Long Zhou woke up to Chi Fei shoving herself between him and Long Gaoya, he had no choice but to sit next to Chi Long. Frankly the boy freaked him out, from the time he got into the carriage and now he never broke eye contact with Long Zhou. But now that Long Gaoya was not crushing him he could now focus on cultivating. He could feel himself getting closer to the 4
th
level of body refinement, if he could just cultivate, he can breakthrough in a less than an hour.
He closed his eyes and started to absorb the qi around him, it was not as efficient as there was no fire or lightning qi around. When he could not absorb any more qi, he started to let it sink into his bones. He felt his bone marrow and it was clean, no imperfections to be found, then he forced his qi up and found little bits of impurities in his bones. He then gathered them all up into his forehead. He then used the remnants of the qi from the profound beast to burn the impurities.
He felt like all his bones were about to brake as they tightened filling the space that the impurities left. Even if his bones started to get denser, he did not shrink at all. In fact, he grew as his bones got bigger. He then, started to feel a cool substance leaking out of his bones and into his blood, normally people would find it burning but Long Zhou found it cooling. His bone marrow already started to produce pure blood and the heat at the new blood was at purified the old blood. The speed at which it was purifying his blood at shocked him.
‘What bloodline do I have? There is no way that my bone marrow would be producing blood and even purifying blood for him at this rate otherwise. I spawned into a remarkably interesting life, even if I lose this will prove to be the best decision I have ever made.’
Chi Feng looked at Long Zhou with puzzled expression. ‘Cultivating right now, he really is determined to pass. He is already at the 4
th
level of body refinement, no wonder he is so confident to pass, so is his sister. It is a shame their parents did not live long enough to see their children’s talent.’ The carriage slowly came to a stop and their door was knocked on. Chi Feng rolled his eyes like he was not ready to deal with the person on the side of the door, “Kids go to the other side of the carriage.” Long Zhou listened and pulled Chi Long over to the other side. He was squashed between the Chi siblings. The door opened and the person who entered shocked Long Zhou.
“Ice Flame, what are you doing here? Stopping my carriage? Who do you think you are?” Chi Feng started to question her as she sat down. She gave him one look and he stop speaking, he was clearly afraid of her. “I need to get into Red Star City, do not worry I can disguise myself. You will not be implicated.” She said as she ate a pill. The beauty spot faded, her eyes and hair turned brown. Her aura changed again, and it was not anything like the aura she had when she was with Long Zhou. Her cultivation had increased to the 3
rd
level of Rinzana realm and it was clear why Chi Feng was afraid of her. During the 9 years he was with Long Mu he had heard snippets of what Ice Flame was up to. All of them gave him the impression of a demon. He was proud that he spent any time with her as she reminded Long Zhou of how he acted back when he was Zaatox.
She looked at Long Zhou and she had, for a moment, a shocked expression. She quickly questioned Chi Feng “Who are these 2? They are nothing like you or Ning’er.”
“Err… Well… They are not my children. Their parents died in a profound beast attack, so I am just bringing them to the Scarlett Dragon Sect.” Chi Feng stammered.
“Lies! Do you really think I will fall for such obvious lies? Chi Feng caring about orphans, and even helping them get to their destination.”
“No, it is the truth Ice Flame. He said something that reminded me of the general, so I decided to help him out. That is all. Nothing more.” He huffed. “Please do not assume that I am something that I am not.”
“He reminded you of Yun Feng? Really? What was it that he said? I would like to know.” She said eyeing Long Zhou. “Why don’t you tell me boy?”
“I asked him “why he would think that he can get into the Scarlett Dragon Sect?” and “Why would they accept a commoner like him?”” Chi Feng explained. “He the repl…”
“Shut up! I never asked you. Now child, tell me what you answered those questions with?”
Long Zhou laughed internally. ‘I like her.’
"We need to join, or their deaths will be in vain. We cannot fail. That is why we will pass. Why would they not let somebody in if they are commoners, that will just reduce the amount of talent they can get their hands on. Also, all nobles were commoners at some point be that in the distant past or just a hundred years ago. Not letting somebody into your sect because of class is illogical and will negatively affect the sect development overall. When the individual sect’s growth is compromised the country’s, growth is too. This will lead to danger and even the fall of a nation. The greatest threat to any nation is arrogance and any division based on anything other than talent and performance is the most dangerous form of arrogance.”
When he was saying this she slowly started to smile, like she expected him to say that. Then she burst out laughing. “That sounds exactly like that bastard. Good.” She ran her finger down his cheek to his chin “I am rooting for you boy, tell me what your name is?”
“Shan Zhou, who are you? If you do not mind me asking?” Long Zhou replied. He looked her in the eyes, “You seem familiar.”
“I am known as Ice Flame, and I have never met you before.” Her voice went cold as she looked out the window. She had a slight smile that nobody could see. ‘Yun Feng you pawned this child off to a random family. You are lucky that I found out he is going to join the Scarlett Dragon Sect or master would have your head roll. Zhou’er remembers me does he. That is nice. Next time that I see that bastard Yun Feng, I will make sure he sees that error of his ways.’
They sat in silence until they heard chatter outside. They were in traffic and they slowly edged forward. After what felt like and eternity of awkward silence the door was opened and guards in purple amour looked inside. “Papers please.” The man asked in a tired voice. Then he looked up and saw Chi Feng staring daggers at him. “You dare aske ME for papers? Who do the guards of Red Star City think they are?”
The guard’s face went pale as he mouthed words, but nothing came out. “Excuse… me. I… apologies…”
“Shut up and let me through!” Chi Feng shouted loud enough that the carriage shook. The guard instantly closed the door and the carriage started to move. “Lady, Ice Flame. Do you know why this city is called Red Start City?” Long Gaoya asked.
“When this city was founded, the founders were arguing what to call it and then suddenly like the heavens themselves were answering their questions a massive red star appeared that blocked out the light from all the other stars and the night turned into day and everything was blood red. From then on, the city was called Red Star City. Every couple of centuries the star reappears and everytime either a huge danger or great fortune appeared in the city.” Chi Feng answered, it seemed like Ice Flame was not in the mood to answer any questions.
Soon the carriage stopped, “This is your stop Shan Zhou, Shan Gaoya. The Scarlett Dragon Sect will start the test at dawn.” He pointed out the window to a white tower. “That is where you need to meet up. Now Ice Flame. Get out my carriage.” They got off the carriage and the moment Long Zhou stepped off it started up again. Ice Flame looked at them “You look like a couple of smart kids. To be able to trick Chi Feng is no easy task. Tell Long Mu that he owes me one, when you see him next. Also, you have not heard of me or Long Mu. We are both wanted people in this country and being associated with us will have you executed. If you are ever in trouble use this to contact me. It will only work once so be careful when you use it.” Ice Flame said as she threw a couple of blue gems at the Long siblings. When they looked up, she was nowhere to be seen. “I hate it when they do that. Can they not just walk away normally?” Long Gaoya complained as she walked away. The sun set couple of hours ago and they needed to find a place to sleep.
