Hello there! Please read the author note at the end of the chapter!

Holy Orchid Institute; Shin Pov

The training grounds were established by the Legend rank Demon Spiritualist Ye Mo and the principal of the school who is a Black Gold rank. These grounds were established especially for the students below the Silver rank so that they could hunt some demon beast and get fur, demon crystals and various other materials.

Right now in those same training grounds a shadow could be seen jumping from branch to branch, the shadow was Shin wearing a thigh black robe and black pants all with small parts of red all around the edges.

Stopping, he looked at his right before he grabbed the sword at his hip and swung it downwards towards a small bush.

'Ethereal Flow'

As a red arc of energy left his sword an horned sheep jumped from the bush with a large wound on its side immediately glaring at Shin who took advantage of the higher ground to lift the sword once again and swinging down as another arc of energy attacked the sheep who could only emit a small sound of surprise before the arc cleaved the demon head in two.

"Huff, that makes it the third for tonight, Should I go back or try to search for another."

While thinking that Shin started to mindlessly cut up the sheep harvesting all the important materials up, fortunately or unfortunately almost everything could be harvested and sold in the market and while the amount of money gained wouldn't really do any difference for him he thought that while he was there he could take it back and send the money back home for any of the clan members that could have some uses for it.

"Now for the blood… Up!"

Moving his hand in a small hand sign he saw all the blood of the demon beast float up in the sky and in a sudden movement with his right hand he held up a small pill bottle while with his left he used his index and middle finger to move the blood into the bottle until none was left outside.

The reason why he was collecting the blood was because the blood of a demon beast was one of the main ingredient for one of the pills that the Akagawa produced, This pill was called Demon Beast Blood essence and this pill was used to increase the natural talent of a demon beast, while it wasn't know yet in Glory city each demon beast like each cultivator had different tiers of talents and the Akagawa had a way to calculate it and divide them depending on that plus with the pill they would be able to bring the natural talent up to another level and while it was mostly successful it was also a lot inefficient and it couldn't be done more than one time each three to ten days depending on how much the talent increase or the demon spirit could suffer harm and even get crippled in some cases.

'I've yet to check what rank this Blood Ba Serpent is but as soon as I do I already have prepared some pills to help it increase no matter what tallent it is.'

While it was a great pill most cultivator decided to simply search for an already strong demon spirit with great talent instead of cultivating one simply because of the resources and time one would need to bring a demon spirit from the lowest to the highest and these tiers go from Poor, Ordinary, Good, Excellent, Extraordinary and God.

"Well, let's quickly hunt this last one and go to rest."

Saying so, Shin jumped in a random direction but stopped only after a couple of jumps, there in an opening stood a girl circulating Soul force that could be seen with the naked eyes as an azure aura surrounded her.

'Mmh? Training in the middle of the night?'

Stopping in a branch at a short distance from the girl, Shin sat down with a curious expression.

"Shouldn't you stop training at this hour and get your illness treated?"

Finally deciding to help her he asked out loud and had to hold in his snort of amusement as he saw her panicky take a knife and look around only for her eyes to stop in the branch where he was seated.

"You… You are one of my classmates right?"

Still holding the knife she asked with furrowed brows as she tried to recall his name only to fail, she remembered him as the last guy to join that other kid, Nie Li's, group and she even remembered him talking badly to the teacher and her not actually talking back but just resuming her lesson.

'If my guess is correct he could actually be the genius that reached the Third Star.'

Shin just pointed towards her feet as what he said next shocked her.

"Don't your feet feel hot like they're burning every time night falls. Plus at midnight you should suffer greatly like you've been submerged in ice and even when you cultivate you shouldn't muster much strength to do it, right?"

Gripping the knife more strongly she looked at Shin as if she just found out he betrayed her.

"How do you know that?"

Even when her voice almost failed to come out she still held strong as a small sensation of hope started bubbling in her, even then she could stare in confusion as Shin pointed at the moon high in the sky and after seeing her being confused he sighed before explaining.

"The Arctic Disease is an illness that is often caused by training at night, normally the symptom can vary from small pains like the one I listed before to bruises on the various parts of the body and if not cured the cultivator could even explode or be cripled as they reach the next rank of their cultivation."

