"Argh..." I groaned, waking up to the all-too-familiar sight of the White Space inside the Lord of Lords pagoda. Its stark, clinical brightness was a jarring contrast to the darkness I'd just been engulfed in. Around were several of my dical puppets, their chanical eyes glowing with a soft, pale light as they monitored my vitals.
Liang Yu and YuYu were standing close by, their faces a mixture of relief and reprimand as they watched stir.
"You're back!" Liang Yu exclaid, her voice trembling with a mix of relief and anger.
"You big fool!" YuYu added, her voice breaking as she reached out to pinch my arm lightly. It was an act both gentle and scolding, a gesture to remind of the worry I'd put them through.
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"Sorry for making you guys worry," I mumbled, pushing myself up on the cold, smooth surface of the white slab bed. Every muscle in my body ached, as if I had been trampled by a herd of angry elephants.
"We were worried sick," Liang Yu interjected, her eyes flashing with a mix of concern and frustration. "Why do you keep throwing yourself into huge sses?" Her voice wavered, betraying the emotions she was trying to keep in check.
"It's because I have to," I replied, my voice barely above a whisper. "It's not like I have much of a choice." I took a deep breath, trying to center myself amidst the throbbing in my skull. "What happened though? The last I rember I was back in the second level of the Dark Garden."
"The Blue Sun carried you and those two here," YuYu said, pointing next to . Following her gesture, I saw the other two Suns, the Dusking Sun and the Lording Sun, lying on beds of their own. My dical puppets were busy treating them, their precise, chanical hands working diligently to heal the damage done.
"Excuse for a bit," I said, forcing myself off the bed. My legs felt like lead, my movents sluggish, but I needed to check on the Dusking Sun. Sothing about his condition felt off, a nagging sense of unease that I couldn't shake.
Moving closer, I could see the Dusking Sun's body up close. He looked terrible. His skin was ashen, his once vibrant aura now reduced to a faint flicker of light. I scanned him with my Divine Sense, probing his internal state. It was worse than I thought—much worse. His Qi channels were destroyed, twisted into a mangled ss, and his ridians were crumpled up like old parchnt.
The few that were still intact were struggling to absorb the Qi from the reactor, but it was like trying to fill a broken vessel; most of it was leaking out, wasted.
"This is bad," I muttered to myself, my mind racing. If left untreated, he would take centuries to recover, and that was if he survived at all. I reached into my holding bag and pulled out a few healing pills, noticing that my stash was running dangerously low. I had been using a lot of them lately. Too many.
I placed the pills into his mouth, using my own Qi to guide them down his throat and into his system. They began working imdiately, the healing properties seeping into his damaged tissues. But it wasn't enough. I needed sothing stronger, sothing to accelerate his regeneration.
I pulled out a vial of my own concocted poison, a formula designed to stimulate rapid cell reproduction. A small dose would be beneficial, encouraging his body to heal itself, but too much would cause grotesque mutations, growths of flesh that could turn cancerous. Carefully, I injected just the right amount into his bloodstream, watching as the potion took effect.
The change was almost imdiate. His wounds began to close, the flesh knitting together at an accelerated rate. Satisfied with the progress, I moved on to the next task—repairing his Qi pathways. Channeling my own Qi, I began to reconstruct the broken channels, forging new paths for his energy to flow through. It was ticulous work, each motion requiring precision and care.
I couldn't afford to make a mistake here.
Hours seed to pass as I worked, sweat beading on my forehead. Finally, I managed to connect a few healthy ridians to his Dantian. The Dusking Sun's Dantian, however, was in bad shape. Cracked but not destroyed, it was leaking Qi at an alarming rate. Without a functional Dantian, he wouldn't be able to regulate his energy, and all this effort would be for nothing.
"How can I fix this..." I muttered under my breath, racking my brain for a solution. The Dusking Sun's condition was beyond anything I'd ever dealt with before.
"What's wrong?" YuYu asked, concern lining her voice as she moved to my side.
"Check yourself," I said, stepping back so she could use her Divine Sense. Her eyes widened in shock as she assessed his state.
"How is he even alive?" she gasped, her voice barely above a whisper.
