Everyone was inside the cave near the entrance when they saw a small figure with its back turned to them. On her back, there was a saber made of bones that almost touched the ground; it was a little girl dressed in the typical black attire of an evil cultivator. At first glance, she looked human, but a strange and suffocating mortal Yin energy emanated from her, causing an instinctive and unsettling strangeness as if it were sothing inherently evil.
"You... how dare you? It seems I didn’t hit you enough to shut up."
The girl murmured in a strange frenzy, reaching the point of not even noticing the people behind her. The air felt freezing, and even the sound from nature outside the cave seed to stop.
The dwarf’s eyes trembled, but his pride forced him not to bow. In desperation, he looked at his fallen companions, then quickly spotted the people at the cave entrance, and his eyes lit up.
"Lord Detue!" He spoke in a pleading manner.
Alnia and Detue were stunned as they observed the child in front of them. She was a little girl, but at the sa ti, she seed like a true evil cultivator, thirsty for violence and blood. Were we deceived? The two thought, frightened by the reality in front of them, adding to everything they had seen happen in the city not long ago.
"You brat!" The whale spoke tensely.
At that mont, the entire intense atmosphere dissipated, and the little girl turned her back. Her vacant eyes t those of the whale, who had a strange expression. A silent second passed, and all that dense Yin seed to balance rapidly until the rosy color returned to the small and delicate face in the next second. Only the short and quick steps sounded as she ran and jumped onto the whale, fervently burying herself in its neck.
"What the hell..." The whale muttered, not understanding what was happening.
At that mont, Almin noticed Alnia and Detue taking silent steps backward, distancing themselves. They instinctively tried to leave the cave without communicating, but after three or four steps, they stopped upon feeling two people entering the cave entrance and closing them inside. The faces of the two tensed up; there was no doubt that they were now like turtles in a jar.
Turning around, they saw two figures dressed in black. One was young, with a still, childlike face, completely red, and a subtle aura of death perated him, making it clear that the blood was not his. But fear grew when they saw the tall, muscular, green figure beside him.
"A... a wild ogre..." Alnia blurted out in dread.
Langrum’s face contorted upon hearing that; she had heard that thousands of tis from humans. She was not wild, and despite being green and tall like an ogre, her appearance was human. She never acted recklessly and brutishly like ogres, and she hated being compared to one.
A tense silence perated the cave for a few seconds, and everyone eyed each other extrely cautiously. Almin then felt the laws of fire stirring from his master, and he looked desperately at the whale. They were completely focused on Ruri and didn’t care at all about the others.
"Why were you acting like that?!" The whale murmured, forcefully separating her from his neck and looking closely into her teary eyes.
"Did you learn this from Langrum?" They turned with cold eyes in Langrum’s direction, wanting an explanation; only then did they realize the strange situation among everyone there.
The whale snorted at the clear anger in Langrum’s eyes and spoke slowly. "Don’t be so quick to judge others with so little. By insulting Langrum, you’re also insulting Almin and ."
Detue turned to the whale and saw the little girl on his shoulders, being slightly startled as he looked at those two. The fear on her face seed like that of an innocent child who had done sothing wrong, nothing like the previous image. Then he turned to the green woman, realizing that she was a half-breed, and the life of a half-breed was not easy. Besides, she hadn’t done anything wrong until now.
At that mont, a dwarf approached Detue, speaking softly. "Sir, calm down. This little demon has a short fuse, and no one is really hurt. They saved us, and we’ve given a lot to them."
***
The whale covered the entire mountain cave with earth runes, sealing off all senses from the outside world. This was a new thod he learned by observing the earth runes the dwarves used in the tunnels, even asking them a few things to learn a bit more. He even dug deeper levels underground to make the place more spacious. Things should be exploding in the city, and moving now didn’t seem to be the best choice, so he decided to stay there for a week.
On the first day, they asked Langrum everything that had happened. Since the day they entered the city, Ruri had been getting more and more irritable, and after a week, she began to emanate that Yin. Langrum was quite fearful, but only Ruri could contact him through the array. So, exactly fifteen days later, all that phenonon suddenly disappeared from Ruri’s body. Soon after, Langrum decided to wait for the whale to return to discuss it.
After thoroughly analyzing Ruri’s ridians and body, Bruno took no more than a few minutes to notice the extre lack of Yang in her. Then, he spoke ntally. ’We knew that her using the saber to enhance her body would cause future problems, and we even had her rge the saber with her ridians through the formation when we entered the prison.’
Alm then analyzed coldly. ’She wasn’t showing any reaction before. We even checked her briefly once after we left the prison. How did this suddenly explode?’
’Fifteen days... it was exactly when we made contact with her in the city, and then she maintained daily contact after saving the dwarves.’ Bruno responded lightly.
’What are you trying to imply? Is it our fault?’ Alm spoke in doubt.
’In a way, yes, because we thought everything was fine. But it seems that when she was with us, she could keep it under control. When she was away, and her emotions got strange, the Yin beca more intense.’ Bruno sighed. ’The ones who paid the price were the poor dwarves.’
Langrum ntioned that, as long as the dwarves were with them, Ruri kept things under control. But on the last day, she seed completely out of sorts all day. It happened to be the day and night they didn’t make contact, as they were working on the furnace and then stealing everything.
The dwarves were all in the Foundation Establishnt Realm, but they were blacksmiths and had hardly ever fought in their lives; Ruri was like a lion among sheep. And since they were all impatient, having no alcohol to drink and wanting to leave against the whale’s orders, with very little provocation, Ruri decided to shut them up furiously.
’She’s growing up very well and acting nicely. I would do the sa or worse.’ Alm spoke lightly, with a tone of satisfaction.
’There is a ti to be assertive and a ti to be patient! Don’t spoil her!’ Bruno ntally ranted. ’It seems like Almin will have to work intensively making Yang pills for two people now. Almost all the herbs in the city were pure Yang; it seems like the system wanted to show us that.’
Alm snorted and agreed with the last part. Ruri had a hidden internal issue that they overlooked. Now they gained a lot of things, and Almin got a worthy master to teach him. This side quest proved essential once again.
Alm and Bruno gave Ruri one of the Yang pills stored in the city’s treasures; then, they were forced to give so to Langrum, who demanded them as paynt for working a month without earning anything. In the week they spent, Ruri had already moved around, making friends with the new faces, and quickly, she and Alnia were chatting animatedly.
Detue watched carefully as the whale remained cool but used so mystical technique to heal all the dwarves and even conversed with them, seemingly interested in learning from them. The whale was cold and sotis malicious, but he took care of everyone, even two children, without admitting it. On the other hand, the green woman was kind to everyone and didn’t seem to care about their previous offense.
The old man beca thoughtful as he saw Ruri and Alnia together. Clearly, he almost made a serious mistake by judging using his own paraters. It all happened because he was ignorant. Detue was experienced, and he knew that each person had their own circumstances. Still, it wasn’t easy to suddenly change one’s nature that fast.
He then snorted, thinking internally. ’No matter the age, I must always rember that the more I think I know, the less I really know. I must always observe and learn with an open mind. Cultivators are mostly different from each other, living sotis cruel realities, but they can’t be generalized as all being pure evil.’
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