Chương 13: It Burns

Before even looking up, Paike threw himself backward, narrowly avoiding a spray of sharpened spikes made of rock as they flashed through the space where his head had just been." Treachery!" The ancient spirit screeched. This time, though, its voice didn't come from the gaping, analogous mouth it had fashioned for itself but echoed from every part of the cave's walls." You tricked me— You've poisoned me!"

Paike looked around frantically, trying to catch any incoming attacks in time to dodge, even as he crawled behind a particularly large boulder where coral had grown. Peeking his head up, he ducked back quickly, but not before catching a glimpse of the roiling mass of qi and earth that made up the ancient spirit. It was not holding its form properly anymore. Parts of it weren't moving as they should, as if a section of a water elemental had frozen in place.

This being of pure qi was somehow not able to control its body. The condensed qi it took from Paike wasn't behaving like it was supposed to." It burns!" the ancient spirit screamed. Even as rocks flung around, Paike could see the thing writhing as bits of random, unrelated chunks of qi and earth fell from the beast. Its power was certainly diminished from what it had been before. Otherwise, he would have been dead already, but it was still far beyond his ability to handle.

Paike looked around frantically, trying to find some method of escape, some way to avoid the barrage of earthen projectiles or the crushing force that would surely follow if he poked his head out. For now, the spirit had forgotten him, but it was just too distracted by its own suffering to search for him. The cave screeched unintelligibly. Paike clapped his hands over his ears, feeling his eardrums pop as if he had just sprinted up a mountain in a single breath.

He winced, the ringing in his ears returning, and the deep ache in his soul sharpened his focus. What could he do? He didn't have any techniques yet and hadn't learned any proper arts. There wasn't much he could do to harm the creature. But it seemed like his qi was poisoning it. What if he injected more? But even as he watched the creature, he wasn't sure how he could get close enough to try. That was when he heard the sound of light footfalls slapping on the stone coming from the tunnel.

Paike screamed in his mind, but kept his mouth shut, not wanting to draw attention to himself. The ancient spirit flailed in pain, shedding pieces of itself in its agony. His sister was coming. Of course. Liming would have heard the commotion and come to check on him. He hadn't left her behind when danger lurked, so why should he assume she would? But there was nothing she could do here. This was far beyond either of their abilities, and they would be lucky to make it out alive.

The spirit was starting to calm down. It was still clearly in pain, but Paike could tell that whatever contamination it had received from him wasn't going to kill it. A piece of it sloughed off, this time seemingly intentionally—a large blob of qi and earth, the size of Paike's head, pinched off like icing being deposited from a piping bag. It plopped to the ground, and the spirit shrunk down, its form roiling but now more coherent." Paike!" a voice screamed, echoing through the cave. Paike's heart dropped.

His sister burst into the cave, yelling his name at the top of her lungs. The ancient spirit turned to her, screeching unintelligibly, all sense of consciousness or sapience seemingly long gone. Paike did the only thing he could think of to divert its attention away from her. He grabbed one of the Grim Veil Coral fragments and lobbed it at the spirit. The qi-dense object hit the half-ephemeral monster, half-bouncing off, half-sinking through it. The strange interaction got its attention, and it turned toward Paike.

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"Liming!" he shouted, grabbing another piece of coral as he sprinted perpendicular to her, drawing the monster's gaze. He dove to the ground, barely avoiding another volley of large rocks. One caught his leg while he was in the air. Luckily, he spun and absorbed most of the momentum. However, it still sent him tumbling across the stone floor until he crashed into a huge stalagmite. The impact rattled his bones, nearly causing him to bite his tongue, but he didn't have time to assess his injuries.

He popped to his feet as quickly as he could before the spirit could crush him.

"Run!" he yelled at Liming. Despite the apparent danger, she hadn't retreated deeper into the tunnel to come up with a new plan. Instead, she was advancing toward where he had been. He wasn't sure if she was trying to help rescue him, distract the beast, or retrieve the Grim Veil coral she had wanted—but she shouldn't be here. They could come back for it later if they needed it or find another way. The spirit, fortunately, still had no eyes for her and remained focused on Paike.

With nowhere left to hide, Paike made a desperate decision. He ran straight toward the spirit. Perhaps he could inject his qi into it again. He recalled how he had accidentally expelled a diffuse cloud of it when fighting Han Saiyan on that first day on the mountain. Maybe it would harm the creature since his qi seemed toxic to it. The spirit seemed surprised and fearful of the cloud of diffuse pi that dissipated from his outstretched hand. The qi touched the spirit, and it recoiled, retreating into the rocks.

Paike found himself without a target, now within an arm's length of the thing. He flinched, expecting an explosive backlash, waiting for the rocky mass to grind him to dust. But nothing happened. Paike wasn't about to stand idle where the spirit could reach him, but he still touched the piece of cultivation the spirit had discarded, hoping to reclaim it. As he made contact, it melted into his hands.

He could feel the power rushing through his qi channels toward his dantian—not at the sluggish pace he'd expected, but rapidly, as though the water was returning to its source. Even with the chaos, even with impending death right behind him, Paike caught his breath for a moment. Had sacrificing part of his cultivation fixed him? Had it removed his crippling lack of talent? He finally felt it. His qi was flowing like water, like an average cultivator's.

He tried to seize control of the tainted qi rushing toward his dantian, hoping to direct it through his channels to power his movements and make him faster. Still, it refused to listen or be redirected. He couldn't interact with it at all. It responded to him even less than environmental qi did as it streamed into his dantian, soothing the painful burn his missing cultivation had caused. He directed his qi toward reinforcing his legs, improving their stamina and strength, and pushing himself toward the tunnel exit.

Liming had picked up two of the coral chunks and was running toward the tunnel just ahead of him, approaching from a different angle. Suddenly, Paike had a terrible sense—he could feel a projectile flying through the air behind him. Without thinking, he leaped to the side and dove between the spirit and his sister. A heavy thud echoed through his ribcage as a mercifully rounded rock struck his back. Instead of piercing through him, it redirected his momentum, sending him tumbling through the air.

If he had been a mortal without qi to support his body, he would have been pulverized—several broken ribs, at least. But as it was, the blow flung him into Liming, sending them both tumbling down the tunnel. Still lying on the ground, Paike attempted to cycle the qi that had returned to him. It moved just as slowly as it ever did, even the new qi with its strange, undefined aspect. Once it settled in his dantian, it became as sluggish as any other qi he had ever tried to control.

Still, he pushed his crushing disappointment down. He had done this countless times before—whenever there was some potential cure, whenever he thought he was close to awakening. Liming was the first to recover. She popped up quickly, grabbed Paike's arm, and hauled him to his feet. Together, they dashed around the first bend, racing toward the cave's exit. Paike limped from an injury he couldn't even remember getting—something had happened to his left leg at some point in the fight.

Liming slowed to support him as they felt the sunlight on their faces and heard the agonized cries of the ancient spirit still echoing from deep within the cave.

"We did it," Liming said with a bright smile as they came to a halt just outside the cave. Paike looked up at the blue sky, tinged with the colors of the setting sun, and let out an exhausted laugh.

"I suppose we did," he wheezed, each breath sending an ache through his ribs. This was much worse than the, by comparison, trivial fight they had earlier.

"Just in time for physical cultivation class, too."