RTYY 304 - A Cold Analysis

Author's Note: So I guess my last Announcement got censored. ☹️ Bad, bad wenovel! 😒 Anyways, the extra updates and exclusive content will be in my P a t r e o n account at https://www.p a t r e o n.com/carpersanti (please erase the 6 spaces between the letters of the word P a t r e o n. As we've seen, Webnovel will censor the word otherwise 😅)

As some of you may know, I've been uploading this novel to Tapas as well.

At Tapas readers can support creators by giving Ink, which they can purchase or earn through several activities. Although it's not online yet, I'm working on offering my Tapas supporters the same rewards I'm offering at P a t r e o n. So, for example, 6000 ink would earn you a $3 tier subscription for a month. Anyway, if you're interested in supporting my work and don't have the money to spare, this is a way to do so for free. Of course, you can read the novel here or there, it's all the same. (they're a bit behind right now, but I'll be catching up very soon). Also, you can always check out this amazing platform as well, if you've never visited it before. 😁

I will equally offer these same privileges to those of you who were kind enough to offer me a few warm Ko-fis 😁 I just need a few more time in order to set that up on RTYY website.

As always, thank you so much for all your love and support 🥰

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He was going to kill them all! And shit! His knees hurt!, ZaiWin pursed his lips and grimaced. Yeah, he was most definitely going to start from the fucking bastard that kept ordering him around as if he were no more than a dog. Besides, he hadn't liked one bit the way he had talked to Snow. He also didn't like the way that the other, younger guy, looked at him either! And what was that shitty mess Snow had gotten them into? Worse! That damn brat! He had dared drug him! ZaiWin was so going to spank him for that! He was so pissed right now that he could hardly feel anything else!, except for that annoying, throbbing pain on his knees.

The constant shaking and rattling of the cart was starting to make him sick, he grunted to himself, which only left him even more pissed.

Closing his eyes, he forced himself to control his anger and focus on what was really important.

Forget how he was going to skin that brat alive, for having left his side without a word, to meet with who knows who in the middle of the fucking night!

Forget that small, nagging voice inside his head, that kept conjuring possible justifications for what he had done. Even if, for a fleeting moment, he might have entertained the possibility that Snow might have betrayed him, selling him out to one of his many enemies, all he had seen and heard from the moment he'd laid eyes on his frightened, panicking face, had shown him nothing but the contrary. And he knew Snow well enough to know that he would never be able to pull off an underhanded, covert act like that. No. He had probably just been stupidly naive, and had believed whatever bullshit those people had told him. Not to mention that the focus of their capturers was clearly Snow, and not him. Which didn't do much to attenuate ZaiWin's foul mood.

And what was that? Had he heard him right? Did Snow honestly believe that those people were … like him? Like him how? Surely he didn't mean Celestials. Because there was no way those bastards were Celestials! What on earth could have led him to believe such a huge load of crap? In any case, there would be time to clarify all that, once they were free again.

Taking a deep breath, ZaiWin forced himself to relax and slowly circled his energy through his daitai, one at the time, making sure he paid extra attention to what he was doing, looking for something, any sign of unbalance or corruption.

Nothing. Everything was as it should be, he realized with an inner sigh of relief.

So … somehow, it was all that bastard's power, he concluded. All the more reason to take him out first. Just thinking about how he was constantly compelled to obey every single stupid command out of his mouth pissed him off so much that he could strangle the fucker with his own bare hands, if given the opportunity.

Never mind that. That would come later. And it would most definitely come!

Next.

That fucking collar. Now that could be a problem. The bastard had mentioned that it was a qinrien and, true enough, it did look very much like a qinrien. It even had a stone studded at the front, where the key to open it was supposed to be pressed. Of course, he couldn't be entirely sure that it was a real qinrien until he tried to speak. Which was not going to happen! As if he would give those bastards the pleasure of seeing him get electrocuted by a stupid collar! The problem was that, as long as he had that thing around his neck, he couldn't talk to Snow. And if he couldn't talk to Snow, he also couldn't tell him about their escape plan, once he finally came up with one. Which led to another fucking problem.

The kids.

Those fucking bastards knew exactly what they were doing! As long as those kids were around, Snow would be unable to act freely. ZaiWin would have to take them along, when they escaped. Which meant that he couldn't just simply jump, once the opportunity arose. Given the circumstances, there was no way he could carry two people with him, much less three. The wind was too strong, on the other side. He would undoubtedly lose someone on the way, and he would never risk Snow's life like that. Of course, there was also the other option, he grimaced bleakly. He could kill the kids and be done with that. Snow would probably be horrified with him, but at least they would both be free and alive.

Taking a deep breath, he glanced outside.

The bars of his prison were made of wood, not to mention that the whole thing had obviously seen better days. One or two kicks would easily break his prison cell to pieces. But, from where he sat, he couldn't see Snow. He knew he was ridding somewhere behind the cart with that other brat. He could see the weak light of the fire-burner that that RyuXin-guy carried. But he couldn't see Snow, which meant he would have to wait.

And where were they taking them? Better yet, where were they right now? He had become completely lost, the moment they had stepped through that dark passageway.

ZaiWin had never seen anything like it. As far as he knew, no marking could open direct portals between two places. His own markings were more than abnormal in that aspect, since he basically stepped into another space where everything moved a lot faster. He still had to travel the distance, though. Even so, that alone had been more than enough reason to have ZenTar insisting that he must never, never explain what really happened during one of his jumps, and that he must always be very careful with who he took with him. In fact, as far as he knew, only the Jundai of the Temple were able to portal other people like that. And it took a lot more than one single Jundai to achieve such a feat. Not to mention that they all used many crystals for support. But that tall, lean guy … he was undoubtedly opening portals and easily allowing other people through them all on his own.

The moment he saw it, ZaiWin immediately recognized the dark energy-print left behind by that dark crack in space. It was the same he had found in the small cave, near Woodbridge, when he had gone looking for Snow. Which meant that, back then, Snow had also walked through one of those portals, when he had decided to leave him to break their bond. This meant two things.

Firstly, they could now be anywhere. Last time the damn portal had taken Snow to a completely different Province.

And secondly, those were definitely the same people that had told Snow about that absurd way of getting rid of their bond. Which meant that they could even look like they had no intention to harm Snow, with all that bullshit about how Humans mistreated Celestials, and how Celestials should get rid of them. But, in truth, they couldn't care less about his well-being, all too willing to risk sacrificing him for their unrealistic ideals. If they really believed that Celestials were such important, precious beings, they would never have made him drink that shit that had almost killed him.

Either way, they weren't just anyone, their powers apparently as abnormal as his own, ZaiWin concluded. They obviously knew more about Snow and he than Snow knew about them. And something was clearly wrong with their heads. All in one, these were definitely dangerous people, which meant that ZaiWin had to be extra careful, before deciding to openly confront them in any way.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hmm ... Somehow ZaiWin managed not to explode 🤯