Chapter 446 - The Ungodly Decay

It was the twenty-first day of the seventh month. Five days had passed and Xiao Chen arrived at a place called Guhe Town—the Town of the Ancient River. He was but only a few more days’ journey from Xianyong City at the eastern peripherals of the Middle Continent. With the rest of the Levitating Dark Fragrance scouring the lands for Gui Xian, there was only Qingluan and Ziyun’er accompanying him.

It rained terribly hard yesterday and it was a hot and sunny day today. Xiao Chen was reading the Elixir King Scripture that Gui Xian had given him at the tavern. The tome hardly contained many methods of healing, focusing instead on extensive recipes and information about elixirs and tonics. But he scarcely understood most of them, and recognized only some recipes for medication that helps to improve blood circulation, cure bruising, and calming or soothing in addition to others.

He shifted himself, sitting cross-legged and began to breathe and rest by following the instructions on the tome. Concentrating on every part of him, he began to search for anything abnormal about his health.

Before long, Xian Chen began to feel a strange sensation about him as if his soul was swimming in a fantasy world within him. Everything went dark around him. There was no earth, no mountains nor rivers. No stars, no sun, and no moon. All that he could see was a world of complete blackness threatening to engulf him whole.

This was one of the intrigues of the physique of a mage. Reaching the stage of the Nascent Soul Realm allows one to reshape the spiritual manifestation of one’s body into a domain of its own, a concept not unfamiliar to Buddhism.

But the length and breadth of one’s “inner domain” hinges on one’s spiritual powers; it could be as small as a speck of dirt or it could be as large as the actual world we lived in so long as one honed one’s physique through the practice of sorcery.

Xiao Chen stood in the middle of the boundless nowhere, feeling fascinated and surprised. “Is this the domain inside me? But it’s so big! Or is this just some hallucination?”

Then he took a few steps and he caught a glimpse of a dot of light. A soft white light beckoning at him. But there was something dark in the light. The shape of a silhouette that he could not clearly make out in the distance. Eager to find out what it was, he cantered into a run. Finally, as he got close, he trotted slowly and breathed, “A tree in nowhere?! Is this even possible!?”

But it looked everything like the veritable tree looming several yards over him. It looked hardly strong and majestic but there was something sacred about it with all of its bark, its branches, and its leaves were all completely white, from top to bottom. The leaves sparkled cheerily at him, glistening like silver in the soft white light that Xiao Chen thought this must be a tree that came from the Heavens above.

Xiao Chen approached the tree, his hand reaching out curiously. His fingers grazed on the hard, jagged surface of the bark and felt the churning ripples of life! Undying and inextinguishable life! “Is this really inside me?! How would I have such a tree in me?! But it looks familiar… as if I had seen it before… But where…”

Xiao Chen stopped to ponder. But he could not remember where he saw the tree before. He walked circles around it, wondering, “So… is this tree somehow related to the recent deterioration of my life?”

“But wait, Red Sleeve had told me that my body is powered by two auras; one of the strongest Yang element and another of the strongest Yin element. What in Heaven…!?”

Confused and puzzled, Xiao Chen only felt his mind blurry and his head dizzy. Then everything became dark around him again. He opened his eyes and found himself lying on his bed. “Wait a minute, was it all only a dream?!”

“Koo-chee!” Koo-chee beast squealed from atop his bed frame, leaning down to lick at his cheek affectionately.

That made Xiao Chen giggle. Then he heard footfalls scuffing against stone outside. His spiritual senses were still far from perfect yet, but he knew it was Qingluan and Ziyun’er. There was also a stranger with them as well. The footsteps stopped just in front of the door and Qingluan’s voice came from outside, “My Lord, are you awake?”

“I am. Come in.”

Qingluan and Ziyun’er pushed past the door and came in, followed by an old man dressed in robes of white trimmed in blue. His rosy cheeks and black hair belied that he looked almost seventy of age and a fascinated Xiao Chen asked, “And this is…?”

