"Regret... in this world, only one person managed to reach the end without any..." Chen Wei sighs melancholically as he inspects his aperture to see a Gu that takes the form of a fetus in the early weeks of gestation, which would be unknown to anyone in the world except him because this is the Rank 2 BloodSoul Baby Gu, one of his greatest secrets.

"And who am I compared to him..." This small Gu, now in his eyes, is his greatest source of regret overflowing his heart, but there's nothing he can do now because even though there are methods to go back in time in this world, he doesn't believe these methods fell into his hands.

"It's all right, I'm here..." While murmuring these words softly, he feels a loving hand stroking his hair gently, and even without opening his eyes, he knows it's Wang Mei, as he's currently resting his head in her lap.

"Thank you, Mei'er." He remains lying with his head in her lap, even though he's not emotionally debilitated needing her care; he's still willing to accept her tender care, especially when she starts worrying too much about him if he simply doesn't show her how he feels because of Chen Ming's death.

Of course, Chen Wei is not a psychopath without emotions or someone who has learned to ignore all his own feelings for Eternal Life, so it's obvious that Chen Ming's brutal death in front of his eyes had a great effect on his psyche momentarily.

And why wouldn't it, as Chen Ming is the brother he knows and has been a companion for more than ten years, during which, in the last few months, he has been not only a life companion like a brother but also a battle companion as the leader of his team.

And mainly, what was most difficult for Chen Wei was facing and consoling his mother and sister who cried and lamented endlessly when they saw Chen Ming's coffin being buried in the ground just over a week ago.

In fact, Chen Wei's emotions throughout this time can be described with two words: hatred and regret, both of which burned intensely in his heart the moment he regained consciousness while being healed by healing Gu Masters from the clan who came to his rescue after Queek saved his life.

At that moment, it took all the self-control he had in his body to prevent himself from returning to the front lines of the war to seek Piercer of the Heavens and try to kill him to avenge Chen Ming's death, which he knows could be an act of suicide due to both his physical and psychological state.

But shortly after calming down, he simply began to feel a great emptiness inside, which was quickly filled with regret for having the BloodSoul Baby Gu not with him, as at that moment it was locked inside his laboratory to prevent it from being stolen by a Theft path Gu Master during his fight.

This fear of Chen Wei's was not unfounded since at this moment in which he lives, at least from what he saw on Longhua Shan Mountain and the stories he heard, the Theft Path is considerably common among the mortal world, with occurrences of Gu Masters having their Gu stolen by people disguised as mortals or bandits who lurked in ambushes being something common to hear.

But now looking back, this decision of his was a foolish one. In fact, the more he thinks, even without having a notion of what would happen and the giant life risk he would run, keeping the BloodSoul Baby Gu doesn't seem to make sense or the sensible action it seemed at the time.

And in fact, now that he looks at many of the events that occurred in this battle, many should not have happened, such as Chen Ming advancing and joining the battle against Piercer of the Heavens, which even surprised the old Po Nio who commanded the battle.

This comes from a fact that Chen Wei was not aware of at the time, but Chen Wang expressly ordered Chen Ming to retreat and come to safety since it was suspected that the Feng Zhi clan might try to kill both him and Chen Wei.

But the always disciplined and obedient Chen Ming, after a thought process that is a mystery to anyone but himself, decided to still advance to the front lines disobeying Chen Wang's orders, which ultimately would lead to his death and Chen Wei's near-death.

And even looking at the aspect of the battle, it was surrounded by coincidences, with the greatest being when the water jet that should have put Piercer of the Heavens in a situation of near death took him exactly to the location he needed to activate his trap.

And finally, there's Chen Wei's greatest confirmation that all these occurrences cannot be just mere coincidences one after the other, as it could also happen in earth. This confirmation is - Red Relic Gu.

This Red Relic he speaks of is less rare than the Silver Relic used by Piercer of the Heavens, but it is still a very rare Gu and now it is floating on the surface of his aperture calmly while waiting to be used by Chen Wei at any moment.

Yes, that's right, the rare and almost impossible to find Red Relic Gu that was only seen a few times on Longhua Shan Mountain after the war has now appeared coincidentally shortly after Chen Ming's death, falling into the hands of Chen Wei.

"Heaven's Will..." Wang Mei looks curiously at Chen Wei, who occasionally murmurs random things.

