Long Fan woke up after a while and learned about Asmodius from the invaded soul.
Thankfully, because of Asmodius, integrated into the ring worn by every human who entered the cities, he was able to contact his parents.
His parents were happy that he is finally awake and were joyous.
But when he then told them his current situation about his Origin root and soul integration, they were shocked and worried; they wanted to get back to his son immediately, but in their current situation they couldn't go back because of the rules in the hidden city.
His parents calmed down and told him that they will find a way to cure his situation, since they have a better chance at finding a solution at the hidden city.
Long Fan was happy to hear that his parents can find the way, and was able to join the school without any worries due to his parent's influence even though e didn't having a bloodline.
He was calm and outgoing in the school making friends and learning new things from various subjects.
If only Gong Mingue knew that he fainted when he learned about the problems he faced, and the reason for his calm and outgoing character was only because of his trust in his parents, she would definitely kick his ass.
A month went by in this way, and his parents finally contacted him with a good news.
They informed him that they have lead on his situation from the envoy of their hidden city, and they are going to meet the envoy today and discuss about it.
Long Fan was happy and excited, and awaited their response without even going to school. But he waited for a whole night and day, and didn't hear anything from them. He tried to contact them several times but was unable to reach them.
Realizing that something is not right, he immediately contacted the school, and asked them to find out about their parents. He waited five days to receive news that his parents went missing on their mission outside the city, and considered to be killed during the mission.
Long Fan was shocked and angered by the news. He instinctively knew that his parents going missing has something to do with them going to meet the envoy for his sake, and he blamed himself for what happened to his parents.
When this news spread in the city, everything changed for him. People who favored him before because of his parents ignored him, and many in the school bullied him because of his favoritism from the school. Even the school informed him that if he didn't wake up his bloodline by the end of the year exams, he will be expelled and will become a normal citizen in the city. They even went to the extent of cutting off all his resources.
But thanks to all this suffering, he has completely changed and became someone with a strong heart and will; he decided to find a way himself to get rid of his issues, and also to find what happened to his parents. He still believed his parents were all right.
He left the school dormitory and lived in the city near the border, and joined an Adventurer society to earn money and resources to strengthen himself, and to earn enough to buy resources which can help delay the situation.
He didn't tell anyone about his current situation, and tried to find a solution by himself depending on the news from Asmodius, but it's been eight months since his parents went missing and he hasn't learned a way which could completely resolve his problems.
At least, he is thankful that he was able to find and buy few resources which helped him delay the soul integration, and also able to strengthen his body. But he knows he doesn't have long before the soul integration completes, and if his calculations were right the soul integration will be complete right before the year end exams.
"There is only two months left until year end exams." Long Fan whispered to himself. "If I get selected, then I will be able to promote to the school in hidden city and I will be able to find news about my parents, but I haven't solved even one of my issues."
He grumbled while walking towards the 100 meter tall wall in the northern border right in front of him.
He saw a white barrier in the middle of the wall which is the exit to the city.
He showed the silver finger in his hand in front of the white barrier and it scanned his ring and let him pass through the barrier.
Once he left the city, he found himself outside the wall where he found few people in groups discussing about their plans, and moving in different directions.
He looked at the sight in front of him with complicated feelings. No matter how many times he saw it, it still made him feel complicated. The roads were damaged and various mutated plants and trees were grown everywhere. Buildings were ruined like bulldozers smashed their way through all of them, and he could hear various sound of mutated animals from all directions. It is complete contrast to the peaceful side of the inside of the city.
In the distant he saw a group birds flying around circling a certain region. His face was grim when he looked at them closely and he thought 'Those are golden winged crows. It's going to be a hard time moving around today with these crows near the city. Well, I have 6 more hours before the city close for the day, and I can go to my hideout and plan everything from there.' He decided.
Golden winged crows are mutated from normal crows where their wings became golden, which made them many times faster, and their wings became sharp which can cut through even metals easily. Worst part is the golden winged crows always move in a group, which will make any group who comes across them to absolutely die.
Long Fan reminded himself to be very careful and moved in a certain direction away from the direction of golden winged crows.
After travelling almost an hour, he reached an area which was deserted and filled with half destroyed villas lining up on the sides of the damaged road.
He travelled further carefully and silently, and reached a villa and entered it.
He checked the traps he setup near the entrance, and found they are undisturbed and let out a sigh of relief. He moved into the basement and opened a secret door and found all sorts of materials inside it.
This place was his home before the Ender's selection, and this secret room underground was where his parents' laboratory used to be, but it now served as a secret hideout. He comes here whenever he find resources apart from what he needs to collect for his worked, and store them here to sell it later.
He checked all his collections and mumbled to himself "This time I need to get 500 fire insipid stones, I only have a few and have to go to the mine to get everything." He took out a hand drawn map and looked at a place in the map which was marked in bright red.
Fire insipid stones are one of the common and necessary resources for the people who activated their bloodlines. When using the bloodlines, there is a high chance of the bloodline power getting out of control, especially when someone just activated the bloodline. When this situation happens, Heart control fire was created in that person's heart.
Heart control fire is a troublesome issue for people who try to advance their bloodline.
When someone try to advance their bloodline, if they still have heart control fire in their body, the person will have more than 80% chance of failure to advance their bloodline, and the remaining 20%, their heart burst and the person will die a horrible death. So basically you are screwed if you try to advance your bloodline with heart control fire.
Fire insipid stones have a certain kind of energy inside it which will reduce the heart control fire in a person and taking it over a long time will help them get rid of fire insipid stones. So it was considered a very necessary resource for students of Ender's school.
Long Fan double checked the things necessary and left his hideout and moved fast towards the Fire insipid stone mine.
When he neared the mine, he found there was something not right. There should be people who are working in the mines collecting the fire insipid stones since it is a very common job and lots of adventurers come here, but he didn't hear any sound and it was completely silent.
He wondered if this has anything to do with the group of golden winged crows earlier. He hesitated for a while but finally decided to slowly move closer to the entrance of the mine to find the situation. When he was moving closer to the mine, he also checked the sky and found there are no golden winged crows on the sky near the mine and wondered if it may be related to some other mutated beasts.
Finally he came out of the forest area and can clearly see the entrance of the mine, but there is no movements and noise rising from inside the mountain.
He hesitated and finally decided it is not a good idea to go ahead. He decided to either find a group of adventurers or go back to the wall and inform the adventure society.
When he turned around to get back, he found a man who is covered in mask standing a little distance behind him. When he found Long Fan suddenly turning instead of going out, he immediately attacked without hesitation a hidden dagger, and Long Fan didn't have time to react before a dagger rushed straight to his heart.
The dagger hit straight at Long Fan's heart and he flew few meters and fell down not moving anymore.