Chapter 373: No Regrets

Chapter 373: No Regrets

Pain.

All I feel. Nothingness.

An eternity.

Stars.

...

Something is wrong.

I groggily open my eyes. Gong is gripping me, clasping her arms around me. Silently. Her eyes were wet with tears.

We sit in a tunnel, dark and chilled. No sound, no movement.

In order to not cause a fuss yet and figure things out, I stay quiet and don’t change my movements.

The memory of the last few minutes is a blur. And the growing realization that I feel this way is terrifying. As my healing aura runs through my body, with my scan coming in with investigation into my condition.

I see surprising, but simple news.

I was knocked out.

Unharmed, but knocked out.

I can feel my teeth grit, letting my emotions show despite my normal reticence.

How did she do it?

How did she get through my soul strength, suppressing it in a way that didn’t harm me, but caused me to lose consciousness? Even though I have been able to maintain a form of consciousness even without a body or cultivator soul.

On top of these thoughts, there is one realization that is layered within my body.

I’m lucky.

Lucky that, despite everything telling me otherwise, that Big Sis Crane spared me.

An obvious result, despite the blur of thought that is left after...

I quickly realize what I was going to say to Big Sis Crane. What wasn’t even spoken before I was knocked out.

“How dare you?”

...Yeah. That would have gotten me killed by anyone else. If only because of the disrespect to a higher realm cultivator.

As I think this, Gong finally acknowledges me being awake. Albeit, without moving even an inch.

“...You idiot man.”

This is no longer on the level of anger. All that is gone. What remains is fear.Fiind updated novels at novelhall.com

Fear of loss.

...

...

The silence between us grows.

She falls silent again. Leaving some clear gaps in what happened. Of course, I use my scan to fill it in for myself.

It looks like it played out how she said, with one huge thing missing. I was knocked out by Big Sis Crane, but she made it look like I had fainted. Without even touching me.

And from what I can tell, when she brought me to Gong, she told her what I was about to say. And left a warning.

“I spared him this time. There will be no next time. Have him visit me later in the week. There were some things I wanted to handle, but now they’ll need to be put on pause.

“Have him prepared to heal.”

Well.

I suppose that was always going to be the reason she wanted me to come over here. In a way, it’s one way that I can still leverage my abilities to influence her. Maybe even one of the additional reasons that she kept me alive.

“I understand.”

I fall silent, using my conversation scan to hit the timing right.

“... Hey Gong. I know this is a tough time now, but I’m really glad you are here. With me. Thank you.”

She tenses a bit, but then relaxes, giving a slight smile. Showing that my words are helping to release a bit of the building pressure within her.

“Me too, James.

“We’ll talk more a bit later, but you don’t know how much having you here helps me. It’s been rough lately.”

That’s a bit different than I was expecting. It sounds like there’s more going on that I don’t know of.

This is a good time for positive reinforcement.

I get closer to her again and pull her in for a hug. An easy endeavor considering she’s already lowered herself closer to the ground. Her arms tighten around my back, holding me close and nestling her head against my neck.

“Anytime you want to talk about things, I’m here. And we’ll be coming up with a way that we can always be in contact from now on. Okay?”

Her voice timidly comes out next to my ear.

“... Okay.”

We stay like this for a bit, just marinating in each other’s company. But soon enough, she pulls away. Maybe a slight holdout from her earlier frustrations.

I don’t say anything, letting her collect her thoughts a bit.

She’s the first to speak as she rises. Breathing out and re-centering.

“Is your group ready to see the other demi-humans in the underground section?”

Got it. Moving on.

“Mostly. They aren’t fully aware of the situation, but I’ve already run my scan to make sure they wouldn’t have overly negative reactions. As well as knowing the people themselves.”

With a quick nod, she moves down the tunnel we are in, likely toward the base.

“I’ll show you some things that have come up while you were gone.

I follow soon behind, with a feeling of apprehension growing in my stomach.

Time to see how deep this rabbit hole goes.