Made A Fool

Lotus didn't stop Azul from returning to his office, also called the VIP room. However, her concern grew when she noticed watched noticed the deranged look on Azul's face just as he was returning to his office. She frowned and picked up her phone. She quickly went to her messages and began messaging.

"Who are you messaging to?"

Lotus looked up and saw that it was her friend. She quickly scribbled onto a piece of paper before returning her texting. Her Octavinelle friend looked at the paper before his eyes widen in bewilderment, "Seriously?"

He looked to her in doubt, but she was busy sending the message before he noticed something and pointed out hesitantly, "You're not very good at texting, are you?"

Lotus grumbled, "I-I'll get better... after a while..."

Her friend huffed a small laugh after finally knowing that, at least, she was human too in a sense. Then, he quickly hurried off to prepare before noticing Azul rushing out of the room confirming Lotus's suspicions as he hurried away.

She, then, hurried after Azul who was already dashing quickly out of the room. Hearing her footsteps, he turned his head just as Lotus shouted and shot a wave of energy straight at him as it entered his body, "Azul!"

"Apologies! I don't have the time right now to speak with you!" He blurted out after snapping out of his bewilderment and hurried faster out of the room.

Lotus was about to hurry forward when she was pulled back by a strange energy. She frowned and pulled back in confusion before looking around curiously. She then noticed a strange air in the halls and raised a brow.

So that man wasn't the only one who knew of arrays...

"To think that you would come here himself."

It was annoying being unable to find where the man was, but Lotus didn't mind this right now. What was more important was how the man could tell it was her out of everyone here. That's when she realized the reason and frowned, "Wh-Who's there?"

The man in brown appeared before her from around the corner as he sneered, "You should've known that there would be others coming after you."

Lotus looked to him in confusion, "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"Ha... Of course, you wouldn't know who I am." The man smiled and stretched out his hand, "I'm here to bring you back to our world. The world you really came from where everyone are cultivators. Not some monsters."

"Cultivators?" Lotus raised a brow, "Another world?"

The man heaved a sigh and responded, "Of course you don't understand what's going on... Let me tell you something interesting. You probably don't know this, but your parents had to throw you into this world as an infant because you were too young to survive in our world and people were coming after your life. So, they sent you in here with some servants at first, but who would've thought that those servants would betray them and send you to an orphanage. However, now they want you back, not because they need you, but your relatives want to marry you off... little girl."

Her eyes widen in surprise as he chuckled, "You want to know why I know who you are, right?"

He pulled out a jade tablet to which Lotus felt a strange draw to and said softly, "This is a soul jade. Your parents made this for you when you were just born so they could find your whereabouts. However, they passed before they could do instigate a search party for you leaving the tablet to your grandparents. However, they aren't so nice. If you go back to them, they'll marry you off as a concubine to a smaller family for your cousin. If you leave with me, I'll take you in as my disciple and teach you cultivation properly. You are a Soul Wandering cultivator, aren't you? Under me, I can help you breakthrough to Ensoulment in a year."

"Ensoulment...?" She raised a brow in confusion.

"That's right." The man nodded, "Ensoulment is the second stage after Soul Wandering. Our world is where the strongest survive and the weak grovel on the ground, however, under me, there is nothing to fear. I can even help you reach Sage Diety, which is levels higher than Ensoulment."

Lotus raised a brow in confusion, "But... I want to stay here..."

The man frowned, "If you stay here more people will come after you."

Lotus tilted her head innocently, "But, you have this soul jade stuff, so I'll be fine if it's with you, right? Then, I won't have to worry about other people finding me and mister is very generous too offering to take me in as a disciple while protecting my soul jade all this time..."

The man heard her words and could hardly think up of anything more convincing before he frowned, "You can't decide whether you want to stay or not, because, if you do, they would cause chaos in this world while you're here just to hunt you down."

"Am I that special?"

The man scowled, "So much questions. You should be careful of what you ask or it would cost you your life in the future, child."

"But, I don't want to leave..." Lotus repeated nervously with worry.

The man's face no longer hold the trace of calm as he scowled, "You will come with me whether you choose to or not! I will not tolerate any defiance! If you don't, I'll break this jade right here and now!"

Waving the jade plate in his hand, the man pointed at her and sneered, "Just wait and see! Once I break this jade, you will die along with it because your life is tied to this Soul Jade!"

"What?!" Her eyes widen in bewilderment, "But, why didn't you say that sooner?"

