Darkness gave way to blurry light as John’s eyes slowly opened. A wet sensation assaulted his cheek, waking him from his long slumber. A groggy groan escaped his lips as he slowly came to his senses, and looked over towards the source of the wetness.
A large tongue licked out in quick succession, as the face of a creature was right up in his face. John’s eyes, initially hazy with confusion, opened wide as he saw the creature before him.
“Kirii!” John exclaimed in elated excitement as he quickly moved to sit up and hug his beast companion. Kirii had been on the precipice of life and death for a long time, and John had been worried about him the entire time. However, there was nothing he could do but wait and hope Kirii made it through his ordeal.
“Ahhh”
While trying to sit up, John winced as he felt a wave of pain course through his entire body. He quickly laid back down to reduce the pain, while a sound to his right caught his attention.
The sound was that of a door opening, after which a female walked in from. She was wearing all white robes, and appeared to be in her twenties. She had a warm face, and her eyes locked onto John’s as she walked in.
“You’re finally awake?” the woman said to John as she walked up to him. Her gaze shifted to Kirii, and a warm smile appeared on her face. “You have quite the animal companion here. He appeared a day after you collapsed, and has not left your side since.”
John glanced at Kirii for a moment, before his gaze shifted around the room he was in. The room contained many shelves, all lined with medicinal bottles containing various different pills.
“Where am I, and how long was I out for?” John asked the woman who had walked in.
“You’re in the healing ward of the sect,” the woman replied as she walked towards one of the shelves and inspected the bottles before grabbing one. She turned around and walked back to John, at which point she took out a pill from the bottle and handed it to him.
“Swallow this,” the woman instructed John, who took the pill and inspected it for a moment before swallowing it. “As for your second question, you were unconscious for four days.”
“Four days? I’ve been out for that long?” John exclaimed, shocked at what he heard.
“Four days is quite short for the condition your body was in,” the woman replied as she returned the pill bottle to the shelf she had taken it from. “Many of your muscles were torn, and almost all your bones were fractured, with some of them broken completely. Even your meridians showed signs of cracking, and if that had happened, you would have become a cripple.”
John’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at the woman’s words, as he had not expected the damage to his body from his Bloodline Transformation to be so severe.
‘And I had only used it for thirty seconds, and didn’t even use the bloodline transformation for combat. I wonder how bad my condition would be if I had fought under that strain?’ John mused internally as he sent out his divine sense to inspect his body.
Similar to what the healer had told him, he was immediately able to see that his body was in bad shape. However, it was not as bad as the nurse had explained, showing that he had healed up quite a bit since falling unconscious.
The healer quickly inspected John’s body as well, and raised her eyebrows in slight surprise.
“Your body has healed much faster than expected,” she remarked as she continued to inspect him. “At this rate, you will be able to be discharged in a few more days.”
The healer continued her examination on John’s body for a short while, before her two hands outstretched over his chest. A calm, healing energy left her hands and infused into John’s body, which slowly healed some of the lingering wounds he still had.
This process continued for some time, before the healing energy faded away.
“That’s all that can be healed today. I will return tomorrow to continue your healing process,” the healer explained before turning around and leaving the room.
After watching her leave, John’s gaze shifted to Kirii once again, who was patiently sitting next to him. A smile appeared on his face as he reached out and patted Kirii’s head in a loving manner.
“I’m glad to see you’re alright, Kirii,” John said to his animal companion.
A warm tongue licked John’s face again in response, as Kirii showed his affection back. After petting Kirii’s head, John inspected Kirii’s body, as it had changed quite considerably. An incredibly thick and profound lightning aura naturally emanated from its body, far greater than what it had emanated prior to the tribulation.
Not only that, but Kirii’s cultivation had also improved, surprising John as well.
“You’re already at the Half-Step Heaven Tribulation Realm? But you’ve been slumbering all this time? How the….ah forget it. Beasts truly are blessed by the heavens when it comes to pure cultivation talents,” John grumbled as he continued to pet Kirii’s head.
Bang!
The door to John’s room flung open and a figure raced in quickly.
“Adam?” John called out as he saw Adam run to his bedside.
“John, you’re finally awake,” Adam exclaimed happily as he saw John was fine after all. “They’ve been keeping me outside this room, and I was never allowed to enter it until now. Those bastards! How could they keep me separated from my brother in his greatest moment of need!” Adam exclaimed angrily, as if he had been wronged.
John stared at Adam speechlessly after his short rant, before his gaze shifted to the door once more as another person entered.
“Chase!” John called out as he spotted Chase enter as well.
“I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Chase replied as he walked up to John’s bedside. “You had all of us worried sick for a moment there.”
“Sorry about that,” John replied with a wry smile, although a sensation of warmth entered his body upon seeing his two friends enter his room. Clearly they had been waiting night and day to see him.
“How did you end up like this anyways?” Adam suddenly asked John. “The sect refuses to tell us anything, and only says it was a training accident? Accident my ass. How could someone as strong as you have an accident this damaging?”
“Who cares about that,” Chase spoke up. “Clearly the sect would punish the person if it was caused by someone else, but I have a suspicion it was self inflicted.”
“Self-inflicted?” Adam exclaimed. “How the hell could John cause this much damage to himself?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but I would guess it had something to do with the recent event that unfolded,” Chase replied.
His response caused Adam’s expression to change as he recalled something, before he eagerly looked over towards John.
“That’s right! You were unconscious, but the new topic of discussion throughout the entire sect is the emergence of someone called “Asura,” who did something shocking on some talent steps or something like that. That wouldn’t happen to you, right?”
John raised an eyebrow as Adam revealed this information to him.
‘Asura, huh? I guess I never gave my name to the testing formation, and so it probably used the name it felt suited me best. Asura is quite nice actually,” John mused with a smile on his face, before his thoughts shifted. ‘However, it seems as though the sect is keeping the fact that I’m this Asura a secret. I wonder why that is?’