The green Qi crept another inch toward his chest.
Lican felt it moving beneath his flesh, its thorn-like projections burrowing deeper with every sluggish pulse of his heart. The rhythm that had once hammered against his ribs was growing heavy and irregular, each beat weaker than the last. Inside his chest, the corrupted energy tightened around his organs, its invisible thorns digging into the delicate tissues as though preparing to tear them apart.
He was running out of time.
His left arm lay useless beside him, the flesh swollen and discoloured, while blood seeped from the wounds covering his body. Every breath scraped against his shattered ribs. The green Qi had already reached the base of his neck, and he could feel its cold, vicious presence spreading beneath his jaw.
He had no strength left.
If he wanted to live, he had to reach the pool with his own two hands.
Move.
The command rose from somewhere deep within him, a silent roar reverberating through his soul space.
His body didn't respond.
Lican clenched his teeth until his jaw trembled. He had survived the forest, escaped the Pack Leader, and dragged himself into this grotto. He wasn't going to die a few paces away from the very thing that might save him.
With a guttural gasp, he rolled onto his stomach.
His right arm struck the damp stone with a dull thud. The impact sent pain exploding through his torso, and his vision flashed white. For a moment, he could neither breathe nor move. His shattered ribs ground against one another, and something wet trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He swallowed the blood and dragged himself forward.
His clothes scraped against the rough stone, catching on jagged grooves as his body slid across the floor. His useless left arm dragged behind him, leaving a dark smear of blood across the damp rock. Every movement tore at his wounds, and the corrupted Qi responded by driving its thorn-like projections deeper into his flesh.
Lican's fingers curled against the stone.
He pulled.
His body moved barely an inch.
A tremor ran through his right arm. His elbow buckled, and his chest struck the floor hard enough to force another mouthful of blood from his throat. His breathing became shallow and frantic, each inhalation ending in a faint, broken wheeze.
He could feel consciousness slipping away.
Stay awake.
He tried to hold on to the thought, but his mind was growing sluggish. The grotto blurred around him, its ancient walls wavering through the darkness gathering at the edges of his vision.
Then, somewhere between one agonising breath and the next, he began to chant.
At first, the words were barely audible, escaping his bloodied lips in a weak, broken whisper.
"Mortal flesh is but dust; only the eternal spirit shall cross the heavenly gates."
Thump.
His fingers pressed against the stone.
A faint vibration seemed to pass through his awareness, and the words stirred something deep within his soul.
Lican's eyes widened slightly.
He recognised the chant.
He had heard those words echo through the endless void, beneath the gaze of the enormous statue whose presence had once made him feel as though his very existence were insignificant. Back then, the chant had cleared his mind amid the overwhelming emptiness. Now, with his body collapsing and death creeping through his veins, he clung to it as though it were the last thread connecting him to the world.
He drew a ragged breath and continued.
"A thousand eons pass like a breath; ten thousand worlds crumble like ash."
Dong.
His mind cleared.
The pain remained. His shattered ribs still ground against one another, his left arm remained useless, and the green Qi continued its relentless advance. Yet something within him had become strangely lucid. The darkness pressing against his consciousness receded just enough for him to recognise the stone beneath his fingers and the faint fragrance drifting from the pool.
His body was failing.
His mind was not.
Lican dragged himself forward again, his right fingernails digging into the microscopic grooves of the ancient stone. The rough surface tore at his fingertips, splitting the skin until fresh blood welled beneath his nails. He pulled anyway, forcing his deadweight left side along with every trembling movement.
Behind him, a gruesome trail marked his passage.
Blood smeared across the floor in a thick, uneven ribbon, mingling with fragments of torn flesh and dark green thorns that had broken free from his wounds. Some of the thorn-like projections remained embedded in his skin, while others had been violently expelled by his failing body, leaving ragged openings through which blood continued to seep.
The damp stone drank in the crimson fluid.
Lican kept chanting.
"Shatter the ego, cleanse the soul, or dissolve into the endless cosmos."
His voice cracked halfway through the words, but he forced himself to finish. The chant was no longer merely something he remembered. It had become a rhythm for his failing body, a sequence of words that kept his mind from sinking into the darkness.
The flower's fragrance grew stronger.
It filled his nose and coated his tongue with a strange sweetness, carrying a vitality so rich that he could almost taste it in the air. The steaming pool shimmered ahead, its jade-green surface undisturbed, its translucent flower floating above the water like a fragment of light that had escaped from another world.
Five feet.
Lican's right hand stretched forward.
His fingers scraped across the stone, searching for another groove to grip. His shoulder shook violently under the strain, and his body dragged forward another few inches.
Then the green Qi struck his neck.
A sharp spasm tore through him.
