Midnight Jog

Both the roar and the disruption of qi in the air alerted Leah that something was wrong.

She was resting in her room, in a small cabin behind the Hare manor, just having finished her daily exercises when she perceived the anomaly in the qi. At first, she felt excited because vortexes of qi like that one only appeared when an herb or a treasure was being born in the world.

But then came the roar; like a primordial beast had finally escaped confinement and was released into the world.

Leah grabbed her short swords and donned her leather armour before leaping out in the direction of the clearing. She was in the early stages of the Nascent realm so her strength was already one of the highest in the Hare household, not to mention Groamburk itself; furthermore, she specialised in quick movement techniques which meant that she arrived at the clearing where Jack had been training in a matter of a few short minutes.

However, by the time she arrived, Jack was nowhere to be seen.

Leah walked around examining everything she could lay her eyes on, even going so far as to check the underbrush for any tracks that could give her an indication of what had happened there, being as diligent as she could in her inspection and carefully checking each blade of grass. Her abilities as a tracker were excellent; to the point that if she claimed to be number two in the region, no one would dare to claim the number one spot.

That being said, Jack was incredibly thorough with his preparedness. After he managed to fully reconstruct his meridians, Jack was aware that he'd attracted attention with his wanting consumption of qi as well as his roar of excitement; therefore, he swiftly removed the concealment array, grabbed the boulder and set off from the clearing using the stealth techniques he was renowned for in his previous lifetime, carefully using a hand to gently shift any plants in his way with one hand and then put them back into place after he passed.

He was forced to remove the array because of the fact that if, by any chance, many people began inspecting the clearing then there was a risk that the array itself would be accidentally discovered. If such a high-quality array were to be discovered, then it would certainly cause a lot of trouble and unnecessary investigations, which would make Jack to go into hiding and not practice his techniques for at least a few years. An outcome he didn't wish to see happen.

Furthermore, without the concealment array, the boulder was quite visible for all to see. And on that boulder were the markings and indentations of many fists and feet. Even an idiot could tell that someone had used the boulder as a training dummy. As such, he was forced to carry it with him far away.

Overall, there was no indication that a human being had touched that clearing for a very long time and Leah couldn't help but feel her heart fill with dread. She became extremely worried because of the fact that there was no doubt that something had made a commotion at that clearing. Absolutely no doubt.

Yet, in the time it took her to get there, whatever had been the culprit of these strange happenings had disappeared without leaving a trace. Any creature that was capable of such a feat was terrifying in its own right.

After a few more fruitless rounds of inspection, Leah sighed and left to meet with a group of guards that were making their way to the clearing, clearly alerted by the same roar. On that night, Leah raised the alarm and the entirety of the guard corps under Ichabod's employ patrolled the forest paths and manned the outlook towers with heavy expressions on their faces.

--

Meanwhile, the one guilty for all the uproar was casually strolling out of the Hare family estate. He had decided to do so to better avoid the patrolling guards; given that they would definitely be on high alert, it was easier to avoid them for a while and return to his bedroom just before sunrise.

In addition, he felt the top of his skin covered in a strange dark grey gunk that had a foul odour to it. From a single glance, Jack could tell that they were the impurities that had accumulated in his body for the last few years after he arrived on this world. Although they weren't many, getting rid of them at this stage of his cultivation would allow for the best usage of his unlimited potential.

Right now, however, he was in no hurry to begin cultivating the first chapter of the Harmony of Everything. His intention was to fully consolidate a sturdy base upon which he would then begin cultivating. The better the base, the more magnificent the dao of that person would be.

Furthermore, his most pressing need was to wash away the impurities from his skin. Even the greatest of stealth techniques wouldn't help him to remain undetected with the sheer stench the impurities emanated. Even a blind man would be able to tell where he was from the smell alone!

Although he had no exact knowledge of the concrete layout of Groamburk, Jack remembered there being wells in the houses nearby the Hare manor. After all, not every household had the luxury of possessing a stretch of land, but everyone needed clean water. He needed to make it to a relatively abandoned household where he would be able to clean himself up, away from prying eyes.

Jack crouched forward while carrying the boulder. For a moment, he had a flashback to his early training routines carrying heavy boulders along a sinewy path full of obstacles and traps. A nazi creation half for the purpose of training a new set of infiltration corps, half to amuse themselves by watching Jewish children fall to their deaths, which was a guarantee if you took a wrong step.

He leaned his body forward with each step, gradually carefully planting the sole of his feet in order to minimise the noise. His pace quickened, and soon he was moving through the shadows of Groamburk's buildings without making a single sound. Jack jumped from one wall to another when there weren't any shadows to exploit in the moonlight. For a while, Jack forgot what he was aiming to do and simply enjoyed the feeling of rushing across rows of houses whilst avoiding detection. It was exhilarating!

At one point, Jack was forced to halt as he hanged from a building's roof because, in front of a rather large stone house right across from him, a child was walking towards the outdoor chamber pot in the courtyard. The child looked to be around five or six years old and to still half asleep; normal, considering the late hour of the night. In addition, judging by the quality of the house itself, he wasn't from a poor family.

Jack had to stop because the child was walking between him and the next row of trees which he could use to conceal himself before emerging on another street. However, given the slow pace that the unknown boy was walking at, Jack would have to wait for a relatively long time before he could move forward. Although he was patient and usually wouldn't mind having to wait as long as it took, Jack wanted to clean himself of the muck on his skin as soon as possible.

As such, an idea birthed in his mind.

Jack smiled wickedly as he tore a small part off a loose shingle of the roof he was hanging from. Then, he clenched the small piece of wooden shingle into his fist, making use of the humidity of the environment to mould it into a ball. Once satisfied that it was round enough, he threw it towards the boy.

Jack's toss was incredibly accurate, and it struck the boy on his heel, just as he was raising his leg to step forward, and the force of the impact forced the foot to cross at just the right angle to catch with the boy's other calf.

The boy, suddenly unable to push his leg forward, and incapable of stopping his momentum, tripped up and fell face first onto the dirt road, still halfway to the outdoor chamber pot.

"What?!" Exclaimed the boy as he looked around him for the culprit. However, he couldn't see anyone nearby and was forced to assume that he'd tripped up all on his own.

Thankfully, there was no one around to watch him embarrass himself like that. Clumsily, the boy rose to his feet and prepared to head to the chamber pot and go back to sleep as quickly as possible. However, a gentle tapping caught him off-guard because the sound was coming from right behind him.

The boy turned around but there was nothing there; just the eerie quiet of a moonlit night.

Then he heard the tapping from behind him again. This time, the boy could have sworn that it was footsteps.

Instantly, the boy froze in fear. He was, after all, only six and a half years old. The terrors of the night were things that still haunted his nightmares. Just then, he was about to scream for the guards to come help him, when he felt an oppressive force push him from the back of his knees.

The boy buckled over and fell face-first into the ground again; this time with such strength that his nose began to bleed. The boy groaned and turned around only to see a small figure carrying a large sack on its shoulders moving at a seemingly impossible speed; jumping from tree to tree. The figure turned around and, even from the distance, the boy saw a pair of piercing blue eyes stare at him. Then, a strangely acute chuckle resounded in the air before the figure disappeared amidst the trees.

It was then that the boy screamed.