A reward?
Huai Shi froze for a moment, swallowed, and tried his best to remain calm. "Anything within my power."
But before he could finish, he heard Luo Xian's voice.
"Then, could you take me with you?"
Luo Xian looked into his eyes and stepped forward. "You need strength, right? If you need a tool fit for use, wouldn't I be better?"
"..."
Huai Shi stared blankly for a long time before shaking his head. "You know, Sister Xian, I've never had that kind of..."
"I know."
Luo Xian nodded, without changing her mind. "But what if I want to go?"
"I should be part of the Heavenly Kingdom Lineage too, shouldn't I?"
She reached out, pressing a hand to her chest, and told him, "The template for the Path of Paradise is within my soul. Strictly speaking, that is also property of the Ideal Nation, isn't it?
No matter what, it shouldn't be turned away at the door, should it?"
"No."
Huai Shi shook his head and answered decisively.
The Abyss's corrosion of the soul was subtle and difficult to isolate.
He could not risk Luo Xian's condition worsening just to satisfy his own desires, much less did he want her to go to the battlefield for his sake.
Even if this was what she wanted.
"I've been to Hell too."
Luo Xian pulled open her collar and lifted the pendant—a broken fragment shaped like an arrowhead hung at her throat.
Proof that she had returned from the Triple Cities that had fallen into the Abyss.
It had once been the arrow Shiva, God of Destruction, used to destroy the three Asura Cities of gold, silver, and black iron. Even though only an ash-like fragment remained, its appearance warped beyond recognition by the Abyss's corrosion, it still retained that