Forgotten

The next morning, the other three were still sleeping. The sun was just rising. Red opened his eyes, as all the energy funneled into his body.

He saw that a layer of his skin had suddenly turned into dust and blew away into the wind. His skin felt baby white. Smooth and extremely soft. His features also became slightly more streamlined.

With a shake, all the dust disappeared. Red quietly continued to absorb the huge amounts of energy. Compared to the trickle at home, at this specific point, the energy was like a bucket.

But he constantly felt the energy density reducing. This was because the energy was obviously not finite. The concentration at this point was high because of circulation from millions of years in a funnel like formation in a cyclical manner. It was the same energy that was constantly recirculating before, now it all funneled into Red's body. Eventually, the density reduced to points that he couldn't rapidly continue to clean his body like before.

"I have cleaned my skin. Next I have to clean my flesh, then blood, then the organs and finally the bones and the bone marrow. Only after cleaning can I begin the process of tempering. How just cleaning my skin has made it much more stronger than before. An ordinary person knifing me can't harm my skin.

The amount of energy required for this process is simply staggering. This much would have already been enough for a mortal to cultivate to the third stage of Qi condensation, which Yui's aunt seems to be."

The three finally woke up to find Red sitting and meditating calmly.

"Goodmorning Ladies." He said jokingly.

"Eh, its already morning. What happened last night? My mind is hazy." Mayumi asked.

"...I can't remember anything either." Yui said while frowning.

The assistant was silent, but internally shocked. She couldn't remember anything at all. "Is there something wrong with this place?" She wondered to herself.

Yui saw the bracelet in her hand and was surprised. But then she felt very intimate with it, and she didn't want to part with it no matter what.

She walked up to Red who was sitting on the stone. "Did you give me this bracelet?" Yui whispered in Red's ear. For some reason she felt that this was related to Red and she didn't want anyone else to know.

"You don't remember?" Red asked with a bitter face. "I made this for you. You promised you wouldn't take it off no matter what." Red said without missing a beat.

"I did? I can't seem to remember anything about yesterday night. But I promise I won't take it off no matter what." She whispered back. "Did anything else happen?"

Red looked at Yui in silence for a lingering moment. "Nothing particular." He finally mumbled.

"What are you two whispering about?" Mayumi suddenly asked.

"I was just telling Yui how beautiful Mayumi lools when she gets up." Red said with a smile.

Mayumi made a weird face and looked at herself with a selfie camera on her phone. "Oh my gawd, my hair!" She ran back into the tent while Red laughed.

Red got up. "I'll prepare breakfast. After that, does anyone want to go down the cliff to check the lake and the waterfall?" Red asked.

"Climbing down will be too difficult for the girls." The assistant supplied her opinion.

"There is a rugged path leading to the lake. It seems a pretty simple hike downhill." Red replied.

Yui and Mayumi nodded. "Let's go! It looks like a great place to take pictures!"

After breakfast they went downhill until they arrived at the bowl shaped lake. From afar, the lake really looked like a bowl into which water fell from the heavens.

"The water is so clear!" Mayumi was excitedly clicking photos. The group had ended up on the opposite side of the lake and could see the temple of the shiba inu up the cliff.

"The waterfall actually flows from under the temple. How interesting." Red commented. He then saw the assistant walking towards the lake in a daze and when he followed her line of sight, he saw that underwater at the center was a huge mound of bones. Human bones.

"Stop! Don't enter the lake!" Red yelled out.

Red's yell brought the assistant out of her stupor and she stopped blindly walking towards the lake.

"There is evil energy!" The assistant screamed in shock! "Let us retreat!"

The other two were dumbfounded and quickly walked away from the lake, though they didn't understand what the assistant meant.

After they stepped a good distance away, the dangerous feeling disappeared. The assistant looked at the three students. "This lake is not safe, let us return." She secretly decided to spread information about this lake so that some more powerful cultivators could investigate it.

"Don't mention about this lake's special features to anyone else." Red warned.

"What special features?" Mayumi asked.

"Didn't you click a picture of the lake? Zoom into the center of the image." Red calmly said.

"What... is that?" Mayumi asked in fear.

"A mountain of bones. Human bones." Red said plainly. "There is something wrong with the lake. It put Yui's assistant into a daze like she was hypnotized and she began walking into the lake. It's best not to reveal anything about this lake to others, for it will only create more victims to whatever is in the lake." Red warned.

The three fearfully returned to the cliff camp, while Yui was tightly holding onto the bracelet. Earlier, she had felt a terrifying fear as if something was approaching, but the bracelet suddenly glowed and gave her peace and protected her. She looked at Red, wondering just what happened the previous night.