Liang Tian and Yun Qian were flying through the air on their flying artifacts as fast as possible towards the place where the True Martial hall's flying ship had been. Yun Qian was cursing under her breath as she wondered how things had become like this. At the beginning of the day, the two sect masters and the mayor had greeted Elder Zhao at the city limits and acted as a guide for the distinguished guest. After showing him around the city, they had brought him to the pavilion and the elder had dismissed them soon after. They had discussed going to the cultivation hall, but she had rejected Liang Tian invitation.
"If Elder Zhao request our presence again, it would damage our reputation if we were slow to respond", was her reasoning.
Ultimately, they decided to go to the restaurant and enjoy a meal in a private outdoor dining area. They had mostly finished their meal, and were discussing the Dao over tea when it happened. The protective array of the shop activated which caused sweat to form on the back of Yun Qian. She had seen many arrays during her life, but none of them felt as threatening as the one surrounding the store now. She started to look around in conjunction with using her true sense to investigate why the formation was active when she made a discovery. The store naturally had many customers currently shopping at the moment, but the reactions for the crowds were much different. A small portion of them of them had a looks of fear on their faces which was much different than the rest. Yun Qian watched as many of the regular guests summoned their Tianxus from their storage items, and began recording.
Seeing the others reminded Yun Qian, so she also took her phone out as well and also did the same. At first, she didn't focus on anything specific until she saw 'Fang Shi' step out. She noticed it was staring in a certain direction, so she also focused her true sense there and that is when she felt it. A powerful weapon was building up energy, and the direction suggested it was from the True Martial hall's flying ship.
"Sect Mast Liang!", she shouted, "We are under attack!"
With just a thought, she updated him and the pair flew over to 'Fang Shi' to offer assistance. Just as the two sect masters arrived, another guest had also come. Xiong Tianzu, the spiritual bear that claimed the near forest as its territory, also flew over.
"Owner Fang…", before she could ask about the situation, the power from the True Martial hall's ship surged.
In response, 'Fang Shi' raised a hand and she felt an even more powerful force gather as she watching lightning dance around the protective formation. 'Fang Shi' pointed his finger in the direction of the threat, and the lightning that was racing around the array gathered there. A surge of power fired and Yun Qian felt dread run through her body, her instincts almost made her run in panic. Looking at 'Fang Shi', she understood now that this wasn't the actually shop owner but a puppet in his likeness. Everything she had heard about the shop owner in the past was that he would punish trouble makers but leave a path of redemption for the offender. This 'Fang Shi' was indifferent and absolute in his actions.
Before Yun Qian had time to ponder what her discovery signified, her true sense felt the attack from the formation clash with the flying ship of True Martial hall. The attack ripped through the protective shield like a sword through a paper door, instantly destroying it along with all the sails of the ship. She also felt the auras of many of the crew disappear before the ship fell.
Yun Qian released the blue river lotus that was her flying artifact, noticing that Liang Tian had also drawn his flying sword and the pair flew in the direction of the disaster. She glanced one more time at 'Fang Shi' before willing the lotus forward, finally understanding the power that backed the shop couldn't be offended not matter what.
Yun Qian had prepared herself for what would be found when they arrived but when both sect masters saw the aftermath, her breath still hitched for a moment. Several of the subordinate sects flying boats had already descended to assist the survivors. Or maybe they had come to loot the wreckage, she couldn't tell. A couple ships of the fleet had quietly sailed away, understandably frightened by the attack formation of th store. From a distance, it looked like a disturbed bee hive with agitated cultivators flying around ready to fight or fly away.
As the Yun Qian and Liang Tian approached, three sect masters who were trying to desperately organize the rescue effort stopped and blocked their path. She recognized the three as Han Yucheng, sect master of Blackstone mountain, Lou Qianfeng, sect master of the Crimson Gale sect, and Mei Shuyun, sect master of the Jade River sect.
"Halt!", Lou Qianfeng drew his weapon.
