Chapter 4- Cold mist
Huang Mei who was feeling tired from the day's activities decided to go sleep.
The bright rays of dawn arrived, the light was shining through the windows brightening up the room, but the arms felt heavy, the head was getting foggy as if a cloud was entering the mind.
The body felt unsettled, the stream of the energy within was flowing very fast and in some parts very slow, this imbalance in flow creates a discomfort in a cultivator's body and particularly those who experienced a breakthrough.
"I will have to stabilise my realm and understand this different qi nature a liltle bit more, luckily I have pills to help with that", her voice rusty as an old sword.
After she had placed a few spirit stones beside her, she meditated, absorbing the qi from the spirit stones, this helped her realm to stabilise because with her new gain in cultivation, more qi could be stored to be properly distributed throughout the whole body, with the addition of pills increasing the blood flow, she had completely stabilised her cultivation in just a few minutes.
Leaving her room she heads to the alchemy hall as she does every morning, however along the way she hears a familiar voice shouting behind her, " Aunt Mie'er wait for me!" , gasping for air as she had been chasing after her aunt.
"You should not be running when you are still recovering" her mouth was pounting as she folded her arms.
The young lady was finally in reach, this is the crown princess Huang Qingxue who awoke the day before and had been sleeping to restore her strength.
"I know I shouldn't be running Aunt, but I came to say my farewells, I am returning to the Sky Sword Sect in the northern region, I have to report to the sect master about my mission, thank you for healing me Aunt Mie'er, I will definitely repay your kindness" her eyes glancing at her own feet, a sign she did not want to be asked something.
"Seeing as you won't tell me what caused you to be in a coma for over a week, I won't bother you" glaring at her like a mother suspicious of her child.
"AHH Auntie don't look at me like that, I can see you overcame a bottleneck, congratulations to you on reaching the Spirit Cauldron Stage, you are truly a role model for the youth" her eyes were filled with joy as she held her Aunt's warm hands.
Unable to remain upset, she softened her voice, "Don't try to flatter me Qingxue, but I am pleased to hear it, the breakthrough happened yesterday and the person I have to thank for it, is the same person you should thank for waking up from your coma".
Then the Pill Saint explained to her how she met Wu Chen and finally achieved a breakthrough.
"Even though he is arrogant he did help us, you'll have to pass on my gratitude, I'll leave first take care Aunty" embracing her aunt with a hug, she soon prepared to set her journey to the northern region.
Inside the alchemy hall Huang Mei was preparing different herbs to make medicinal pills when Elder Huang Feng entered the room surprised to see her working diligently, with his gourd swinging on his right waist, he approached Huang Mei.
"Silly girl why you working so early? did you not want to rest a little after yesterday's battle? I could have managed till the afternoon",said the Elder as he examined the herbs Huang Mei had selected.
"It's fine Uncle Feng I'm already here" glancing around the hall she prepared herself to ask a question, "Uncle Feng, yesterday you said he is going to rest for a few days, how long could that be?" Her voice was softening as she twiddled her fingers.
"Aha ha ha, why you being so polite Mie'er, perhaps the situation has changed, why not go check on him?" his eyes squinted while he was slowly smiling.
Like a child called to eat dinner Huang Mei rushed out the door.
Upon arriving at Wu Chen's room, she knocked three times with no response received, her fingers were slowly grazing the door as she opened to enter.
Standing beside the bed, she observed an unconscious Wu Chen who looked calm laying on his back and seemed to be recovering well.
While she was starring at his face she realised something "looking at him this close he does kind of..." when suddenly Wu Chen's hand tightly gripped the sheets, the sudden motion frightened her, as if by instinct she took his arm to read his pulse.
"Everything seems fine but even if it's very faint, I can feel his internal energy slowly being used, could he be in an internal battle?" Her voice shook with the unease she felt.
She hastily returned to report to the elder, as he was hearing the news his eyes wondered the room, "Seems his fighting to wake up sooner too, he might wake up earlier than I had anticipated, I'll check the hall's storage to see what I can find to help him" his voice was lowering with every word a trick to hide his deciet.
This did not go unnoticed by Huang Mei, her eyes were glaring with fire as her gaze intensified "Uncle Feng! I'm an alchemist too, you cannot tell me someone using their internal energy while unconscious is a good sign"
Unable to decieve his niece any longer, the elder explained to her that as long as he wakes up before his internal energy runs out then he will be safe.
Realising there's not much she can do in the moment, the Pill Saint decides to continue with her work.
With the day's work done she visits Wu Chen again in the evening, to her disappointment the situation has not improved, feeling exhausted from the day's work she heads to sleep, hoping the next day Wu Chen will be awake.
The second day arrives, she heads to the alchemy hall to help the elder refine pills for the soldiers in the northern region, this takes the whole day leaving her tired with the only energy remaining reserved for visiting Wu Chen, the spark in her eyes got dim when she realised the situation was the same as before, Wu Chen is still unconscious. She again hopes the next day will be different.
