Shameless

"If you're no longer angry, then hurry, take this ice cream that I just bought for you before it melts down." She handed him the ice cream with a kind smile on her face. 

"Ughh... fine." The younger version of Ren Ying finally gave in as he took away the ice cream from Li Mei's hand carefully with little to no force for fear of hurting her.

He took a bite out of it and exclaimed with a less irritated tone, "It's so sweet."

"Is that right? I always knew you were a fan of sweet taste." Li Mei said while pointing at herself proudly.

Seeing this, Ren Ying eventually lost all his attitude while he slowly formed a smile on his face.

His vision moved slightly left and stopped, staring straight into the waving sea.

The sun set deeper, away from the sky; it looked as if the sun was disappearing into the unfathomable sea.

The falling sun cast its warm ruby light everywhere onto the shaky water, making it reflect a straight ray of lights far into its source and down to Ren Ying and Li Mei place, looking like a grand path toward a burning star.

His younger voice resounded out again, "The sunset at this time is so beautiful."

"It's incomparable to you, though." Li Mei teased softly as she let out a low laugh to cover up her embarrassment.

"I wish we could enjoy this scene together every day without anything stopping us." The younger Ren Ying expressed his desire while turning to look at Li Mei, ignoring her teases.

When she heard this, Li Mei turned her head to meet his gaze, with her gentle eyes filled with affectionate warmth, hinting at the depth of love she had for Ren Ying.

"Me too..." She replied in a tone full of hope.

Both of them smiled at each other lovingly while they reached their hands out to each other for a handhold.

Upon holding their hands together, they gazed far into the sea to continue watching the sunset together.

...

Back to the dim hidden room.

Ren Ying's tears slowly flowed down his face while the two-star Thunder Bat was getting closer to him.

He stood there motionlessly with no intention of fighting back as he shifted his entire focus in the real world to his flashback, enjoying his last moment with the memory of him and Li Mei watching sunset together back in his previous world.

And ultimately, the two-star Thunder Bat had finally arrived in front of his face.

The two-star Thunder Bat stopped its movement and stared at Ren Ying's face confusedly. This time, his prey didn't kneel down to beg for mercy, nor did he go insane, insulting his luck.

Instead, It saw Ren Ying smile sadly as his tears streamed down his face, hitting the ground from time to time, mixing together with his bloods.

Seeing such a sight made the two-star Thunder Bat lose its playful mood, as it realized its prey had given up on fighting back.

It raised its sharp claw and swung it down toward Ren Ying's defeated face.

But when its claw was about to be slashed deep into his face, an old voice appeared: "Dian Yi, stop!" Taking away most of the force in the two-star Thunder Bat deathly attack.

Still, three of its sharp claws went through Ren Ying's face easily, cutting open his face with three straight line wounds.

Ren Ying opened his eyes widely as he felt a new intense pain on his face, instantly taking him from his flashback back to the present moment.

"AHHHHHH!" Ren Ying screamed out loudly while he grabbed his face down with his hands trembling along with his whole body.

The loud screams echoed out around the room for a while.

But as time went on, his screams were becoming softer and softer, until the sound could no longer be heard throughout the place.

Ren Ying had gritted his teeth painfully as he gazed around to find the two-star Thunder Bat.

The clear sight had now turned blurry to him, as his eyes got affected by his loss of blood, including the intense pains that he had never felt before.

Ren Ying kept on turning until he saw the blurry figure of it.

He asked it confusedly, with a hint of anger toward it for waking him up from his flashback, "Why aren't you ending it yet?"

Rather than getting his answer from the beast, the same old voice surfaced again from the same place that the two-star Thunder Bat had appeared from: "Ending? What ending?"

Ren Ying turned his head up weakly in surprise toward the sound source.

"Huh? WHO ARE YOU?" He asked one out of the many questions that popped up inside him.

"Who am I?" The unknown being repeated his question as his voice position was getting lower.

Soon, Ren Ying saw a white, transparent soul with the appearance of the old man, flying down 'kindly' toward him.

"Who are you?" Ren Ying asked again with suspicion.

"You must be curious about my identity, right?" The old man answered his question with another question in a gentle tone.

"If not, I wouldn't be asking you that twice." Ren Ying replied while frowning as his patient had almost hit its bottom.

The old man's soul continued to descend down until he eventually got close to Ren Ying's head.

Ren Ying breathed deeply as his gaze locked on the old man's soul intensely.

"Hey... No need to look at me like this, I am not a bad guy." The old man's soul tried to soften up the atmosphere.

Which clearly didn't work out, as Ren Ying glared at him with more caution without uttering a word.

Seeing how stubborn Ren Ying was, he sighed hopelessly and began to introduce himself: "You can call me Yang Chen... I am now just a mere soul without any capability to harm you, as you can see because my original body had been destroye-"

"Are you the owner of this hidden room?" Ren Ying interrupted him with a painful look on his face.

"Ah... you are quite smart, aren't you? especially for interrupting an elder speech." Yang Chen praised him in a sarcastic tone.

Unexpectedly, Ren Ying's unfriendly expression and the coldness in his eye remained unchanged. 

Yang Chen laughed awkwardly as he gave out a serious answer: "Yes, I am indeed the one who leaves behind my stuff in this room built by myself."

Hearing this expected answer, Ren Ying gathered his remaining energies to utter another question, while enduring the pains in his body, "What is your intention for doing so?"

Yang Chen smiled unusually widely as he answered Ren Ying's question patiently, "Naturally, its to find a suitable and fated person to inherit my stuff."

"OH." Ren Ying replied positively despite getting a fishy answer from Yang Chen.

"Do you wonder why you happened to encounter a two-star beast here?" 

Without waiting for Ren Ying to answer, Yang Chen continued, "Its to find out whether your strength and character are worthy to become my disciple and inherit my stuff or not!"

"I had it set up specifically as a test for anybody who happened to find this place just like you."

"And now, after seeing you go through all of this with my own eyes, I could tell that you are the person that I have been waiting for after all these times."

"So, are you willing to become my disciple?" Yang Chen extended his small hand out toward the fragile Ren Ying below him.

"Is this true?" Ren Ying asked with difficulty as his blood flowed out non-stop from his entire body.

"Of course, I am telling you the truth. You just have to sign this contract, and I will treat you immediately." Yang Chen spoke in a gentle tone as he took out a scroll of contract and handed them out to Ren Ying.

He reached his hand out slowly to receive the scroll from Yang Chen's old soul.

Ren Ying opened it and read every line carefully without skipping any line. He knew every line on the contract scroll meant rules and the restriction he had to abide by after signing it with his blood.

Every time he read a new line in the scroll contract, his half-opened eyes kept widening bigger in surprise while his impression of Yang Chen was dropping down to a negative number.

'What disciple? Isn't this a slave contract?' Ren Ying thought as he clicked his tongue.

A while later, Ren Ying closed the scroll and held it hardly in his hand as he had gone through all of them for a few time.

There were many outrageous rules and restrictions inside the scroll, which made Ren Ying wonder if Yang Chen had given him the right one or not.

But thinking about the specific rules written inside, like sharing every piece of information that he had with Yang Chen if it benefited Yang Chen, never harming or having any ill intention toward Yang Chen, and doing everything for him without asking any questions, Ren Ying shook his head in denial.

'Seemed like its better to just die rather than signing this stupid contract.' He decided while looking at the hateful face of Yang Chen, smiling happily at the thought of abusing him.

An exhausted voice without any hope left surfaced, waking Yang Chen up from his evil plan: "Hmm, senior, I don't think I am worthy of being your disciple."