“You’re her Master?!” Kong Rong felt like today’s surprises just kept popping up one after the other. Jin recounted the sequence of events how he managed to meet young Ryuli to see if there would be any correlation with the State Agent’s story. Still, he could only confirm that he felt the presence of only one person within the locked basement. Kong Rong was only able to tell Jin that it was a loud bang which prompted him to search for the source of the disturbance.
“With regards to the basement cell, I have some extra news about it,” Kraft told Jin via the System Channel since he still deemed this information a little too sensitive. “I’ll tell you later after Kong Rong leaves the place.”
“Alright.” Jin did not even bat an eye back at Kraft, and they continued the conversation. In the meantime, Kong Rong theorised with his limited knowledge of time manipulation that he could have entered into an accidental black hole left by someone there.
“The only way it might be possible is if you happened to enter that room during a sudden eruption of spiritual force within the Dragon Ley Lines underneath it. This could be due to various factors, for example, excessive mining in one particular place which would put stress on the Earth’s regulated ecosystem. It also happens naturally due to tectonic plate movements, but recently the disruption in the Dragon Ley Lines have been getting more frequent.” Kong Rong explained.
“You probably heard those stories about the infamous Bermuda Triangle transporting people away.” Kraft chimed in to keep his appearance up of being all-knowing.
“While there were reports of such people missing, we actually have confidential reports of people returning to the same location where they were lost. Surveillance was scarce in those areas, but there were researchers that looked into this occasionally, and we got the data from them. However, most are brutally scarred by the experience that they could only get bits of details from those survivors.” Kong Rong added and said those reports were not published for security reasons as they did not want people to have the intention to attempt time and space manipulations.
Kong Rong then returned and told them as much about Ryuli as possible. Though he admitted that he considered himself to be her real master when it came down to training and recruiting her to become one of the finest and youngest State Agents, there were a few things that he was ashamed of.
“I only really started caring about her, roughly a year after we rescued her. When we found her through the ruins of the burnt temple, we realised that her chi had been forcefully activated. While it was uncommon for children at such an early age to have their chi activated, the amount she was giving out was way off the charts.”
“My supervisor at the time believed that it would be better for her to go into a school of special care so that we could monitor her behaviour and interaction with chi in case she, you know… explodes.”
“Ah, you mean she was suffering from a Chi Spiral Symptom? Because of an overactive Dantian Core, it produces way more chi than the body could handle.” Kraft once again won the guessing terminology contest.
“Yes, while the body does have the ability to expel excess chi to the surroundings naturally, it still requires the cultivator to do so actively. However, in Ryuli’s case, the amount of chi expelled was ten times the size of her body, causing pain and torture.”
“The doctors tried to suppress the symptom by using chi drain techniques, but the odd thing was, the more they drained, the more the Dantian Core ended up producing.”
“Really does sound like someone in particular when he is in a pinch.” Kraft looked at Jin as he said via the System Channel.
“Eventually, they decided to isolate her completely and stop wasting too many resources on her. She got branded as a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any given time if the symptom worsened.” Kong Rong continued.
“They placed her in a bunker similar to the basement cell, and she was denied any care and concern except for basic food, being transported by remote-controlled trays where she had to pick the food and leave the door.”
“No one even dared to keep in contact with her ever since she had a ‘minor’ eruption of the Chi Spiral Symptom which destroyed one of the labs with a lot of sensitive equipment and injured many people working there. Fortunately, there were no deaths.” Kong Rong emphasised much on the minor
“As I said, I was blissfully unaware about all of this, and only learned about it after I paid her a visit. That visit had also been delayed for about three months because of a prior assignment I had. I felt bad for her after I learned what happened. In fact, I would even describe it as cruel what happened to her. She got sealed down there, only to be rescued, but when it turned out that she was a handful, she got sealed once more… I somehow felt obligated to save her.” Kong Rong explained.
“Is that why she hates the master that granted her those powers? I only gave it to her because she needed help back then. I never intended for her to suffer as a consequence.” Despite the explanation, he told Kong Rong, Jin was also feeling really responsible for Ryuli’s plight.
“My father was 120% against such an idea of adopting her as part of the clan. My other siblings, on the other hand, went so far as trying to convince him. After all, if she ended up exploding and taking me with her, the position of leader in the Royal Zodiac Dragon Clan would be up for grabs.”
“Luckily, I was old enough to make my own decision, and if I managed to get her under control, she would turn into a wonderful asset for the clan and country. I admit that I might have acted because I had lofty ambitions even back then. That’s probably also why I wanted to support you so that you might break the hierarchy placed by the Royal Zodiacs.”
“Easier said than done, but that is for another day,” Jin replied as Kong Rong mentioned how he tried to suppress the Chi Spiral Symptom by teaching her how to cultivate her strength. That way, she could assist her body to expel the excess chi and later on control it.
“Did you nearly die from teaching her cultivation?” Jin queried, and Kong Rong nodded his head.
“I promised myself no never take on any more disciples after that little brat. I wasn’t a natural when it comes to teaching at all, but eventually, we started to bond, and it got better.” Kong Rong rolled his eyes, but he unconsciously let out a smile as he remembered back the days when Ryuli and him trained together.
“And now I get why Ryuli was dying to find this irresponsible master of hers.”
“It’s your choice what you want to tell her. You can bluff your way out and even tell her where ‘your’ master currently is. If you pretend that you’ve also been abandoned by that jerk, I’m sure you will get along great. Perhaps you could find someone to portray as ‘your’ master and fight with her. That way, she could find closure.” Kong Rong suggested since he found the truth to be a messy business, especially since it involved time and space travel.
“Closure? There is no such thing as closure. It would just have the opposite effect and open up old wounds.” Kraft folded his hands and disagreed with the idea.
“So you want to tell her the truth and let her defeat Jin? Fine with me, as long as you can guarantee he won’t end up worse than after fighting that monster. I still need him for the reformation of society you know.”
“What Grade is she currently?” Jin questioned, and Kong Rong used his fingers to show him.
“What?! She’s this young, and she achieved such a high level?!” Jin was shocked by the revelation.
“I told you she would be an asset to the Royal Zodiac Dragon Clan and I meant what I said.” Kong Rong said as he chuckled for revealing such a fact.
