Choice (2)

Now that Shui had shown himself to them, four of the five men had pleasant smiles and thought their job would be over, but their leader thought differently. Even with Shui right in front of him, he looked somewhere else.

"Why don't you two come out as well?"

No one else knew who he was talking to until two masked men appeared from the location the leader stared at. Once they showed themselves, the leader laughed heartily and stood to face them.

"As expected of the personal guards of the heir to Fairies' Wardrobe, I don't think I'll be able to handle you two by myself. Rig! Yun! Ast!"

After the leader called three names, three of the men stood beside him and faced the two masked men. Shui had never seen these men before, but based off of the conversation, they were likely his guards. Hoping that this might allow for a happy ending, Shui got closer to Sia and held her hand in case they got the oppurtunity to escape. However, there was one man left looking at them and he was enough to block their path.

The two masked men and the four that wanted to kidnap Shui knew that their fight would damage him if it happened too close, so when the four men tried to push them away from the area, the two masked men reluctantly let it happen. As the shockwaves from that battle pounded on Shui's ears and skin, he remained staring at the man who started to move closer to them. His first instinct was to run away with Sia, but he found his body stuck under immense pressure. Forget moving, even breathing was laborious to him.

'Damn it! At least her!'

Shui let go of Sia's hand and hoped that she would run away, but she stepped in front of him and spread out her arms. She seemed to be under the same amount of pressure as him, but she could still move.

"W,hy?"

Since she could still move, Shui wanted her to run. However, Sia had two main reasons not to.

One, her brothers were still unconscious and laying on the ground. They were the only two members of her family left so she couldn't give up on them. As for the second reason,

"Shut up. We can't beat this guy so we at least have to hold out until your guards can rescue us. They might leave us alone once they get you, but I can't trust that. Besides,"

Sia's logic was something Shui wanted to refute with his entire heart, but the fragile smile she showed him as she turned her head made him speechless. This was the first time he had seen such a delicate expression from her. This was the first time that Shui thought she was weak.

"I just don't want to see you sacrifice yourself without doing anything."

That made a crack.

Seeing the girl stand in front of Shui didn't change the expression on the man's face. He got closer to the two and raised his left fist. Sia turned back to face him and readied her arms to block. During this time, Shui was screaming with everything he had.

"No! No! Don't do it! Please stop! She has nothing to do with this!"

However, neither one of them cared about his pleas. His screams did nothing to stop the fist that was aimed at Sia.

"Stop it! No! Don't do it!"

He tried to force his body to move despite the pressure, causing blood to spurt from his skin. It was a futile attempt. There was no one else for him to rely on, but he was too weak, so he could only accept this injustice.

'NO! I don't, I won't let you!'

Like the ominous start of a volcanic eruption, blood leaked from his orifices, quickly soaking his clothes and painting his skin red. If he kept pushing himself like this, then he would probably die even if Sia survived the attack, but that wasn't a concern. Only the determination to save her even if it meant going against fate drove him.

'Finally.'

From the bottom of his heart, Shui wanted to stop what was about to happen and that strong will reached the 'him' that was sleeping deep inside. The moment it did, their personas switched and 'he' was in control.

'Well done, me. I'll handle the rest.'

This trial was a test of Shui's heart and nature. If Shui didn't run here, if he didn't try to protect Sia, if he didn't want to save her from the bottom of his heart, the other Shui wouldn't have been able to come out. And so, this was both of their victories.

When the Shuis switched, the fist of a peak Soul Realm warrior was fast approaching. Though his soul was now in control, his body was still the same. He had a nebula two-star soul but he was still a mortal. In his current state, he could draw inscription symbols but he wouldn't be able to use them directly by drawing them mentally or in the air; his mortal body wouldn't be able to process the burden of the laws that the inscriptions represented. And he was here with nothing but his clothes and his money pouch, in other words, he had nothing to rely on but himself to go up against this attack.

However, Shui wasn't worried in the slightest. Although he didn't have his energy or body cultivation, there was something different about this body that allowed for a function that his real body didn't.

Since he still had the body of a mortal, Shui couldn't move his body, but that didn't pose any problems. Shui used mental control to pull Sia behind him and stared straight into the eyes of the man in front of him. Unlike in his real body, he could finally test an ability he wasn't able to, so a joyful but dangerous smile appeared on his face.

The moment the man's gaze met Shui's eyes, he froze in place and despite the reluctance that showed on his face, his right hand was moving towards his neck.

The eyes were the window to the soul, there was no lie in these words, especially for those with strong souls. In his current state, Shui's soul wasn't strong enough to overwhelm the man's soul, but not only was his guard down, he made the mistake of locking eyes with someone who had spent much time studying techniques using the soul. Shui had always been dissatisfied by the fact that he couldn't properly open his eyes and test out these soul techniques, but luckily he finally had an opportunity.

With their eyes as the medium, Shui had taken control over the man's body. The man's consciousness was still there so he had to constantly resist it while controlling him, but an amateur in soul techniques like him was no much for a scholar like Shui. This might have been his first soul battle, but there was no way Shui would lose.

As the man's hand got closer to his own neck, fear from knowing what would happen was clear in his eyes, but he no longer had enough control over his body to prevent this. He could only watch helplessly as his fingertips reached his neck, and dug into his throat. Then, with a quick twist, his neck was broken and his body fell to the ground. Shui would have honestly liked to experiment more with this soul encroaching technique, but the difference between the strength of their souls wasn't big enough for him to waste time like that.

"Shui..."

The way Sia looked at Shui had changed when she called him. She should have been the stronger party who was more used to this side of the world, but the same feeling that had made many mortals suffer was infiltrating her. It was fear of the unknown.

If he had more time, he would surely be able to address this issue, but this trial was over. A few seconds after the man died, Shui's world slowly became drenched in darkness and he found himself on a white path leading to a bright light. This trial had two parts and he had just beat the first one.

"I better go."

Though spending a moment to rest sounded like a nice idea, he didn't know how much time had passed in the outside world and he hadn't given up on making it back in time to help the clan. And so, he walked ahead in order to complete the trial as fast as he could.