After successfully activating his spiritual core and becoming a wind-element gifted, Yan settled into his meditation routine. Every two hours, he would lock himself in his room—or sometimes the bathroom—just to neutralize his energy.
At first, Yan kept coughing up blood. His small body hurt terribly, but that was nothing. What mattered most to a gifted was the ability to control their powers. No matter how great their powers were, if they couldn't control them, they would ultimately be devoured by those very powers.
Yan slowly opened his eyes. This time, he didn't cough up blood, although his stomach felt as if it were being churned and he wanted to vomit.
Hunger led Yan toward the door. Just as he grabbed the doorknob, the door opened first, and the sound of his head colliding with the wooden panel filled his ears.
Russell dropped to his knees in a panic and rubbed his little brother's forehead. "Sorry, I wasn't being careful enough. Does it hurt a lot?"
Yan tried to act as normally as possible, like any other child who had gotten hurt, but his attention was drawn away by his brother's expression.
"What's wrong, big brother?"
Russell looked confused.
"You look sad."
The taller boy stood and led his little brother to sit on the bed. He reached out and stroked the smooth, blood-red mane of hair.
"You really are such an understanding little guy. And you're only two."
"I'm all grown up."
Russell gave a quiet laugh. "It's nothing. I'm just a little worried because Mom should've come back this morning."
Seeing his little brother fall silent, Russell quickly put on a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. Maybe Mom's late because she bought you a lot of candy, huh?"
Yan didn't react. He looked up at his brother's dark eyes. "I want some milk."
"All right. You really are my adorable little brother. Wait here. I'll make you some milk."
That was a ruse.
He closed his eyes and focused his attention on finding Hue Adamine's life energy, which carried the scent of daffodils.
His chest rumbled faintly. It was hard to explain, but two years of receiving affection from the Adamine family had made Yan grow attached without realizing it. He'd never had anything like that in his previous life, but being loved by a family made him feel... more alive.
With his eyes still closed, Yan furrowed his brow when he found his mother's life energy. It was far too weak. Besides that, there was an extremely dense scent near Hue Adamine's daffodil scent.
A pitch-black scent that, for some reason, put Yan on alert. It was like the scent of evil... a demonic gifted.
Yan straightened up when Russell came in carrying a glass of milk.
"Here. You have to finish it, okay?"
He gulped down the milk far too quickly, wiped his lips carelessly, and handed the empty glass to Russell.
"I'm really sleepy..." Yan said as he wrapped himself in the blanket, and Russell immediately left his little brother's room after giving him a few gentle pats.
That was the second ruse. He climbed down from the bed and leaped out the window on his little feet. Russell was a gifted, but he was still haunted by the image of Rowen Adamine, who had died in a gifted battle. Yan was sure the boy wouldn't take him along to follow Hue.
So he would go to the city alone.
It wasn't a foolish decision—if his first life was taken into account, he was a twenty-two-year-old adult. Old enough to make sound decisions.
Yan had also undergone an awakening, making him fairly strong—even extremely strong when combined with his knowledge of gifted abilities. His only problems were his small body and short legs.
Gasp!
Yan hid in a pile of rice sacks as his senses picked up the figure of a familiar neighbor. The worst that could happen was being carried home because they thought he was an abandoned baby.
"Hey, did you see that just now?"
'Oh. Crap.'