Yuanchen cracked an eye open and immediately winced as pain flooded throughout his body and the light blinded his eyes.
Light? He quickly sprang up and missed Lia's forehead by an inch; he looked around, waiting for his eyes to adjust, and he saw that the world was not dark anymore but the sun was peeking from the distance.
< Core Damaged >
< Implants Condition: Unstable [Failed Synch] >
Seeing the warnings about the system flowing throughout his body — Yuanchen's memories came back, and he settled back to where he had laid his head before he woke up. His eyes focused on what was shadowing his face after he went back down, and they widened.
"Oh, sorry," Yuanchen apologized as he quickly vacated Lia's lap.
Lia smiled. "It's okay, plus you have been asleep too long and on the sand, so I thought why not make you comfortable?"
Damon jumped on Yuanchen's back and grinned. "Big brother was so cool! I heard from sister how you fought a bad guy and won — that's so cool."
Yuanchen chuckled at his child-like amusement and turned to Lia; he reached into his torn robes and retrieved the sphere she had when she collapsed a day ago. "What is this?"
Lia knew the jig was up and sighed. "I'm sure the people who came before Yakeen gave you a hint about it, but it's a powerful tool that can cause unimaginable catastrophe when fully built."
Yuanchen nodded — that level of information he knew from the three assassins he had killed; he wanted to know more about it. "Why do you have this?"
"Someone hired me. I take odd jobs to support me and my brother, and I'm a good thief. So I was called to ambush a shipment that was to deliver that."
"I heard one of the Red Clad Sect assassins say that you stole it from them? That shipment was theirs?"
Lia nodded in agreement.
Yuanchen's shoulders slightly slumped, and he placed his finger on his chin; at the very least, she was honest and upfront with everything up to that point — he looked her in the eye. "How much is it worth?"
Lia perked her lip a bit and stared questioningly at Yuanchen. "Around 400,000,000 Cronucs, but due to the contract, I have to deliver it and I might get paid less than 5% of the total amount."
Yuanchen said nothing and got up, dusting his clothes. "Well, let's go, shall we? We're a couple of hours away from the Abyssal region, and I don't know the next place, so you'll have to guide me."
Damon grinned and let out a happy squeal. "We're going on an adventure!"
Lia, seeing the look both males had, let out a hearty laugh and got up. "Okay, the next region is Ducathet. I haven't been there in a while, but I have a friend there. You need a bath and a fresh change of clothes — those ones stink."
"Hey! I don't stink, you know!" Yuanchen complained, and Lia just continued laughing.
---
DUCATHET
12:00 PM
As the sun reached the crown of the sky, the trio made it to the gates of Ducathet and were in a long queue with merchants and visitors alike.
Yuanchen observed the large walls surrounding the region and couldn't help but be amazed; the walls were almost as big as the ones in his Sect — and given their topographic location and resources, the level of resourcefulness to create a fortress of this magnitude was outstanding.
They approached the gate, and the guards stationed there stopped them.
"Halt. State your names and purpose here."
"My name is Croftwell Ciaxin, and this is my husband and child, Damon and Yuki," Lia said as she handed the guards the digital identification cards she had on her.
The guards looked at the cards and quickly ran a scan through them before returning the cards to Lia and giving them permission to enter through the gate.
Yuanchen's face was still flushed red when they set foot into the region — Lia noticed this and smirked. The powerful man walking behind her was flustered over the comment? Her eyes curved up as she rejoiced and turned around so she was facing Yuanchen.
"I didn't know you could get flustered!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together.
Damon laughed; even though he was only five, he could understand adult speech, having grown up around cussing adults where he and his sister lived.
Yuanchen looked to the side and let out a small tsk in embarrassment. "You said I'm your husband — who wouldn't be flustered by that?"
Lia's smirk grew even bigger. "Well, want to be my actual husband?"
Yuanchen froze mid-step, his jaw open and his eyes wide. "What..."
Lia burst out laughing at the stupefied look on Yuanchen's face. "Relax, I'm just kidding. I'm still too young to be marri—"
She couldn't finish her speech when she collided with something heavy and fell forward; Yuanchen, quick on his feet, stretched his hand to catch her and helped her to her feet, much to Lia's flustering.
"Hey punk, you ruined my perfect armor. How am I supposed to fight trash beasts now?" The thing Lia collided with spoke as it turned around and revealed a man who towered over them by a considerable margin, with red hair and feral eyes.
The commotion led the vendors and patrons there to focus on the group facing the red-haired man; some of the bystanders shot looks of pity toward Yuanchen and his group.
Yuanchen took note of the looks and stared at the tall man — wondering what could make the people look at them that way.
Lia took the initiative and offered a bow. "I'm sorry, I was not looking where I was going."
The man's eyes narrowed and he huffed like a pig. "Sorry is not going to replace my armor."
"I know but..." Lia's speech was cut short when she was startled by a large claymore weapon being slammed on the ground.
The man glared daggers at Lia. "I don't care about your excuses. How do you intend to repay me? Or are you going to use your body?"
Yuanchen placed a hand on the scared Lia's shoulder and stepped in between them — during the exchange he had been observing the supposedly damaged armor, and it did not have any signs of damage anywhere on it.
"Look, we don't want trouble, so why not take this and let us be on our way?" Yuanchen reached into his robes, took out the sphere he had made, and handed it to the man.
The man slapped the item out of Yuanchen's hands and grabbed him by the collar, lifting Yuanchen from the ground. "Do you know who I am? I'm Redgrave, the man whose Neuro-Qi shook the world yesterday. I ain't going to accept a measly toy you made that's worthless."
Yuanchen burst out laughing; the man standing before him tried to take what the person in him did as his own feats of strength? That was comical. After that good laugh, Yuanchen composed himself and wiped the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "My apologies for laughing, but you are weak!"
His statement angered the man, who threw him into a food cart. "Weak? I'll show you weak, punk." The man grabbed his claymore and held it in both hands — the weapon vibrated with Neuro-Qi and started to increase in size around the bladed end.
Yuanchen coughed as he got up from the food cart and signaled Lia to stop in her tracks; he winced from the pain that shot through his shoulder and staggered forward a bit. "Well, you exceeded my expectations, but you are nothing I haven't fought before." Yuanchen smirked and settled into a stance — the Palming Lotus stance.
< Warning: Overuse of damaged implants would lead to disaster >
< Chances of them being unrepairable are 96% >
*Shut up, will you?* Yuanchen responded to the warnings flashing up in his eyes. He couldn't expect to win this fight without using what Shengyuan gave him.
In that moment, it hit him; ever since he arrived in Sunderfall, he had been complacent on Shengyuan.
Yuanchen shook his head and beckoned for the man to charge at him — the man's face turned pink at the show of disrespect and he charged at Yuanchen, his claymore raised above his head as he swung down in an arc. Yuanchen thrust his hand forward despite the warnings his body was giving him.
"Enough, you two!" A shadow landed between them and kicked away Yuanchen's hand, sending the palm into the air and causing the Lotus Palm technique to shoot into the sky while the claymore was blocked by a sword.
As the dust settled, Yuanchen stood there, shocked.
She had blocked their attack.