Death... and me

Blue Luan! Rean and Roan were left at a loss for words after hearing that name. They soon simultaneously thought, 'Isn't that the name of another divine beast?!'

Kentucky nodded in response to the Demon Bull, saying, 'I understand. I'll be waiting for them.'

With that said, the demon bull left, heading to the other side of the territory. Even though it was in the same one, the other Spiritual Vein was very far away, so both sides would surely only enter their respective territories by mistake. Besides, it was good to have it owe Kentucky a favor.

Once the Demon Bull left, Rean, Roan, and Kentucky began to discuss with Celis and Sister Orb in the Dimensional Realm.

Celis was the first one to talk, asking, "Could it be that it's an actual Blue Luan? I haven't heard of any other Divine Demon Beast on our planet."

For Celis, it didn't necessarily need to have Kentucky as the one building a nest on it. Though with that being said, Celis had always been interested in any type of Divine Demon Bird, and the Blue Luan was just one of them. Of course, now that he already had a Minokawa as a Soul Partner, he didn't care too much about the Blue Luan.

Rean shook his head, saying, "To be honest, I don't think that to be the case. Perhaps that's just what it calls itself. After all, isn't it too much of a coincidence for a Divine Demon Beast to exist on this planet with the Soul Rulers not knowing about it? Just like they did with Celis, I don't think they would give up the chance of capturing and raising a Divine Demon Beast."

Roan and the others agreed with his thought process. Unless there was some sort of weird situation going on, there shouldn't really be a Blue Luan in this place.

"Alright, let's leave it aside for now," Roan said as he thought about the more pressing matter. "We only have a few hours before the System sends all the kids out. We need to prepare the place for the kids first."

Rean immediately took flight as he brought many items from the Dimensional Realm out. "Alright! I'm going to build a concealing formation around this valley, preventing anyone's Spiritual Sense from prying over it." With that, Rean left right after.

Kentucky couldn't find any place where the kids could live either, so he decided to build a few places where the kids could reside. With his blade-like feathers and strength, cutting a few trees in the forest would be an easy task.

As for Roan, he entered the Dimensional Realm and called Liza and Luna. Soon, he asked the two, "Have you talked with all of the older kids?"

"Yes." The two girls nodded. Soon after, a few kids over ten years of age came out of the crowd. As mentioned before, the older they got, the harder it was to keep their Soul Purity. That being said, out of the 3589 kids Rean's group rescued, only 32 were in their pre-teens.

"That's good enough." Roan then exited the Dimensional Realm with all of them. Liza and Luna were the only exceptions to the rule. "Alright, are any of you still in doubt as to what happened until now?"

A ten-year-old girl then raised her hand in response as she asked, "The uncle Zasfins had always been good to us. Are you sure they did that to the other kids who left first?"

Roan wasn't in the mood to explain everything again, so he used a more thorough method. His Spiritual Sense spread over all these kids and sent his memories of what Rean witnessed in the Soul Stone Formation. Roan didn't care if they would cry, feel fear, or whatever. This was the fastest way to enlighten them.

Sure enough, all the kids, with a few exceptions, began to cry or trembled in fear after seeing that.

"Enough!" Roan shouted, making all of them shut up. "It's exactly because of that happening that we rescued you from there. Instead of crying, just be thankful that the same thing won't happen to you." Roan then pointed in a certain direction before saying, "I brought you outside to tell you that we can't take care of you forever. You'll have to learn how to live outside and take care of the younger kids on your own."

Roan then looked at the few kids who didn't look too surprised from what he showed. "The five of you, come here." Unsurprisingly, those were the only kids at the age of twelve between all the kids. "It seems like you've already expected something like that to happen."

As mentioned before, the majority of the kids were girls. There were very few boys when it came to High Soul Purity. Nevertheless, one of these twelve-year-old kids just so happened to be a boy. He was also the one to come forward and talk with Roan as he said, "We didn't know what happened to them. However, we are old enough to at least doubt what was happening there so far."

