17 Afliction

Incapacitated as he was Lu Se Ying didn't notice the approaching presence until he could hear the footsteps coming toward the entrance. Trying to gather himself he threw a look toward An Ying, to gauge his reaction, only to find that An Ying was already making his way to the back room.

Seeing how he seemed unconcerned, Lu Se Ying let that worry go.

"Wait!" He called out to An Ying who was charging forward with a rapidly rising, dangerous aura. "It was my fault! I wasn't careful when I used my spirit energy. I'll be okay after meditating a bit."

Pausing, An Ying turned and gave Lu Se Ying a long and measured look. His eyes were deep, looking for even the slightest trace of deception. After a moment he nodded and did not continue further.

Just as he wanted to sigh in relief, Lu Se Ying had to swallow it as he heard his master's voice say. "What happened?"

Adjusting his position, and turning toward his master, he divided his attention between cleansing his body of the polluted energy and giving an answer. "I was careless when I went to check the conditions of the spirit beasts." Under that stern gaze, his courage abandoned him as he turned eyes from his master's face to his feet.

Giving a noncommittal noise, Li Yu Rong then asked. "Their conditions are?"

"Ah," he swallowed hard as he tried to think of how he should say it. There was a long pause before he finally murmured. "Bad. Very bad. Over a long period, bit by bit, the spirit energy had been siphoned from their cores to be replaced with the energy of the Mortal Realm. Their bodies, having no compatibility with this realm's vital energy, are rotting from within."

"Can you heal them?"

Though it was hard to say the words, he said them with a helpless shake of the head. "No... their conditions are too severe. Just by using a bit of my energy to observe them from within I was harshly rejected and even stained with the contamination myself. Fortunately, I pulled back in time." Lu Se Ying then added. "They can't be touched carelessly by those of either of the realms as the rot created by their experiments is highly toxic. To be honest, I don't know how the spirit beasts are still alive."

Li Yu Rong sat for a moment. It was hard to say what was going through his mind as the ivory mask covered most of his face from view, however his one visible crimson eye glowed menacingly. His gaze slanted toward the researchers before walking toward them.

In quick succession, he bound their souls to the seal he created to help them cooperate without allowing for a single act towards resistance. Afterword he didn't give them a single glance. Instead, he was focused on the only other room in the underground chamber. His body was tensed as he gave himself over to deep thought.

"You can't save any of them?"

"Well," Lu Se Ying specified after hearing his master's question, "those in the cage closest to the entrance can't be saved. With my current condition, I can't check the others. I'll need at least the rest of the night to cleanse my veins of the rot."

"Then you'll remain with Commander Jiang until you can give me a full report." Li Yu Rong then moved toward the room with the caged spirit beasts.

As it became apparent that he was going to take a look himself, Lu Se Ying cried out. "Master, you can't! Your body wouldn't be able to handle the poison!"

Hearing that An Ying quickly reached out and grabbed his master's arm, pulling him back. The act of the pull caused the wound on his arm to split and pull and for fresh blood to seep even further into his clothes. Feeling the wet and understanding what it was, An Ying tightened his grip as his expression fell. A murderous violence danced behind his dark eyes.

Feeling the turbulent change, Li Yu Rong softened his voice as he tried to calm the other down. "An Ying... it's a light flesh wound. Nothing serious."

An Ying's expression eased, but he didn't let go.

This time Li Yu Rong spoke with the authority of a master, "let go." After the short command, An Ying's grip fell away reluctantly. "Don't follow."

Continuing onward, Li Yu Rong stepped through the doorway. Taking in the sights of the caged spirit beast with the hazy and low lighting of the two torches; one at the door and one at the back of the room.

He drew in a sharp breath and his fingers trembled.

Each and every one of them was covered in slight patches of fur. Their skin had thick bulging sores that were cracked, bleeding and leaking pus. Their legs were chained to the walls, the flesh having grown over the tight shackles. The shapes of their bodies were deformed to such a degree that he couldn't even begin to tell of their species... nothing remained of what they must have looked like before the experiments.

Even the young weren't much better off.

Ah, it might not have been a good idea. No, it definitely wasn't a good idea. However, he was spurned on by anger. He was moved into action by the pitiful and pain filled yowls and whimpers. He was thrown into chaos by how, even though they must have been in such excruciating agony, they moved to protect their young and keep them from his view.

