"You kidnap us then say want to have a chat? Are you joking?" Shu An scoffed at the man in front of her despite how her life was essentially laying in his palm.
"What? Not curious about my relationship with your husband?" Tai Min stared with a deadpan expression, his words seemed to be imitating a friendly person, but his tone of voice lacked the necessary emotion.
"…Shu Li told me all I needed to know, if he wanted me to know more he would have told me" She looked away slightly as she spoke.
"What a good wife, doing as she's told" The white-haired man spoke back with sarcasm.
"It's called having trust in someone you love, not that someone like you would know" She spat back.
Tai Min rested his chin on his arm as he stared at the two.
"Well, you're right about that… something like love, what is the need for it? It just gets in the way". He then looked to Shu He and scrutinised him.
"Little He, no matter how much you try you won't be able to use your Qi".
"Don't call me that!" Shu He snarled at him; he felt the chills whenever he heard his nickname leave that man's mouth "And what do you mean, what is this you did to me?!".
"It's impressive, right? It's a technique called 'Dousing Veil'; the effects should be self-explanatory right? It's easy to see how you're struggling." Unfortunately, he didn't explain any more than that, much to Shu He's chagrin.
"Also, I should have the right to call you by that name, after all in some sense I'm your Grandfather". Tai Min casually spoke those words, leaving Shu An and Shu He in a minor state of shock as they processed them.
"What do you mean?" Shu He spoke with some confusion.
"That's impossible, he told me his last relative passed away before his eyes" Shu An however, denied it immediately.
However Tai Min merely smiled creepily in response "I did say 'in a sense', didn't i?" he turned to Shu He once more and asked, "How much has your father told you about his past?"
"Past…? He told me he used to be in a mercenary group before… until he left after it suffered an attack from cultivators" Shu He remembered the day his father had opened up a bit to him well, since it was one of the few times he'd seen his father in such a state.
"…" Shu An looked at her son, and a hint of sadness rose in her eyes.
"Heh… hahaha, yes we definitely did do some mercenary work, but make no mistake we were a pack of vicious bandits through and through".
"What?! My father… a bandit? A wanted man? That…" Shu He paused as a thoughtful expression crossed his face.
'No, that may explain his vast repertoire of skills, and his archery which was way above what a mere village hunter would have… but that would mean…'
"Yeah, it was quite a sight, at our peak we had hundreds under us that we'd take pillaging or ambushing trade routes, it was quite lucrative and was quite the time, even the general army that was sent out to stop us suffered a lot" Tai Min seemed to be gloating as he reminisced about the past.
"Hm? Seems like you knew already, Shu An was it?" He looked at the face of Shu An who didn't even hold a hint of surprise.
"I know who I took as my husband" She looked over to Shu He, sighing slightly "I just didn't want my son to know, the past is better buried… or was." Her eyes flickered with anger at Tai Min.
"Mother…" Shu He wasn't entirely sure what to feel about this reveal, maybe some people would have swayed their opinions of someone after hearing about such a past, but to him his father was still his father regardless, who he was now mattered more than who he was back then.
"A bit disappointing…" Tai Min sighed before shrugging his shoulders.
"Back in the day I was a small-time thief leading a group of ten, barely making ends meets by stealing from small villages or holding up carriages that passed through, we even had a small den we'd all lived in and worked together to build." He started narrating his life story even though no one asked.
"One time we were making our way back from an honest day at work with a new cart and horse, we came across a not too unusual sight on the side of the road, a small child treading along the dirt path barefoot with barely any clothes on looking like a living corpse".
"At first we thought it may have been some sort of monster, the messy hair, emancipated skin, dull eyes, it was like someone had reanimated a corpse! Yet it was a living child, a little boy who had encountered a world of misfortune".
"Any normal group would have just passed by the boy was a deaths door looking to drop dead any second, it was surprising how far he'd gotten with how he was, yet out of the goodness of my heart I told the others to pick him up and put him in the cart, we took him back to our hideout and carefully fed him water and food, and surprisingly he survived."
"From then on, he became part of us, I've never seen a child bounce back as fast as him, his growth was astounding honestly, he absorbed everything he did like a sponge becoming a core member very quickly, it was a great blessing that we picked him up that day".
"That child was Shu Li, and as the one who picked him up and raised him after, I'm basically his father, am I not?" Tai Min pointed to himself with a smirk.
"…As if, It wasn't anything as joyful as you're making it sound" Shu An retorted.
"Did Shu Li tell you otherwise?"
"…" Yet she didn't respond, only glaring at the man.
Shu He also agreed with his mother, he didn't know anything really yet this man in front of him was like a fair of floodgates leaking a bloodthirsty aura that made his skin crawl, his demeanour and words completely mismatched his core, this story was way too joyful for this man.
'And from what I've seen of my father… I highly doubt he thought any good of his past, why would he run away otherwise?'
His brow wrinkled slightly.
Shu He wasn't just listening to Tai Min and sitting idly, he was trying everything to break this 'Dousing Veil' that was affecting his core flame, yet no matter how he manipulated his Qi the end result was the same, pain.
Now that he knew it was coming he could hide it, yet it seems Tai Min can sense his Qi fluctuating still anyway to his disappointment.
