Chapter 5
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The air trembled and the ground quaked as heaven-and-earth energy madly rushed into Xu Zhenyan's body.
Large, dark cumulonimbus clouds formed in the sky above the mountain. In the span of a few breaths, the clear spring weather took a turn for the worse. Already, flashes of light could be seen inside those dense columns of water-vapor.
Leaves were shaken out of trees, rocks and pebbles tumbled down mountainsides and the dry soil cracked open, swallowing sections of the forest whole.
It was simply a natural disaster.
Far away, in Deereast City, people stared wide-eyed at the sky which, until now, had been as clear and transparent as glass. They couldn't make sense of what was happening.
In that remote cave, Xu Zhenyan's ruined body lay. Rivulets of blood, water and mucus stained the stone underneath him. His injuries were beyond fatal.
Yet, despite his hair-raising state, he wasn't dead.
While his wounds compounded, heaven-and-earth energy, a power near-indistinguishable from life-force, saturated his flesh. He consumed it crazily, like a man dying of thirst who'd stumbled across an oasis.
Inside his sea-of-consciousness, the green moon was already starting to close. It only remained open for a short time, but Xu Zhenyan was already approaching the brink of death. His body, not even possessing Soul Knight cultivation, couldn't handle this tremendous amount of heaven-and-earth energy.
Like a void being sealed, the green moon separated the heaven-and-earth energy from the vortex behind it. However, the natural events set in motion weren't so easily halted.
Outside, thunder sounded as branches of blinding-white lightning seared the forest. Enormous rocks tumbled down the rocky slope, the start of a landslide. Massive sinkholes formed as the earth collapsed in on itself.
The cavern in which Xu Zhenyan's body lay shook violently, but it didn't collapse. It was only a thin sliver of space, not even qualified to be called a cave. Because of its small surface area, it remained intact.
It was only the crack in the ceiling that widened, raining soil and gravel onto Xu Zhenyan's body. Yet, the energy surrounding him shielded him from the debris, like an invisible raincoat.
The entrance was soon sealed off by falling rubble and the landslide happening outside. In the darkness inside, Xu Zhenyan lay, still and silent as a corpse.
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Hours turned into days, yet the boy remained comatose. His condition was extremely severe, despite the heaven-and-earth energy mending his injuries. His heart had stopped and he wasn't breathing—it was only his rapidly circulating soul force keeping him alive.
In fact, the vortex wasn't completely sealed. A space, thinner than a single hair, remained open. It was only because of this gap, drawing heaven-and-earth energy toward Xu Zhenyan's unconscious form, that he escaped death.
With his mind gone, his heart still and his lungs unmoving, it was more accurate to describe him as being in a state of suspended animation.
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Unbeknownst to him, hundreds of people were frantically searching the forest. Five days came and went, but even before that time, Lee Jin already sent out a search party.
After the strange happenings that day, the bodyguard felt great unease. It wasn't just him—the clouds gathered still hadn't dispersed. Despite the season, a drizzle persisted. It was to the extent that a lot of people, including City Supervisor Li Xiping, sent people to investigate the wilderness.
The scenes of destruction left them all horrified, none more that woodsman Chen. He knew the area like the back of his hand, so the vast smears of gravel and mud where forest was supposed to be turned his scalp numb.
Since the City Supervisor's men were already there, once they found out about the Xu family's missing young master, they joined the search. Although Xu Tianwang wasn't at the top of the Judicial Sector, his status was still above Li Xiping's.
However, as one day turned into a week, then two, a lot of people started losing hope.
'If third young master Xu survived, surely he'd turn up by now.'
Despite having such thoughts, they continued to sweep the forest.
While the majority searched the lowlands, Lee Jin and his fellow servants climbed the rocky elevations. If their young master got caught up in the disaster, there was a chance he fled to high-ground.
Unfortunately, as two weeks turned into three, their search turned up no results. Still, they didn't dare stop.
