Back in Hell

There was one, though momentary, good thing about the weeklong stare contest Wei Sha and Lin Siniang had. The negative of losing it weighs on his mind, but at least his body received a well-deserved rest, and seeing as he needed to swim to the surface, it was a small positive.

Last time here, the surface of the Awakening Pool restricted him, yet as he had guessed, having bonded with a being it let him pass without a problem.

There was also another thing he came to note.

To get an explanation, Wei Sha put his arm against his mouth as he muttered, "Explain."

[I don't know anything else than that time doesn't work in the Awakening Pool] Lin Siniang 'explained'. And as bonded beings couldn't lie, he believed her.

"Wei Sha," Li Li called for him. "What happened!" Anyway, he had another matter demanding his attention.

Wei Sha, still in the water, looked up at his mother who leaned over the railing.

"I think I slipt," Wei Sha tried to laugh it off.

However, Li Li didn't laugh nor appear happy. In actuality, she seemed a little resentful, something she showed to him maybe once or twice a year.

From witnessing her expression, Wei Sha felt a sliver of him drift apart, and it made him dejected. "I was careless. It will not happen again."

"What is important now is that you produce a good explanation, not to me." She glanced away from him for a second. "But to your father."

Wei Sha, pulling himself over the railing, agreed with her.

"Your body, what the hell." As he did so, Li Li stopped him midway by taking hold of his shoulder with one hand and shoving his hair, obstructing her sight away with the other.

"An accident," Wei Sha was quick to explain.

"An accident?"

"Yes, an accident."

Wei Sha felt Li Li push her finger against the hole in his neck. Rather painful, but he made sure not to cry.

"Okay." She let go and patted his back. "Whatever, the man says," she humoured.

His immediate problems didn't end there. Other people had noticed his slip, and one of these people was Wei Ba.

"So you are training to be a shield?"

Wei Sha cocked his head, trying to think why Wei Ba called him that. 'Oh right,' he remembered how he had threatened this duo of thugs with his scales.

"At least I have something going for me." It wasn't the best retort, but he had nothing else.

His retort only worsened, however, as Wei Bo re-surfaced seconds later.

"THE GATE! WARRIORS TO THE GATE!"

Everyone's focus went from the Family-Heads fighting to stare at the person shouting with such vigour and emotion.

As his head turned, Wei Sha picked up gasps and cheers coming from the audience.

'That's not good.'

[Meh]

Wei Bo hadn't found a creature, but a being.

The youth himself dived out of the water with his jet-black hair trickling droplets of water while the being Wei Sha recognised as a Hell Captain, if not Hell General roared orders.

"CAN'T YOU HEAR ME!" Wei Bo's bonded being continued to shout till it came faced with the reality of the situation.

"Return," Wei Bo spoke and the being tall as a house warped out of existence.

'Just don't look.' Wei Sha, having long since decided to stay low, tried not to start a scene with his half-brothers. To achieve this, he looked away from Wei Bo, at the Family-Heads to be exact.

"Brother Bo, Wei Sha slipped into the Awakening Pool." Of course, this wasn't much in his control.

Still, Wei Sha tried his best to act aloof.

"Oh, really now?" Wei Sha could hear Wei Bo walk closer by the sloshing of liquid under his brother's feet.

"Look at him, his all wet."

"Yeah." Wei Bo jumped over the railing, placing his hand on Wei Sha's shoulder. "Brother, what did you bond with?"

'This is going to hurt,' Wei Sha thought as he turned to face them.

"A lava creature," he responded to his two brothers' with broad smirks on their faces.

"Wow!"

"So cool,"

They made it sound like it was something great, though Wei Sha knew they just wanted to attract everyone's attention so all would see the humiliation they were about to present.

At the end of his options, Wei Sha played the card he could. "Wei Ba, are you boasting on your brother's success?"

"Clever." Wei Ba pointed a finger at him.

Wei Sha shrugged his shoulders. "Well, are you, or are you not?" he asked, trying to appear calm and collected.

His counter-offensive wasn't really based; however, Wei Ba's next action was a real mistake.

The mad man, in front of everyone, jumped into the Awakening Pool!

"I'll show you," Wei Ba declared.