'It seems it's sealed for good… or until the technique wears off, but god knows how long that'd take.'
Tai Min continued to narrate past events in the background as he thought to himself, most of them involved mercenary jobs or robberies and pillaging, he felt disgusted as he listened but tried to filter them out so he could focus.
He quietly breathed in and out.
'Is that my only option?'
His azure core flame was sealed… yet he had a second one.
The golden core flame!
He had already confirmed one thing, he could still use his Keen Sight uninterrupted, because he did he saw what Tai Min 'was'.
And he felt a horrendously deep fear as he did.
The man was a mass of black cyclones ravenously trying to devour everything around him, the mere sight and sense of this black qi chilled Shu He to the bone, he even felt like he could hear screeches and screams of people as he focused on it.
He couldn't tell whether it was an illusion or real, or if he was just being delusional from fear, but he knew it wasn't good.
At the left side of his body, where his heart should be, a grotesque black core beat in place, each squirm emitting black strings of qi that joined the whirlwind that was his body, he had never seen such a thing before, and it was entirely different from other cultivators he'd known and even himself.
'This person… he's no longer human, he's a monster' Shu He thought as his mind went back to the golden core flame calmly flickering inside himself.
He was hesitant, ever since that day he had experimented with it, only to experience that event that surpassed his understanding, he hadn't used this golden flame.
His 'Keen Sense' wasn't something he actively used the flame for, he couldn't explain it other than it was like using his own two eyes, a natural ability and not something he needed to work to use.
'In this situation though… I might have to'.
He had a sense of urgency creeping up his spine, as if something would happen soon, something that would be very bad.
'We were taken when the beast tide was ongoing, and Tai Min doesn't seem to be the type to leave a trail, it's unlikely anyone will come'.
He stared at the white haired, red eyed wraith like monster in human skin in front of him and grit his teeth.
'Even if they did come, wouldn't they just be killed? Even Yun Hua…'
The body of the girl was burned into his mind, the infallible image of cultivators was already bunt to ashes, he had no idea whether the other two would come or if they could help if they did, after all he had next to no understanding of their strengths.
He felt the pressure on him increase the more he thought about the situation he was in.
'I have to try!'
He focused on the golden flame, feeling its imaginary warmth with him.
'But how? If I try body enhancement like before, the result will be the same, nothing has changed.'
He was stuck from the start.
'I have no techniques; I have no idea about advanced manipulation… the only thing I know how to use decently is my azure core flame yet it's restricted…'
He thought hard while drowning out the voice of Tai Min.
'…! Maybe!'
It was a stray thought, yet he'd never tried it before.
He began controlling what he could of the golden flame, it slowly flickered and pulsed, eventually golden embers seemed to flow away from it like a stream of stars.
The destination this time wasn't Shu He's body in any sense.
It was his azure core flame!
Steadily but surely the golden embers approached the thin black film that surrounded the core flame and passed right through it.
'Yes! It's working! The 'Dousing Veil' can't block the gold qi!'
Closer and closer the embers got to the azure flame, until they eventually intersected.
"!!!!" Shu He had to keep himself still as his body reacted.
It was like a miniature explosion went off, as the gold embers greatly expanded before being absorbed into the azure flame.
Shu He felt like he had just swallowed a large chunk of meat, almost choking as it went down his throat, his core flame felt like it was pushing against him as its size grew.
However, Shu He didn't stop, he kept it going, because at the moment it expanded he felt the dousing veil shake as if it was going to burst!
At this time, Shu He didn't notice that the cave had turned silent as he had closed his eyes by habit.
He fed his Azure Flame more and more of the Golden Flame, eventually it seemed to reach a limit as he felt a small explosion happen inside himself, like a shockwave that travelled throughout his body.
The dousing veil broke!
His azure flame seemed different, flickers of gold transitioning to a clear green could be soon.
'Yes!' He opened his eyes, witnessing the scene in the cave after his success.
And immediately felt like he'd jumped out of the frying pan right into the fire.
Tai Min was stood up, a fierce glare piercing Shu He with a hint of black blood dripping from all five orifice.
"Brat… WHAT DID YOU DO?!" His bloodthirst that had been kept bundled up was unleashed like a tsunami, battering Shu He's feeble mind.
Shu He felt like he couldn't speak or move, like his entire body had frozen in space and had been dunked directly into arctic water, his brain had trouble forming coherent thoughts.
Tai Min began stepping towards him, causing him to reel with fear subconsciously.
'What is this?! He's just a single man and yet he's so terrifying!!' Shu He felt like an obscenely ferocious monster had set him as their prey.
Yet in the next moment, the same man dodged to the side and the intent receded like a drained lake.
*Chiiink*
The sound of metal breaking and chains clanking on to the floor followed a light sound.
"Eh?" Shu He stood stock still before he realised that his chains had fallen to the ground! He still had the shackles on but wasn't bound to the stalagmite anymore.
The sound of a deep breath came from Tai Min as he calmed himself, turning towards the entrance into the cavern they were in and stared at the figure standing there.
The figure had a bow in hand, in position to take a shot, or another; a pouch and saber laid at his hip as his eyes were red carrying a heavy glare.
"You're finally here" Tai Min said calmly, widening his hand in welcome.
"I was waiting, Shu Li"