Chapter 40: Conflict
Meixiang was momentarily dazed after figuring out that Zed was in danger.
But her daze did not last, as she snapped out of it and immediately stretched out her arms, Qi surging in her palms.
"W-What do I do master? What do you mean knock out the Qi?"
Tang Xiurong's forehead creased as she muttered, "This is going to be hard..." before standing beside Meixiang and putting her hand on Meixiang's extended arms.
"Alright this is what we will do, let your Qi continue to flow and I will direct it."
Meixiang became confused. "Direct it?"
"I will explain later! For now, just follow my orders!" The tone of her voice hinted at the critical situation they were in.
Having no choice, Meixiang proceeded to follow her master's instructions and her Qi released from her palms.
Tang Xiurong's face twitched while beads of sweat fell from her forehead as she willed the heavy and momentous Qi from Meixiang.
Woong.. Woong..
The Qi made a strange sound before Tang Xiurong managed to perfectly direct it towards Zed's head.
As soon as she felt the connection, she then-
Bam!
A trace of yellow Qi surged out of Zed's head, but it immediately returned, like an octopus refusing to release its target.
"Tsk!"
Not letting her first attempt bother her, Tang Xiurong continued to try again.
Bam!
The yellow Qi stretched out of Zed's body, but it refused to leave and returned inside.
"It seems that we have no choice..."
Tang Xiurong really didn't want to do this because it might leave lasting effects on Zed's body, but the situation had already become the worst case scenario.
"Xiang'er! Pour in more Qi!"
"What? But master, you said that any more Qi than this could hurt his body!" She hesitated to follow.
"I know what I said, but we do not have time to talk about this! Just do as I say!"
Meixiang bit her lip, but proceeded to follow Tang Xiurong's order.
Woong!.. Woong!..
Meixiang's blue qi glowed brighter, releasing a tremendous pressure into the surroundings.
Tang Xiurong made a troubled expression, but she endured and continued to direct the heavy Qi.
Once again, the Qi connected with Zed's head and-
BAM!
The force was way too strong causing Zed to be blasted several steps away.
"Brother!"
"Zixin!"
Thud!
Zed's body rolled and tumbled onto the ground, similar to a ragdoll being tossed across a room.
All three girls immediately appeared next to him and worriedly checked his state.
They were glad to see that they didn't get shocked after touching his body.
"Brother?! Brother?!"
Jingfei repeatedly called out while Meixiang was checking his body for any injuries. Fortunately, His body didn't seem to have any fractured bones. He only had a few bruises and scratches.
Lan'er was also shouting even though she was in her spirit form. Needless to say, one cannot affect anything in reality when in spirit form.
"Hold on." Tang Xiurong used her own qi and sent a very light shock into Zed.
Jolt!
Zed's eyes opened as he hastily stood up onto his feet.
With an apprehensive look, he scanned his surroundings while trying to stop his trembling legs.
"Brother?"
Tang Xiurong returned Lan'er's body and the latter ran and stopped one step in front of Zed, almost failing to stop herself from crashing into him.
But then she was met with a wariful stare from Zed.
"Brother...?"
She felt slightly pained from the way her brother looked at her, but his next words hurt her even more.
"Who... are you? And where am I?"
-
All the three girls became petrified after hearing Zed's indifferent voice.
Zed continued to look around his surroundings before checking his own body. His mouth gaped in disbelief after looking at the state of his body.
"What the... how the... How do I... How did my mana circuits become like this?"
His stupefied state only lasted a few seconds before he started chuckling.
"Hahaha... ha... HAHAHA.. HAHAHAHAHA!" His chuckles turned into roars of laughter with traces of lunacy in his eyes.
"No fucking way... With this..."
Zed began to gather mana in his body and immediately, an unnatural rumbling started to occur within the surroundings.
"Brother?!"
Lan'er wrapped her arms around Zed because she knew something was wrong with him and judged that whatever he was going to do, wasn't going to be good.
"Tsk!" Clicking his tongue, displeasure appeared on Zed's face as he forcibly pushed Lan'er away from his body.
"Get away from me, child! This old man is finally... FINALLY... FINALLY GOING TO BECOME A MASTER RANK MAGE!"
Zed felt giddy and wished that if this was a dream, he would never wake up!
His excited face became blank as he murmured, "No... I won't just stop at master rank... with these mana circuits... I can become... A God!"
A face of revelation appeared on Zed's face as his thoughts reached a conclusion.
