Chapter 73: The Green Pearl
Hui Yue did not get to enjoy the black world for long before he was awoken by an intense pain in his leg. Hui Yue’s black comfortable numbness immediately vanished and instead it was replaced by a throbbing pain in his shoulder along with an intense feeling of sharp pain from something stabbing all the way through his leg.
Hui Yue forced himself to open his eyes and face reality, only to see that his leg had been impaled by yet another earthen spear. The wound was so severe that the bone was visible. Fortunately, his bone had not been broken, and despite the wound Hui Yue forced himself back onto his legs, as he saw the black cloaked man approaching him from behind.
Hui Yue was currently stuck on a rooftop where the Qi Fan had taken him before it vanished as he lost consciousness.
Gritting his teeth, Hui Yue circulated the Qi within his body, forcing it to leave the Chong Mai meridian and enter his bloodstream. Hui Yue was in a rush, and he forcefully pushed the Qi to the wound on his leg and the wound on his shoulder, closing off the wounds, once more stopping the blood flow which now left Hui Yue in a critical stage.
Once more the earthen spears appeared next to Hui Yue, but this time he managed to avoid them. Although the situation was terrible, Hui Yue felt as though he himself needed to be able to deal with it, and he had forcefully suppressed the aggravated phoenix within his dantian cave, not allowing for him to come out.
With the current condition of Hui Yue’s body, his body would not be able to withstand it, if they used the energy which belonged to Lan Feng. Instead, Hui Yue once more activated Velocity Flow and he shot off into the distance. Currently it was impossible for him to attack the hooded man and survive. His only option was to retreat and deal with him when his wounds were tended to.
However, how could it be easy to escape? Although Hui Yue still managed to control Velocity Flow, he was clearly pressed for time as his Qi spiral was getting smaller and smaller, as Qi was constantly used to keep his body from bleeding out. Along with paying attention to Velocity Flow, he managed to dodge the onslaught of earthen spikes by a hair’s breadth each time.
The only fortunate thing was that this spiritual Master was constantly murmuring incantations to make the earth move at his behest, while his hands were formed into a square shape. This allowed Hui Yue to increase the distance between the two of them, and while relying on speed alone, Hui Yue managed to get away with only a few more scratches, but no more serious injuries.
Hui Yue rushed past one rooftop after another, until he finally managed to jump into yet another alleyway. His Qi was almost exhausted, and he was no longer able to focus on anything as the entire world kept spinning.
Lan Feng was constantly speaking to Hui Yue, so that he would not lose consciousness, during this Hui Yue clenched his jaw as he forced his mind to stay alert and slowly dragged his beaten-up body back to the inn.
Walking through the front door, the manager instantly recognized Hui Yue, as he had become a regular, and upon seeing the blood which coated the boy’s white robe, shock filled his mind.
“Young master!” He exclaimed in shock, “should I contact a healer?” he asked, yet Hui Yue was currently struggling just to stay awake and his eyes were distant, and they looked as if hidden behind a red mist. A killing intent kept appearing then disappearing, switching place with an odd tranquillity. Both emotions were fighting to take over the almost unconscious boy.
The manager was frozen in place, unable to utter another sound because he felt how his heart was beating frantically, a manic expression appearing on his face as he feared that the deranged youth might end up killing him if his beating heart was heard.
Hui Yue was walking as though he was in another world. Nothing seemed to appear in front of his eyes as black dots were dancing, blurring everything. He had only managed to return to the inn with the help of Lan Feng’s constant yelling and his instincts drove him to the safest location he knew.
Walking through the front doors of the inn, Hui Yue saw nothing nor did he hear anything. His exhausted body had long since given out, and his final Qi thread had been used on the way back home. Instead, the red mist and blue cloud had taken turns sealing the wounds while fighting the other to become the dominant energy within his body.
Making his way up the stairs, dripping blood on the beautiful carpet, Hui Yue finally opened the door to see that Sha Yun was waiting for him. A smile appeared on his face as he recognized the familiar feeling of having her by his side, and he collapsed on the floor without saying a word.
Hui Yue was floating within a black abyss. Nothing seemed to be present apart from the black world expanding infinitely. While in this black abyss, Hui Yue sensed that it was possible for him to move around, and he slowly started floating further and further away from his previous location, yet all he saw was the black world where nothing was present, not even the ground or the sky, just the black abyss.
Hui Yue felt as though he had been locked within this realm for an eternity, before he finally came across a change. Within this black abyss, the first thing he saw was five flames with different colours and sizes forming a pentagon.
The yellow flame and the red flame were definitely the biggest of the five, closely followed by the silver flame. The green and the blue flames were both present, but neither of them had a decent size, making them seem to struggle for survival.
