14 - Second test

As Su Xue ran, she was carrying Su Tao's unconscious body, trying her best to not hurt him any more than he already was. After all, he was severely disadvantaged in that fight and she had only shown up at the end, otherwise she would have attacked those two men and helped him.

As she ran with him, he continuously spat out mouthfuls of blood, and it seemed to have no end in sight. At this point, blood had already covered most of her robes, but she did not care. This person in her arms was the only one she had ever seen who would let off people who attacked him without a second thought. On top of that, she could clearly tell that he was extremely intelligent and had a bright future.

The pill she put into his mouth was a high grade healing pill, and she usually saved them for when she was seriously injured. But at this point, Su Tao should have been on the brink of life and death. She could tell by the fact that he kept spitting blood that his broken ribs had punctured his lungs and he was choking on his own blood.

He was losing blood at an unbelievable pace not only from his punctured lungs but also through the many slices on his back from falling into a container of arrows and having his entire back littered with holes.

She rushed as fast as she could back to her own residence. Within a minute, they were already there, and Su Tao's face had gone pale white, and his breathing was shallow. Su Xue brought him inside and lied him on a bed, before getting another pill out of a nearby bag and shoving it into his mouth. It was clear that this pill was even more potent than the one she gave him earlier.

She then quickly propped Su Tao up and wrapped his entire torso with gauze strips, which instantly soaked with blood, turning a deep red. A lot of the bed was already covered in blood, but she did not care because she could just replace the sheets later. His whole body was pale white at this point, and he looked as if he could die at any moment, and yet he did not.

She wanted to keep watching him to make sure he was okay, but she had to wash all of his blood off of herself. She had already given him two valuable pills, and if they did not help him, then nothing could. There was nothing she could do for him by sitting here soaking in his own blood.

As such, she went into the washroom and took off the bloody clothes. Under her clothes was a beautiful and seductive figure that would make any man drool. But at the moment, her whole torso and a large portion of the rest of her body was covered in blood that was not her own.

She quickly filled the bathtub with hot water and submerged her beautiful figure into it. None of the blood had dried yet, so it floated off her body without any effort on her part. Even part of her hair had somehow been soaked in his blood.

After a couple moments, all of the blood was gone from her body and it had relaxed. As such, she got out of the bath and wrapped herself in a towel, drying off. Then, she went and found another pair of robes and put them on. Then she came out of the washroom and looked at Su Tao. He was even paler than before and looked to be on the brink of death.

She was confused because the pill she gave him should have started to have an effect by now, and it was a very high quality pill that should be able to brink someone back from the brink of death, let alone someone who was only bleeding out.

Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable. She felt like she was being watched, but not by Su Tao. It was a very different feeling, like someone was watching her, waiting to strike. Once someone reached the silver rank, they would rarely get the ability to detect someone's gaze, and Su Xue was one of the extremely few people to get that ability. It was kind of like an instinct, but a bit different.

She looked around, but there was no one else there aside from her. Then, she looked outside the nearest window and still saw no one. But she felt that no one would dare to attack her in her own home so she pushed that thought to the side for now.

Even if they did attack, she was in the core of the family and had several silver rank people within her immediate vicinity and she was not even that far away from several of the family's two silver star elders.

She was more preoccupied with keeping Su Tao alive, who now had extremely shallow breathing and ghostly white skin due to lack of blood. Little did she know that he was currently trapped in his own mind within the endless grassland once again.

Within the endless grassland, Su Tao looked small in comparison, as if an ant on a great oak tree. He was confused as to why he was here, but he did not question it since he knew the only way out was to overcome certain trials.

Then, suddenly, a purple book appeared in front of him, the same color as his holy left eye. It seemed to be the same type of book as last time, but this time it was for his left eye instead of his right. Without any hesitation, he grabbed the book and opened it.

It was a similar book, worded similarly, but at the same time completely different in meaning. The book said this: "Learn the way of the abomination. Do not mistake holy for good. Do not mistake wickedness for evil. Do not mistake kindness for good. Do not mistake unkind for bad.

The path of the abomination is holy and wicked. Kind but merciless. A balance of all that there is in this world.

Don't give in to desires. Don't be fooled by emotions. Harden your heart to sharpen your skill.

A demon is not fit to be called an abomination. A saint is not fit to be called an abomination.

Balance the chaos. Settle the scales."

The third line was basically the same as before but a bit different, which made sense, but the last two lines were entirely new. It got him thinking. If neither a demon or saint was fit to be called an abomination, then what was? Those were the specific powers of each of his eyes, so what would it mean to be an abomination if not either.

It was almost not possible to be both demonic and saintly. This was because they were exact opposites by definition, and being one meant that it was not possible show traits of the other, let alone have all the traits of both.

On top of that, one would normally think to balance the scales and settle the chaos, but the book instead said to settle the scales and balance the chaos, another thing which he did not understand.