The old man smiled and asked Ziyun’er, “Is this the young man you told me about?”

“My Lord,” Qingluan reported, “This man is the Elixir King we’ve managed to find from the town nearby.” Xiao Chen nodded and said to the elderly man, “Please have a seat, old sir.”

The old man strode closer to him. “It’s fine. I’ll first have a look at you.” A white, minuscule fleck of light shone at the tip of his finger and he pointed it at Xiao Chen’s wrist and the blob of light seemed to penetrate him. Unlike most healers or physicians that require to observe a patient’s condition, discuss with the patient, or examine his pulse, mage healers needed only their healing sorcery.

A frown slowly creased on the face of the old man, Xiao Chen noticed and he asked, “Is there a problem with me, old sir?”

“Th-this…” The old healer tried his best to look merrier, but to no avail. He bowed to Xiao Chen and said sourly, “For decades, I, Xue Qingshan have never once disappointed any of my patients. I take immense pride in my craft. But yet today, today, I have met my match. I’m sorry, young sir. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you! I’m very sorry!” He sounded positively beaten and depressed.

“Can you elaborate in a more precise manner, old sir?” Xiao Chen balked.

“I can feel that you are losing your powers,” said Xue, “But… your physique is no different to any common man. I detect no problems with you, other than your whitening hair… Unless my skills are nothing but mere conceited vanity…”

Xiao Chen felt despondent and morose. “Why… How could this be…” But Ziyun’er snarled suddenly, “You are an Elixir King! You’re supposed to be able to find out what’s wrong with him! To save him! Nemesis of Death, they call you! Look again! Make sure you’re right!”

Xue Qingshan tried his best to placate a very irate Ziyun’er, smiling weakly. “Please, young lady. Please… Let me think… let me think…” He pondered in silence for minutes until he finally looked up. “Your life is seeping away bit by bit and your physical body is decaying… Could this be the symptoms of the Ungodly Decay?”

Everyone shuddered at the mention of the ominous words and Qingluan, all colors drained from her face, drew her weapon with deadly precision with Royal-blood Blade and held it at the elderly man’s throat. “Be careful of what you speak, old man!” She hissed.

A cold fury glinted off the moss-green blade of the weapon and Xue Qingshan held his breath, trembling for his life. Xiao Chen’s face was equally pale with his back slick with cold sweat. His fingers quivered as the words ‘Ungodly Decay’ reverberated endlessly in his mind. No one had ever successfully escaped the Ungodly Decay once it had taken hold. It was certain death. An inescapable and inevitable end that no demons, gods, or human can run from.

There are two manners of the Ungodly Decay: the major Decay or the minor Decay. The minor Decay is a precursor; a dismal harbinger of the future coming of its more-grievous counterpart and what Xiao Chen was presently experiencing was exactly that. But what comes after is the actual Ungodly Decay that has never failed to strike fear into all that hear this name. It was like a judgment from Heaven: fateful and formidable. The Heavenly Emperor, the Nether Emperor, the Lord Buddha, or even a mage so powerful with the powers as great as the Supreme Realm or the True Nirvana Realm; nothing matters. No one escapes the Ungodly Decay.

Xiao Chen’s face could not be any paler and his breaths and heartbeats began to race. At this exact moment, he began to feel helpless and distressed. There were just so many things he wanted to do, so many bonds he could not sever, and so many things he could not leave behind. He had yet to repay his parents for their love and care. He had yet to find any news of his teacher. His thorny romance with Huangfu Xin’er. And he had yet to see his Brother Yifeng and Muxue safe and sound…

The knot in his gut tightened and Xiao Chen felt a sourness so strong that he would have been amazed at his own inability to describe it. He felt his eyes watering. “Qingluan,” he croaked hoarsely. There was a beat of silence before he went on, “Put away your weapon. Show no disrespect to Master Xue.”

