WT 21 - Why don't you accept me as your Master?

 

Wan Ting does now know where the carriage was heading, as her kidnappers were watching her like a hawk from every corner of the carriage. There was no chance for her to look out from the windowless carriage. But she knew they were out of the crowded areas. The further the carriage was from the bustling capital, the colder Wan Ting felt.

 

Fear was not something she could control.

 

The book had listed a few ways to use the Flame Spirit, but it was mostly based on the situation where its host was a flower. 

 

Generally, a Flame Spirit could never grow inside a living human because the human mind was strong and could easily block the young Flame Spirit from invading the body. When the Flame Spirit matured, it will no longer need a physical body to live in. Their matured self was also a very powerful intelligent entity that knew how to disguise and act like humans, living among them without others knowing.  

 

How a Flame Spirit could die or control it was also written in the book, which would also work on the matured Flame Spirit to a little extent. 

 

But the book had never mentioned a Flame Spirit successfully merging with a human, and Wan Ting had no idea what the evil sect wanted to do with her. However, it was a high possibility that she would be killed to have the Flame Spirit removed from her body if she could not be controlled. 

 

To say she was not frightened when there were no words written about the fate of the flowers that hosted the Flame Spirit would have ended up when it matured was false. But after three years with the Flame Spirit inside her without any signs of decline in health, her worry was easily forgotten.

 

Each Flame Spirit’s years to reach maturity was different, but the minimum years needed was more than fifty years. Wan Ting hoped she would die naturally then and did not get to experience her fate when the Flame Spirit inside her finally matured. 

 

She was told to get off the carriage, which had stopped before a tea house that was void of customers. Letting her follow them without covering her eyes and ears gave Wan Ting an idea of her fate after they were done with her. Even if she had survived from whatever they had done to her, she would still be killed. 

 

Discreetly eying over her shoulder, she only saw the carriage which she had exited, with no other carriages. 

 

Where had they brought her parents? 

 

With her eyes wandering around, she would always meet one masked man’s eyes no matter where her eyes went. They were completely on guard against her, in case she made an escape. She saw the owner of this tea house being friendly to the masked men and her hope of having the owner to help her instantly died out.

 

Her pace was slow as if her legs were heavy, obviously resisting even if she was following the masked men up the stairs of the ordinary tea house. She could see the business had been gone on for several years as the building was quite run down.

 

Was this tea shop one of the evil sect's hideouts?

 

“Move quicker!” Impatient with her speed, someone pushed her from behind and into a room the masked man she was following had entered. Before she could gain her bearing, someone else pulled her wrist with a strong, rough grip and forcefully tossed her in a direction. 

 

Wan Ting had not seen even a quarter of the room when she felt a strange feeling of being sucked away and quickly found herself in a different place. The abrupt transport had her suffer nausea which she managed to alleviate by patting her chest.

 

Brushing the stain on her dress from the rough falling, she carefully eyed her new surroundings. It was land without sun, with only bright lamps hanging on the dry black trees similar to the picture on the masks worn by her kidnapper. The light created terrifying shadows of the branches without any leaves.

 

This place looked like someone's nightmare.

 

Sensing the arrivals of other masked men, Wan Ting knew that she could never escape now. She does not know where this place was and how far it was from Guilin Capital.

 

Hiding her trembling hands under her wide sleeves, she forced herself to look unruffled as she followed the masked men with the same turtle-like speed. But this time, they no longer tolerate her actions and hit her whenever she slows down. They treated her like a slave whose life was in their mercy. She tried to withstand the pain as much as she could to buy herself more time, with her last chance to survive was now in Bao Hai's escape.

 

The masked men had removed their mask, no longer afraid of their identity being known and used against them. Some have ordinary faces or kind expressions, but their eyes were all the same, staring at her cruelly as they gauge her pain tolerance and slowly increase it until she submits to them completely.

 

Wan Ting knew she would not last long. Please save me, Prince Heng!

 

Heng Zhen Gan had waited for a long time for Owner Yu to finally appear with answers.