Suddenly, while he was thinking, the book in his hand suddenly vanished into thin air. There was nothing there anymore but air. As such, he looked around at his surroundings expecting them to change like they did before, but they did not change at all.

Suddenly, he felt slightly weird. He felt his consciousness blur, and his emotions grow. He felt unsteady and felt like he might fall over at any time. His whole body felt warm and out of control. This feeling was extreme drunkenness, the likes of which no alcohol could achieve.

Suddenly, his sister appeared in front of him. The same loving face he had always aspired to be like, the only person he truly cared for in this life. At this moment, she was smiling at him, just the way she used to. His eyes teared up at seeing her once again, and he could not help but be extremely happy. His mind was so drunk that he did not even realize that it was not possible for her to be here because she was dead.

His sister's name was Su Yue, and her beauty was comparable to the most beautiful women in the city of silver sparrow.

Suddenly, the world around him and her changed, and she was on the street that their house sat on. Su Yue was running to the house where he was, but there were people following after her. They were chasing her, Su Tao realized, and they soon caught up to her. Su Yue had a panicked expression on her face, which was also riddled with fear and had tears in her eyes.

When he got a closer look, Su Tao realized that these people were guards, and when they reached Su Yue, they grabbed her arms and yanked her to the ground in a violent motion. This alone got Su Tao extremely angry, and he tried to attack the guards with a sloppy swing of his fist made purely out of anger, but the moment he tried to do so, they along with Su Yue disappeared from his view and reappeared where they had started from, with Su Yue running and the guards chasing her.

They once again caught up to her, and yanked her to the ground. As Su Tao was extremely drunk, he did not realize what was happening and only saw people hurting Su Yue, which once again triggered him to attack them out of pure anger. But the same thing happened again, and they disappeared and reappeared where they started, once again repeating the process.

This process repeated another hundred times before he finally changed his behavior even by the slightest bit. Due to his drunken state, he had muddy thoughts and did not manage to remember that this same thing had already happened before, but after doing it so many times, he finally started to act slightly different, not because he could remember it, but because he could subconsciously change his behavior even without remembering what happened.

But still, when he saw the guards grab Su Yue, anger overtook his mind, but this time, there was a slight difference to before. He managed to make a slightly better fist and aim it slightly better. But the difference was so minuscule that no one would be able to notice it.

Every time he attacked the guards, he got a little bit better at controlling himself even if he was acting only out of anger. By the thousandth time, he was able to actually process something other than someone hurting Su Yue, and that he should try to defend her instead of just blindly attacking them.

But still, his mind was overcome by anger every time he saw them touch her, and he had still not managed to actually remember to protect her in the midst of this extreme and overwhelming anger. And still, his fists had not managed to actually touch the guards, let alone defend Su Yue from them.

By the ten thousandth time time going through the same thing, he was able to somewhat remember to defend Su Yue, but he still could not possibly hope to stop himself from attacking the guards, even if he did have the slightest bit more control over himself.

By the hundred thousandth time, he was able to half remember to protect Su Yue, and he threw his fists at the guards slightly clumsily - half to get them off of her, half because he was overcome by the anger of them hurting Su Yue - but every time he was about to touch them and get them off of her, they all simply vanished and he forgot that this ever happened, leaving him to do the same thing again and again and again thousands of times without ever even knowing it.

But still, he could not manage to stop or slow himself from attacking the guards even in the slightest. At this point, he had done the same thing so many times that a whole week and a half had passed within the dimension without him even knowing.

The reason that it took him so long to learn the slightest bit was not only because he was feeling more drunk than anyone would ever be able to feel, but also because every time the situation repeated, he could not remember the last time that it did happen.

By the millionth time, he was able to pre-emptively run towards the guards before they reached Su Yue to defend her, but he was extremely drunk and was barely capable of moving the way he wanted without that surge of anger pushing his body to move instinctively rather than based on conscious choice. As such, he was extremely slow and stumbled constantly, making him incapable of reaching them before they reached her.

And still, when they reached Su Yue, that extreme flood of anger overwhelmed his mind and caused him to attack them full strength almost uncontrollably. When he was influenced by the anger, he was now fully able to remember to defend Su Yue and was capable of controlling his body mostly to do that, and he was finally able to partially stop himself from attacking the guards only out of anger and was instead able to slightly control his actions and use that anger to improve himself.

He was finally able to control a small portion of the anger he felt when he saw them grab her, but that did not mean he did not feel it. In fact, his anger only got stronger as he gained control of it. This was because he felt angry at himself for not being able to get to her fast enough every time they reached her first.

At this point, a long time had passed since the start of the second trial in the endless grassland, and he did not remember any of it. All he was capable of remembering was here and now, what was happening in the moment.

Little did he know that this was only the beginning. He would never expect this to be such a cruel process, but he had to go through it nonetheless. Luckily, for now, he could not remember it at all, so he only had to experience it one time each time he went through it, otherwise his will would have already failed him.