Wang Zen threw himself fully into his training and trying to learn Dash Tackle. When he was not trying out the Ki Technique, he used his Half Step Wolf Cultivation until his muscles burned and ached, until he collapsed to the ground. When he was too tired to stand, he sat cross legged and used Cracked Earth to increase his ki while his body recovered. At the end of the day, he went to his mother’s office to get tips on how to perform the Dash Tackle Ki Technique.

This continued for weeks. Slowly, Zen’s body was becoming stronger and his reflexes were returning to the way they were before his injury.

Currently, he was focused on being able to perform Dash Tackle. His eyes were closed and his ki began flowing out of him. The ki exited his body in such a large amount that it began to be visible, turning murky white. Zen focussed on maintaining the ki, burning like a fire outside and around his body.

Passing a portion of his ki through his meridians, he began to shape it into a sphere. He opened his eyes, he prepared to dash forward now that he successfully maintained and shaped the ki. He dashed forward but as soon as he did, the ki vanished.

Zen swore to himself. “Just a little more.”

“Wang Zen!”

Zen looked toward Jun Nee. She had a tray balanced over her hand with a jug of crystal clear water and an empty glass to drink from.

“Jun Nee!” Zen said, walking toward her.

“I brought you some water.” Jun Nee said. “Miss Wang says you need to keep hydrated, if you’re going to try and kill yourself with all that training.”

“Thanks! I need it.” Zen said, reaching out to the tray. His hand passed the empty glass and went straight of the jar.

He tipped it over his waiting mouth and began guzzling the water down, some of it splashing on him and on Jun Nee.

“Zen’er!” Jun Nee complained.

“Hmm?” Zen said, a mouthful of water. He gulped the water.

“Why would you do that?” she said gesturing at the empty glass after wiping away the water that had splashed on her.

“Oh, you’re Jun Nee.” He said taking the empty glass off the tray. “Shibi, come get some of this!”

In a second, Shibi was on his shoulder and Zen poured water into the glass until it was full. He then handed it over to Shibi, and with Zen holding the jug of water and Shibi holding the glass of water, they both guzzled it down, both splashing Jun Nee with water.

“Why am I not surprised.” She rolled her eyes and wiped away the water on her as they both paced their containers on the tray.

Zen and Shibi both burped.

“I can’t believe you two live in the City Lord Mansion!” she said.

“Back to training,” Zen said as he began walking back to the center of the ring hew was training in.

“Zen’er…”

Zen looked at her.

She looked toward the floor as if wrestling with something in her mind. “Wh-What happened between you and Yin Zheng?”

Zen became stiff and visibly uncomfortable at the question. “Why-Why do you think something happened?”

“You haven’t mentioned him for the past few weeks.” Jun Nee said. “You went from asking where he was everyday to not even mentioning him in the past few weeks.”

Zen kept quiet.

The silence stretched out, both standing still, both not sure how to continue.

“I-I saw him last night.” She said in a small voice.

“Really?” Zen said. He forced himself to calm down. “What did he say?”

She looked to the side, almost reluctant to speak. “Can you promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“Jun Nee, come on you know me.”

She kept quiet braving a brief look at him.

“I promise, Shibi and I will not tell anyone.” Zen said. “Right Shibi?”

Shibi nodded.

“This is hard to say but… but he asked me to help him, him and his friends.” She said, with each word finding it more difficult to speak with each word. “He asked me to give them a detailed layout of the castle, find out the guard schedule, anything like that.” Her lower lip began to tremble. “Nothing good.”

“Those damned Black Marks!” Zen said. “I can’t believe they have him doing that.”

She looked at him in surprise. “ You know? You know he joined the Black Mark?”

Zen nodded. “Found out a few weeks ago.”

“You know what their goal is, right? What they would like to do?”

He nodded. “I know pretty well.”

“Why haven’t you told your mom, about the Black Mark, about Zheng’er?”

He shrugged.

“Zen?” she said, her eyes shining with tears, “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of this. What should we do?”

He went over to her and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder. Shibi patted her on the head.

“I’m not sure, Jun’er.” He said. “But don’t worry, I’ll protect you while we figure things out.” He said, fully intent on keeping his promise.