Chapter 41: Spiral Thingies.

Two children, now both with a little more meat on their bones and ethereal power in their veins, were casually playing around in a forest filled with creatures more powerful than them.

The boy threw the ball that their master, or teacher, as the man preferred to be called, had given them for his sister to catch.

"Zhu, what do you think? Did he abandon us?"

"I don't know; he was a good person. I had never seen colors like his, but they were beautiful. I don't think he'd leave us alone here." The girl replied as she threw the ball back.

The boy hummed but didn't argue; he knew that while he couldn't understand what she was talking about, she'd never been wrong. "If you say so."

He threw the ball back, and they kept going until the girl broke the silence a few seconds later. "Anyway, he's a really weird person."

"Right?!" He exploded, as if he couldn't contain that comment anymore.

"And did you see how he just opened our profound entrances like it was nothing?" She continued.

"The spiral thingies? Yeah, that too!"

"You should call them by their proper name, Xue; words have power after all."

He looked at her weirdly. He was used to hearing his sister say weird stuff, but this time it was different. But the teacher called them spiral thingies as well!"

"When did he do that?" She asked, and she remembered no such thing.

"When you were cultivating, I asked him a bunch of questions," the boy replied with a smile. "I'm pretty sure he knows everything."

But that had to be something she felt the need to object to. "What do you mean? Nobody knows everything!"

"He said that as well," he replied, throwing the ball at his sister with a laugh. "You two really are similar!"

"How are we similar?" She said with a frown, "He's a cultivator of incredible power; the two of us are just orphans."

"We aren't just orphans anymore; we're his disciples!" He objected, but with the same smile on his face, he continued, "But I was talking about how you're both very smart, way smarter than me."

"Yeah, you're pretty dumb." She replied with a smirk and passed him the ball.

"Hey, only I can say that, not you!" He threw the ball back with full power, hitting her on the forehead and sending her to the ground. "No, Zhu!"

He threw himself at her and held her up with tears in his eyes. "Please don't die, Zhu!"

"I'm not hurt; you just surprised me!" She pushed him away, saying with a laugh, "You need to learn how to control your new strength; we're not normal people anymore."

"Yeah, I'm sorry." The boy replied as he looked down, ashamed.

She looked at him and chuckled. "You need to get your act together now, Xue; we're cultivators now, not kids."

But the teacher said that we'll always be kids to him!" He objected.

The girl looked at her brother, almost seeing the reverence the boy's eyes held for their master, and sighed. "Xue, don't you think it's weird how easy it was to be accepted by him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." she paused for a few seconds, struggling to find the words, "we applied to many sects; none of them accepted us; then you find a person on the streets who accepts both of us under his wing? It's suspicious, especially since he's so powerful that he can open all the profound entrances from other people; I didn't even think that was possible."

"Well, if you put it that way... But I think you're just overthinking it." Her brother replied firmly.

"Why do you say that?"

"You say that his colors give off a good feeling, right? I trust your eyes," he replied with a radiant smile, which displayed the full level of trust that the boy held for his sister's special ability. "And also, he had said from the beginning why he accepted my request."

The girl only remembered that ridiculous excuse that the teacher had given them; she didn't remember his telling them any motivation more compelling than "He asked, so I said yes." So she just tilted her head to the side with a questioning expression.

"You don't remember? Maybe I'm the smarter one." She hit him, "Ow!"

"I'm your sister; show some respect, boy!" She mocked me ironically with a chuckle.

"I'm the older one!"

"Yeah, yeah, you are," she replied, pacifying the boy by patting his head, displaying the full abilities of the older sister that she wasn't. "What were you saying?"

"Oh yeah, he accepted us because I asked him to." The boy replied, puffing his chest in pride at his monument's accomplishment, "There is no way that he wanted to trick me, since I'm the one that asked, and he also seemed reluctant to accept at the start; he's a good person."

"He was reluctant." That had been the first time she heard of this particular part, so it wasn't as easy as she was led to believe. "What did you do to make him change his mind?"

"Nothing; he looked at me and changed his mind on his own," the boy replied before displaying a mischievous smile. "Maybe he discovered my incredible talent that the other sects didn't see!"

She chuckled at her brother's antics before looking at him with a warm gaze. "Maybe we can just ask him."

"He's never been reluctant to answer my questions, so I bet it will be alright!"

"Yeah, as long as we never give up, right?" She said softly, taking the boy into a hug, which he reciprocated with enthusiasm.

He broke off the hug a few seconds later, only when the rune on his forehead, something that painted a quite funny sight, started vibrating and communicating directly to his mind, "Something is coming."

