A deep burning in his dantian greeted Paike before he even opened his eyes. It was as if he hadn’t eaten in a thousand years. Spiritually, he was in a desert, and when his qi sense extended beyond his passive range, there was still nothing. Nothing at all.
Cracking his eyes open to look for something, he was surprised at how bright the white room was all around him, as if he was floating in a cloud. But he was not. He could feel pillows behind him and hear the breath of something near his side.
The person must have felt him awaken because a tremendous presence unfurled. Yet, he still couldn’t sense their qi, but it reminded him of when he felt his parents showing off before he had awakened. Every living thing could sense some amount of qi, even if they couldn’t interact with it.
Paike attempted to move, but even trying to turn his head shot flares of pain through every single cell of his body, his muscles rebelling at the idea of working.
“Master Kong,” a familiar and pleasant female voice said from just out of sight.
He recognized it instantly. “Elder Chu,” Paike croaked out, his throat screaming. “I greet you,” he forced more words out.
She gave a small laugh. “It’s okay, Master Kong. You have survived.”
The one burning question in his mind was not about survival. He knew he was alive. What worried him was his cultivation.
His dantian was still there, but there was nothing. He couldn’t feel any qi in his spirit, body, or physical cultivation—just an empty void. The real concern for a cultivator was not if they had survived. That was a given, but that wasn’t a cause for celebration after waking up from severe injury. No, living wasn’t worth celebrating without qi.
“My cultivation?” he forced the question out, and she sighed.
He almost flinched, waiting for the bad news that he had burned himself out, that he had crippled himself, and the ability to cultivate would no longer be possible for him.
“I believe you are experiencing multiple different conditions. Qi deprivation, for sure. You probably also suffered damage to your meridians and your qi channels. Your physical cultivation has been starved and cannibalized much of your muscles to fuel itself. We have suppressed all qi interaction for your own safety, for now. Eventually, you should be able to gather again eventually, and that qi will help replenish your body. But until you reach equilibrium...”
“Equilibrium with your...” She paused, as if looking for the right word. “Aspect,” she said, though Paike could tell that wasn’t the full description she wanted to give it. “We find it best to let you recover naturally.”
“How...” he started to say. “How long will that take?”
She interrupted, “I think maybe a week or two. Some of the other elders think it may take months. Or you may not manage it at all.”
Paike felt his eyes burn. He would be so far behind. When he got... if he got better... would they even allow him to stay in the sect?
He supposed it was better than pure crippling. And he had his thoughts froze.
“Sister... the others?”
Elder Chu moved slightly, standing up so he could see her. She looked serious.
“Your team took superficial wounds and were released yesterday. Your sister has been making a bit of a ruckus trying to get to you, though. Once I leave, and if you feel up to it, I would ask that you let her come see you so that she may focus her mind on her cultivation again. Oh, and your opponents? They all survived, if barely.”
Paike could hear a bit of disapproval in her voice. He was almost confused. Cultivators were not supposed to consider their opponents. They were to pursue victory. Ascension was everything. But at the sametime, these were members of the empire and his fellow sect members. Still, they had deserved everything they had got, maybe more too.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“A hand needed to be reattached for one, and several of them will likely bear scars for several realms, if they ever manage to remove them.”
Paike winced slightly, his whole body twitching. Elder Chu did not sound happy, or proud. She would be a dangerous person to have dislike or disapprove of him.
“You won’t be punished for maiming any disciples,” Elder Chu stated after a moment. “However, you are given a warning, and since you have been warned before, this is your final one. From when you leave this place, you have one month to get control of your combat trance and how it is affected by your aspect, or we will excise your physical cultivation from you.”
Paike could only stare at the ceiling in shock.
That was an extreme measure. To strip a cultivator of their physical cultivation was... not unheard of. It was like hamstringing them. It wasn’t as terrible as shattering a core or ripping a dantian out. One could still progress, but it became increasingly dangerous the higher realm you got if your body couldn’t help, if your body couldn’t withstand the changes. After all not all cultivators bothered with physical cultivation. Not everyone was talented in that area, but if they were and the have it removed…
And for him and his limitations, it would be practically a life sentence to be stuck at a little more than Ruby. Topaz—if he was incredibly lucky. But Emerald would be far out of his reach forever.
“Do my best,” Paike croaked out.
“You were lucky that an elder was actively observing the situation. The Fang clan definitely escalated, but it had not reached a level where we would step in. If they had gone so far as to injure one of you the way you injured them, we would have, and they would be facing similar consequences. But I do not think that your actions will be celebrated. A cultivator must win at any cost, but you must show proper restraint, or you will spark waves of retaliation that will rip apart our civilization if left unchecked. Remember that there are always bigger fish—not just than you, but than who you were fighting.”
Paike bristled at the unfairness of it all. They had attacked him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. All he’d done was protect himself against weapons and clear intent to kill or maim.
And now they wouldn’t be punished. And he couldn’t rely on his combat trance to bail him out again. Judging the state of his body, it had barely worked in the first place. How he had managed to survive was likely only due to the elder’s intervention.
The part of him that was still the young boy who listened to old tales wanted to cry for revenge. Eplay the scion of a prestigious family with wounded pride. But that same family would never let him behave with so much foolishness. The Elders were not valid targets. But the Fang clan…
Elder Chu left, and Paike closed his eyes to meditate. He tried to reach out and find qi around him. However, there was very little or none, as far as he could tell. There was no qi in his dantian, and his every cell or layer of qi from his physical cultivation layered into his muscles, bones, and organs felt empty.
He traced his meridians to his palm and found that there was some residue in there from his use of the transient shield formation.
Paike had an idea. It was not exactly what the elder wanted—for him to achieve some sort of balance—but this might help a little bit.
With patience, he picked one speck of qi at a time from his meridian, like he was plucking leaves of grass with tweezers. He pulled them back in, down through his meridian, and back into his body. Each time he nourished a tiny bit of qi in each one of his muscles, slowly from his hand down to his chest.
He meditated, losing track of time as he pulled bits and pieces, and the pain in his body began to fade as the qi-hungry physical cultivation was nowhere near satiated, but slightly mollified.
Hours, maybe days, passed before he finally opened his eyes again. And with no small amount of agony, he forced himself to sit up, lift his head, and eventually push himself up the headboard and reach for a glass of water next to his bed. Slowly sipping it, it felt like life was coming back to his body, almost more so than when he had found the residue of qi.
He had no idea how he was supposed to do this with no qi. But upon finishing the glass, he put it down and looked around the room. The water slowly diffused throughout him, and now he almost wished for some food. Just simple rice, but something to fill his belly—then whatever seal they had placed on him to be released, so he may feel qi again.
But there was no food or extra water. But there was a small rope, a small cord running through the wall. He pulled on it and felt nothing.
But a few minutes later, an older servant walked in. It was an early Ruby cultivator, but someone who had long since awakened. The gray in her hair spoke of many years, but likely very little cultivation talent.
“Master Kong, is there something I could get for you?”
“More water?” he asked, his voice sounding raspy, but much better than when he was speaking to the elder. “Some food.”
“Of course, Master Kong.”
Before she left, though, he asked, “How long have I been here?”
She looked up slightly, as if remembering something. “Three days now, Master Kong.”
“My sister has been causing you problems?” he asked.
She smiled. “Your sister cares for you greatly. Are you feeling well enough to see her?”
Paike thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Yes, I think I am.”