Chapter 372: A Tragic Sight
On the second day after Jian Chen’s defeat, a tree trunk concealed by several branches in the forest began to shake for a moment before a white-maned winged tiger came crawling out of the tree. Both of its shiny eyes looked around its surroundings before letting out a growl.
After looking in every direction and mewling for half the day, the white tiger cub began to sniff the area before heading in the direction of Jian Chen.
The tiger cub was extremely young and its paws couldn’t support its own weight for an extended period of time. So it could only run for a short amount of time before resting and continuing the pattern.
……
After an unknown amount of time, Jian Chen’s muddled head began to clear up as he tried to open his eyes with difficulty. The very first thing he noticed was a wooden roof. Although it was a bit worn down, it was still quite clean.
Suddenly, a wave of pain attacked Jian Chen’s head, causing him to cry out in pain. Because of the inexplicable pain in his head, Jian Chen’s face grew deathly pale without a hint of blood to be seen. The muscles on his face couldn’t help but quiver as he felt the room begin to shake before Jian Chen’s head fell to the side and he lost consciousness.
Not too long after Jian Chen had fainted, a creaking sound could be heard as the wooden door to the room creaked open and a fat male around the age of twenty years old appeared. The male walked over to Jian Chen’s bed, but the moment he saw Jian Chen’s sleeping posture, his hand reached to scratch his own head, “Strange, I could have sworn I heard a sound. How has he not awoken yet, it’s been three days already.” With that, the fatty left the room.
……
For three days straight, the white tiger cub continued to stumble and crawl on the road. Climbing across steep mountains and even falling down from them, the white tiger cub didn’t even get a scratch on its tender skin. The only change was that its fur was gray in color with the dust.
After three days of dangerous traveling, the white tiger cub had finally arrived at the battleground where Jian Chen and the Heaven Saint Master had fought.
Sniffing the area, the tiger cub began to growl out loud with an urgent tone as if it was crying with grief. Running with all of its might toward a large patch of dried blood, the ground even had bits and pieces of Jian Chen’s body.
Letting out another roar in sadness, the tiger cub looked around the area once more before sniffing the bloody patch of ground. Then, with a small nudge of its nose, the tiger cub took a piece of Jian Chen’s inner organs and put it into its mouth.
Although the tiny part of the inner organ had already withered up, there was still a large concentration of energy within it. After eating the body piece, the white tiger cub began to feel a large amount of energy within its four limbs. It was as if it had enough energy to support its entire body. There was enough to the point where the tiger cub could feel several sharp fangs starting to grow within its mouth.
As the tiger cub continued to eat the remaining parts left behind by Jian Chen, it continued to howl in sadness. Not too long afterward, the entire area had been cleaned up by the tiger cub.
By this point, while there was no significant change in the tiger cub’s body, its ability to move around had grown significantly. All four of its limbs were sturdy and strong and it no longer had the same difficulty moving anymore nor were its movements awkward.
Opening its mouth, the cub took one bite of the nearby dirt before spitting it back out. The originally bloody dirt had returned to its original state as if there had been no blood in the first place.
After ten hours, the white tiger cub had fully cleaned up the area so that not a single speck of Jian Chen’s blood remained. Not only Jian Chen’s blood had been taken, but even the opposing Heaven Saint Masters had been absorbed. For the tiger cub, the amount of energy remaining in their blood was like a tonic for it.
After absorbing all of the energy, the white tiger cub had grown even stronger. Even the sharp fangs in its mouth had grown bigger and sharper.
Once all of the blood was absorbed, the white tiger cub continued to circle around the area with its nose constantly sniffing. Finally, it broke out into a run that made it look like it was flying as the wings on its back unfolded almost like it was preparing to fly.
……
A series of pictures began to flow through the chaotic space in Jian Chen’s unconscious mind, one after the other in the form of a grotesque gas. Sometimes, he would see a white haired elder; sometimes he would see a red cloud that tore through the air itself with its lightning. Sometimes, it was the two azure and violet Sword Spirits appearing as if they were lovers as they flew through the sky and danced with the metallic song of swords. Occasionally, the figure of a single crane-haired elder could be seen wielding the two azure and violet Deity Swords as he flew through the air and decimated magical beast after magical beast. At times, the two Deity Swords fused into one and created chaos throughout the world, destroying both enemies and the world itself.
