Chapter 55: Traces of Intent

Chapter 55: Traces of Intent After Xu Tao’s light "warning," all the men in black struggled to move desperately. Despite their bodies being weakened to a fault, they still grabbed the man they were supposed to protect, stuffed him in a random car, and drove off in a hurry. "..." Everyone else was simply speechless. After all, no matter how they looked at the events, it was Xu Tao’s casual actions that had literally saved everyone’s lives. Their shock soon caught up to reality, rising to their expressions. Smiles, grins, excited looks—there were many variations. But all of them did the exact same thing the next moment. "WE GREET AND THANK THE YOUNG LADY’S MASTER!" They all kowtowed to the ground, heads bowed in Xu Tao’s direction. It was a unified action that surprised even Xu Tao himself. After all, he could tell they didn’t rehearse it or anything. Just a few seconds ago, they were glaring at him with bloodlust, suspicion, and all kinds of negative energy. Now? Not a single soul remained who thought he was a scammer. But one person didn’t seem as positive as the rest. "Master..." It was Henrietta, still clutching Xu Tao’s robe. "Although we managed to chase my brother away... I’m sure he’ll be back with even stronger allies..." she whispered, her voice lacking confidence. And to a cultivator, confidence and bravery were two essential concepts. "Henrietta," he spoke with a reprimanding tone. "You are now my disciple. I don’t care what’s happened between you and your brother in the past, but if he dares to hurt you, then he’ll have to go through me first." It was true that he had accepted Henrietta and Uriel as disciples by chance, on a whim. However, now that they were his disciples, it was his role to protect them until they bloomed into proper cultivators who could stand proud on their own two feet. "B-But everyone around me’s just Bronze Rank... We can’t fight my brother, who has an army of Gold Rank cultivators, and even a legendary Platinum Cultivator." "Bronze, Silver, Gold, whatever." Xu Tao sighed. "Listen, my disciple. Fear is a good thing—it tells you of the dangers around you. But don’t let fear take control of your actions, or it’ll lead to nothing but your quick demise." "M-Master..." Henrietta still didn’t seem convinced, but Xu Tao’s next words made her gasp. "In the first place, what Gold Rank, Platinum Rank? I can make you strong enough to face six copies of that rooster at the same time in just three days!" "...!" Xu Tao’s words sounded confident, but he himself knew that raising Henrietta to reach the Golden Core stage in just three days was impossible... but that wasn’t what he meant, anyway. "Everyone, listen up!" Xu Tao raised his voice. "Starting now, I’ll be teaching you real martial techniques. I swear in my name, Great Elder Xu Tao of the Azure Dragon Sect, that I can make you powerful enough to beat those guys with one hand!" "O..." A short groan slipped out before silence spread... and then— "OOOOH! PRAISE THE MASTER!" A grand cheer echoed. Xu Tao smiled, seeing their excited expressions. He could tell everyone was looking forward to his promise. But... none of them knew yet what kind of "hell" they had to go through to earn their promised strength. After all, as the ancient words of the wise said: No pain, no gain. ???????????? Xu Tao was led to his room. It was one of the biggest rooms in the mansion and just happened to be right across from Henrietta’s. He couldn’t tell if this choice was made intentionally or if it just happened that way by coincidence, but either way, he didn’t care too much. "We need to lay LAN cables to here, and... add a socket here." Inside the room, Henrietta was pointing around, moving the workers like her arms and legs. With her every instruction, the men moved with swiftness and accuracy, trying to meet the young lady’s expectations as quickly as possible. Xu Tao watched the workers, in awe of their speed. "All these people had to work hard just to set up a single Vee Arr Pod..." he muttered in a light whisper. Right... although he wanted them to begin training immediately, everyone still had their jobs to do. Xu Tao couldn’t force them to ditch their duties just to train, as that would defeat the purpose of why they were trying to get stronger in the first place. Thus, they decided to train only after their work was over. And since it would be more efficient to train everyone at the same time instead of one by one, Xu Tao decided to postpone Henrietta’s training as well. This led to the current situation—her coordinating the renovation of the room, setting it up for the VR pod installation. However, as expected, it was boring to just watch sweaty men toil away at their tasks. He glanced at Henrietta barking orders, her voice stern but still with traces of her nervousness. Seeing that everything was under control, he quietly excused himself. Xu Tao left the room without catching anyone’s attention and decided to explore a bit—specifically, to check the room of his new disciple. "It’s that room, I believe..." Although he didn’t hear where Henrietta’s room was, he could tell by how the energy in the place flowed. That room alone had the residual energy of a rampaging Blazing Wrath Fiend. As he entered—without permission from the owner, of course—he observed everything. The room itself had the same structure as his own. A large space with a giant bed at the center. Bookshelves lined one side of the wall, and— "These are... traces of martial arts?" —old marks of her outbursts. Palm and foot impressions embedded all over the three other walls. Xu Tao observed and could easily tell it wasn’t a complete technique. Rather, the strikes seemed to be a ragtag combination of various, half-assed, unfinished martial arts. He studied each mark, and through them, understood Henrietta’s mental state while making them. Pain... hopelessness... desperation... and finally, disappointment. "I see..." Xu Tao sighed. "So this is what she’s going through." For someone of Xu Tao’s level, not only surface-level emotions—he could even deduce the reasons behind such emotions. However, even after knowing this, he could tell he wasn’t able to help her directly with her problems. "But I, at least, can help her be strong enough for when that day comes." Xu Tao turned around and took a casual step—moving back to where he had been standing inside his designated room. He stood still, as if nothing had happened, acting as if he knew nothing. However, one couldn’t deny that the look in his eyes had changed. He was no longer aloof and detached, and was now looking straight at Henrietta—analyzing her completely and preparing the perfect training regimen for her. After he was done with his observations, Xu Tao quickly pulled a few tools from his Storage Pouch: a table, a brush, an ink tablet, and a few empty scrolls. He first scraped the ink tablet, melting part of it to lather his brush. He closed his eyes, holding the brush dipped in fresh ink, spread a blank scroll across the table, and focused. When he opened his eyes moments later, his hand moved. Each stroke was powerful and filled with condensed intent. A level of information that mere characters couldn’t represent. A "mystic" element that made the scroll feel as if it wasn’t just something that recorded what was written on it—but lived with it. Just like that, Xu Tao began to make a scroll—what Henrietta would later treat as her very own holy bible.