Beautiful Qi - Chapter 18

It wasn’t long before we got deeper into the woods, and now I started feeling more than a little eerie. I turned my attention to our soldiers, who’d had their rifles on standby and ready for action since we had left the camping site. I noted they looked calm as they went about their merry way, scanning every corner of the woods.

I then turned my attention to both Aria and Brenna. They, too, looked calm and relaxed.

I sighed as I raised my eyes to look up at the bright-blue sky above. Maybe it is just me. Since this wasn’t my world, I was bound to feel a little anxious.

I tried to relax as we continued our way, and it wasn’t long until we came to the site.

“We’re here,” Michael, our lead soldier, said loudly.

We rushed on after him, and a few moments later, we came in sight of one of the most beautiful places ever. The field was covered in an array of wildflowers, stretching endlessly down to the river beyond.

“Wow!” I expressed. “It’s beautiful here.”

Aria said, “It is, isn’t it?”

We started hunting for wild herbs. Aria took out a small tablet, which wasn’t that much different from our tablets back at home, and flicked through the screens, showing me what we were supposed to be looking for. This wild herb, which had a long and complicated proper name, had a brownish stem, green heart-shaped leaves, and a black and red flower bud with the pattern similar to a black widow spider. Its nickname was, of course, the black widow herb.

Aria said, “This herb, when turned into a potion, can heal most poisons. The purer the ingredients and the more powerful the magic used when creating the potion, the more potent it is. Lord Noah and his students will be using this to develop a new type of potion for healing.”

As my eyes scanned around my area of the field, I asked, “Not just anyone can make the potion, then? Like, you can’t just put the herbs in a mortar and start grinding with a pestle?”

Aria chuckled in amusement at my suggestion. “No. Unfortunately not. With that, you’ll just get a dark paste with no potential at all. Only those with high qi can turn wild herbs into something magical and powerful, Alfie. There are many aiming to be the top in the pharmaceutical magician field, but I must admit that you need high qi for that.”

“I see,” I said. Well, that sure didn’t sound like anyone like me. After all, I probably had no qi whatsoever within me since I was from another realm.

I said as a joke, “I bet they make lots of gold coins, eh? Those people with high qi, if they were to work as a pharmaceutical magician.”

Aria gave me an odd look and nodded. “Very high. Those with high qi, especially one with a pure qi, have to be protected, you know, Alfie. And, of course, they’ll need to attend a five-year university course before they can become an apprentice of a master.”

“It sure sounds difficult,” I said. Not unlike a university degree back home. Then I cocked my head to one side and asked, “Why is that? Why do the ones with pure qi need to be protected?”

Brenna said, “Because they’re rare. There’s probably about one in every ten to twenty thousand or so in the whole of the Aurora Realm.”

Aria said, “Because their qi is so pure, they easily attract those with dark qi.”

“Dark qi?” I asked.

Brenna said, “Monsters and beasts, creatures with high dark energy or power. It’s an opposite attracts sort of thing. Nobody can fully understand it. It just happens. Just another phenomenon in our realm.”

Aria said, “There’s something very alluring about the pure qi to the dark qi individual, you see, and for some…well, they crave it and need it for survival.”

Just as Aria said that, I felt the hair raising along the back of my neck, and I was more than a little scared suddenly. I looked over my shoulder, my eyes narrowed as I stared into the darkness of the woods beyond. Why do I feel like we are being watched?

I flicked my gaze to the soldiers patrolling the area. Again, they still looked calm and relaxed. It must be my imagination, I thought. I should just chill.

We continued looking for more black widow herbs, and I was pleased I found some amongst the thick bushes. I carefully picked them and put them into Aria’s magic bag, since she was next to me. It amazed me that no matter how much I put in, the magic bag never seemed to get full, and I’ll be honest that I desperately wanted one of my own, more than ever after seeing how awesome it was, especially during lunch break.

Hence, when the sun was high above the sky, indicating midday, everyone gathered around, and Aria and Brenna produced a very delicious packed lunch out of their magic bags. We even had a picnic blanket spread out on the ground under a tree.

As we sat there eating club sandwiches and drinking sweet drinks—which I assumed was something akin to juice—I admired the fields of wildflowers before us. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful, and I suddenly wished I had a digital camera with me.

Speaking of digital cameras, I turned to Aria and asked, “Do you have a camera app on that tablet of yours?”

“Did you want to take some pictures, Alfie?” Aria asked.

I answered in glee. “Yes.”

Aria retrieved the tablet from within the magic bag and brought up the camera app. Then she showed me how to use it, and I found it wasn’t different from our own app back home. Thus, I started snapping pictures of the field of wildflowers, and soon it was all of us, too, including the soldiers Michael, Allan, Peter, and Travis. I even took our selfies with all our faces squeezed against each other to fit in the frame, with the field of wildflowers and herbs as the backdrop.

It wasn’t long before Michael, who I thought was the oldest out of the four soldiers, asked, “Were you scared when we came chasing after you last night, Alfie?”

His question took me by surprise. I nodded my head and said, “Very scared. I have to be honest that you all looked like a bunch of demons, since it was so dark.”

Allan asked, “Why were you in the woods?”

“We heard from Lord Worthington that you got lost. But how did you even get here in the first place?” Travis asked with a look of worry and confusion on his face.

Peter nodded his head in agreement. He said, “No village ever existed so close to the barrier. It’s a rule in all of the kingdoms across the realm.”

Now then, I thought, how was I going to explain this?