Shortly after this catastrophe, Lee Jin sent a pigeon to Central Province, informing the family head about recent matters. Xu Tianwang's reply was short, but to the point—he wanted to know what happened to his son.
One month turned into two, yet nobody spotted hide-nor-hair of the Xu family's third young master. That is, until woodsman Chen, following a hunch, stumbled across a nearly-buried cavern.
Truthfully, it wasn't as much of an accident as it seemed, as the fellow was familiar with most of the area's nooks and crannies. The reason why it took so long to search this particular spot was due to its remote location, as well as their dwindling manpower.
It was fortunate he did because, although heaven-and-earth energy could support the body's functions, Xu Zhenyan would still die if his heart never beat and his lungs never breathed. For six weeks, he hadn't eaten anything either.
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Woodsman Chen, having cleared away most of the mud and rubble, stared dumbly at the body laying in front of him.
It was skeletal, to the point where the man assumed he was looking at a corpse. However, after he managed to recover his senses, he noticed something odd—there were no odors, nor was there any visible sign of rot.
It was possible Xu Zhenyan only died recently, but that raised as many questions as it answered. If he was here all this time, he'd surely have heard people shouting his name—the search started shortly after he departed.
'Maybe he was injured and unable to call out…?'
That was the only thing the middle-aged man could think of.
He carefully approached the body, deciding to quickly check the cause of death. No matter how strange the circumstances, he didn't think for one second the boy was still alive.
However, when his fingers pinched the body's skin-and-bones wrist, woodsman Chen's pupils contracted into pinpricks. Xu Zhenyan was cold, below normal body-temperature, yet his body wasn't completely devoid of heat.
Still, that wasn't the strangest thing about him.
The moment the old servant touched the boy, a current of energy surged into his body, like gripping a live wire. His torso contracted like someone electrocuted, flinging him backwards to collide against the rocky wall.
It took a long time for the fellow to recover from his shock. When he did, he leapt to his feet and ran out of the cave like ten demons were chasing after him.
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Lee Jin kneeled over Xu Zhenyan's 'corpse', carefully examining it.
It took some effort, but he was eventually able to extract the truth out of woodsman Chen. The man lost his senses, superstitious as he was, babbling about corpses possessed by evil spirits.
Only after his family was threatened did the man agree to lead the way. Lee Jin drove him like a workhorse, to the point where the servant was half-dead when they finally arrived at the cave.
Exhaling slowly, the bodyguard laid his palm over his young master's chest. He'd seen this kind of thing before—his state was similar to someone undergoing cultivation deviation.
However, there were still a lot of strange things he didn't understand. Right now, he couldn't pay much attention to them—the most important thing was to resuscitate Xu Zhenyan.
His hand pressed firmly against the boy's frail, skeletal torso. The youth's chest-bone audibly cracked, yet it was Lee Jin who let out an involuntary yell. A current of vital-energy surged into his arm, running along his nerves and turning his muscles numb.
He stared at Xu Zhenyan, clearly shocked. The incredible amount of Soul Force circulating in the youth's body defied common sense!
After calming his beating heart, he gritted his teeth, extending his hand once more. Nothing was more important than reviving the boy in front of him.
The backlash was intensely painful, but despite that, Lee Jin continued to massage Xu Zhenyan's chest, doing his best to stimulate the boy's dormant heart with his own Soul Force. After about ten minutes of this, he finally saw some results.
'Thump…!'
The boy's heart, under Lee Jin's persistent stimulation, started beating. However, the bodyguard didn't stop immediately, but kept up his resuscitation attempts.
He observed the state of his own body with shock—Xu Zhenyan's strange Vital Energy, not exactly Soul Force, continued to pour into him. The chaotic stuff wreaked havoc inside his body, causing a few drops of blood to drip down his chin.
It was only after thirty minutes had passed that Xu Zhenyan started breathing again. At that point, Lee Jin's face already turned completely pale. He didn't have much strength in him.
Drowsily getting his feet under him, he scooped Xu Zhenyan's frail body into his arms, making his way back to the Xu estate.
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