Chương 125: I Want to Stop Waking Up in Hospital Beds

"Easy there. Don't move." A gentle hand pressed against his shoulder, keeping him flat against the mattress. The touch was careful, almost tender.

"You have an IV in your left arm, and if you tear it out, the nurses will scold me terribly for not watching you properly. I've been sitting here for days, Leo. Please don't make my vigil pointless." The voice belonged to Aelithris, Seraphindë's daughter. The sharp scent of crushed pine needles soaked in honey filled his nostrils, with an undertone that tingled against his dantian. Spiritual medicine. He must have woken up in a hospital. Again. Leo tried to open his eyes, but nothing happened.

His eyelids moved, yet the world remained black. For a long, terrible second, he was back in the Grand Pavilion. The oil-black tar grinning behind Sariya's face, the golden threads pulsing with sick light, the weight of her body going still in his arms. Then the herbal smell registered again, along with the mattress beneath him and a faint hum from somewhere nearby. A healing formation embedded in the walls or the floor, perhaps. Not the Grand Pavilion. The battle was over.

Despite this realization, his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

"What happened?" His voice came out rough.

"I can't see anything." He reached up toward his face, and his fingers found cloth before a sharp slap knocked his hand away.

"I told you not to move." Her palm was cool and soft against his wrist as she guided it back to the mattress.

"There's a bandage. The physician says you need to keep it on for two more days, and I intend to make sure you follow his instructions. Someone has to look after you properly."

"Why?"

"Why?" She drew the word out, her tone rising with gentle incredulity.

"Leo, you stared directly at karma threads for several minutes. The Moderator made them visible to everyone in the Grand Pavilion, but that doesn't mean your cultivation level was sufficient to comprehend what you were seeing. The threads exist at a level of reality that Qi Refiners aren't meant to perceive. Your poor eyes. I can't imagine what that must have felt like." Leo sat with that. Blind for two more days. His head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache that pulsed behind his eyes.

He reached for his divine sense out of habit, expecting the familiar sphere of awareness to unfold around him and fill in what his eyes couldn't give him. Instead he found nothing. Just a hollow space where his perception used to be, as if someone had reached into his chest and scooped away everything that mattered and left a shell behind.

"Everyone spent at least a week in recovery," Aelithris continued. He heard her adjusting something near his bed, perhaps straightening his blankets.

"Some of the competitors from other teams are still unconscious. Your friend Vivian woke up after three days, which the physicians considered remarkable. You've been unconscious for five. I was starting to worry you might sleep forever."

"What happened to him? The Moderator?" The question hung in the air.

"Even if I give you the official explanation," she said, her voice softer now, "after everything you've been through, will you believe it? How about this? The heroes prevailed. The villains fell. Congratulations, Leo, you saved the day." She paused.

"You really did. I hope you know that." Leo exhaled slowly. The mattress was softer than the one back at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the sheets were warm with healing formations. At least the Grey Cult wasn't stingy with spiritual qi. He really needed to stop waking up in hospital beds.

"Cheer up, Leo." Warmth crept into her voice.

"You're the hero. The other teams forfeited after what happened. You won. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Great." Leo let the word hang.

"Do I get something for saving the day?"

"Didn't I tell you? You won." She sounded genuinely puzzled, as if his confusion was the most adorable thing she'd encountered all week.

"You get to bask in victory. You get to massively increase your divine sense when you advance to Foundation Establishment. Remember? It's your prize for winning. That's quite valuable, Leo. Most people would be thrilled." Leo said nothing.

"Oh." Understanding crept into her tone, followed by a small sigh.

"You're asking about extra rewards. Leo, you do realize that we are technically enemies. And you are an enemy with great potential." He could smell her floral perfume as she leaned closer.

"The only reason we haven't cut off your head is because your life is technically guaranteed by the Great Ascension Immortals in the depths." Her fingers brushed through his hair, gentle and absent, the way someone might pet a cat.

"That guarantee is the only thing standing between you and a very practical solution to the problem you represent." Leo held very still. He couldn't shake the feeling that she was appraising him, calculating the worth of the head her fingers were currently stroking.

"But let's not dwell on unpleasant things." She patted his cheek twice.