I said, “I was completely lost during my travels and just kind of kept walking until I found the bathhouse, which I assumed at the time was someone’s house. So I went in to ask for help, but of course, no one was there. And since there was a pool, I decided to take a bath because I was so dirty.”

God, I couldn’t believe I could lie through my teeth with a straight face.

Aria said, “It’s lucky, then, that the lords found you, Alfie.”

Michael said, chuckling in amusement, “It wasn’t so much as the lords found him, Aria. The lords were hunting for you.”

Michael’s words caught my attention. Felix and Caleb were hunting for me? But why? How did they even know I had been around there in the first place?

Peter explained. “We were just finishing off a small group of bandits in the woods when we saw a beam of white light piercing the night sky, and both Lord Worthington and Lord Harrington reacted.”

Lord Worthington and Lord Harrington? I assumed Peter was referring to Felix and Caleb respectively. And a beam of white light? What could that be?

Allan nodded. He was chuckling as he said, “They were like a pair of provoked beasts for sure. Every one of us soldiers on the mission that night could feel their dark qi pulsating in the air.”

Travis nodded. He said, “They were triggered by that white qi for sure.”

Michael said, “We were ordered to hunt down that white qi, and then we found you, Alfie.”

Rather, I wanted to correct them, they captured me. Found and captured were two very different words with different meanings, after all.

I said in explanation, “The white qi must have been the barrier. It was glowing in the pool in that bathhouse last night.”

Michael asked, as if in doubt, “Is that so? Not because it’s you, Alfie?”

I cocked my head to one side, confused.

Peter said, “We’re some of the lords’ most trusted soldiers. Can you explain why we’re here and not on a mission with the lords themselves?”

I frowned, even more confused now. What are they trying to imply?

Then Aria said, “I don’t think this is the time to talk about this, gentlemen.”

Brenna said, “I’m also curious, Aria. Yesterday, when we went gathering herbs, we were escorted by the newly recruited soldiers.”

I, too, became curious as to what they were talking about and asked, “Aria?”

Finally, Aria said, “Alfie has pure qi. It’s not strong, but still pure, nonetheless.”

Now that she said that, I remembered she had mentioned something to me last night about me being pure. Was this what she meant? That I had pure qi?

Then Brenna and all four soldiers nodded in understanding. But, of course, I didn’t understand anything except for the fact that I apparently had pure qi.

Michael said, “That would explain why Lord Worthington couldn’t control himself and attacked Alfie last night.” He was looking at me strangely.

Attacked? When did Felix attack me last night? Then it dawned on me. The kiss! Of course, Felix had kissed me last night.

Allan nodded. “He’s the strongest.”

“And therefore the most sensitive to the pure qi,” Brenna said. “Even those with very low levels trigger his basic instinct.” She turned to me. “Your qi must be very weak, Alfie, because I can’t even sense you at all.”

Michael said, “Me neither.”

And all three other soldiers nodded in unison, agreeing that they couldn’t sense me and my pure qi.

Brenna turned her attention to Aria and asked, “You can sense Alfie’s qi, Aria?”

Aria nodded. “It’s very weak, but it’s there.”

So apparently, I had pure qi, and though it was so weak that most couldn’t sense it, it was still there, nonetheless. And Aria went on to explain why it was important these four most trusted and strongest soldiers were here with us in the first place, which was to protect us, since my pure qi would likely attract the unwanted attention of wild beasts in the woods.

Brenna said, “You must be very careful, Alfie, especially when out in the woods and, of course, around the lords.”

I cocked my head to one side. I understood I should be careful when I was in the woods, but why when I was around the lords?

“Why?” I asked because I wanted to be clear on what they meant. I assumed they were watching out for me, and they were warning me in case shit hit the fan in the future.

Allan explained. “They have what is called dark qi. It’s rare and only exists in some very powerful beasts. At its core, the qi is malicious and is always attracted to what is pure.”

I remembered Aria and Brenna explained to me about dark qi and beasts this morning.

So the seven lords had dark qi. But they weren’t beasts, were they? To me, they were very human. Or at least as human as could be in this realm.

Winking at me with a grin, Aria said, “They can attack you at any time if you’re not careful.”

I blushed in response, then asked, “Attack? Like actually killing me? Or something else?”

Brenna said, “Our lords wouldn’t kill you, Alfie. They like you, after all.” She giggled delightfully. “Especially Lord Felix. Anyone can see he’s smitten with you, obviously. What we mean is they’ll draw your qi from you, which would make you weak.”

Aria said, “Without your qi, you’ll die in this world, Alfie. There are some out there that will kill to get their hands on pure qi.”

Peter said, “Once they draw your qi completely out of your body, you’re as good as dead.”

I paled at the thought there were people out there who’d want the pure qi so much they’d go as far as killing. Did that mean I could be a target?

Aria said, “Qi can leak out of your body if you don’t know how to control it. In the same vein, qi can also be drawn out of you via the mouth, and of course, the more dangerous route is straight from the core, which is where your heart is.”

That would explain why Felix had kissed me. Because he was drawing my qi via my mouth.

I was dumbfounded. No wonder the man was behaving so strangely since the first moment I had met him. He was reacting to my qi, and when he kissed me, it was because he was merely sucking my qi. That bastard! He even went further as to make a deal with me, offering me a promise of returning home in exchange for a daily morning kiss.

I decided I’d have to have a chat with him, because there was no way I was going to let him suck my qi on a daily basis when my level was already so weak. I mean, what if my qi ran out?