“I let down my master. I was unworthy of him….” Chen Fan looked like an old man. More and more tears poured down his face.
He rarely wept, not even when he and Shan Ling were captured and brought back to the sect. When Shan Ling made the decision to rest in sleep, there were tears in his heart, but they wouldn’t come out. The first time he truly cried was when his master accepted the punishment for him.
The second time he cried was when his master died.
The third time was here, in front of Meng Hao.
“Elder Brother….” began Meng Hao, but he wasn’t sure what he should say, so he stopped talking. After a moment, a determined look appeared in his eyes. He suddenly raised his right hand, and a drop of blood slowly formed on the tip of his finger.
When the drop of blood appeared, his face went a bit pale. A scintillating, blood-colored glow appeared, and Chen Fan’s eyes went wide. After a moment, his eyes flashed in realization, and he shot to his feet.
His expression stern, he cried, “Junior Brother! What do you think you’re doing!? Stop this instant!”
“Elder Brother, I can’t do very much to help you. The only thing I can do is help you to restore your cultivation base. That way, your longevity will be increased, and you can… you can have more time to stay with your beloved.” With that, he gestured with his finger. His lifeblood instantly shot forward and merged into Chen Fan’s forehead.
Chen Fan trembled. Years ago, his Nascent Soul had been damaged, cracked; at this moment, however, time seemed to run in reverse. His Nascent Soul absorbed the blood, and the cracks sealed up.
The blood didn’t just contain some of Meng Hao’s life force, it also contained some of the power of his Eternal stratum. It was that power that enabled Chen Fan’s cultivation base to be restored.
Of course, Meng Hao only had a few such drops of lifeblood. If he parted with too many, that which was Eternal within him would be no more.
But Chen Fan was his Elder Brother. The friendship that had formed between the two of them, and everything that had happened since then, made it so that Meng Hao didn’t even hesitate. If he didn’t give his lifeblood to Chen Fan, that would mean… that he wasn’t Meng Hao.
Chen Fan started trembling, and after a moment passed, coughed up a huge mouthful of blood as his Nascent Soul instantly reappeared like new. Now that he had a Nascent Soul again, his cultivation base surged, and his salt-and-pepper hair turned black.
His aged features once again became young and heroic, and he no longer looked like an old man. He was middle-aged and bursting with energy.
Now he looked more like the Chen Fan that Meng Hao remembered.