Chapter 173 - Sacred River?

The human chameleon clad with long skin-tight brown toned trousers stepped lithely, as if his feet didn't touch the ground. Rune-like colorful tattoos covered his bare upper-body and face. 

No wonder they didn't know he was there the entire time because he blended too well with the painted wall which had colorful images drawn on it. As expected from a chameleon, no less. His bare feet with manicured-nailed toes walked toward Xinyi.

Xinyi stood with spine erect. Her hand balled, ready for a fight as she remembered him promising to kill her the next time they meet.

[Their fight happened in Chapter 89.]

To her astonishment, the chameleon bowed prostrate before her.

"Honorable Chief Guardian, please save the sacred river or my purpose of living is a forfeit. I would rather die if I can't keep my promise to the great guardian of this place, Kaos, my grandfather."

"Sacred river? You mean this place is or was the sacred river?" Xinyi said.

She had a good look at the snowy land outside the cave. It was no river. In fact, it was as desolate as where she and the Godingans went days ago. However, as she particularly paid attention to the layout of the land, she thought it was the exact place aside from this cave.

Was her mind playing tricks on her? But she had no way to know the answer and left this thought at the back of her mind. As long as she found Ming, that's good enough for her.

"The whole place outside is the Sacred River frozen into ice," the human-chameleon said.

"Stand up. What is your name? And tell me what happened here and explained to me what you said earlier."

The human chameleon stood and bowed at her. "My name is Kaosma. Forgive me for attacking you, Your Honor. I was ignorant and foolish to mistake you as my grandfather's killer. I just realized it days ago."

It was referring to the announcement of the Chief Guardian incident of which only Xinyi and the spirit guardians knew. Nianshi and Meirga had felt it too when they were unconscious, so it wasn't something new to them. 

The two Godingans' noted the Chief Guardian title he called her but kept their lips shut.

Kaosma moved to the cave entrance. They all noticed his deep sadness. The human chameleon painfully reminisced.

"Outside this cave is the great Sacred River, but it wasn't here before. It was in another location, but the late Chief Guardian transferred it here after my grandfather died to protect it from the greedy humans who threatened its existence. 

"I came here along with it. But as time passed, its life essence became insufferable until it turned out like this. This is not the only place suffering but also the dried forest you passed through before coming here." 

Shijian intervened. "After my awakening, I brought my master here to save him, but how can I help him now? The only way to cleanse my master's body from the curse is to dip him for days in the river, but it can't be done now." She sadly gazed at the endless snow outside and nudged her head in Xinyi's hand.

"Please save the river, Xinyi. Please save my master." 

Xinyi turned at the human chameleon. "What is the cause for the river to become like this?" 

"That I wish to ask you as the Chief Guardian." The chameleon replied.

Her mind went back to the attacking beasts, thinking they might be connected in some way. "What are the runes in the beasts' bodies in the dried forest?"

"I don't know, my lady. The spirit guardian in that place is also suffering to the extent of drying up its life essence."

They all gasped to hear such news.

"Who is the spirit guardian there?" Xinyi said.

"It's Yuta. He is a spirit landform. The whole dried land is his body."

"What?" Everyone was amazed to know this. They hadn't seen anything like this before. 

"So you mean he has lost his essence and the runes are the result?" Xinyi said.

"I'm not sure if that's the case. He is suffering the same as this Sacred River. I can't communicate with him anymore, but I remember him telling me that he stopped absorbing life essence from the Kore. The troubling part was his life essence was depleting, as if he was sucked dry, but didn't know the reason."

Xinyi noted all the facts she heard, but it was still not enough to lead her to a conclusion of the most probable cause or a solution to the problem, but she already had a hunch. 

"Does this river have a spirit that I can talk to?"

"It has, but it's hibernating for a decade now. I've tried to wake her several times, but it won't. Please save the river, my lady."

If the chameleon who guarded this place for decades had no answers, neither did she. 

Her mind went to Alva. "How can I wake the river spirit?"

