Refining the Heavens (炼天)

B2, Chapter 6: The Hope Mansion (Part 2)

A dark figure walked out of the shadows into candlelight, and Jim jumped up from where he stood about to scream.

"Shush! You wanna wake the whole house?" Kairos whispered urgently.

"Whoa! Captain, you scared me. How did you appear in my room without any notice?"

"Duhhhh!! Jim, you didn't use your Soul Perception at all?"

"Unnnnn, I thought it might be a ghost so.... I didn't want to ..."

*Smack*

"Oww!"

"Alright I'm here now, what did you want me for?"

"Oh yeah! Captain, you need to help my mother. Come!" Jim pulled at Kairos' arm and dragged him over to the bed. On it lies his mother with a pale face and troubled breathing.

"She looks bad. No wonder you sent me such a serious letter. Let me guess, your father does not intend to help?"

"Yeah, it is like he abandoned us. Not like he was any different from before," what the boy said is the cold and unsettling truth. If Jim's father wanted to groom him, the boy would be able to get massive amounts of training resources and would never have landed in the same group as Kairos from the start.

"Did you try using your Soul Perception on her?"

"I did, but except for a weak constitution, there was nothing I found."

"Here, let me try."

Kairos placed his hand on the wrist of Jim's mother and sent a strand of Origin Energy into her meridian channels. Almost at once, he realised that the older lady isn't sleeping. She was unconscious.

"Hmm... that's odd, her condition felt rather serious, but I couldn't put my finger on what is wrong with her either. Have you any idea?"

"Captain, my mother has been this way since I came home. It just got worse every day, even though I had been infusing as much life force as she could take."

"We have to bring her to see Helena. Are you able to bring her to the Capital?"

"We're actually grounded right now," Jim gave a helpless look at Kairos.

Kairos' face stiffened.

He had guessed that Jim wasn't able to leave. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a need to send him a letter asking for help. But seeing the condition that Jim's mother is in, he could not understand why they are still locked up. Does a person's life carry no value?

Even Kairos, who is an outsider, is worried whether she could make it if a doctor does not see to her soon.

"I don't think we can smuggle her out and judge from how this place is guarded, it looks like we need to find another way. Your father wasn't happy when I came to visit today, so I came over. You know anything about this, or have you seen anything odd recently?"

There are just too many suspicious things going on in the mansion currently. When Kairos asked, Jim started going through everything that was even a little different from usual. And during this, the boy spoke about a large but concealed shipment that he accidentally chanced upon with Soul Perception.

"I have an idea to get both of you out. Do you have a map of the mansion?"

"No, but I can draw it."

Kairos nodded, and the two started discussing a feasible plan.

At this moment, on another floor of the mansion, an old man slowly climbed out of bed to use the loo. He sat up from his bed for a moment, trying to dismiss his dreams and wake his lazy bones before his bladder bursts.