"Zixin! What is wrong with you?!" Meixiang shouted towards him while releasing her nascent soul qi.
Jingfei helped Lan'er up since the latter was harshly thrown to the ground.
"What's wrong with Big Brother?" Jingfei asked while looking at Zed worriedly.
"I.. I.. I..." Lan'er couldn't speak as her thoughts became haywire.
She could not believe that her most beloved brother... actually harmed her.
"Lan'er?" Jinfei noticed the pale face of her best friend who could not make any coherent words as she was in a deep state of shock.
Slap!
The painful treatment seemed to work as Lan'er returned from her thoughts and looked at Jingfei.
"Fei?... Something is.. Brother is..." Lan'er's mouth kept trembling while her eyes threatened to pour out tears.
"Snap out of it, Lan! I don't know what's wrong with Big Brother, but... what I do know is sis Mei needs our help!"
The two turned towards Zed and Mei who were now levitating in the mid air.
"Zixin! Calm down! We're here to help-"
"Shut up."
Zed swayed his arms as if he was swatting a fly. Multiple magic circles activated at the same time and an elaborate formation of wind blasted Meixiang in one place.
The gusts of wind formed a spiraling motion, but different from a tornado, the gusts of wind were designed to grind and crush the target in the middle.
"Hmm..." Zed was sure that the mage girl was going to die, so he decided to focus on the matter that bothered him the most.
'Why is my heart... feeling this way?'
A dreadful and heavy emotion kept tugging on his heart, affecting his joyful and excited mood. He had checked his body, but did not find any anomalies.
But what he did know was-
"They are the source." Zed mutters while looking at Jingfei and Lan'er.
As for Meixiang, She was desperately trying to survive as the terrifying winds were trying to crush her in every corner.
This felt vastly different from any of the attacks that Zed had shown her before. She realized that this attack was designed to kill.
"Sister Mei!" Jingfei and Lan'er were worried about Meixiang as they could see the terrifying blender of tornadoes, all crushing a single person.
Zed on the other hand, wanted to get rid of the unnatural feelings he had towards the two strangers and what was the solution?
"Eliminate the sources." He said while looking towards Jingfei and Lan'er.
His hands trembled as several spells were cast at once.
A terrifying pressure that overwhelmed Meixiang's qi descended onto the surroundings, causing even Tang Xiurong to feel perplexed by this foreign energy.
Despite having lived for a very long time, she was actually unfamiliar with Zed's source of energy.
"Tsk!"
Meixiang's qi surged as she forcibly broke through the entanglement. Her body became covered with wounds as the winds mercilessly cut through her flesh.
She groaned in pain, but endured as she managed to escape.
Looking in Zed's direction, Meixiang realized that this was one of the moments that Zed mentioned about the side effects he was suffering.
She sucked in a cold breath as she remembered Zed's promise.
At the same time, Zed was also looking towards her with a mildly entertained expression.
Just as he was about to release the spells he cast, Meixiang hastily rushed towards Zed.
Thinking that she was going to attack him, Zed cast a warning shot.
...Wait, a warning shot?
Seeing the conflicted look on Zed's face, Meixiang didn't bother dodging the incoming spell as it tilted slightly to her right.
Meixiang managed to arrive in front of Zed who seemed to be confused.
Without wasting this opportunity, Meixiang punched Zed directly in the right side of his right face.
There was no technique nor Qi imbued in her fist. It was only a simple punch that contained all her body's strength.
Smack!
Zed bent backwards due to the strong impact of Meixiang's fist.
However, since it was an attack without any special effect, Zed managed to recover immediately.
At the same time, a faint flash appeared in his eyes making him squint in confusion.
"Meixiang?"
-
"What..." Zed was speechless after seeing Meixiang's state. "Did I..."
Zed instantly realized what he had done. Though Meixiang's wounds weren't that serious, she still had several deep wounds all from his spell.
Without hesitation-
Slash!
Blood spurted in the air as Zed's left hand was perfectly sliced off.
This action completely stunned Lan'er, Jingfei, and Tang Xiurong.
Meixiang wanted to stop him but it was too late.
Thud.
His left hand fell powerlessly to the ground.
Horrified expressions immediately appeared in Jingfei and Lan'er's faces as they saw Zed's hand fall to the ground.
They couldn't understand what was happening.
Did Sis Mei cut Brother's hand?
But they saw that Zed's face didn't even change when he looked at his missing hand.
