We headed home after the meeting. We discussed everything that had happened, including speculation on the power level of each ability. We came to the conclusion that every ability was best at different things. Comparing them was like comparing apples and oranges. But right now, Wisteria’s ability was the most dangerous to us.

Afterward, I went to my shop and continued teaching the two employees Brian made for me. As always, I stayed up overnight. When the sun began to come up, I sent Hui Ming to fetch the students.

“What the?” a student, the first to come in, whispered as he entered my shop. I had transformed the place from a warehouse to a proper shop, so his reaction was understandable.

“How may I help you?” a gigantic man of an employee greeted him.

“That’s one of my students,” I said.

“I’ll leave him to you, then,” he responded.

I turned to the student. “What do you think?” I gestured at the store. Black flowers grew everywhere, from underneath boulders to between cracks in the stone walls. Lights dangled from tree branches, hanging over every part of the store. A layer of grass covered the floor.

“As expected of Grandmaster Jin,” he bowed, “to be able to create this kind of miracle in under a week. This will soon be known as the best alchemy shop in the city.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I half-smiled. It was still early morning, so I still had some time before I had to release Mark. I waited for more students to come in. Thirty minutes later, Hui Ming came in with the last of them.

They stood in two orderly lines in a small open space in front of the entrance, the only place not cluttered with shelves and displays. I sat on a tree branch above them, my hands gripping the smooth bark. “Again, thanks for coming.”

I paused to take a breath, but they stole that pause to chant, “Thank you, Grandmaster Jin.”

I nodded. “A few of you are missing, where are they?” Besides the one I knew was dead, three of the students didn’t come.

Chen Wei acted as their spokesperson. “Grandmaster may not have heard, but many of the wealthy are evacuating.”

“What for? The Family's already taken out the school’s attackers.”

“A group of incredibly powerful creatures appeared yester-”

Ah.

“Anyways,” I continued, “circumstances have hit, and I won't manage this shop for much longer. I wish I could stay and help this school in person. I’ll leave a few things behind though.”

“Those two,” I pointed to the servants Brian made for me, “will do all they can to support you guys. They’re both fifth stage experts at your bidding. They’ll also be running this shop and handing out the pills. Xing Chen Wei will lead this. Please treat her orders with respect.”

Chen Wei bowed, “I’m honored to take this position.”

I gripped the bridge of my nose and tossed her a ring of keys. “I have high hopes for all of you. I’ll be back, although I can’t say when. Hui Ming, we’re leaving.” She followed me out.

“Where are we going?” Hui Ming asked.

“...what do you mean?” I asked back.

“Master loves that shop and the students there. Master wouldn’t leave them on their own unless master needed to leave the city,” she said.

I breathed out slowly. She knew me too well. “The White Dragon Forest. There are people like Mark, who you know as Dao, who might come after Jing sometime in the future. It’s a strong might. They probably won’t come after her, but I’m not risking anything,” I said. “We met with five other otherworlders, but there are still many others that might attack us, so we’re moving to the forest because that’s where we’ll be the most powerful. Don’t talk about this to anyone.”

“Jing is worried about being a burden on you,” Hui Ming stated. “You could be doing too much for her.”

I frowned, “What are you saying?”

“It goes against her nature to be a weight on your shoulders. She thinks she’s supposed to help you, not the other way around. This isn’t good for her,” Hui Ming said.

“Worried about her?” I asked. She nodded. “Thanks for telling me this. I’ll talk to her about this later. Now we’re picking up the pace, we’re going to the Blue Fire Sect.” I leaned forward and sprinted, Hui Ming following behind me.

We found Reagan sitting on a blue tiled roof next to the sect’s central plaza. He emitted a ridiculously strong aura, many times more powerful than mine. It wasn’t Dao Journey level anymore, he had reached a stage even higher. Hui Ming took two shaky breaths before calming down and getting used to it.

Reagan jumped down from the roof. “Hey Vincent. Is that Jing?”

“No. This girl is a native. She swore loyalty to me a few months ago.”

He chuckled without humor. “You’ve been up to some weird stuff. So where’s Mark?”

“Just to confirm, you’ll stop him if he goes after Jing,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said.

The circular plaza was made of a dozen rings of blue tiles, each ring lying within another. I looked over at a wounded portion of cracked tiles, broken from the last time I came here. The wound broke open again as a gigantic vine burst through. The tip of the vine was wrapped around Mark.

I lowered him in front of us, and he looked at us with fearful eyes. I used to think Mark had the confidence and aura of a leader, but that vanished in front of Reagan.

“I’m releasing you,” I said, “On the condition you don’t try to go after Jing again.”

He frowned, “What?”

“Sophia and a total of six other classmates are in agreement about this. We won’t go after Jing because there are better ways to prevent the prophecy from coming true. If you try to come after her again,” I let my hatred explode in my aura, “each of us will come together to stop you.” My mouth said we’d ‘stop’ him, but my aura said ‘kill’.

“I understand,” he said, the fear in his eyes replaced by joy and a gigantic smile.

The vine let go of him and went back underground. He looked the same as he did when Jing first captured him. He smelled fine, the only difference on him was wrinkled clothes.

Reagan smiled and embraced him. “Good to have you back, ‘brother’,” he said, making fun of this world’s titling conventions. He looked at me, “Thanks, see you in a while.”

“Mhm.” I watched them until they left. Afterward, I turned around, “We’re going,” I said to Hui Ming.

I didn’t show it, but I was nervous. The Watchman was powerful enough on his own, but what if he paired with a combat-oriented ability?

I couldn’t know at the time, but I was worrying for nothing. Mark would be dead before I could see him again.