Chapter 3: White Snake

‘What is it?’

 

His heart skipped a beat. 

 

‘Was I too careless?’

 

‘No…’

 

The waves crashed against him but his body remained unmoving. Qi threads inspected the creature and the result was confusing. He could sense nothing that was out of the ordinary. That was strange. It possessed nothing that could protect it against the cold nor could he sense any Qi from it. It was truly strange.

 

With much difficulty, he conjured a few move strings and they made their way toward the being. It was something serpentine, not that long, a few meters long at most.

 

‘Absurd!’

 

Surviving down in the Under Dark was not an easy thing. Just the environment was enough to kill most of the things living above and even the creatures native to this environment had all kinds of things protecting them but this snake-like creature had nothing. It appeared no different from the pests that people in the settlement kept. Incapable of surviving.

 

‘Just how did it remain alive?’

 

‘Maybe… was all this palace empty because of this?’

 

Though an outrageous notion, what he sensed was a greater absurdity. As he tried to wrap his head, trying to understand just what was going on–

 

‘!!!’

 

“aaaAA!!!haaaa!...’

 

He could suddenly see.

 

His eyes blinked closed from surprise but the light still pierced his eyelids. The pain intensified. He had been wandering in this lightless world for years. The light was too sudden and too bright as it pierced through the layers of safeties built into the helmet.

 

He tried to control his whimpers.

 

His will passed to a few Qi threads, and they dissolved into Qi which headed toward his eyes. The Qi circulated through the Qi-vines within his eyes, its cold and dark aspect reducing the burn and the intensity of the light. Slowly, his vision stabilized and what appeared before him was a snake.

 

‘Wow… No!’

 

He suppressed the awe he felt. It was the first time he actually saw the world outside the Grand Formation. It was truly beautiful so much so that it was becoming difficult to suppress the wondrous awe that emerged. He needed something to distract his mind. He found one quickly

 

He looked at his arm, the finger poking out from the broken armor. He could see the muscles and bones. Under the frozen and dead skin and muscles, he could sense life.

 

‘So this was blocking the cold…’

 

He wanted to touch the barrier, the distortion surrounding his body but his hands would not move. The after-effects of the technique were made worse with the cold that had burrowed into his flesh.

 

‘Ah…’

 

He stared at the barrier, that was all he could do. It was incredible, protecting him from the cold and the pressure that should have been present in this depth. He created a few cords of Qi strings, moving them towards the barrier.

 

As though nothing was there, the Qi thread passed through. He could feel nothing, as though it truly was not there. He tried again and again but it was like trying to capture the air within his palm, a futile task.

 

It was just a thin layer but despite that, it was capable of shrugging off the extreme cold, the pressure, and the waves that hit him from time to time. It was incredible, so much so that he wanted to learn it, understand it.

 

His repeated efforts showed no result, all of them resulting in failure. Able to do nothing and having no other choice, he kept his threads warped around the being in front of him.

 

The result remained the same.

 

The snake in front of him, the barrier enveloping him, this empty sea underneath the surface. 

 

‘To think something this absurd will happen despite wandering for so many years.’

 

He had adapted to the outside. Danger still existed but he had years upon years of experience to help him. Suddenly though, the things he had never come across, things he could not understand, all of them came at once.

 

The waves crashed against him but could not budge him even an inch. Through the Qi strings, he kept sensing the barrier and the snake but something forced his attention elsewhere. It was a tingly feeling which became more and more pronounced.

 

It was like an urge to itch, uncomfortable, irresistible. It disrupted his focus. He tried finding the cause but to no avail.

 

‘Maybe it’s because of the unstable Qi?’

 

Most of the Qi he could control was focused to keep the chaotic and ever-increasing Qi within his body under the control. It left him with little Qi to scan through his body.

 

***

 

His teeth, broken and pointed dug into his gums as he tried to endure. Enduring should have become second nature by now. It had not. He found out as he experienced anguish worse than death.

 

He could not feel the pain, that itch-like feeling overpowering everything else.

 

He stared daggers into the snake in front of him. It was the most beautiful he had ever seen. White scales covered its body, from the small horns coiling like a crown to the tip of its tail.

 

‘Is it because of its aura?’

 

He could not tell but just gazing at it enchanted him– would have enchanted him if not for the torment he was experiencing.

***

 

The strands of qi he could create had doubled, then tripled, and on and on but alongside his increased Qi, the intensity of the itch too, increased. He wanted to smash his head against something, willing to–

 

‘No! …’

 

‘Don’t even think about it…’

 

More and more of his Qi was circulating within his brain but the intensity of the itch-like sensation was drastically increasing.

 

***

 

A curtain of darkness was draped over his eyes stopping all the light from reaching his eyes. His focus, down to the last drop, was on manipulating the Qi.

 

‘Yess!!…’

 

He stabilized another chunk of Qi, multiplying the amount he could control. All of it rushed into his head and for a moment he felt the itch vanish. For a moment he gained peace.