His gaze sharpened, his breathing slowed down, and he crouched low, sprinting with a stealthy step to the hiding spot that he had prepared in the event of any problems coming in their direction.

The girl almost marveled at finally seeing her brother's ability in action after so long, something that he had honed during years of being a street rat, but she knew better than to not follow his example.

Her skills were sloppier, but good enough to not be a complete liability.

She felt his presence lowering dramatically; it was still there, but it was as conspicuous as that of the smallest and least-threatening of animals.

Then it hit her nose—the stench of blood, something she was eerily familiar with—the grating smell of iron and death.

Her heart began to palpitate; she knew that if their teacher was wrong and there were indeed any profound beasts in the nearby area, they would face very dire circumstances.

She held the strange pill that the man had given them and kept it ready for any sign of hostile activity, while at the same time motioning to her brother to do the same.

"Ugh, I really need a bath." Said one deep and strong masculine voice, displaying the power of the owner, but even more evidently than that, his tiredness.

"Yeah, I would love a bath as well; this princess will allow you to prepare one for her." She replied with a haughty, feminine voice.

They were both intimately familiar; the first one was at least, the second one less.

She breathed a sigh of relief and came out of her hiding spot.

"I thought princesses weren't perfect and didn't sweat; how come you need a bath?" replied in the first voice with a slight mockery.

"I never said that I needed one, only that I'd love one!" The feminine one replied, dropping her shtick of referring to herself as a princess.

The moment the duo came into view of the children, the tension that had left them came back with a vengeance, all because of how their teacher was tinted.

Red, fresh blood still dripped from his clothes.

The two hastily bowed, lower than usual, and so they replied simultaneously, "Welcome back, Teacher."

"Hey kids, stand up already. I hope everything went well. I'll be taking a bath, and then we'll be on our way, alright?" The man asked, his voice lower than usual.

They both slowly stood from their bowing positions, only to see that the bad-smelling and absolutely terrifying-looking man had left them behind to go between the trees.

He was probably going to take out his wooden bathtub from whatever weird spatial artifact he held—not that the girl had ever seen him holding one or using one, but it was the only possibility that she could think of.

They had all enjoyed the baths that the man had been very fond of; hot baths soothed the soul, as he had said, and she could see why after feeling them as well.

Bathing had been very low on her list of priorities back when she and her brother struggled to even find food to survive on, but now that she had plenty of food and the possibility to bathe at will, there was no way she'd ever want to go back to her old life.

But the two kids weren't the only ones looking at the bloodied back; there was also the girl that she couldn't see, the only one her ability hadn't worked on since she had memories.

Jasmine was the master of her master, her grandmaster, and probably the being that she was most afraid of.

The girl, who looked barely older than the siblings, sighed deeply, displaying many emotions; most of them were something that the girl was unable to read because all of them were displayed by a being of power far superior to hers.

She didn't dare try to empathize with such a being.

But her brother didn't have any such reservations and directly asked the girl, "Grand Master, what happened to the teacher?"

Zhu looked at her brother as if he were dumb, which he was, but as if he were even dumber than she thought.

But the Grand Master hadn't minded in the least, so while the youngest girl was still terrified of any possible reaction that the supremely powerful being might have, the being had no reservation to answer, "He's too soft; that's what happened."

"What do you mean by that, Grand Master?" The boy asked politely, somehow growing even more confused by what was meant to be an answer.

After all, the person who had just gotten back to camp covered in what was probably the blood of his enemies was soft.

"Yes, the dragon he talked about was injured, fatally so," the older girl replied, still looking at the direction their teacher had disappeared in, as if her gaze could penetrate any distance. "My disciple tried his best to save its life, but he failed; the injury was too deep; the beast's heart had almost collapsed; it was too late to do anything by the time we got there."

The two children's eyes widened in understanding, but it was the girl that received the greater understanding.

'That was why his color was so gray.' She thought to herself.

But the Grand Master wasn't done, so she listened. "He took it personally; he sees it as his own personal failure; he couldn't save another life because he wasn't good enough."

The older girl's eyes glared at the two children, blood draining from their faces from the sheer pressure her very existence caused when she focused on them. "I'm telling the two of you only because that's what he would want; he wants the two of you to learn from his actions by example, so you better learn well."

She then disappeared into nothingness; she might have truly disappeared or she might be moving faster than the two children could see; either case didn't make a difference to them.

Her words hit them both, plunging them in deep thought for the next few minutes.

But that was until their teacher finally came back and said, "Who wants to take a bath next?"

His color was still gray, but now it was brighter.

gimme them stones now.

Pls.

Love all of you.

ps. this was tomorrow's chapter, but i fucked up and put it out early, enjoy anyway.