Wei Sha and Wei Bo acted to stop him,

"Brother don't."

"Get him." Even Wei Sha wouldn't let him perform such a moronic feat in front of the other families, and so tried to catch him with Wei Bo.

They weren't fast enough, only managing to clutch onto Wei Ba's robes, and so they were left with pieces of it in their hands as he submerged.

The two half-brothers, having their top halves extended over the railing, locked their gazes for a second.

In that moment they stared at each other, Wei Sha could see Wei Bo roll his eyeballs in frustration before going back to his old tune.

"He'll show you," Wei Bo said, retrieving himself into a proper stance.

Wei Sha did the same, although taking a different stance. "I'm not so sure." If Wei Bo kept his antagonistic tone, he would return with the same tone as before.

Their small squabble did gather some attention from the people nearby, not what Wei Sha wanted. But if Wei Ba failed he could gain back the prestige he had lost so far.

A few threats hidden inside insignificant sentences later, Wei Ba re-surfaced.

Wei Sha kept his face on Wei Bo as his eye went over to Wei Ba, making his way over to them.

To his increasing bad luck, it appeared Wei Ba's steps were confident, and he tried to hide a sly smile.

With a single hop, Wei Ba got himself out of the Awakening Pool and onto Wei Sha's other side.

Pinned from two sides like this made Wei Sha uneasy. 'This can't mean anything good.' He knew where this would be going, and he had no way to stop it if he wanted to keep Lin Siniang a secret.

"Who goes first?" Wei Ba asked him.

"I'll go first." Wei Sha raised his hand. "Rise."

Lin Siniang emerged from Wei Sha's soul space to hover above his open palm.

'Thank the gods she's smart,' Wei Sha sighed in relief as he saw her appeared in the form of a bubble, not the human figure which used his powers.

"That's one puny bubble."

"Can it do anything else than be a torch?"

Wei Sha's half-brothers, of course, didn't show any appreciation towards the being who had created them.

"Well--" Wei Sha was going to state some random bullshit; however, he paused his words when Lin Siniang transformed into a knife and threatened Wei Bo's throat.

"Well," he repeated and grabbed the knife's handle. "It can transform at my will."

Wei Bo, who was distancing his head from the blade's tip, asked, "Does it have a mind of its own?"

"No," Wei Sha lied on the spot because answering 'yes' would have meant he had, in essence, a sentient sword. Right now, everyone was taking notes of the creatures and beings the youths had bonded with, and a sentient sword wouldn't have gone dismissed.

'lie low, bide time.'

Wei Sha withdrew Lin Siniang, who might have wanted to slice Wei Bo's throat for real while asking, "What about Brother Wei Ba? Your turn."

"Rise," Wei Ba said, and behind him surged a creature, no, a being similar to Wei Bo's.

'Of course.' Wei Sha's jaw dropped a bit. 'Weren't beings supposed to be super rare? A once in ten-thousand miracles?' Somehow, the two brothers had managed to catch identical beings.

The situation kept on worsening as surges of wind began fluttering their clothes, and with winds like this came Wei Dai.

"What's going on here?" Wei Dai questioned while descending onto the ground to tower over Wei Sha and his half-brothers.

"We were checking out our bonded creatures," Wei Ba was quick to answer, and behind him, his bonded creature waved at Wei Dai.

Wei Dai, hearing them having done something he hadn't told, began, "Did I tell you to--" Then he noticed the being wave at him. "A Hell General?" The anger in his tone vanished right there and then.

"Rise," Wei Bo called for his bonded being. And soon another Hell General appeared next to the other.

Wei Dai's anger disappeared completely; he even laughed.

"This is what I expect from a son of mine!"

Wei Sha, recognising things go down south fast, sought to hide his presence from them. Yet like before, this wasn't in his power if his half-brothers decided so.

"We also had a little bet here with Wei Sha."

"Yeah, about who would bond with the better creature."

'Shit.' This was the very thing he wanted to avoid.

"Oh, really?" Wei Dai took his eyes to him, and so did everyone else in a hundred-meter radius. "Wei Sha, what did you find?"

Sensing the pressure mounting on him, Wei Sha was forced to summon Lin Siniang out again.