49 Zhi Ruos elemental affinity (1/2)

Deep into a cluster of twisty brown trees off the main road Zhi Ruo and Hartley prowled over the soft ground that had patches of green grass and scattered dead brown leaves everywhere.

Every now and then the chilly wind would gently sweep away some of the dead leaves with a rustling sound like a rattle snake.

Hartley was one step in front of Ruo as they moved forward in a low crouching posture, they were hunters stalking prey. Hartley stopped, held up his right fist, then two fingers pointed to the sky and finally he pointed his index finger forward. This was a sequence of hand signals Hartley had taught her in the last couple of days.

With Zhi Ruo's new found dedication towards cultivation, she had flown pass the 8th realm of houtian and had broken into the 9th and final realm of houtian. Hartley had estimated it would take her months but come to find out she actually had some natural talent. Granted she had been supplementing her cultivation with pieces of high ranked medicinal dans given to core disciples of the Lou clan, but still this was an amazing achievement.

Hartley didn't know it yet but Zhi Ruo's father, the man whose silver sword he had been wielding ever since the death battle with Lou Lee, was also a talented cultivator and held the post of a bodyguard in the Royal family for many years.

A love triangle forced him to flee the capital but that was a story yet to be revealed and wouldn't come to their attention until much later on in their adventure....but lets not digress.

The hand signals just passed on by Hartley was to signify that there were two targets straight ahead. After discovering Ruo's quick cultivation Hartley had decided to start her combat training immediately and slow down the journey to the Pembroke province even more. Hartley had a collection of space rings and one of these space rings had a collection of weapons gained along the way.

He had laid out a plethora of weapons on the floor of the carriage and asked Zhi Ruo to chose one she liked, she chose two.

Ruo had taken a pair of beautifully crafted black assassin's daggers, they looked like rank 2 spirit weapons but Hartley wasn't sure, he himself hadn't learnt how to rate spirit weapons as yet.

Hartley had spent countless hours in the last couple of days teaching Zhi Ruo the most efficient basic strikes he had learnt through trial and error in the back mountains of the Lou clan.

Downward diagonal, upward diagonal, horizontal and vertical strikes.

The building blocks of his self taught technique.

”Strike in a fast straight line towards the target without any embellishment” he had told her.

Her strikes were perfect in rehearsal but now it was time for her to try and get her first kill.

Zhi Ruo's eyes were wide with nervousness, she was wearing loose grey robes with one of her best soft fitting armors she had made on this journey protecting her under the robe.

She silently crept behind Hartley as the two low level fierce beast came into view. She gulped down her saliva and calmed her nerves. Hartley waited for her to come alongside him and then whispered.

”I'll take the one on the left, you take out the one on the right, I will be right there with you at all times, don't be nervous.” he flashed her a calming smile and added ”concentrate on the movement technique i showed you.”