Qingluan obediently obeyed her young lord’s command and the elderly man breathed easily at last, realizing that it was his folly that almost cost him his life. “Rest at ease, young friend. It’s just a simple observation that requires more confirmation before I can be certain.”

Xiao Chen nodded gently, hardly hearing the rest of what the old man was trying to say. The old man’s gaze wandered and suddenly rested on the Elixir King Scripture lying just beside him. Disbelieving what he was seeing, the healer stammered, “Wh-what the… Th-this… this is…!”

“Oh,” Xiao Chen saw what had caught the attention of the old healer. He shut the tome with a gentle slam and tossed it over his pillow. “It’s just a simple book about medicine.”

Xue Qingshan nodded gently, dismissing it away. “Well, I’m sorry that my skills are too inadequate to be of help. But if there’s anyone in these lands that can help you… it would only be…” “Who?! Speak up!” Qingluan pressed urgently.

The ancient healer nodded meekly and said, “There’s a place called Jueming Gorge somewhere to the south of the Middle Continent. The person you seek resides there. His name is Liu Liancheng. He’s barely twenty years of age, but he is one of the youngest Elixir Saints alive, widely known as the Young Maestro Liu Liancheng in our circle. But no one knows who his teacher is, only that he could well be one of the best healers alive without any equal. He is who you seek; the one most qualified to be the Nemesis of Death itself. He has the reputation of being able to cure almost all sicknesses and ailments in just three days and there is no sickness beyond his ability to cure.”

“Are you for real?” Ziyun’er gasped with a frown of doubt. “I would never dare to lie to you both,” Xue Qingshan husked, his eyes peering warily on their weapons. But he stopped, wondering uncertainly before he spoke again, “But Liu Liancheng is known also to be a strange person. He has an eccentric temper. He will never help if he feels like it and no matter how he will stand by his decision, even at the threat of death or torture.”

Qingluan and Ziyun’er shared a dark look before the former asked again, “So how should we get him to agree?”

“Hmm…” The old healer stroked his beard, pondering, until he finally revealed, “Blood Oath. He will first make his patients swear a Blood Oath. An unbreakable and binding magical contract that guarantees Liu Liancheng a favor that he would one day call upon…”

“Ridiculous!” Ziyun’er’s cut him off with a curse, “So his patients would have to be his slaves? Bondage for all eternity?!”

Blood Oaths are one of the oldest spells in the magical world of mages and sorcerers. Performing a Blood Oath is similar to magical contracts that bind one’s Life Source. Both are unbreakable oaths that if broken, would result in imminent death. But Blood Oaths are more complex and potent magical contracts of the two.

Xiao Chen rubbed his chin, contemplating his option for several minutes. He had yet to receive any news about Gui Xian’s whereabouts. Going to Jueming Gorge seemed to be a more viable option rather than a hopeless search for help elsewhere. “Is there no other way other than performing a Blood Oath?” he asked. Performing Blood Oaths was the last thing he would allow himself to do.

“Well… Not really, I believe,” Xue Qingshan allowed and answered, “But he should expect a favor from you. A favor which would expectedly be hard and difficult.”

No one spoke a word, not even Qingluan and Ziyun’er. Xiao Chen rose up slowly and bowed. “Thank you so much, Master Xue. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“No, please…” Xue Qingshan bowed and returned the courtesy. He turned to Qingluan and her sister and whispered timidly, “So… can I leave now, my ladies?”

“Begone then!” Ziyun’er scoffed. With a relieved grin, Xue Qingshan slipped quickly away. Never once he had had to suffer such dishonor as an Elixir King until he met these two sisters today.

Ziyun’er watched the old healer scurrying away and grumbled, “And he dares to address himself as an Elixir King! Humph! Lousy healer!”

“What would you do now, My Lord?” Qingluan asked.

“The Middle Continent. To the Jueming Gorge,” Xiao Chen said simply as he looked out the window, catching a glimpse of the water from the lake nearby churned with fishy fins and whirled with glinting scales as he breathed slowly.