Warmth Of Winter – Part 4

Honestly, it was legitimately a streak of bad-luck that set Zhurong and mother on the trail to tragedy, beginning from the moment they stepped inside the swirling distorted space of the teleporter.

The thing was, although Teleportation Gateways were kind of privately owned by the respective Sect/Clan in charge of that area, it was a cursory safety measure to just check in with the place they were going to teleport to in case of bad weather or natural disasters.

As, natural disasters such as thunderstorms (the more common) and earthquakes (much rarer) could interfere with the Teleportation Coordinates of the Gateways due to the violent Natural Chi they tend to bring about.

And that was exactly the case right there.

In their hurry to leave for Thousand Swans Lake, Jun had foregone the cursory inspection of the weather through messenger birds, which led to this disaster.

There was actually a huge storm going on at the aforementioned Lake, and thus, the teleportation coordinates went haywire.

Zhurong, at his mother's urging had stepped into the Teleportation Array first, and felt a foreign tug of space on his body. He could feel himself tunneling through space as he was being transported.

It was honestly a surreal experience for a first-timer. Ten year old Zhurong had once turned his head back to see Meiying smiling behind him and went ahead into the teleporter. It certainly was weird, walking into a seemingly endless tunnel of swirling blue energies. And to the adult part of Zhurong not from this world, it was honestly baffling, as laws of physics shattered before his very eyes as he continued walking through the 'tunnel'.

Soon enough, a dark spot became clearer and clearer as Zhurong continued to walk forward towards it, assumedly, his destination.

Although walking through the tunnel, the young boy had looked behind once or twice to search for his mother, though to his worry he hadn't found her. Zhurong assumed it was some mechanic he didn't know, perhaps, multiple people walked differed 'tunnels' through the teleporter.

 Finally, as the dark spot at the end of the 'blue' tunnel approached, Zhurong could feel the wind on his skin, clearly the sign that he was close to the end. Although before he was within hundred yards of the opening, a sudden 'tremor' went through the teleporter. The entire tunnel shook, and a booming thunderclap startled the black haired boy.

Zhurong flinched as he looked above him to see the swirling masses of bluish energy that served as the ceiling of the tunnel, slowly, but steadily fading, giving away to a dark night sky with massive clouds cloaking it.

The young boy's eyes widened in panic as the reality of the situation dawned upon him. In their hurry, they hadn't consulted Qing-Chen Sect as to whether the weather conditions were fine in their territory. That, had been a costly mistake in hindsight.

Zhurong's blue eyes darted from corner to corner as the whole tunnel started to fade away, beginning from the ceiling and going down to the floor. Slowly, droplets of corporeal rainwater, that had seeped in from the fading tunnel, fell on his face.

Zhurong looked down when he felt himself feeling light, as if standing in air and to his horror, it was true.

The 'floor' of the incorporeal tunnel faded away along with the rest of it, giving him the acute idea of exactly where he'd been dropped.

Black hair fluttered upwards in the rushing gales of the storm, as Zhurong started his fall. He looked around hurriedly to see literally no land in sight, only clear black water mirroring the night sky with huge waves building in it. Across the sky, huge swaths of lightning forked through the clouds, as deafening thunder roared across the landscape…Or was it ocean-scape?

'…Thousand Swans Lake? Bullshit, this is a fuckin' OCEAN! AAH -'

As Zhurong continued falling, he saw something beneath that further made his blood go cold.

Water, in huge waves rotated around a humongous hole that went straight down to the floor of the lake, almost waiting to suck him in.

There was literally a whirlpool of water waiting to welcome Zhurong in the massive lake, and most likely, afterlife too.

The blue eyed boy sighed deeply while still falling. A small reprieve existed here though. Perhaps, it was a boon that he was falling straight into the lake, if he had fallen onto ground from that height, Martial Arts or not, his body would have been crushed. No questions asked.

Here atleast, he could only hope that he'd be able to swim his way out of the whirlpool and onto dry land…Given that there wasn't some huge lake monster waiting for a boss-fight beneath the lake-floor.

What?! At this point, his paranoia towards his luck was justified.

Zhurong sighed deeply, as he sucked in a sizable breath to hold underwater when he saw the surface getting closer and closer to him by the moment. There it is.

3…

2…

1…

SPLASH!

/-/-/-/-/

The mother and son pair sat upon tatami-mattresses in the sizable balcony of their compound that provided view of the lush greenery which surrounded the Xiao Long compound. A few tall bamboo trees that grew close to the compound peered in their long leaves over the balcony, like a curious observer watching them over. Gentle cold wind tickled the whistling leaves, that rolled with the gale.

"You aren't getting it Zhu…", the beautiful white haired women sighed, rubbing her temples as she looked at small snowflake in Zhurong's hands, and continued, "Frost Chi that comes from Yin must not be forced like your fiery Yang Chi. You have to be gentle, you cannot bend nature to your will, you must convince it softly Son. Draw it in, draw in the cold from the surroundings itself. From nature itself and focus it. Gently."

Clear instructions turned into hushed whispers; like distant echoes.

"…Do not force it. Be gentle…"

"….Draw it in…Draw in the cold from Nature. Feel the soothing cold…"

"…Gently…"

/-/-/-/-/

Crystal blue eyes snapped open with a jolt, as his lungs took hungry gulps of air; and to Zhurong who just had a one-night-stand with Death, fresh air seemed positively delicious after being trapped under that nightmarish permafrost of Thousand Swans Lake.

