The Consequences

The first thing Lin Ke felt when he woke up was the harsh wave of pain assaulting him. The pain almost caused him to faint once again. It was everywhere, in his arms, in his legs, in his meridians, his bones. Everything ached. Slowly, Lin Ke forced his eyes open. He saw the white paint ceiling above him. That's when he realized he was lying down on a soft comfortable bed.

Weakly, Lin Ke slowly cranes his neck around despite the pain, looking around the room. It was quite a plain room, painted completely white with furniture typical of a room. Besides the bed he was sleeping on was another bed, separated by a nightstand. That's when Lin Ke realized the person who had fallen asleep by the bedside.

Lia was fast asleep on the side of the bed, with her head in her arms, sleeping away peacefully. Her face was tilted towards Lin Ke and he could see the small black circles around her eyes. Strands of her hair fanned out over her face loosely. She slept away, having no clue that Lin Ke had woken up.

Seeing Lia in such a tired state, Lin Ke felt his heart warm up. She had probably looked after him after he collapsed, causing her to lose sleep. Smiling gently, Lin Ke reaches his hand out, wanting to brush aside the strands of hair getting in her face.

In his state right now, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything to help her, and would probably only interrupt her sleeping. Thinking that, Lin Ke drops his hand.

After making sure Lia was okay, Lin Ke turned to the other person, Lily. In his head, he calls quietly.

"Lily? Are you okay?"

Silence was the only answer he received.

Worriedly, Lin Ke repeats. "Lily?"

Still, the only answer he got was silence.

At this point, Lin Ke was starting to get a little nervous. He had gotten so used to Lily being there at every point, even with all her scathing comments and her slightly useless annoying remarks, that it was an odd feeling for her to be missing when he woke up.

In his panic, he tried to sit up on the bed. Of course, he couldn't. Instead of leveraging his body up, his abdomen began to perform surgery on itself. The pain was so bad from that small attempted action that Lin Ke almost blacked out again. However, this time, who knew if he would awaken from it.

Lin Ke let out a slight wince from the pain, before clutching his stomach with his hands. Curling himself up into a ball, Lin Ke tried to wait out the pain.

Lin Ke's small movements and sounds didn't go unnoticed. Sleepily, Lia opened her eyes. Rubbing her eyes, Lia looked up at Lin Ke… to see him curled up in a ball, as if trying to protect a treasure with his body.

For a moment, Lia just sat there, blinking her eyes, trying to process what was happening. She had just woken up, and her thoughts were still a little slow. After a flew more moments, a smile slowly spread on Lia's face.

"Lin Ke!" She cries. "You're finally awake!!!"

Unable to help herself, she threw herself on Lin Ke, giving him a tight hug.

Lin Ke, whose eyes were currently closed, trying to weather the pain, felt someone try to apply salt to the wound. Actually, in this case, it was more like applying molten lava to the wound and then sealing the wound shut with a hot iron.

"AHHHH!" He screamed. This pain was ten times, no, a hundred times worse than the pain from when Lily was using his body.

"Lia! Lia! Please! Let go, let go!!! I'm going to die!!!!" He screamed in pain.

Lia, healing his pleas, quickly let go of him. Stepping back, Lia realizes she forgot Lin Ke was still critically injured.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Lia quickly apologizes. "It was just… you were out for almost a week, so…."

Her voice trails off as she watches Lin Ke slowly recover from the sharp stabs of pain all over his body.

Breathing deeply, it wasn't until a few minutes later that Lin Ke finally felt the pain completely subside. Slowly, he began to uncurl himself, for fear of accidentally jolting his fragile body.

Finally, when he was back in a normal-ish position, he looked at Lia.

"Lia, you said I was out for a week?" He asked.

Lia nods. "Yes! When the teleportation array finished we ended up here. Since you were already knocked out, I brought you to a doctor first but they said there wasn't much they could do to help you and so I brought you here."

Lin Ke slowly nods his head. "Where are we then?"

"This is the City of Vidensalle, one of the cities closest to the Spirit Skylakes, which is one of the Nine Sacred Lands. Many people gather here due to its close proximity to the Spirit Skylakes." Lia explains. Then her voice trails off as she bites her lip. Lia hesitates as she recalls what the doctor had said when she brought Lin Ke over to him for treatment.

"His meridians are completely totalled. In some sections, it collapsed, others it's practically crippled. His body is too fragile in its current state… If I attempt to fix it, he would most probably die from this. From what it seems… it is highly likely that he will be crippled. However, if he is lucky, and his body is capable, he can recover."

Lin Ke, of course, has no idea about any of this. Instead, his mind is fixated on some other issue. Quickly, Lin Ke asks, with a faint glimmer of expectation in his heart.

"Lia… After we teleported here… Did you… happen… to see Lily?" He asks slowly, measuring each word.

Lia blinks a few times. "That… I was going to ask you that. Where did Lily go? What happened back there?"

Lin Ke feels his heart sink. Lin Ke feels completely lost, without any idea of where Lily went. It was the first time since he arrived in this foreign world that he has felt this way.

Quickly, Lin Ke tries to put a stopper on all the negative and pessimistic views on what happened to Lily. Instead, he thought to himself, 'Lily is probably only taking a short break from overusing her power! She'll be back shortly.'

'Yeah! That's probably what's happened! She'll be back shortly!' He repeats. Then, looking up from his thoughts, Lin Ke sees Lia looking at him worriedly, hoping for an answer to her earlier question.

Sighing, Lin Ke knew there was no point hiding anything from her. So, instead of trying to, Lin Ke explained everything, from the start.