"He's a Sun Stage cultivator. They're pretty tough," I said, though my voice lacked conviction. His survival was more a testant to his sheer willpower than anything else.
Liang Yu joined us, placing her hand on the Dusking Sun's chest. Her reaction mirrored YuYu's, eyes widening in disbelief. "The damage to his Dantian is too severe," she said, her voice trembling. "But there is a way," she added after a mont of thought.
"Please, do tell," I urged, desperate for any possible solution.
"Master Gin showed this technique once," she explained. "It's like a tourniquet for the Dantian, to stop it from leaking Qi." She manifested her butterflies, ethereal creatures of energy that floated around her like a living aura.
She pressed her hand against the Dusking Sun's abdon, and the butterflies began to fly down toward her palm, then into his body. They moved with a grace and purpose that was almost hypnotic, fusing into the Dusking Sun's internal structure. His body, sensing the foreign Qi, tensed for a mont. Even in his weakened state, the inherent danger of a Sun Stage's reflexes was palpable.
We would have been obliterated if he perceived this as a threat. But, fortunately, he seed to recognize the intent behind the intrusion and allowed the butterflies to proceed.
They latched onto his Dantian, covering it with a shimring layer of energy. The process was slow, each butterfly a small patch on the gaping wound of his Dantian. Liang Yu's face grew pale as she continued to manifest more and more butterflies, her own Qi rapidly depleting. "His Dantian... it's too big..." she gasped, struggling to keep up with the demands of the technique.
"Hold on," I said, placing my palms on her back and channeling my Qi into her. It was like pouring water into a sieve, but it gave her the boost she needed to continue.
YuYu joined in, adding her own Qi to the effort. Together, we managed to create a dense enough layer to cover the surface of the Dantian. Slowly, the Dusking Sun's face began to regain color as the bleeding of his Qi was staunched, forced back into the Dantian. It wasn't a permanent fix, but it would buy him ti, allowing his body to begin the process of healing itself.
Next was the Lording Sun. His condition, however, was sothing else entirely. He lay still, almost peaceful in his slumber, but I could sense an ominous presence surrounding him. His Qi, unlike the Dusking Sun's, wasn't just leaking—it was being siphoned, bound by sothing unseen.
I moved closer, my eyes narrowing as I reached out with my Divine Sense. There they were—ethereal chains, dozens of them, latched onto his very soul. They were invisible to the naked eye, but under the probing of my Divine Sense, they manifested as ghostly, writhing serpents, each one a conduit that drained his life force away.
"Black rchant," I muttered under my breath.
"Yes?" ca a voice from behind , smooth and dark as a shadow unfurling in the light.
"Who the hell are you!" Liang Yu and YuYu spun around, their Qi flaring in response to the sudden intrusion.
"Don't mind him," I said, my gaze still fixed on the Lording Sun. "Though I'm quite curious, why didn't you help us back at the cave?" I asked without turning around.
"Because the Lord had asked not to intervene," he replied coolly, his voice as calm as ever, like the whisper of death itself.
"I see..." I murmured, my attention returning to the chains. "Regardless, I can't touch these things."
"I believe that you cannot, and you should not. They will dissipate by themselves in ti," the Black rchant said, his tone matter-of-fact, as if discussing the weather.
"That isn't true," I countered, my voice tinged with frustration. "They were designed to dissipate once the Lording Sun's Qi is stable. And stable for them ans the normal Qi that he usually has in his everyday life. Now that he is almost out of Qi, they're not recognizing this state as 'Normal,' so they'll remain like this until he dies."
"That is an oversight on my part," the Black rchant admitted. "But I cannot do anything either. Those chains… they need the power of a Sun Stage to break them."
I sighed, rubbing my temples. "I guess we'll need to call the other Suns to help then."
"That is also not possible
," he stated.
"How co? I don't think that the few Rakshasa up there should pose much of a problem now that five Suns are beating them up," I said, glancing up at the ceiling as if I could see the battle raging far above.
"You have been unconscious for a while," the rchant said, his voice carrying an undertone of warning. "The battle situation has changed greatly."
My frown deepened as I activated my bracelet, connecting to the feed from one of my probes stationed in space. The image that appeared made my stomach churn.
"What in tarnation is that?!" I exclaid, feeling a wave of nausea wash over .
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