Chapter 22: Friendship

"Hey, Feng Biao," Song Zhilan said with an awkward smile.

"Hi, Song Zhilan," Feng Biao replied with an equally awkward tone.

Rushing forward Song Zhilan was right next to Feng Biao in a split second.

"Don't worry I have a plan," Song Zhilan whispered, "[Self Creation]."

Immediately the earth around them rumbled, and in an instant, a dome covered the interior of the circle.

"Now that we have some privacy. Feng Biao, what was with you running away from me yesterday?" Song Zhilan said clearly frustrated.

"What was with you not telling me you're married to some scary crazy guy who makes the people who get to know you disappear?" Feng Biao shot back.

"Brandon isn't like that, they aren't killed he just makes sure they get transferred as far as possible from me. Those rumors are overblown," Song Zhilan said with anger rising in her voice.

"How am I supposed to know that? I'm also not comfortable with the idea of being moved away from this place because I happened to be nice to you," Feng Biao said escalating the tension.

"I didn't ask for you to be nice to me you know?"

"No, you didn't. I just you know? I'm not able to deal with a guy like that. I want to talk to you, but I'm not strong enough to protect myself if I do."

"You should have said that idiot. I'm not going to let anybody but myself run my life."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I'll make sure you don't get transferred away. A lot of people don't know but I've made a stand recently, and part of that stand involves making sure friends of mine don't go away to some remote HCF base," Song Zhilan said cooling down from the previous exchange.

"Yeah, if you can make sure I don't get transferred off the base I don't have a problem with us being friends."

"And if you come to me when problems like this pop up instead of running away we stay friends," Song Zhilan said while smirking.

"By the way Feng Biao, I'll make it quick."

"What?"

"Well," Song Zhilan said chuckling and rubbing the back of her head, "umm, unfortunately, I can't actually break out of this Divine Tool. The only way out is to follow the rules."

"Oh-"

Before the thought could form to watch out for Song Zhilan's attack a giant boulder dropped from above. Its weight was such that Feng Biao was completely splattered.

Appearing outside the circle Feng Biao now saw a Song Zhilan who still smiled awkwardly, though this time rather than holding in anger she was clearly holding in a laugh.

"You lasted in there quite a long time Feng Biao," Zhang Fang said with genuine surprise, "I'm impressed."

"So does that mean my punishment is over?"

"Yes, although you were meant to get punished more severely than Hunter," Zhang Fang said as he rubbed his chin.

Quickly leaving before Zhang Fang added a follow-up to that statement Feng Biao found that Hunter was awake again.

"I'm guessing you had a talk," Hunter said weakly.

"Yeah, we're still gonna talk," Feng Biao replied.

"What's there to discuss? Is Brandon targeting you?" Hunter replied concern growing in his voice.

"No, not yet at least," Feng Biao said as he rubbed the back of his head, "the thing is I agreed to keep talking to Song Zhilan in there."

"Why?" Hunter said bolting up.

"It's real easy to say you aren't gonna talk to someone until you're face to face."

"You're an idiot Feng Biao," Hunter said shaking his head d.

"We'll talk about this later Hunter, it's time for training."

So the youths joined the other recruits, and Feng Biao successfully pushed off explaining why exactly he had chosen to continue speaking to Song Zhilan.

Feng Biao's training was simple, he simply gathered as much Divinity as he could in his arms while lifting weights. 30 kg in each arm, but he was only able to lift them when he used Divinity. While he felt like he could do more the point in his mind was repetition.

He felt that with this weight he got the most out of his Divinity, rather than using it in one short burst. The idea came from watching the other Tempered Mortals who were engaging in similar activities.

The day simply flew by from there. Tang Ruolan's lesson came up next, it was about various pantheons. Feng Biao was taught symbols far and wide that Marked would have on their hands. Oddly not a single one matched Song Zhilan's Mark, nor that Mark from that thug in the slums.

After the lesson was over Feng Biao waited for Song Zhilan, who was accompanied by Liu Wei, and Hunter. Hunter gave one look at Song Zhilan and one look at Feng Biao, and quickly increased his pace past both.

"Your friend doesn't seem happy about you hanging out with me," Song Zhilan said while frowning.

"I'll explain to him later, he's a pretty reasonable guy."

"Hi, I'm Liu Wei," mumbled Liu Wei.

"Sorry I didn't hear you. What did you say?" Feng Biao said looking at the meek-looking boy who stood by Song Zhilan.

"He's Liu Wei. He's also shy, be nice," Song Zhilan said patting Liu Wei around the shoulder.

"Yeah, sorry, hi," said Liu Wei holding out his hand. Sizing up Liu Wei Feng Biao saw he was slightly taller than the average boy, but he was built like a stick. Which made him look like the opposite of intimidating.

"No offense taken, my name is Feng Biao," said Feng Biao as he reached for the boy's hand. Taking a look at his Mark he saw one star and the symbol of a lightning bolt. Which told Feng Biao he had a Greek Partial Divinity.

Weakly gripping his hand Liu Wei reciprocated the handshake. Moving on from that Feng Biao chose to ask Song Zhilan a question that he needed an answer for.

"Hey, Song Zhilan, I can convince Hunter to calm down but I do need some info."

"Like what?"

"About your husband? Specifically how you plan to make sure I don't get transferred out if I keep talking to you."

It was now time to have a conversation about the man who had married Song Zhilan. Right in front of the man who loved Song Zhilan.