Chapter 44: A Counterpart

Luo Zehn’s POV

Slash!

Clink!

Step. Step.

“Who are you?!” I raged, not because someone was sneaking towards my tent, but because someone was able to deflect my full-frontal sword lunge of an attack. Of course, I didn’t mean to hit them if they were harmless but now that I saw their strength, I knew that they were serious about coming here.

“I’m Lin Xian, and shouldn’t we be the one asking that? Why did you attack us when we just simply wanted to talk.” Lin Xian rubbed her left wrist which was obviously sprained due to my attack. “Why did you attack us out of nowhere?”

“Sorry about that, I thought you were out for blood since you were sneaking up on my tent.” I apologetically responded as I grabbed some herbs from my pocket and wrapped it around Lin Xian’s wrists. “These are herbs that synergize with the healing element. This much should be enough to heal your sprained wrist, sorry about that. That aside, your deflection isn’t half-bad. And you’re only using shortswords to boot. Are you an Assassin?”

“No, but I was a damage dealer in my previous party. I could pretty much use any weapons, but when it comes to mastery, I’m just a bit above average.”

“That’s not that bad, you know. I might ask you to accompany me in one of my scouting missions next time.” I suggested. “And from what I heard, those two behind you are Yu Sying and Yu Yan, right? The mother and daughter?”

Lin Xian, Yu Sying, and Yu Yan nodded.

“So, what brings you here?”

“We’d like to talk.” Lin Xian proposed. Before I could reject her offer, she stepped forward and entered my tent. Yu Sying and Yu Yan, who were simply following Lin Xian, blindly tottered behind the dark-haired and red-eyed girl called Lin Xian.

“What do you mea- ” Before I could finish my sentence, I realized that they were the newcomers of the Shelter and that they met a Cultivator with the Blood Element. Did they want to talk about that? I could only wonder. “Ah, is this about the… wait, why are you here anyway?”

“We want to talk to you about someone.” Lin Xian continued. “Your previous Sect Master five years ago, his name was Tang Yongrui, right?”

“That’s right. And why do you ask?” I skeptically responded, unsure why they were asking such an obvious question.

“I see… then, would you believe us if we told you that we met him? Or rather, a counterpart of him?” Lin Xian continued.

“You did tell Ye Zhiyun and the others that you met someone that goes by the name of our Sect Master, and he has the blood element, right?” I confirmed before continuing on. “But let me tell you this, there’s no way that’s our Sect Master. There’s no way he could’ve survived that bite… and… we saw him transform into an infected.”

I could still recall the vivid imagery of our Sect Master sitting down from afar as he looked towards the sun. There was a peaceful aura emitting from his angelic appearance as he closed his eyes in peace. A split second later, however, he bolted upright and unleashed one of the mightiest roars I heard from an infected. I didn’t want to remember that again… after all, it was our fault that he died. We were lacking in skills, and there were no words to describe how weak we were back then. Every time remember that, I would always be filled with regret. We could’ve escaped or saved our Sect Master… if only we weren’t that weak.

“No, we wanted to talk to you about something else. There’s a possibility that he’s an impostor but we just wanted to clarify that your previous Sect Master went by that name.” Lin Xian responded, much to my bewilderment. “The thing is, we couldn’t help but overhear what you told our Shelter Leader and something struck our minds.”

Whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it really well since they’ve hooked me and my full attention. I gulped. I could feel that they were about to say something crazy, based on the looks of their faces, of course.

“You said that you met someone with the Dark Element, right?” Lin Xian asked. “By any chance, was it a young man with long black hair with beautifully contoured nose and a proportionate face? I mean, a young man with long black hair, black eyes, and looks handsome?”

“Wait… how did you know that?”I asked in surprise. They clearly described the young man that I met during our travel.

“Because he was the one who saved us back then. He was the one who enabled us to get here in Tang Shelter.” Yu Sying continued. “And also, I do remember that he summoned some sort of zombie shadow before heading out after he was bitten by a Stage-Two.”

“Wait, he was bitten?!” I exclaimed. “Wait, now that I think about it… if he was really bitten, then the only reason why he was able to survive the bite was because of his Blood Element.”

I stared straight at Lin Xian’s eyes. There was one thing I needed to confirm to make sure that I really met the right person. “When you met him, what was his cultivation level?”

“He was in the Spirit Realm last time we met. That was well over a week ago.”

“Figures. When I met him, he was still on the Spirit Realm.” My voice somehow trailed off as I remembered the power he showed me when he got angry back at the Si Shelter. “But deep inside him, he holds a far greater power on par with the King Realm, no, it can even be on par with the Immortal Realm.”

“Do you have any contact with him? He was really looking forward to joining the Tang Shelter and all, you know.” Lin Xian muttered. The three of them finally relaxed since they had the gall to sit on the floor of my tent.

“Yeah, I will be meeting him tomorrow. We have something we had to do in the Ziyou Shelter.” I told them. “And even though he’s still on the Spirit Realm, I’ll make sure to bring him over to our side no matter what. He will be a great asset to the Shelter.”

After saying that, I casually lie down on my bed and turned over to the far side of it, gesturing that I will be taking my rest. Lin Xian, Yu Sying, and Yu Yan immediately got what I meant and they silently excused themselves from my tent.

Finally, some peace.

… Still, I wonder why that young man has a great resemblance to our former Sect Master, Tang Yongrui. Well, there’s no use thinking about it. I’ll just ask him when the time comes.

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