Chapter 109: Villa

After Xiaorou disappeared along the residential road, the three of them remained before their newly assigned villas, looking between the buildings and one another with strange expressions.

Xingluo looked at the residence pass in her hand before raising her eyes toward the two-storey villa. "This is seriously supposed to be a dormitory?"

Ruan Mei glanced toward her own villa, then toward Xingluo's, before giving a small nod. "Sleeping alone in something this big feels a little strange.

" The two girls looked at each other before speaking almost at the same time. "Let's sleep in the same villa tonight."

Both smiled, but Tianhe looked between them with an empty expression. "You two really forgot about me that quickly?"

Ruan Mei slowly turned toward him and looked him up and down."What use are you?"

Tianhe placed one hand against his chest. "I am very strong, so naturally I can stay nearby and protect both of you."

Ruan Mei scoffed before pointing toward Xingluo.

"Who in the right mind is going to attack us inside Dragon Military Academy, and even if someone does, I think we need help from the person who defeated a beast two hundred levels above herself, not you."

Tianhe coughed and looked away for a moment, but his embarrassment disappeared almost immediately as he nodded with complete seriousness.

"Indeed, someone weak like me definitely requires protection, so please protect me too, Senior."

Xingluo stared at him while Ruan Mei became speechless, and Wuxia finally laughed after watching Tianhe abandon his dignity without hesitation. His gaze moved toward Ruan Mei before returning to Tianhe.

The bastard had been looking toward her far more often than usual since they met, so his sudden interest in shared accommodation was not difficult to understand.

Xingluo sighed and started walking toward her villa. "Fine, you can stay in one of the rooms downstairs, but don't come upstairs unless one of us calls you."

Tianhe nodded so quickly that Ruan Mei looked at him suspiciously. "Why did you agree that fast?"

"Because I respect boundaries." Ruan Mei stared at him before replying without hesitation, "You don't even respect embarrassment.

" Tianhe ignored that completely and followed them through the courtyard, while Xingluo unlocked the villa and pushed open the front door.

The interior was considerably more comfortable than any student residence Xingluo had seen before.

A large living room occupied most of the first floor, with dark wooden furniture, a wide kitchen, and tall windows overlooking the quiet private training courtyard.

The academy had stocked the kitchen, and several sealed ingredient boxes rested beside the cooking array, which immediately caught Ruan Mei's attention before she remembered how tired she was.

Even the walls carried adjustable defensive formations, making the place feel closer to a training residence than anything Xingluo would normally call a dorm.

A curved staircase led upstairs, while several doors opened into storage rooms and two additional bedrooms below.

Tianhe chose the room nearest the staircase, Ruan Mei watched him place his things inside and raised an eyebrow. "You really settled in quickly."

Ruan Mei stared at him for a moment before turning away, and Xingluo laughed quietly as she climbed the stairs.

Three bedrooms waited above, each larger than her old dorm room at Beichen University and Ruan Mei chose the room opposite hers before disappearing inside.

Xingluo entered her room, threw her bag aside and collapsed face-first onto the bed, immediately pulling a pillow beneath her head with every intention of ignoring the world until morning.

Wuxia floated in behind her and looked directly toward the storage ring on her finger.

Xingluo noticed without raising her head. "Tomorrow." Wuxia continued looking toward the ring before answering through the Anchor Link. Take out the ring.

"No," Xingluo replied immediately, and Wuxia only called her name through the link. Xingluo. She rolled onto her back and looked at him with tired irritation.

"I fought a King-bloodline Hell Hound, got thrown across an arena more times than I counted, spent forty million credits on a corpse because you wanted it, and now you are not even letting me sleep?"

Wuxia remained unmoved. That corpse looked directly at me while nobody else could see me, so yes, I would prefer not to wait until tomorrow.

Xingluo stared at him before pulling the pillow over her face. "Ha Is that corpse so important now."

And you are delaying the reason you nearly got yourself killed earning Contribution Points.

Xingluo lowered the pillow and gave him a flat look, but Wuxia only smiled faintly.

After several seconds, she finally sat up with a tired groan and removed the storage ring from her finger. "Fine, but if this thing starts leaking blood on my new floor, you are explaining it to the academy."

Wuxia ignored the threat and moved toward the open space beside the bed as Xingluo activated the villa's privacy formation before releasing the contents of the ring.

Cold mist spread across the floor as the Veyran's corpse appeared, preserved almost exactly as Jiang Yue had left it.

