When Nalser the room, he was greeted by a peculiar sight. The girl had already woken up and was currently looking towards him with a cold look. Nalser felt a chill as he thought, “Those are not the eyes of a normal young lady.” With caution he took a chair and sat near the girl. However, he left a meter distance between them as a safety switch. He did not know how to start the conversation so he was quite troubled.

Finally he grabbed his head and said, “Okey, now that I have helped you out, I am stuck in your mess as well. Let’s start with, who the Hell are you and what was your relationship with those old men?” The girl looked at him blankly and asked in a cold voice, “What happened to the people that were with me?” Nalser was a bit agitated for some reason and said, “Their most probably dead. One old timer threw you to me and told me to run, while he went to stop the people pursuing you.” The girl just let out an “Ohh” and looked straight ahead.

Nalser started to get angry and now he realized, why he was getting more and more agitated. Those old men gave their lives and even placed their trust in him, a total stranger, but she seemed like she didn’t give a damn about them. Although he was no saint, she should at least give a damn about the people she owes her life to. Just as he was about to rise up and grab her head, he was stunned. He saw tears streaming down her face. His anger faded to the wind and now he was awkwardly crouching over the chair. Since he had no idea on what to do now. All he could do was move his chair closer and pat her head saying, “You can cry all you want, this place is safe and nothing will happen to you here. I can swear it to the Heavens.”

The girl just looked at him for a second before burying her head on her knees loudly sobbing. Nalser didn’t realize, why he was so weird around the girl was because he felt some similarity but he thought that it was his figment of imagination. Just patting her head, he sat there not knowing what else to do.

Soon Medic came back and left all the elixirs on the table. She also explained Nalser what to take first and what next. Should there be any complications, he could always call her and etc. Medic tactfully left the room and left the two of them alone. Seeing this Nalser was even more sure that all the puppets had intelligence but for some reason were hiding it. In the beginning, it was just a feeling but as he more observed these kinds of minute details, he understood that they were faking their ‘puppetness’.

However, there seemed to be a reason for it so he currently would go stroke a hornets nest like that. Time flowed by and soon the girl sobbed herself to sleep after taking some of the elixirs and stabilizing her condition. However, Nalser had no way of leaving, at some point in time, the girl had gripped Nalser’s hand and now she wouldn’t let go. Nalser had at least that much tact that he wouldn’t forcefully remove his hand.

With nothing better to do, he sat next to the bed. At some point in time, he also fell asleep. He was quite exhausted from his over use of Qi when he bolted with the little lady.

***

When the two of them were calmly and safely sleeping at Starry Island, a few people in yellow robes were lurking near the place Nalser had disappeared from. One of the people was a young man who was wearing quite the luxurious clothes. He looked quite handsome with his brown hair and azure blue eyes but currently his face was ugly like a pigs. His right hand, that was holding a bloody sword, pointed towards one of the old men in yellow robes and yelled, “Where the fuck is she?!?! All you had to do was capture her but you incompetent bastards couldn’t even catch one little girl that was poisoned?!”

All the old men had embarrassed faces as they cast their heads down. The young man raged on, “I took a huge risk poisoning her and trying to capture her all without obtaining her. If she arrived back at her branch and told what happens, a bloodbath will ensue. She was the key to making the Azure Branch submit to us! Now thanks to you bumbling oafs, we blew it. Be prepared to face the consequences when we return to our Golden Branch!”

Very frustrated, he called off the search, he understood that someone had helped her out, otherwise there would have been no way for her to disappear like this. He turned to one of the old men behind him and asked respectfully, “Is there any sign of the imprint sir?” This man was a Nascent Soul Elder dispatched to keep the young man safe. He also had an imprint set up in the poison. The Elder just shook his head and said in a helpless tone, “It seems like the person who saved her is someone we have to think twice about provoking. All I can tell is that she teleported from here and from that point onwards some extremely strong presence is blocking me from feeling the imprint.”

The young man was shocked. For a Nascent Soul Elder to say that means that their opponent is someone who has passed the Tribulation. The young man thought for a second and said, “If what you say is true, then we are in some very serious shit if she manages to get that expert to help her.” The old man nodded and was about to say something when his expression suddenly changed.

A ripple spread out from above Starry Island Imprint and suddenly 4 figures appeared in the air. They all excluded a majestic aura as the Nascent Soul Elders face became paler and paler. There were three men and one woman there. One of the men was wearing blue daoist robes and looked as though he was a transcended being, in his left hand was an azure sheathed sword. His hair was blue and his features were refined. His azure eyes glanced over all the people present and he turned his head towards the seductive woman and asked, “Medic, is the one who left the imprint here?”

The woman looked extremely seductive with her voluptuous breasts, that were quite revealed. She wore pink robes and her little mouth was pouting as she twirled her long brown curly hair around her finger. She pointed towards the Nascent Soul Elder and said, “It is that old fart who left the imprint.”

She looked towards a scholarly middle aged man who had short brown hair, with grey stripes mixed in at the sides. He wore white scholars robes and excluded a scholarly aura that would win a fight with words rather than with force. She said, “Librarian, the technique is quite interesting. I think you would be interested in adding it to your collection.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The scholarly man let out a ‘Haha’ laugh and looked at the juvenile boy next to him. The boy had short jet black hair and completely black pupils. He was wearing black leather armour as well, making him a mismatch in the group of people in daoist robes. “Dummy, did you not have some techniques you wanted to try out. You can test it out on the rest of these guys.”

The young man just crossed his hands before his chest and pouted, “I expected there to be Celestial level people but these are all just scrubs who don’t have a chance at passing the tribulation. I won’t even be able to test out a few techniques on these guys.” These four were the four puppets Sweeper, Librarian, Medic and Dummy but they looked like bona fide humans right now.

