Reunion with Meimu

I was trying to land the finishing blow!

Li Ke turned around and saw Meimu, her chest rising and falling slightly. She had clearly run here at full speed. Somehow, he found the strength to move again. He didn't even bother unfastening his belt, but leaned on Yone's sword and walked toward her.

After just surviving a brush with death, Li Ke felt especially safe around Meimu. But where did that sense of security come from?

The demon he'd risked his life to kill had its head kicked off by a single spell and one kick from Meimu. How could that not make him feel safe?

"Meimu! You finally made it! Look! That's the demon you were looking for!"

Li Ke's unsteady steps and the half-unfastened belt at his waist made Meimu's eye twitch. When they'd first met, she'd thought he was a steady young swordsman with an air of refinement.

But her instincts had been right. This guy was a wild boar, just like her daughter, Akali!

Even so, she walked over and supported Li Ke, helping him sit down. After briefly surveying the battlefield, she took out a bottle of pills and a talisman.

"Take this. Quickly."

She handed Li Ke a pill specially made to treat internal injuries and replenish vitality and mental energy. Then Meimu took out a sheet of talisman paper and chanted a spell in front of him.

The power of magic quickly gathered in Meimu's hands. The surrounding plants and trees, infused with her magic, gave up some of their own vitality, allowing her to gather enough life energy.

"Akrasorn!"

As she spoke the final incantation, green light blossomed from Meimu's hands and enveloped them both. Li Ke had swallowed the pill, and at once he felt a peculiar, exhilarating sensation.

A warm, refreshing force entered his body from the outside, soothing his injuries and the damage to his internal organs. When it came into contact with the pill inside him, the effect became unstoppable. The pill in his stomach was activated, and a cool sensation spread from there through his entire body.

"Ohhh!"

He'd been in this world for more than a decade, but this was the first time Li Ke had ever been treated this way! He let out an embarrassing cry of excitement, making Meimu raise an eyebrow again.

But Li Ke didn't see her expression. He quickly opened his status panel and saw his vitality replenishing like a rocket. When Meimu finally stopped using magic, it had reached 100. His mental energy had also begun rising rapidly as soon as the pill took effect.

And it was rising far faster than his vitality. The moment Li Ke noticed it going up, it had already reached its maximum of 140—and then surpassed the limit.

156/140.

The number kept climbing. Li Ke figured it wouldn't drop until the pill's effects wore off.

"All right, I've saved your life. You should recover from the rest of your injuries on your own. This kind of magic... shouldn't be used too often."

Meimu paused at the end. It wasn't that she couldn't heal all of Li Ke's injuries with magic; it was against their strictures.

She had drawn some of the life energy from this place. Although she had compensated for it with her own magic, drawing on any more would throw things out of balance.

The Kinkou Order's guiding principle was to maintain balance. She couldn't deliberately create an imbalance. That was why the Order's disciples were sometimes seen as cold and heartless.

When Kinkou disciples saved people, they could use magic, and they weren't stingy with their secret arts. But there was one condition: they could not upset the local balance.

Once they reached a certain threshold, they couldn't use any more magic to help—even if the person dying in front of them was a sibling. To do so would violate the Order's principles.

These were the iron laws of the Kinkou Order. Though cruel, they were truths proven over centuries by countless tears and bloodshed. The ideas of other places weren't suited to this land, rich as it was in magic.

Fortunately, Li Ke was lucky. The magic and life energy here were abundant enough that Meimu's spell hadn't broken the strictures of balance. But that was as far as she could go. Any more, and she'd cross the line.

"I get it, I get it. Balance and all that."

Li Ke gave Meimu a thumbs-up and smiled brightly, filled with the joy of having escaped death. Meimu smiled and shook her head. He had the same reckless personality as her daughter, but she didn't dislike that. In fact, she rather liked seeing people like Li Ke wear such a pure... well, carefree smile.

Meimu was startled by her own reaction. There weren't many people she admired. After thinking it over, she reached a conclusion.

"Maybe it's because this guy knows his limits, unlike Akali, who's always getting into trouble?"

The same personality could lead to different outcomes in different people. Meimu understood that perfectly well. But once she was sure Li Ke's injuries were more or less under control, she turned and looked at the girl, whose breathing was still faint.

"Was... the mask removed?"

Frowning, Meimu glanced at Li Ke, who was now somewhat excited from having excess mental energy, then gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head.

The Kinkou's medicine could restore a person's mental energy, but it contained no stimulants. Li Ke's excitement could only mean he was naturally like this, and the excess mental energy had brought out his true nature.

That was different from the mental high caused by stimulants.

She went over to examine the girl. She could no longer sense any magic in her, but there was a long streak of blood on her face.

She hesitated. Looking at the girl's sleeping face, she turned her back to Li Ke and took out her kunai.

Even if the demon had been driven out of her, someone whose mind had once cracked would only be a matter of time away from attracting another demon if she couldn't come to terms with what had happened.

And the next demon she turned into would only be stronger.

The scent of blood filled the air. Li Ke, who had been laughing in his heightened state, stopped and looked at Meimu.

It wasn't that he felt sorry for the girl. When people possessed or seduced by demons did terrible things, the demons were to blame, but the people themselves still had thoughts and intentions of their own.

So, although the girl had been seduced by a demon, she really had wanted to kill him. He wouldn't have hesitated to kill someone like that himself.

He was just a little concerned about her state of mind. The demon had left him with some psychological scars. If he hadn't cut through its mask and struck its weakness, he'd probably be dead by now.

So just as Meimu was about to ask how Li Ke had managed to cut the mask with ordinary iron, Li Ke spoke too.

"You really are just an ordinary—"

"Don't worry. They chose to fall."

Meimu froze. In all these years, no one had dared question her since she became the Fist of Shadow!

She turned toward Li Ke with an unpleasant look on her face, the kunai in her hand spinning continuously.

"Are you worried about me, boy?"