Chapter 302
But Desmond didn’t reply immediately, instead, he watch her silently for a moment as he drank some wine before replying with another question for her: “Could I convince you to leave Xiauyue?”
That answer was more than enough, Mei knew it because she will never give up Xiauyue so Desmond’s question couldn’t be clearer.
“What about us?” Mei couldn’t help but ask in a slightly hoarse voice as tears began to form in her eyes.
And yet her pain did not serve to change Desmond’s face as he replied: “You will be fine, you will have each other, the difficulties you will face will not be few but I am sure you will be fine... you do not need me.” ”
“What if I need you?” Mei asked with a trembling voice that only belied how unstable her emotions were at the moment.
Her question caused for the first time during this conversation something deep in Desmond’s determined eyes to shiver but it was only for a brief moment, a moment of weakness but nothing more.
Mei saw it, how could she not see it when all her attention was on Desmond at that moment and it was at that moment that she knew the answer to her question... Desmond would never put her above the person who was waiting for him at home.
That realization stung her, a stab of pain Mei hadn’t felt in a long time pierced her heart as she realized that no matter what she did, Desmond would still walk away.
.....
Then the pain turned to anger and without warning, Mei lunged at Desmond sending him flying with a punch before she angrily stormed out of the room and straight into her room.
Pained in more ways than one, Desmond didn’t get up from the ground and instead just adjusted his posture to look up at the night sky as he pondered what had just happened.
“I guess I asked for it... I should never have gotten so involved” But deep down Desmond didn’t regret his decisions so far, the truth is that in one way or another he had really enjoyed his time in this world; that of course includes the time he spent with Mei Fei Long and Miao Xiauyue.
Perhaps his only regret was that both girls have very strong roots in this world and their own goals, Desmond knew that even if he tried to convince them, the girls would never accompany him back to his world and he didn’t want them to do it.
Not because he didn’t want to take the girls with him and instead it was because Desmond didn’t want to interrupt the flow of life for the girls because if they continued as they were, It would only take a couple of years at most before the girls managed to get the kind of life they most wanted and got something that many wanted... A fairy tale ending.
But that would be different if Desmond took them with him, he would expose them to a whole multiverse of threats and chaos that would never let them have the peace they both longed for.
Not to mention that Desmond already had enough on his plate with Sasha and Claire, for the young hunter it didn’t matter how much he would appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the female sex; he didn’t plan on putting together a collection of beauties.
For all of the above, Desmond simply decided not to even mention the subject to Mei or Xiauyue because doing so would only cause more harm than good. With all those thoughts in mind, Desmond spent almost an hour taking in the night sky before one of the sand tribe girls came over to ask if he was okay.
After saying goodbye to the kind girl, Desmond got up with a renewed spirit and a determined look, at the end of the day it did not matter if his fate would have to separate from the next day; Desmond still had a lot to do before he sat down to moan.
With those thoughts in mind, Desmond sped off in the direction of the sect master’s residence to chat with Miao Xiauyue’s father and learn how the negotiations with the other sects had gone.
Just as Desmond had expected, nothing out of the ordinary happened and all the sects gladly accepted the proposal made by Miao Taolong, with all the benefits offered, no sect thought more than a second before agreeing to go to war and they even seemed eager to go straight out and slaughter the Blood Scorpion Sect.
Given the attitude of these sects, even the mastermind behind all this felt quite defenseless against the warlike and ruthless attitude of the people of this world, of course, Desmond being the one who orchestrated said war, his opinion on the matter was quite hypocritical.
Personal opinions aside, Desmond was very pleased with the current progress of his plans which made him feel somewhat better about him leaving knowing that he had at least done one last thing to help the girls get their happy ending.
Who would have thought that Desmond would end up running into Xiauyue by accident while he was visiting the sect master’s hall which led to an argument very similar to the one Desmond had with Mei Fei Long.
That way the next morning when it was time to resume the tournament and the duels, several people looked strangely at Desmond who had just arrived at the place but already had a bruise on each side of his face as a result of his conversations with both girls.
Another detail to note is that both Desmond and Mei had arrived separately at the scene, giving him a resentful look Mei let out a slight “Hmp” before reluctantly walking over to Desmond’s side and sitting down next to him.
As upset as the little dragon woman was, Mei still didn’t have the heart to simply ignore a person who was so important to her, especially when she knew that person would be gone soon.
It was a very awkward moment filled with a lingering silence until it was time for the duels to begin and Desmond’s name was brought up to attend the arena.
Unable to suppress her concern, Mei still warned Desmond with a hesitant voice: “Be careful.”
Slightly taken aback by the gesture, Desmond only used his hand to gently and lovingly rub Mei’s hair before going up on stage... he didn’t say a word, no words would be able to repair the rift that had inevitably formed in their relationship at the time so that just a simple and loving gesture would be enough.
Deep down, no matter how strong Desmond’s resolve was, he still felt somewhat despondent at having to abandon the bonds he had forged in this world, but he had to be stronger than that, his destiny would take him to travel hundreds of worlds and he couldn’t just shatter each time a farewell took place.
Unaware of Desmond’s dejected emotional state at the time, the evil scorpion Zi took to the stage earning boos from the audience denoting how hated his character was; not that Zi cared.
Arriving at the center of the arena, Zi was quick to notice that his opponent seemed somewhat distracted, a fact that greatly annoyed him, so Zi did not hesitate to make some venomous comments that Desmond did not even listen clearly.
Interestingly though Desmond wasn’t really paying attention to the asshole in front of him, just being snapped out of his gloomy thoughts annoyed Desmond greatly.
Having lost the restraints that Kyuru had placed on him, Desmond at the moment was not the kind of person someone wanted to provoke, especially when he was in a bad mood; it was a pity Zi didn’t know.
What happened next was the fastest duel ever seen in the history of martial arts tournaments, with only a silver flash and a reddish flash appearing briefly in mid-air followed by the sound of metal on metal rubbing and the sound of spilling blood just before Zi hit the ground.
The entire audience could only stare in shock without really understanding what had happened and it wasn’t long before the audience became agitated for answers.
In the end, a high-level member of one of the sects stepped forward to clarify what had happened, it turned out that both Desmond and Zi had used extremely similar techniques that focus on speed and extreme lethality resulting in an exchange of one single movement where the fastest won.
Such an explanation left everyone speechless, one had to know that as much as the public hated the evil scorpion Zi, the man was still feared for his speed-based killing technique; so it was almost unthinkable that someone would beat him at his own game.
Little did everyone present know that in his anger Desmond had pushed to its absolute limit and then exceeded those limits with the use of to such a level that his left arm had been almost crippled for the resulting damage.
Only then had Desmond been able to absurdly win his duel against the evil scorpion Zi who should actually be stronger than Desmond.