Looking at these flames, Hui Yue assumed it had something to do with his and Lan Feng’s elemental affinity, as the red flame and yellow flame could easily represent the affinities he had. What caused Hui Yue to be slightly hesitant about his theory, however, was that all the flames were present, when the phoenix taught him that it was only possible to have two affinities each.
Could it be that Lan Feng had been wrong? Furrowing his brows, Hui Yue felt as though he had been looking at the elements for what seemed like an eternity, but even while doing so, Hui Yue was not able to understand what they represented, and instead he decided to move on. Who knew what else he might find in this infinite abyss. Moving further away, Hui Yue once more travelled for an eternity within the black world, nothing was moving except him. The world seemed as though it had reached a standstill.
Finally, light was seen within the darkness, a light which seemed very familiar. Hui Yue was suddenly within a room which seemed exactly like his dantian cave, yet no colours nor sounds were heard. The Qi spiral was frozen in place, and so was Lan Feng who could be seen sleeping on the side.
The only light and movement came from the small caves which had been created on the dantian cave wall. The caves containing the blood red mist and the clear blue sky. Currently the two phenomena were moving around actively as though they had sensed Hui Yue, yet what drew his attention was no longer the two open caves. Instead he moved straight for one of the closed caves in front of him.
Hui Yue’s eyes grew wide as he felt a calling. A calling from the other side of the barrier, and ever so slowly, he raised his white pale hand and placed it upon the energy screen which kept the cave closed off, only to see it slowly dissipated below his hand, the energy shining brightly as it flew into the Qi spiral which in turn started turning ever so slowly.
At first he was blinded by the intense light of the energy, which shone out from within the room. A bright green and comfortable colour illuminated the otherwise black version of his dantian cave.
The previously frozen Qi Spiral was now revolving rapidly around itself, and the copy of Hui Yue was currently refining the energy which had been blocking the cave before.
Within the cave was a small green pearl which was floating around in a pattern similar to that of the Qi spiral. As soon as the doorway was opened and the pearl revolved around itself a few times, it ended up releasing long rays of green light, which exited the Qi cave and entered the Chong Mai meridian.
Hui Yue was unable to see anything else, as he once again found himself within the black abyss, floating around, yet now his body seemed to be aching slightly.
The aching turned into sharp pain and the pain seemed to grow in intensity. When the first sharp pain appeared, a white flash illuminated the abyss for a tenth of a second, and strangely the more pain he felt, the lighter the surroundings grew.
Little by little, Hui Yue seemed to return to the world as the pain was changing the surroundings. Hui Yue finally opened his eyes and looked at a worried Sha Yun, who had tears flowing from her eyes as she shook the wounded Hui Yue.
Hui Yue could not help but hiss in pain as the shaking was done. Sha Yun’s long and sharp nails were piercing his wounded shoulder, and he quickly made her stop what she was doing.
Looking down, Hui Yue saw how in front of him a green glow was causing the wound on his leg to heal before his very eyes. Although the speed was far inferior to that of a professional healer, it was definitely healing much quicker than Hui Yue had ever healed in the past.
The green light seemed so familiar and Hui Yue’s eyes widened in shock when he realised that this light was the one he had released in his black dantian cave previously, while stuck within the black abyss.
‘Come here.’ Lan Feng called out, and Hui Yue managed to sit down in a meditational position. Although it was uncomfortable with his leg which was healing and the shoulder which was injured it was still manageable, and Hui Yue allowed for his mental projection to slip down into the dantian cave.
Looking around, Hui Yue was stunned, despite having already guessed that something had changed. Within his dantian cave, the Qi spiral was so large and powerful that it was obvious that it brought him close to breaking through the bottleneck into the Master rank.
Not only had the Qi Spiral changed, but one of the closed gates had been opened and within was a green pearl about the size of Hui Yue’s thumbnail. The pearl was much smaller than when he had seen it within the black abyss world.
‘What happened?’ Lan Feng asked with worry and Hui Yue gave a quick account of the things which had happened during his state of unconsciousness.
‘I see.’ Lan Feng frowned slightly. ‘I’ve never actually experienced anything like this before.’ He continued. ‘You are a man of many secrets it seems. But I can confirm that the green pearl was larger before. It suddenly allowed for some of its power to seep out and your body started healing itself.’
Hui Yue nodded, he had guessed that the orb was the cause of his healing. However, this orb was very different from the red mist and the blue cloud. It was not an emotion which seemed to struggle against the barrier. Instead it seemed as though it was patiently waiting within his Qi cave and was slowly absorbing some of the essence which it refined into the green energy, allowing for the pearl to very slowly grow in size.