Chapter 14: An Awkward Healing
“Sister… sister, Yulan did not… on purpose…”
Xiao Yulan seemed to be having a nightmare, the tight knit of her eyebrows speaking leagues about a trauma. Looking pale as a ghost, her murmurs appeared to have no end in sight. But at the end of the day, considering Xiao Chen had been a shut-in his entire life without much contact to women prior to his ‘ascension’, he was at a loss to what to do. Had it been otherwise, this kind of situation should not have disconcerted him as much as it did.
Xiao Chen cultivated the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation, which was, despite its tyrannical nature, still a legitimate Immortal Cultivation Technique. However, it had one major drawback in this world. There was simply no Immortal Qi in this world. Even so, if he used his Essence, it would definitely have a trace of a similar healing effect to the Immortal Qi. Xiao Chen had also received a punch from Elder Zhang earlier and injured his heart and lungs, but it took merely a bit of nourishing by Essence before it was completely healed.
It was definitely effective. He decided to give it a try when he had thought of this idea. He then slowly straightened out Xiao Yulan’s body and placed his hand on her shoulder, and circulated the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation, threads of gentle Essence slowly pouring into Xiao Yulan’s body through his palm and fingers.
His consciousness followed the Essence closely and entered into Xiao Yulan’s meridians, but all that lay in store for him was shock as he saw how severely her meridians had been damaged. There were scars of varying sizes in the eight major meridians, and they had many gorges and were very distorted in shape. Some of the minor meridians were only connected to each other by a thread, seeming to be on the verge of snapping apart at any moment. It was a shocking sight.
Xiao Chen carefully controlled the Essence and nourished the injured meridians. The nourishing sensation seemed to placate Xiao Yulan’s pained expression, which began to regain color. She could feel a certain warmth moving gently around in her meridians, inordinately amazing her. As she knew Xiao Chen was the one treating her, a tinge of red pervaded her face.
Xiao Chen used his consciousness to control the Essence in Xiao Yulan’s body, making it circulate a whole cycle before sending his consciousness even deeper. The scars seemed to have recovered significantly everywhere he went. He controlled his Essence to head towards Xiao Yulan’s Dantian, where a beautiful Poinsettia resided. Right now, it seemed dispirited and listless, as though it was withered.
“Cousin Xiao Chen, that’s enough.”
The voice suddenly entered his brain, startling Xiao Chen. It took a long time for him to react. This was the sound of Xiao Yulan’s consciousness speaking directly to him. Immediately after, he realized that he had not asked for her permission to send his consciousness into her. It was bad etiquette to enter another person’s body in the way he did, even more-so if the counterpart was a girl.
Xiao Chen withdrew his consciousness and Essence before getting up, but he felt dizzy and sat down again. He laughed bitterly, as it turned out that treating others was a very tiresome matter.
Xiao Yulan asked worriedly: “Are you alright, Cousin Xiao Chen?.”
“I’m fine, don’t worry, Cousin. I just exhausted a lot of my Essence. I will be fine after some rest. Are you feeling better yet?” Xiao Chen stated.
Xiao Yulan blushed and replied in a soft voice, “Thank you, Cousin Xiao Chen, I am feeling much better.”
“Then that’s good. After a few more days of treatment, Cousin’s injuries should be completely recovered.”
Time went by very fast in the stone room. In the blink of an eye, six days had already passed. The rations the two of them had taken with them had already been spent two days ago. Although it was not a big issue for Martial Cultivators to not eat or drink for a few days, if it went on for an extended period of time, they would still die.
In these six days, Xiao Yulan’s body had pretty much recovered all the way through. Despite that, her body still seemed a little weak due to lacking nourishment. Every day, after treating Xiao Yulan’s injuries, Xiao Chen would cultivate. He was already able to freely use the Divine Thunder Break. He also raised the amount of Purple Thunder True Fire he could conjure and consolidated his Inferior Grade Martial Disciple cultivation.
Today was the day of the duel with Xiao Jian. If he was not able to get out, there was no telling what sort of rumors would spread outside. He raised his head to look at the hole ten meters above them, feeling distraught and anxious.
“Cousin Xiao Chen, can I take a look at the Spirit Weapon from the Moonstone pillar?” Xiao Yulan asked weakly.
Xiao Chen nodded his head. He took out the broken sword and handed it to Xiao Yulan, “This Spirit Weapon does not seem to be anything special. I have been trying for the past few days.”
Xiao Yulan did not say anything. Instead, she caressed the body of the sword and took out a green thread and dropped it onto the sword slowly. When it touched the blade of the sword, it split into two pieces. Shortly after, she took out a short sword from below her feet and slashed it at the sword, the result thereupon being a resounding crashing sound! The short sword was immediately bisected into two roughly-cut pieces.
“It cuts threads with just a touch and slices through metal like mud. This is no ordinary sword.”
Xiao Chen smiled: “Even so, it is not able to help us now. Unless it can help us fly up?”
Xiao Yulan smiled gently: “Who said it can't?”
Xiao Chen only saw her leap up gently, rising about three meters up towards the top of the pit. Right as gravity picked up around her, she used the broken sword and struck it into the wall. The sword completely sank into the pit wall. Her right hand held onto the handle and, using that as a perch and propeller for momentum, her body found second wind in the air again. After a few renditions of this, she managed to escape the pit.
Xiao Chen stood below, starting in shock. There was a clattering sound, generated as the sword made its way back down and hit the ground. Xiao Yulan shouted from up top, “Cousin, come up quickly, those people are gone already.”
Xiao Chen picked up the broken sword, feeling excited. He imitated Xiao Yulan and, after a few jumps, managed to escape the pit as well. As a breeze of fresh air swept over him with a deep caress, Xiao Chen felt the urge to shout out loudly.
For some reason, the body of the dead Elder Zhang did not rot. Xiao Chen could not care a whit about that and searched everywhere for any remaining broken pieces of Moonstone and collected them all.
The two of them returned through the pathway they came from. With the assistance of the broken sword, the stone wall that had been in their way in the past was effortlessly slashed open. Before descending the mountain, Xiao Chen invited Xiao Yulan to come with him.
Xiao Yulan hesitated for a while before accepting the invitation. After being trapped in there with Xiao Chen, she already knew that today was the day of the duel with Xiao Jian. She was a little worried about Xiao Chen and had decided to go down the mountain to take a look.
Xiao Clan, martial hall.
At this moment, the huge martial hall was already filled with people, indicating that all the disciples of the younger generation had come to watch. Because of the rumors spread by the servants, there were a significant amount of people.
“Eldest Young Master, would this Xiao Chen not show up?” A Xiao Clan disciple that had a good relationship with Xiao Jian spoke from below the arena in the martial hall.
“Yes, I believe that Xiao Chen is too cowardly to show up. He’s merely a piece of trash at the 9th grade of Spirit Refinement and actually dares to duel with the Eldest Young Master—how insolent.”