 

"We only have today to save Miss Wan, or we will not be able to save her in time."

 

Heng Zhen Gan naturally has no problem with that. "How many of your people will you bring along?"

 

"All."

 

"I shall bring all my men too," Heng Zhen Gan promptly decided. 

 

"Your guards may be trained, but they will still be weaker than the trained cultivators."

 

"They will still be useful."

 

As his friend had already said, even after knowing the cons, Owner Yu will not say more. 

 

"Can I follow along? There's someone I want to rescue as well," Bao Hai asked, who had surprisingly left Shiba alone after he revealed the location. Her gaze automatically went to Owner Yu, labeling him as the decision-maker of the group. 

 

Not finding it a problem, Owner Yu agreed. "Alright, but don't go anywhere alone, or we will leave you behind."

 

They were going to Shadow Tree Sect to rescue Wan Ting and they had to leave quickly, else they would give their enemy time to gather strength in their own compound.

 

"We are in a hurry, so we shall travel by cultivator’s means." Owner Yu took out a large immortal boat that could fly very quickly with a wave of his hand. 

 

The boat does not look like it, but it could contain everyone in it. They flew to where Shiba had said Wan Ting would be. A disciple had thoughtfully drawn an invincible array on the flying boat to avoid shocking the ordinary people. 

 

"Owner Yu, do you have Energy Gathering pills? Give them to Bao Hai," Heng Zhen Gan said.

 

Bao Hai's eyes sparkled in delight as she accepted the jar full of Energy Gathering pills from Owner Yu that took it out without question. It was even more delightful when all of the pills were of good quality! Giving a sincere ‘thank you’, Bao Hai did not waste time and start eating the pills as if they were normal food.

 

"Oh? This young girl has the same constitution as me?" Elder Qing Shu quickly said the next sentence with sparkling eyes. "Young girl, why don't you accept me as your Master? I see that you have talent to cultivate the same path as mine."

 

"This elder, she is Miss Wan's maidservant," Prince Heng inserted himself before Elder Qing Shu could continue.

 

"How can being a servant be compared to a cultivator?" Elder Qing Shu exclaimed in disgust. "Unless that miss is unreasonable and won't let this talented girl free?"

 

"I don't intend to be a cultivator," Bao Hai answered. Although she had not been exposed much to the cultivation world, she had been disappointed with the human cultivators. The world was beautiful, but it was humans that corrupted it.

 

Compared between the cultivation world and the mortal world, she currently prefers the latter. She wanted to see what the mortal world has.

 

Besides, as a living pill, she could not follow the human cultivation path and needed to rely heavily on a refiner to get stronger. Between both parties was the need of trust, but Bao Hai could no longer trust any human easily. 

 

But Wan Ting seems like a good human to trust...

 

"That's the place." Owner Yu pointed at a slightly aged tea house below.

 

Bao Hai examined the tea house with narrow eyes. "There's a secret realm in it."

 

As someone that had lived in a secret realm, she was very familiar with its energy. Every secret realm contained different energy as it was imprinted with the owner's energy, but to maintain the realm, every realm would need strong nature energy. 

 

That was why they felt familiar with each other.

 

Owner Yu eyed Bao Hai in interest. "You have a rather strong sense. Can I count on you to lead us to the exact spot?"

 

"No problem," Bao Hai readily agreed. 

 

After the boat landed, Bao Hai was the first to step out, followed by Owner Yu. Beside him was Heng Zhen Gan and he purposely made eye contact with the latter.

 

With curved lips, Owner Yu mouthed. "Living pill?"

 

Heng Zhen Gan's lips curved as well. He had underestimated his friend's intelligence and sharp intuition. The only one he could trust to be able to retrieve the necessary ingredients to refine the living pill and to keep it a secret was Owner Yu. Just based on the ingredients, it should not be easy for another to even think of a living pill, yet Owner Yu did it. 

 

Owner Yu continued smiling as he raised his forefinger to his lips, saying he will keep it a secret.

 

Twenty years ago, Heng Zhen Gan had never thought that this serious-looking schoolmate would grow up with a playful personality.