Chapter 16: Decision // Stopped again
It was in the middle of the night and the moon served as the light around the courtyard.
Tang Xiurong who was possessing Lan'er's body, stood in the middle of the courtyard. Around her were several sets of footprints forming a particular chronological order.
"Do you remember the sword techniques?" Tang Xiurong asked while looking at the spiritual body of Lan'er, who was only visible to herself.
"Yes, Master," Lan'er answered.
Tang Xiurong nodded her head in approval before continuing to speak. "It has been three days and the possession technique will wear off soon."
She added, "I already set our martial arts footwork on the ground. You only need to follow it, practice it, and lastly, master it."
"Yes, Master," Lan'er answered once more.
"Good. As for Bloodseeker, you may not wield it until you finish mastering this footwork along with the sword techniques that I showed you."
Tang Xiurong spoke out loud, so if one were to see this scene, they would see a lone girl speaking to herself.
"Your brother should wake up anytime now so I will release the possession earlier so that you may greet him yourself. As for explaining our situation, you can handle that."
Lan'er nodded once more before feeling herself get sucked into her own body.
The next thing Lan'er saw, she was standing alone in the middle of the courtyard. She never thought she would miss the feeling of having a body.
Lan'er didn't see her Master around her, but she wasn't worried, since her Master had already explained to her that she would need to rest for a couple of days after using the possession technique.
Lan'er went back to their house and entered their bedroom.
There, she saw her brother sitting upwards while blankly staring at the window.
"Brother!" Lan'er was relieved to see her brother finally regain consciousness.
Her brother looked at her but didn't smile or reach out for a hug. Instead, he asked her a question.
"Lan'er, do you want to stay here or live in the wilderness?"
Lan'er was stunned when she heard her brother's question. Almost instantly, tears flowed down her eyes as she walked next to him.
"B-brother... are you sniff... abandoning me?"
"N-" Zed was about to explain, but the latter suddenly hugged him.
"Uwaaa... Lan'er is sorry that she lied... was... Please don't abandon Lan'er! Lan'er will never lie to brother again! uwaaa... Please don't leave Lan'er!"
Zed sighed and stroked his little sister's back to calm her down.
He then spoke. "Calm down, little Lan'er. How could I ever abandon you? I was only asking if you still wanted to live in the city because I don't think we can stay here without attracting trouble."
"As for the sect recruitment, we can simply return here in 5 years."
Lan'er slowly calmed down as she realized that she had been too anxious, which was caused by her guilty conscious from lying to her brother.
"Sniff... I'm... I'm okay with leaving." She answered.
"Really?" Zed released her from his embrace and looked at her.
"You'll lose the chance to meet new people and make friends, you know?"
Lan'er shook her head. "I don't care. I only need brother."
Zed sighed and he felt bad, but he truly had enough of living in this place. Plus, the issue with Lan'er's social life could still be resolved by simply visiting nearby villages.
Or instead of the city, they could just live in a small populated village like the one they passed through.
He thought that it wouldn't be bad to become neighbors with Luo Xiaoling and her family.
His little sister embraced him again, and he confirmed. "Alright, We'll leave."
Lan'er nodded.
The two fell silent as neither one spoke.
Eventually, Lan'er asked, "Brother... are you not mad at Lan'er?"
"Hm? No, not really." Lan'er felt her brother shake his head as he continued, "Although I do feel a little saddened by the fact that you lied to me, I also know that you must've had a good reason to do so, right?
That's enough for me..." Zed said and placed his forehead against Lan'er.
"I will trust you, Lan'er.... So you can choose not to tell me about your secret.
Just remember that if you ever need help, your brother is here for you."
Lan'er felt an overwhelming warmth and fuzzy feeling inside her chest. In this moment of solace made her want to confess everything, including her experiences with her master as well as her identity.
But then... she came to understand that her master wantes to keep her identity as secrer for their own good.
Lan'er knows that she is endangered, especially now when she came to possess some kind of special weapon that would be coveted by many cultivators.
And if... by chance that it has been revealed that ahe has an Immortal for a master... even more dangerous and powerful people will be after then.
If things were to ever come to that... Lan'er did not want to involve her brother.
In the end, all she could say was,
"Thank you... brother.."
'Thank you for being my brother... thank you for your trust in me... I... I love you very much.' Tears began to well up in her eyes, causing her to bury her face on his chest.
Zed smiled and carressed her head. "No problem. I love you, always."
Lan'er tightened her hug even more.
"Lan'er loves brother too! Forever and ever!"
-
When Zed recovered his mana, he conjured a spell and made a healing compound that would hasten the natural healing of his body.
Aside from Nature-Mage, Water-Mages are the next sought out mages in terms of support abilities since they are capable of mixing compounds like liquid gas or purified water.
The most basic knowledge for all Water-Mages is a two-drug combination between AMD3100 and Tacrolimus. The mixture of these two drugs will result in natural accelerated healing of wounds, so it is often used in speedy surgical operations.
Although Zed was experienced in chemistry, that didn't mean he remembered everything he studied. He only remembers some of the most important compositions.
Also, Zed could replenish his body's vitamins through spell creation limited to Water-Mages, which is [Mutare] but it wasn't doable since using that spell drains most of his mana reserves.
It would be possible to do so in the future since he had High tier Water affinity, just not now because his Mana circle level was too low.
As for nature magic, the reason Zed neglected it was because having Low Tier elemental affinity was as good as having no affinity at all.
One would need to put in three times the amount of effort to reach the same output as those who had a normal tier elemental affinity.
For example, a low-tier fire element mage used a basic spell-like [Ignis].
