Chapter 18 Minor External Elixir
"For my head, of course," Elder Ge answered with a smirk. "But first, I must fulfill the promise.
Sit down and calm your Qi while I transmit the promised technique to Bai Xiao."
About five minutes passed. Zhen Xu sat cross-legged, observing his internal structure through the Heavenly Eye. In those five minutes of direct observation, he understood more about life, the universe, medicine, and the body than he had in a year of studying and reading books under Bai Xiao.
Suddenly, a red seal lit up on the wall. Zhen focused his attention on it and, through the Eye, understood: it meant danger—the approach of a demon vimana. His heart pounded in his temples. His internal Qi fell into chaotic motion.
"Zhen Xu... It's time to leave. Take four blue crystals from the ring and insert them into the slots on the edges. Use the mantra 'Ha Release Song'." Elder Ge's voice brought Zhen a surge of relief like never before.
Zhen concentrated on the ring, and before his eyes unfolded the mental space of the ring's contents. With the Eye, he immediately located the necessary crystals and pulled them out. The crystals appeared on the floor before him in a row. Zhen quickly placed them into the slots at the corners of the seal and looked questioningly at the elder.
"Excellent. Sit next to me and relax."
Zhen sat cross-legged and saw that the elder's Eye began to emit light actively.
"DESTRUCTION OF THE VAULT IN 5... 4... 3..." A female voice announced.
Then several symbols on the seal beneath them lit up in gold, and the elder and Zhen Xu collapsed into a single point in an instant.
As soon as the demonic vimana realized that there was an active teleportation device in the mountain, it attacked with its onboard weapons. But it was too late. Simultaneously with the energy strike, the cave self-destructed, turning all evidence and the teleportation device to ash.
***
Zhen Xu and Elder Ge appeared in an identical room. For a few moments, the room was dark, then the walls illuminated the elder's unnaturally pale and gaunt face with a blue light.
"STATE THE PASSWORD," a female voice from a red seal, identical to the one in the previous cave, resonated in Zhen's head.
Elder Ge responded telepathically, and the seal disappeared.
"Where are we?" Zhen Xu broke the silence.
"In a backup vault-cave with the sect's teleportation formation. It's left here in case you don't know where to teleport. Before the sect's fall, this was a remote mountainous area in the north of the Yun Du (云度) continent. About ten thousand miles from the previous vault. I'll look around first, and you try not to look beyond the cave with your Eye; you're still inexperienced and might attract attention."
"Master... I feel unwell..." Zhen was pale, almost green.
"You've expended a lot of Jing and Qi; you need to try to sleep and recover your strength. There are vials with pills in the ring. In the blue vial with a floral pattern are Jing restoration pills. Take one and try to sleep."
"This one?" Zhen pulled a vial from the ring.
"Yes."
Zhen barely swallowed the pill with his dry throat and tried to settle on the floor, placing a leather backpack under his head after clearing some space with his feet.
His mind was numb from the events that had befallen him and his altered state of consciousness. He spoke and acted mechanically, feeling as if his body no longer belonged to him, and he was watching a puppet show where Zhen was a marionette moved by someone behind the scenes. It no longer mattered what would happen next. Whether demons would kill him or soldiers would capture him. Strength had left Zhen, and he fell asleep on the cave floor, plunging into a dreamless darkness.
When Zhen awoke in complete silence, under the artificial mystical blue light from the walls. He felt nothing inside except numbness. Elder Ge was still sitting in his place at the center of the teleportation formation. Zhen's Heavenly Eye was deactivated, and he saw everything as usual. But he felt the Eye in the center of his brain, ready to open again if he directed True Jing there. Zhen didn't touch the Eye; he simply performed a set of breathing exercises to normalize the Qi flows. The pill had worked well; his Jing was almost restored, and his meridians were filling with a stable flow.
After sitting for about an hour, he heard Elder Ge's voice:
"We need to remove the implants from you while you're in the cave. Take the chests from the ring and the round medallion that matches the size of the cavities on the locks."
The medallion was the key. As soon as Zhen applied it, the chest indicated by Elder Ge opened.
"There's a minor external elixir inside that will cleanse your internal cinnabar fields (dantian) of demonic implants. It should be in a golden box shaped like a dragon."
Zhen immediately saw it. The box was intricately crafted in the shape of a golden dragon's head. He opened the upper part of its snout and, inside, on a black cushion lay a crumbled purple stone about two inches wide.
"Yes, that's it. A true treasure. But before using it, we need to prepare talismans for the disposal of the implants' Qi and for protection. In the same chest are talismans on bone and golden plates, as well as instructions on a jade tablet. Read the instructions using the Heavenly Eye."
Applying the tablet to his forehead and reading the text that appeared before his inner vision, which the tablet directly transmitted to his brain, he understood what to do. It was necessary to draw a special circle with golden paint using a stick, then place bone talismans inside and apply golden plates to specific parts of the body, which should lie in the center of the formation with the head to the east. The formation was activated with one's blood at a specific time, and the final step was to place a bit of the elixir under the tongue, about the size of a grain of rice, and... die.
"Elder, are you sure I'll wake up? I don't feel very well as it is..." Zhen Xu began to complain.
"Don't worry, you're not the first or the last to undergo this ritual. It's just a minor elixir and not that dangerous. The heart will stop only for a couple of minutes. I can restart it remotely if necessary."
With all the items gathered and the instructions followed—drawing a large circle adorned with symbols and placing the talismans—Zhen sat cross-legged, anxiously awaiting the appointed hour.
Inside, he wailed, engulfed by a fresh wave of fear. He struggled to quell the terror by channeling his Qi and relaxing his body.