An assortment of birds flew through the sky of the spring morning, chirping out their joyous melodies, skipping from tree to tree drinking in the wind and warmth of the sunlight on their merry journey above. Beneath the birds, in the bright sunshine of the Hagley province, the area was buzzing with stories of a handsome young lord and his entourage. The gossiping public loudly discussed the events of the past day, the outcome being a well respected elder of the Hagley Martial School and five students were beaten half to death and thrown out of a popular restaurant frequented by the nobles, not only that but the restaurant was utterly destroyed. There were even some jokes being banded about how the distinguished elder had plopped around like a fish when he landed on the cobble stones, some laughter rang while others dare not behave this brazen.

A white hair man with sharp features, a long nose and grim scowl, dressed in a golden robe sat on the back of a sturdy grey horse leading four others dressed similar to him, they made their way through the streets towards a certain inn. The scowl grew more twisted on the man's face as he heard the local chatter, shame rose up to his throat like bile from his stomach, he was tempted to slap some of these gossiping commoners to death. This event was a black mark on the Hagely Martail School, one of their instructors was in a coma and five promising students incapacitated, the situation had to be put right as soon as possible. Soon people recognized the group and went silent as the men passed leaving only the sound of horses on cobblestones, the men rode in silence with somber faces and disappeared from view. These men were some of the strongest from the Hagley Martial School, probably the strongest in the Hagley province, it was blasphemy to think someone could thrash an elder from the school and put his half dead body on the street for public viewing without some type of retaliation, the Hagley Martial School would be a laughing stock otherwise.

Back at the inn, the bearded inn manager had a good night's rest and was just coming to terms with the events over the last couple of days, he had lost a lot of money and the prospect of future earnings after the ghost incident was looking dim, bringing him to the brink of having a nervous breakdown. He sighed as he took his position at the front desk, hoping this whole debacle would smooth out itself in the days to come. At that moment his attention was drawn to clopping hooves coming to a stop at the front entrance of the inn, the manager breathed a sigh of relief as he saw five people dismounting from majestic looking horses. At least there are still nobles willing to stay here he thought, but the men did not enter as expected, the white haired elder stood outside the entrance and shouted, "Come down here and face your punishment for daring to put your hands on members of the Hagley Martial School, We know who you are and if you are not here in five minutes we'll bring down this building with you inside." the voice reverberated not only through the inn but also in the surroundings as if amplified by a speaker causing a clamor of people to crowd around in discussion, waiting for a show. The crowd grew larger and larger by the minute as word of mouth spread through out the region, this pleased the elder, he didn't really want to destroy the building, he wanted to thrash those scoundrels half to death in front of a crowd and regain some face for the Martial School, re-establishing its untouchable authority in the province.

After hearing the words of those men outside, the bearded inn manager face turned into a look of terror, How can his luck be this bad?

Hartley sat up in bed, there was a rustle of cloth as Zhi Ruo slid up behind him and wrapped her arms around him pressing her naked breasts against his back, a look of concern evident on her face, "don't worry I expected them, men like these with grand reputations always seem to be drunk with the illusion of power" said Hartley with a serious expression on his face that seemed to be sculpted from hard granite. Zhi Ruo rested her head on his shoulder for a short while saying "and you're not?" Hartley's hard exterior cracked, he smiled and said "Ruo, believe me I know my limit." Hartley's awareness had picked up the men downstairs, these were powerful men but Hartley thought it was about time he showed some of his own power, he got dressed in a black robe and came out into the hall where he saw Qin Li, Ryu Hang on the others dressed and waiting. Hartley stopped them, "I'll take care of this situation, don't worry about it." Qin Li wanted to refuse but saw the stony look on Hartley's face so he shook his head and returned back to his room, the rest followed suit and Hartley made his way down the stairs.

As the white hair man and his companions waited impatiently among the flocking crowds, the front doors of the inn opened and a handsome youth sporting a black robe with his black hair tied back appeared before the men, the youth looked mortal and obviously the men had heard enough stories about the handsome young lord. "What is it you seek?" asked the youth.

"First of all, who are you? Identify yourself" the man asked not politely but not too overbearing either, a golden token appeared in Hartley's hand with two intricately carved eagles facing each other beak to beak. He held it up for the crowd to witness, the glowing token drew gasp from the locals, "I am Sir Hartley, a knight of Viscount Sanzu" Hartley said nonchalantly. One had to be valued by a high ranking noble to be given a golden identity token. There was also silver tokens and bronze tokens given to people who had contributed with great deeds towards a certain noble house but a golden token was usually reserved for close relatives or those truly cherished by a certain noble.