Lan'er walked towards Zed's left hand, but her brother stopped her.
"Leave it."
Before she realized it, her brother was already behind her.
With a solemn look, he wrapped her in a tight but gentle hug.
"I'm sorry little Lan'er... I'm so.. so.. sorry."
Zed kept apologizing, but Lan'er remained silent. He wanted to apologize for the way he treated her, but the latter seemed unfocused.
Releasing her from their embrace, Zed looked at Lan'er and saw that she was staring at his missing hand.
"Zixin!"
Meixiang called out from behind, causing the two siblings to look at her.
With an angered face, she shouted at Zed. "You idiot! Why did you do that!"
She was thoroughly exasperated to see Zed unfazed by the fact that he had just cut off his own limb.
"Brother... why...?" Jingfei had a worried and confused face as she approached from behind Meixiang.
Zed bowed towards Meixiang.
"I'm sorry... and as promised, I have cut off my own hand for harming you."
Meixiang became even more angry, but not because he hurt her nor the fact that she was actually in deep pain.
She was mad because Zed was ruthless to his own body, making her remember the way he exhausted himself to death when they escaped from Fengshu City.
The atmosphere turned silent as Meixiang's anger affected her Qi, making an inexplicable rumbling in the surroundings.
Zed thought she was very angry and thought that he needed to offer his other hand. "I-"
"I do not need your apologies."
Zed was interrupted by Meixiang's cold voice. His head still remained stuck to the ground while waiting for any additional punishment he would receive from Meixiang.
Without a doubt, Meixiang was the most affected by his sudden outburst.
Remembering his previous actions, he was sure that he cast a spell with the intention to kill her. He did not know why his memories of the past 60 years vanished, but his mentality returned to when he was an obsessed scientist, hungrily pursuing knowledge to improve his own state and reach master rank.
Zed was brought back from his thoughts when Meixiang continued to speak. Her voice was cold and toneless.
"Find a way to reattach and heal your hand otherwise... We will not be friends anymore."
This statement made Zed confused and spoke, "I can't do that because I need this as a reminder to myse-"
"I don't care." Meixiang's voice resounded once more.
Zed slowly raised his head and saw that Meixiang had a furious expression on her face, with tears slowly building up in her eyes.
"You-... I admit.. it was my fault that I failed to do my duties as your friend, who you made a promise with."
"But.. but..!" Tears fell from her cheeks as she spoke of her feelings.
"Can't you be more considerate of our feelings?! Did you think that seeing you injure yourself like that would bring me satisfaction?!"
She continued to shout, "Why can't you understand that just as you deeply treasure us, you are also equally, if not- more precious to us three!"
"If you still don't understand then I'll tell you! I don't like seeing you get hurt! I hate seeing you receive any kind of injury!"
"Do you not see Lan'er and Jinfei's expressions right now?"
Hearing her say that, Zed glanced at Lan'er and Jingfei.
Jingfei was already crying while Lan'er was desperately trying to hold back her tears.
"Imagine if we were to harm ourselves, or in this case, cut off our own hand? How would you feel?"
Zed answers, "I would scold you guys for such stupidity."
"And your actions right now were?" Meixiang asked in a questioning tone.
"Stupid." Zed grimaced.
"Good. Now that we have established that..." Meixiang lowered herself to the ground and clasped Zed's face, making him meet her warm gaze.
"Zixin... We all love you so you have no idea how it hurts us to see you get hurt like this. What's worse is that, since you did this to yourself, we can't even get revenge."
"So..."
She held his face closer to her's.
"Please promise us you'll never do something stupid like this ever again."
"I..." Seeing the warm and worried look on their faces, Zed realized that his thoughts were wrong all along.
Although he grew up to live a long life in his previous life, he had not once understood the real meaning of family.
He understood the concept and what it entailed, but it was all theoretical.
But now that he learned that family was a very important piece of his life, he thought that he needed to give his everything for their sake.
His mindset became wholeheartedly set on serving and taking care of his family to the point where he was willing to commit to such a harsh punishment on himself.
But what he didn't know was.. the feelings were reciprocated. Just as he loved them, they too loved him back.
It was only now that he realized this.
Releasing all the breath he held, Zed spoke. "I'm... sorry and I promise that I will never do this again."
Meixiang's face softened as she pulled Zed into an embrace. Similarly, Jingfei and Lan'er too joined the group hug.
Edited By: WorthyAdversary