Streams cascaded down into an alcove of smoothed rocks. Impurities frothed into foam and coated the water's surface.
The waterfall's ferocity was curtailed by the wall of rocks; protected by its embrace, schools of fish were birthed.
Vera sat by the gazebo and observed the phenomenon. He set aside his teacup, considering he'd already burnt his tongue.
Hollow taps echoed through the table's surface as Vera drummed against it. He looked at the man seated in front of him with a conflicted expression.
The man sipped on his tea while staring back. A wide smile was plastered on his face.
"Aren't you going to ask me?"
Vera leant back into his chair. A low sigh escaped him as he stared into the gazebo's ceiling.
"What happened?"
The man frowned at his response. He tutted while waving his finger. "We will get to that soon. Ask me the other question."
Vera's stomach churned; his fingers grew cold to the touch.
"Tsk."
The stubs of his chair ground against the wooden tiles. Vera walked over to the gazebo's railing; he stared at the fish swimming through the clear stream.
"Why are we here?"
A loud barrage of claps followed. The man jumped out of his chair and sprinkled shaved gold into the air.
His voice almost sounded like a chirp.
"Congratulations! You will evolve very soon!"
He pranced over to the railing and leant over. His face stood a hair's width away from Vera's as he stared into his eyes.
"Why are you frowning? This is good news, isn't it?"
Vera raised his hand and pushed the man's face away. The man feigned surprise and yelped as he tumbled over the railing and fell into the stream.
The schools of fish scattered as his body sunk to the bottom. Bubbles rose to the surface for a few moments before halting completely.
Just then, he shot out of the water, his hands stretched out to the sky with a bright smile on his face.
"Did I get you?!" His voice echoed through Chongju Lake.
Despite his endless cheer, Vera's expression remained dark. He caressed his skin with quivering fingers.
"I can feel it. My body is screaming into my head. It hurts—it hurts so bad…"
The man's shoulders slumped down; he faced his reflection over the water's surface. "You're so pushy. I told you we would get to that."
He ran his fingers through his hair, wringing the water out. Trails of red flowed from him. The chirp in his voice turned as cold as ice.
He looked toward Vera.
Thick pustules lined every inch of his skin; his body was charred beyond recognition.
"Now that the cat is out of the bag, I might as well tell you. We are going to die very soon."
The hollow drumming of the table engulfed Vera's ears. The man gazed at Vera quietly before raising his hand to Vera's ear.
"We won't get much done with you being like this."
A sharp snap sounded in the air. Chongju Lake's scenery warped into thick bands of light that collapsed between the man's fingers.
Vera extended his hand hurriedly, trying to grasp the collapsing space. His eyes wide open, the vibrant schools of fish became the roof of his father, Leng's, cabin.
A thick blanket enveloped his body. His head sunk into a cold, fluffy pillow.
An intensely bitter scent stung his nose. Vera turned to his left to see where it was coming from.
His voice quivered as he saw the source.
"Father…?"
A short gruff man clothed in plain martial robes held a cup of medicine to Vera's mouth. He looked at Vera with furrowed brows.
"I always thought you were an easy kid because you never got sick."
The cup's warm mouth pressed against Vera's lips.
"As they say… When it rains, it thunders."
Leng parted Vera's lips with the cup and fed him the concoction. The bitter warmth seeped through his gut to every inch of his body.
A dull clank sounded as Leng set the cup over a nightstand. He walked over to a chair and plopped down.
"That should help with the pain. But… it won't make you better."
Just as Leng said, the searing pain in Vera's head dulled down; his thoughts grew clearer. His vision drifted around the room's interior. As he looked around, the world at the edge of his view melted away into an empty void. He gripped at his blanket.
I'm sleeping right now.
The bed creaked as he sat up and rested against the headboard.
"Was it the heavenly tribulation?"
Leng nodded silently as he filled up a cup of Dukuang liquor. Vera watched him while wiping off the excess medicine that coated his upper lip.
"Is there any way for me to get better?"
Leng drained his cup without speaking another word. A loud bang shook the cabin as the door swung open.
A man wrapped in bandages walked into the room with crossed arms.
"Hey, hey, hey! You're asking the wrong person!"
Leng set his cup down and walked to the cabin's exit. He patted the man's shoulder; the creases around his eyes softened.
"A son shouldn't die before his father… Take care of yourself, Vera."
