12 A weird solution

Shan, with Ryan in tow, took the long way back to their house, rather than the usual path, to avoid any spies that spirit hall would have sent to make sure what happened at the spirit awakening wasn't a sham. But, he didn't take that path just to protect his son or wife, but to also protect his daughter. That was the main he had left Hua back home too; To protect her should someone try to intrude. Otherwise, going alone would have done more harm than good. Shan knew there was a good chance he wouldn't see his family again. That's why he had kept that letter on his son's table to help him deal with the loss, which he now felt super embarrassed about. Even he didn't expect any of these things to happen. So, even if the spies follow him back home, they wont get any info regarding that matter. However, them seeing Jin would mess things up drastically, as Shan himself had some guesses about his daughter's whereabouts. Although she did act like a kid in front of him and his wife usually, that little girl had an aura of maturity around her and wouldn't do so if they were in a pinch. Like, how she maintained her composure this morning when they told her to stay home.

So, after hours of travelling, Shan and Ryan reached back home in the evening. Ryan was still unconscious. Shan made sure there were no spies behind them before they entered the house. Hearing the door open, Luo Hua rushed to the hall from her room, with bloodshot eyes (because of sleep deprivation and crying). Jin trailed behind her, with an anxious look on her face. She had already had some understanding of what was going on. Seeing that both father and son had come back without any scratches, Luo Hua shed tears of happiness. Then, she reached them in a instant and hugged both tightly, just repeating the words "Thank god!" over and over. But then she looked at Ryan in her husband's hands to see him unconscious and with blood stains on his clothes. She also remembered about the conditions Bibi Dong had mentioned. According to that, if they were both here, her son had to be trash! Or they would have been followed by hundreds of spirit masters already! She looked at Shan questioningly, with eyes full of doubts. "I'll explain everything in detail. First, let me lay him down on his bed", Shan said with a calm tone and hurried to his room. He had to get rid of that stupid letter as soon as possible too.

...........

Meanwhile, Ryan was in his mental realm. He was really depressed. I mean, a god promised him dual op spirits, but he ended up getting one trash spirit, not to mention the spirit power of 0! So, his mood was justifiable. But still, he had awakened a spirit. That should have had unlocked his body cultivation and archery training manual. At least had awakened a bow. He could at least make use of it in Archery 101. Otherwise, Ryan would have killed himself. With spirit power being 0, he won't be able to cultivate the spirit as well. Wait, then what was the use of the spirit pagoda in the mental realm? He quickly ran towards the white building and tried to push the huge door open with all his power, but it didn't move even an inch. Suddenly, like realising something, Ryan summoned both books and tried to open the previously inaccessible pages. He still couldn't open them. "Aaagh!!", He yelled in frustration. "What the hell is going on? It isn't supposed to be like this!!!", he screamed as he closed the wooden archery book. That's when he noticed it. Then book felt the same as the bow that had appeared in his hands during the awakening. He closely inspected it. That's when he saw the three lines on the book cover. Though this time, the line on the top had more or less turned silver, instead of the initial black colour. 'What the fuck?', Ryan thought as he checked his body for any changes related to this. The next instant, he felt weird. The voids he had felt in his body during the spirit awakening were still there! They had appeared when the awakening began, but, they still hadn't disappeared. What felt weirder was that the last time he checked, i.e, when his spirit had awoken as a wooden bow, the void on his right hand was only half full, while the one on the back was still empty. But now, the one on the hand was around three-quarters full and back one felt full by a tenth. He suddenly felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe if these voids were filled, there might be some change in his spirit power! He was desperately trying to get out of the 'spirit power 0' problem. As long as he could cultivate, he was sure he could improve, with willpower and the help of the techniques. He then started thinking of ways by which he could accomplish this goal. After a couple of minutes, he understood what he had to do. It had never been tried before, but he had to try it. And for that, he needed to wake up quickly. So, he closed his eyes and willed to wake up (he could also walk through the tear in space due to awareness, but, that's only required when he shares the mental realm and when he is not sharing, this is much faster).

.......

In the hall, Shan made Hua sit down and explained everything to her, after telling Jin to attend to her brother. As he explained, her mouth slowly opened wide and her face had an ugly expression, as if she had swallowed something bitter. Shan wasn't surprised by this at all. Even he couldn't believe what had happened in the past few hours. Neither of them had expected their son to be so weak. After a few seconds, Hua's expression changed to sorrow as she said, "Even if we had died fighting spirit hall, if Yan had some spirit power, he would have been able to survive in this world and protect little Jin with some hard work. But this..... What will he do when we are not by his side?". "Yeah that's what I have been thinking about too...… How can he live independently? Little Jin will take of herself. Now that you have become more powerful, I'm sure you too have noticed that she's not ordinary. So, how will hesurvive?". Hearing his remark about Jin, Hua slowly nodded her head. But before she could say anything, a sweet feminine voice interrupted, "I'll protect Yan ge, even if he is not powerful!". It was Jin, standing in front of the door to Ryan's room. She had heard the whole thing. She had a serious expression and eyes full of love when she said it. "Little Jin, what are you doing here?! I told you to attend to your brother!", Shan scolded her, because clearly, she wasn't supposed to hear any of this. Jin opened her mouth to reply, but at the next moment, she felt a palm gently resting on her head, as she heard a boy's voice, "She came to tell you that I woke up". The boy was Ryan. He had exited the mental realm right in time to save Jin's ass. "Yan ge", Jin looked back at him and then hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest. "Ow, that's too tight", complained Ryan. "Little Yan, are you okay? You were out for quite some time", Shan said with concern in his eyes. He was glad that Ryan woke up without any serious problems. Before Ryan could reply, his mother rushed to his side and hugged him, sandwiching Jin between them. "Little Yan! It's gonna be okay. Mommy and daddy will always protect you. Don't worry!", She said, holding back sobs. Ryan felt happy that his parents cared so much for him. Even though he was trash, they never abandoned him. Neither did little Jin. His love for them doubled due to this. He hugged both of them back and said, "Don't worry mother, and Jin. I'm not going to be a burden to any of you. I'm gonna get strong enough to protect all of you instead" (he basically means to say he is gonna become a god and win the bet, lol). "But, to do that, I need a favour from you guys", he continued. Hearing this, both Shan and Hua raised their eyebrows and looked at him questioningly. "I need father to perform the spirit awakening ceremony on me again", Ryan said, with his usual sly smile on his face.