Strange Noises

The water splashed heavily hitting against the rocks in heavy waves, the force luckily shoving me straight to the other side of it's shore but the impact it left on me made me go weak on the knees. I could barely stand up on my two feet. I added pressure to both my hand trying to support my body into getting up but every action only seemed to no avail.

The beast wasn't done with us yet, most especially me as it rised up once again, so high and kept it's attention locked on me, there was one thing I couldn't understand, why does all the beast seem to only come at me? They give out way more attention to me than the rest of my teammates and I couldn't understand why it all seemed like that.

It shrieked angrily at me while I forced my shaky legs to get up to it's feets, my whip was right in my hands, still blazing with energy as it glowed brightly, I was even more confused now, the whip seem to charge without me even summoning it but this wasn't the time to ponder on that, I had to think quick while my teammates had the beast surrounded.

We can't possibly fight water but what if we ice it up instead?

"Bai QingQing." I called out to her, gaining her attention and she rushed over to me.

"Are you alright?" She asked and I nodded brushing that aside, immediately going straight to the point.

"Among those artifacts we've gathered, is there anything that could possibly trigger ice?" I questioned and she wasn't even sure herself so we had to search the sack around her waist, surprisingly it was taking our time.

"Uhm can you two hurry up with whatever you have planned?!" MingXia raged at us as another heavy splash was heard.

Searching through the artifacts, a small stone shaped like a lightish blue crystal gem was what we found. I was too scared holding onto any more stones so Bai QingQing took the initiative and held it herself.

"Feel anything?" I asked and watched her expression in case I spotted any changes.

"I feel something but let's give it a try."

Stretching her hand forward, pink petals showed up out of nowhere surrounding the gem in her hand like little tornadoes and to my surprise, the pink petals changed color taking the shape of a lightish blue color, blending perfectly with the color of the gem.

I couldn't even view the gem as the petals didn't give any space, obstructing my view and just like that, she suddenly yelled.

"You guys, take cover!"

Hearing her yell at them, everyone gave the snake beast some space while Bai QingQing sent her petals after it. Every petals sliced through the beast but instead of penetrating, glued themselves to the beast and in front of our eyes, the beast was starting to ice up, it let out a painful shriek but possibly couldn't do anything about to stop the icing. A cold wind blew past us I couldn't help but shiver from it, all soaked with my clothes sticking to my body.

When we all turned our attention back to the beast, it was all iced up and so was the water. Everyone fell to the ground catching their breaths.

"Finally." Zhangjie whispered and no one seemed to get up for another few minutes until the portal opened.

Yang Fe was the first to rise up. "Guys, come on." He called and we all slowly got to our feet.

"Please don't be a beast waiting at the other side." Bai QingQing silently prayed and I joined in too. The force from the water had weakened me to my bone and I couldn't possibly fight another beast, not now at least.

After deep breaths, we all went through the portal and it was night time there, the cool breeze couldn't have felt so comforting and once more, everyone sank to the cool grass as it massaged our backs. It looked more like an open field but I didn't sense any danger around the place and neither did the rest of them cause everyone looked relaxed for once.

"Finally." Bai QingQing relaxed on the lushed grass with a relieved sigh.

"Finally what?" I asked.

"It's resting time." MingXia for once replied to me with no distaste in her tone.

"Oh." Was all I could say to her as she laid flat on the ground.

"What she meant was we get to rest for a few hours before we move on to the next mission."

Yang Fe clarified it more to me and I felt happy at such news, we get to have a break time.

"So you mean, we won't get attacked?" I asked while Zhangjie rolled on his back.

"Beware of other sects though, this is the time when they obviously take the chance to steal our artifacts."

Yang Fe nodded in response. "Yes so sleep with one eyes open, if that's actually possible, if we loose this artifacts then we're doomed on the next mission."

"What are you going to do about your wet clothes?" Zhangjie innocently asked, raking his eyes over me and I gave him a reassuring smile.

"I can deal with it, don't worry."

I sat upright, gazing mysteriously at the whip in my hands. "Did you guys notice my whip actually changed from three tails to four?"

Zhangjie snapped his finger sitting up as well.

"I knew I felt something odd about your whip." He said almost too detective-like.

"Your powers seem to be escalating." Yang Fe thoughtfully proclaimed to me. "It's quite surprising you happened to bond with an artifact that isn't of Mount Xuandu style though."

"Bai QingQing, what do you.." I paused after realizing she had fallen asleep, same with MingXia.

"Asleep already."

Zhangjie chuckled. "I knew this tournament was going to be as hard as we expected, surely we've faced beasts but not this powerful once."

"And it's a good thing." Yang Fe added enthusiastically. "It'll help us get stronger and also it's part of experience. If we come across anything similar in the future, it'll be easy to handle them."

"But I did like your quick thinking Shanxia, how did you know we had the freezing blue gem?" Zhangjie asked, clearly amazed by it and I shook my head in response.

"I didn't know we had anything like that but we gathered so many artifacts from that lepers territory, it was possible we'd find one."

"Well, at least our masters won't be watching us for now, plus we have to wake up on time so we don't miss the portal."

Zhangjie and I nodded and surprisingly to me, I couldn't fall asleep as a lot of unanswered questions filled my mind, the powers growing inside of me has only been getting stronger and it's affecting my whip too, was this what Qui Shan meant when he said taming the whip would be difficult?

Gazing at the whip curiously which hung around my waist, why would my master even let me use something that isn't of Mount Xuandu's style? Is there something about the whip he's keeping from me?

No no, I couldn't possibly doubt my master like this, he wouldn't hide anything from me I'm sure, rather than being all suspicious, I should get some sleep like everyone else, freeing my mind and lying comfortably on the lushed grass, I closed my eyes and didn't even realize when I had dozed off.

Those weird noises were starting to bug me again, those chants I couldn't understand where starting to ring in my head and it felt like my brain was going to split into two if it didn't stop, clasping both my palms against my ear to stop the strange noises that was soon going to drive me nuts, I couldn't even understand what is being said to me but yet it felt like a calling, something was calling out to me, like it was trying to reach out to me and in the darkness I couldn't see anything but yet I could feel it trying to connect with me and whether it was a good thing or a bad thing? It was hard to tell and just when I tried to ignore it. A low deep voice whispered slowly in my ear, a voice that seemed familiar but I couldn't make out where I heard or maybe I thought I did. Just when I planned on ignoring it once more thinking it was nothing more than my fleeting thoughts….

"Shanxia."

I felt my heart stop at the sudden mention of my name and a cold dreadful sensation washed over me I could feel my heart pound heavily against my chest, my eyes flung open, I couldn't see the expression in my eyes but there was one thing I could only make out from it, something that brought out a feeling I've hidden most.

Fear.