The other four girls also nodded in response, although they were still somewhat afraid of Roan.

"That's okay. It seems like that you five lucked out to have kept your Soul Purity up to this point." Roan then patted the young man's shoulder as he looked at him and the four girls. "From now on, the five of you will be in charge of commanding the other kids. As for the others I brought out, you can use them as second-in-command."

The boy couldn't help but ask, "But...we don't know how to do anything."

Roan shook his head as he replied, "Don't worry, we'll teach all of you how to survive in the outside world. Also, you will learn how to cultivate so that you can get strong, just like us. By the way, what are your names?"

The boy immediately answered, "I'm Malo."

The girls followed right after him. "I'm Wataba."

"Poliana."

"Falas."

"My name is Glennie."

Roan then looked at Luna, Liza, and the other younger kids. "Your job is to help these five take care of the other kids. All of you have escaped from eventually dying back in the Soul Rulers' territory, so I don't want to see you dying anytime soon."

Of course, most of them were still afraid or at a loss of what to do. Nevertheless, the kids could only agree with Roan since they didn't have much choice. Following that, Roan began to walk around with the kids, explaining what he wanted them to do. "First, we need a settlement where you and the other kids can live in. Kentucky, that big black and white bird, has gone out to gather wood. You and the other kids will help build houses where everyone can pass the night."

"Houses?" The kids were confused as to what they were. "What are houses?"

Sure enough, the kids' Soul Purities were checked when they were born. Not long after, they were brought to the Soul Rulers' headquarters and put inside the Bloodline Trial Control Formations. That being said, they had never seen houses before. The exceptions were only Luna and Liza or the kids who took care of Calina, Malaka, and Agis' trials. After all, because they were also humans, their memories were also seen by those kids.

Roan sighed in response before using his Spiritual Sense to explain to the kids what he was talking about. Of course, he couldn't go too fast since those kids had no cultivation whatsoever. Using too compact Spiritual Sense Information would only make them confused, not being able to process everything.

"Oh! So that's what a house is!"

"It seems so nice!"

"I've never been in a house before."

"But it looks very hard to make, no?"

"Hey, it's our house, so it's worth the effort."

"I don't wanna put in effort. It's too boring."

"I don't wanna work as well."

"Me too!"

Sure enough, kids always will be kids. Until now, they didn't have to take care of anything. All their needs were provided by the Soul Rulers, after all. Unfortunately for them, Roan, more than anyone else, was used to taking care of lazy people.

"Hehehe. So, you don't wanna work, huh? Good, good! You totally remind me of a certain sister of mine," Roan said with an evil smile.

*Achoo!*

Somewhere in the Erstral Country's Capital, a 'certain girl' sneezed.

Malaka looked around her and couldn't help but feel a chill on her back. "Holy shit, what was that just now?"

Ignoring the 'certain girl,' Roan immediately started his 'not so gentle' training regime. He already had it ready since it was similar to Malaka's regime when she was young. He just had to account for the differences in the environment.

Soon enough, many cries could be heard coming from the valley, though Roan didn't care. In his hand, there were only two options. Train or get punished. A third option didn't exist in his mind.

Around two hours later, Kentucky finished bringing all the logs necessary for the construction work. However, Roan only allowed him to cut them into shape. The building of the houses themselves had to be done by the kids. No questions asked.

One hour before the time for them to stay in the Dimensional Realm was up, Roan paused his initial training and brought the kids to the valley's center. Rean was there as well, finishing the last touches on his Concealing Formation. As soon as Rean looked at the kids' sorry states, he already understood what happened, saying, "Malaka's routine?"

Roan nodded, responding, "It worked for her, so it'll work for them."

Rean didn't try to intervene since he knew it was for their own good. "Alright, I'm going to activate the formation. After that, we can bring the rest of the kids out."