Chapter 17: Purification

*Huff!*³

Insig breathed heavily as he sat on the ground. The scorching sunlight blinded his eyes but wasn't able to cover the ecstacy on his face.

'The surgery was a success!'

Insig relaxed slightly when he felt the ground vibrate once more. He heard a loud explosion as smoke rose up behind the walls. He looked around and remembered that he still has many patients to heal.

He double checked the patient to see if there was anything wrong after cleaning the wounds with water. Seeing as there was nothing wrong, he ordered the assistant to escort the patient back at the [Hospital].

He was able to save some of them, but others that had their core crippled or their vital organs petrified weren't able to survive, they could only say their last words. Insig wrote their names and their last words in his mind.

*Hours later*

The beautiful sky was dyed golden orange as the sun sets, creating a picturesque scene. But this view was out-shadowed by the ominous dark clouds of smoke. There was an intense fight boiling in the land.

The ground quaked as another batch of bloodied patients was brought in. But the supply of healers was not able to keep up with the demand.

Although healers can replenish themselves by eating, eating would take time and it would only fill the energy bit by bit, not instantaneously.

Because of this, some of the soldiers weren't able to survive. Luckily, the Commander was able to reduce the casualties.

The Adamantine Bear couple was taken care of at the cost of 108 deaths and thousands of wounded. This was the terror of Level 10 beings, they can level an entire village to the ground.

They were even called 'Semi-Integrated' states as their mana heart has spread to their whole bodies, reaching their skin. Making their bodies impervious to weaker magic.

All the wounded soldiers were allocated back to the [Hospital]. They would be taken care of for days based on the scale of their injuries.

The walls and roads were repaired by the builders and craftsmen. The blacksmiths also reinforced them with runes and formations.

The soldiers calmed down but the undercurrent was not in the least subsided, instead, it got more vigorous. More soldiers were stationed late at night and kept their guards up, looking out for any suspicions.

*Swish* *Rustle*

The rustling of the trees as they swayed with the cold night breeze resounded throughout the wilderness as the cries of the cicada brought out a creepy feeling.

The shadow of the trees invoked a sense of fear of the unknown as hidden danger riddled the forest.

The night sky was interlaced with dark clouds, as if it was going to rain any time soon. But these things weren't able to block the beauty of the bright moon hanging up in the sky.

*Creak* *Thud*

The door creaked and shut loudly as a slouched person slowly entered a room in a large building.

He immediately went straight to bed with his bloodied white suit on. His eyelids were drooping and there was a hint of black colour under his eyes. He lied there and closed his eyes for a minute.

'Damn, that was tiring as hell. I feel like I can't move a muscle.'

Insig wanted to sleep but he persisted through sheer will.

'I still need to do something! Insig! Move your ass!'

Insig tried to motivate himself but to no avail. Seeing this, Insig manipulated his death energy to his feet to induce pain to wake up.

As the death energy entered his feet, he felt like he was running out of energy and this increased his sleepiness.

'Damn it! It's not working! Insig! Do something! Like... Like bang your head on the floor!'

Insig encouraged himself, he lazily crawled in the bed and moved his body slightly so his face was directly facing the floor. He intended to induce pain to bring back his senses, but instead, the feeling of the blood rushing to his head brought about a sobering feeling.

After that, he breathed in deeply. He cleared his mind and his sleepiness dissolved like snow. Still, a flame in a hail can be easily extinguished, so Insig took this opportunity to motivate himself.

Insig sat up for 30 seconds before he was motivated to take a bath.

*Pitter-patter*

The rhythmic sound of water echoed in the bathroom as Insig sat on the floor with the shower on. He used the water to cool down his body and sober his mind.

His fair complexion was trickled with droplets of water, creating an alluring scene, but all Insig felt was the ice-cold temperature of water.

Insig looked at the dirty floor of the bathroom. It was not like he was in a hotel, so it was only expected for the bathroom floor to be made of rough rock.

He closed his eyes and recalled the scenes earlier in the attack. The death of the nearby soldiers circulated in his mind.

He felt sad about their death, but the most emotion he felt was the fear crawling in his nape. The thought of death being near him scared him.

What if he was the one who got hit and died instead?

What if he got attacked and died?

'Why does this world have to be so dangerous?'

Insig complained and sighed. He opened his eyes with determination.

'To survive, there's only one way.'

Insig thoroughly washed his body with water. The dirt and bloodstains left from saving the patients were all washed away.

After that, he reached out for the bathroom table nearby and picked up a knife.

The metallic silver reflected his eyes and he thought to himself.

'Its to get stronger.'

He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Huuuu... I can do this."

A flash of determination and nervousness passed his eyes. He cut his body with the knife from his feet to his waist. The scarlet blood dripped down from the cuts, creating a gory scene. The metallic scent of blood was sloshed away with the water. Insig grinded his teeth as he tried to bear the pain.

Insig tried to do more but he wasn't able to bear the pain. He breathed in heavily to stabilise his mind.

*Huff*³

After calming down, Insig casted life magic on the wounds. The blood stopped flowing as the skin and flesh began to heal at the speed visible to the naked eye. All the hairs on his legs that were removed with the cut were gone, making a weird pattern of hair growth on the legs.

The blood, hairs and dead cells were washed away by the cold water, dying the water red.

He closed his eyes from the pleasure of energy streaming through his body. After immersing himself on the feeling, he quickly calmed down and shakily held the knife. He gulped down his saliva as he felt nervous from the pain.