Each word that Shin said served only to stomp on the feeling of hope and burn them with the feeling of desperation and dread as she thought back at how her symptoms definitely seemed those of the later stages of the illness.

"You're saying that in order to not marry a someone like Shen Fei, in order to take control of my destiny and my life, even after spending so much effort and time cultivating renouncing any type of rest… Even after almost reaching the First star… I ….I"

There her words died out as the knife she was previously holding fell on the ground, it was with that that finally Shin recognized her, She was Xiao NIng'er the daughter of the Winged Dragon family and the same girl that was sold off in an arranged marriage to save her own family from bankruptcy.

"Wait wait! It's not like there is no hope, like they saying Heaven always leaves a path open!"

Noticing his error in his wording he immediately tried to get Ning'er attention so that she couldn't stray into dangerous thoughts, sighing internally as he saw Ning'er look at him he continued.

"There is a cure for this and it's not even that difficult."

Hope returned in her eyes as Shin decided to drop down from the branch to stand at her own level.

"It just so happens that a lot of cultivation techniques of my clan require you to train in the nights and because of that we developed a lot of ways to cure this disease and especially it isn't a problem since we normally treat it as soon as the symptom appears."

Taking out a small red box he passed to the stunned Ning'er as she absentmindedly took it.

"When you return, take this pill it will help you heal not only from the disease but it should also help stabilize your soul force and soul realm, also if you can you should try to find someone to execute the Daoyin technique on you for a few days and massage the bruised areas."

She listened carefully to each word before slowly opening the box only to be stunned again at the content, inside there was a Blood Recovering Pill and while it was almost impossible for someone of their family to get one, she actually saw it once when her father showed it to her after the young patriarch gave it to him as a present, the same young patriarch that supposedly was the genius in her class as everyone hear his name being called.

"Wait, are you the Akagawa's…"

She couldn't even bring herself to continue her question as part of her already knew the answer but instead of an answer she just received his smile as he closed the box on her hand.

"You can just call me Shin and don't worry about the pill. I have a couple more in my ring."

While it was a sentence that she already heard a lot of times coming from other young masters and sometimes elders trying to show off their false wealth this time she couldn't feel any of the pride, greed or any other negative emotion as that sentence was just the truth said by someone that didn't want to stand out.

"Well it's better if we return right now, I'll be taking my leave first."

Cupping his hands he was about to leave only for her to instinctively reach out to him and grab the hem of his robe stopping him and as he turned around she immediately let go confused at her own action.

"S-Sorry! I just wanted to ask… Do you know the Daoyin technique?"

Trying to find a question in a hurry she had to hold her smile as she was able to come up with an excuse for her previous action, something that Shin noticed but decided to not say anything about.

"Unfortunately I don't really know it since we use something a little different from that technique."

Not at all discouraged from that, she still persisted much to Shin's surprise.

"Then, if it is not a problem… could you use that technique on me?"

She asked and in not even a second she felt her face heat up at the implication of her question and immediately continued to try to not create any strange misunderstanding.

"I mean! Not even the family doctor was able to identify the illness so I'm sure that no one will know about any way to treat it."

Shin finally understood and nodded his head only to stop as he thought of something.

"While our technique has less intimate contact unlike the Daoyin technique it will still be necessary for you to show me your back as I will have to redirect the flux of your soul force front here… Well I should normally do it from the front but I think we both know that there are a lot of problems with that."

Ning'er stopped for a second before a small pink hue appeared on her cheeks before she looked at him with a determinate gaze.

"I don't mind, after all you are just treating me right? Plus the only other way would be to travel up to your clan territory and stay there for a few days resulting in the slow down of my studies."

Saying so she hesitated for a second before turning around and sitting down much to Shin's surprise.

'How did it come to this again?'

Shaking his head he decided to simply take it seriously and keep the promise that he made with the Winged Dragon family's patriarch.

"Alright, there is no need to completely take off your shirt, as long as you leave your back open it will be fine."

Ning'er, who was about to fully take off her shirt stopped and while a small part of her felt some dissatisfaction she complied and covered her front with her shirt so that she could unbind the cloth covering her breast.

"Is this alright?"

