The Spirit Elder

Moving through the many halls, Du Hua's carriage reached a rather desolate one, somewhat dark and dreary, devoid of people. In front of the entrance way was a white plaque at the top, the words "Spirit Hall" etched deeply on it. At the end of the hall were a pair of doors, pure white and outlined with a golden strip.

"Wait here", Du Hua, still inside her carriage, ordered her two servants who stood and watched their master approach the doors.

"Hm, welcome back from your trip, Elder Hua. Please come in, the Star Owl and that Mistral Fox may come as well", an ancient voice resounded within the halls and the doors opened up.

With that said, Hei Yue and Xiao Yin hopped into the carriage and rested by Ming Yue's body.

Looking through, there was nothing to see, just darkness. If others were to see this perhaps they would believe it to be a gate to some forbidden land maybe even the underworld itself. Perhaps this was the reason few dared to linger in this hall for long.

But, the Medicinal Elder continued onward without a care and as soon as her floating carriage disappeared into the empty void, the doors closed on their own.

On the other side was a very strange sight indeed. Needless to say, it was like another world.

The carriage found itself floating on water and under the night sky. As far as the eye could see was the calmness of the sea and several hundred meters away was a small island. One could see the silhouette of a house accompanied by a strange tree, one whose branches extended along the ground and towards the sky. Its leaves drooped down and swayed in the breeze. With the light of the moon shining upon it, you would find the tree to be violet pink in color. It was a sight to behold.

Du Hua motioned forward, moving the carriage towards the little island.

The two beasts looked out with curiosity, there was a strange and mystifying feeling that came with this domain.

"Elder Shen, what happened to your previous look?" she asked.

"Haha, I lost interest in it. Looking at an endless sea seemed more appealing than a field of flowers. A different type of peacefulness you know. Besides, this Celestial Wisteria Tree* is quite beautiful to watch", the ancient voice answered back.

Certainly, there was a feeling of wisdom from it but at the same time, it was calming and quiet.

"You being here must pertain to that girl yes?"

"Indeed, when I left to congratulate the sect leader of Clear Spring Mountain, the young master of the Tao Feng saw it fit to try to capture us all. Fortunately enough, such a fate was avoided and this girl here is one of those reasons. But personally, I'm quite interested in her."

"I see, well this girl is certainly quite intriguing. Let me have a closer inspection."

The carriage was only halfway to the island before it suddenly reached the shore. Rather than it going towards the island, the island went towards the carriage. The carriage's door opened and Du Hua exited with Ming Yue floating behind her. Hei Yue and Xiao Yin followed after but continued looking around with eyes full of curiosity for they could not shake off this feeling of strangeness.

As the four approached the small house, the wooden doors opened as an old man appeared from within. He seemed both older and younger than Du Hua. While he did not have as many wrinkles as her, his hair was snow white, his beard grew down to his waist and his eyebrows were long enough to reach his chin.

His back was slightly hunched and his hands were behind him. He wore a black and white robe, carrying a plain gold chain around his neck.

"Elder Shen", Du Hua bowed in front of him.

"Oh please, we're all of the same status besides no one's here besides us. Come in" Elder Shen said, leading them into his little home.

Within it was just one round room with a simple bed and table. It was a bit bare but there was a shelf opposite to the bed and it was filled to the brim with books. The table itself had several papers and book spread across the top.

Oddly enough, a small cat laid sprawled out by the table, its shimmering white fur slowly rising up and down from its breathing.

"Put her there, let me examine her", he told Du Hua, pointing at the bed.

With a single thought, She moved Ming Yue's body onto it and Elder Shen pulled up a chair. He sat down and immediate went to work. Making several hand signs, the image of a heavenly eye manifested in front of his face, staring down at Ming Yue.

The entire process took several hours to which Elder Shen filled with murmurs, muttering things to himself.

In the meanwhile, Du Hua rested on chair, sipping tea that she brewed herself. Overcome with boredom, Hei Yue and Xiao Yin explored the island rather quickly and ended up sleeping near their feline compatriot.

At the end of the examination, the eye slowly disappeared as Elder Shen stood up, pondering about Ming Yue's state.

"Can you awaken her?" Du Hua asked.

"That is a rather difficult subject considering the state of her mind and soul", Elder Shen replied.

He continued, "To be blunt, yes. I can heal her. However..."

"What is it?"

"Her soul injured and her mind is fractured into mostly two pieces. These two things are bound to heal on their own but they could take mere seconds or eons to do so. In her case, she has been under too much stress causing her consciousness to shut down and create a new one to suit the situation. Because of this, her soul was became unstable as it could barely support what is now two minds. In order to fix this issue, those two minds must now merge back to one. Thus her soul will heal as well."

"That doesn't sound very serious."

"No, you do not understand. Merging back these two minds is incredibly difficult, more than likely they will reject each other. Forcing it could result in her losing her mind forever."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"I can urge the two minds together but in order for her to fully recover, she must do it herself. So long as I can ease her two minds and put them into a peaceful state, the chance of them merging will increase."

"And what are those chances?"

"...it is about a tenth..."

"A tenth?"

"If it was someone else, then those odds would be less than one in a thousand."

"Hmm, I suppose that's true. You are the Spirit Elder of Dark Water Kingdom, if even you can barely do it, no one else could. Well then, I should leave you to your work, I must inform the rest of the Heavenly Board about the Tao Feng. I will send you something for helping more with this" Du Hua stood up, leaving a finished cup of tea on the table.

"I don't need compensation. This is a rare condition that few had seen, studying this is enough for me", Elder Shen looked at Du Hua.

"Oh, I'll send you something anyways. Whenever she stirs, inform me immediately."

"Of course."

The Medicinal Elder left Elder Shen's home and exited his domain. As for the Spirit Elder himself, he quickly went to work as his surroundings suddenly shimmered and disappeared, revealing a room filled with all sorts of markings, books, and materials.

Xiao Yin and Hei Yue stirred and looked around in surprise as the comfy little home had become a vast room. The walls had all sorts drawing pinned to the ground, there were several tables with books opened up to random pages. Random markings and formations were drawn on the floor.

"Oh, we're starting something?" the white cat suddenly spoke and stared at her master.

"Indeed, this one will quite possibly be the most difficult thing I will attempt", Elder Shen answered his pet.

Both of Ming Yue's pets stared at the two in confusion.

Exactly what was starting?