Insig was doing another method of cultivation called [Purification]. Doing this has many benefits, like,:

For instance, this could improve the speed of the energy flow in the body. The manipulation of life energy travelling through the body can increase the efficiency of the mana heart pathways.

2nd, this could also improve the affinity of the body to the life element, hastening the gathering of energy. Healing the body with the life elements ingrains the life aura on the cells, thereby increasing your affinity to life.

3rd, this could also purify the body. After the body was wounded, the healing of the body would remove any foreign aura that's not needed.

There is dirt and dust everywhere that releases earth auras in the body. After this process, the toxins would leave with the blood. This also includes the subtle plant aura, poison aura, earth aura, and unnecessary wind aura that was taken from eating or breathing.

4th, this could increase the pain threshold, even if it's minimal.

This cultivation method is actually quite widespread. An example of this would be a fire element person bathing in the sun. Even if he doesn't know this method, bathing in the sun is the same as doing this cultivation method.

Insig felt indecisive because he wants to hasten his cultivation, but this method just hurts too much. Peeling the skin to regrow them once more… who could even have thought of that‽

'Should I do it or not?'

In the end, Insig gave up.

He was scared of dying from blood loss, but mostly of the pain.

'I wanted to get stronger, but I'm scared of pain?'

Insig sighs regretfully at the thought; his heart filled with guilt and helplessness.

'Isn't there another way?'

Insig helplessly squeezed his knees in a foetal position while he thought. The calming sound of shower helped his thoughts wander.

He looked at his legs and observed the results in a closer view. He saw that the complexion of his legs got lighter as the dark skin was washed.

They were like the skin of a newborn baby, except there were spots that weren't cut and regenerated, making a weird combination of light brown and dark brown.

'Huh? What's this?'

Insig saw at the edge of his view that one of his feet was completely new while the other was riddled with brown spots.

'Huh? Why is the other one lighter than the other? Did something happen to it?'

Insig thought as he was perplexed. Suddenly, Insig's eyes lit up as he remembered what caused the change. He quickly made a new cultivation plan and implemented it.

'If I'm not wrong... it should be 'that'!'

Insig crossed his legs and 'looked' inside him. He saw the shiny bright mass of energy inside. He then separated the life and death energy and put them side by side.

Afterwards, he controlled his death energy to kill the life energy on his legs. The death energy eagerly passed through the mana heart pathways towards his legs.

The death energy then killed the life energy on his legs. Insig suddenly lied on the wall as his centre of gravity tilted towards his back because he lost support of his legs.

Insig saw that his legs were suddenly riddled with block spots. His skin wrinkled and looked saggy like a corpse as all the remaining hairs and nails fell down like trees wilting in autumn. His legs shrunken down and only the blood vessel, skin, and bones were left.

The pores on his legs expanded as the foreign elements in his body left. There were droplets of oil(water element), small bubbles(air element), dirt(earth element), a pinch of metal(mineral element), a dot of gold(mineral element), and some weird green or violet liquid(poison element). There were no dead cells as they were transformed into death energy.

They were the impurities— the foreign elements that accumulated from everyday eating and breathing. These elements were then washed away by the shower water and flushed down the drain.

Insig suddenly discovered that he lost his sense of touch and pain in his legs.

'It must be because the nerves died and lost their function.'

Seeing this, Insig quickly retrieved the death aura in his legs. After that, he created a cycle in his mana heart. This is to decrease the death energy while increasing the other one.

Subsequently, Insig applied life magic into his legs. His legs slowly grew in volume as the flesh began to grow back. His skin, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, nails and bones slowly came back to life.

Insig looked at his legs and found out that his legs were stiff as his skin was covered by a layer of dead cells. There were white cracks as his body grew in his old skin. It was like a snake moulting it's skin.

Insig felt an odd sense of satisfaction as he removed the dead skin. He saw underneath the dead skin was a leg that has a healthy complexion. It was like the skin of a baby.

'It really worked!'

Insig remembered that when he was in bed, he applied death energy in his feet. He suspected that this was the cause of the different growth of his feet.

There were hints of pink on his skin as the blood coursed through his legs. It emitted a fresh aura that was full of life, like a breeze in the spring.

'This.... It's too beautiful to the point of almost being feminine.'

Insig frowned as he was rather speechless at his small build and white complexion.

*Sigh*

'I should work out tomorrow, I want to be a bit muscular. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong tomorrow.'

Insig threw it at the back of his mind as the pants he will be wearing tomorrow will cover his legs anyway.

'Hmm? Is it me? Or did my 'thing' get longer? Nevermind.'

Insig proceeded to purify his upper body. He first did it on his vital organs little by little to avoid dying. Afterwards, he then proceeded to do a full upper body purification.

After purifying his body, Insig didn't waste a single death energy. He conjured a puff of death energy in his hands and directed it at the dead cells scattered at the bathroom floor.

The dead cells and other dead bodies immediately decayed and transformed into death energy, which he immediately retrieved and stored in his mana heart.

After taking another cold bath, he dried himself and wore simple clothes. It was a white sleeveless undershirt and a short pair of shorts. It looked simple and felt comfortable to the skin.

He quickly lay down on the bed as he was weary from all the things that happened. After immersing himself in a roller coaster of emotion, he looked for the best position to sleep and closed his eyes.

'Let's call it a day.'