Unknowingly to her that was the same question Shin asked himself as he watched Ning'er almost undressed sitting right under him looking back at him with an embarrassed expression and too shy to actually meet his eyes.

'Am I some sort of villain here? Why does it feel like I'm doing something illegal?'

Shaking those thoughts out of his head he put his left hand in front of him with the palm toward her back and the right hand, with the index and middle finger, started to trace unseen veins where soul force traveled while also injecting a really small amount of his own soul force.

The two then fell into a deep silence as Shin was fully concentrated on the task at hand while Ning'er was still thinking at how this whole situation has come to be, on one side she couldn't be more grateful at how Shin was doing his best to help her at the other hand she really didn't feel that she deserved his kindness.

'Even though we never even talked he is still taking time out of his day to treat me without actually asking for anything in return..'

Part of her almost wished that he asked something in return at least that she could repay him without having to feel this troubled.

"Mmh!"

"Ah, sorry if it hurts but since I have to move a lot of soul force you will feel some strain on your back, just try to relax and not try to move your soul force."

Hearing his voice right behind her, almost a whisper trying to calm her down, she relaxed her muscles as she could feel her soul force start to move in and out of her back starting to circle all around her body.

'Eh? My soul force is increasing?'

She could feel small droplets of tears starting to gather on her eyes but she simply bit her cheek and resisted not waiting to disturb and trouble Shin.

The time passed as and as if to broke the trance like state that the both of them entered a small amount of aura exploded outward from Ning'er as she could could only look at her hands in disbelief, not only she broke through but she felt better than she ever felt in the last few month, all of her Soul force was circulating almost by itself only giving her a refreshing sensation.

"Congratulations on breaking through!"

Hearing the voice of the man that made all of this possible she almost stood up only stopping once she realized her state of undress.

"Most of the bad energy is gone for now. It's better if you stop training for at least three days, the pill will take care of the bruises and other physical pain but in four day of time let's meet again so that I can finish your treatment."

Turning her head she could only nod as Shin looked at her as if making sure she was ok before smiling briefly and patting her head, only to stop much to her displeasure.

"Ah sorry, I normally help the young kids of my clan with this same problem or with training and always end up patting them on the head, it seems my hand acted without thinking. Anyway I'll take my leave right now, you should take it easy tomorrow and rest at your house."

Saying so he stretched his back before turning around and jumping away, not trusting his face to look back at her.

'Still… I've ended up helping her huh?'

Sill remembering the sorrow filled expression with the empty light-brown eyes almost covered by her long orange hairs he couldn't almost contain his rage toward the Sacred family and the Winged Dragon family, he knew why this did happened and knew that this was also normal in this city where a lot of different families lived but that didn't mean that he could accept it easily, especially if the one to do it was the Sacred family, he already knew that in the future he will end up fighting with that family so he wasn't that against getting dragged into all this trouble, even if the time was few he was sure that a girl like Ning'er was wasted for anyone form that family.

'I should prepare for the teasing I will receive from the other as soon as they hear what happened…'

While he could keep it a secret from them he decided that he wouldn't keep anything a secret from his own people especially the great elders as they will be the one to help him in his plan to to stop this marriage.

'If I count also the teacher then this would be two people from the sacred family that I will end up fighting with.'

Strangely enough he could only smirk at the thought, the Sacred family was strong but as long as he didn't do anything drastic he could keep increasing the strength of his clan and his own self.

'In the future the Sacred family will be able only to bow down in defeat, Maybe I should send Daisuke on a training trip outside the walls..'

Deciding to bring that up later he returned to his dorm finally to sleep and rest for the day.

Hello, Hello! I am still much alive, I wasn't able to write much since I was drawing at work plus with my brother moving and me helping along with the birthday of my other brother I really couldn't find time to write.

I know it's a really short chapter (But it has a great personality…), but I had to rewrite it a couple of times since I was never satisfied with how it came out at the end I decided to simply opt for a more Ning oriented chap, plus I wanted to at least show that I'm still alive even if it was through a small chapter.

Next chapter should hopefully come out in the incoming days, hopefully before the weekend but I won't make any promises, just look forward to it.

If you find anything that you didn't like please don't hesitate to write a review and about that I actually got my first review… I'm so happy.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!