"You're safe here. I promise." Leo wanted to point out that during final round, two demons had tried to kill them all, and the Great Ascension Immortals hadn't seemed particularly interested in intervening. But he decided that antagonizing his hosts while blind and bedridden in their territory was probably unwise.

"How's Seraphindë?" The question came out before he could stop it. The vial against his chest was gone, he realized. The chain was still there, but he could no longer feel its warmth. Aelithris was quiet for a moment.

"I don't know." Her voice had lost some of its playful edge.

"I haven't seen her since the competition started. She's always busy with something. You've probably seen her more than I have." Leo thought about what Seraphindë had sacrificed. She was probably covering up her weakness right now. Hiding from everyone, including her daughter, while she recovered from cutting a piece of her lifespan away. Leo decided he would keep her secrets.

"How are the others?"

"Hmm." He heard her tap a finger against her chin, a soft rhythmic sound.

"Oh, all your friends from America left. Vivian, Liyang, Danyl, and Mateo. Lord Perdue insisted that they receive treatment back on Earth. You're the only one still here because you'll be undergoing Foundation Establishment once your vision returns. Lucky you, getting to stay with me a little longer."

"My injuries are worse?"

"You stared a demon in the eye." Her tone suggested this should have been obvious.

"Most people don't do that and walk away with just a headache, Leo. You're rather fortunate to be alive at all. I've been lighting incense for you every morning. Perhaps you should thank me." Leo's mind snagged on that detail. On Earth, people lit incense for the dead. But the Grey Cult probably had different customs. Hopefully.

"Were any of us corrupted?"

"No. Your entire team did remarkably well resisting the demon's influence." A pause, and her voice grew careful.

"I can't say the same about the other teams. But those competitors won't be a problem anymore." The phrasing was delicate, but Leo understood what she wasn't saying. The corrupted competitors had been dealt with. Permanently. He didn't know if there was a cure for corruption, or if the Grey Cult had simply decided not to look for one.

"Mateo went back too?" Aelithris laughed, a bright sound that filled the hospital room.

"It was made abundantly clear to him that if he wanted to stay, he would either have to marry a cousin or remain single for the rest of his life." She leaned back in her chair, still chuckling.

"Unfortunately, he still hasn't gotten over that particular cultural difference. But I'm sure he'll come around eventually. I told him I would wait." Leo imagined Mateo sprinting toward the nearest exit while grey-robed relatives waved family portraits at his retreating back. Five days unconscious, and he'd missed the best part of the trip. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"By the way, Vivian left you a letter before she departed. She said it contained good news. Shall I read it to you? I don't mind." Leo heard paper rustle as she opened the envelope.

"Dear Leo," Aelithris read aloud.

"I'm leaving this letter with Vivian in case you don't make it back to Earth in time. By the time you read this, I will be in Korea preparing for my wedding." Leo's stomach dropped. The letter was from Kim Yuna. Aelithris continued.

"Thank you for three interesting years. I had hoped we might become closer, but you were difficult to pin down. I should have explained earlier. My marriage was arranged before I arrived at Exeter, a business matter between families. I don't regret the time we spent together, Leo. I regret that I wasn't honest about how little of it was mine to give. Do become famous, Leo. I plan to mention you frequently." The letter ended there. Leo lay in the darkness and felt the pieces click together.

Kim Yuna had been using him the entire time. Three years of public appearances and carefully constructed rumors about their relationship, all so she could walk into her arranged marriage with leverage. He could imagine her showing photos to her fiancé. Casually mentioning how her 'ex-boyfriend' had slain a demon in the heart of an immortal city. Comparing her husband unfavorably to the young cultivator she went to prom with.

"I'm sorry, Leo." Aelithris's voice was soft, and he felt her hand settle over his again.

"That wasn't good news at all, was it? I should have read it first. That was thoughtless of me."

"I killed a demon," Leo said flatly.

"And somehow I'm making more enemies."

"That's generally how it works, I'm afraid." Her thumb traced a small circle on the back of his hand.

"The brighter you shine, the more shadows you cast. But you'll learn to navigate it. You seem like someone who figures things out." She gave his hand a final squeeze before releasing it.

