train their martial skills, whilst the demonic beasts would cull the weaker disciples and offer a sense of challenge but not kill the stronger disciples. Accidents still happened and stronger disciples were lost occasionally, but not often.

Focusing more on the wolf Zhong was surprised to see that it was covered in injuries and limping towards the glade, did it know that the youth was here or did it seek a safe area for respite, ignoring the howls from around, it determinedly limped forward.

After the wolf finally limped to the edge of the glade it lay down and watched the youth stand tall from his rock. Revealing his full height along with a very natural and peaceful aura he jumped down and walked towards the wolf, ignoring the freezing water of his small pond as it travelled up to his waist.

Zhong remained on standby, prepared to kill the wolf if need be even if it meant breaking the balance that he wanted to maintain with this youth. Something in his head told him that he should keep this youth alive, but he didn't know if that was just his curious nature at work or not.

As the youth grew closer to the wolf rather than seeing the suspected caution and wariness in its eyes, Zhong was surprised to see acceptance and a complete lack of caution, it even wagged its tail as best it could and let out a small yip of happiness like a puppy. Did the wolf know the youth?

Having bent down and gently stroked the wolf on the head the youth proceeded to pick it up and carry it across to his lean-to where he lay it down as softly as he could on the bed of furs, all the while the wolf was letting out quiet whimpers of pain trying not to move as it was carried.

Zhong was adamant that demonic wolves had an ingrained hatred for humans, he had see many beast floods composing of thousands of demonic wolves as they slaughtered their way across the human continents shedding rivers of blood, never had he heard of a demonic wolf and a human having friendship.

Was it because the wolf was a hybrid? Possessing the defence and toughness of the Iron Furred wolves along with the speed and ebony claws of the Dark fang wolves, truly a weird phenomenon.

Zhong was surprised to watch as the youth left the wolf on the bed and proceed to pick the herbs that he had been appearing to grow in the glade, watching the youth work he realised that he at least had some minor knowledge, as different herbs reacted differently to demonic creatures when compared to humans.

Rather than use the purple vein leaf alongside a crimson flower bud that would work for human cultivators and mortals, he watched the youth pick out a harrow flower and collect some bark that had fallen off a nearby Willow wave tree, its bark known for its coagulant and binding effects. Observing the youth boil down and mix these herbs made Zhong realise that this definitely wasn't the first time he had done this or treated the wolf, judging from the trust in it's eyes.

Nearly falling off his tree and shouting out loud Zhong had to stifle his cry as he saw the youth actually use essence to stimulate the medicine inside the wolfs wounds and speed up the healing process, that should be impossible!

A humans essence was well known to be the bane of demonic beasts unless they were at a higher realm and shifted forms, the wolf obviously wasn't this advanced despite being a cross-breed, unless it had something to do with the youths essence.

He had to immediately go and research this.

Leaving the youth and flying home Zhong soon arrived as his three little aides came running outside, hoping to find out his secret.

"Master you're home so soon, was Elder Hwei-ru already busy…are we just not good enough," with a sad and long sigh Min looked up towards the sky dejectedly as Ming and Mei patted her shoulders, also joining her in gazing upwards completely ignoring Zhong as he tried to defend himself.

With an evil grin Zhong couldn't resist the chance to tease his three little daughters, clearing his throat a little and walking past he raised his voice as he rounded a corner in his home, "Such a shame that you are all so dejected and depressed, here I was needing your help for my newest experiment and secret but alas I guess I'll have to give you time to feel better and do it all myself."

Quickly hurrying his footsteps Zhong chuckled as he heard the panicked footsteps and voices full of excitement behind him as the girls rushed to catch up.

Whilst Ming and Mei were excited at the chance of finally being let in on the secret, Min was pouting and pushing out her cute cheeks as Zhong had successfully outwitted her.

"Ming please go and collect the research notes labelled 'Resonance' located in my study, Mei I need you to pick out two five earth fruits and prepare two suitable pots for them so that they won't immediately perish, Min stop pouting your cute little cheeks or they'll get stuck and help me set up a new formation," quickly scurrying to complete their tasks as soon as possible the girls were finally glad to be part of Zhong's latest research.

Hours later Zhong had everything prepared, as Ming read through his resonance notes Mei had already prepared the two fruits and was helping Min to lay the final parts of the formation beneath them.

In Zhong's hand appeared a handful of demon crystals that came from a bunch of level 1 Demonic beasts he had killed a while back for the girls to practice with.

"Master, why are we using a five earth fruit and demonic crystal together," little Min's voice broke the working silence of the trio as they finally let curiosity get the better of them.

"What If I told you that I could use my essence to integrate with and achieve resonance with a demonic beast?"

