Seal Unleashed (1)

Like he said, it only took a couple of seconds for Tian Kai to deal with the rest of the bandits.

And after the last one was killed off, Xue Chang had a scowl grow in his face.

"You!?" He was a little enraged right at this moment. His veil hid his expression from the others, but Tian Hai felt something was off.

"Xue Chang? Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine Tian Hai, just became a little shocked from the sudden bandit attack. I think I'll be resting for a while, wake me up when we arrive at our destination." He waved away the concerns and lied back in the carriage, closing his eyes.

But instead of falling asleep, his mind was somewhere else.

He was in purgatory facing Yong Heng.

"You've been taking souls haven't you?"

Yong Heng flashed an amiable smile and played dumb, "What do you mean?"

"The spirit seal that I swallowed all those years ago, I thought it was strange that it never left my body. It integrated with me and became a soul sucking device with my body as an intermediate. Every human that has died around me you have been collecting the souls of haven't you!?"

Under Xue Chang scrutinizing gaze, Yong Heng leisurely placed his hands behind his back.

"What's the problem? I was sure that this didn't go against your will. After all, you yourself are not using souls to supplement your weakness, instead it is I who am using such a precious resource."

Xue Chang stomped his foot down, "You can't do that! I thought after all these years you would change but you're still sneaking behind my back doing things like this!"

When the bandits had died, Xue Chang noticed that a strange source of energy was entering into his body. He did it notice this before but recently his senses had been heightened.

This source of energy was quite a familiar one, and after using his eyes unique ability that he had dubbed "heaven's eyes" he realized what was happening.

The souls of the fallen bandits were being absorbed into his body, and the culprits?

That was of course Yong Heng and the spirit seal he had swallowed in the past.

Yong Heng had always told him there were countless benefits to swallowing the souls of others, but he has always avoided it due to personal reasons.

But now he found out that he might've been an unknowing accomplice in a crime he specifically didn't want to commit made him angrier than usual.

He hated the feeling that he was being controlled by Yong Heng.

But contrary to his belief that Yong Heng would try to combat him on his preferences, he instead nodded understandingly.

"I know where you are coming from but I have a reason for what I do. What we are about to undertake will take a large amount of energy from the both of us. If we don't have some energy reserves prepared then things might become a little dire. Remember that I need to put some effort in protecting you from the effects of the world, plus I'll have to assist you partially in breaking the seal."

Yong Heng reasoned with Xue Chang carefully. He realized something very important about his host.

It was that he was a stubborn one! But not unreasonable, if he gave good points to back up his arguments then Xue Chang wouldn't complain.

"Besides, we aren't like those bastards who are refining the souls of others. Even I think they're goin too far with their inefficient and rough methods! Instead I'm just draining some energy from them and releasing the main essence of the soul. This way no injury is done to the spirit and it may return to the cycle of reincarnation."

"Cycle of reincarnation, refining? Wait a moment, what's the difference between what you do and what they do?"

"Well those barbarians methods would cause the soul to lose its identity. When the energy of the soul is depleted then what is left will become fragments of the original, causing their reincarnation to be halted or even destroyed. This is like wasting a renewable resource. On the other hand I just drain most of the soul's power before releasing it back into the cycle, this causes the spirit little damage."

Hearing Yong Heng's explanation did lighten Xue Chang's mood a little. Although the part about reincarnation still confused him a little, he accepted that some concepts were just too far fetched for him to understand. But he got the gist of it.

Basically what Yong Heng was doing was much better than what the mysterious group did.

But he still felt that it was distasteful.

"Alright, since it is a matter related to our survival I will let it pass just this once. But at least tell me if you do something like this again." Xue Chang and Yong Heng weren't on the best terms, but there was no doubt that they were in a situation where they had no choice but to trust each other.

After all, each depended on the other's success.

After finishing his conversation with Yong Heng, Xue Chang woke back up just in time.

They had finally arrived at the remains of the village.

The reason they chose to return to this place to unlock the seal was because of Yong Heng.

He claimed that since Xue Chang had done something over here that made it more suitable to unleash the seal.

Something about "beating back the heaven's will" or something similar, it was one of the few things Yong Heng said that Xue Chang didn't understand.

"No matter the case, what comes next doesn't change. Tian Kai! Tian Hai! Defend me. I will be meditating starting now."

The two guards nodded in understanding while prepping their weapons for battle.

Nothing ever goes right when it comes to Xue Chang.

But equally so, the rewards aren't normal either!