12 - Su Long

As Su Tao healed, time passed by quickly. During this time, no one came to bother him, and no one made any attempt to hurt or kill him. This was expected, but he still kept up his guard at all times. He was almost fully healed after a week, and he felt that his bone would be fully healed in only three more days.

At this time, he felt that he could train the rest of his body without hurting his arm so he went to the training area to train. He would only not use his right arm to train. After all, it was still broken and would get damaged if he actively used it like that.

When he went to the training field, everyone looked at him strangely, wondering what he was doing there. Word had gotten around and everyone clearly knew that his arm had been shot all the way through by an arrow from one of the top geniuses in the Su family.

But when he looked at them, they only felt fear and instantly looked away. They were afraid, not only because of his gaze, but because they finally realized how dangerous he was after Su Xue was easily beaten by him and forced to tell the reason she tried to assassinate him. After all, someone weak could not possibly do that and without any resistance at that.

When people saw him start to hit the pillar, however, they thought he was crazy. After all, unless one had high quality medicine or healing pills, then one would not be able to heal fast enough to train within two weeks. Such medicine was extremely expensive and only those at the second silver star could afford such medicine. After all, his injury was just too severe, having both the bones in his arm broken and shot all the way through by an arrow.

But even after he started, he did not use his right arm, making people think that he was at least a tiny bit sensible. Yet even after hours, he showed no signs of getting tired or stopping. Instead, his hits grew ever more violent and powerful, and he slowly but surely made progress.

After half the day had passed, he finally stopped. But this time, he did not exhaust himself enough that he fell down and could barely move. He was still fully capable of moving as much and as fast as he wanted to. He had been looking around this entire time and keeping a close eye on his surroundings. As such, he had clearly seen someone hiding nearby.

They had been hiding this entire time and they did but have any weapons, so he did not do anything. But despite that, he was still wary because he was, after all, only a second star bronze ranked warrior and the person watching him was at the first silver star.

Things would not be as easy as last time if they decided to attack him since they would be on guard against his arrows, and they would be able to block them unlike Su Xue who was unprepared and could not fully block the arrow in time.

The person watching him was another person at the first silver star, and he was also young, just like Su Xue. But unlike her, he had cold and calculating eyes. He was well hidden, with only part of his body exposed behind leaves, but this was far more than enough for Su Tao to see him. He was hidden on the far end of the training area inside a bush.

This was also how Su Xue had hidden, but she was much closer to him and less well hidden. The only reason he didn't notice her earlier was because his guard was not up because he knew someone had protected him and he didn't expect someone to try to assassinate him.

This boy had Amber eyes and a handsome face. His head was concealed by a hood, darkening his face, but this had no effect at all to Su Tao's eyes which could see his face clear as day. His eyes and face held a nasty expression, although well concealed as it was. It was clear that this person did not like Su Tao.

This person had arrived shortly after he did, and he went in a back entrance not open to disciples of the family and instantly hid.

The difference between him and the normal disciples of the family was that he had a small crest on his chest that had a engraving of a snowflake on it. This snowflake represented that he was the grandson of the grand elder of the Su family, Su Long. Despite being the grandson of the grand elder, he was not super talented compared to his grandfather and was not comparable to Su Xue, who was at the fist silver star at twenty five. He was now thirty years old and only just recently reached the first silver star.

Rumors went around long ago that he was trying to court Su Xue, and that he was insistent about it, but she did not give him any face and rejected him time and time again. Su Tao figured that he was probably here for that reason, as Su Tao had shot Su Xue and she had not come out of her residence since. He probably thought that she was hurt and he was the reason, therefore he wanted to cause trouble with Su Tao.

He had been thinking of what to do for a while, because he had no clue who prevented him from being killed with his mother, and he didn't know if it was one of the elders of the Su family, the grand elder, someone from another family, or the city master. He knew that it had to at least be an elder to get any input in the matter, but someone like Su Long had too high of a status and could probably ignore the consequences if the person protecting him was not high enough in position.

He could not defend himself like he did with Su Xue since she was not the granddaughter of the grand elder of the family. This meant that if Su Long attacked him, he could not hurt Su Long in any way, leaving him utterly defenseless. Su Long was also stronger than Su Xue despite not having as much talent.

This was because he was raised in a spoiled environment and given everything he could ever wish for since birth. This meant that even if Su Tao could defend himself from Su Long, then he might not even be able to break through Su Long's inner energy barrier, let alone defeat him or get away. After all, those at the silver rank were many times faster than peak bronze ranks, let alone just a two star bronze rank.

Su Tao knew that he was weak, but there was nothing he could do about it but train, but if Su Long intervened, then there was nothing he could do but take the beating.

At this time, he was not done training for the day, so he recovered for a few minutes, keeping an eye on Su Long. Then, after recovering, he trained for another three hours. He was now done for the day, but before he left, he glanced directly into Su Long's eyes, giving a look of warning to the latter.

When Su Long saw Su Tao look at him, he felt an intense uncomfortable feeling unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was many times more intense than the feeling of uneasiness that he felt even from his grandfather.

It was not fear of danger, but rather, it seemed to be a feeling of warning, a feeling that made one instinctively wary and respectful. It was coupled with the same feeling that Su Xue had felt, the feeling that all his secrets had been exposed and that he had been seen naked.

Su Long hated this feeling, but he was currently more concerned with how Su Tao managed to find him. After all, he was hidden extremely far away and hidden well at that.

Then, while maintaining eye contact, Su Tao curved up the corners of his mouth into a creepy grin. His pure white hair blew lightly in the wind, making him seem ever more creepy. Combining his piercing eyes, creepy grin, and his white hair, he looked like a creepy ghost.

Then, without a word, Su Tao turned around and left, but even when he was no longer looking at Su Long, Su Long still felt like he was being watched. It was a creepy feeling of being watched behind your back, but when you turned around, there was nothing there.

As Su Tao left, Su Long was extremely uncomfortable. The uncomfortableness only went away a few minutes after he left, after which Su Long went to the place where Su Tao was training. When he got there, he could not see anything out of the ordinary. It even looked like no one had ever been here.

He could not help but wonder what that feeling he felt earlier was. It was clear to him that Su Tao had known he was there the whole time, but that still did not explain how creepy he was. It was kind of like being intimidated, but at the same time being unable to hide. The inability to hide is something that all people feared, and something that would cause anyone to slightly panic.

He finally stopped underestimating Su Tao at this time and finally realized that maybe there was a reason that Su Xue lost to him without resistance. Maybe the same would happen to him if he tried to attack?

He figured out that Su Tao was much more dangerous than just his rank, and he might need help to kill him. Despite being wary, he still very much planned to kill him, to please Su Xue and try to get her hand in marriage.

Su Long left with a huff as he went back to his personal courtyard.

As for Su Tao, he just went back to his house and went to bed.

For the next two days, Su Tao continued the same pattern, and each day there was someone there to watch his every move. But every day he would give them a sinister smile and a well placed stare, scaring them off.

On the third day, he started hitting with his previously injured arm again, which had now entirely healed. People around him thought he was crazy because he had still not taken off the bloody cloth and brace on his arm. But when they saw his fist impact at full force with the pillar and not budge, they were surprised. Not only that, but the sound of the impact echoed through the area he was in.

He trained for six hours again, and he was not exhausted in the slightest when he was done. In fact, he felt like he could go for much longer than that. But the reason he stopped was because someone was watching him again, and that person was Su Long, but he was not alone.