A Little Help

As James sat there consumed by his own thoughts the dark Qi within his body began moving uncontrollably within him signaling his unrest as the memories of the gruesome scene of his old house haunted him.

Zen who was sitting beside him noticed the change in James' behavior as his face got deathly pale and his breathing hastened to an abnormal rate that she had never seen or heard from him before, "James are you alright?! What's wrong?!" Zen questioned as she waved her hands in front of his unfocused eyes not getting a response.

Zen had no idea what to do in this situation because she didn't want to leave James by himself but also wanted to go get someone who probably knew what was happening. As much as she didn't want to admit it Cara and Noel were definitely the ones that knew more about James than anyone else.

As James sat in the depths of his mind, his black Qi became increasingly unruly, slowly peaking outside his body and going toward the closest nearby person, Zen. As it inched closer she was able to see it move in her direction not really sure what to do about it.

However, before the black Qi could reach Zen it was suddenly sucked up and started moving in another direction toward the entrance of the restaurant. While the black Qi was being sucked away James' mind suddenly was getting filled with positive memories.

The thoughts of his parent's cold dead bodies no longer protruded in his mind and was rather replaced by long happy nights with his family cooking and eating together. It was filled with his parents joking about how he was going to have to protect his new family member when the men in the village tried to ask her out.

When James thought of this his black Qi no longer came out and his mind was cleansed to the point he could finally open his eyes and look at the shocked Zen who was still trying to understand the situation, "Are you alright?!" Zen asked quickly seeing now that James was responsive.

"Yes, I'm alright sorry about that. I don't know what came over me but I felt kind of strange and suddenly woke up after remembering a bunch of old happy times." James said with a slight smile as he recalled the events he had thought of moments ago, completely forgetting the reason for his original burst of black Qi.

Although he had completely forgotten the dark memories he was just thinking of for the moment James knew that the memories he had been thinking of were forced into his mind. He had felt a slight change from an outside force in his knowledge sea.

The effects of it were still there as there was a floating ball of golden Qi inside of James' knowledge sea that he knew nothing about. With this thought, James began looking around the room clearly trying to find someone making Zen confused as he definitely didn't seem alright.

He was acting outside his normal personality which was more secluded and to himself since the only thing he really cared about was getting stronger and spending time with his two loved ones.

"What's wrong what are you searching for?" Zen questioned as she also stood up slightly scanning the room while powering her eyes with Qi trying to find any type of out-of-the-ordinary fluctuation.

Those present in the restaurant were immediately shivering in fear due to Zen's gaze filled with Qi. Most of the people in there were lower in cultivation if they had any at all and even those that did have a cultivation were no comparison to Zen making her power fille gaze more than most can handle calmly.

James was also doing the same although with less power but still scaring many people as his gaze made his way around but no matter how much he searched he couldn't find anything connecting himself to someone else through his black Qi or any other means.

What he didn't know was that there were a group of three people that had just left the restaurant in search of another one after the request of a girl in the middle, "Why do we have to leave that place after we just got there?" An arrogant young man asked the girl in the middle who seemed to be about the same age and also recognized as the same girl in the arena who stared at James for a long period of time.

"No reason, in particular, I would just prefer to eat somewhere else." The girl said with a bright smile as she rotated the newfound black Qi inside of her body and dantian relishing in the feeling as it spread within her Qi reserves.

The older woman beside the girl looked down at her wondering in her mind what was truly the reason they had left the restaurant. When they had first entered everything seemed alright at first but suddenly while they were standing to wait to ask for their food the girl's eyes had suddenly shot open with shock and worry.

The woman had never seen the girl worry about anything since they had met so to see all these different reactions and out-of-character themes in one day definitely meant that something was going on and she intended on finding out what just as much as the young man to her left who seemed to have even more malicious intentions.

*****

Back in the restaurant, James had finally sat back down content with his searching but still wondering what had happened as both Cara and Noel finally returned to the table.

When they did this they both immediately realized something had happened while they were gone due to how Zen was staring at him with concern the entire time as if something might happen at any moment which was definitely beyond unordinary for her usually happy-go-lucky self.

""What happened?!"" They both asked in concern.