Dark green thorns pushed through the flesh along the back of his neck, their pointed tips emerging beneath his blood-soaked hair. One pierced the skin below his jaw, spreading a numbness that crept across his face. His tongue grew heavy, and swallowing became an ordeal. Blood gathered in his mouth, thick and metallic, threatening to choke him whenever he tried to breathe.
He could barely feel his jaw.
His chant faltered.
For a moment, only the faint hiss of steam rising from the distant pool filled the grotto.
Lican's eyes began to close.
Then he bit down on his tongue again.
The sharp pain tore through the numbness, and he forced the words out once more.
"Mortal flesh is but dust..."
His voice was little more than a rasp.
"...only the eternal spirit shall cross the heavenly gates."
He dragged himself forward.
Three feet.
The pool was close enough now that he could see the faint ripples of light beneath its surface. Steam curled around the floating flower, carrying its fragrance over the edge of the jade basin. The vitality radiating from it seemed almost cruel in its abundance, hovering just beyond the reach of a body that could no longer obey its owner's commands.
Lican stretched his right arm.
His fingertips brushed the stone beside the pool.
Then his hand slipped.
His palm slid across his own blood, and his remaining strength vanished beneath him. His face struck the cold floor with a sickening crack. Pain flashed through his skull, followed by a violent convulsion that forced a spray of blood from his mouth.
Dark crimson splattered across the pristine stone at the pool's edge.
For a moment, he lay motionless.
His chest rose once.
Then again, more weakly.
The green Qi had reached his upper chest. Its thorn-like projections tightened around the surrounding flesh, and the sluggish rhythm of his heart faltered beneath the pressure. His right fingers twitched against the stone, but his muscles refused to respond.
He had reached the pool.
Yet he was still unable to touch the water.
Lican stared at the jade-green surface, his vision blurring as the flower floated silently above it. He could no longer feel his legs. His left side was completely numb, and even his right arm had begun to lose its strength.
He had nothing left to give.
Nothing except the last embers of his will.
The chant continued in his mind, each word faint but distinct.
Shatter the ego, cleanse the soul, or dissolve into the endless cosmos.
Lican stopped trying to pull himself forward.
Instead, he let his body tilt.
His shoulder slid over the edge first, followed by his head. For one suspended instant, his battered body balanced against the rim of the pool, his bloodied face hovering above the glowing water.
Then gravity took hold.
Splash!
His head and shoulders plunged into the jade pool.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
The water closed over his face, swallowing the blood clinging to his skin. His torn flesh, bruised purple from the corrupted Qi, disappeared beneath the glowing surface. Dark green thorns protruded from his shoulder and neck, their jagged tips breaking the water as his body sank deeper into the steaming pool.
Then the pool reacted.
HSSSSSSSS!
Steam erupted from the surface.
The jade water surged around Lican's body, and an emerald radiance burst from beneath him, illuminating the ancient walls in a blinding flash. The previously tranquil pool churned violently, its surface twisting into spirals as an immense current of life energy awakened within its depths.
The energy rushed toward Lican.
It poured through his nose and mouth, forcing its way into his battered body. His chest convulsed as the first wave flooded his lungs and spread through his blood vessels. The emerald light penetrated his torn flesh, illuminating the ruined muscles beneath his skin and exposing the dark green thorns embedded throughout his body.
His entire frame jerked.
The pool wasn't gently healing him.
It was forcing its vitality into a body already on the verge of collapse.
Above him, the flower began to tremble.
Its translucent petals quivered before slowly separating from the centre. One by one, they dissolved into streams of liquid light, each fragment drifting downward before accelerating toward Lican's forehead.
The first stream struck his brow.
BOOM!
His body arched beneath the water.
The remaining streams followed, pouring into his forehead and flooding his soul space with an overwhelming surge of energy. The flower's radiance spread through him, searching through the pathways of his body as though an invisible hand were examining every wound, every shattered bone, and every fragment of corrupted Qi.
The jade pool had not simply begun to heal Lican.
It had turned his body into a battlefield.
Deep within his chest, the emerald vitality surged toward the stubborn mass of green Qi surrounding his organs. The beast's energy had entrenched itself within his flesh, its thorn-like projections woven through his damaged tissues like the roots of a poisonous plant.
The flower's energy struck it head-on.
For an instant, the two forces pressed against one another, their opposing energies illuminating his body from within.
Then the corrupted Qi resisted.
The dark green thorns tightened around his organs, refusing to yield even as the emerald light flooded the surrounding flesh. The two energies surged against each other, neither willing to retreat, and the pressure inside Lican's chest rose until his heart seemed trapped between two crushing hands.
The water around him began to boil.
Bubbles burst against his skin. Steam spiralled into the air, and the jade pool shuddered beneath the violent currents of energy colliding within it.
The flower's pure vitality and the Pack Leader's corrupted Qi were no longer merely struggling for control.
They were detonating inside Lican's body.