A dull weight pressed against Vera's chest; he looked toward Leng with a strained expression.
"I will… Father."
A moment of silence passed as Leng looked at Vera; he gripped the doorknob weakly.
"Hm."
He shut the door behind him gently.
Sniffles permeated the room.
The man undid the bandages over his hand to blow his nose. He looked at Vera teary-eyed. "So emotional. I felt like I was his son for a minute."
He shook his head violently, tears and mucus splattered against the cabin floor, and clapped his hands.
"Enough crying! I don't have all day, you know? Let's talk about how we're going to get through this!"
Just as Vera opened his mouth to ask a question, the man rushed over to his bedside and pressed his finger against his mouth.
"Tut tut tut. It isn't a conversation if you're the only one speaking. Stop speaking and just listen to me."
His hands flailed around as he leant back toward Leng's chair. Just as he was about to fall, he grabbed the chair by its legs and pulled it to Vera's bed.
After tightening his bandages, he plopped down onto the chair.
"If you really want to live. We're going to have to break through and open our upper dantian."
His hand stretched out to the flask of Dukuang Leng was drinking from. Qi rode the currents of the air and levitated the flask into his palm.
Vera stared at the scene in confusion; his head leant over to his shoulder.
If you can use void telekinesis, why do all that to pull the chair here…?
Unbothered by Vera's scrutinising, the man drained the flask in one gulp. He let out a breath of relief after wiping the liquor off his mouth.
"Don't judge. My skin is itching really bad. Might have something to do with a massive bolt of thunder. But I don't know, I'm no mortal man."
Vera's eyelids clenched up. He scratched his chin while the man stared into the flask's spout, looking for liquor where there wasn't any.
"Won't I get hit by another heavenly tribulation before I recover?"
The sound of shattering glass resounded as the man swung the empty flask against Vera's head.
He reached out to Vera's chest and picked out a shard of glass. He bit onto it as Vera rubbed his forehead, looking for blood where there wasn't any.
"Hahahah! You fell for it. The flask was made out of sugar. But… this really is the last time I'm going to say it: stop interrupting me."
The frivolous smile on his face disappeared. His gaze sharpened as he looked straight into Vera's eyes.
"You're going to get us killed."
He leaned back into his chair; his leg jittered back and forth.
"You made a good point. But there is a mistake in your assumptions. The tribulation from evolution was multiple times greater than the norm. Partly because you shielded yourself with a Rakshasa. And also because our body is multiple times greater than the norm."
He rocked the chair back and forth as he scratched the bandages over his skin. A mix of pus and blood seeped through the bandages, staining them in a grotesque colour.
"The few moments between the breakthrough and the tribulation will be enough for your mind to take over and fortify your body. And as you already know, when you aren't defying the heavens, they seem to like you quite a bit. As for how we're going to break through in time…"
The dull weight over Vera's chest turned sharp, as though a pair of hooves were pressing against his chest.
A goat, with a pristine white coat, stood on top of him.
A grumpy, yet nostalgic, sentence.
"You damn brat. How much are you going to make this old man work?"
The smell of bitter medicine turned to that of roasting hickory; Vera's head jerked back, smacking against a cold mahogany furnace.
"Grandfather?!"
The setting changed all of a sudden.
Vera jumped off the ground; his breath ran wild as he stared at woollen carpeting on the floor.
Cubes of ice clinked around in his glass of whisky.
Ezra and the bandaged man rested on a sofa lined with pillows made of cashmere. The man extended his glass to the air.
"I was really tired. Didn't feel like making the space collapse."
His head leant back onto the armrest as he emptied the glass of whisky, the blood and pus seeping through his bandage, sticking to Ezra's prized furniture.
"Smoky and oaky! You brought out the good stuff today, didn't you, old man?"
Without giving Ezra a moment to respond, he continued his rambling.
"Anyways. Me over there. This grumpy old man is going to send you outside the firmament to watch the birth of a star… Hahaha! I got you again! The world is a big ball, not a plate!"
He got off the sofa and leant over to Ezra's face, a hair's width between the two of them.
To him the concept of personal space was folklore.
"Beam him up, old man! Anymore messing around and we will end up dead."
Ezra's teeth gnashed as he pulled his face away from the bandaged man's. His usual calm tone snapped into an enraged bleat.
"Damn brats! I'll fast track you down the mountain if you keep this attitude up."
