Shui at nine

Bartos finished the wooden wheelchair two days before Shui's birthday. It was made so sturdy that it was comparable to supreme special-rank artifacts, which it would have to be in order to handle all of the arrays that Shui would add to it. He spent the two days modifying the wheelchair and on his birthday, he rolled out of his room on it.

"""Woah..."""

Kate's family and Bartos' apprentices were all there. Bartos only told Kate and Lilia that Shui could walk, but hid the fact that he would get better. Yur had suspicions since he was sent to buy herbs from 'We Got That Flora', but he was smart enough to not say anything about it.

Shui coming out in a wheelchair should have evoked more feelings of sympathy rather than awe, but just for this time, Shui had released the concealment array and 'Hide' inscription that was on the wheelchair so all of them could tell how amazing it was, albeit to different degrees. Kate and Lilia could only tell that the wheelchair had an aura that was comparable to the spirit-rank artifact that was made by Bartos and Shui. On the other hand, Bartos and Yur were amazed by the amount of inscriptions and arrays that were engraved on the wheelchair. The symbols and geometric shapes that covered the wheelchair didn't just give it a rustic feel, it could also provide enlightenment to anyone with lower insights in the fields of inscriptions and arrays. This wasn't even something planned by Shui but rather a natural result of his modifications.

"Is this a wheelchair or a mobile fortress?"

Yur was the first to express his amazement. Even Bartos had to nod at these words. Despite being one of the strongest among the Heaven clan, he didn't believe he could break through the barrier that was perpetually around Shui in one strike.

"It's protection. My condition might worsen if I use too much nature energy so I need to make sure I can't be endangered."

While making the wheelchair, Bartos wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for Shui to openly go around with it. However, just the surface abilities he could see made him sure that Shui couldn't be hurt easily.

"Well, I think that's enough showing off."

Since they got a good look at how outstanding his wheelchair was, Shui activated the concealment array and 'Hide' inscription with the flick on a switch. Since he couldn't use his nature energy freely as it would disrupt the balance of him leaking and absorbing energy, his wheelchair ran on spirit gems. Normally items like spirit gems would only be used for arrays, but as long as he included it in his imagination of the effects of the inscription symbol, it could still work. Shui only knew how to draw four arrays, of which only three were on the wheelchair. These three were for concealment, protection and energy gathering respectively. The first two were there for obvious reasons but, although he still had a lot of money and spirit gems stocked up, Shui wanted to decrease his expenditure so the energy gathering array was necessary.

After the wheelchair became as ordinary-looking as possible, and all of the engravings were no longer visible, they had a feast to celebrate Shui's birthday. During this feast, all of the meat and bone-nourishing foods made their way to Shui's plate whether he liked it or not. Kate also timidly placed some of her meat on his plate but she would always turn around whenever he turned to her. Since returning home, there wasn't a single time where they could have a normal conversation and she was always fervently cultivating so the total number of those chances wasn't much. Her efforts in cultivating weren't misplaced since she was on the verge of breaking through to the eighth level in the Mortal Realm. In fact, she had paused her cultivation to join this celebration so Shui wasn't dumb enough to believe she hated him or anything. However, her attitude and the likely reason for it, as sweet as they were, didn't make her attitude any less annoying.

After eating, it was time for gifts. The wheelchair counted as a gift from Bartos, while the other apprentices gave him money or materials. Lilia's gift was a sewing kit...

"It's for when you're bored and stuck in the house."

Yes, a sewing kit. Everyone except Shui and Lilia were looking at the gift like some unidentified object, but Shui understood the reason why she gave him this. He had once asked Lilia to help him make a cloak so she thought he was interested in sewing. It wasn't wrong, but if he wanted a pastime to do at home, he could just draw talismans or arrays. Even so, Shui accepted this present with a smile on his face.

The only present left was one from Kate, but since she didn't attempt to give one, no one brought it up. Everyone knew that the relationship between them had become awkward so no one wanted to be the one to rock that boat.

Sometime after the feast was over and the apprentices left, Shui finished taking a bath and was about to enter his room when, two arms hugged him from behind. He spotted the person in his vision but there was no need to rely on that to know who it was. After dragging him into their room, for a while the person didn't speak, only digging their head into his back.

"...Please wait a little longer. I'll definitely get strong enough to protect you."

Shui could sense the resolve and determination behind these arms, so he gently placed his palm on one of them. Eventually, the arms let go and Shui waited for the sound of a door opening and closing before he released a sigh and looked down at his hand.

'Sorry, I'm not enough weak to need your protection. But, thank you.'

His wheelchair was finished, so one would assume there would be nothing for him to do in the meantime, besides waiting for the herbs he asked for. However, Shui hadn't forgotten about the retainer he had in Cyrus. He did feel a bit of guilt because of what he planned on doing, but not enough to cause hesitation.

Of the four arrays that Shui knew, there was one that he had almost completed in his bedroom. Just like inscriptions, arrays also required special liquid to draw. Of course, if he used blood to draw it, the smell would draw suspicion so he had to use a liquid that was without too much of a strong presence but would still be effective. It was times like these that Shui was glad that he had a two-star saint body, even his sweat could be used to do this.

Unlike inscription symbols which looked closer to letters, arrays were formed of geometric patterns generally enclosed by a circle. This made arrays harder and more time-consuming to draw. Even so, with the strength of his soul, Shui had no problem drawing arrays that were effective against Soul Realm cultivators.

The array Shui was drawing was an illusion array. These arrays got more complicated the more specific the illusion was, but as long as Shui specified the illusion to be 'what the viewer expects', then it wouldn't be that hard. Once the array was finished, even the spiritual sense of a peak Soul Realm cultivator wouldn't be able to see through this illusion without careful scrutiny. Therefore, by using this array, Shui would be able to trick Bartos' group into thinking he was still inside the room when he was actually not.

When he finished this array he waited until he had eaten breakfast before returning to his room and then escaping through the window to meet up with Cin.

"Sorry."