Once he was away from the Red Ravens headquarters, Shui quickly returned to the siblings' house. There were no longer any eyes watching him so he leisurely made his way there.
At the entrance of the house, Lily waited anxiously. This was the second time Shui had to step in and save them. If he came back, then all she would do is blame herself for being a burden. But, if he was seriously injured or never stepped out of that building then,
'I swear, I'll become a demon if it means I can avenge him!'
Fortunately, there would be no reason for Lily to drown herself in an urge for vengeance.
"Lily."
"Mr. Shin!"
Shui called out to her when he was near the house and she happily ran and wrapped her arms around him. Surely to onlookers, this would look like a mother hugging her child or a big sister hugging her younger brother, but this display was too embarrassing for Shui to endure.
"Um, Lily, could you let me go? This is kind of embarrassing."
Lily didn't respond but Shui could tell that she was holding back tears, so he gave up and endured a little longer. Only after several minutes had passed did Lily let go and look at him with a smile.
"I'm glad you made it back."
"Yeah, we should go inside."
Finally, Shui and Lily entered the house together and were immediately welcomed by Yur and the other siblings. Yur was the first to speak with exasperation.
"Seriously where have you been?"
"Mr. Shin!"
"Thank you for rescuing Big Bro and Big Sis."
"Thank you!"
Ryan was the next person to crouch and hug him along with the rest of the siblings, excluding Lily who watched them with a gentle smile. When Lily and Ryan had returned, the three children had cried while hugging them. Then, when they told them that Shui had gone to save them, Ryan and Lily's faces turned pale and they tried to go back. However, Yur stopped them.
"You shouldn't. I don't know what's going on here, but he'll be fine. He's not rash enough to get involved in something without confidence in being able to keep his life."
Lily heard from her younger siblings that Yur had come with Shui, so she hesitantly took his advice and all of them stayed at the house. Even so, she couldn't help but think that it was the same as last time. Even if they wanted to help, with how weak they were what could they really accomplish?
However, Yur didn't know who Shui was messing with. The siblings had so much faith in Shui that they believed he could at least escape with his life against someone at the peak of Earth Realm. Of course, they were still worried he might be killed, but in that case Ryan and Lily were resolved to get revenge no matter how long it would take. On the other hand, if Yur knew that Shui was facing the boss of Cyrus' underworld, he would have been beside himself with worry. He wouldn't be able to imagine any other outcome besides Shui dying and him getting killed by Bartos for not stopping him.
In this case, the siblings were actually right to have faith in him. By layering talismans, Shui would be able to produce enough damage to make even Ulus apprehensive, even if it wasn't enough to kill him. Furthermore, as long as he could give Ulus the slip and stack the maximum amount of talismans of 'Hide', 'Conceal' and 'Confuse', Shui would be able to escape. However, common sense would make it hard for anyone to believe he could be that capable.
After crying and thanking him, all of the siblings, except Lily, went to the kitchen to make lunch and asked them to join. Shui and Yur agreed and Yur followed them to help out. That was his excuse, but in actuality he sensed that Lily had something she wanted to say to Shui so he left them alone. He had heard about 'Shin' from the younger siblings so he had a good idea as to what Shui had been doing, but he left that topic aside for the time being.
'Damn! This junior of mine is too good with the ladies.'
With Yur gone, Shui turned to Lily. He had also noticed that she had something to say, so he waited for her. Her gentle smile turned into a guilty expression and she grabbed her skirt as she began.
"Mr. Shin, I'm sorry. After all you've done for us, we still can't do anything but trouble you. I swore that I would be strong enough to protect my little brothers and sister but, I'm still so useless. You don't need to get involved with us anymore, we'll just be a burden."
This last time was unavoidable, but this time they were hostages. The fact that Shui had to risk his life to save them was like a wrinkly hand grabbing her heart. She couldn't endure it.
While looking at Lily as she nervously awaited his response, Shui sighed and took off his mask. He actually suspected that this incident was bound to happen. Ulus told him to be careful on his way back, rather than on his way home. That suggested that there could be someone who would target him after he left the Heaven clan. This idea made Shui wary of the three clans, even the Heaven clan had people who wouldn't mind seeing him dead. And so, he was partially grateful for this incident since he was able to form a proper connection with Ulus and reduce the chance of him becoming an enemy, as well as being reminded that he wasn't out of danger.
"A bit too self-conscious, don't you think? You didn't ask me to save you and I didn't ask you to worry about me. We both just did what we wanted. Even if I died today, that would be because I was too weak. And even if you wanted to take revenge for me, that would be because of your own emotions. Like you said, you're weak. I'm not that strong either, but I can at least take care of myself better than you. You're not qualified to worry about me."
His words sounded harsh, but Shui believed that rather than trying to comfort her, it would be better to use brutal truth. At first, Lily was stunned with her eyes wide open. Then, a relieved smile appeared on her face. Shui thought this would be the end of it but he was wrong.
The next thing Lily did was to go down on one knee before him and place her right hand across her left chest.
"For the rest of my life, I promise to serve you as my lord and benefactor. Let the grand heavens and motherly earth be witness to this vow."
"You idiot! What are you-"
"This is my decision."
There was no phenomena or sudden surge of emotion, but they instinctively knew that it was a success. Just as mortals needed to obey the law, there was something that even the strongest cultivators had to adhere to; a heaven and earth oath. It had no effect when a mortal said it, but once you had even a smidgen of cultivation, you would forced to keep the oath. The moment the oath was broken the one who broke it would be punished by the heavens, and even if they survived they wouldn't be able to advance their cultivation any further.
Seeing that her oath had caused Shui to show a surprised expression for the first time, Lily's smile grew brighter. With the oath said, there was nothing Shui could do to stop her from working for him unless he planned on killing her. A million sighs wouldn't be enough for him to express how bewildered he was by this event, so he settled for two before looking at her with a tired face.
"You're an odd one, you know that?"
"Why? I don't feel like there's anything weird about using my life to repay my debt to you. Besides, who wouldn't want a cute master like you."
"Ugh, just don't let Ryan hear about this."
"I didn't plan to. Knowing him, he would surely be jealous and swear an oath without thinking."
'And you're any different?'
She was now officially his servant, yet for some reason she was more brazen than before. Shui sighed once more before relaxing his expression.
"As the one named Shui currently belonging to the Heaven clan, I accept you as my retainer."
"I offer my highest gratitude."
Lily had suspected that Shin was an alias since she saw his real face, so there was no change in her expression when he told her his true name and clan.
"Now that you're my retainer, I suppose I should give you a gift."
"Are, you sure?"
"Do you not want it?"
"I dare not refuse my master's offer. I will gladly accept whatever young master gives me."
She tried to hold back her excitement but it still showed in her eyes. Even if he took off a piece of thread from his clothes it seemed she would cherish it.
"Here. It'll protect you at least once from any attack under the Earth Realm."
From his satchel, Shui took out a jade pendant necklace. This necklace had been inscribed with two symbols of 'Protect' that were layered. 'Protect' created an automatic barrier to defend the user from sudden and life-threatening attacks. With two 'Protect' symbols, the barrier would be enough to take the attack of a peak Soul Realm warrior. Of course, it would have been even better if three copies of the symbol were layered, but though he had done it before there were very few successful cases of him stacking three symbols on an object.
"Thank you master."
It should have been an unbelievable effect for an artifact, but Lily didn't doubt him for a second. In her eyes this artifact had already become a heirloom that she would always look fondly at.