"You have to heal it, as the chameleon said. I suggest you review the two books in your hands. I believe you can find a clue there."

"Can you just tell me? I thought you know everything."

"I know much, but not all. I remember your predecessor moving this river here. But she healed it first before doing so."

"How did she heal it?"

"She only transferred her healing essence on it, but it was still a luscious river at that time. Not as dead as this. I don't think that would work now. I suggest you read the two books in your hands again. It might have a clue about healing landforms."

Xinyi sighed, having no appetite for reading, but she had to force herself if she wanted to heal Ming. She went back to Ming to examine his vital statistics and inner essence first. 

Her fingers touched his wrist, and she almost cried after feeling his very weak pulse. She gulped back her sobs inside her. She had to be strong and wished not to cry again.

However, when her inner sight went to his essence, her heart was torn apart. She immediately laid her head on his chest and wailed out loud as tears fell like a stream down her face. 

"Oh god of our ancestors, have mercy." 

Her heart cried out because she couldn't believe his essence was emptied dry aside from his chest and head where the remaining wind essence kept the accursed poison at bay, stopping it from penetrating his heart and brain.

Feeling her pain, all the spirit guardians and Nianshi cried with her.

Even Lofey and Tyriece couldn't bear from crying after they heard her wails. Although they couldn't see what she saw, they believed his condition was fatal for her to react that way.

After a while, she got up. "Aside from saving the river, what else can I do to heal him?" She said, sniffing in between lines. 

"There is no other way. We were only able to save him using this stone bed to strengthen his essence for a time. His essence can't hold on much longer if you delay more," the chameleon said with urgency in his tone.

She shook her head. 'There must be another way. But if there's no other way, how can I heal this vast river when I can't even heal Nianshi? Why am I so helpless? Why can't I be as strong as my predecessors?'

Xinyi hand-dried her tears and solemnly gazed at Ming. "I must try to heal him first." She placed her palms on top of him and let her healing essence enter his body. 

His body was like a sponge, sucking all of her healing essence. With this, his wind essence became stronger and revolved faster, pushing the blackness inch by inch away from his chest. But her healing essence was not enough that it absorbed her very own life essence. 

Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead as she struggled with her depleting essence while not letting go of Ming when she saw their combined essences cleared a good portion of the poison away.

'I must hang on. I know I can heal him. Come on, just a little more.'

She tried to absorb essence from the Kore to replenish her depleting essence. But to her shock, it went in reverse instead. The ground steadily sucked her and Ming's essences away. Her face went pale. She fought back the absorption by pulling it back to her, but she failed. 

She tried to lift her hand from Ming to stop the depletion of his essence, but she couldn't. As though her hands were glued on him.

Her vision became blurry and on the verge of losing her consciousness when the shield essence in her glowed, engulfing her whole body, including Ming. The absorption halted in that instant.

At the start of the reversing absorption, the spirit guardians already sensed something was wrong and cried out at her.

"No, Xinyi." Alva yelled in her mind.

"What is happening?" the chameleon said.

"My lady." "Xinyi." "Let go." The rest shouted altogether.

"Do something," yelled the fox-spider and spurted out a steel thread to pull her but retracted it when the blue light appeared. 

However, she couldn't hear them anymore, as if she lost her sense of hearing while fighting against the depletion of her powers.

Meirga, who was nearest to Xinyi, pulled her away from Ming and Nianshi hastily carried her to keep her feet from touching the floor. 

The two Godingans were alerted by their shouts and shocked to see the blue light. They knew what it meant. Her shield protected them from an impending danger. 

"What happened?" Lofey yelled in frustration. "Damn. Can anyone tell us what's going on?" Then they saw her pale face fell on Nianshi's arms. 

Xinyi wheezed, trying to catch her breath while resting on Nianshi's chest. 

Tyriece went to her side and wished to carry her himself, but kept his hands to his sides. "What happened? Xinyi, please say something." 

Xinyi opened her eyes and gave him a slight smile. "I understand now why the river and the forest are like this."