Many shouts and arguments came from the girls as they all knew it was impossible, a demonic beasts very existence was almost opposite to that of a human, this was why essence was the biggest weapon against demonic beasts.

Ming's bubbly voiced rose over the top as she questioned Zhong, "You have stated in your own research that their is no conceivable way for a human to inject and resonate their essence with the aura of a beast, it would be like starting a fire with ice, it would never work."

"What if I was wrong?"

Zhong's statement shocked the trio of sisters, in all the time that Zhong had raised and treated them they had never once heard him admit that he was wrong about something because he had never been wrong before.

Even little Min couldn't think of anything to say at the moment.

"What I am going to test today will stay between us, if anyone finds out about this then they will disturb a new friend of mine that I'm still getting to know." Finally the gears in the girls' heads started to tick over as they began to understand why he had been so secretive and cautious the past few days, even leaving before the sun had risen to hide his departure.

"My goal is to test a new theory and see if I can change the nature of my essence and integrate it into the demon crystals," the three sisters all stood to the side now letting Zhong take full command and instruct them as he went. "As you can see if I pour my essence into a demon crystal it will break and disperse the demonic energy inside," following this Zhong grasped a crystal and slowly poured his essence inside, the girls watching as it slowly crumbled into pieces as the demonic energy dispersed into the air and disappeared.

"Now if I channel the energy of a five earth fruit into the crystal then it forms a feedback, as soon as a link is made the demonic energy in the crystal will prey upon and eat the fruit," watching a ripe and healthy fruit become rotten in seconds scared the girls a little as they used these demon crystals as energy sources on a daily basis. "Of course we don't have to worry as our bodies contain essence which naturally counteracts against the demonic energy."

So far it had been knowledge that the girls had known but never seen put into practice, "What I am going to do now is attempt to alter some essence from the surroundings and bathe it in the five earth fruit, to see if we get a different reaction."

Waving his hand through the air in a cupping motion Zhong used his essence to encapsulate and compress some natural essence without running it through his dantian, using his control he placed the pure essence and the last five earth fruit into a formation designed to extract the five earth fruits natural aura so that he could combine it with the pure essence.

"Stand back, I don't know how this is going to react," hearing Zhong's command the girls stepped backwards and activated their essence as they watched on.

Extracting the now tainted essence from the formation Zhong channelled it slowly into another demon crystal. At first there was no reaction as the demon crystal treated it like normal essence, without a humans taint causing no damage, after a while the crystal glowed slightly in reaction detecting the five earth fruits energy. Dark tendrils of demonic energy spread from the crystal following the essence in circles trying to locate a fruit where there was none, after a short while of devouring nearly all of the five earth fruits natural aura Zhong became alarmed as he sensed a reaction from the crystal in his hands. Quickly launching the crystal out of the window of his study and activating his gardens defence formations he watched in horror as the crystal exploded, luckily not damaging anything due to his timely activation.

The girls' shrill cries sounded at the sudden and intense explosion causing them to become startled and hug each other. With a dry cough Zhong couldn't help but laugh at their appearance, with his chuckling growing louder they all pouted and glared at him.

"Master Zhong are you okay? I heard an explosion."

The voice filtering down into his study was that of Elder Hwei-Ru, walking out of his study he bowed low as he welcomed her into his estate. Eyeing up the Elder in front of him he couldn't help but praise her in his mind, they had known each other for many years and had spent many nights in each other's pleasurable company. Even after so long she was still the jewel in his eye, all the years seemed to fall off her whenever he looked at her, as beautiful as the day he met her. Long flowing auburn hair that swayed on its own, enhancing her beauty and delicate features, even the small traces of wrinkles that she possessed were beautiful in his eyes.

"Now that his other lover arrives he has no need for us anymore…."

"I shall start packing sisters, then we will have to find a new home…"

"..ahh unrequited love when will you bear fruit?"

Whirling around Zhong only saw three figures as they dashed away laughing loudly and feeling better after getting their revenge for earlier.

Clearing his throat and rubbing his robe down Zhong aimed to take attention away from his face that had become bright red, those girls were nothing but trouble at times. Turning around to face Elder Hwei-Ru, he aimed to apologise and invite her in for tea but could only grimace as she struggled to hide a smile, just as her sweet voice filtered down.

"Oh what once pure and innocent girls, how I wish that they hadn't been tainted so," whilst barely holding in her laughter Hwei-Ru walked into the estate and joined the girls who had already gone on ahead and prepared the tea, leaving Zhong stood in his own garden repeating his personal mantra as he heard laughter coming from inside.

This is why he never got get married…. but he did enjoy the company.