"Hmm... he doesn't even try to disguise his plans... but what can I do about it?" This part he doesn't say out loud and keeps it only in his head, but after a little over a week of reflection and thoughts about what happened, he's sure that Heaven's Will has a hand in this.

Of course, Chen Wei has considered that this may only be his way of removing the responsibility for his brother's death from his own shoulders, justifying that he didn't take the BloodSoul Baby Gu not because of his error amid paranoia but because Heaven's Will manipulated his thoughts to do so.

And this was a great suspicion of Chen Wei's until three days ago when his grandfather called him to his office, and after having a conversation about Chen Wei's mental state, he was given by Chen Wang this Red Relic Gu, which according to him was "coincidentally" found by a mortal child while playing, whose parents as servants of the Chen mansion recognized as a Gu and brought it to Chen Wang.

This was the last confirmation Chen Wei needed at that moment, and then with his grandfather's order that he would be removed from the battlefield for a period of eight months during which his grandfather ordered him to cultivate incessantly like a frenzied maniac.

And he accepted this order wholeheartedly because using his primeval essence of upper stage while he's still in the middle will allow him to quickly reach the Rank 2 upper stage and use the Red Relic Gu, which will make him a Rank 2 Peak Stage Gu Master automatically, and after that, it would be an easy matter to advance to Rank 3 with his talent and his grandfather's help.

It's at this moment that he will finally be able to become a great force in the clan's actions and decisions, especially now that the war is reaching its almost total scale with several elders entering the battlefield and probably until the moment he reaches rank 3, everyone except the clan leaders will be fighting.

And at this moment, the value of a possible Rank 3 surpasses the clan's internal disputes because even the great political rivals of Chen Wang,I mourn Chen Ming's death, in a way, because even with their rivalry, they do not see as a gain that a possible Rank 3 of the He An clan has died like this just before the moment of greatest intensity of the war.

Chen Wei can guess this because no elder was against his order for Chen Ming to retreat immediately nor criticized Chen Wang and him for taking these eight months for Chen Wei to try to reach Rank 3, which is already known information for the elders that this is his goal.

This union mentality of the He An clan even with internal rivalries comes from a fact whose outcome is worse if they lose an internal political war within the clan they could lose part of their influence, wealth, and prestige, which would definitely be bad in their eyes.

But if they lose this war, they would not only lose all of this but also their lives, and their children would become slaves made to serve another clan, and their wives and daughters would become sex slaves destined to serve the lustful and lecherous desires of their enemies, so it's obvious which of these options they will prefer.

Even the clan leader, who never liked Wang Mei and Chen Wei's marriage one bit, now has this situation in a better light since at least being married to an extremely young clan elder who can become a future Rank 4 is great for the security of his daughter besides she's happy with the whole thing even though the clan leader isn't.

Well, It's not like when Wang Mei starts doing missions after the end of the academy for her, she will go on dangerous missions and she will always be accompanied by a clan elder to ensure her safety against any danger.

"Ah... strength is for this world what money was to mine..." This is the fundamental rule of this world that Chen Wei has long accepted and embraced.

"Hmm, what are you murmuring so much?" Chen Wei feels two fingers poking his cheek as he imagines Wang Mei must be feeling quite curious about what he's murmuring about.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about how lucky I am to have such a cute and loving wife..." Despite not opening his eyes, he imagines he must be blushing in this situation "... and how I hope our marriage comes soon."

"I hope it comes soon too..." Wang Mei murmurs softly so Chen Wei doesn't hear before she removes his head from her lap and gets up to leave.

"Well, I have to go now... my father wants me to cultivate a lot so I don't have much time, bye." She makes her way to the door quickly hiding her flushed face.

"Wait, Mei'er, what did you say before?" After seeing that she was about to leave, Chen Wei opens his eyes as he sits on the sofa where they were both before.

"Hmph, that's your punishment for doing the same to me." Chen Wei finds himself dumbfounded as she opens the door and quickly leaves, but he also quickly shifts his attention to something else.

"Heaven's Will, if this is the path you will make me tread, so be it... I will seize every opportunity and difficulty you send to strengthen myself... and little by little, I will surpass from being a insignificant mortal... until the moment I make every fiber of your being tremble before me!" This is a declaration he makes only to himself in his mind as a form of conviction that no one else but him needs to hear.