"It seems like you know this boy," Elder Ragur said to John. "In that case, I'll leave you alone for now."
Elder Ragur closed the door behind him, leaving John and Chase in the room.
John inspected Chase, who looked a little roughed up around the edges. His clothes were worn out, and his body a little dirtied, but other than that, he appeared mostly fine.
John had no idea what had happened to Chase once he started his heaven tribulation. His tribulation had shattered the formation platforms binding the both of them, before John sped deeper into the Bloodfiend Sect.
Chase stood there in silence as he looked at John, a slightly guilty expression on his face. He was the son of Allfiend, who had tried to kill John and transfer his body to Chase. Although he had protested against it, Chase still felt guilty about the whole thing.
John could easily read these thoughts that were clearly written on Chase's face, and so he decided to break the silence himself.
"I don't blame you for what happened," John said, causing Chase's slightly guilty face to light up in surprise.
"You don't?" Chase replied, his voice slightly meek.
"No, why would I?" John replied while shaking his head. "You clearly protested against it, and the entire thing was clearly your fathers idea. Why would I blame you for something you tried to stop. In fact, you tried to get me out of the Bloodfiend Sect before it even happened, putting yourself at risk. So if anything, I should be thanking you."
John could clearly tell that Chase was surprised to hear this from him, and still didn't know what to say. John had thought Chase most likely died in the tribulation or the battles that took place afterwards, and was surprised to see him alive and well. He had many questions that he wanted to know the answers to, and so John decided to be the one to once again break the silence.
"How did you escape the destruction of your sect?" John asked with great curiosity. Almost everyone belonging to the Bloodfiend Sect had died, and only a handful of members had managed to escape before its complete annihilation.
"I ran," Chase replied. "When you started your...tribulation, the first lightning strike shattered the shackles that held me to that formation platform. Upon feeling the power of whatever that was, I knew the sect was doomed. It was my one opportunity to get away, and so I took it. The moment I was free, I fled as fast as I could. Even so, I still barely avoided the monstrous explosions that destroyed the sect a short while later," Chase explained.
'He must be talking about Thunderzens battle with the demon.'
"So after you escaped, you came here?" John asked another question.
"Not exactly," Chase replied after a moment of silence. "After I fled the sect and learned about its destruction, I wandered the land looking for my purpose. My sect, my home, my...family...all of it was destroyed. While I hated my father and the Bloodfiend Sect, they were still the only things in my life that I felt I belonged to," Chase explained.
He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, before continuing his explanation. "I wandered about for quite some time, and gathered my thoughts in the process. However, I quickly realized that I had no outside connections at all. My entire life was spent in the Bloodfiend Sect, and everyone I knew was dead. The only other person I knew still lived...was you."
John raised his eyebrow slightly at this statement as he felt a tinge of pity for Chase. While Allfiend truly was a terrible person, he was still Chase's father. John didn't know how he would act if he lost everything close to him.
"So you came here to seek shelter, or potentially join the Heavenly Lightning Sect?" John asked.
Chase stood there in silence as he stared at the ground before him, but did not refute John's claims. John stared at Chase closely, carefully inspecting his every move. While he thought Chase to be a good person, he still had a few more questions before he made a decision.
"I still have another question or two," John replied. Chase looked up at John once more as John asked his next question.
"When you were helping me escape, you said my escape would benefit you. But after thinking about it after everything that happened, I can't see how me escaping would have been to your benefit. Not only that, but your father wanted to transfer you to my body, despite you being quite talented. Your cultivation is already at the Early Meridian Forging Realm, which is incredibly impressive. Why was your father so hellbent on transferring your consciousness to my body?"
John fell silent after asking his string of questions. Chase gathered his thoughts for a moment before answering John's first question.
"When I was trying to help you escape, I really was telling the truth that your escape would help me...or it should have helped me. And the reason for this is also the answer for your second question" Chase replied.
John stayed silent as he allowed Chase to continue talking. Chase took a deep breath before continuing to answer John's questions.
"The reason my father wanted me to take over your body is because I was born with a unique constitution," Chase explained.
"Is it related to your love of the Pill Dao?" John asked, as he had always wanted to know how Chase was so gifted in the Pill Dao despite being so young.
Chase nodded his head in affirmation of John's guess, before continuing his explanation.
"I have a Wood-Attribute body constitution," Chase explained, causing John to once again raise one of his eyebrows in slight surprise.
'Wood-Attribute body? That's like my Lightning-Attribute body. Attribute bodies are quite rare, and I've heard that wood type bodies are even rare among attribute bodies.'
"Do you know of Attribute-Bodies?" Chase asked.
"I know a bit about them," John replied while nodding his head. "Although not much about Wood-Attribute bodies, other than they are quite rare."
"That they are," Chase replied. "But the rarity of my body type was of no concern to my father. Wood-Attribute cultivators are naturally gifted in the pill dao, as their affinity with medicinal herbs and plants are second to none. However, my father despised the Pill Dao, and only cared about brute strength. My Wood-Attribute body does not allow me to cultivate the more...sinister styles of Forbidden Alliance cultivation arts, as I'm sure you've noticed."
John once again nodded his head, as he had noticed no sinister nature at all from Chase's Qi.
"My father despised this about me, and so he wanted to find a suitable host for me instead, which was you."
Chase paused as he said this, giving John the chance to ask his first question once again.
"So how did allowing me to escape help you?" John asked.
Chase became silent for a moment before speaking up once more.
"I hated my existence to be completely honest. Due to my Wood-Attribute body, I despise the violence, the malevolence, the bloodthirstiness of forbidden cluvation cultivators. It makes me sick to be around them, and yet I was forced to be around them my entire life. It got to the point where I saw no end, and as a result, I attempted to kill myself."
Chase paused once again, as the event clearly was a heavy one for him to talk about. John remained silent as he allowed Chase to gather his thoughts, although he was quite surprised to hear this from him.
Chase took a deep breath before continuing his explanation once more.
"My father made sure I survived, and also punished my actions for doing so. In front of my very eyes, he slaughtered one hundred mortals, as he knew I despised blood and death."
John raised his eyebrows again as he heard this, as such an action was quite evil, even for a man such as Allfiend.
'It seems like Allfiend was even more of a piece of shit than I could have imagined. It's quite a good thing that he's dead and can't terrorize this world anymore.'
"Afterwards, he placed a powerful curse on me, which prevented me from attempting such a thing again. I thought I would be forever doomed to grow up in that hellish environment. However, when you showed up, I knew if I helped you escape, my father would become so angry at me that he would perhaps kill me himself in a fit of rage. It was the only way out of it I could see at the time."
Chase's voice trailed off as he explained why he had tried to help John escape, which was not even close to what John had been expecting. Both of them stood there in silence for quite some time, before John spoke up once again.
"Well with all that said and out of the way, there's only one thing left to do."
Chase looked at John, completely resigning his fate to John. John walked over towards Chase and stared at him for a moment before he patted him on the back in a friendly manner.
"Let's take you over to our Pill Hall and introduce them to their newest member!"