Tracking Li Zhu

"Feel the power of my fist!" yelled a young man, with a fierce expression. He was facing a large white tiger with his bare hands, and hundreds of cuts were scattered around his body.

Sometimes he disappeared, only to pop up behind the tiger. Other times, he would simply touch the tiger, and it would instantly freeze for half a second, during which the young man would punch it with all his might.

Meanwhile, a black dog and a blue bird moved around the tiger, occasionally bumping into the young man, whose body would begin to change drastically.

The young man was Li Zhu, twenty days after he had discovered the barricade at the entrance of the cave. During these days, he had alternated between cultivating in the Yin lake and fighting spirit beasts, and his cultivation had risen greatly, having just reached the eighth stage qi gathering realm.

Slowly, the effects that the Yin lake had on his cultivation were starting to become less noticeable, and Li Zhu feared that the Yin energy may be completely useless to him before he reached the core consolidating realm, the minimum required if he wanted to break through the defensive formation trapping him inside the cave.

With the hundreds of fights he had been in during the past twenty days, a wild and fierce aura emanated from Li Zhu, intimidating the weaker spirit beasts away.

Despite his haggard appearance, Li Zhu was in a very clear state of mind, and he had been spending twenty four hours a day training, eating the meat of spirit beasts as nourishment, and cultivating during the night as rest.

"One step closer to my goal!" he yelled, finally defeating the tiger, which was blown into the wall.

_____

Hua Shu woke up, excited to begin another mission. In the past month she had completed many missions and gotten precious rewards, and her cultivation was now only one step away from the core consolidating realm.

Unfortunately, she had not found Li Zhu anywhere, so she had completed the missions alone, which had been quite boring.

'Has he left the sect?' she wondered, having searched everywhere for him, to no avail. At first she did not care, thinking he may have been in seclusion, cultivating. As more days passed, though, she was beginning to get worried, since he had after all made an enemy out of a sect elder, and his cultivation was far too weak for him to defend himself properly.

'I better investigate into his disappearance, and if someone killed him, they will feel the wrath of the Hua clan!' thought Hua Shu, who did not have many friends, since as the heir to a powerful clan she had been trained harshly, with little time to spend playing with other kids.

"First stop, outer sect housing!" she exclaimed, starting her journey to find Li Zhu.

Hua Shu did not live in the outer sect housing, since an elder of Archery peak had taken her in as disciple. She had been sparring in the training grounds, and the elder had decided to take her in, impressed by her sharp shooting.

From then on, she had either trained on Archery Peak or gone out on missions, both required by her master.

Thanks to her cultivation, Hua Shu quickly reached the outer sect housing, and then headed to room 753, which Li Zhu had told her was his residence.

As she walked in the hall, a young woman walked beside her, opening the door to room 754.

'If she's her neighbor, she may know if he is inside' thought Hua Shu, having no other options, since Li Zhu's door was locked.

"Excuse me, junior sister, do you know whether the man living in this room is inside or not?" she politely asked.

The young lady was only a fourth stage qi gathering realm expert, so Hua Shu addressed her as junior sister, as was custom for stronger disciples.

"I am not too sure, but as far as I know that door hasn't been opened for weeks" replied the young woman, with an apologetic expression.

"Okay, thank you. I have some business to deal with..." said Hua Shu, before storming off in a hurry.

Although it was possible that Li Zhu was still in his room, she had knocked many times and yelled from the hall, so it was more than likely not the case.

"Where would he have gone?" Hua Shu asked herself, wanting to take a step back and find out each place that Li Zhu had been, to eventually discover his current location.

After the auction for their spirit plants, Li Zhu had promised to go on other missions with Hua Shu, and the profits would go to her until his debt was paid off. For this reason, Hua Shu knew that Li Zhu had probably encountered a problem, since he seemed a trustworthy person, who would keep his word.

"We both went to alchemists to make spirit pills out of the plants we found in the forest, so the first place I should go is Phoenix Peak, where he would have retrieved the pills made for him!" mumbled Hua Shu, realizing the most obvious place he could have gone.

Having decided the next stop, she immediately headed to phoenix peak, outside of the Alchemist trading hall.

Although it would be hard to find news of Li Zhu, someone must have been in contact with him, so she simply needed to ask everyone. That said, there were hundreds of people walking to and from, and this would be a difficult task.

As she was lost in her thoughts, walking into the trading hall, an annoying young man jumped in front of her, asking, "Do you need spirit pills custom made? If so, I am the person for you! Superb pills for low prices, that is my motto!"

Yu Hui was at his usual post, trying to attract as many customers as he could, for reasons only he was aware of.

"I do not need pills, but I do need information" replied Hua Shu, who wasn't going to miss the opportunity to ask about Li Zhu, even though she was mildly annoyed at this alchemist.

"Although that is somewhat unusual, I am happy to help if it means gaining a new customer!" Yu Hui said, still aiming for profits.

"Okay, sure... do you know about a disciple named Li Zhu? He came here about a month ago to buy spirit pills" Hua Shu asked, ignoring Yu Hui's comment.

Hearing this, Yu Hui looked confused, before asking, "Yes, I am the alchemist that made spirit pills for him... but why are you asking? Is he alright?"

If a customer of his was in danger, Yu Hui would do everything in his power to save that person, mostly to ensure future sales.

"Well, I haven't seen him in weeks, and he outbid an elder at the Flaming Saber auction, angering the man, so I fear something may have happened to him" replied Hua Shu, both surprised and excited about immediately finding someone who knew Li Zhu.

"mmmh, I did hear about elder Song bringing a disciple to Judgement Peak, but i'm not sure if he was the elder you are speaking of." replied Yu Hui, recalling this gossip that he had heard around the sect.

Following up on his thought, he proposed to Hua Shu, "Come with me, we shall go to Judgement Peak and see whether the disciple brought there was actually Li Zhu. Don't worry, if it is him and he was wrongly accused then I will get him out of there!"

Hearing the young alchemist's confident statement, Hua Shu thought, 'Who is this man to have the authority of defying the judgement passed down by an elder? If he's not bluffing then I found myself a powerful ally in discovering what happened to Li Zhu!'

"Okay, let's go! Are you sure you can go against the will of an elder, though?" asked Hua Shu, doubtful.

"No problem... as long as he is in the right, then everything will go smoothly!" Yu Hui was confident as ever, seemingly not worried about the status of elders.

Hua Shu was still very confused about this whole situation and a little bit scared that she would put herself in big trouble, not being sure that this odd-looking alchemist was is his right mind. This, though, was the only lead that she had found that could allow her to help Li Zhu, so she decided to follow Yu Hui and hope that he knew what he was doing.

They arrived in no time at Judgement Peak with Yu Hui going straight into Judgement Hall. He seemed to know his way around like he had been in these halls for years and this gave Hua Shu a little bit of confidence in this strange looking man.

After a couple of minutes, they reached a big wooden door, which Yu Hui loudly knocked.

A short moment of silence followed, before a thundering voice rang out from inside, "How dare two puny disciples come here all high and mighty, making ruckus in my Judgement hall!?"