Chapter 366: Sorry. |
Haru closed his eyes and entered a trance as the technique came to his mind as if it was second nature although he had never practised it before. A flashing image made its self known within his mind as he watched the scene play out before him.
Although his eyes were closed tightly he could see light all around him in the form of stars as he felt weightlessness all over. It was almost as though he was floating through space as he watched the same scene that he had seen during the ascension tunnel when he left earth.
There were galaxies and star systems all around and he felt oddly at ease. It was as though his soul had known the very same location he was seeing as a strong sense of familiarity and nostalgia flooded his mind.
Suddenly a wave of warmth washed over him as his skin began to tingle. It was almost the same as what he experienced the first time he cultivated back on earth. The only difference was that there was no pain and the amount that he was feeling at the moment was millions of times stronger than what he had felt in the past.
Haru held his breath as the feeling became a little bit overwhelming but continued to endure as he knew exactly what the cause of it was.
True Qi began to leak into his body at an unimaginable rate. Haru had cultivated in many places while on earth and even in the depths of a magic volcano yet nothing could even come close to the amount of Qi he could feel in the atmosphere on the planet that he was on right now.
He now understood how Hong Xia had been able to recover so quickly. The amount of Qi on the planet although vast and expansive was also concerning to Haru.
He felt as though if he kept absorbing the Qi as he was doing then he would break through to the next cultivation stage in just one night. But he didn't even know the name of the next stage and he felt as though he didn't have enough time to consolidate his strength at the previous stages. He had skipped the nascent soul and nirvana stage entirely as he ascended.
He felt as though it was a good idea not to break through to the next stage but there was an urge within him that didn't want to listen to the warning. He wanted to see what would happen if he did breakthrough and as far as he was concerned there couldn't be anything too bad that could happen.
Haru became distracted as a couple of roosters cried out at the crack of dawn and as he opened his eyes he soon realised that it was morning as the sun began to beam down on his face, blinding him as he took an opportunity to look up at the sky.
He hadn't noticed before but slightly next to the sun there was a smaller orb of light illuminating the land around him.
'This planet has two suns? That's strange how didn't I notice that before?' Haru thought as looked back down to the ground to see that the city below him was just waking up.
There were people out in the streets getting ready for business as a few people shook their rugs outside their windows and hung up their wet laundry to be dried throughout the day.
He looked around and noticed that no one had seen him yet and figured that it was probably a good idea for him to go back to the inn before anyone called the guards for sitting on their roof. Haru jumped down to the floor and expected more of an impact on his legs when he landed but to his surprise, his body felt a lot lighter than it did the night before and he hit the floor with a slight tap as his boots hit the stone but there was no shock running through his legs as he expected.
'Last night's cultivation really paid off huh?' He thought before moving along the street and towards the inn before he could get in anyone's way as he noticed the people around him were walking with purpose and he didn't want to keep them from going wherever they needed to go.
He made it back to the inn after walking for a couple of minutes and walked in through the front door to find that it was awfully quiet. There was no one on the ground floor but he figured that the workers were probably doing something together.
He continued on his way upstairs and opened the door to the room that he was staying in to find the door had been tampered with but not opened forcefully thanks to the barrier he had placed on the door, making it so that only he could open it. As he walked in he found Hong Xia holding her sword with it pointed towards him
"I told you to stay out!" Hong Xia shouted in Gaohen. It seemed as though she had picked up a little bit more of the language during the night that Haru had been away but judging by the look on her face something had happened.
"Woah, are you trying to kill me?" Haru asked with a little bit of a chuckle as she began to swing the sword towards him, not realising that it was Haru who had entered the room.
He moved to the right of her and placed his hand against hers that was gripping onto the sword and felt her shake a little as she dropped the sword to the floor before realising that it was just Haru and not an enemy.
"H-Haru… You're back…" Hong Xia said as she looked at him in disbelief and then looked down at her hands to see that Haru was still holding both of them despite her sword no longer being a threat to him.
She pulled her hands away from him and stumbled back as she was a little bit surprised but then upon seeing him standing there without a care in the world she immediately ran towards him again and tried to punch him in the face.
"You bastard! How dare you leave ma alone like that! Don't you understand that this is a whole different planet?! There was someone trying to break into the room last night and I was stuck here alone! I had to resort to making empty threats in hopes that whoever it was would go away!
You know I'm not strong enough to defend myself here so why would you leave me like that you fucking!…" Hong Xia shouted as Haru immediately understood what had gone on by the brief explanation she had just given while shouting at him and trying to hit him.
He had been dodging her punches the whole time but upon learning that someone had tried to break into the room while Hong Xia was all alone he stopped moving and let her punch him.
She first struck him in the cheek before she kneed him in the stomach and tackled him to the ground. Haru lay there as she began to punch him over and over again while on top of him and looking down as her fist hit him in the lip and broke the surface of his skin as Haru's tooth tore through his own flesh and caused blood to run down his face to the floor beneath him.
She stopped hitting him as she saw a large amount of blood and then hesitated for a moment as she wondered if he was going to retaliate for her losing control and attacking him but Haru remained silent as he looked up at her without breaking eye contact.
"I'm sorry. I don't have any excuse to give you. It was a mistake on my part. I should have expected them to come back after the failed assassination. I'm sorry you had to go through that on your own. It must have been scary." Haru said as he looked up at Hong Xia to see that she was surprised by his reaction. It seemed that she wasn't expecting an apology and it caught her off guard.
"You idiot!" Hong Xia shouted out before raising her hands to her face and covering her eyes as her body began to shake.
She let out a whimper before moving one of her hands to look back down at Haru.
"I thought they were going to break in here and kidnap me! There were so many thoughts running through my head. I wanted to escape through the window but I thought that they might have people out there waiting so I was backed into a corner! I didn't know what to do!" Hong Xia called out between breaths as it seemed as though she was finally letting out her feelings.
Her warrior's spirit seemed to have been shaken by the thought of being defenceless in a world where people were stronger than she could even imagine and feeling hopeless to do anything against them if they managed to break through the door.
Haru lay there as she carried on crying while sitting on top of his stomach and holding him down to the floor. He didn't want to say or do anything to make the situation worse so he remained still until she stopped crying.
But as soon as the tears stopped streaming from her face they were both interrupted as the door slowly creaked open as Haru had forgotten to close it.
He looked up to see Annabeth standing in the doorway with the young girl that he had seen the night before when speaking to Master Chu.
She made eye contact with Haru before glancing up to see Hong Xia sitting on top of him and then quickly dragged the younger girl away from the door so she could look inside.
"I'm sorry for interrupting! We will wait downstairs!" Annabeth called out as Hong Xia looked down at Haru after hearing her apologise she thought about what she could be apologising for before she quickly realised the positions she was in as Haru continued to stare at her with a blank expression on his face.
Her cheeks quickly became red as she shot to her feet and turned away from Haru as he began to get up from the ground without another word.
"I-I'm sorry for hitting you. But you have a guest. You should probably go see what she wants!" Hong Xia exclaimed with her back to Haru as she felt too embarrassed to say anything to his face.
"Are you sure? You can come with me if you want to. I feel bad for leaving you alone last night." Haru stated as Hong Xia clenched her fists.
"Just go already! I will scream your name if I need you or anything! You have nothing to worry about!" She exclaimed once more as she was trying to make Haru leave her as she was too embarrassed to even look him in the face to which Haru nodded his head and walked to the door.
"Okay, well I won't be long." He said before closing the door behind him and reinforcing the barrier with some of the Qi that he had managed to cultivate last night.
He then walked downstairs to meet up with Annabeth and her martial sister.
