Chapter 110: The return

The convoy was finally on its way to the return journey from the Chu capital city. The peace talks seem to have gone well and the condition put forward by the king was also taken into consideration. The proposal for a marriage between the two families was like signing a contract of a partnership between the two countries. This would result at the end of conflicts that the soldiers and people of the two countries have in particular. It remained an undiscussed topic during the stay. The princess assured that she would have the message delivered to the Jiao King.

The convoy was ready to depart for the Jiao country. Long Tao was currently in the last phase of the eleventh cycle. He was going through the rotation arts one last time before it finally came to an end. He was one level away from the Qi master peak, not considering the Soul cultivation level. The convoy left after three days of stay. The return journey thus began. Once again, the constitution of eth convoy was filled with soldiers from the Jiao royal guard and the Chu royal guard. The black-bucks were also accompanying, but Long Tao dispersed most of them for surveying the area.

They needed to make sure that the terrain is good enough and evaluate the potential threats on the way. Long Tao had an intuitive feeling that the assassins wouldn't be bothering them during this phase. The last confrontation has resulted in big collateral damage on their side. Assassin hall generally doesn't take on missions that are above its grade pay. Taking into consideration the amount of time the reporting is going to take and the issue of new bounty, Long Tao hoped that he would be left alone for the rest of the journey. Once they reached the royal clan, the princess wouldn't be his burden to bear.

He could now concentrate on his strength enhancement. Long Tao understood his over-confidence and dependency on his strength alone. But as pointed out, it is not what makes the whole power. He needed to enhance his skills and to do that he needed to practice them to perfection. Long Tao decided to first master his body strength and get acquainted with his physical prowess as a whole. He continued with the exercise schedule he was following during the visit. He started with the most basics of exercise, and continued upwards, doing them again and again. 

"Any suggestion from you. "He asked the keeper of the realm. " I would suggest you do resistance training more. To get acquainted with your current body you need to practice with some extra resistance overwhelming you totally. It is the perfect way to gain control over your body. You seem to have learned the basics of forging right boy. "Long Tao agreed. "then use those skills to forge yourself some equipment made of Asmium."

Long Tao couldn't understand the motive at first. What help would asmium provide to them? "I don't really find the use of asmium. It is a waste material that has no other property other than being able to absorb qi into it. What benefit would it bring to me? ". "The property in itself is what we require in your case. It could help us in resistance training. There seem to be some asmium which is present in the realm, take a look at it." A block suddenly appeared in front of Long Tao. 

"Lift the block up." Long Tao lifted it up and found that the weight was quite unnatural. "now you infuse the block with some of your Qi, and see what happens next" Long Tao tried that, and suddenly he felt a force dragging him down. The weight of the block changed significantly. It was extremely heavy as of now. Long Tao felt unnatural while carrying it around.

"This will be your training equipment starting from now. You will be wearing this on your body all the time starting from now. You will be able to achieve the control on your body you so eagerly desire to have." Long Tao agreed. He took out large chunks of the stone and proceed towards the forging hall. He used up a whole 10 days to forge the set of equipment. The equipment was made for each and every part of the body and Long Tao made multiple pieces for a single body part, which were bigger than the previous ones. 

He decided to plan out his training and improve the resistance as time went by. the first choice was wearing breastplate while training. Long Tao did it and continued his training of regular body exercise, while the avatars were concentrating on cultivation. The 12th cycle had already begun by now. He could feel reaching the maximum possible limit of this art, step by step. The forging was still continuing as Long tao was experimenting on some of the formations.

In the convoy-

"Is there anything making you a nervous princess?" Long Tao asked while sitting within the carriage with the princess. "there is none as long as you are here to protect me from it, sir Long. The only thought in my mind is a threat regarding the assassins. Are you positive that they won't attack this time?" Long Tao understood the concern. Even the core members of the squad protecting her were filled with betrayers. She had her guard up against any emergency situation. "Your protection is my duty princess. Besides the last bout had cost the assassin quite some damage. They wouldn't strike without a solid plan in mind. So, you can rest easy. Besides, the backup troop is always with us for help. "

The princess got the gist of it from Long Tao. They argued about the possibility of there being an attack while they are on their return trip from the Chu capital city. "you need to be careful of what you do next princess. The number of moles planted in the convoy was kind of huge in numbers. The conspirators seem to have a deep reach within the Jiao kingdom. Can you think of anyone with a particular motive?"

"The thing I have learned in my time as one of eth chief advisors of the king and facing politics on a daily basis, every conjecture I am about to make would just be a one-sided assumption. I couldn't find a motive that was strong enough for them to be so proactive in trying to kill me. Unless it is a move to exterminate the whole Jiao clan, there is a blank drawn in my mind." Long Tao knew that the princess was not telling him the truth, or at least the whole truth, but he didn't try to breach her privacy.

"What are your thoughts about the peace talks. "the princess asked with a curious glance. "I believe the motive with which eth convoy was designed to act was successful. Although the last statement bugs me a lot.". "Why is that?". "marriage is not a simple act according to me. It's not supposed to be a deal. You need to have a bonding with each other to be tying a knot together. I see no compatibility between the two groups from my interactions with the royal kids of either of the clans." The princess gave out a burst of loud laughter as the conversation continued. 

The guards were repositioned continuously as per Long Tao's plan. The return trip was a lot easier. Long Tao was honestly expecting to confront the blood generally. But the trip was a lucky one. They didn't see face o face and he was able to not start an inter-country war just yet. 

The crimson lord world-

"How far have you gotten with the forge?" the keeper appeared before Long Tao. "I managed to create a lot of training equipment as of now, and I have also managed to group them into a training regime. We will start with the least resistance. I will take in your advice, and wear them throughout the day while following my normal training along with some extra body training. I will be using them until I get fully accustomed and handy. Then I will switch to a bigger set of equipment."

"Then what are you still doing in the forge? Wouldn't it be better to start training as fast as you can?". "I would like to test a theory of mine within the forge. The next part of my training in forging is about the inscribing of the weapons I create with formations. I would like to test some materials out. I want to try inscribing on Asmium."

"What are you really trying to do here. Asmium by default is an energy-absorbing material, which means carving on it is going to be an incredible waste of energy. What would be the benefit of carving on it.?" Long Tao gave out a meaningful glance, after which he returned to his regular forging activity. The crushing and flattening of metal were heard all the time, within the Crimson Lord manor.