"What are you doing, Ol' Lou", Liang Tian jumped off his flying sword and took it into his hand, "We are here to help, why do you block the way?"
Han Yucheng and Mei Shuyun also produced weapons as the later sneered, "Aren't you two allies of the damned pavilion? Look at what they did, they attacked the sect that oversees yours, yet you ally with the outsider."
Yun Qian furrowed her brow, "Stop talking nonsense, we obviously came to help. How can you slander us like this?"
"Let's all calm down", Han Yucheng tried to play the peacemaker, though he didn't stow his weapon, "I'm sorry, but to keep things clear I think it's better if the two of you didn't get involved."
Liang Tian roared in anger, "Good, good, good. Accuse us without evidence, and then try to stand high on moral ground. Has the your conscience been eaten by dogs?"
He glared at the three for a moment before flicking his sleeve and flying away on his sword again. Yun Qian followed after but she was fuming inside. She knew that Mei Shuyun was taking this opportunity to throw mud on her name and sect. The Azure River sect had a rivalry with the Jade River sect and others compared each other often. Inspired from her earlier observations, she took out her phone and began taking pictures and videos of the scene of the incident as she flew away.
Yun Qian opened Sanctum on his phone, ready to share everything with the others, but when the app open a warning filled the screen.
{Due to large number of image and video sharing, the service is experiencing difficulties. Please download the new app (Cloud Mirror)}
She canceled the warning and saw that the topic that had been created about today's event had been locked. A moment later a new icon was added to her phone, and she opened it without delay. She made her name (FairyoftheAzureRiver) and was taken to her home page which was currently bare. A quick search revealed a guide to using the app and by the time the two sect masters arrived at the pavilion, she had added many friends and upload her own photos.
As friends got added to her list, more images and videos became available to her to view the awesome power of the shop. But many of the users of Cloud Mirro began asking the same questions that was in her own heart.
'Will the Heaven & Earth pavilion be able to handle the retaliation of True Martial Hall?' and 'Who do I support?'
Back a the new store, Elias was standing on the edge of an unfinished highway alongside Barret, Aerith, Tifa, and strange creature that held the features of a wolf and lion named Red thirteen. It had taken several days and many events taken place since fighting Aps in the sewers. The tragedy of Sector 7, the invasion of Shen Luo's headquarters, dueling Shen Luo's young master on the roof, and the escape. Elias was still feeling the rush from riding the 'motorcycle' down the highway. Not only did he have to fight waves of grunts that chased after him, but also against a terrifying vehicle in the end. He had to coordinate his own attacks with the others who were riding in a small 'truck' which had taken several hours, but it was all worth it now that he could see past the city walls.
For a moment, Elias felt the urge to continue on to discover what the world outside the city was like but he took a look at the time. Realizing that he was almost six hours, he saved his progress and exited the booth. He went to the front desk to see if Master Fang was playing like normal, and was not disappointed. He had been improving in the game and in real life thanks to watching the shop owner. Unfortunately, today would be different. After watching for a few minutes, the screen Elias was looking at turned off and Fang Shi emerged from his booth.
"What's wrong, Master Fang?", he asked.
Fang Shi looked at Elias with a frustrated expression before sighing, and walking out the door. Ever since the first day the young mercenary had started watching him play, Elias had called him 'master', a title he vehemently rejected. Elias hadn't relented, but Fang Shi knew what he was trying to do. Often in novels, it was common for would be apprentices to use this practice to wear down a mentor's resistance.
Fang Shi smiled to himself, this would never work on him. He knew the tactic, and was a young man himself so the other man couldn't wear him down. He hurriedly made his way to the stadium where the puppets had told him of a potential troublesome situation. Elias also went to see what had caught the shop owner's attention.
When Fang Shi arrived, he saw several groups of men standing on the running track opposite of each other. Some stared at the other group while the leaders were fervently arguing with each other.
"We were here first", "No, We were", "There's enough room for everyone", could be heard as he approached everyone.
"What seems to be the problem?", his voice caused everyone to quiet down.
