The beating continued.
As one of the guy's fists headed straight for the face, a mysterious black ninja jumped in and stopped.
The mysterious black man shook his head. The guards understood the meaning. The face is the last remaining value of Zion.
Vernon continued making out with Leste as his minions thrashed Zion.
They beat him black and blue. Vernon woke up after some time, leaving a sleeping and naked Leste on the beanbag just like that.
" Hey .. What's this .. this bastard fainted with just this little beating ?! " he mocked as he looked at Zion, who did not have a single centimeter of skin on his body that's not bleeding.
" I did not believe the master when you said he was weak. He was really that weak. "
" Why is his face still pretty ? " Vernon wondered in askance.
" That .. Patriarch seems to want his face intact. " one of the guys mumbled out.
Vernon's completely sedated anger comes back up bubbling once more. If he hated one thing about Zion, it is his pretty face.
In his anger, he pulled out the ice bucket, and poured it all straight on Zion's face.
The shock woke up Zion.
" Drag him up. " Vernon said, walking up towards the cliff.
" Ma.. " one of the guys was going to speak up, about to say perhaps he should rethink the Patriarch's guards.
Another guard elbowed him, stopping him in his tracks.
The guards looked at each other's faces, then lifted up Zion by his hands.
If they are doing something bad, the Patriarch's guards will stop them. It's better for the Patriarch's guards to argue with Vernon than themselves.
Thus, they dragged Zion up the cliff without a second word.
Vernon looked at Zion as both his guards held him hanging on the cliff.
" Think I almost pitied this b*stard for having a slut for a girlfriend ! The sheng clan should have done this long before, just like they did to your grandmother. I am doing a service to them, really. " he grumbled.
Zion's eyes widened at that.
' his grandmother ? '
" Oh my god ! Did you not know that ? Yes, your grandmother did not die in the hospital. She was thrown down this cliff to feed the vultures. Now, you can go accompany her. " Vernon grumbled at him.
______
In the tree nearby, two black clad guards watched closely.
" Senior ! shouldn't we go save that kid ? " one of them asked another man.
" No need. We only need to keep his face intact. Moreover, that one is like a cockroach. He won't die that easily. " The senior reassured the other guy.
_____
Vernon's guards threw down Zion.
They watched him fall on the cliff and groan.
" Master .. he's not dead. " one of the guards informed Vernon.
" I am not throwing him down to die, you idiot. " Vernon said, smacking the back of the guard's head.
" Let's go. " he said, returning to his party.
_____
" Senior ?! should we go rescue young master Zion ? " The young guard asked.
" No need. Let him lie there for a while. Let's go grab lunch. " The senior responded.
The young guard followed.
____
None of them realized this moment would come back to bite them in the arse.
Vernon is indeed stupid, but that stupidity is when compared to the others of the Sheng clan.
There is a reason he chose this location. Stone forest floods even if there is the smallest amount of rain. Tonight, there is a storm.
As long as Zion's location will not change, he will most definitely drown in the shallowest pool ever.
Ofcourse, because the patriarch's guards have confirmed along with himself that Zion is living, he will have no blame in this.
'If by some miracle Zion survives ?! Then that is also his fate.' That's what his sister said when she pondered this plan.
Satisfied with his good work, Vernon left.
The guards went to a distant office gathering, drinking the night away.
The storm came earlier than they expected.
Zion woke to the raindrops pattering his face.
The mana is pooling around him, keeping water at a certain level. A mana strand reached out of this circular shield, then poked him straight in the heart.
Zion knew instinctively that he had received inheritance from his grandmother. It is something peculiar to children of non-humans.
' Status '
He called.
Name : Zion Sheng
Level 0
Growth requirement ( S )
_____
Tinker Fairy ( Bonding with the world pending )
Level 1000
Mana : Not awakened.
Body : Not awakened.
