Blood continued to flow down Zilan’s cheeks. The pain from the spell collapsing was nothing compared to the anguish his heart was going through right now.

Memories of the months that followed after he was captured kept flowing into his brain. He was tortured and beaten by people with One , Two and Three on their chest, almost daily.

Hertic used various spells and techniques to make him speak of all the things he enjoyed, loved and disliked so that Halim and Ficha could use that information to get closer to him later on.

Not to mention the unbelievable pain of having his memories re-arranged and corrected multiple times a day until Hertic was satisfied with the story he had created.

“Who am I exactly?” whispered Zilan as he tried to figure out, from the many versions Hertic had created, which one exactly he was.

His very soul wept as he remained motionless and clueless at the same time.

“What should I do? Someone..help me....”

Suddenly just as Zilan was nearing the point of no return, a pure white force bursted out from his soul and quickly enveloped his brain, effectively calming him down and suppressing the unending flow of false memories.

 That force originated from the Book of Path that had fused with Zilan’s soul. Had it come any later, his psyche would have broken down, causing him to lose his mind completely.

With a now stable head, Zilan stumbled about and grabbed his voidless sack. He then pushed himself to reach Jeza’s room. Without knocking he barged into the room and grabbed hold of her shoulders, startling her.

His lifeless, bloodshot eyes that resembled those of a dead person crazily stared at her.

“Leave!..get..to..a..safe place..”

When he finished those words, Zilan’s body lost all strength, falling directly onto Jeza.

...........

While unconscious, he could feel the white force destroying all the useless memories that popped up. Anything that was too taxing on his mind was vaporized instantly however, the core memories of both mental and physical torture that he experienced were for some reason not touched by the white force.

When he finally awoke, he found himself in an unknown shabby room that had only the mattress he was sleeping on and a chair in the corner where Jeza in her fox form could be seen sleeping.

He slowly sat up and stared at the ceiling with a strange smile on his face. He then started laughing crazily while slapping his thigh.

Jeza suddenly woke up in shock from what she was seeing. She was just about to say something when Zilan’s laughing abruptly stopped.

The slaps on his thigh quickly turned into powerful punches and the smile on Zilan’s face became non-existent.

Jeza didn’t know exactly what was going on but after listening to his mumbling and grunting while he slept, she was able to guess that it had something to do with what she had read from the Book of Path. Add on, what she was witnessing now and her chest soon became congested.

She could feel the sorrow Zilan was going through, yet didn’t know how she could help him.

“So many years of lies!” growled Zilan. “The woman he told me I would love, I ended up loving and the man I considered my saviour and rock was actually just playing a role.”

“You people....Even when I wished to die you refused to grant me that wish and the option of living freely you also took that away. How much have I actually lived that was not controlled by you people!?”

He then looked up at Jeza and with a helpless expression asked her,

“Why can’t I cry?”

Jeza froze once she heard those words. What was she to say?

“At least if I could weep, some of this pressure and frustration that I feel could be let out. Tell me, why can’t I cry?”

Unable to keep watching Jeza hurriedly left the room. If she stayed any longer she felt that Zilan’s sorrowful air would suffocate her completely.

Only after ten minutes of deep breaths did she once again go inside. However much to her surprise Zilan was no longer despairing, at least not as much as before.

“How many days was I unconscious?” asked Zilan as he slowly stood up. His head still ached a little but it was clear the effects of the spell were on their last legs.

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“Three days.” Replied Jeza.

Zilan walked around a bit before saying,

“Have you seen anything strange happening in the city?”

One thing immediately came to mind when she thought on the question.

“There’s recently been lots of powerful humans walking around.”

Other humans might not notice when a powerful individual walks among them however Beasts are naturally equipped with acute senses as well as the invaluable instinct.

Zilan’s eyebrows twitched for an instant before nodding.

“So they’ve already come? Or were they already here just waiting to be called upon? Doesn’t matter, Jeza let me borrow that pill of yours.”

The only pills that Jeza possessed that Zilan had any interest in was obviously the one that drew out her bloodlines abilities. So without hesitating she took one out and handed it over.

Two stars appeared in his pupils as he stared at the pill.

“Items used to concoct the pill include carnivorous moon plant seeds, nenani rat tail, five springs grass......

They combine to draw out the Ancient bloodlines of the Tangan fox, Black rift rat, Dark horned spike snake, Midnight wolf.........

Classified as a lowest grade Ancestral Heritage Darkness pill.”

“Trash.” was all Zilan said.

This thing barely had the power to draw out bloodlines. It was not specific to a species at all, instead it was designed to draw out the bloodlines of the weaker darkness attribute Ancient Beasts. However for people like Tort and company this pill was probably a life saving tool that sold for an unbelievable amount of money. A treasure that they could brag about owning.

The person who created it could also be hailed as a genius but if only he could see the look with which Zilan was using to gaze at his life’s work. Shame! Would be the only the only emotion he would feel.

Nevertheless, this was a starting point. Instead of creating a whole new pill which was impossible unless he had a few months, he could use this less than mediocre concoction as a base and make it specific to him.

Suddenly he turned towards Jeza and asked,

“Where are we? If we aren’t secure, then we need to leave!” He didn’t have a place in mind but movement would also not be a bad thing.

“We’re underground. No one will find us.”

There was probably a story behind her words but Zilan didn’t have time to listen to it. There were many things he needed to get started on if he wished to retain both his life and send a bloody message to his oppressors.

“I have some things to take care of! Go tell Tort to get ready to leave and also that I’m coming with him. As for any demands he has, tell him I’ll meet them no matter how great.”

Jeza nodded in understanding. She was already planning to go report what had happened as soon as Zilan had awakened, so now that she had an additional piece of intel to deliver, her trip just became all the more meaningful.

He gave her a few more instructions before letting her leave.

He then took out a small pot as well as a few herbs before starting on his work. The first thing he needed to do was break down the pill and separate all the darkness properties inside it since his own attribute was relatively close to light, water! Thus the two absolutely did not mesh.

The next thing he did was spit into the pot some of his own life blood that had the blood of the Spring Dragon and the flow python mixed in. All that was left now was to follow the instructions from the book of Path on what ingredients were required and the measurements needed to successfully complete his own Ancestral Heritage pill.

He knew for a fact that one of the skills of the flow pythons Ancestor was a body shifting technique. So that was the specific skill he was trying to draw out of his bloodline.

Suddenly just as Zilan was about to begin sorting out what he had and didn't have as well as what he could use as a substitute. Jeza unexpectedly ran into the room with a horrified expression on her face.

Before Zilan could question her, she surprisingly took out two dead bodies from her voidless sack. One was badly deformed but vaguely resembled Tort while the other was definitely that of the scarred wolf.