The Strange Orb - Blood Link.

Shu He held the object up towards the light, no matter how he turned it, it was like it was a perfect dark circle, the light couldn't shine on it no matter what.

'It's like it's been painted in Vantablack paint… how odd, what is it?' He put some pressure on it, yet it didn't give way, it was much harder than a normal rock, it was also incredibly dense, he was pushing in to it with his sense, but it was taking a long time, plus a lot of effort, but he felt like he needed to learn more about this strange sphere.

He turned to look at the other two in the room, they were also staring at the object with interest.

"Do either of you know what this is?" He asked, hopeful.

Bai Lian shook her head "I thought you knew since you found it, I've never seen such an odd stone before…" her head tilted "Though…" her eyes narrowed with confusion "Why does it seem familiar…?" she murmured as she silently stared.

"I feel like I've seen something similar before…" Na Xue pressed on her lips as she fell in to thought "That colour, I may or may not remember… no, is it the same? It's lighter…" her brow creased.

"Do you have an idea?" Shu He urged her to talk.

"Not quite… I can't be sure whether it's the same thing…" she shook her head "No it's not the same, but it's oddly similar…" she reached out, holding her hand towards Shu He.

He glanced at the orb before placing It in her hand, she brought it towards her chest as she cupped it and focused, the room was silent for a minute as drop of sweat fell from Na Xue's brow, eventually she breathed out a heavy breath and sighed.

"It's no use, I can't see if anything is inside… this stone blocks QI, it's almost like a seal…" she placed it on the table in front of Shu He who picked it back up, he had noticed the same, the Earth's Pulse technique was a Qi technique, that's why the stone showed up as a black circle in the technique.

"Should we try to break it open?" Bai Lian suggested, seeing they were at an impasse.

"No! We don't know what is inside, it could be valuable and break easily, but it could also be volatile and create a disaster!" Na Xue immediately rejected the idea; her expression gave away that she had experienced such things in the past.

"Senior Sister is right, besides we're not out of options quite yet" Shu He said as he began to focus, his territory shrunk as he began to focus penetrating the small orb, his head began to ring in pain yet he persisted, his 'Sense' slowly but surely penetrated the rock.

'A little more!' his eyes turned slightly red, penetrating such a thick material was stressful on him, but he was insistent on discovering what it was.

Eventually he touched something with his sense, it was like a brick wall, he couldn't go any further no matter how much he tried, rather he felt like if he forced it something bad would happen!

His eyes lit up as he discovered this! Instead of forcing in, he began to trace around the object, after a full 10 minutes of silence, he saw it, or well its silhouette within his sight.

It was a four-point star, sharp and precisely formed, it was tiny, barely bigger than a fingernail.

Shu He couldn't help but let out a smile, just seeing the shape made him excited, but then he hit another wall.

'How am I going to extract it?'

He could tell that the stone was densest on the outside which he found odd, but it was the same for its Qi resistance, he felt like could use an earth extraction technique to hollow it out, then break the outer walls, but his proficiency with the element was too small! If he accidentally broke the item, he had no idea what could happen.

He grit his teeth in frustration, was he going to be stuck at this step?

'If only I could lend someone my senses, but the only one I can do that with is Shu Xue…' he sunk in to thought for a second, before a spark went off in his mind as he glanced over at Na Xue.

"What is it?" She tilted her head in confusion.

'I could try but…' He started at Na Xue for while causing her to become slightly flustered.

"What do you want?" She asked again, feeling awkward.

"Give me your hand" Shu He asked out of nowhere.

"Huh? Okay…" She did so without much hesitation.

Bai Lian's mouth opened in surprise before she covered it with her sleeve and watched on with interest.

"You're skilled with earth techniques, right Senior Sister?".

"Right, but I just said that rock repels my Qi, didn't I?".

Shu He didn't reply, instead he spread his territory and engulfed Na Xue, and then he began to focus; When he shares his sense with Shu Xue it comes naturally to him because they have a deep connection that exists all the way down to the soul, normally he wouldn't think of trying it with another person, but in a way Na Xue does have a connection to him.

She has his blood.

If there's one thing he understood, it was that willingly giving blood wasn't a simple action, and the chimera bloods placed great important on the consumption of blood, to the point that the blood they consumed must either come from prey or their partner.

It makes sense then, that the blood creates more than just a bloodline… it creates a connection, even if it was weak right now.

Eventually, Shu He's eyes flashed.

'There it is!'

It was weak, but he felt a vague string tying the two of them together, his territory's aura shot along that string before joining the two of them together.

A glimmer of gold overcame Na Xue's pupil for a moment as her eyes widened in shock.

"This?!" She couldn't help but exclaim, yet she went silent as she stared as Shu He wide eyed, for the first time she was truly surprised by this junior of hers, she didn't understand what was happening at all but a warm feeling overcame her body as her senses began to see things she couldn't before.

"Focus on the sphere" Shu He reminded her, his brow began to show beads of sweat, this was taxing for him.

Her eyes locked on the sphere and she saw the outline inside of it, her eyes glimmered brightly as a hint of recognition grew in them, without waiting another moment she placed her hands on the sphere that was resting in Shu He's hands and channelled her Qi, it was like the thick stone didn't exist as it saturated the area around the object.

Her breathing became heavy as she tried to hold in her surprise, and she activated the extraction technique.

*CRACK*

The thick rock turned to dust inside out as the outer shell cracked, in that very instant Shu He stopped the link and restrained his territory, he let out heavily laboured breaths as he stared deeply at the round object in his palms.

"You did it?!" Bai Lian moved closer, excited to see what was inside, oblivious to the storm that was brewing in Na Xue's mind at this moment.

Na Xue steadily sat down as she hands shook, she had went along with it yet what she saw lit a fire inside of her, as she looked in to Shu He's eyes he looked in to hers, her heart shook.

She could tell, his eyes conveyed a message perfectly.

"Don't tell anyone!"

She gulped inaudibly, even though Shu He was younger than her, she felt an odd pressure from that stare; But she didn't care, she didn't intend to tell anyone anyway!

Instead, what appeared in her eyes a an ever so slight hint of willingness.

*crack*

With a small audible crumble, the outer shell fell apart as dark grey sand fell, Shu He reacted quickly and pulled an empty container from his robe and caught as much of it as he could before storing it, he didn't know what it was but the ability to supress Qi was interesting.

However, in the end what was the most important thing was the object lying in his palm.

It was the tiny four-pointed star he had seen before, yet its appearance caused him to forget to breathe, one word –

Beautiful!

The little star was pure black in colour, yet it seemed to shimmer with ever colour of the rainbow as if it had a moving world inside its tiny form.

As he stared at it, he felt his Qi slowly move towards the item.

'It wants to absorb my Qi?' He was slightly cautious, yet in the next moment he felt his Qi surge towards it as the light refractions on the star became resplendent!

"What?!" He felt his Qi drain away faster than he could control it, strands of Golden Qi even rushed towards it which may have been his saving grace, as the suction suddenly stopped.

He stared at the star which was brighter than before as he felt an odd distortion at the tip of the star's centre, his eyes widened as he felt his territory rush into that small dot like it was a gateway!

Inside… was a small area covered in crystals that shone with rainbow lights, a small, hollowed cavern!

'What is this?!' he almost screamed in his mind; this was far beyond his expectations.

"I was right!" Na Xue stared at the small star excitedly.

"You know what this is?!".

"It's not the same shape as the one I know about, but I remember hearing about this long ago… if I remember correctly, this should be a Spatial Geode!".