With their return, Asura and Xia immediately started falling towards the ground but luckily didn't plunge into it face-first as Nayi caught them at the last moment. "Whoo ... seems like you two are fine—that scared me."

"That was—kghh!", Asura mumbled as he clutched his head from the sudden pain. He felt as if his head was heavier than before - as if a meteor had struck his Soul. Then suddenly, he unnaturally froze as his pupils contracted, followed with an audible gulp. He felt his blood becoming restless and a strange summoning calling out to him from behind.

Noticing this change, Nayi's brows furrowed. "Asura? What's wrong?"

Asura raised his head and glanced at her blankly, as if he didn't recognize her. He raised his right hand and bit into the soft part, causing the blood to appear. Then, he moved his head slightly, causing the opening to expand since his teeth were still sunk inside his hand. This naturally resulted in more blood oozing out.

Nayi was confused with this change as worry filled her eyes. "It couldn't be that his mind was broken ... right? It shouldn't be like that."

She raised her hand, intending to offer her blood instead of his but stopped when she recalled the scene of breakthrough. If another lightning struck his weak body, he'd definitely die. Not to mention, there's a chance that this time there would be two lightning bolts.

Asura raised his head, corners of his mouth stained by his blood. He then turned around and raised his hand over the blood-red boundary of light just a step behind him. His hand was initially facing towards the sky, which prevented the blood from pouring out. As his hand stopped over the blood-red light, he turned it in place, shifting the wounded place towards the ground.

Led by gravity, the blood soon found the escape path and started dripping out. As first drop of blood fell, the blood-red light actually reacted and started moving around as if alive.

"Oh? Someone is finally here?", a voice reverberated through the Forbidden Domain.

*plop*

Nayi lost the strength in her legs and plopped to the ground as soon as she heard that voice. Her eyes instantly filled with tears as her right hand grasped the black clothes above her heart. She desperately tried to say something but the words seemed to be heavier than lead, stuck in her throat. "B-brother ... is that—is it really you?"

Somehow, she squeezed these words out as her hand clutched the clothes even tighter. Just a bit more strength and her nails would pierce through the clothes. However, to her disappointment, the voice didn't answer her but instead continued talking as if pre-programmed.

"If you're hearing this, that means us nine siblings have long gone off to the underworld. However, we still have one sibling alive - our eldest sister. We can't leave her to the mercy of the world, hence the nine of us had set up the curse in this boundary at the expense of our lives."

Nayi's heart tightened. She couldn't breathe either. Her situation currently was similar to what Asura and Xia just went through, but this wasn't the illusory world—this is a reality. Asura was actually conscious all the time, it was just that he had a feeling stemming from his blood. The feeling that told him he should drip his blood inside the blood-red light. Now that he had done it, he was calmly observing the changes.

At the same time, there was a slight change in the blood-red light. The place where Asura's blood fell started turning from blood-red to neon-green. At first, it was only one ray of light not thicker than a little finger, but it slowly started spreading in both directions. One by one, the blood-red rays of light first dimmed, then changed into neon-green and then their color intensified to even greater intensity than before.

"The one who used his blood to release this sealed fragment—you will gain control of this boundary. Us siblings believe that our sister will definitely still be in this domain. It wouldn't be nice of us to keep dragging her down by our own selfishness. The curse in the area will be under your control. One more thing—us nine siblings would like to leave behind an inheritance in this world. Those who had seen the past, who had witnessed the fall of the celestials, only they can be the inheritors. Please, don't refuse."

The voice slowly continued as Asura and Xia observed carefully while holding their hands. On the mention of the words 'fall of celestials', Xia recalled the powerless feeling from a moment ago, where both of them were left at the mercy of luck. Her eyes turned firm and resolute as she moved and hugged the white-haired boy next to her.

She nested her head against his chest and just silently felt the warmth coming from him. She wholeheartedly relaxed and immersed herself in this moment. Her hands coiled around Asura's body as she leaned her entire weight onto him. In response, Asura raised his hand and started caressing this cute dragon girl that was hugging him as if she never wanted to let go.

Asura couldn't help but smile at this scene. He felt warmth spread in his heart as refreshing breeze carried Xia's scent to his nose, tickling his senses. With a chuckle, he used his other hand to hug her while he continued gently caressing her hair. Then, he heard a whisper—one that shook his heart and made his hand freeze for a bit.

