Chapter 13: Life-Threatening Situations

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Life-Threatening Situations

Yan Jin went to work, channeling his spiritual qi through Ye Xuan’s meridians and trying to stabilize the qi surge.

If it wasn’t calmed soon, the surge would turn into qi deviation, which would be very hard to recover from.

While he was healing Ye Xuan, a bolt of crimson lightning suddenly struck him. Yan Jin gasped.

The lightning that struck him and disturbed his meridians was no ordinary kind.

"This is crimson lightning!"

"His dantian and meridians are full of crimson lightning! This must be connected to Senior Sister Qingyu’s soul blood."

"Then... what should I do?" Ye Xuan asked, still wincing in pain as qi booms rolled off him.

"Driving out the lightning wouldn’t be hard, but the odds of success are low," Yan Jin said.

"I’ll give you my power. I hope my fire qi can hold back the surge of crimson lightning."

"Thank you, Chief Yan," Ye Xuan whispered.

Ye Xuan tried to cultivate and absorb the natural spiritual qi, while Yan Jin sat cross-legged in front of him, sending energy from his body into the young man.

The booms of qi from Ye Xuan’s body began to fade, no longer as strong and aggressive as before. But that didn’t mean Ye Xuan was completely free of the surge.

Qingyu slithered over to Yan Jin, and the man turned and asked, "You must understand what I’m saying. Do you have a way to heal him? Only the crimson lightning from you can neutralize the lightning surge in his body. Lightning against lightning."

The white snake was still for a moment, then shook its head. Yan Jin was stunned.

If they didn’t find a solution soon, the crimson lightning surge would keep happening no matter how hard Yan Jin tried to stabilize it with his fire qi.

But Yan Jin’s qi had limits. He couldn’t control the surge in Ye Xuan’s body forever.

Ye Xuan had overheard them, and a wild and dangerous idea crossed his mind. The idea of lightning against lightning that Yan Jin had mentioned drew him in.

"May I... offer an opinion?" Ye Xuan asked weakly.

"What is it?"

"You said lightning against lightning, right?" Ye Xuan asked, and Yan Jin confirmed it.

He tapped his bag of holding and showed a red stone with the lightning element inside. He had a large number of them stored in the bag.

Before Ye Xuan could explain, Yan Jin responded quickly. "Elemental Essence? Is that the lightning element?"

"Could it work?" Ye Xuan asked.

Yan Jin was silent for a moment, having never considered such a thing. But when he turned to Qingyu, to his surprise, Qingyu nodded.

"Are you sure, Senior Sister Qingyu?"

"I know it’s elemental essence, but I never imagined this. Besides, the qi in the essence Ye Xuan is holding is too strong," Yan Jin said.

Qingyu didn’t speak, only nodded briefly. Even so, the white snake began to act, transforming its body into its larger form.

Yan Jin watched as a red rune appeared in front of Qingyu’s head and released a crimson light that shot into Ye Xuan’s forehead.

Now the man knew what Qingyu was doing. He stopped channeling his spiritual qi and let Qingyu handle it.

It worked. The power of Qingyu’s crimson lightning managed to synchronize with the lightning surge in Ye Xuan’s body, though it didn’t completely remove it from the young man.

"I understand now," Yan Jin said. "You use the essence, and let Qingyu stabilize the surge afterward."

"I’ll do it!" Ye Xuan said.

Qingyu told me I could only use this essence after reaching Foundation Establishment. But this is urgent.

I don’t know whether this will work, but doing nothing will only get me killed sooner!

Ye Xuan took a long breath and let it out slowly. He gripped the lightning essence hard until it shattered, and the pure lightning element flowed into his body through his meridians.

COUGH!

Before Ye Xuan could adapt, he coughed up blood in shock.

His heart pounded harder as the Heavenly-grade pure lightning qi rushed aggressively through his meridians, feeling like thousands of hot needles piercing his veins and body.

Yan Jin could feel that the booms of qi were different now, accompanied by powerful red lightning strikes that could injure anyone nearby.

Since he couldn’t do anything, Yan Jin chose to back away from the altar and summoned a formation dome of fire walls.

The fire-wall dome rose and sealed Ye Xuan and Qingyu inside. Jiang Hei walked over to Yan Jin.

"Is this all right? Will they survive?" Jiang Hei asked.

"Senior Sister Qingyu knows far more about lightning than we do. We just have to trust them," Yan Jin said. Jiang Hei cleared his throat and shook his head.

Ye Xuan began trying to control the qi surge as best he could. He could also feel Qingyu inside his body, actively helping him recover in its own way.

After several hours, Ye Xuan finally learned how to control the lightning surge in his body. But that alone wasn’t enough.

"Please protect me again, Qingyu."

Ye Xuan took out a few of Heavenly Lightning Essences from his bag of holding, shocking Yan Jin and Jiang Hei.

The young man acted recklessly, crushing several of the lightning essences and absorbing them into his body.

A huge amount of pure lightning qi flowed through his meridians, filling his dantian and wiping out the crimson lightning that had been threatening him all this time.

So what is Qingyu doing? Ye Xuan understood what it was doing.

Its presence in his body served to absorb the excess pure lightning qi from the essences, because Ye Xuan’s cultivation base wasn’t strong enough to control it.

Yan Jin watched from outside the dome, feeling calmer as Ye Xuan’s qi surge improved, especially with Qingyu there helping him in its own way.

Now all he could do was trust them. He had no idea when Ye Xuan would manage to calm the surge.

***

One week later.

"There’s been no suspicious movement from the North Wind Eagle Tribe. It seems they’re no longer coming to the forest," said a man, an elder of the Blazing Flame Serpent Clan.

"Good. Keep watching the outer area. Besides humans, our other threat is the eagle tribe."

"Yes, Clan Chief."

While he was busy handling clan matters, Yan Jin was startled when someone came into the clan hall. His attention shifted, and so did the other elders’.

"What is it?" Yan Jin asked.

"A-At the Blood Pledge altar, something has happened, Clan Chief..."

Yan Jin was silent for a moment, then narrowed his eyes. He stood at once, postponed the elders’ meeting, and flew out of the clan hall.

When he arrived, Yan Jin saw red lightning striking even harder from Ye Xuan’s body, hitting the wall of the fire dome and throwing the guards into a panic.

Yan Jin quickly channeled his spiritual qi, reinforcing the fire dome’s wall to keep it from collapsing. His attention was fixed on Ye Xuan.

"What happened before this?" Yan Jin asked.

"Report, Clan Chief. Before the lightning struck so violently, a powerful wave of qi erupted from the human’s body," a guard said.

"A wave of qi?" Yan Jin asked.

To his surprise, he saw Qingyu change back into its small white snake form. It stopped channeling its spiritual qi and lay coiled up, apparently asleep.

Yan Jin gasped. "What is Senior Sister Qingyu doing? Isn’t this a life-threatening situation for Ye Xuan?"

He had no choice. Yan Jin would have to enter the fire-wall dome and control the situation with his own spiritual qi.

But before he could step inside, he stopped when he saw Ye Xuan’s body rise into the sky. Another wave of qi burst out, this time more frequent and quite strong.

"What the..."

The guards stood gaping at the sight. But Yan Jin, experienced in the cultivation world, knew exactly what that wave of qi meant.

"Is he trying to break through?"

"Could he really do that in a life-threatening situation like this?"