Mr. and Mrs. Everhart froze, shock flashing across their faces.
Mr. and Mrs. Almond were equally stunned. They had never imagined that Lana could awaken such a powerful ability.
Protective barriers they had seen before were always grey or white. A yellow barrier like this was unheard of.
anwhile, Lana had already mastered this technique after gaining yellow mystic energy. Only now did she truly realize how terrifying its strength was.
She looked at them lazily, a faint smile playing on her lips. "My turn," she said softly.
With a snap of her fingers, four strands of yellow mystical energy shot forward, piercing directly into the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Everhart and Mr. and Mrs. Almond.
The next second, all four of them curled up in agony, their screams echoing through the hall as if their insides were being burned alive.
The guards stood frozen in shock.
Just as they were about to move, Lana raised her hand slightly, her gaze cold and sharp.
"If any of you try to attack," she warned, "I’ll crush you. You’ll explode right here."
Fear flooded the faces of the four writhing figures on the ground.
With trembling hands and labored breaths, they desperately shook their heads and gestured toward the guards, urging them to make way for Lana.
Their voices were weak, broken by pain, yet the ssage was clear.
After a brief hesitation, the guards finally stepped aside, leaving a narrow path open in the middle.
Lana smiled faintly as she walked forward.
"I gave you such a generous option," she remarked. "Yet you insisted on choosing the difficult one. What a sha."
She reached out, holding Luke’s cold, trembling hand, and guided him through the opened path.
Behind her, Mr. and Mrs. Almond stared in shock and disbelief.
They could hardly comprehend what they had just witnessed.
The child they once overlooked, the one deed incompetent, the one who had never even awakened as a soul cultivator, had now manifested terrifying powers.
A mysterious yellow barrier. Strange energies that burned from the inside, leaving them unable to even stand properly.
’What kind of power did she gain after leaving the Almond family?’ they wondered bitterly.
For the first ti, regret crept into their hearts.
Gritting their teeth against the searing pain, they turned toward Mr. and Mrs. Everhart, and only then did they realize how rciful Lana had actually been.
At least they were still standing, barely. Mr. and Mrs. Everhart, on the other hand, were rolling on the ground, screaming as if they were being scorched alive.
anwhile, after walking a certain distance away from the hall, Lana’s steps faltered.
The tension drained from her body all at once.
Her vision blurred, her grip on Luke’s hand loosening as she finally collapsed onto the ground, the cold floor seeping into her skin.
Almost instantly, Mr. Crow fluttered off Luke’s shoulder and landed on Lana’s, his claws digging lightly into her fabric as he clicked his beak in irritation.
"So this is you ’being fine’?" he snapped sharply. "Even if you wanted to play the hero, you should have at least asured your own limits first."
Lana did not reply imdiately. Just a few minutes ago, she had stood tall, pretending as if she were overflowing with power, as if the world itself bent to her will.
But the truth was painfully clear to her now.
The mont she ford that protective barrier and forced out four strands of yellow mystical energy toward Mr. and Mrs. Everhart and Mr. and Mrs. Almond, her body had already started screaming in protest.
’I overestimated myself,’ she admitted silently.
She was nowhere near strong enough to suppress so many people at once. Still, she had not dared to reveal even a sliver of weakness.
She knew too well that if she faltered, even for a second, neither she nor Luke would have walked out of that gated area alive.
When the familiar curve of the road finally entered her vision, her legs trembled violently.
The strength holding her upright vanished in an instant, and she collapsed onto the cold ground, her palms scraping against the rough pavent as she panted heavily.
Each breath felt shallow, uneven, as if her lungs refused to cooperate.
Mr. Crow’s feathers ruffled in alarm. "Hey...Lana!"
Luke’s face drained of color the mont he saw her fall.
Without hesitation, he squatted in front of her, his movents clumsy yet urgent.
He raised his trembling hand, and a faint yellow energy, similar to Lana’s but noticeably duller, flowed out and seeped into her body.
The next second, a slow, gentle warmth spread through Lana’s veins.
The tightness in her chest eased, and the frantic pounding of her heart gradually cald. Her breathing, once ragged and uneven, slowly beca steady.
Once she felt human again, Lana lifted her head and turned toward Luke, ready to thank him. But the words froze on her lips.
Luke’s face had gone pale, his lips tinged faintly blue, and his body swayed as if he might faint at any mont.
"Stop," Lana said softly but firmly, gripping his hand before he could pour out any more energy.
Luke obeyed without protest, nodding weakly as he withdrew his power and sat down beside her on the pavent.
Lana studied him carefully, her brows knitting together. "What’s going on?" she asked quietly.
Luke took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling with effort before he spoke.
"I was always... a supplentary child," he murmured. "I was born because my older brother had problems."
He paused, swallowing hard, then continued in a flat, distant voice, as if recounting soone else’s life.
"He had leukemia. He needed bone marrow. So my parents had ... for spare parts."
Lana’s fingers curled slowly against the ground.
"Blood, kidney, bone marrow," Luke went on, forcing out a hollow laugh. "Anything he needed, they took it from . Over and over again. Now..." He glanced down at his own hands. "I’m almost empty."
Lana pressed her lips together, her chest tightening.
Luke suddenly laughed again, the sound brittle and sharp. "That’s also why I turned into a monster," he added. "Because of him."
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