Chapter 28: Charming Soul

"Ru-er, stay put!"

An Shan tensed up, his Qi steadily rising. By his side, Mu-er's shivered. His breathing stifled, his soul sensing the presence of something… gigantic. It was the link An Shan had with his giant Soul-Titan Stars. An Shan, through the earring on his ears, commanded Ru-er's soul to stay put. Along with it, the command to the earring on her ear to unseal itself.

You naughty girl…

Keep your soul linked with your body!

At the moment, he unsealed his cultivation. At the time, it did not occur to him… the fact that she was just his bodyguard. While she was an honorary member of his clan, the rest of the Blood Warriors were also the same. There was nothing special about her for him to be really concerned.

For all other Ancestors from Great Sects or Imperial clans, losing someone of her caliber was a pity, but it was still nothing to be sad about. It was akin to a truly rich person losing some percent of his monthly income. While it was a pity, one with a lot of money should not lament on it.

Yet An Shan was different, he could not be indifferent. He had blood spilled over his many decisions, all to secure victory. Still, he could not see his followers as mere numbers…

Hmph!

In the middle of his unsealing, An Shan sent a strong Qi right through his earring, connecting his mind to Ru-er's. In that instant, he felt as if a heavy weight lifted from his chest.

She's still there, her soul…

While her body was all mangled up, buried in rubble, her soul link with her body was not cut yet. As long as it was not a soul injury or soul lost, he could do something about it. Even when the chance was slim…

No matter what, never give up!

That simple phrase flashed within his mind.

As they arrived, they noticed two silhouettes were flying away from the location, already a considerable distance away. An Shan did not know who they were, he just knew they were related. For someone unrelated would be inclined to investigate, not flee at full speed.

"Mu-er, capture those two. Paralyze them first!"

"Ancestor, please let me stay,"

"No, if those two get away… Ru-er's effort would be for naught."

"Ancestor, I am your guard,"

"You think I'm a child? Shut up and go!"

"Y-yes!"

Having being scolded, Mu-er had no choice but to comply. He rushed towards the fleeing two. Quickly going in, An Shan noticed the boxes to the side. Such a sight was weird. They survived the massive attack, even when the sturdy walls of the warehouse were in tatters?

He noticed something planted on each box, green hexagonal jade. Half-burned, they produced a sweet scent similar to that of overcooked flowers…

‘My charms?'

Atop each of them was the charms he gave to every Blood Warriors. In between the boxes, another one. They were protection charms, more than enough to withstand several fully-powered attacks from peak Heavenly-Star cultivators. He gave three of these to each of them.

While just one could not withstand against a Titan-Star attack, three was a different matter. Using three of them should be more than enough for Ru-er to survive taking a direct hit. In this case, however, she used all of them to protect the children, shielding them from the shockwave coming from the Titan-Star token.

Though Ru-er already threw the children away from the attack, a mere atmospheric pressure from such a powerful Qi would likely turn them into meat pastes. Fortunate for them, the charms formed three protection layers, shielding them from the fierce shockwave.

Seeing the children, An Shan knew what happened. The boxes obviously were thrown away, and all three of Ru-er's charms were used to protect them. Seeing the direction of the attack, it was all too clear. When the attack commenced, she could not avoid it, lest the children became victims. While she withstood the brunt of the force… she threw them to the side.

…

Seeing the sight, it was clear she disregarded her own safety over the children…

"This girl,"

The children were weak. Speaking logically, even as a bystander, they could not have survived. Yet due to Ru-er's effort, they survived… all of them. Still, because of the remaining shock, they lost consciousness except for one. It was the brave girl from before, the one others called Sister Xie. Her ears still stinging, but she saw him coming. Seeing An Shan, she felt the same feeling she had when Ru-er took custody of her. It all happened in such a short time, but the girl was no idiot. She knew the lady from before saved them, thus…

With stuttering voice, she uttered;

"S-sir hero, p-please save –"

She pointed towards a gaping hole in the warehouse, a hole which completely blew half of the huge structure away. An Shan heard her, yet even without her saying, he was going there anyway. Seeing the rubble, he was just on time to unseal his cultivation to another stage.

It took him a little over two breaths, a sudden wind bellowed around him. From Sub-Star Stage, a sudden rise to Main-Stars Stage! With such cultivation, he had enough strength to move around the rubbles. As if a feather blown by the wind, he flew forward. His hands swiped the heavy wooden rubbles to the sides. In one breath, he found his disobedient girl, buried under the ground. With his hand, he wiped the ground away from her face. Securing her head and neck, he checked her pulse and breathing.

With none present, he grasped her neck, sending his Qi in. Since her soul still did not leave her body, he had a chance. Controlling what little soul link he still had, he linked his soul with hers. Activating the earring he lent, the link between them soon double, tripled. With this link established, he directed his Qi. A short, simple shock, triggering her heart to start beating.

