Depression Noodle

"Is that a snake shape on her pendant?" James asked uncertainly as he looked at the necklace of the girl Noel pointed out as Rowella and his competition in the upcoming match.

"That's right and the sect master has multiple animals such as a Hippogriff and King Lion among other things. The other Disciples around here seem to have different animals as well since every Disciple is different." Noel explained while James watched the Beast Master Sect walk past them.

"How do they store a live animal in those pendants, shouldn't that be impossible?" James questioned as he thought about the group. James knew that many things could be done with Qi and there were powerful things that he had yet to learn about but taking living breathing creatures and shoving them inside some sort of inanimate object seemed a little far-fetched for him.

"Well, they aren't actually alive. The things they use for the pendants are spirits of former beasts. In exchange for keeping them alive in spirit form and slowly empowering them with the user's Qi, the beasts will fight for the owner of the pendant after being chosen in a forest in their sect." Noel explained as if she was reading off some sort of sect encyclopedia.

James had been genuinely shocked the entire trip so far by how much Noel knew about everyone and everything while also being respected and known by everyone they had met. Even the Patriarch of the Steel Venom Sect seemed to want to curry favor with her.

'That's my wife.' James thought to himself with a smile as he thanked Noel for the information.

"Can you love birds ever stay apart from each other for more than 5 minutes?" Zen huffed behind them as they were walking. This entire time James has been forced to be accompanied by Zen due to the decree of the Patriarch but James tuned her out completely as he saw no reason to converse with her.

"If it's such a problem for you then you can go ahead and go somewhere else, Zen." Cara said in annoyance as her friend had not stopped complaining about their open affection she had even begun to wonder whether Zen was just jealous.

"C'mon Cara you weren't always like this! I'm your friend and ever since this guy showed up you and that woman have been completely head over heels!" Zen shouted in annoyance making Patriarch Colton and some of the others chuckle as they listened in on the conversation.

"Oh really? Well, how are you going to blame me for acting in such a way when you were doing the exact same thing the other day when you met him!" Cara angrily said as she pulled James closer to her body clearly marking him as hers.

Even some like Noel who was all for bashing Cara laughed at this as she agreed with her point while Zen was at a loss for words glancing back and forth between James who was also chuckling and Cara who had a smug look on her face, "It wasn't like that at all! I was under the effect of that weird Qi and even if I was normal it was only to understand your interest in him!" Zen shouted back before going silent once again and just following behind the group clearly knowing that she lost the argument.

After the small back and forth between the group James and his group were led into the city of Rockshard or the city of lights which is the nickname given by everyone that James asked. Even someone like Noel praised the scene on how pretty it was at night while Cara had never stayed in the city herself.

From what she explained all of the other times she had competed in the tournament she had stayed inside of the arena so she could hold her focus on the competition ahead of her but this time she was with James so she could care less about the results of the tournament over spending time with him.

'It will be the first time the three of us have been on a trip together.' James thought to himself with a smile as the group made their way to the city.

The city seemed pretty empty at first with a bunch of tall buildings stacked all over the place for signs of food or places to stay but no one was there to accommodate any of these things since everyone in the city had apparently gone to the arena to hear more about the games.

However, as time went on and more people began returning to the city it became a lively celebration as the tournament returned to the area. The streets started to become packed out and all of the places bustling with people.

"How does stopping in to eat sound with everyone?" Patriarch Colton questioned the group as he turned around treating them as if they were a school group on a field trip.

Surprisingly everyone agreed as none of them had really eaten anything since leaving the sect.

Soon enough everyone made their way inside the nearest restaurant which was surprisingly a noodle place. The immediate smell and atmosphere when James walked inside was very warm and appealing to him but it also brought back dark memories.

Originally the memories of a noodle place were supposed to be happy for him as he and his sister or more like adopted sister were supposed to go to one when they left the village for the first time. Sadly they were never able to leave together for a vacation with their family due to the day that came prior to him being in the sect.

Just the thought of those times made James begin slightly shiver and begin to have a panic attack stirring the Qi within his body. Normally James would immediately turn to Cara or Noel for support but they had gone with the rest to order the food at the front while James had sat down at one of the tables with Zen to wait.

The only reason both Noel and Cara had left him in the first place was that unbeknownst to him they were trying to surprise him with a lavish meal for completing his training for the tournament and they both wanted credit.