Chapter 0059 - The Old In and Out
The Cheng Brothers had gone off to drink. There was so much treasure in the building, neither cared whatsoever about dropping it somewhere to be sorted out by someone else.
Qu was happy to help put things away, he was more or less happy to do anything. It was a boring a slow life to wait for challengers.
Tipping their gourds upside down and chugging away, occasionally switching gourds between them, the Twin's cheering could be heard echoing throughout the first few floors. They were exploring the Tower and enjoying the downtime.
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Darkwing was originally very large thus his room was also very large. When he became a humanoid, he was more than satisfied with his living space, there was plenty of room to stretch. Because of his original size, he had taken the whole front right corner of the first floor.
Shoving his nesting closer together, his bedding seemed like it was much thicker and a bit higher off the floor. Overall, everything felt much softer and it only made it easier to sleep on. Lounging in his bed, Darkwing played with his spacial abilities.
"In, Out.. In, Out.. In, Out.. In, Out.. In, Out. Like a broken record, Darkwing played with his power until he ran out of energy and fell asleep.
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"These are the crystals?" Pointing to the piles of sorted crystals he was a bit amazed. There were many colors and combinations of Gem, Shard, and some other tile-like blocks that looked like pieces of rock or wood with carvings on them. They were all small and they were mostly different, it left Wu Hai in a sense of disillusion. "Perhaps these are for something else?" Ignoring the Tiles, he picked up a large Red Gem.
It wasn't bigger than a thumb but it radiated a lot of heat. Slipping it to his other hand, he went to grab another gem of similar color to see if the heat was different.
"You should be careful about what you do when holding crystals, lots of things happen when energy is applied or taken out and the method can change everything." Qu warned Wu Hai gently but there was little he could do to influence a young adventurer's decision.
Suddenly the Black Spot, which had been mostly docile and ignored until that moment, opened a hole in Wu Hai's forearm, small tentacles rushing out to grab at the Gem in Wu Hai's hand. "I think it wants to eat this gem.. here ya go little guy!" It was exhausting keeping up with the drain every day but Wu Hai had no other options than to let it happen. The Black spot rarely made appearances, when it did, Wu Hai was glad that it had and everytime there was a constant drain on his energy.
The Black Spot going through something strange, it was unnerving as it was moving about inside of his arm. "Maybe its not hungry?" He gave it another green gemstone and picked up a book for natural weapons.
While reading, he did his best to manifest the Lightning and darkness abilities. Sometimes a ball orbiting a ring of lightning and sometimes he would just make a ball of lightning chasing another ball of darkness.
He was lost in thought while compressing the lightning ball and it turned a deep purple. Wu Hai felt the charge change and almost lost his control over it. He compressed again and the lightning ball turned a royal purple color that filled up the room with a violet light.
As the ball floated in his hands, he extinguished it and went onto the next experiment. Wu Hai was desperate to find the links between Darkness, Lightning and Space Magic, he would not give up. Darkwing did not originally have the Darkness or Lightning abilities, in his mind, if Darkwing could do manifest spacial magic, then he could too.
Wu Hai was in an elemental body, he was as close as he was ever going to be 'naturally' to spacial magic. It was incredible for him to even have such an opportunity, he kept reading and saw a few weapons designs that looked interesting or useful. The manual was on emphasized synergy. No matter the details, the concepts were for all magic types. "I gotta learn how to make things with my hands." Slamming the book shut, he went back to testing his abilities.
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Old Man Jiang was working hard on his 8th day of healing the people in Lunara. The Sovereign had even sent the Royal family over to take treatment or take the man healing others themselves, if he refused. The temperament of Nobles was less than ideal, he decided to help them anyway and ignore the boorish, snotty attitudes most were bound to make during any interaction.
Ooran's treatment had ended on the second day, he had made a complete recovery. The poison had some effect on his body but after an hour of healing, most of the damage had already been healed over. A letter from Master Granite explaining that Zhan was on a 'Relief Mission' for a neighboring ally was given to Zhan, then he rode with his father back to Portano.
Old man Jiang told him to travel lightly and take many breaks along the way. His father was cured of the poison and it was days before they would arrive at Portano again, Zao Zhan had been away from his unit for almost two weeks. If he didn't have the letter explaining his actions, he could be called a Deserter.
Time was not their only enemy, Ooran had been attacked and it resulted in him getting poisoned. If the Assassins found them, it would be even worse than before. They were originally in a City that was walled and well defended with many guards. Now, they were alone and on the road, if they had been living in on the mountain, no one would have survived.
The road was not an option, they sprinted through trees and kept to the shadows as often as possible.
It was a long journey back and Zhan's Firewolf could only run so fast with two people to carry.
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Master Granite spent most of his spare time beside Old Man Jiang. He was detoxifying the people of Lunara, there were a few questions that he wanted answers to. The process of detoxification would take weeks, it wasn't easy to wipe the material from the area.
It was a shame that Old Man Jiang was the only one that could do the work, sighing from stress and an overwhelming desire to sleep, he said "I need some food and a break. Have some Tea with me? I will tell you of my disciple and his family."
"Ahh, so that is why you came? I see. … And here I thought you finally returned for me." Huffing, Master Granite got up, switched chairs and took a seat beside Old Man Jiang. "You don't have to worry, I'm not going to insist on you staying with me this time. I just wish to spend some of it with you.. So where's the Tea?"
"Oh? I though you were going to pester me.." A smile on Old Man Jiang's face was revealed. It was just a joke, though, his tone was easy enough to read.
The two Old Masters laughed lightly together.
Some tea leaves and a pot of fresh water were brought out, it was good that Master Granite had a few devices handy for making medicines, one of them was used to heat up medicinal cauldrons. The kettle boiled and they traded stories before the tea was ready.
Sitting up straight and clearing his throat, Old Man Jiang filled Master Granite in on the details regarding his newest apprentice. "The thing about Zao Wu Hai, is that he refuses to give up.." He left out some details but shared quite a lot, Master Granite felt like he knew the boy before too long. The tales of Wu Hai reminded him of many of their fallen compatriots and long lost feelings surfaced.
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