Trembling hands roamed all over Zhurong's body, as if to see if something was missing and he couldn't just feel the pain due to the cold. Fortunately, it indeed seemed that Zhurong was in one piece, well his body atleast. The simple black kimono that he had been wearing was soaking wet, although thankfully it wasn't torn anywhere. The blue eyed boy also noticed that he had lost his belt that tied the kimono though.

Once more, thankfully that was the only thing that appeared lost.

After his self-inspection was over, Zhurong noted the sandy floor he was laying on. His neck felt so sore that it hurt to move. He was laying on some sandy, rocky surface, with one of his legs in the water. Zhurong groaned audibly and moved his sore leg out of the water and onto the rocky floor. Above him, he could see the rocky ceiling of a cavern with few stalactites hanging down.

Once again, the young black haired boy groaned as he turned his head towards the right and saw long silvery white tresses of hair matted and caked with sand, spread all over –

Wait…

Zhurong's eyes widened in surprise when he finally noticed that his hair had indeed turned a pure snow white hue. Same as his mother.

'…That means I completed the FrostMoon Art though…Did…Did I absorb the Ice Energy from within the Lake…?' Seeing no other explanation, Zhurong reluctantly accepted the only conclusion that he could derive from the situation.

The soon to be clan heir felt a smile light up on his face despite the pain in his sore body. He put his palm on the ground and forced himself upwards, grunting in pain as he did so. As he got up, Zhurong finally took a deep breath in, smelling the unpleasant air of the…cavern he was in.

'…Where is this though…? Mother told me while coming here that Thousand Swans Lake has some rocky underwater mountains that rise above the water. Probably one of those…' The young boy mused to himself, and soon, he nodded lightly as the realization dawned upon him, 'Oh…I see…I fell in that whirlpool that tossed me towards some frozen over area of the Lake. Thousand Swans Lake often freezes over in the winter afterall. And winter's pretty close. I absorbed the Ice over the water and probably the high-tide brought me to this mountain beach…'

Looking to be deep in thought, Zhurong looked over at the scenery in front of him. There, at a long distance, the mountains that hosted the Qing-Chen Sect were visible, surrounded by a thick layer of fog. Cool wintery wind was blowing softly, which oddly, didn't bother Zhurong as much as he expected to. It seems that his body, had gotten accustomed to the cold chill. And behind him, he saw a dark cavern, stalactites hanging dangerously low from the wicked ceiling. Zhurong looked around him as well, seeing nothing but a small sandy Cliffside 'beach'.

'…Wait…Isn't this those Cultivation Worlds? I didn't get a system, but will I get some unknown overpowered Martial Arts here…?' Zhurong's eyes widened in wicked glee, as the childish half of himself shook with apparent excitement.

Zhurong was immediately about to dash into the dark cavern when another part of his mind tugged at his consciousness. That was a salivating prospect, finding some unknown Martial Arts through the unlucky incident. Finally, both parts of himself decided that atleast not checking out the cave would be a mighty shame.

Zhurong sighed resignedly and brought up his palm and soon, the familiar pleasant feeling of Yang Chi surged through his whole body, energizing him within seconds. The silver white haired boy grinned; the poison's effects were no more. The chilly Yin of FrostMoon Art that balanced out his fiery Yang.

Zhurong tightened his fist, clenching and unclenching it a few times and then channeled the familiar Chi of Infinite Pure Yang. A positively blazing hot flame flared up wildly within his fist, bigger than he expected. The young boy frowned in apprehension for a moment before he closed his eyes and sensed his Internal Energy within.

When his eyes opened, another lopsided smirk lit up on his lips.

Absorbing the abundant Frosty Chi from the Lake itself had bumped up his Cultivation quite a few bars. From Foundation VIII to Foundation X to be exact. Zhurong could feel the abundance in his reserves of energy, clearly a positive sign that he was about to breakthrough to Gold Core soon.

Although inspecting his inner self made Zhurong acutely aware that his stomach was screaming at him to eat something.

'…Aw damn. I'm hungry…It's probably gonna be alright though. I survived a Teleportation Gateway mishap, survived a thunderstorm, fell from the sky into a whirlpool, and managed to not drown under ice. Hunger won't kill me. And I can see Qing-Chen Mountain from here though…' With that, Zhurong looked up for the final time, and although it was difficult to see through the dense fog that permeated this cliffside beach, he could get a more-or-less accurate measure that it was probably just dawn.

'…This cave is small…It'll probably be morning when I finish inspecting it. And hopefully I can swim back to Qing-Chen Territory before afternoon. Damn…Gotta be quick though, I'm sure mother will be fine wherever she lands. She'll be worried…Hopefully I'll find her at Qing-Chen.'

Taking a short breath in as Zhurong analyzed his plan, he rolled his eyes for once in exasperation. He was getting worked up over Meiying's safety for nothing. His mother was not in danger, she was the danger. She'd probably be looking for him like a Mama Tiger who'd lost her cub.

Smiling fondly, Zhurong finally took a deep breath in, lit up his fist with the fire of Infinite Pure Yang and walked to the shadowy cavern.

…It can't be that dangerous, can it…?

=======================================================

A/N : Uh Oh...Can it really be that dangerous? And say what, from what y'all have seen of this book, what do you think Zhurong will find there? Hint : Lower your expectations, I'm all about breaking clichés.