Chapter 44: The Price of Survival

Chapter 44: The Price of Survival

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.

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“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.”