They would need three times the normal consumption of mana to get the same result as when a normal-tier fire element mage used the spell.
All in all, using magic in low-tier affinity would only end up draining a mage's mana reserves.
That's why it's better to just treat it as having a none-tier element.
-
Zed focused on resting and recovering for the following days until the wound on his stomach finally healed.
His injury left a large scar left on his abdomen, but Zed didn't mind it since he wasn't one to care about looks or appearances.
Zed stood in front of their house with a bag that contained their belongings. It contained the clothes they bought as well as the certificate of ownership of their house and plot of land.
Although they were leaving, it wouldn't hurt to have a place to sleep when entering the city. Plus, they could just let it remain abandoned as it was before.
As for the boxes with salvageable items they recovered from the basement, Zed returned them to the basement because he didn't plan on selling them anytime soon but they were all unfortunately burned and destroyed during the fight underground.
"Haa! Hiyah!"
Lan'er's small body kept moving across the yard, matching the marked footprints left on the ground.
She had been doing this exercise continuously for the entire week, to the point that she memorized the sequence and could complete it with her eyes closed.
"Lan'er, It's time to go."
Zed didn't question how and where she got that technique from, and since Lan'er didn't explain, he didn't ask about it.
"Uh!" Lan'er stopped and erased the footprints on the ground.
Zed waited for her to finish, and when she did, he realized that she barely broke a sweat even though she had been doing that exercise since morning.
They covertly left the district and reached the entrance to the city. Zed didn't forget to buy Lan'er a new mask, while he also bought himself a new spear.
He also bought several necessities along the way, and as for Lan'er's sword, he wrapped it in cloth and carried it on his back.
Zed struggled to cover it, since the blade was so sharp that it would immediately tear through the cloth, so he had to put a wooden plank for the bladed part before wrapping it in cloth.
As they fell in line to exit the city, Zed made sure to not act inconspicuously and patiently waited for their turn.
Eventually, their turn came and Zed and Lan'er were excited to finally leave the city.
Only their enthusiasm was stopped by a soldier who approached them.
He stood before the two children and spoke.
"The Royal Princess has been requesting your presence."
Zed's face didn't change as he answered, "You've got the wrong people."
The soldier was unfazed as he stated, "But the Royal Princess provided clear details.
She said that they were two children, a pair of siblings. The older brother has serious-looking eyes and black hair. The younger sister would have long silver hair and a mask that covered her face."
This time, Zed frowned.
"What does she want from us?"
The soldier repeated, "The Royal Princes requests for your presence?"
"Are we allowed to decline?"
"The Princess said that if the requested children were to decline, she would spread information about you two and do her best in preventing you from participating in the upcoming disciple recruitment." The soldier said.
Zed made an ugly face before relenting. The soldier escorted them to a carriage pulled by horses.
The two got in and the carriage immediately began moving. There were only the two of them inside the carriage, and Lan'er stuck closely to Zed.
"B-brother... what's going to happen to us?" Lan'er asked worriedly.
Zed patted her head and gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Your brother is strong enough for us to escape."
"Ah! You mean we'll fly again?" Lan'er's face brightened.
Although Lan'er had been flying with her brother since her infancy, that didn't mean she didn't enjoy it.
She loved it since she would always be hugged by her brother for a long time.
Zed nodded. "Yep! We'll zoom out of the palace and go fwoosh!"
"Oooh! I want that! I want to go fwoosh! I want to go fast!" Lan'er became excited since this was the first flight they had in a month.
"Really? didn't you get sick the last time?"
Lan'er pouted. "Uhhh... that was before! Lan'er is used to it now!"
"Haha.. alright, alright." Zed patted Lan'er's head.
Soon they arrived in front of a tall pagoda. It had traditional red wooden pillars and each floor was made of fine stone.
The roofs were all ceramically tiled and the wooden railings were colored in a crimson hue. There were also accents to the building as there was a bamboo garden at the entrance and lanterns that were decorated across the floors.
A servant received them from the carriage and escorted them to the building. Lan'er kept gazing in wonder, as this was the first time she entered such a building.
They were led floor by floor and eventually reached the topmost floor, where they found a woman and a child.
The woman wore a white scholarly uniform, and she had a stern and strict gaze as she taught the child. Naturally, the child was Xia Meixiang.
Lan'er kept looking around as their floor was high up. She was amazed to reach this height just by standing on a building.
Plus, the entire floor had an open-air structure where the walls were only wooden railings. Lan'er wanted to approach the railings and see the view from there, but she held back her curiosity as she hid behind her brother.
Meanwhile, Zed calmly waited for their lesson to finish.
He knows that Xia Meixiang noticed their arrival and willingly ignored them.
As a person of her status, she had enough power to do that since all commoners were her subjects.
Zed shrugged and turned to Lan'er. "Do you want to see the view from there?"
"Can we?"
"Of course! Let's go but don't let go of my hand, okay?" Zed said as they moved towards the railings.
"Okay!" Lan'er smiled sweetly.
Wooooshhh!
The strong breeze of the wind blew their hair away as they admired the view.
"Woaaahhh...." Lan'er muttered in amazement as she was completely awe-stricken by the view.
'As expected of a place chosen by the Royal Princess.' Zed praised.
Large bridges cross over rivers and are used by dozens of people. Numerous small boats were sailing across the rivers.
Houses and establishments stretched as far as the eyes could see and from their perspective, the people on the ground looked similar to ants.
Staring at the bustling city below strangely gave a calming feeling to Zed's heart.
"Had enough of your fill?" An arrogant voice called from behind.
Edited By: WorthyAdversary