With an optimistic mood, the Pill Saint awakes on the third day, the first thought in her mind no longer being what she plans to do at the alchemy hall but rather if a certain alchemist woke up yet. The end of her day ends in another disappointment again, she is forced to hope again that the skies will grant her desire.
On the morning of the fourth day, the Pill Saint finds herself unable to focus while refining pills, her thoughts are running rampant while day dreaming in the alchemy hall.
"Mie'er the cauldron is at the right temperature why are you still heating it up?" shouted Elder Huang Feng snapping his fingers as loud as he could.
Meanwhile Wu Chen finds himself in a place that is as dark as a cave under the night's sky, it's air is thick with fog like a furnace full of smoke, his vision is rendered useless as he is unable to see ahead or behind himself, he nonetheless walks forward, the ground is full of water it's as if he is walking atop an ocean and indeed it was such.
Wu Chen was in his spiritual ocean, a realm within a cultivator's unconscious, gained when one reaches the Opening the Spiritual Ocean Stage. It's a place where a cultivator stores and manages their qi, and the place the mind retreats to when a cultivator is deep in meditation whether to understand techniques or to increase their cultivation.
"I can't see anything but I feel like I have been here before, this sensation of stepping on water is too familiar" he mummered as he continued to walk forward.
In the distance a light appeared, gold as the sun and emitting rays that poked holes through the fog, Wu Chen instinctively follows the light when he recognises the source of this light "That's my King's Cauldron! that must mean iam in my spiritual ocean, but why is it so foggy?" He wondered to himself as he slowly raised his right hand.
With a wave of the hand, the fog quickly dissolved but what he witnessed threw him in a complete a daze "What is this place? It never used to look like this, it has completely changed" he was whispering, observing the environment when he noticed the water underneath him "the colour of this water has changed as well, it's texture and colour is almost like that of blood" his voice was shaking as he stood there in confusion.
The once beautiful inner realm with a shining sun and blue clear ocean water was now a place of night ruled by the moon, the once clear water showed the results of practicing demonic arts.
"The qi in this place is similar to that spiritual avatar that appeared when I used the Soul Devouring Technique, could it be that cultivating the technique has altered my spiritual ocean..." out of nowhere a powerful wind came from behind him accompanied by beastly roar.
With his body turned, he saw the beast, it was the demon avatar now at a height of 60 feet with malice in its intent, it starred at Wu Chen like he was an enemy, with it's two swords in hand, the demon avatar threw them to side and charged at Wu Chen.
"Ooh? Is that why my cultivation has been having problems? then come, let us fight" His face lit up with a smile as he too charged toward the raging beast.
Although Wu Chen was an expetional alchemist his grandfather made sure to teach him martial arts and various ways to fight using qi.
While Wu Chen was still fighting the demon avatar, Huang Mei whom after recieving a scolding from elder Huang Feng is now focused, refining high-level pills known for their quality and enhanced benefits, although she was a skilled alchemist, making alot of high level pills takes a long time and qi even for Pill Kings.
Satisfied with the amount of pills she had refined, Huang Mei decided to go bath and sleep as the pills took longer than expected, in her sleeping dress she finds herself starring at the ceiling unable to sleep.
"It's already late even if he is awake" she mummured to herself, resisting the urge to visit Wu Chen.
She was closing her eyes when a wave of frustration enveloped her mind with countless thoughts "I am tired of sleeping, hoping he will be awake the next day, waking up wondering if he will wake up. But what if his internal energy runs out tonight?" concerned she rushes out of her room in haste, not even changing her sleeping dress.
Upon entering the room she felt a cold creeping up her body, bone-chilling as a winter morning, mist had filled the entire room, the air was thin making it hard to even take a deep breath. Her hands were shivering as she walked in the mist towards Wu Chen.
Standing beside his bed, she creates a warm qi barrier around herself that slowly dissolves the mist in the room, with the mist cleared, she focused her gaze on Wu Chen's face when her heart dropped "Why does he look like he is in pain? his face muscles are twitching like his having a nightmare. What about his internal energy?" Her voice trembling as she took his arm to read his pulse.
"His internal energy is very low, at the rate it's depleting, he won't make it till morning" her hands were trembling displaying the panick she felt.
With no other options she can think of she raises both her hands above Wu Chen's body supplying him with her own qi, hoping Wu Chen will wake up before her own internal energy deplets.
Wu Chen who was at a slight advantage against the demon avatar, witnessed the demon avatar gain new strength, with a loud roar it released it's stage 3 power, it had three large wheel-rings on its back, they were green radiating an overwhelming pressure.
"So is this the Soul Devouring Technique at stage 3, it's qi is overwhelming, even my King's Cauldron is being affected" said an intrigued Wu Chen.
Wu Chen seeing he is now at a disadvantage, enveloped his hands with his heavenly flame when the demon avatar let out an even louder roar, as if it's in pain, it dropped to the floor holding its head in agony, the spiritual ocean started to become unstable, the water were creating waves, the mist was slowly returning, causing even Wu Chen to experience the pain, he felt as if he was getting slowly burned by lava, a characteristic of the Spirit Melting Heavenly Fire.
