Ball of Nothing - Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Night fell . Merlin was taking a break after a day of healing . Zero had woken up sometime in the afternoon and was shocked to find Truen in a bad state . He was more shocked at how he'd been found by Hua Tuo but relaxed when Buddha confirmed that Hua Tuo wasn't a suspicious person .
Merlin found the chirpy brunet interesting to talk to . While Zero had the mind of a child, he sometimes displayed great knowledge about other things and had interesting insights . The wizard thanked Hua Tuo for the delicious dinner and offered to set up a stronger magical barrier to guard against the moontaur sisters lying in the wait outside .
Hua Tuo learnt that Zero had peculiar eating habits . The boy ate like a starved man and had a bottomless void for a stomach . He devoured everything without much chewing and his stomach still growled even after five bowls of rice .
Merlin was intrigued by his appetite when Zero recounted how he met Truen at the Mega Gourmet competition .
"I see that you have quite the appetite . I understand from Isis that you have the free-to-dine voucher, shall we visit La Boutique?"
Zero appeared conflicted . He briefly glanced at Truen and the Sage Gods exchanged looks .
"I'll take care of Truen, don't worry . A growing boy like you needs to eat . I'll inform you immediately when he wakes up so don't worry . "
Zero nodded before holding Merlin's outstretched hand and stepping into the portal . Hua Tuo watched them leave and waved with a gentle expression on his face . That quickly changed after the portal closed . It was finally time to get rid of the pests .
Without Merlin around to maintain the newly erected magical barrier, it collapsed . Sensing that the opportunity had presented itself, Kayla and Layla got into position quickly as planned . Hua Tuo appeared to be busy with the elf and had his back faced against the window . This was all the sisters needed to launch a sneak attack .
Their plan was simple . They would attack from two directions . One would hide beneath the window and the other would charge through the door to distract the old man . When the old man was engaged, the hidden one would grab the elf and use him as a bargaining chip .
Hua Tuo continued to dress Truen's wounds and check his vitals while the sisters readied their sneak attack . Unknown to Zero, the Sage Gods agreed to take care of the nuisance without Zero's knowledge . The young boy was still to green and if he knew that the sisters he saved were facing a crisis, he would try to offer them help . The Sage Gods had seen too many cases like this and knew that these girls were merely expandables . The tribe sent them here on a death mission and it was clear that short of death, nothing would stop these sisters from getting what they wanted .
Moontaurs were not creatures easy to deal with . Although there was a way for Merlin and Hua Tuo to help them, who was to say the people they saved wouldn't bite them in the back one day? Selfishness was a human trait, not even half-beasts were freed from it . There was nothing good in helping the moontaur tribe, it would only bring trouble in future . When given a foot, one would tend to ask for a mile .
Hua Tuo knew that the moontaur tribe was fated to be extinct . After the fall of Star Guardians, it was only a matter of time . Star Guardians were now considered myths by the people of this new planet . When the old Earth was destroyed, so was the galaxy and space-time construct . The new God born from human hopes could only replicate whatever he knew about humans . He didn't have the power to bring back the fallen powers of the old planet . Preserving them through diluted traces of fallen power was all he could do .
The door was kicked down and swift like the wind, Kayla attacked . Layla lay waiting for the opportunity to grab the elf but was shocked by the old man's counter .
Blood spewed everywhere when Hua Tuo slashed Kayla's neck with a scalpel in hand . The small but deadly sharp blade cut deeply and Kayla choked in blood . Her windpipe was cut but it wasn't deep enough to kill her instantly .
Seeing her sister's state, Layla flew into rage and launched herself at Hua Tuo . Sadly, she couldn't react fast enough to the cloud of poison powder thrown in her face .
With one bleeding to death and one suffocating from poison, Hua Tuo looked at the girls emotionlessly . He had nothing against them but for the greater picture, they had to be sacrificed .
"If you want to blame someone, please blame it on the one who created this world . Moontaurs were never supposed to exist . It is the fate for all descendants of Star Guardians to die out . Even if you moved from Endow Hill, you cannot escape the wheel of fate . "
Unseeing and unhearing, the sisters departed from the world of the living .
Hua Tuo had no enmity with the moontaur tribe . However, they had gone too far when they tried to take his patient by force . A doctor's mission was to save any lives that they could . When their patient was in danger, a doctor can do anything at his disposal to ensure his patient's safety . Hua Tuo only did what was expected of him as a doctor . If the girls had chosen to kidnap him instead of taking his patient as hostage, he would've complied . Sadly, they didn't and so they had to die .
The doctor used his hand to close the eyes of the deceased . He carried the bodies one his cloud mount and decided to return them to the forest where they belonged . It didn't take long for Hua Tuo to single-handedly dig two graves with qi enforced hands . He laid the sisters to rest and marked the dirt mounds with boulders . On it, he engraved the following words, "In memory for the brave moontaur warriors who were once part of Endow Hill . May your souls rest in peace" .
Standing in front of the freshly dug graves, Hua Tuo waited for roughly an hour before making his way back . It was unfortunate that they had to die but Hua Tuo wouldn't betray the vow he'd taken back when he was still a mortal . He would do anything to save his patient, even if his patient wanted him dead .