Grave Predictions

                                    

                                          
Wu Jian had not been allowed to leave the compound ever since the day that alchemist asked him to become her plaything. He felt trapped. Was this what a caged bird felt like? He'd once heard that some nobles liked to keep rare birds trapped in cages so they wouldn't fly away. That's what he felt like right now.
While he did understand that this was being done to protect him, he also thought it was excessive. Wouldn't it have made more sense if he was simply given an escort? But when he asked Father, the man had said the only person he would trust with his safety was Wu Taohua, who was busy doing reconnaissance to discover more about the alchemist who caused this whole fiasco.
Since he was unable to leave the compound, Wu Jian simply trained alongside Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu. That was all par for the course. They did that all the time anyway. The upcoming Wu Clan Strength Test would begun along with the Wu Clan Competition. While he was no longer interested in the competition because he or Wu Meiying always won, he was curious to see where his strength was at.
"This will be my first time taking the strength test," Hou Jingshu said. "We have similar tests back home, but Father never let me take them. He said it wasn't necessary since he had no intention of letting me become a cultivator. I can't wait to see how strong I am."
Hou Jingshu is even more of a caged bird than I am.
It was easy to forget that Hou Jingshu was the Shang Kingdom's princess. Being the princess meant she had a lot of restriction placed on her before coming here. She hadn't been allowed to go outside often, and when she did it was always with an armed escort. Her father also refused to let her cultivate. He made her take alchemy pills that increased her strength so she could break into the Hunger Realm, but he wouldn't let her train.
Wu Jian wasn't sure he liked her dad.
He sounded too controlling for his tastes.
"Your strength is probably around six or seven thousand. Maybe eight thousand." Wu Jian tilted his head. "It's a bit hard to tell because I don't know where your strength was at previously, but I know your father gave you a lot of alchemy pills to increase your physical abilities."
"It'll probably be around seven thousand," Wu Meiying said with certainty. "Jingshu's strength before coming here was derived mostly from pills. While pills are certainly a good way of increasing a person's strength, the strength they give isn't very stable unless you train. I imagine a lot of what she gained from the pills disappeared after a while."
"D-do you really think so? Now that you mention it, I don't feel like I ever got any stronger after a certain point." Hou Jingshu cupped her chin, furrowed her brow, and bit her lower lip.
"That's because after a certain point, the pills became more or less ineffective. If you want to gain more strength with nothing but alchemy pills, you will need to increase the quality of the pill rather than the quantity," Wu Meiying explained.
"So taking more of the same pill won't do any good?"
"Exactly."
The three of them had finished training not long ago and were now just sitting around on the porch to his home and chatting. A small tray with three glasses of tea sat between them and some half-finished sweet buns was next to the tea.
Small waves of heat distorted the garden they were overlooking and caused sweat to break out on their skin. Wu Jian was unable to keep his eyes off them. A small trail of sweat slid down Hou Jingshu's neck and disappeared after passing over her collarbone.
He closed his eyes. It was rude to stare like that.
They had been mostly discussing the merits of their training and the upcoming strength test when Wu Meiying suddenly became still, with her eyes glazed over and her mouth half open.