"Rest now. You have two more days of darkness, and then you get to advance to Foundation Establishment. Try to enjoy the quiet while it lasts. I'll be here when you wake up." Leo closed his eyes behind the bandages. Somewhere in Connecticut, his bedroom sat empty. He could picture himself there, cross-legged on the floor, advancing through the realms one meditation at a time while the rest of the world sorted out its own problems. He fell asleep holding onto that thought.

A knock came at the door a few hours later.

"Leo? You awake?" It was Thad.

"Come in." Leo shifted against his pillows, the IV tugging at his arm.

"Is Ella okay?" The door opened and closed. Footsteps crossed the room, and Leo heard the creak of a chair being pulled closer to the bed.

"She's fine." Something was wrong. The words were right, but the delivery was off. Thad's voice carried none of its usual mischief. He sounded tired. He sounded serious.

"I wanted to thank you," Thad said.

"For saving us. All of us." The chair creaked again as he settled into it.

"I was useless in there, Leo. Completely useless. I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything except hang in those roots and watch while you figured out how to beat a demon." Leo heard him take a breath.

"Getting to be on the same team as you was the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm grateful for it." Leo's first instinct was to deflect. To point out that Mateo had done the actual fighting, that Seraphindë's sacrifice had made everything possible, that he had mostly just served as a conduit for other people's fire. But something about Thad's tone made him hold back. The guy was being sincere for what might have been the first time since Leo had met him.

"You would have figured something out eventually. Wasn't that what Mr. Morimoto kept drilling into us? Adapt, improvise, complain about it later?" A small laugh escaped Thad. It sounded more like the person Leo remembered, though the weight underneath remained.

"Unfortunately, today is probably the last time we can talk like this. Like friends." The chair creaked as Thad shifted.

"Tomorrow Ella and I undergo Foundation Establishment." Leo waited.

"The Grand Formation Summit brought us together. Mutual interests. Shared goals. But the competition is over now, and we are still divine children of the Oblivion Cult." He paused.

"We have expectations to meet. Duties to fulfill. Roles to play." A beat of silence. Then Thad laughed, short and unhappy.

"I sound exactly like my sister. That's horrifying." His voice dropped.

"Sometimes I envy you and Mateo. You get to choose your own path. Make your own decisions. Nobody handed you a script when you were born and told you to memorize your lines."

"But the Oblivion Cult gave everything to me and my family. We owe our position, our cultivation, and our lives to them. That debt isn't something I can walk away from just because I'd rather be playing Flying Aces." Leo lay in the darkness and thought about what it meant to be born into something larger than yourself.

"You remember what we talked about at Fort Cambridge?" Leo asked.

"About what happens when we meet each other in the Catacombs?"

"We fight. Loser surrenders gracefully." The chair creaked as Thad leaned forward and clasped Leo's outstretched hand.

"Deal's still on, I hope. Though I'm counting on your mercy when you set the ransom. Ella won't let us touch real spiritstones until we both finish Foundation Establishment body refining."

"Of course. Though I'm planning to stay out of the Boston Catacombs entirely. Avoid fighting you two altogether." The brief lightness faded. When Thad spoke again, the weight had returned to his voice.

"I don't have much time," Thad said, releasing Leo's hand.

"So let me explain why I'm really here." Leo heard him settle back into the chair.

"First, I wanted to tell you the results of our research."

"What research?"

"Did you really think Ella became addicted to Instagram for no reason? Or that I was obsessed with the Flying Aces just because I wanted to fly?" Leo had assumed exactly that.

"Okay, I admit, it was the best part of my trip to America. But there was underlying reasoning behind all of it." The chair creaked as Thad leaned forward.

"We were investigating whether it's possible to generate faith power through social media. Through combat sports." Leo's breath caught. Faith power was the problem of the Deity Transformation realm. The Monarchs above needed it to replenish their leaking divinity.

"We believe it's possible. We believe it might already be happening. Ella thinks most of the Deity Transformation cultivators on Instagram are already doing it."

"Think about it," Thad continued.

"The cheering of fans when they root for their team. The parasocial relationships that followers build with social media stars. The devotion, the loyalty, the emotional investment that people pour into their favorite celebrities. Those are all forms of faith power. Weaker than true religious devotion, certainly. More unstable. But faith power nonetheless."