Both Vera and the bandaged man stepped back. Their voices synchronised as they shouted back.
"I'll Die If You Do That!"
Ezra rolled his head in exasperation. He got off the sofa and walked over to Vera while mumbling under his breath.
"As if one of you wasn't a big enough pain…"
The bandaged man got on all fours and crawled up to Ezra. His voice mimicked a baby goat's bleating.
"What was that…?"
Ezra recoiled from the bandaged man's creepy advance.
"Nothing! Transfix!"
At the very moment he spoke the word 'transfix' qi surged; the Immortal's Painting was activated.
The warm light of the furnace melted into an abyssal void. A cold dark fluid engulfed Vera as the remnants of the study collapsed into a bright dot.
As the dot grew smaller, Ezra spoke one last sentence to Vera.
"If a son shouldn't die before his father, he definitely shouldn't die before his grandfather… Take care of yourself, Vera; I'll see you soon."
Soon the echoes of Ezra's words were consumed by the empty void. Vera sat in a lotus position; in front of him sat the bandaged man…
Unlike before, the man was no longer draped in bandages. He wore a robe like Vera's, only the colours were the exact opposite.
His skin wasn't charred and covered with pustules; it was just like Vera's, only it was the opposite colour.
Vera looked at the man in silence. His expression faltered for only a moment before returning to calm.
The stars around him shone with a steady light ; none twinkled; they bore a deep contrast with the emptiness of the void.
"You're the man from back when I broke through to the third rank. You sure have changed a lot since the last time we met."
The man held back a laugh; he turned away from Vera and looked into the void.
"You can thank that stinky technique you learned for this. Gone are the days of my demure personality. By the way, we are talking and breathing in the void."
Vera turned his head to look at what the man was looking at.
Clouds of dust, stretching past what the eye could see, coiled into its centre. A warm red light shimmered against each particle.
"Let it pass. This is a dream after all."
The man nodded quietly; he pointed at the centre of the dense cloud. "Enough chatting. Our kid will cry himself to death if we waste anymore time."
***
Cheers boomed through the streets of the sixth sector. Families left their houses for the first time in months.
The heroic inquisition squad of the Blade Master sect vanquished the coalition camp.
Parents offered flowery wreaths to the warriors who returned, and children idolised the warriors who'd saved them from tyranny.
Despite the jovial atmosphere of the people, the warriors wore grim expressions. Twelve of the squad members stood outside the sect gates, receiving the people's gifts, barely holding back the urge to rush into the sect master's office.
In all their minds, only one thought surfaced.
"How is he doing?"
Aspartese's low voice echoed through the hollow wooden walls of his office. He stared at the apothecary, seated by Vera's bedside.
The old doctor shook his head; deep creases ran across his temples. "His vital signs are still falling. But I can't know more until this thing gets off him."
The tip of his fingers ran across the thick metallic carapace that encased Vera's body; a golden manifestation pulsed through its thick walls. The carapace was lined with jagged edges; crevices filled with dried blood and pus emitted the odour of rotting flesh.
Aspartese rubbed his eyes that were thick with fatigue. His heart beat into his ears.
Why did I send them there? I should've just waited for reinforcements!
Streaks of red ran over the white of his eyes, almost misting up. He walked over to Vera's side and knelt down.
His calloused palms held the carapace that enveloped Vera. A cold sensation ran through his skin as he pressed his forehead against Vera's hand.
I said I'd protect you, not send you to your death.
The silence was palpable; people's cheers turned to white noise. A low creak sounded as the door to Aspartese's office opened.
Lin-yu entered the room.
Aspartese didn't turn to face her, his head still nestled against Vera's fingers.
"Did you tell Chang-yu?"
Lin-yu walked over to Aspartese and held onto his shoulder.
"I did."
Aspartese's fingers trembled. He held himself back so as to not grip Vera's hand too hard. His voice quivered. "How did she take it?"
Lin-yu caressed Aspartese's shoulder; her voice ran warm and steady, reassuring him.
"She is a strong woman. She left to take care of Chun."
Soon there were no words left to speak. They could only pray that Vera would be all right. They sat in silence observing the changes in Vera's condition as time passed.
Though it was for naught, the only thing that changed was the sky.
The evening sun grew obscure. Thick clouds climbed over the currents of wind, encroaching upon heaven's eyes.
As the air grew moist, Aspartese muttered.
"A storm is coming…"