Post Battle Worries - Resting.
"I did say I was fine, didn't I?" A sigh came from Shu He as he made his way down the sandy path with Shu Xue glued to his side, attempting to support him from the side with her small body.
"No! I'll help!" She replied stubbornly, refusing to budge an inch eliciting a second sigh from Shu He.
"I really wasn't hurt that much, I'll be fine after a bit of rest" he tried to convince her, he found it rather awkward to walk since she was much smaller than him yet wanted to provide support.
"Just let her, it was quite a shock seeing you get hit like that" Na Xue who was walking besides them said with exasperation "Even I thought you'd be seriously injured, for you to walk away with only a few scratches… is nothing short of a miracle" her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Shu He's skin that seemed almost flawless.
"I just got lucky, really" Shu He murmured as he averted his eyes, that was the truth actually, he had inadvertently discovered another advantage of the <
"Hmm, if you say so" Na Xue shrugged lightly with a slight smile, she wasn't in a rush to find out, she had plenty of time.
Shu He closed his hand and opened it, there was a faint tinge of pain that spread through his body and a weak stiffness.
'The backlash isn't anywhere near as bad as before; I've already removed a lot of the solidified qi in my body so I can move fine…' he glanced at Shu Xue as she supported him 'I guess she can tell; I don't even need to share my thoughts with her…'
After the two guardian twins had been scared off by the necklace given to him by Elder Bai, Shu He had made the decision to leave the area immediately; He had felt the stares on him change from interest to amazement, desire and even greed, it was evident that the necklace he had had generated interest in the crowd.
But it wasn't before Yi Yijun had made the effort to intercept them and invited Shu He to visit his sect, although they got off on the wrong foot Shu He decided to at least humour him and said he'd visit if he got the chance.
It wasn't a bad idea to keep his options open after all.
After that they met with one of the disciples of the Crystal Coral Sect and were currently being led to the campsite that they had set up a couple kilometres away, although Shu He was slightly injured it only took a few minutes for them to arrive.
"Senior Shu! You arrived!" Ren Hai ran up to them with his eyes basically sparkling as he went to support Shu He on the other side, before being scared off from a glare from Shu Xue.
"I'm fine, I don't need any more help… but why am I being called senior now?" Shu He asked quizzically, scratching his chin.
"Because you managed to fight one of the Guardian Twins and scare them both off! It's amazing! They're known as hegemon figures in this area you know!" Ren Hai explained with glee as the other disciples nodded along.
"They're amazing cultivators!"
"Super strong!"
The others echoed his feelings.
Shu He glanced at the one that had guided them here who was awkwardly looking away. 'So, you sent them a message did you?'.
He felt a headache coming along as he rubbed is forehead "Look here, I don't want this to get out of hand, so I'll explain it- I only managed to block a single attack and it was a gift from a senior that scared them off, I didn't do much".
"B-but still, you're multiple cultivation levels below the elder brother, to not take much damage from such an attack is amazing!" Ren Hai insisted on putting him on a pedestal.
"And if you got such an item from a senior, then it means you're worth protecting!" someone else said" inciting other such comments from the crowd.
Shu He sat down on a tree stump that was freshly cut as Shu Xue sat next to him, not moving an inch away from him, he patted her head as he let out a deep breath. "Alright, fine, call me whatever you want" he leaned back and relished the feeling of rest "When do you plan on setting out?".
"Ah, we'll be setting out in the afternoon so you can rest up if you need, we've prepared some temporary housing for you already!" Ren Hai explained, pointing towards a house of wood that was plain in shape and colour, it had just been made for the sake of this camp.
"Thanks, I'll take you up on that one…" Shu He stood up and began steadily walking towards the house, he noticed that his bags had been placed inside already, not just his but Na Xue's as well, they had left them on the beach with Bai Lian's, but it seems she brought them with her when she came to the camp.
Opening the door and stepping on the hard wood he smelt the scent of freshly cut wood wafting in the air mixing with a simple calming incense as he looked around, it was a simple square room without anything in, but it was big enough for five beds to be laid with plenty of free space around them.
He lent down and opened his bag and picked out the standard formation wards for detection, protection and sound isolation before plastering them on the walls before glancing at Na Xue who was happily laying out her bed roll.
"You're staying here too?" His eyes narrowed.
"Why not? There's plenty of space" She replied cheerfully.
He sighed "Whatever… I guess it won't make much difference at this point" he finished setting up the formations before laying out his bedroll and lying down, resting his body.
"Huh? Where's Shu Xue's?" Na Xue suddenly asked as Shu He's brow rose before he answered: "She sleeps with me".
Before Na Xue could make another word, Shu Xue's body was covered in a flash of light before she returned to her duck form, nestling up to Shu He happily and tucking her head in her feathers.
Na Xue stared wide eyed "Isn't that cheating?"
"What?"
"Uh- never mind" She coughed, changing the subject "I wonder where Bai Lian is, she should be here in the camp right? I didn't see her".
"She's fine, she's in the building next to us" Shu He answered, having long since scoured the campo with his territory.
"She should have joined us…".
"Bai Lian has some modesty" Shu He answered plainly.
"What's the supposed to mean?!".
Shu He didn't answer her, instead going silent and blocking out all noise as he began to focus on extracting the solidified golden qi in his body, he wanted to be completely healed by the time they set out after all.
'Bai Lian… what's going on with you?' of course, his mind wasn't completely focused on healing, there was something else that was bothering him. He had quickly found Bai Lian when they arrived in the camp, yet she didn't come out to greet them, and he could tell that her house was completely blocked up with formation wards, unless they forced their way in they wouldn't be able to enter.
Of course, for Shu He's territory that had the ability to completely ignore such things he could see inside, he saw that she was in a state of deep meditation, he wasn't sure how long it had been but sweat dripped heavily down her pale skin, yet she didn't budge an inch.
He wasn't able to tell what was happening at all, the only thing he could distinguish was that her Qi was in a constant state of flux, cycling through her body while spiking at random intervals.
The other thing was that, while her Qi was normally a crystalline ice blue that chilled anything it neared, he felt like… he could occasionally see other colours appearing, not overwriting the blue but mixing with it, empowering it, but it was unstable and faded immediately.
'Is she working on a new technique? Or cultivating a new one? It seems dangerous…' he thought with worry, he had read enough to understand that if one lost control of their Qi, they might undergo cultivation deviation, destroying their own body and centre of power.
'Should I say something…. no, but.. it's her choice, there must be a reason she's doing it'. His brow creased as thoughts passed through his mind.
'For now, I'll just keep an eye on her'
And so he spent the night in silence, healing and watching, fortunately nothing happened and when dawn hit, Bai Lian stopped cultivating and went to rest.
Today, they would set out towards the Crystal Coral Sect.