"And keep in mind there are over eight billion people on Earth. Even if you're only collecting a tiny fraction from each person, the scale makes up for the intensity. It's a different model than the one Cults use, but the principle is the same." Leo lay in the darkness and thought about the implications. An entire cultivation path that Earth's establishment was keeping very quiet.

A way to generate faith power without temples, without worshippers, without the infrastructure the Catacombs had spent millennia building. He had thought Thad and Ella were foolish teenagers who got addicted to Earth's culture. Turns out they had plans of their own.

"Second thing," Thad continued.

"It's about Ella." Leo felt the mood in the room shift.

"During the fight," Thad said carefully, "did you see any unusual karma threads connecting you to others?"

"I saw three." Leo remembered the golden lines.

"I was connected to Mateo, Vivian, and Ella."

"Those karma threads can represent many different things. Brotherhood. Love. Friendship. Rivalry. All sorts of relationships that bind souls together across the web of fate." Thad stopped. His chair creaked.

"There is one relationship that is final. One connection that cannot be severed or redirected." Leo's stomach tightened.

"Death," Thad said quietly.

"The karma thread between killer and killed." The word hung in the air.

"After Mateo woke up and dealt with the Moderator, Ella regained consciousness just in time to see the threads. She saw the line connecting her to you. And she saw what you did to Sariya."

"Ella knows." Thad's voice broke halfway through, and he had to stop and clear his throat before he could finish.

"She knows that someday you are going to kill her."

"What?" Leo pushed himself up against his pillows, nearly pulling out his IV.

"That doesn't make sense. I'll make the same deal for her that we made for us. If she loses, I'll set her ransom at a few spiritstones."

"Leo..."

"We're not enemies. We're friends. The karma thread could mean anything. Friendship, you said. Maybe more."

"Leo." Thad's voice was gentle now.

"Maybe you were born to change your fate. To reach heights that were never meant for you. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines." His chair creaked as he shifted forward.

"But Ella and I are not like you. We were born to play a role. We don't get to rewrite the script." Leo wanted to argue. He wanted to point out that fate was something you bent until it broke, that this was exactly the kind of predetermined nonsense that cultivation was supposed to let you transcend. But the words died in his throat. Because he could hear what Thad wasn't saying. Ella hadn't come to say goodbye herself. She couldn't.

She had seen the thread connecting her soul to the boy who would end her life, and she had decided to spend her last hours as his friend doing something other than crying in front of him.

"She's come to peace with it." Thad's voice was steady now.

"She's decided to live her life with no regrets. So when you come for her, however many years from now, she'll be able to look you in the eye with a smile." Leo opened his mouth to protest when he felt something wet against his hand. The sensation spread slowly across the sheet where Thad had been leaning, warm and unmistakable. It was tears. Thad, who had gotten himself spanked at the Heart Attack Grill because he couldn't finish his burger and insisted everyone else had to suffer with him.

Thad, who dragged his sister into every mess he made and relied on her to drag him back out. Thad, who had just learned that his sister was going to die, and had come here to say goodbye to the person who would kill her.

"Thad..."

"It's okay." The words came out rough.

"I just needed you to know. So you understand why things have to change." The room fell silent. Leo lay in the darkness behind his bandages and tried to find words that would change anything.

"She wanted me to give you a message." Thad's chair creaked as he stood.

"She said... she said she's glad it's you. Because at least it will be someone who tried to find another way." The unfairness of it pressed against Leo's chest like a physical weight. He had saved them. All of them. He had burned through every resource he had, conducted Seraphindë's fire through his own body. And his reward was learning that someday he would murder one of the people he had fought to protect. He wanted to rip off the bandages and chase Thad down the hallway.

He wanted to find Ella and tell her that karma threads were just probability, that nothing was written, that they could fight this the same way they had fought in the Grand Pavilion. But he couldn't see. And even if he could, he understood now why Ella hadn't come herself. Some goodbyes are easier when you don't have to see the other person's face.

"We leave in a few hours." Thad's footsteps crossed the room.

"Ella sends her regards. She looks forward to seeing how much you've grown by the next time you meet." He paused at the door.

"Take care of yourself, Leo Chen. And when the time comes..." He didn't finish the sentence. The door closed behind him. Leo lay in the darkness and listened to the silence where his friends used to be.