Leaving the tower (4)

Ed felt the arrow pierce through him. He needed not look down at his chest to know how through it had pierced; he concentrated on passing his energy through the arrow. If he had learnt anything about the energy that flows from within him, it is that it does not stay still. It spreads through other energies around like a plague.

The moment the old man's energy touched his, it spread through till it reached his bow. This skill was tied firmly to his inner strength flowing from his core. As such, Ed's energy spread that far.

"A child will still be a child," the man commented.

"You love death, it seems," Nti Anem said and the old man scoffed.

"Even in the face of death, you two," he started to say, then his expression froze. The next second, he released his bow, letting it fall to the stairs and dashed backwards in panic. At this, Nti Anem raised a brow. Where was his bravado from before? He looked to Ed on the other staircase and saw as here mined staring at the wind arrow.

"Ya, you are not dying, are you?" he asked.

"Boy, what did you do? Retrieve your energy!" the old man panicked. He first tried to detach from the bow to stop the connection, but the energy was still eating through him. What nonsense is this? The next second, he used his energy to fight the corrosion of his energy veins and nodes, but it did not stop. He then decided to block his energy veins, but this foreign energy did not seem to mind his efforts, moving constantly and corroding through him. Many may not be able to notice it, but he could already feel his insides, dying. His body will die off!

"Boy, stop this!" he called out to Ed, but Ed remained unmoved. His attention at this moment was on the wind arrow stuck inside him.

It was painful, yes, but something odd was happening, he could feel the very essence of this arrow, the very fabric of wind unravelled in his mind. He frowned slightly. What was happening? He remembered being able to feel glimpses of the essence of lightning when he had been struck many times by the heavenly tribulation. The first time, he only felt as though his body had come to understand lightning, and as such, had gotten comfortable with it coursing through his veins. The second time he went through heavenly tribulation, his being, could somehow understand it.

At then, he had only thought of this as odd but did not think too much about it. Now that he thinks about it, every time the tribulation struck his body, he gained an understanding of the principle of lightning. The stronger it got, the higher the understanding. All this time he had not had a need to look into this and explore this, but now, seeing it happen again, he was curious.

His body was first to assimilate this knowledge then, the principles of wind unwrapped in his mind. Unlike with the lightning, where he was just worried about staying alive, this time, he was curious. His mind seemed to forget that this wind arrow was stuck in his midsection, as he started to concentrate on these principles. Not only was he curious about understanding, he wished to experiment. After all, this was the perfect spot.

"Brother Ed! Brother Ed!" Ku Jian screamed, but Ed was in a world of his own. She was so scared, he was truly hurt, she did not notice that one of the cultivators on her staircase had taken this opportunity to launch a dome barrier around her, locking her in.

"What did you do?"Sen Ke panicked. He had seen that this lady was interested in his deal and was going to take it. Especially in the light of what was happening to her companion, she would want to get off her stairs quickly.

"You said when she was distracted,"

"For darkness' sake," Sen Ke cursed and released a barrier too. Now that someone had done it, they had no way out. The rest followed through and locked Ku Jian in place, only then did she notice what they had done. She was already in a bad mood worried about Ed's condition, seeing them act against her at this time, a bloodthirsty look flashed through her eyes.

"You have a death wish," she said and Young Master Ju glanced at Sen Ke. The young man did not bother to explain what they were to do next. His figure lashed across the steps till he stood on the top steps. Before he could make a move, the weight of a thousand mountains descended on his daitan. The rest standing around finally noticed that they should have used this opportunity to run, but it was too late the tests of the staircase had returned since Ku Jian was trapped. But for how long? They should have used this chance to dash forward like Sen Ke.