 

For a moment.

 

Then it came back with increased intensity. He could just barely keep a grip on himself, his sanity slipping away. Desperate, he scanned his body despite knowing. He had already stabilized the Qi within the outer areas of his Qi circuits. The remaining Qi surrounding his core and the chest area could not be stabilized just because he wanted to. Even if he did, his core would shatter, truly marking his end.

 

His body was an epicenter of a storm. His core kept spewing out the dense Qi and with his skin and outer layers of muscles destroyed, the delicate system dictating the flow of qi was destroyed. This made the difficult process of stabilizing the Qi even harder.

 

‘It’s nothing compared to this itch…’

 

With the last bits of will remaining with him, he focused on his body. The current state, with frozen flesh and destroyed blood and qi pathways and what it was supposed to be like. The current and the original state of his body overlapped within his mind.

 

***

 

His teeth dug deeper as he regained a bit more control over his body. As though the infuriating itch was not enough, the maddening hunger also returned. With his rations used up long ago, he could only try and endure. Just like the waves, the pangs of hunger struck repeatedly. It too kept growing in intensity, just like the itch.

 

The body started self-cannibalization. Eating the muscles to survive after the fat had been consumed.

 

He tried to forget the sensations, trying to return back to that state where he could feel nothing and he focused inwards. He tried to ignore everything else, ignore the itch, ignore the hunger, ignore the pain. He focused on the tangled mess that was raging storm inside his body.

 

Try try again. He did but with no results. He could feel the cracks forming inside the mental space he had created, the flood of emotions trying to find a way in.

 

‘aaagGgHhh!’

 

His gums became bloody, covered with frozen blood as the broken, razer sharp teeth dug deeper. He had to endure it. His survival depended upon it. 

 

***

 

‘Yes…’

 

His facial muscles twisted into a horrid state and the teeth dug in deeper. Then came the pain as he carved out new Qi pathways through his body.

 

Blood escaped from his gums, swiftly freezing.

 

The chaotic storm of Qi within his body tried rushing into the new pathways he was creating. Somehow his Qi was able to resist.

 

Time passed. As more and more of the pathways were carved, the chaoticness within his body lessened somewhat allowing him to gain control over a bit more of the Qi. As though all his hard work till now was finally starting to pay off, a positive momentum was created. More and more Qi calmed down.

 

Even though he gained more Qi, the amount needed to keep himself sane went up much more quickly. But for a moment everything did quieten down. It was bliss. A bliss that was so intense that he would have passed out.

 

***

 

‘Something is wrong… but what?’

 

He felt uncomfortable. Was it because he felt the Qi he needed to circulate in his brain increasing leaps and bounds? Was it because of the hunger that kept worsening? Was it because of the Qi that only kept growing rampant? Or was it because of the pain that kept growing as his senses started setting back in? He did not know.

 

‘I should have recovered by now.’

 

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He had been keeping time. Counting each time hunger struck, tormenting him. Again the hunger struck and as his emotion destabilized so did his Qi. It caused his Qi pathways to be on the verge of collapse.

 

‘It’s not been long since last time…’

 

It did not matter. If his body too started to destabilize, all his efforts too would go to waste.

 

‘... I wished I hadn’t made that promise…’

 

This thought had always been there since he had started wandering and even before. For years he had been suppressing it, just like all other emotional baggage. He set his focus on warding off the hunger, not wanting to think about it

 

‘!!!’

 

A wave of intense itch spread trying to tear away the safety net he had created for himself. The heterogeneous bundle of sensations came crashing into him. He was unable to focus and all his attempts failed. Like waves, they receded, then returned, never-ending.

 

It was a struggle just to safeguard his sense of self as bubbling emotions and sensations wanted to drown him. The time seemed to slow down, and even the seconds sluggishly crawled by.

***

‘Something is different… but what?’

 

That itch was still there but it had changed. It was no longer that destructive power out to kill him and with it calming down, he could bear the rest. It was not the first time he was enduring them.

 

‘!’

 

‘Can something like that be possible?’

 

The darkness covering his eyes faded and he again looked at the being in front of him. All the qi threads that he could create rushed towards it.

 

It was still completely ordinary.

 

‘But someone at that level can easily trick me.’

 

The relief was sudden and off-putting but it allowed him to focus on other things. As he kept thinking, he remembered something. It had been under similarly absurd circumstances. He remembered reading something there. The symptoms appeared when one first reached out to the laws of the universe, trying to understand them.

 

‘Which Law is it…’

 

Time passed as he kept pondering on that question in what little free time he had available. Now that he knew the reason for this torture he experienced, he was grateful but at the same time, grudgeful. It would allow him to survive, live, and keep his promise but at the same time, he would be farther away from his desire.

 

He wanted to die but he had to keep his promise.

He had to keep his promise but for that, he had to do his best to survive.

 

A desire and an oath both were in conflict with each other. For now, he had been keeping his oath.

