Chapter 12: Warning

"Kai Li Si!"

I limped toward my fallen comrade, unable to move much because of how badly hurt I was. I wasn't even able to reach Kai Li Si before I fell over. Coughing, I dragged myself toward his prone form with my hands, crawling as best as I could. Blood continued to dribble from my mouth and I coughed violently.

"Sect leader."

Miraculously enough, Kai Li Si was still alive. He turned his head slightly to look at me, his eyes slowly glazing over.

"Hang in there!" I pleaded. I could hear the sirens in the background. Evidently our battle had caused quite the ruckus and someone called the cops. Hopefully they would have called an ambulance as well. "Help is on the way!"

"No. it's too late for me." Kai Li Si coughed, his body going into spasms. He clutched at his torn chest. "The bastard hit me right in the heart. I don't have much longer to live."

"You'll live," I promised him. "The medical technology in this world is much more advanced than the one in yours! They'll figure something out!"

"I doubt that." Kai Li Si forced a smile. "I've only been here for a little more than a week, but I have a rough idea of how your world works."

He then reached out and gripped my arm forcefully.

"Listen, sect leader," he rasped. "This isn't over yet. We might have eliminated Ba Bai, but he is most likely not the only one sent back through time and space. There will be others. So you…you have to become stronger. You have to keep practicing. You need to learn how to defend yourself."

He shut his eyes for a second and then opened them to look at me sternly.

"I…might be the only resistance fighter who made it back here. Don't count on having others transported back to protect you. You…might have to rely on yourself."

"I understand."

"No…that's not all." Kai Li Si wheezed. "Don't assume…that the demonic cultivators are all the same. Not all of them will be like…Ba Bai, aiming for you directly. Some will…use subterfuge. They will develop connections in this world…seek out the hidden cultivators here…and make use of them to attack you."

"They know about the cultivators in this world too?"

"…maybe. If they didn't before, they will find out eventually." Kai Li Si coughed, blood spurting out of his mouth. "You have to be…careful. Don't just simply trust all the cultivators in this world…even though there will be those you can trust, there will also be those you cannot trust."

His gaze flickered to somewhere in the shadows. The corners of his mouth raised slightly.

"Isn't that right, the friend over there?"

My eyes darted toward the direction in which Kai Li Si was looking at, but I didn't see anything. I did detect a flicker of qi, though. The presence of someone hiding there. Not a malevolent aura like Ba Bai's, but the fact that he didn't emerge to help was evidence that he wasn't an ally. Fortunately, he wasn't an enemy either, or we would be screwed.

Kai Li Si's fingers tightened on my shoulder.

"Remember," he whispered. "Always be on guard…always be careful. Inevitably you'll need the help of these other cultivators…but you can't trust all of them. There's no telling who the demonic cultivators would get to…and I'm sure there will be demonic cultivators in this world as well, anyway."

I nodded. "I understand."

"Good."

Kai Li Si offered me one final smile before he relaxed his grip. Taking one last breath, he shuddered and sank to the ground.

Even without any medical knowledge, I knew he was gone. I could sense his qi fading away, his life force expiring like a candle flame that was extinguished.

I bowed my head slightly before the pain eventually took me and I fell into unconsciousness.

The last thing I heard was the wail of sirens and the thudding of footsteps as a squad of police sprinted toward our location.

*

"…ugh…that hurts…"

I woke up, feeling an incessant throbbing on my chest. Wincing, I clutched at it…

…only to find nothing.

"Huh?"

I blinked and reached for my glasses. Fortunately, someone had been kind enough to leave them on the bedside and I put them on. My vision sharpened and I was able to confirm what I thought I was seeing.

There was no injury on my chest.

That was weird. I was pretty sure Ba Bai had done quite the massive amount of damage to me, including a not small number of internal injuries…

"Wait, not just my chest…"

My left arm was fine, my shoulder no longer dislocated. Perhaps it was never dislocated in the first place, but it sure as hell felt like it, when Ba Bai kicked my ass. Similarly, I realized that the grazes on my head were missing. There was no blood. Whatever injuries I sustained during the fight against Ba Bai had all healed.

"How long have I been out?"

"Three days."

I almost fell off the bed when the voice spoke up suddenly. Doctor Yi Sheng strode into the room, his expression severe.

"Didn't I tell you not to be reckless? What were you doing again?"

"I…" I wasn't sure what to say. I was pretty sure that if I told the good doctor that I allied myself with a cultivator from another world to fight against a demonic practitioner sent back in time and space to assassinate me, he would send me to the psychiatric ward. "I don't remember."

"Apparently you got involved in an accident in a park. The police found you lying on the ground, unconscious. But…when we brought you here, we couldn't find any injuries."

Doctor Yi Sheng frowned, looking baffled.

"I heard that there were a couple of other people with you. Apparently, one of them was the mass murderer who snuck into your school two weeks ago…but he was dead. No one knows who the other person was. I thought the police will want to question you about it, but strangely enough they just left you alone to recuperate. Said that they already had all the info they needed."

