"Master?" Hesroth cautiously asked after they entered the room. He then looked at Lu Yao, widening his eyes, "Mistress, you got a human form?"
Purple Ash and Hesroth stared at the two picturesque people in front of them and didn't know how to act. The two looked like a magnificent portrait, the likes of which they never witnessed.
'They look so good together as if they always belonged there!' was the only thought on the duo's minds when they saw Xue Mo and Lu Yao.
"What are you staring at?" Xue Mo narrowed his eyes. "Do we look like a spectacle to your eyes?"
Purple Ash and Hesroth felt their instincts go haywire at his words. If they gave the wrong answer, they might just get a beating! Even Purple Ash, the strongest in the room, felt like he could lose, which made him widen his slits even more!
"Did you two breakthrough or something?" Purple Ash asked, feeling the slightly different aura and dangerous sensations. 'It might be possible after all, like Hesroth said, they Cultivate differently. If so, maybe I can really breakthrough!'
"No," Xue Mo replied honestly. "We just regained our powers."
'Powers?' Purple thought before shaking his head. 'I shouldn't ask more. We aren't close enough for them to answer anyway, and even if we were, I am not even sure if they would.'
As Purple Ash dropped the matter, the room descended into silence. Xue Mo and Lu Yao were usually cold unsociable people, and their mixed memories had disoriented them, making them more frigid than usual.
"Masters," Hesroth broke the awkwardness, "are you alright? When we came before, you had seizures, and your eyes were bleeding."
"We are fine," Lu Yao uncharacteristically answered in a soft voice.
'Did her voice change?' the duo visitors thought. In her fox form, Lu Yao's voice, although hidden, filled with disgust and cold. But now, her voice, though still unfriendly, made them feel relaxed.
This was due to her chaotic energy. Lu Yao's energy is harmony and discord that manifests in her with different parts, and it seems that her voice acquired the harmony.
Purple Ash noticed the situation going awkward again, and seeing that the two were really fine, with blazing slits and hopeful heart, he asked, "Honored ones, this might seem disrespectful, but can I ask something?"
Xue Mo gestured for him to continue, "the way you two Cultivate is different than us, correct?" his words made Xue Mo's eyes narrow again.
Ignoring the ascending chill, he finished, "can I trouble you for some help?" his request was straightforward and nearly begging.
"Arthur you…" Hesroth reached his hand out before dropping it and clenching. 'You were that desperate? To think we never noticed how helpless you were!'
'They are sincere,' Lu Yao transmitted, seeing the duo's reaction and had a brilliant idea, 'well, this could work out for us too.'
'I know, but I wanted to wait some more,' he scratched his chin in soul form. 'It doesn't matter anymore. Let's get us another follower!'
Purple Ash felt his heart sink by the second, noticing them not answer, 'is my fate to stay at this realm forever? Why? WHY?!!!'
As despair began taking him over, a voice appeared in the darkness, freeing him.
"Alright, we will help you," Lu Yao said, looking at Purple Ash. "Although you were an asshole back then, old geezer, I will let it slide. Let bygones be bygones." Xue Mo also nodded, confirming her words.
Hesroth looked at Purple Ash's quivering back and smiled, "you did it, Arthur."
Purple Ash looked from Xue Mo, Lu Yao, to Hesroth and felt life turn back to him, 'did I just get a hundred years younger?' he thought laughingly, cheering himself up.
"Thank you," Arthur smiled.
His simple words conveyed all the bottled-up emotions in him, which made it all the more sincere. 'From now on, I will regard these two as my heaven and earth!'
Unbeknownst to them, they had gained a follower that might be more fanatical than their troops.
'That Cultivation method would suit him greatly, and if I add some of the techniques of the black dragons to modify it…' Xue Mo's inner creator arose. The knowledge of his previous life with his Cultivation experience through the second one will make a terrifying existence.
"Alright!" Xue Mo suddenly said, getting everyone's attention.
Lu Yao softly chuckled, knowing what just happened. 'He never changes. Although his personality is different due to the mix of three lives, I am also different, yet that same talented being is always the same. Once he finds a challenge, be it small or big, he will take it and exceed it, making everyone speechless.'
'I heard that,' he transmitted with a grin. It felt nice to be loved.
"You two can leave. I will give you your way soon, so just do what you usually did till then it will help," Xue Mo mysteriously ordered, throwing them out.
"Did we just get kicked out?"
"We most definitely did!" Arthur laughed it off like usual, heading to his room. After Xue Mo's words, he decided to Cultivate more seriously than he ever did before.
"What should I do now?" Hesroth pondered, finding himself alone in the hallway. "Let's just find Nathan." He shrugged and went on his way.
"Now that the nuisances are gone let's discuss some stuff, my beloved!" Xue Mo said near her ear with his hands positioned around her neck in an embrace.
"Really?" she replied, deadpan at his apparent moves. "Now? Let's really discuss things first," she continued before approaching his ears and huskily whispering, "then maybe. We are married, after all."
Xue Mo's ears turned red as he looked at Lu Yao with eager eyes. While thinking 'cute,' she hardened her expression and started, "we died."
At her words, Xue Mo also became serious while his eyes shined with melancholy and hatred, "at Anthony's hands…"
Lu Yao looked at him pitifully, "I know he's your friend, but what he did was unforgivable." She stated as her crimson eyes spitfire, and her gritted teeth showed how angry she was. "For him to dare kill you!! I will make him suffer infinite times that!!!!"
Lu Yao didn't scream, but her calm voice showed her cruelty, which made Xue Mo's heartbeat faster. 'This is true love!' He then thought about how Anthony killed Lu Yao, which made his anger explode.
His Dark Void convulsed following its origin and his anger. It spread its corrosive shadowy miasma, and the room started melting under its pressure. Seeing what was happening, Xue Mo reigned it in and whistled.
"This much damage just from this amount?" he scratched his chin as he took control and inspected, "did my Dark Void become more potent?"
Lu Yao smiled at both his caring, lovable nature and how exciting things take his attention.
"Let's put that aside for now."
"At this moment, what are we?" Lu Yao asked, sitting down and crossing her legs. "Are we Arak and Layla Vrec or Xue Mo and Lu Yao?"
"We are both!" Xue Mo immediately answered like usual.
He looked at his hands and clenched, "both Arak and Xue Mo are my past. The memories, emotions, and experience they provided shaped me into what I am today," he relaxed his hands and looked at Lu Yao with a smile. "Aren't you the same?"
Smiling back, she nodded. "As Layla, I had you, big brothers, and even… even Anthony." She sighed, admitting the truth. "As Lu Yao, I had my mother, the stories she told me about my father and grandparents, and my revenge!"
The two exchanged looks, thinking the same thing, "they shaped us into us, but we aren't them at the same time." He continued announcing, "from today onward, I am Mo Vrec, husband of my wife, a Cultivator who shall reach the peak, and an avenger!"
"And from today onwards," she also said, "I am Yao Vrec, Wife of my husband, a Cultivator who shall accompany my husband forever, and an avenger! My father will be free, and Anthony and the bastards who kidnapped my father shall die. This is my promise on this day where we regained our past, allowing us to be reborn!