Scanning the group, he saw that even though the two groups were arguing, they hadn't resorted to fighting which is the why the puppets didn't step in.
As expected, both sides wished to exclusively use the training field. They claimed that it was impossible to perform their secret arts in front of the enemy, lest they would be exposed.
Fang Shi nodded along, and both sides thought he was agreeing with them until he spoke, "This is a public stadium, and it's open it all. I'm sorry, I will not be giving exclusive rights to anyone so I suggest if you want to keep something secret, don't show it. However, I don't wish to mediate future conflicts of this nature so I wonder if you want to hear my suggestion."
Three men stepped forth and greeted him.
"Captain Shen Rong"
"Lieutenant Gao Wen"
"Captain Elian Marrow"
When Fang Shi had been listening to the problem earlier, he came up with an idea and communicated with the system. Fang Shi raised his hand, and a black and white ball appeared there.
"I'll teach you a game and in the future if you wish to settle a minor matter, you can use this to help", he said as he walked to the middle of the stadium.
The crowd seemed awkwardly nervous at first but after consideration, they followed along.
"This is a football", he said as he dropped the ball on the ground, "And this large field is the pitch. Look, and you will see a goal on each side of the pitch."
Fang Shi took the next ten minutes laying out all the rules and positions of the before giving a demonstration. He ran around dribbling the ball showing the others what was legal and illegal before returning to the group.
"Since we have two captains here, both of you pick about nineteen others and assign positions", Fang Shi continued, "I'll be the referee, and oversee the match."
Captains Shen Rong and Elian Marrow looked at the other before looking back Fang Shi and agreed. They called over their fellow soldiers to the opposite sides of the pitch, and Fang Shi gave them more footballs to practice. For the next hour, the two sides used their own methods to pick their team and then the captains went to Fang Shi to inform him they were ready.
On each side of the field stood twenty two people, but from Fang Shi's point of view it was obvious who had a better chance of winning. The empire's soldiers all wore matching uniforms while the compact's side was a variety of colors. He made another request of the system before reaching his hands out again.
"This will be a fair match but I've already noticed a problem", he told the crowd, "There might be some confusion on the compact's side since everyone is wearing different clothes so to solve that, I have these."
Stacks of shirts appeared in his hands, one with the colors of the empire's flag, and the other the compact's flag.
Looking at the captains, he explained, "Each of these shirts have a number. Give one to each of your players, and get into position."
The two complied, and soon Fang Shi was standing in the middle of the field throwing the ball up and blowing a whistle.
Long Xuanwu was back in his mountain home but the inside was different than before. After learning that one could purchase a custom cultivation pod and set it up if a spiritual vein was close, both him and that damned flaming chicken Feng Huolian purchased one. He was happy with this arrangement because he didn't want to abandon his mountain, nor did he want travel often to Tianna.
Long Xuanwu had spent many days since then playing Rampage Titans, but he had also enjoyed other games as well such as Monster Slayer and Samsara. Just today, he had been watching a new series called 'Lady White Snake' when he had interrupted by his retainer, Hei Tun.
"Lord Long", Hei Tun greeted him respectfully.
"Go ahead", he replied.
"I've some troubling news", Hei Tun stated.
Long Xuanwu arched his eyebrow but didn't say anything so the younger spirit beast kept speaking.
"To the far north, spirit beast clans have reported two troubling events", Hei Tun recounted, "The first is that seas of the north shore have risen causing damage to the homes of the clans and tribes that live there. The second is that several sea clans have left the sea to attack even more of our subjects inland."
Long Xuanwu frowned upon hearing the news. It was unusual for sea clans to take such actions. Not only was the infighting in the sea worse than on land, but they were also at a disadvantage. Even in human form, the members of the sea clan wouldn't leave the water for too long because they would weaken over time. Only a few small clans of beasts and birds that spent time on land and water were immune from this problem but the size of their clan meant they were not a threat.
Long Xuanwu took out his phone as he said, "This is bad news. I'll contact several of my retainers close to there to investigate."