I stared at him blankly, and he sighed.

"Your parents are pretty worried. I'll inform them that you are awake, and they'll probably be here immediately. For now, I'll have to conduct an examination."

My parents indeed showed up shortly after the examination, worried and concerned. Doctor Yi Sheng assured them that I was fine, and he couldn't find anything wrong with me, so I was discharged the same day.

"You don't even have a concussion," he said, scratching his head. "I thought that might explain your memory loss, but…you seem to be as healthy as can be. You really can't remember what happened that day, in the park?"

"No," I replied, even though I didn't want to lie. "I was on my way home, and I passed through the park. That's all I remember."

"Hmm. Okay." The doctor nodded and took note of that. "Go home and rest. If there's any problem, come back here."

"Understood."

"You really are too reckless," Dad said as he took me home. I crawled into the car, looking sheepish. He shook his head and sighed. "First, you got into a fight at school, and then…they found you in the park, unconscious. Right next to the mass murderer who was looking for you in your school. We thought…we thought he might have killed you."

"Do you know how worried we were?" Mom asked, sounding almost hysterical.

"Sorry."

"Well, be careful next time." Dad glanced at me in the rear view mirror. "They said they found another person…his chest was…torn open."

"…that's the specialist I was talking about," I said grimly. "He died protecting me."

"I see." Dad was silent for a moment. He lowered his head, but kept his eyes on the road. "I wish we had the chance to thank him."

I realized that I had never actually thanked Kai Li Si. And now I would never have the chance to. It felt so unfair. He sacrificed his life to protect me, dying in this strange, unknown land that he had never been to before. And now he was just an anonymous corpse, probably buried somewhere by the police and covered up.

"He was a brave and good man," I said softly.

"I'm sure he is," Dad agreed, though he had no way of knowing. "He did his job. Your mother and I are grateful that he kept you safe."

"Safe?" Mom muttered. "We were so worried…"

Then she stopped and looked away, remembering that the guy had given up his life.

"At least you are all right and uninjured. He was responsible and took good care of you."

"He did." I bit my lip and nodded. There was another period of awkward silence, and I shut my eyes while leaning against my seat. There was so much I wanted to tell my parents, but I didn't know where to begin. I certainly couldn't tell them that I was a cultivator now, or that both Ba Bai and Kai Li Si came from another world.

That would earn me a ticket to the closest psychiatric ward. Or counseling, given that my parents weren't inclined toward extremes.

"You had best rest when you get home," Mom instructed eventually. She probably thought I was mentally exhausted from the ordeal. I didn't contradict her.

That said, the first thing we did when we reached home was have dinner. I helped out with the dishes after the meal, but Mom shook her head.

"You just got back from the hospital. Go and rest."

"Uh, okay."

With a sigh, I trudged to my room.

The first thing I did was to drop down on my bed, facedown. Of course, I took off my glasses and placed them on the desk next to my bed first. It wouldn't be good if I ended up damaging or bending my new pair of glasses. Apparently my parents had bought me a new pair when my old one was destroyed during the fight against Ba Bai.

Closing my eyes and burying my face in my pillow, I ran through the events of the last couple of weeks. Come to think of it, it had been a long while since I got to sleep in my bed. I still remembered the hard floor of the cottage, and my life in the forest that Kai Li Si took me to. The jungle survival skills that he had imparted to me.

It was only ten days or so, but it felt like a lifetime. I couldn't believe that the whole thing occurred over a span of less than two weeks. It felt so surreal, almost as if the whole thing was a dream.

Was it a dream?

I sat up suddenly, adopting a cross-legged posture. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and began gathering my qi in my dantian. I could feel the mystical energies gather around me, and when I opened my eyes, I could see an azure aura settling over my body. The books on my desk and a nearby shelf began to rattle from the force I was emanating.

Yeah, the ordeal wasn't a dream. I really was a cultivator now. The qi that I generated was real. I still maintained knowledge of the breathing methods that Kai Li Si taught me.

Even though Kai Li Si was gone, I had to continue practicing these techniques. I had to grow stronger. I had promised him. It wasn't just the promise – my very life depended on it. If I wanted to survive against the onslaught of demonic practitioners, then I had to become strong enough to fight them off. To defeat them.

And this time, I didn't have Kai Li Si to help me. I would have to battle alone, all by myself.

Would the techniques that Kai Li Si taught me over the ten short days be enough?

"Hu…"

I exhaled wearily and steeled my resolve. They would have to be enough. In time, I would seek out the other cultivators, but until then I should keep a low profile and slowly build up my strength. As Kai Li Si pointed out, the only way to grow stronger was to develop a solid foundation. I had to stabilize my cultivation and increase my power step by step. I had no idea how many other demonic cultivators had successfully made it back in time, or when they would show up. But one thing was for sure.

The moment they appeared, I would be ready for them.