This Time, I Choose for Myself

When they returned to the edge of the woods, Jin Yuan first spotted the ten extra people.

Then he saw the three being held prisoner, and his eyebrows nearly shot to the top of his head.

"How long was I gone?"

Xu Sheng waved the steel sword in front of him, showing him where its broken edge had been ground down.

"If you'd been any later, you wouldn't have seen this one either."

Jin Yuan took it and looked it over. Instead of joking along, he first called for medicine and clean water.

He Zheng's shoulder was sprained, and he would need to rest it for some days after it was bandaged. Ji Juechen had a cut on his arm, and the corresponding wound on the edge of Xu Sheng's wing needed time to heal as well. Xu Lizhi's Recovery Big Meat Buns could keep them from collapsing, but their wounds still had to be treated as the physician directed.

Lu Song sat down on a stool and put away his shield, his shoulder still aching.

He Gu tucked his small bag behind him so he could lean back more comfortably.

Lu Song looked down at it without saying thanks, then moved over to give He Gu half the stool.

The two squeezed onto it together.

Once everyone who needed bandaging had been tended to, Qi Luo and his nine companions suddenly stood up in unison.

Xu Sheng looked up, but before he could speak, He Zheng had already grown anxious.

"What are you doing?"

Qi Luo scratched his head. "We ought to say something."

"Then say it. Standing up all together like that, I thought you were leaving."

That one remark scattered all the solemnity they had spent so long building up.

Some laughed, though others still had red-rimmed eyes.

Xu Sheng kicked a stool over to them and motioned for them to sit.

"Have you decided where you're going from here?"

This was different from when he had led them away from the slope.

He deliberately paused for a while, making sure those in the back who hadn't spoken yet could hear him clearly too.

Qi Luo was the first to nod.

"I want to stay."

Xu Sheng looked at the other nine.

Four nodded along, two said they wanted to return to the city and think it over, and the remaining three had plans of their own already. They intended to seek out other acquaintances once their injuries healed.

A flicker of disappointment passed through He Zheng's eyes, but he soon made his peace with it.

Xu Sheng didn't try to persuade the three to stay. He only asked them to travel back to the city with the others.

As for those who wanted to work with them, he didn't immediately put all of them on the official team either.

"Stay here first and come along a few times to get familiar with things. If it doesn't suit you, say so early. Don't keep it to yourself until we've left the city, then tell me you're actually afraid of blood."

Qi Luo blushed.

He really had been frightened by his own trouser leg just now.

He Zheng saw it and laughed, tugging his shoulder and making him clamp his mouth shut against the pain.

Xu Sheng laughed too, but he hadn't forgotten something else.

He found Du Wenhe and spread Song Xiaoqiao's list out again.

"We're not done with her business yet."

Du Wenhe looked up at the medicated bandage on his back.

Xu Sheng quickly waved a hand. "I didn't say we should go now. I'll stay in the city and recover for a couple of days first. Just don't forget the list."

Du Wenhe said nothing. He picked up a pen and added another name beside it.

Qi Luo, level twenty, Gray Rock Badger.

"Look at his Martial Soul and first ring first. If they're suitable, we'll search for both at once. If not, we'll make separate arrangements."

When Xu Sheng saw the line, the smile on his face slowly grew more genuine.

Someone remembered.

That made things easier.

The Soto Main Hall soon took over the rest of the matter.

The ten outsiders' testimony, what had happened when Zhuo Yuan injured someone at the scene, and the involvement of the two local Soul Masters were all investigated separately. Lu Yi also told them what he knew about the commission, without trying to smooth things over just because the other party had worked for him.

The hunters from the Gray Fang Hunting Group who hadn't taken part were questioned separately according to what each had done.

Xu Sheng didn't spend all day there.

He first approved Lu Song's leave and had He Gu take over guard duty in the front courtyard. Before returning to the established settlement in Soto to log off, Lu Song still lingered by the door.

"Are you sure you don't need me to wait another couple of days?"

"Is your sister's performance going to wait for you too?"

Lu Song fell silent at once.

Xu Sheng pushed him into the room.

"Go on. Tell me about it when you get back. Don't just take pictures of the stage; get one of yourself too."

The door closed, but Lu Song's irrepressible laughter still lingered outside.

Over the following days, Xu Sheng recovered from his injuries while consulting Jin Yuan and Du Wenhe, gradually picking up the matters that needed attending to again.