He was filled with a deep and bone-chilling rage.

Energy collected at his fingertips, a deep and glowing crimson. It flowed from his core with reckless abandon. He scrawled out arrays and seals all over the room. He tied them together in intricate designs and weaved them into the essence of the spirit beasts.

Before he was even close to finishing, his body felt the backlash of his reckless actions. It screamed and protested for this stop. The dual energies in his body shifted as one grew weaker, but in his anger, he paid it no mind.

Li Yu Rong tied the final knot, binding them completely. "With this... your resentment, pain, hatred, and fears are taken from you. May you know a measure of peace before the end." With that, he retracted his energy, composed himself with a deep breath, and then left the room.

The moment he walked through the door and came into view Lu Se Ying checked over his form with his eyes. Li Yu Rong was a bit pale, but otherwise, his form appeared as sturdy as normal. Lu Se Ying felt a small measure of relief but was still worried.

While he was dealing with the spirit beasts Commander Jiang had entered the underground chamber after having secured the two living martial arts experts. Seeing the man directing his men to set up for the interrogation, Li Yu Rong walked over.

"Commander Jiang, once you've gotten all the needed information the seal will break. Once that happens, kill them." He didn't wait for a reply and shifted to leave. "An Ying stay with Lu Se Ying, return once you've determined whether they can be saved."

He waited for no replies and refused to speak any further; he left the room. The only thing he wanted right now was to return to the Palace of Four Gates before he was paralyzed by the vital energy of the Mortal Realm vying for dominance in his body.

---------------

Nastasia was currently sitting on the deck facing east attached to Li Yu Rong's room. She was artfully playing her mother's favorite Irish folk song as she reminisced of their memories together. The song was "A Kiss in the Morning Early." Her mother had always been rather fond of love songs.

Thus she sat, and played, remembering the past while she waited for Li Yu Rong to return. It had been three days since she last saw him and before that, she had only ever seen him after waking in her bed.

She wasn't sitting here waiting for him because she was worried or missed him -definitely not!- but rather because she wanted to share with him her progress. Not only were there several one-word phrases she could use to get her point across, she could now put together a few broken sentences.

Nastasia was quite proud of her momentum in stepping further and further beyond their language barrier since their first meeting nearly two weeks ago. She was quite anticipating the look on his face after displaying how far she had come along in her learning.

As her thoughts moved in this direction, and her excitement mounted, her fingers bounced along the notes. It gave the song a sort of playful and carefree air.

Thud!

Following that sound was a horrific series of hacking coughs.

Nastasia stood up in alarm and dropped her flute. Turning around and rushing into the room she found Li Yu Rong on his knees, hacking into his hand, blood dripping between his fingers.

Rushing forward, she dropped to her knees beside him, pulling his face to look at her. "Wrong?" She asked. She hadn't learned to phrase it as "what's wrong with you" yet and hoped that he could understand her meaning.

Though he was confused to see her there, he offered her a smile as blood bubbled up his throat and trailed the corner of his mouth. He swallowed back the bile and blood as not to frighten her and patted her head reassuringly.

Rather than make her feel better, his actions worried her more.

Seeing that he wasn't going to try to answer in any way to make her understand, she brought her hand to his forehead and then to his cheeks. He was burning up with fever and drenched in a thin sheen of sweat. As she touched him, she felt the tremors running through his body. He was anything but okay as his smile tried to mislead her into believing.

Nastasia grabbed his arm and forced him to follow her to his bed and made him lie in it. He tried to drag her with him, but his body was greatly weakened so it was easy for her to refuse.

She ran from the room.

Li Yu Rong felt a bit of disappointment at her fleeing form, but then also felt it was for the better. The energies in his body were dueling for dominance. Though it was his spirit energy that had been depleted to a dangerous level, and it was the vital energy of the Mortal Realm that was poisoning him, he still feared to pass his affliction on to her.

The Mortal and Spirit Realms were never meant to interact with one another. This was why, though all his searching for the cause, he could not understand why the gate connecting to two worlds appeared in the first place.

Due to his thoughts and trying to suppress his condition from worsening, he did not notice Asya's return until she was beside him wiping his face with a cool wet rag. His heart warmed at her gentle touch and the pain eased from his body. Somehow, in a way he could not explain, he felt the battling energies come to a standstill and his condition stabilize.

After a bit of relishing her gentle care, he managed to fall into a dreamless sleep.