Death... and me

"Impressive..." Lita could feel how revitalized her meridians were. It was as if she was using them for the first time, like when she started to cultivate. "My meridians feel so... light! The Divine Energy is passing through them a lot easier than before."

Rean nodded in response. "Well, you took Roan's pill, after all. His pills have this side effect."

"Side effect?" Krikei was confused to hear that. "Such an amazing ability is just a side effect? Then what was the pill's real use?"

"Didn't you hear the name?" Roan asked back. "It was a nutrient pill. Simply put, Rean could reconstruct her meridians, but he can't do that out of thin air. One's body needs nutrients to grow things."

Rean nodded. "Roan's correct. If it was some deep cut, I could do it without a pill. However, remaking the destroyed parts from scratch requires nutrients. Thus, the nutrient pill."

Roan looked at Vrie, who seemed so impressed that he forgot the pain he was going to go through very soon. "You're next."

"Ah!" Only then did Vrie get back to himself. "Oh! Right!" He looked at Rean after that. "Please, brother. Get rid of these things in my meridians too."

Rean nodded in response. "Sure. You're part of my brother's group, so I'll help you with it. Just do the same thing as Lita. Open your demon core so that I can send my skill's power inside."

Vrie nodded. However, he also looked at Roan, saying, "There's no need to hold me. I can resist some pain."

Roan snorted in response. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

As Vrie said that, Lita remembered the pain of the Dark Element and felt a chill on her back. "Vrie, trust me. You won't be able to resist it."

Krikei didn't want to take any chances. "Stop trying to look cool and stay still. Roan, hold him down. If he complains, leave him to me. I know how to make this guy cooperate."

Vrie felt wronged after that. 'I'm a demon beast, you know? We're a lot more resistant to pain than your humanoid races...' Nevertheless, he didn't go against Krikei's words and let Roan use his Shadow Bind to hold his body.

Well, it turns out that Vrie felt like dying right there and then. If Roan wasn't holding him, he might have committed suicide straight away. Only after the problem was solved did Vrie understand how he really had no idea what he was talking about. "Holy shit! How can something hurt so much like that?! I was even begging for death."

Rean patted Roan's shoulder in response. "Roan, he was begging for you."

*Bang!*

Roan's elbow hit Rean's ribs, almost breaking them. "Arrgh! Fuck! Can't you take a little joke? It's not like I've never done that before."

Roan didn't seem to mind it at all. "I don't remember ever saying I liked them."

Vrie and the others didn't know what those two were talking about. Then again, since they were brothers, they simply thought it was some kind of joke that only the two knew about. "Ahem... Rean, Roan, thank you."

Lita quickly followed suit. "Me too. Thank you for saving my life."

Rean bitterly smiled at them as he rubbed the area where Roan hit him with his elbow. "No problem, no problem. However, I didn't save your lives at all. Even if your dantian, demon core, and meridians were destroyed, you would still survive. It's just that you would have lost all your cultivation. I could tell as I examined those Soul Power worms. They only existed to do that. Once they were done with their job, they would disappear straight away."

Lita sighed in response. "Destroying our cultivations... isn't that the same as dying? I wouldn't bear it if everything I worked so hard to achieve disappeared like that. Not to mention that cultivating again would be almost impossible with most of the meridians damaged or gone."

Vrie agreed with Lita. "She's right. I would have definitely killed myself straight away. For us demon beasts, this is far more important. We love strength more than anything else, after all."

Roan then glanced at a certain Minokawa in the distance. 'For that demon beast, women are probably a lot more important than its own strength. Food might even take second place.'

Rean smiled back at Vrie and Lita. "Well, it's good that you're fine. Roan, I'll take my leave here. See you later."

"Wait!"

However, someone else immediately called Rean's attention. It looked to be a demon beast in human form, probably a bird type one. However, Rean had no idea who the guy was. "Hum? Is there a problem?"

The demon beast immediately pointed to the other demon beasts that were probably part of his own group. "Can you help them, please?"

"Me too!" A woman from one of the humanoid races then called Rean's attention. She looked to be in the same shape as Lita a few minutes ago. "I'll do anything if you can heal me."

"Brother, help my friends and me. We can pay you!"

"No, we can pay more. Just help my daughter here first."

"Fuck you! Can't you see that my group is at its limit? They won't hold much longer! Brother, please help them."

"Who cares about them? My friend. I can pay you as much as anyone here. Heal me first."

Hundreds of voices raised everywhere, making it quite difficult for Rean to discern them.

"Enough!" Suddenly, another voice echoed in everyone's ears before a woman appeared. It's just that Rean had no idea who she was.

However, the workers around seemed to know her very well. "Senior Libraia! Why did you come here?"

Rean was confused. Who was Libraia? She seemed someone important, though.

Libraia continued, "I'm here for this boy. As for the rest of you, deal with the problem yourselves. You all know very well that the tests were extremely dangerous. Now, get lost."

Rean shook his head, though. "Errr... but I don't mind helping them."

"You can't." However, Libraia didn't let him. "You and your friends will come with me."