Skill: Omniscience ( lv 1 )
[ Basic knowledge integrating. ]
Inheritance : Homunculus Elaine
What the ?
He has fairy blood ?
' Ah ' he exclaimed, holding his head. It felt as if his head was being banged against a thousand drums after thirty six hours of working straight.
The headache passed in five minutes. Zion pressed down his nausea.
Now he understood.
[ Tinker Fairy, despite the very feminine sounding name, is not a female. It's a male, and an ultimate race at that. They reproduce through fairy eggs. It is said Tinker fairy's eggs are skill orbs. Thus, these eggs are all collected before their thousand year incubation period is over, and absorbed by humans. Tinker Fairy, in its desperation, made a homunculus of different races, imbuing them with one of seed. The first male in the bloodline of the homunculus will become a Tinker Fairy like himself. This way, his children could forgo the thousand years of incubation. ]
Just like that, Zion awakened the blood line.
Awakening bloodline is one thing, getting out of this pond is another.
His recovery had been immaculate from the time he was born. It's faster than awakeners, at the same time, not so fast it could count as a regeneration.
Zion's original plan was to pretend to be weak, get beaten, then crawl into a corner, bide his time till he's healed, then escape avoiding the guard's eyes.
Leste's presence gave him such a big shock he forgot to pretend to be in pain, as such, he really was beaten an inch of his life. That would not have been a problem, as he had eaten a lunch full of elixirs. He would still have been healed in four to six hours, left according to the plan.
It's the damned rain that ruined his plans.
Now, he can't even hate the rain, for without this rain, he wouldn't have awakened his bloodline.
[ Danger .. From six O'clock. ]
Zion concentrated his senses there.
That.. blood worms ?
[ Blood worms will continuously release extremely powerful anticoagulants in their environments. They reach the host using the trail of blood. They can kill an elephant with a mosquito bite as long as the wound touches water infested with blood worms. ]
Zion cursed.
A person was walking to the pond with a container full of blood worms. Must be one of his cousins. He did not remember having life or death feuds with any of them save Vernon. Who hated him so much that they want to kill him this cruelly ?
He needs to get out of this pond as soon as possible.
If he can't move physically, he needs to move magically. Since there's only one skill he has right now, he used it, despite feeling sorry for his grandmother.
Somewhere in the pond, bones creaked awake to form a petite skeleton.
The skeleton walked over to Zion. It lifted him up from the water surface.
However, that was the end of the skeleton's power. It can not move holding his weight. Even if it were to keep standing, it will exhaust the last bit of the mana in thirty minutes.
The girl holding the pot of blood worms released them in the water.
Zion has focused his senses till they became razor sharp.
He needed one human … just any human.
There is a being of ice… ?
' No, that's probably a person gifted in ice magic. ' he thought. All the same, a small wisp of a willow danced in front of the being, guiding them to the slowly rising pond in the center of the concrete jungle.
The girl took one look at the pond and put the entire water in her inventory, including the blood worms.
The rain water continued to gather. Suddenly, there was the sound of rain, but no water fell on his face.
Zion carefully opened one of his eyes.
" Cerise Mayflower ?!!! " he exclaimed in shock.
" Why are you here ? " Zion asked, his tone carrying his surprise.
" To Marry you. " Cerise said dryly.
Zion waited for the " just kidding! " part, but it was not coming forth.
Just as Zion was about to break, Cerise spoke again.
" Hey ! I saved the beauty, isn't it a matter of course to pay with your own body ? Moreover, looking at the situation, you owe me a life debt. " Cerise continued. .
" No I don't. " Zion rejected automatically.
" What ?! " Cerise asked in surprise.
" I don't owe you a life debt. Despite the danger, guards of the Sheng family would have rescued me before I succumbed to death. " Zion corrected.
For the first time, Cerise showed an expression. It was a wry smile at that.
" I thought you were a total pushover. Seems you are not as much of an idiot as Leste advertises ! " Cerise said wryly.