The wound beneath its jaw still passed through the skull, while dark markings remained across its grey skin. Xingluo folded her arms while looking down at it. "It somehow looks even stranger inside my bedroom."

Wuxia had already activated Death Perception and this time the distance allowed him to examine the creature far more clearly than he had inside the arena.

The Veyran's soul had weakened but not dispersed, while the unfamiliar structures remained around its spiritual core.

From this close, they looked less like natural parts of its soul and more like black runes pressed into it. Those markings aren't natural.

Xingluo's expression became more serious as she looked toward him. "Can you remove them?"

I don't know yet. Wuxia raised one hand and Monarch Threads spread from his fingers before entering the corpse.

The body trembled slightly as dark soul power gathered above it, and after several breaths, the outline of the Veyran slowly separated from its remains.

Its soul formed more cleanly than the beasts Wuxia had extracted before, with its face, limbs and markings remaining recognizable.

The moment its eyes opened, they immediately locked onto Wuxia. Xingluo noticed the movement and leaned forward slightly. "It still remembers you."

Wuxia did not answer because the Veyran had already lowered itself onto one knee before him.

There was no confusion in its eyes, only clear awareness, making the extraction stranger than anything he had attempted before.

The Veyran opened its mouth and tried to speak, but the first sound came out broken and rough. "Va...kh..." Wuxia moved closer and focused upon it. "What are you trying to say?"

The Veyran's expression twisted suddenly as every black rune surrounding its soul lit up at the same time, a system panel appeared before Wuxia before he could react.

[Death Seal detected.]

[Soul Extraction has been forcibly interrupted.]

[Seal destruction sequence detected.]

Wuxia's expression tightened as he immediately looked toward Xingluo. "Xingluo, move back."

She reacted immediately and stepped away from the corpse, while Wuxia sent several threads toward the Veyran's soul in an attempt to restrain the spreading runes.

The Threads touched the seal and disappeared almost instantly, black cracks spread across the Veyran's soul from its chest toward its neck and limbs, while its body began shaking hard enough that the surrounding soul power became unstable.

Wuxia tried again, forcing more soul force into the Threads, but the result remained the same as the seal consumed everything that approached it.

The Veyran suddenly raised its head and looked directly at him again.

This time it forced its mouth open despite the destruction spreading through its soul.

"Astrakh!" The word rang through the room far louder than before, and the black runes across its soul erupted at the same moment.

A violent wave of soul force burst outward, Xingluo was thrown backward into the side of the bed, while Wuxia took the impact directly and was blasted across the room before striking the wall behind him.

The Veyran's soul collapsed before either of them could recover, but the runes did not disappear with it.

Crimson-black symbols flashed across the walls, floor and ceiling of the villa, spreading through every room beneath the active privacy formation without passing beyond its boundary.

Downstairs, something crashed loudly before Tianhe's voice immediately followed. "What the hell happened up there?

" Ruan Mei's door opened at almost the same time and footsteps approached Xingluo's room from the corridor.

Xingluo pushed herself upright and rubbed the side of her head. "Wuxia, are you okay?" He looked toward her from beside the wall, but before answering, his gaze dropped toward his own hands.

He had barely processed her words when the bedroom door opened, ruan Mei stepped inside first with Tianhe behind her and both stopped after seeing Xingluo beside the bed with an unfamiliar young man several metres away.

Ruan Mei looked at Xingluo, then toward Wuxia, before quietly reaching for the door again. "Sorry." She closed it before either person inside could explain anything.

Tianhe looked toward her with clear confusion. "Why did you close the door?" Ruan Mei lowered her voice as though the answer should have been obvious. "I didn't know Xingluo worked this fast."

Tianhe blinked before understanding what she meant, and his expression immediately became amused.

"She found someone on the first day?" Ruan Mei nodded with complete seriousness. "And she didn't tell us anything. That is not how sisters should behave."

Tianhe was about to answer when his smile suddenly stiffened, and he looked back toward the closed door as the face he had seen for barely a moment finally registered properly.

Ruan Mei noticed the change and looked toward him. "What?"

Tianhe stepped forward and reached for the handle, but Ruan Mei immediately caught his arm. "Don't disturb them." He pulled free without answering and opened the door again.

Xingluo had already stood up, while Wuxia turned toward the sound from the other side of the room.

Tianhe's eyes settled on his face properly this time, and the amusement disappeared from his expression.

Wuxia looked back at him with equal surprise, while Tianhe remained frozen near the doorway before finally speaking in a voice that sounded far less certain than usual. "Wuxia?"