Death... and me

As Rean healed Malaka, he began to hear some muffled screams from behind. He didn't need to think to figure out what was happening there. Rean was the one to come up with the issue of the pursuit. After all, it made no sense that Doren's group came straight at them from the get-go after finding them with their Spiritual Sense. He might not like Roan's methods, but he couldn't risk being in the dark about what was happening either.

Instead, he focused his energy on healing Malaka. Because of the lack of Light Element in the Profound Abyss, it took longer than he wanted. Not to mention that healing others was already much slower than healing himself to start with.

Sometime later, the screams stopped and what followed next was the sound of a sword being waved around. Soon after, a thud could be heard. Rean knew that Doren was dead and that the sound was his body hitting the floor. Roan appeared by his side a few moments later. He looked at Malaka's injuries and then asked.

"How is it?"

Rean nodded.

"She's fine. She lost a lot of blood, which my Light Element can't recover. But as long as she rests, she will recover eventually."

Roan nodded as well.

"She did well. At that moment, she was still able to rotate her body and avoid her body's critical points. Indeed, there is no better way to practice other than real combat."

Rean sighed. He didn't really want Malaka to pass through this. However, he already understood how the cultivation world worked. Since Malaka had become a cultivator as well, this kind of situation would most likely happen again in the future. If she doesn't become ready now, it will be too late later.

"By the way, how was it with the interrogation?"

Roan narrowed his eyes as he explained.

"Well, it won't be of any surprise to you. The one who ordered Doren to come after us was none other than that guy who is always with Calina, Valeu. I asked why he would go to this extent to get rid of us. From the looks of it, he wants Malaka's pendant back. Of course, if that was the only reason, there would be no need to kill us. You noticed it as well, didn't you? He's the type that doesn't want to mix himself with no named people like us."

"Because Malaka had somehow managed to become friends with Calina, a princess of the Sasamil Empire, he probably thought of it to be disgraceful. Of course, this reason for killing us is just a theory of mine. He might have another reason altogether. Still, Doren certainly received an offer to kill us instead of just recovering the pendant."

Rean couldn't help but ask.

"Why is this pendant so important?"

Roan shrugged his shoulders.

"Doren also asked the same question to Valeu, but the latter did not answer, stating that he didn't have the status to do so. Nonetheless, it's definitely something with significance. From the looks of it, Valeu only found about the fact that Calina gave it to Malaka a few moments before the Profound Abyss opened."

"How so?"

"Simple. With Valeu's background, he could have tried to buy it from us instead. However, now that we are inside the Profound Abyss, there is a risk that we will lose it here. After all, Valeu only knew about our cultivation and not our fighting prowess. He probably thinks that we will die. Still, he can't come here by himself since he has to protect the princess. That being said, he offered some rewards so that stronger cultivators at the Core Formation Realm would recover it and keep it safe."

Rean narrowed his eyes in response. Of course, Roan noticed it.

"What's the problem?"

Rean shook his head as he said.

"I don't know. Something tells me that something isn't right with this guy. How can I say it... during the days we followed Malaka and Calina, I felt like he wasn't pleased just because Malaka was interacting with Calina. Oh well, this is just a gut feeling anyway."

Roan did not spend any time with Valeu, nor did he ask Malaka and Rean about the guy. He simply didn't care about him. Once the Profound Abyss was over, they would never see each other again, or so Roan thought. Because of that, he hadn't given any attention to Valeu before. However, Rean spent a lot of time with him because of Malaka and Calina's relation.

"Whatever. The problem here is that Doren's group isn't the only one contacted. More Core Formation Realm groups are coming for us as well."

Rean nodded.

"By the way, how did they find us?"

Roan then pointed at Malaka's collarbone.

"The pendant. It has some kind of energy that can be detected from a certain distance."

Roan then took out a small bluestone. It seemed to be made of the same material as the pendant. After Roan injected Spiritual Energy into it, the stone began to release a few specks of blue light. Those specks of blue light then started to float in Malaka's direction. Or, to be more specific, the pendant's direction.

"From Doren's words, he found our location when he was around a kilometer away. This is by far much farther than what we could normally perceive.

Rean pondered a bit before asking.

"Should we get rid of it? No, maybe we can put it inside the Dimensional Realm, and it won't be detected there."

Roan shook his head as he showed a faint cold smile.

"Why should we do that? Excellent practicing targets will be coming for us on their own, isn't that perfect? We need battles to help stabilize our cultivations. This is a golden opportunity. Let them come! The more, the better!"

Rean couldn't help but laugh as he listened to his words. Everything was a training opportunity in Roan's eyes.

"Fine. But I will put the pendant in the Dimensional Realm until Malaka recovers. That much is fine, right?"

Roan nodded.

"That's good enough. By the way, feed her this."

Roan then took a small pill bottle from the Dimensional Realm and passed it to Rean.

"What is this?"

Rean asked as he put the pendant inside the Dimensional Realm.

"Neutral Blood Replenishing Pills. Although they aren't as good as Water Element Pills of the same type for Malaka, it is very close. From what Old Worm said, my Dark Element is the best he had ever seen for the concoction. Its capability of eliminating impurities is unmatched or something like that. Not to mention that your Light Element helps me protect the herbs and other materials' properties while I destroy the impurities. That being said, it seems like my Neutral Pills have around 90% of the efficiency of Elemental Pills. I don't even need to tell you how much good our Dark and Light Element pills are either, right?"

Rean was quite surprised to hear that. Not with the pills' effects, but that it was quite rare to see Roan bragging about anything at all.

"It seems like I was right in the end."

Roan looked at Rean with a puzzled expression.

"Right about what?"

"What else could it be? Old Worm was probably your wife in another life. Look just how much you like to spend your time with him."

Roan's mouth twitched in response.

"Couldn't you just say that he was my father or brother at least?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Where's the fun in that?"