Sweeper just let out a sigh and said, “Okey guys, let’s wrap this up before Little Master and the little lady wake up. Afterwards it is going to be extremely hard for us to sneak back in without being noticed.” Everyone just let out a sigh and started killing everyone.

In the blink of an eye only the young master in yellow robes was left. However he was completely terrified. Just as Sweeper was about to kill him, Librarian stopped him, “Hey, we can use this guy. Don’t be so hasty.” Sweeper listened to him and lowered his sword as Librarian went up to him, “Now then, listen here. You are not to chase after that little lady any more. Next time, we will not hesitate to take everyone and slaughter your entire little clan. Are we clear?”

The young master immediately kowtowed before them and said, “Yes I understand exalted Celestials. I will immediately tell my entire Branch to give up on her.” Everyone of them had a smirk on their faces as they laughed at him. Dummy finally said, “Oi little brat, we are not your weak ass Celestials. We are all Empyreans, so truly do think about it clearly, whether you want to pull any tricks or not.”

Hearing this, the young masters face went even paler than before as he thought to himself, “What dogshit luck does she have. She managed to get a Remnant behind her. Not even the Emperor is willing to pick a fight with them, nothing to say about our Clan.” His clan was quite powerful so of course he knew about the Ancient Path and Ancient Remnants. The Ancient path was far stronger than their Modern Path.

From their talk, he could understand there were even more of them, so if their clan should choose to butt heads, they would without a doubt lose. He could only curse his luck as he sat there on the ground terrified and watch them leave. As Sweeper and the rest left the young master just fainted.

When Sweeper and the rest entered the Island again, they quickly took on their puppet appearances again and went back to their positions. The reason they took action at that time was because Nalser would be in too deep of a shit otherwise. It was wiser for them to just quietly eliminate the threat like this than to reveal themselves when Nalser ran into a stone wall with those guys.

***

Nalser and the young lady slept until the morning. When the young lady woke up, the first thing she noticed was Nalser’s white hair. The next thing was that she was gripping his hand. She blushed for a second and realized what had happened. She remembered grabbing Nalser’s hand and seeing the situation right now, she understood that she had never let go and Nalser had tactfully not withdrawn his hand either. She became curious about the young man in front of her. He seemed to be about the same age as her but for some reason, he seemed very mature.

Just as she was about to try and take her hand away. Nalser groaned and opened his eyes. His blue eyes seemed extremely unfocused as he yawned and looked around. The young lady quickly took her hand away and sat there on the bed quietly. Nalser seemed like he was processing something as he looked around with his unfocused eyes.

Gradually, however he seemed to come back to his senses as he seemed to remember where he was and why. When he saw that the young lady was awake, he gave an awkward greeting, “Well, good morning. Before we start, you should most probably take the rest of the elixirs.” After pointing to the table, where the elixirs were, he started moving toward it to bring them closer. The young lady docilely took the elixirs and followed the instructions Nalser gave her. It wasn’t that she wasn’t suspicious but rather she had no choice.

She understood that his place was a special dimension Artefact and she was completely at his mercy. After Nalser grabbed breakfast for them, Nalser asked, “So, may I ask who are you and what was your connection to those people?” The young lady thought for a second before sitting upright in a graceful posture and saying, “My name is Xu Mei. I am from the Five Heavens Clan. More specifically I am from the Azure Heaven Branch and the people who were after me were from another branch called the Golden Heaven Branch. My Azure Branch is focused on Water Type martial arts. However the Golden Branch is focused on Earth Type martial arts.”

She took a sip of tea as she continued. “My Azure Branch has dominated the strongest position of the Five Branches for generations and has held the Leader position for the same amount of time.” Nalser looked confused and the Mei quickly clarified, “My clan is composed of 5 branches and every 30 years there is a family competition amongst the junior generation to determine the branch that will hold the leader position for the next thirty years.”

Hearing thus far, Nalser understood. “So all of this is another pointless struggle for power? Has the competition happened yet or is it still coming up?” Mei just helplessly said, “The competition will take place in 7 months. My Azure branch has two unprecedented geniuses this time, so the Golden Branch, wanting to take power, had to resort to kidnapping me, so they could blackmail my Azure Branch.” Nalser just nodded his head until it suddenly dawned to him and he stammered, “You couldn’t be-”

Mei, without letting him finish his sentence said, “I am the only daughter of the Azure Branch Patriarch. Also I am one of the two experts my Branch has. The other is my elder brother who has reached the peak of Palace Establishment at the age of 20. A lot of Major schools have already expressed their goodwill and have tried to recruit my brother.”

Everything became clear to Nalser. The reason they tried to get her was because she held two crucial positions.

1. She was the only daughter of the Patriarch, so they most likely doted on her a lot.

2. She was one of the aces, so just by eliminating her, they would increase their chances by a lot.

Mei suddenly bit her lips and said in a bit of a depressed tone, “There was one more reason they chose me. That sick bastard Xi Wei has had a crush on me from little. When he poisoned me, he told me in great detail about what he was going to do when my cultivation got crippled.” Seeing that face, Nalser could only guess that, what that guy told her, it wasn’t pretty one bit. Nalser tried to calm her down a bit and asked, “Even if he had a crush on you, wouldn’t this be a little bit too extreme?”Mei just looked at Nalser and blurted out, “It was also because I have a special bodily constitution called the Heavenly Water Embryo Body.”

Hearing this, Nalser nearly fell off his chair as he shouted towards the Starry Sky, “Are bodily constitutions fucking contagious?”