Upon noticing this Wu Chen quickly extinguished the fire, everything seemed to return to normal even the demon avatar did not attack anymore, it simply wondered off in the distance and sat in the lotus pose recovering it's strength.
Wu Chen realised that because in nature the Spirit Melting Heavenly Fire is a flame that is exceptionally strong in burning the spiritual essence of plants it was incompatible with the Soul Devouring Technique.
With the nature of the demon avatar being spiritual and of a demonic essence while the flame specialises in cleansing spiritual energies, the two natures were constantly clashing because the heavenly flame treated the demon avatar as a foreigner threat.
A relieved but bothered Wu Chen stood there pondering "I have finally solved my problem, it's the heavenly flame, but grandfather wouldn't give me this flame if he knew this would happen..." He kicked the ground splashing around the blood-like water, "of course he would do that! but if I knew this earlier it wouldn't be a problem but now I have already used the Soul Devouring Technique, should I extract the flame it's gonna do more harm than good, I might end up even loosing my all cultivation".
This was true, with the Soul Devouring Technique and the heavenly flame both part of his spiritual ocean, the flame wouldn't go out without a fight. With the technique a part of Wu Chen and the flame destroying it, this would not leave him unscathed.
"Seems master had one last gift for this disciple, the only solution is to find another heavenly flame but that itself has issues, chances are rare I can find an unowned heavenly flame and getting it from someone may kill them too, but it cannot be helped, right now I have to seal the Spirit Melting Heavenly Fire, after that I might be able to use more than 70 percent of my cultivation but it will slowly decline without a proper solution" said Wu Chen while he was sealing his heavenly flame.
While sealing the heavenly flame he realises he doesn't have enough internal energy to complete the seal, while he was fighting the demon avatar, they were both using own his internal energy to brawl.
"This is bad! If I leave the seal incomplete, I will lose control of the heavenly flame and it will undoubtedly destroy everything, I don't even have enough internal energy to tame it again..." His eyes jolted wide at the realisation that he may be meeting his end, it's at this time when Huang Mei decided to share her internal energy.
Wu Chen felt a powerful yet tender force enshroud his being, his internal energy steadily increased, with one last effort Wu Chen used all his willpower to absorb the required energy from the helping force and succeeded in sealing the heavenly flame.
Unknown to him was by absorbing such a large amount of energy in a short time caused Huang Mei to experience a sudden withdrawal of internal energy leading her to get light headed and faint, falling on top of Wu Chen, as her body hit impact Wu Chen awoke from his slumber.
With his eyelids heavy and the breath shallow, even though Wu Chen's body felt numb he could feel a pressure weighing on top of his body, as he focused his gaze to inspect the matter, his eyes were met with a sleeping Huang Mei, shocked to suddenly see someone on top of him his adrenaline pumped and he sat up in haste, looked around the room to make sense of where he was, upon further inspection he realises who is on top of him.
"So it turns out it was you giving me a helping hand, seems I owe you a great favour" he mummured as he rubbed her head gently not trying to wake her up.
Wu Chen using the last of his strength, lifted Huang Mei on top of the bed and like a child refusing to share space, he pushed her to the other edge of the bed making her face the wall, and he on the other edge turned to face her with his back, with Wu Chen inside the sheets and Huang Mei outside them in the cold room, still feeling unsettled with his body Wu Chen decides to spend the night.
Two hours passed still in the night, Huang Mei feeling cold awoke and immediately met the wall Infront of her face, not used to seeing a wall as her room's bed has none in either sides, she turns quickly in a panick only to see his back, with the moonlight making its way in the room she saw the many scars on his back, the ones he had got from his master's martial arts training, caught in wonder she finds herself barely grazing the scars with her fingers, as soft as her touch was it woke up Wu Chen who remained silent, Huang Mei who was startled by the scars got carried away and added weight to her touches.
"Pill Saint you can stop now" said Wu Chen who was slowly turning to face Huang Mei.
They locked gazes, one's heart is grateful for the helping force and the other's heart is pumping with joy to see their desire manifested.
This gaze though took a few seconds, but to them, the room had narrowed, thoughts remained silent, lost in eachother's eyes everything seemed to have faded out of existence.
Wu Chen who found himself being grateful to the same person twice felt a burning but nurturing feeling enter his mind, looking at Huang Mei under the moonlight this feeling burned a little too much, he let out a small smile that snapped Huang Mei back from her trance.
Feeling self conscious she covered her chest "What are you looking at you?", her cheeks were slightly red continuing to cover herself.
Wu Chen seeing the uncomfortable Huang Mei looked her right in the eyes as he leaned in lowering his voice "Because the Pill Saint is awake, I'll be leaving, I just wanted to say thank you before I left, believe it or not you saved me" said Wu Chen as his eyes filled with a lively expression.
After getting out bed he wears his upper clothes and walks toward the door, Huang Mei whom was stunned from the time he leaned in snaps and shouts "Why dont you stay! ..here...with me" her voice slowly shrinking at the realisation of what she said, her heart beat became louder as she got nervous waiting for his reply, the surface of her skin felt a wave of chill pass through it, the world got quite and only his voice will be heard.
"Ooh?"