"Asura, Love. I Love—Asura!"

His hand shivered. His heart thumped. His breathing slowed. All of his senses suddenly intensified several times, as if with that whisper, the whole world opened its heart to him. He felt comfortable, welcome, fulfilled, but also greedy. He wasn't satisfied with just this—he wanted even more.

More of life, more of everything!

"Mm.", he whispered with some hardship.

This was the first time he heard those words. The words of genuine love—the only thing he didn't receive in his last life. That was why he was greedy for more. He didn't want to lose this. This little girl had opened up her heart for him—he had to respond with even more!

Asura's lips fell on Xia's forehead as he uttered a whisper, one full with confidence and resolve. "Asura loves Xia too - very, very much!".

As she heard his reply, Xia's worried brows relaxed. She produced a sweet-sounding "Mmh." as she let her body relax even more, now completely relying on Asura to stand upright. She felt a warm feeling in her heart and entirely focused on it. This was something she had only felt after seeing this white-haired boy. It was an unknown feeling for her, but one she treasured a lot from this moment onward.

The voice had stopped talking quite a bit ago and only the silence of the two children and an occasional sob from Nayi lingered around.

Asura opened his closed eyes slowly, experiencing the scenery of the world anew. This time, he felt as if he was completely reborn both physically and mentally. He felt a strong, warm energy course through his body coming from Xia. Likewise, the energy from his body flowed and entered her body. This was the result of the bond between the two - of their trust, co-reliance and, most importantly, because of their love for each other. Only at a later date would they discover how special this 'energy exchange' was.

The green eyes greedily devoured the light reflected by the world and focused on a nine-colored crystal suspended in the air only a few inches behind Xia. Asura temporarily removed his hand from Xia's head and stretched it out below the crystal. He was careful not to let any blood come in contact with the crystal.

Then, he took one of Xia's hands, causing her vibrant red eyes to appear in the world once again, but this time the emptiness and indifference from them was replaced by hope and love. Only the curiosity was left untouched.

Xia looked at the nine-color crystal and recalled the flames she had fused with a bit ago. She felt closeness when she looked at the crystal - the closeness coming from the nine-colored Soul in her Soul World.

Asura raised Xia's hand up and slowly sunk only one of his teeth into it, causing a bit of blood to seep out. The color of Xia's blood caught him off-guard. It was the ten-colored blood that the old man had previously absorbed into himself - the one Tenri later purified and returned to its owner which also caused all of their fates to change.

Reminiscing about these scenes as if they were from the distant past and not a few hours ago, Asura couldn't help but smile. He brought the nine-colored crystal to the bitten place and touched Xia's blood with it. Immediately, the crystal lit up with nine-colored flame and merged with Xia's body.

Then, Asura pressed his hand against the bite mark. Xia felt a slightly tinging feeling from that place but she didn't let out a single sound even when Asura bit her. There's no way that she couldn't feel pain but even so she didn't even flinch. This information was enough for Asura to understand that she had definitely been through something much worse than this.

As he removed his hand from the underside of Xia's hand, her hand had returned to the previous state, as if there was never a bite mark appearing there. Xia's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that the small wound wasn't there anymore. She looked at Asura with wide-open eyes which then—accompanied by an angelic smile—turned to those overflowing with love.

*Cough!*

A slightly annoyed cough came from the side as Nayi stared daggers into Asura's eyes.

"I didn't think you'd be a womanizer from young age. This shall not go unpunished!"

Asura saw a faint murderous look in Nayi's eyes and couldn't help but think, "Is she ... jealous?"

Nayi noticed a change in Asura's expression and her cheeks turned rosy. "This brat ... why is he so sharp?!".

She knew that Asura had seen through her feelings and shame suffused her.

At this moment, Asura let out a mild laugh and took Xia's hand, turning towards Nayi. When they turned around, Asura came and hugged Nayi just like Xia hugged him. Xia immediately followed up and hugged their new master as well.

"Hey, wai—", Caught off-guard, Nayi initially planned on protesting but changed her mind.

She returned the hug and let out a last pair of tears for this family reunion with a sigh, followed by resigned words, "You two brats ... really are troublesome."