Ruan Xie's nightmares were not calming down, they were getting worse. In every timeline that he reset, he did with no fear at all. But that man, that mask, the brutal beating and his laughing, the laughing!
That boy was Rank 2 seven years from now, which means its very likely that he's Rank 1 or less experienced. When Ruan Xie time travels, its always back to the day he Rank 5 middle stage and unlocked his Spirit Ability, Upstream.
That day was 5 years ago, he's had 5 years till now to prepare. 5 years to do what the original Ruan Xie couldn't, to finish what he started.
He could hear cackling, Blue and purple lights flashed nonstop. He felt his halberd in his hand, Ruan Xie needed to kill the masked boy. The mask appeared here and there, the smiling face mocking him.
Swingly his halberd wildy, he could feel the scenario change. Ruan Xie was back on the battlefield, the masked boy standing on the pile of debris, menacing as always. "No matter how far you run, ill always haunt you" a muffled mad laugh came from behind the mask.
Ruan Xie attacked with fear in his eyes and sweat running down his face, unable to match the speed of the boy. But even if he did it would not matter, when it came down to raw martial prowess and power, the masked boy was just better.
blow by blow, strike after strike, Ruan Xie could feel himself being chipped away, losing parts of himself. Eventually, he saw his own dead body, in the center of the ruins. His near dead body struggling to breathe and form words.
Ruan Xie woke and got up, breathing heavily and struggling for air. He was shirtless, the thorny vine tattoos were much more visible across his abs. A female demon lay by his side, sleeping comfortably.
Ruan Xie brought himself to reality, the morning orange sun shown brightly into his room. He got out of bed and put on his robes, put his hair into a bun and called for a servant to prepare his morning tea.
Sat in his office, Ruan Xie went through the past weeks reports. He expected for his morning tea to be delivered by the servant he sent out, instead it was the woman that was in his bed that night, Xue Lian that delivered it instead.
"Xue Lian, what are you doing here?" She grinned at Ruan Xie, she wore morning robes but it barely left anything to the imagination, the robes exposed her plump thighs and hugged her curves, she had the same tattoos that he did, as did every demon in their sect.
"What does it look like I'm doing master?" Xue Lian held a platter in her hand, which had two cups of tea on it. She placed the platter on his desk and placed one of the cups on his side, she brought over a chair and sat in front of him, attempting to keep him company.
Ruan Xie flicked his finger "Watch your tongue." the cheek of the demoness had a small red strike across it, with fear reminding her heart of her lowly position she pleaded for forgiveness "Apologies my lord, I wasn't thinking correctly"
"I don't expect you to think correctly at all." Ruan Xie did not like Xue Lian, while he cannot lie about the fact that he's enjoyed the nights he's spent with her, Ruan Xie has only been doing this to keep up with appearances. It would be weird if the master just suddenly stopped sleeping with women out of the blue.
Not to mention Xue Lian's own motives for sleeping with her master. But thats for another day.
They drank their tea in silence, with Ruan Xie occasionally complaining about a certain report not being detailed enough or too detailed for his liking, Xue Lian listened with great care, half out of affection, half out of motive.
Ruan Xie looked through the more recent reports, he stopped and leaned front to see better, his eyes widened. "holy shit" he blurted out in his native Earth language. "What happened my lord? I don't think I've ever seen you this tense."
"The assassin was outed and captured..." Ruan Xie said out loud "By Zhang Jian, age 15, Rank 1..." he continued in his mind. This could be the guy, the masked man, the one he's been planning on killing this entire time.
The report didn't have much about the background of Zhang Jian, he was spotted entering the Ling estate as a stranger, suspected of befriending Ling Tianshu the S Grade, foiled an assassination in the night and saved the life of Ling Tianshu, giving her even more reason to befriend him.
"Rank 1 at this time, related to Ling Tianshu, able to beat a higher Rank than his own, not to mention his demeanor and behavior..." Ruan Xie whispered to himself, ignoring Xue Lian, who got up from her seat and went behind Ruan Xie to see what he was reading.
"Xue Lian." He said suddenly, making Xue Lian flinch as if she did something wrong. "Yes master?" She massaged his shoulders with both her hands as if that was her intention the entire time.
"Put a hit out on his head, I want his every move tracked, find his family, everything." She straightened her expression "Yes my lord." and she left the room, leaving Ruan Xie to stare at the report, the two characters of his name struck out at him. Ruan Xie felt the pain of a blast in the side of his abdomen. Clutching his side, he realized nothing had actually blown off.
"fuck, phantom pain" he muttered to himself.
"Zhang Jian, if you are who I think you are, then I wont let you sleep, eat or drink. I wont let you breathe even for a second. Where ever you are, I will find you and kill you." Ruan Xie slammed the stack of reports on the table, picking up his cup. He walked over to the window and took a swig from the cup.
"For a world ruled by Ranks, you stood as the sole outlier. How? How were you able to cross a difference as great as heaven and earth?" Ruan Xie looked out the window while talking to himself. The beauty of the mountains and perfect green scenery could all be watched from the tower, it soothed his headache and allowed Ruan Xie to think a bit more clearly.
"Ruan Xie was Rank 5 middle stage, he had an ability, techniques, a multitude of spirits to choose from and a powerful weapon. That boy was barely a Rank 2 middle stage and had nothing. Nothing but a few basic techniques and one or two Spirits.."
Even now, when hes safe and far away from that battle, Ruan Xie still could not understand his loss.
Somewhere between Qingyun and Lianhua, on a carriage, Zhang Jian sneezed.