Finally Free

Sounds of water splashing close by rang all around.

"Urgh…" Alex cried out as he slowly came to consciousness. He struggled to push himself against the crusty, hot ground to stand up. His left arm never touched the ground.

'Right, I don't have it anymore,' he thought. He slowly stood up to feel the cold wind blow past him. He saw vague light in front of him, but nothing else. 

He used his spiritual sense to look around him. He was on top of hard ground, close to where the water entered his spiritual range.

He saw his own body. Fully black from burning from whatever the source was. Fortunately, it hadn't gone past his skin.

He had a memory of being poisoned, but the red veins he remembered were not on him anymore.

He stood there for a moment before he realized, he wasn't cultivating at all. "Huh?" he wondered.

He checked with his spiritual sense and he really wasn't cultivating at all.