 

He immersed himself in feeling the law.

 

Time passed.

 

***

 

A resonance. Despite the abuse it had been through, it looked like his core could still be healed.

 

‘Fuuuu…’

 

The white-colored snake. Never once had it moved or even twitched. Despite the efforts, it still seemed like an ordinary creature. He had tried everything, all his skills and abilities he had honed to survive and thrive on the outside. He even tried out things he had never thought of before but the result was the same.

 

He could not believe that it was something ordinary but it was strangely difficult to think otherwise. It was a constant struggle. He knew his senses were being tricked but it was so thorough that despite his conscious efforts, sometimes he too, considered it an ordinary creature.

 

‘But how could something that could cause all this be ordinary?’

 

How could something that could induce another being to sense and find a law of the universe be ordinary?

 

***

 

‘aGGG!’

 

It returned. Darkness covered his eyes and he hurriedly tried to calm his mind, ignoring the pangs of hunger. The vital qi. His control was shaky but he managed to circulate it throughout his body. A rejuvenating effect spread causing the hunger to momentarily be satiated.

 

‘I need to be quick…’

 

His mobility was slowly returning but as the control returned, so did the pain. The hunger became more and more distinct. He needed to eat something, there was a limit to which he could sustain himself by consuming his vital qi. Already it had been consumed too much, any more and he would have a new problem.

 

Just dealing with the current problems was pushing him to his limits. He was working around the clock, taking rest only when necessary. His instincts were warning him, any longer and it would be too late to get out of there. There was still a years-long journey needed to return back.

 

The only thing that was unique in his current circumstance was the snake in front of him and the itching feeling that he had felt since he had met the snake. He doubled down hard, sure that once he recognized the law he would be allowed to leave. At least he hoped so.

 

A quivering spread throughout his body and his skin withered some more as though aging. Effect of the excessive use of the vital qi already starting to show.

 

‘I need to return as quickly as…’

 

He ignored the weakness that had spread throughout the body and instead reverted his attention toward the Law. It was like swimming in the middle of the ocean, trying to find a specific landmass without any knowledge of its direction. He kept searching just hoping he would find something. Thankfully he was not fully blind, the itch that had constantly been tormenting him gave him a vague direction.

 

It was difficult. It was like a blind man trying to traverse an obstacle course. He kept falling and kept coming across dead ends but he did not give up. He could not give up.

 

Time passed and the condition of his body worsened especially with him putting more and more focus on searching for the law, the chaotic Qi kept increasing. He had no choice but to endure. It was a race, whether his Qi would destroy the body first or he would find the law first.

 

***

 

‘Inevitability!’

 

He hurriedly cleared his mind narrowly stopping the disruption from spreading to all corners of his mental space. As though his luck had suddenly exploded forth, everything became smooth. The knowledge just kept flowing into his mind, the flow becoming quicker. Another resonance occurred with his core.

 

He was free.

Then he was still, his body, despite having been frozen and cannibalized, started trembling.

 

Half-open vertical pupils grazed at him and for a second time, he felt very very small, smaller than an ant. He wanted to scream, he wanted to run, as far away as possible but his body would not listen. It would not even twitch.

 

Pop!

 

Suddenly the layer protecting him popped.

 

ShaaaAaaAaAAAa

 

The armor, more a metallic tin was already frozen just like his skin and outer muscles. The cold invaded his body with much intensity. Even then his body did not listen. It did not want to move.

 

Cough!!

Cough

Cough!!!

 

The liquid got into his mouth, into his nose, and any other orifice it could get in through.

 

‘No choice!’

 

Chaos erupted inside his body. The Qi he had gotten into control went wild and again he was left with little to no Qi under his control. It managed to stop the cold though. He constructed Qi threads out of the Qi he still had under control, sealing any area through which the liquid could get in. He just needed to hold till he got out. 

 

It was easier said than done.

 

Thousands of qi threads rushed out, spinning. An intense force was generated, sending him flying toward the direction he assumed was up.

 

The frozen armor shattered, unable to bear the force. Though most of the fragments scattered some dug into his flesh.

 

‘Something… there has to be something…’

 

‘!’

 

The liquid surrounding him was intensely cold and due to the depth, under great pressure. It made it denser. The Qi strings warping around him emitted intense cold and his Qi was consumed. The liquid surrounding him froze.

 

He pulled more Qi. As the Qi within his body reduced, the chaotic storm started overpowering the remaining Qi. But he had no time to care about what would happen in the future. He needed to reinforce the barrier he had created otherwise it too would shatter.

 

‘Not enough…’

 

He tore through the liquid but despite minutes passing he could not see any sign of the surface.

 

‘How deep was I?’

 

‘Am I going in the right direction?’

 

He could not maintain his current state for long. He needed to stabilize the storm that was brewing inside him.

‘Hahaha… maybe I am going to die after all.

 

[ Return after performing the 3rd shedding ]

 

‘!!!’

 

Suddenly the space twisted.

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