Stand Off

Bai Lei slowly gives Lei Wei a cold, cruel smile as he says "Yes, thanks to her, I get the chance to kill you all over again." Lei Wei grits his teeth in anger as he says "If you try to kill me now in front of all the other leaders, your alliance with them will suffer."

Bai Lei leans to the side of his chair and props his chin up as he gives Lei Wei a cynical, bored look while saying "Do you really think that matters to me?" Lei Wei gives Bai Lei an irritated look as he says "Maybe not but we both know you need their help if you want to fix this current problem with the Under Realm. Plus, I'm here to help." 

Bai Lei's vicious smile grows as he says "Oh? You actually came to "help". I wonder what kind of "help" you're talking about." Lei Wei keeps his cool as he says "I have father's sword, Heaven's Thunder." Bai Lei's eyes flash for a second before going back to normal.

Lei Wei doesn't miss it though as he says "This could play a key part in defeating the Under Realm. You know this as much as I do." Bai Lei watches Lei Wei with sharp calculative eyes but after a few seconds, he says "Then I'll have to trouble you. Once this is all over, I'll kill you but let me warn you now. If you touch a single hair on her head, I will kill you where you stand. Heaven's Thunder or not."

Lei Wei smiles as he says "Of course." Bai Lei stands up and turns away, disappearing midstep. Lei Wei's smile grows dark as his Shadow guard steps up to him from behind. "Congratulations Master. Should we make our next step?" Lei Wei shakes his head and says "No, let's bid our time. When the barrier breaks, we'll make our move." The Shadow guard nods his head as his eye flash with determination. He'll get her this time for sure. No matter what!

~~~~~~~~~~

I sit at the end of the bed with my legs crossed and my eyes closed. My foundation has evened out way faster than I thought it would take. I check my center and the full pool with a smile. I feel like I have a cheat of some kind. 

I start pulling energy to me and cycling it through my body as my pool quickly starts to overflow. A warm wave washes over me as I advance again. "It's still quite shocking to see how fast you can cultivate." Bai Lei says making me smile.

I slowly release the energy around me and open my eyes to find Bai Lei watching me with a smirk. I look up at him and say "I'm surprised myself. I'm sorry about earlier... I really had every intention of staying in the courtyard."

Bai Lei gives me a hopeless look as he steps closer to me while saying "I actually believe that. Trouble seems to follow you in my world. I wonder if it's because you aren't from here..." He reaches out and uses his fingers to gently tilt my head back. 

"Little Bun has grown?" He asks in a low voice. I nod my head lightly and say "The spirit water gave him enough to level up. I might have made another uh oh though..." His dark eyes flash as he steps even closer to me. 

His smile grows a bit as he says "What happened this time?" I sigh and ask "How important was that spirit water source to you?" Bai Lei freezes and tilts his head in confusion before saying "It's very rare. Why?" I cringe a little as I say "I only wanted to take a little bit of water to drink for later but I ended up taking the whole thing into my storage space. I really didn't mean to! I even tried to bring it back out but it won't budge."

Bai Lei turns to stone as he looks at me in shock and... horror? He snaps out of his trance and quickly kneels in front of me as he grabs my face and begins looking me over in worry. I frown at him as he struggles to say "I... it's fine. I don't know how you were able to take it and place it in your space but at this point, I'm not entirely surprised but did you drink the water?"

I look at him with large confused eyes as I nod my head. His face turns white as he grabs me and runs out of the room. The surroundings quickly change as we're suddenly standing in front of a reading Zhen. Zhen looks up from his book and freezes when he sees the panic on Bai Lei's face.

Bai Lei races over to him and says "She drank spirit water." Zhen's face freezes as he quickly stands up with fear. Zhen looks to me and says "How much did you drink?" At this point, I'm starting to freak out as I say "I drank like four or five handfuls... why? What's wrong?" 

Bai Lei's legs nearly give out as he looks at me with true fear. Zhen's face goes white as he quickly asks "How long ago did you drink it?" I think back and say "A little over three hours ago." I try to climb out of Bai Lei's arms but he only tightens his grip. 

Zhen and Bai Lei look at me with confusion as Zhen asks "You... do you feel okay?" This time I look to them with confusion as I slowly nod my head and say "My foundation is completely stable and I was able to advance. Should I have not drunk it? It tasted pretty good..." 

Bai Lei collapses on the floor as he hugs me close. He buries his head into my hair as he squeezes me tight. Zhen plops back in his seat with shaky legs and begins rubbing his temples as he says "What possessed you to drink the water?" 

I frown at him as I struggle to breathe. Bai Lei was still holding me close with his head buried so I look to Zhen and say "I forgot to ask you what I was supposed to do with it so I didn't know if I should just sit in it or drink it so I did both."

Zhen looks like he wants to cough up blood as Bai Lei begins to chuckle while holding me tight. Still confused, I look at Zhen asking "I wasn't supposed to drink it? Little Bun drank it so I thought it would be okay. Why am I not supposed to drink it?"