16 Ruan Yanxi

White coldly gazed at the seal in front of him. It absolutely reeked with Seir's power. He had prepared to dig around for a while before he could pull Seir out of whatever hole it had burrowed itself into. But to confront her work this early… heh, it seemed to be quite busy.

White sunk his hold over the seal and began to pull it apart. The man's sea of consciousness began to shake. White quickly ceased his attempt. The seal seemed to be intertwined too much with the man's consciousness. If he used force to break the seal, it would no doubt ruin the man's psyche.

'How troublesome,' White thought. There were questions the man needed to answer before he could die. Then the best choice at the moment was to suppress the seal and slowly unwound it bit by bit. Unfortunately, this would mean that he would be linked with the man until the seal was completely gone. White would definitely make Seir pay for the hassle he had to go through.

White released his power and suppressed the array by pinching one of the key points of the array. The seal immediately lost its shine. Without the seal's influence, the consciousness began to wake up. White found himself standing on top of calm water. In front of him was a small island where a small figure was crouching. White approached the child, his footsteps caused ripples upon the still water.

The child was crouching in front of a tree sapling. His long dark hair covered the child's face. White joined the child and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Waiting," the child reply.

"For what?"

"… I don't know."

"Hmm… well I'm also waiting."

"For what?" The child turned to look at him with curious dark eyes.

"I don't know," White smirked.

The child puffed his cheeks.

White laughed and squished the child's cheek. "You know, maybe all of us are waiting… waiting for a dream that may never come true."

The child could only blink in confusion.

White smiled and left the sea of consciousness. When he opened his eyes he found that there were only Nea and Brianna in the room.

"Finally!" Nea said. "You've been like that for hours! Aren't your muscles sore to be that still?"

"Heh, I'm not as frail as humans."

"So will he wake up?" Brianna asked.

"Should be," White said. "The man is another poor soul that Seir played with. There is a seal placed on him which suppressed his consciousness."

"The situation is more dire than we thought then," Brianna said, crossing her arms.

"The man won't turn into another monster, right?" Nea asked, eyeing the man suspiciously as if expecting the man to grow wings and flew through the roof.

"No, I found no seed in him luckily," White said. "Do you want me to wake him up?" Without waiting for an answer, White snapped his fingers and the man's eyes opened.

"What did you do to him? How did he wake up just like that?" Nea turned her suspicious eyes to White.

"The seal sticks too tightly for me to forcibly remove it. So my second option is to continuously suppress it with my power, hence I can influence this man."

"You turned him into a puppet?!"

White pouted. "Don't be ridiculous. I will never do such an underhanded move. I can only give slight suggestion when he's not fully conscious."

The man stared at them blankly. He did not blink nor move.

Nea looked at the man and then at White. "Uh-huh."

"Hey, don't look at me like that. He'll be fine in a moment. Just give him some time to collect his thoughts like computers when it just powered up."

"Comp-what?"

"Nothing important. Look, he's more lucid now."

The man was frowning. His eyes shifted between the three strangers in the room. "Who are you?"

"Greetings. My team and I found you unconscious in the wild. Can you please tell us what happened?"

"Unconscious?" The man frowned even deeper. "… I can't seem to remember."

White interrupted, "Oops, oh, I forgot to mention. The seal may affect his memory so it is highly likely that he is amnesiac."

Brianna asked, "That won't do. Will he regain them?"

"If the seal is completely removed."

Brianna looked at the man. "Do you remember anything?"

"Not much. I do remember my name… my name is… Ruan Yanxi."

Brianna's eyes widened. "Ruan…"

"Do you know me?" Ruan Yanxi asked.

"No, but the name seems familiar," Brianna said. "Unfortunately I cannot remember where I have heard it." Brianna turned to Nea. "Go and asked for a meal and a bath for our guest."

"Why me?" Nea grumbled but still did as she was told.

"One of my men is looking for a new set of clothes for you," Brianna said to Ruan Yanxi. "I don't think your current garments can be salvaged."

Ruan Yanxi said, "I see, thank you for your consideration."

"It is not an issue. We will leave you to rest. You can call me if you need anything else, my name is Brianna."

With that, they left the room. White followed Brianna a few steps behind. When the room was far enough and with no one near, White pipped up, "You know him."

"I know of him," Brianna said. "Or at least his surname. Ruan is the royal surname of Da Yue."

"I didn't expect you to be so forward."

"It is not a secret. If one pays enough attention to mortal politics it is not hard to know it. Still, that doesn't mean he must be part of the royal family."

"But it is highly likely considering his mannerism and appearance. Even without his memory, his body still remembers how it used to act."

Brianna sighed. "This mission is getting more complicated."

"Nothing ever comes easy when dealing with ancient beasts."

"We cannot delay much longer. We must meet with Han Bingde as soon as possible. The council will want to know about this issue. This may become the largest crisis in a millennium."