Dup…

…

"…Such injury,"

The beating was just once, he could not sustain it.

Her heart was almost torn apart.

She could not be revived, not without fixing her heart first. Not even blinking, Qi filled his eyes. Eyes clearly on Ru-er's heart, he fixed the major tears in the arteries, forcefully mending them together. While he still did not recover his Soul-Titan cultivation, the little Soul Control he had was enough to do internal fixing like this.

He foresaw such a situation, where he must use his soul power during an emergency. What he failed to foresee, was for it to happen a mere month away since he sealed his cultivation. Wasn't this way too soon?

Still, he was glad he foresaw such a situation. If he depended on waiting for all his Soul Control to return, it would take a minute. By that time, her soul would be nowhere near her body. Reviving her would be out of question.

"Fix…"

Soul Control enabled a Soul-Titan to do miracles.

The miracle sounds simple, superior control of Soul and Qi. Though An Shan could just use a little portion of it now, it was more than useful. Directing his Qi to fix some torn blood arteries, he soon mended crucial organs. Again, he willed his Qi to further force her heart to restart. This time…

…

"…Move,"

Gruuu…

"Uh, her blood…"

Though the heart almost restarted, her blood had too much damage. An attack from a Titan Star was so ferocious, it could even tear and ripped out the blood cells. Realizing this, An Shan sent more of his Qi, intend to revive her blood through the use of pure energy. He also sent some to her bone marrows from her head to her hips, to see if he could stimulate it to produce more. He had little hope, since a blood injury was difficult to deal with… More so than ruptures of internal organs.

Yet he himself never gave up. There was hope.

However little hope he had, he held that thought tight.

Yes, wasn't it felt like this before too, during the wars? Against such superior forces, such advanced weapons… Wasn't it he who told everyone never to give up?

"Em?"

At the time, something else grabbed his attention. Aside from Qi, he could feel his physical life force leaving him, going straight into Ru-er in vast amount. Such amount...

As if he was leaking a lot of cool, refreshing water… Seeping itself deep down into dry ground, reviving the ground back slowly. But this amount…

Fortunately, he had a lot of it.

And in such a pure form too!

In such form, when this energy seeped into her, it excited her body cells with energy. At this time, due to the vast amount of energy transfer, An Shan could observe this phenomenon enough. Different from poison or malicious Qi, the excitement from the transfer would not kill the cells… Instead, it would further strengthen them!

Sensing the cells' excitement, he had a familiar feeling.

He realized, a conscious person would feel extreme pleasure from such energy transfer. This reminded him what happened in the hall that day. He thought Ling Shuren was acting weird while pinching him… Was the girl an S? Well, he preferred not to comment on someone else's preference, but… Yeah, everyone had their very own fetish… No need to intrude, I did not see anything!

But now, he knew that was not the case. It was due to his abundant life force.

"This life-force,"

An Shan knew this life force was not originally his. While he had massive amount of life force due to his cultivation, he was sure the quality was lesser than this. What happened, actually?

…

He traced his memory back to the end of the war.

His main injury was from him activating Soul Incense, so the condition of his physical body was of little concern to him. However, it would still influence whether or not he would survive. Since the injury he had from the war left his body in a sorry state, his second brother…

"Right, the turtle shell,"

With this in mind, his second brother, Hei Man lent him his clan's most prized personal treasure. This kind of treasure could only be used by one person at a time, yet was on equal ground with both their clan's massive area-of-effect treasures…

Why?

‘…The name of the treasure, was Life-Force Chamber,'

All while treating Ru-er, he reminded himself of the turtle shell's formal name. The name was not given out of its imposing sound, or for ceremonial purpose. It was directly referring to its function. He and his sworn siblings had all used the turtle shell before. It was truly valuable for someone whose body was heavily injured, even against poison!

But while the effect was miraculous, it did not change their life-force permanently. Back then, he was sure of it. Yet, for it to have changed his physique so much…

‘Was it because it's been two thousand years?'

After spending such long years inside it, did his cells' overall quality changed? For his life force to be able to even excite Ru-er's blood… Blood which was pretty much considered lifeless…

Such a miraculous effect!

At this time, he felt growing gratitude for his second brother.

…

After almost ten breaths, he felt the amount of life force was enough. Ru-er's complexion was no longer that of a cold corpse, with colors returning to her face. With such a rich life force, even her blood was revived!

With this, he felt confident it was enough.

"Return to me, Ru-er…"

He grasped her neck, with his mouth whispering directly into her ears.

"…Move,"

…

…Thump.

…Thump.

Da-thump!

Ta-thump!

As if complying to his command, slowly, her heart began beating…

"Good!"

With her blood started flowing again, An Shan heaved a sigh of relief.