Feeling better about himself now, the man huffed in dismissal, "Who would want to teach such a nosy girl such as yourself? You even went ahead and dressed up as a man. No doubt, you would have no proper future as a woman."

Hearing this, Lotus couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Startled, the man was baffled by her unusual behavior. Wasn't she in despair only a few seconds ago?!

Lotus laughed so hard that tears came out of her eyes, she was running out of breath, and was hugging her stomach painfully and... and...

Her chest...

Had grown colder.

Finally, she wiped away a tear and sneered at him, "You... are a fool..."

Suddenly, the man felt a strike on his body just as he was about to make a move, but he found himself froze in place and the jade plate had softly slipped out of his hands. He watched in horror as the plate drop to the ground.

However, before it could, a flash of blue shimmered past him and the barrier around Lotus vanished as he felt the energy around them grow tense. The air around them grew thicker as they could no longer hear what was going on outside. It was then that the man realized that he had fallen into a trap dug around his own!

The blue shimmering light fluttered over to her and softly dropped the template into her hands. As she looked onto the Soul Jade, it was only then that he noticed how she had revealed her real appearance. Her eyes shimmered a beautiful purple and gold in a mysterious way. Skin was soft like that of peach and her cheeks slightly red from all that laughing like that of the lycoris flowers embroidered on her black dress and stockings as black as a moonless dead night itself. However, the most striking feature away from her family's signature eyes...

Was her hair that was a bright crimson red with gold streaks.

Under the darkness of the interior of the barrier and the blue butterflies that began to turn into a sheen of white light, her ponytail hair decorated with the headband of red lycoris was similar to that of a wild fire. The bell sounded as she smirked upon the writing on the nameplate, "So... This is my real name... Who would've thought..."

She sneered wider and securely put away her nameplate into her ring, "that I would retrieve it back so soon..."

His heart sunk.

She knew!

Suddenly, everything that he said came back to him like a boulder as he realized that he made a fool of himself!

He became so angry that he spat out blood and cursed under his breath. He wanted to scream at her now that he knew everything, but, the moment those piercing purple and gold shimmering eyes that seemed to become more radiant in the darkness rested on him, he couldn't move an inch as a shudder ran down on him. She walked up to him as her barefoot seemed to hardly land on the cold floor. She sneered walked over to him with a wide smirk, "I suppose I do have to thank you for fetching back my soul jade..."

The man scowled, "Go ahead and try to send me to hell! I'll come back and kill you!"

Lotus looked at him deadpanned, "Let me tell you this. It's not that I don't want to send you to hell, but that, even if I do send you there, not even hell nor reincarnation cycle want anything to do with you. Then, I'll have to burn you away with my flames again and I don't want to see your ugly mug more than the number of fingers on your hand. Hm... What to do with you..."

Lotus thought for a bit before she shrugged with a sigh and pulled out a vial as she poured it over the man's head with an arrogant manner, "Since all you do is sit around while other people are working, I'll let you have a leisure time to be Little Jun's playmate. After all... Who was the one who brought in the Violet Kirin in the first place?"

Suddenly, everything dawned upon him as his eyes widen in horror. He didn't know who Little Jun is, but he definitely know of the Violet Kirin. It was suppose to have been their trump card, but it suddenly vanished shortly after their arrival. He looked to her with a scowl, "You killed it!"

Raising his internal energy and enduring the pain that came from forcing himself to move, he felt something snap inside him as he collapsed onto the ground. That's when he realized it... His meridians had been injured and his cultivation core had cracks!

"And I wouldn't have done so in the first place had you and your group not captured the poor mare. That was your decision to imprison a kirin. I've already been playing my part, now it's your turn to face your own consequences. Hmph! To think that I have to deal with you right now... What a hassle..." Lotus sighed in irritation before she called Xiao Li and sent him a few instructions before he responded with a few suggestions suitable for her next course of actions.

Hearing his suggestions, she was satisfied with them before tying up the bad man easily and sending him into her ring. When she was done, she took out a purple pill and swallowed it then checked that her ring and disguise was working again. Once done, she pulled back her array and rushed back to catch up to Azul, when she suddenly felt her energy start to sway a little. She could feel her head growing dizzy and a metallic taste rushed up into her mouth. She leaned back against the glass wall of the underwater dorm and scowled as she took in another pill then stood back up, "Dang it... Took too long..."