His hair fluttering across his face. Blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Rashu’s eyes sat upon Lintian. 

“Mr. Rashu anything that I can help with,” asks Lintian in a concern voice..

“I hope you can protect my daughter,” he said weakly.

Lintian sat with Akumy still in his hands. Lintian looks at Rashu and back at Akumy.

“Mr. Rashu it is not that I don’t want to. It is simply I don’t have the ability to do so. I hope that you would recover,” Lintian said. He really does not have the ability too and he would not try to either with the high chance of getting himself killed. Especially since he had no way to resist Damon before.

“Haha,” Rashu chuckles shaking his head, “theres no hope for me to live. My meridian points are messed up and I shattered my dantian when I did my last spurt of qi to save you earlier. I won’t force you but I can offer you an incentive.”

“Huh?” Lintian was in disbelief.

“For the pass month when I was in the forest I have watched over you quietly. I saw you and that man kill demonic boars after demonic boars. Afterwards you absorbed their demonic core. After that I confirmed my suspicions. Ha ha ha. You had a similar smell to a man from 10,000 years ago.”

“So you knew I have Asura’s body.”

“Yes,” Rashu said as he put his hand on his chest. A seal appeared and his hand went through his chest and pulls out a demonic core the size of a dragonfruit. It was still beating. Pa Da. Pa dum. Pa Da. Pa dum. You can see a slight glow pulsing out like a heartbeat. “This here might be able to help open most of your meridian points.”

“Mr. Rashu nothing is certain. You might still be able to heal. Please put that back in your body,” begs Lintian. He was extremely attracted to it but he is not a greedy child. Since that day he felt Rashu was family. 

“Lintian, I have in my 30,000 years of life never begged a single soul for a favor. Today I have no choice but to beg you. I have zero chance of surviving right now. Even if I survive I will be hunted down like a dog. I want my child to have a better life.”

“But I am an Asura her life will be more difficult with me,” Lintian said doubtfully.

“Haha you really are similar to that asura I met back then. Both of you are kind, and generous. Greed doesn't seem to consume you. I know what you are and what will become of your future. Right now look at where we are. We are deep in the core of this forest. This forest is known as the black forest. The demonic beasts here are all tier three and up. Do you believe my child can survive in such an environment?”

“No,” Lintian answered truthfully.

“Then wouldn’t the best chance for my daughter’s survival to be with you?”

“Yes,” Lintian admitted.

“Then there’s no point for you to refuse then. It would be beneficial to you too wouldn't it?”

Lintian really could not refuse his logic.

“Fine then. I will accept it but I cannot promise that your daughter will make it out of this forest alive with me. In fact I don’t believe I can even make it out of this forest alive myself,” Lintian said. 

“Haha it’s fine as long as you try your best come over here.”

Lintian walks over and stood in front of Rashu. Rashu spread open his palm and 200 hundred seals appeared and began to rearrange itself around Lintian and Akumy for two minutes. 

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“This seal here is a guardian contract. It is different from you human’s equal contracts. This one will link your soul together and when she is ever in trouble you will instantly be teleported there. It is not a true teleportation but a dimensional travel.”

The seals began to rotate and Lintian could feel his mind connecting with Akumy’s but strangely also Kyuri’s. 

“I place this seal on all three of you so if one of you needs help you will travel there. Now Lintian take my core and begin refining it,” Rashu ordered as he puked out another mouthful of blood.

Lintian stretched out his hand and grabs the core. He could feel the Ancestor realm qi within it. It was weak but to a weak refinement realm cultivator it was like looking at the vast ocean and feeling how insignificantly small you are. When Lintian grabbed the core a strange light began to flash from his pendant. The center of the pendent shot a beam of blue light at the core which somehow reflect to his bracelet. The bracelet began to glow.

“Th th th this is. It can’t be?” stammered Rashu and his face grew excited as he close his eyes, “Haha I might have a chance after all.”

The demonic core’s red light shined like the 4th of July. His bracelet grew hotter and hotter while a blue light was growing brighter. A red aura began to enter Lintian’s chest, but it was going to a different location. It was not entering his dantian. Lintian was not scare of this event since these two gifts were from his parents. Surely it would never harm him.

Rashu with his eyes close began to create an ethereal form of his consciousness. Slowly that consciousness was formed and his body going limp. This glow of red conscious light flew into the necklace. It was in the shape of a fox like the one in his dantian earlier. Then it flew into the dream orb. If others were to see this they would see a big ball of crimson and ice cold light intertwining with each other, like an aurora borealis, beautifully stunning. 

Half an hour later it ended and for Lintian only five minutes seems to have pasted. The demonic core in his hand was completely void of life. Rashu’s body was gone. Akumy seems to have slept through this whole thing.

Kyuri popped out the beast cube and stares at Lintian apologetically. He could feel the phenomenal energy earlier but something was keeping him from popping out of the beast box until now. Kyuri looks at the core in his hand and his eyes lit up greedily. “I want it.”

“Haha,” Lintian laughed and tosses Kyuri the core. There was three simply reasons why he wasn’t extremely bonded with that demonic core. One was that the demonic core was practically useless to him now with all the qi gone. Second he knows where Rashu’s soul is right now so there was no need to be attached to it. Third Kyuri might be able to get a new ability from it. Whatever it might be. 

Kyuri chomped down on it in one bite. “Lets go somewhere to hide,” Lintian said to Kyuri. He can feel Rashu’s ancestor qi within his body. Rashu help him contain it near his dantian for him to refine little by little. Since right now his body cannot take the whole Ancestor qi in one go or else it would do more harm then good.

Lintian began to walk in a direction but has he walk further his head began to feel light. The world was becoming blurrier and out of focus. His leg was stuttering. Lintian placed one arm on a tree. Trying to steady himself. His throat felt like something was coming up. He puked onto the floor. His head was dizzy and he couldn’t focus at all. Lintian looks at Kyuri and it seems he has the same reaction. Lintian took the beast box out and returned Kyuri back into it. There was no reason to keep Kyuri out and in such danger. If he dies at least Kyuri will survive he thought. Then everything blacked out. Thump. His body laid on the floor limp as a doll.