"Truly, welcome back…"

Going through the most terrible time since his awakening, An Shan felt sleepy beyond measure… After making sure Ru-er's condition stabilized, he finally relaxed. He let out a long breath, tears in his eyes. Being there in the rubble, alone with Ru-er, he almost cried by himself.

The heck!

You young ones sure love to surprise your ancestor, don't you? You want to shock me to my death, is that it? You hate me so much? I know l love to nag, but still…

This is just me going out to a city… If this is my birthday, what kind of surprise would you guys have me face? On such occasion, wouldn't I really meet my end?

You guys want to send me to my grave quickly, is that it?

Don't lie!

...

Turning to the unconscious Ru-er, his eyes twitched. With a fierce face, this ancestor pinched her cheeks, widening them as payback.

…

Fortunate for him, no one witnessed his deeds.

Or so he thought.

In the night sky…

Pa!

"A—"

An old man, flying in the sky, had his eyes turned white.

A figure hit the old man, back at the neck. Due to the impact, his flight stopped. No longer able to maintain himself, he fell… The figure grabbed the back of his clothes. Sending fierce Qi into him, he made sure the old fellow was fully paralyzed.

Blessed with sharp eyes and handsome look, the figure had the flair a noble warrior. With a tall and sturdy frame, this young figure was Mu-er. Tasked with the job of catching the two escapees, he had both Madam Jiu and Mister Mo in each hand.

Throwing them up higher into the sky, he took out two glass orbs. Circulating his Qi in full force, he threw the orbs to each of his captives. As the orbs made contact with them, they glowed, sucking then sealing the two in.

Buzzing for a bit, the orbs returned to Mu-er's hands. Each the size of a person's head, such orb was usually used to imprison any dangerous criminal and had to be supplied with quite some energy to maintain. A Main-Star elder would find it hard to breath just to maintain one. Yet for Mu-er, maintaining two of these did not even disturb his concentration.

He took out a communication token.

"Ancestor, I've captured them,"

Reporting directly to his ancestor, he awaited further orders.

In response, he heard An Shan's voice;

"Rally with me. Follow my direction,"

On the other end, An Shan finished digging Ru-er out. Since moving the ground forcefully could further injure her, he dared not take such risk. Such delicate work required him using his hands and fingers. Hands covered in soil, he took out his turtle shell. He enlarged it before putting her in, soon storing it back into his ring.

Done! Now to wrap things out.

He knew best not to linger around the warehouse.

The explosion would attract various powers to come investigate, so he made it quick. While treating Ru-er, he did not focus on raising his cultivation. With his current cultivation already raised up to peak Main-Stars, he soon reached Heavenly-Stars Stage. His body seemingly wrapped, in an instant, he arrived in front of the girl called Xie. Seeing him helping the kind sister from before, she kowtowed—

"Truly, thank you! Little Xie, thank Sir Hero—"

"It's fine child. Just… rest,"

"Eh,"

Rest, his word was a command for her body. Falling asleep in his embrace, he stroked her head slowly. As he observed the children, his eyes mellowed. He placed his palm on her back. Confirming marks of abuse on the girl's back, he smiled bitterly. The children in front of him were all below twelve, with the girl seemingly the most mature.

He gritted his teeth.

He fought the Great War to the bitter end, so many of his brothers and sisters gave their sweat and blood, securing victory from foreign invaders... Yet their own people, dared be so inhumane?

"This just gave me a headache,"

He sighed. With a flip of his sleeve, he secured her and the children into his spatial ring. While spatial ring normally could not support life, his was different. His ring had life support, capable of keeping living things in for a limited time.

He observed the surroundings through his Spirit Search, soon found pieces of corpses. Most likely, the people remaining here were all obliterated by the Titan-Star's attack.

"Hm?"

He noticed a few pieces of the metal.

From traces of its formation, An Shan recognized it as a shield. By its side, was green ashes. Though it was destroyed to ashes, traces of indicated its origin as his. A charm he could make anywhere, anytime. This could only belong to Ru-er, as he also recognized the shield.

Back then, he remembered her asking whether it would be a good idea to put the charm on it. Without thinking much, he put one on personally. When he did, he clearly remembered her struggling to contain herself. At the time, she was being jumpy like a teenage girl…

What a sight to see.

The cold-blooded Blood Warriors, the stern enforcers of the Ancestors...

Acting like a fan girl... How immature, hmph!

Still, her action pleased him, so he gave her another charm to replace the one he fixed on the shield. As it turned out, something he did out of whim ended up saving the children. Had the protective charm was short of one, they would turn to mush by now. Waving his hand, he gathered the metal pieces together. To the side, he also noticed a black round metal – what was left of the Titan-Star token.

Shoving them all into his spatial ring, he took flight in full speed.

...

Chapter 28 End