Then, Jian Chen saw the azure and violet Deity Swords shatter apart into the world and slowly disappear into a mountain range….
After an unknown amount of time, Jian Chen opened his eyes once more as he woke up. Immediately, a dizzying sensation began to occur in his head once more, but it wasn’t as severe as the first wave. Therefore, this time Jian Chen did not fall unconscious.
Staring blankly all around him, Jian Chen could see that he was currently resting upon a bed in a wooden house. His back was up against a wooden bed and footprints could still be seen on the floor. The room itself wasn’t all that big and was roughly eight meters wide with very little furniture.
“Where is this place?” Jian Chen began to look around himself with confusion. But when he tried to climb out of the bed, more pain struck and snaked up his body, wracking his nerves.
The sudden intense pain caused Jian Chen to cry out once more and break out into a cold sweat. His originally healthy red face once again turned pale.
Gritting his teeth, Jian Chen lifted his head with difficulty to observe his surroundings. This time, he immediately froze in place as he saw a thirty centimeter hole in his chest, nearly separating his entire body into two in a grotesque shape. There was dried blood everywhere around the wound. This wound would horrify any person.
Seeing the situation he was in, a tidal wave of memories began to charge forth into his mind from when he was battling the eight Heaven Saint Masters.
“Did I not die?” Jian Chen’s expression was rather dazed, but he soon regained himself as a joyous look overcame him.
“I didn’t die, I really didn’t die!” Jian Chen couldn’t hold in the emotions within himself. As soon as his body began to tremble, the wound in his chest began to act up, causing Jian Chen to grit his teeth together.
After a moment, the pain abated, leaving Jian Chen to collapse back onto the bed weakly gasping for breath. Laying there quietly without any energy, he began to think about his condition.
A clear image of his current state could be seen within his mind. His perspective was a lot stronger than what it was before, but he couldn’t feel happy about that just yet, and neither could he feel anything in his current state. Right now, the situation that had happened to him had left him in shock.
His current situation was extremely grave – it was practically a total mess. All of his organs were on the verge of failing and even his heart was shattered, but even after such a serious blow, he had not died.
But that had not been the most serious thing. The true extent of the damage that Jian Chen suffered was from the Light Wind Sword which broke after years of bitter cultivation. Although his dantian had not yet disappeared, there were no signs of the Sword Spirits.
Even his Saint Weapon had been broken without a trace. The dantian had lost all source of his energy, meaning all of his cultivation had been lost irrevocably.
Jian Chen had been utterly dumbfounded. After losing his Saint Weapon, he had gone from a talented genius of renown to becoming a cripple. This was an incredibly serious blow to him.
“Could it be? Am I now a cripple?” Jian Chen continued to stare at the ceiling with a dazed look. His eyes were filled with an unwillingness. This was because he had far too many things to accomplish still, and in order to accomplish them, he would need a tremendous amount of power.
“Creak!”
At that moment, the door suddenly creaked open as a middle-aged man walked through the doors. He was around forty years old with a steady face and wore clothes that were patched all over. Despite the poor clothing, they did nothing to hide his unordinary air.
“You’re awake.” The man stared at Jian Chen.
Regaining his senses, Jian Chen looked at the middle-aged man listlessly, “I thank you for rescuing me.”
The man walked toward Jian Chen and stopped at his bedside with a smile, “You are truly tenacious in order to take such a fatal blow without dying. If this were anyone else, even a Heaven Saint Master would have died.”
The man suddenly stopped talking for a moment, “The wounds you suffered were horrifying, to say the least. Even your inner organs were crushed. Aside from a high leveled Heaven Saint Master healing you, it will be incredibly difficult to heal your wounds.”
Jian Chen was silent as he took in the information. With his Saint Weapon destroyed, he had lost all of his martial abilities.
Seeing the look of daze in Jian Chen’s eyes, the middle-aged man sighed, “Kid, think for a moment. Even if you were crippled, you can still live an ordinary life. Although it will be difficult to do anything marvelous, you’ll learn to deal with it. I’ll go ask my father later for a Radiant Saint Pill so that you can heal faster.”