The Legendary F Rank

Everything turned white as space and time-warped around Haru while he watched stars fly past him at supersonic speed as though he was in a rocket ship flying far away when he heard a sound come from one of the bombs.

Haru panicked and kicked each one of them out of the tunnel before they could explode and then collapsed to the ground in relief.

"I can't go back now can I? Did I really do the right thing?" Haru asked himself as he had left earth without so much as saying goodbye to his parents. 

Although he hadn't talked to them in a while because he was mad at them for assuming that he was in the wrong when an incident accrued he still knew they would be devastated to find out that he wasn't even on the same planet as them anymore.

He thought about everything for a few moments before looking down at the ground beneath him which was non-existent. It was as though he was floating within an invisible tunnel as he watched the stars beneath him. 

He had never experienced something like this before and he wasn't sure what to expect as time flew by as he remained within the tunnel with a weight off his chest now that he knew that earth wouldn't be destroyed. But he still wasn't sure about Hanying. It would be very easy for him to take over now that Haru was gone.

But Haru doubted that Hanying would go as far as to kill his own people to only go back on his word and follow through with his original plan. It seemed like too much work so he found comfort in that thought as a voice called out from behind him.

"Um, What is this place? Where are we going?" Haru asked as he saw a woman standing in the tunnel with him. 

He wasn't sure who it was at first as the space around them bent and warped but as she took a few steps forward, her face came into focus revealing that it was Hong Xia.

Haru was both shocked and surprised by what he was seeing. He had assumed that she had been wiped out in the explosion that took down shanghai too and had vanished alongside the others as he hadn't heard anything from her since that day.

But as she walked closer something became clear to Haru. 

When Haru was hospitalised the authorities said that he was in a car accident and that was what was reported to the Japanese government when they sent him back home. For government workers to lie about something, it would take a huge bribe or threat of power used against them.

And since Hong Xia was from one of the great families in Beijing it seemed only natural that someone of her power could manipulate a few people to lie.

Haru stared up at her before becoming a bit disappointed that she kept it a secret that she didn't get vanish on that day.

"What's that look for?" Hong Xia asked as Haru stared at her for a few more seconds before responding.

"Oh, I don't know? Maybe you could have told me you were alive. How am I supposed to repay you for saving my life?" Haru asked as he was a little angry that she didn't reach out to him at all. 

"You're mad about that? But we don't really know each other well, do we? And those demons know my face. Why would I risk going outside and being attacked again? After that whole thing went down I have been in hiding.

I came only came out because I heard that there was a cultivator killing countless amounts of demons before vanishing again. I figured that it would be you. But I didn't expect something like this to happen.

This is one of those transportation tunnels, isn't it? My teacher used to talk about this all the time. When someone breaks through they will open a tunnel with them that will transport them to a safe zone in the upper realms where we can continue our training.

I always wondered if it was true and never imagined seeing it with my own eyes. It's spectacular." Hong Xia exclaimed with glee as she also watched the stars zoom past them as they were guided towards their destination wherever that was.

Haru remained silent as he was a little bit concerned about what he felt before he left earth. Ever since he had entered the tunnel he had lost all sense of his cultivation.

He couldn't even tell that someone was behind him the whole time and that worried him. The last thing he felt was a popping sensation where his dantian should have been. But as much as he tried he couldn't feel his dantian anymore. It was as though it vanished completely.

"Hey, why are you being so quiet? Aren't you going to ask how I got out of there? I thought that you would be interested to know what happened after you passed out?" Hong Xia asked as she thought that Haru would be more concerned than he was but his mind was elsewhere.

'Kun? Are you there?' Haru asked as he tried to use his spiritual sense to reach his soul ocean but it wasn't working for some reason that he couldn't explain. It really was like all the Qi in his body had vanished.

But as turned back to Hong Xia he saw that she was now sitting down beside him with her eyes closed as she started to cultivate.

'That's a good idea. Maybe if I  cultivate a little I will get my strength back?' Haru thought before closing his eyes and imagining his Qi floating around his body.

But even that didn't work. He tried to imagine Qi how he had done in the past but it felt as though all his memory of cultivation had vanished and he was a stranger to cultivation once again. 

He held his eyes closed for all but 30 seconds before giving up after nothing happened. But to Haru at that moment, those 30 seconds felt like hours as he tried to steady his breathing but he couldn't keep up.

Haru remained seated in the tunnel as it continued on its path.

It felt like days as Hong Xia cultivated beside Haru in the tunnel. Occasionally Haru felt as though he had to stretch his legs so he would stand and walk around a little bit. It was something that he hadn't done in a long time since his body didn't feel fatigued. But now that he couldn't feel his Qi anymore it felt as though he had become a regular human once again.

But just as he was thinking about all the possibilities the tunnel came to a sudden stop as it faced a huge planet with a large piece of land surrounded by a blue ocean. It looked like planet earth with the environments below but on a much larger scale as Haru looked down at the landmasses to see that some of the islands away from the main one that he saw were big enough to cover a continent back on earth.

The scale of the planet was unlike anything he had seen before. But just as he was about to wake Hong Xia up to let her know that they had arrived another flash of light enveloped them as it forced them both down towards the planet in a bolt of lightning as it struck the floor in a Forrest surrounded by trees the size of skyscrapers.

Haru found himself laying face down on the floor as a crushing force pressed down upon him. It was suffocating and felt as though he was going to be pushed under the soil beneath him. But surprisingly the ground was more resistant than he thought and he stayed in place unable to move from the change in gravity on this planet. 

That was when he looked over at Hong Xia who had now awakened as they plummeted to the ground. She too found herself useless to fight the gravity. It was too much for even her to stand. It was at that point that Haru noticed something besides his face. 

A small blade of grass was blowing in the breeze but unlike the rest of the grass surrounding it. This one had a golden hue to it as a drop of water remained at the very tip, seemingly floating above the grass.

Haru recognised it instantly. It was the dew of a spiritual plant but he wasn't sure which plant it was exactly. All spiritual plants would produce a single drop of dew in the morning if it had rained that day but despite that fact, it was hard to come by one that still had its dew since it would often leak to the ground with even the lightest of interruptions yet this one was blowing in the breeze as though it was nothing.

Haru opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue as far as he could. He still couldn't feel any Qi within his body. So when he saw the spiritual plant his first thought was to consume it to see if it could jumpstart his Qi once again. 

Haru reached out as far as he could with his tongue but it was still a little too face. But suddenly the dew shot directly into his mouth as something large slammed down on the floor, sending a shock wave through the Forest.

Suddenly a feeling of power unlike anything he had ever felt ran through Haru's body as a burning sensation ran through each one of his veins. He suddenly shot up to his feet, ignoring the gravity as he paced back and forth. It felt like he was going to rip in two from the inside as the burning sensation grew more and more until he could no longer take it anymore.

Haru dropped to his knees and punched the ground as he tried to subdue the pain. But as his fist connected with the soil another shockwave shook the forest, this time blowing down all the trees within a 100-metre radius as Haru released a power, unlike anything he had seen before.

As he looked down, he noticed a crater below him and something strange. 

His hand was glowing with a golden hue. It looked as though the sun was illuminating his hand but as he lifted it he saw a small golden wisp escape from the soil and float back into his fist.

Haru stared in confusion as he couldn't even begin to understand what was happening to him.

"What… Is this?" Haru asked as he heard something in the distance.