Song Xiaoqiao's second ring was the first to be settled.

It was a Hundred-Year Iron Wire Vine growing near a crevice in the rock, a little over six hundred years old. Du Wenhe had examined the problems she had with Binding Ring and the way the vine beast used Entanglement. Only after confirming it was a suitable choice did he have Shen Zhaolin lead a group to restrain it and let her land the final blow.

After she absorbed it, the Silver-Patterned Rope gained a new way to bind a target by anchoring itself to the ground.

The end of the rope could briefly stick fast to the ground it touched, using that fixed point to pull a target in without her having to bear all the strain herself. A sufficiently strong opponent could still break free, and it couldn't anchor securely in soft ground.

He Gu volunteered to test it.

In the past, he had always been able to lower his center of gravity behind his tortoise shell and shuffle forward. This time, he had taken only one step when the silver rope around his ankle suddenly tightened. Its end stuck fast to the hard ground of the courtyard, yanking him into a stumble.

Song Xiaoqiao wasn't dragged forward as she had been before. Instead, she stood firm.

She stared for a moment, then grinned so broadly she couldn't close her mouth.

He Gu sat on the ground, looking at her and then at He Zheng.

"I came to help out of the goodness of my heart, and you could at least give me a hand up!"

He Zheng was about to move when his shoulder hurt, and he sat back down, leaving him no choice but to shoot Xu Sheng a look.

Xu Sheng laughed as he pulled He Gu up and brushed the dust off his back. Two outsiders had happened to come to the courtyard with questions, and after watching the scene, both couldn't help taking another look at the two Yellow Soul Rings.

Qi Luo had to wait another two days before finding a Hundred-Year Soul Beast that suited him. After his companions restrained it, he landed the final blow himself. In addition to his Gray Rock Badger's existing protective ability, his second ring strengthened his close-range claw attacks.

When the two returned to the courtyard, both were level twenty-one and had two Yellow Soul Rings.

Song Xiaoqiao raised the new ring of yellow light and let He Gu look at it again and again.

He Gu laughed for a while, then suddenly asked, "What about when it's my turn next time?"

She withdrew her Soul Rings and said seriously, "I'll go with you."

No one had told her to say that.

Xu Sheng was leaning against the doorway and heard her. He had been about to go over and tease them, but in the end he only smiled and stepped aside.

Another wooden sign had appeared in the front courtyard.

It still read "Blood Angels."

When He Zheng helped hang it up, he moved carefully, not daring to use the arm that still wasn't quite right. Xu Sheng stood below, and however he looked at it, it was a pleasing sight.

From a handful of people crammed into an old courtyard practicing swordsmanship, to having people willing to come back and stand beneath that sign of their own accord.

This felt far better than getting a couple more Gold Soul Coins.

The reply from Red Pine Courtyard arrived some days later.

Wen Zhao had written in detail about what had happened while they stayed behind. Qiao Fu had kept the courtyard supplied, Cen Zhao had met several groups of outsiders looking to join up, Jiang Shi had practiced archery with Ye Wanqing, and Bai Ji and Ren Yu had tidied up the practice ground in the front courtyard.

He had even added a line about who had fixed the kitchen door hinge.

Xu Sheng smiled for a long while after reading it.

An official approval was attached to the letter.

Based on the rosters submitted by both Soto and Spirit City and the things they had accomplished recently, the Blood Angels could continue admitting vetted members, up to a total of twenty. A joint-hunt liaison office would be set up in Soto, with the local main hall arranging the related fieldwork. Red Pine Courtyard's existing responsibilities would remain unchanged.

The names of He Zheng, Song Xiaoqiao, He Gu, and Qi Luo had already been verified.

Fourteen people.

The remaining places hadn't all been filled for him at once.

Clutching the letter, Xu Sheng suddenly called He Zheng over.

"You'll stay in Soto from now on."

He Zheng was taken aback. "You're leaving?"

"Red Pine Courtyard is still there. I can't leave Wen Zhao to handle it forever. You take charge of things here, and ask Brother Du if there's anything you're unsure about."

Xu Sheng placed the courtyard gate key in his hand.

He Zheng gazed at the key without speaking for a long time.

Xu Sheng waited a while, then couldn't help laughing and chiding him. "What, do you want me to hang it around your neck for you too?"

He Zheng closed his hand around it and finally smiled as well.

"No need."

This time, he held the key tightly.