"You think you can hide behind your identity as the lackey of a viscount?" huffed the white haired man. "You think that gives you the right to have your followers attack members of our Hagley Martial School?" Anger seeped into the white hair man's voice as he spoke loudly so the crowd could hear every single word of his. "Water miles away is no good for putting out a flame in front of you. Drag him over here and beat him half to death, then go and search for the rest of them." The leader instructed the man beside him while waving his hands nonchalantly. He had heard of Viscount Sanzu and knew he wasn't stationed in the Hagley province, as long as he didn't kill the young noble it could be explained to the delegates of the royal family stationed in the Hagley province as a misunderstanding, knowing that the nobles had their own factions and squabbles.

The man who stepped forward looked of a similar age to the leader, he was a head or two shorter than the white hair man, broad of shoulders with a stocky build. A 6th layer xanthian with the earth elemental affinity, of this group he had the most formidable defense. A black rectangular shield over half the size of the man appeared fixed to his left hand, he could easily crouch out of sight behind the thing and be invulnerable to attacks that couldn't break the shield. In his right appeared a shorter than usual lance with a blunt tip, this type of weapon was used to batter one's enemies into submission. Moving forward with slow short steps, the thought that the person stood in front of him was responsible for the injuries inflicted on Master Lingwei and his students didn't cross the man's mind, none of the injured had awaken yet to make a report of what had happened inside the restaurant.

Hartley smiled in his heart, he was going to use this brute to make an example. The man closed the distance methodically to Hartley smiling then leveled the lance and charged forward behind his shield. When he was only a meters away from Hartley and thrusting the blunt tip of his lance forward, the color bled from the world, the chatter of the onlooking crowd disappeared everything was frozen in time, all details were emphasized in a stunning black and white rendition of the surroundings. Monochrome was activated, Hartley's time domain could now last up to six seconds but he didn't need that long. Hartley easily maneuvered himself at the man's defenseless back and struck out a merciless punch. His fist turned blue with a white glowing outline, as it moved forward the space in front of his fist became unstable and wobbled the air, time snapped back to normal as the fist connected with the small of the man's back with a loud crunch, shredding a portion of the golden robe he was dressed in, sending the pieces glittering through the air like fire flies as it glinted in the sunlight and slammed him into the ground with a massive eruption of rocks and dust, the windows and doors of the inn made a rattling sound as it vibrated along with the shaking of the ground.

The man rocketed face first onto the massive shield and skidded across the cobble stones like a canoe travelling down a stream, disappearing in a fountain of yellow sparks as the shield grinded against cobble stones, sliding pass the gaping audience before coming to rest 100 m later, the clanging of the shield was then replaced by howling screams and frantic cries of "I cant feel my legs." A horrific crater appeared on his back where the punch landed, not a single drop of blood was spilled but it was obvious to those who saw that the mans spine was crushed to powder. He would probably never take another step in his life.

If a pin was dropped in front of the inn right this second it would echo like an explosion in the silence of the large crowd and saucer-eyed group from The Hagley Martial School. Hartley was stood right in front of the inn illuminated by the bright sunshine looking at the white hair man as if he had no cares in this world.

A million thoughts ran through the mind of the white hair man, he sent no one else forward. Without understanding of exactly what had happened he was hesitant and couldn't risk another disastrous injury. Truth be told, he didn't even think he himself could defeat the shield bearer with a single move, the shield bearer possessed the most formidable defense among the group and for him to be dispatched so easily left him wary. From his perspective the shield bearer had the young lord in his sights but just as he was about spittle the young lord on his lance, the shield bearer was being punched in the back as helpless as a new born calf without any sign or indication that the young lord even used a movement technique. Red faced with embarrassment he ordered two of his men to fetch the injured elder, placing the already injured man over his horse like a sack of rice as the man wailed uncontrollable, the group then retreated in fury. He had to do some research, maybe the young lord was in possession of a divine weapon. Sweat trickled down his face as they left the area as quick as possible with gritted teeth under the stares and discussions of the gathered crowd.

Hartley didn't stop them, he just smiled and returned into the inn while the birds overhead continued to chirp their merry melodies and the onlookers held muted discussions about a handsome young lord passing through the province.