What should've been a short walk of a few blocks turned into a grueling trek. Entire roads were blocked by the wreckage of collapsed skyscrapers, and burning vehicles forced multiple detours. Dust and ash coated everything and breathing started feeling like a chore.
A more grueling sight was the bodies that sometimes appeared on the street as they walked. They were clad in similar armor to the soldier from the tunnel, but their skin was charred and burnt.
It seemed as if whatever killed them had killed them outright before they even had a chance to react.
At one of these bodies David paused and picked up a typical English short sword. It was similar in style to the weapons he preferred to use in the realms, but the quality was so much better.
He silently muttered to himself, "I guess even an Inner Resident can't handle a bomb." Before getting up and continuing forward.
While David was able to handle this hike with relative ease, Juliya was in bad shape.
With each step, she absorbed more of the unstable Qi in the air. For anyone with an unsteady cultivation base, the outside world now felt like a minefield; one misstep away from disaster.
Her mind was growing sluggish as she tried to keep herself from taking in the roiling energy.
After the fourth detour, Juliya couldn't take another step. With a dull thud, she dropped to the ground, slumping back against the charred frame of a burnt-out car.
She turned to David and asked with ragged breath, "Did your enlightenment teach you anything that can help me not absorb this Qi?"
David, who had taken the backpack from Juliya earlier, knelt on one knee and took out their last bottle of water.
"I don't think so," he said somberly, handing her the water bottle, "the only thing I could do is reset your meridians, but that would take hours and we don't have that time."
He looked defeated and so did Juliya.
They locked eyes for a long moment. Exhaustion, worry, and unspoken resolve passing between them. Then, using the car for leverage, Juliya pushed herself to her feet with a strained grunt.
"We need to keep moving," she said, her voice tired but firm. Taking a long drink of water. "We have to get to State Station. They have to have some way to block out this Qi."
David nodded and turned to look for something.
Juliya wasn't complaining about the delay. She was enjoying the extended rest even though she really did need to get moving.
After a few minutes of digging through the rubble he managed to find part of a stop sign that had broken into pieces.
David reached into the backpack and pulled out the t-shirt he had used earlier as a makeshift bandage. He wrapped it around part of the metal pole, securing it with medical tape to form a crude handle.
"Take this," he said, offering it to her with a worried look. "I don't think it'll help much… but if it gets too bad, you know I can carry you."
Juliya gave him a faint smile and nodded. Without a word, she turned and began to walk.
David took the lead with his body and his Qi sense, checking for danger. The Qi was especially violent, and the closer they got to State Station the more aggressive it became.
Though the overwhelming Qi had shaken him earlier, David was beginning to get the hang of it. Throughout their short journey on the surface, he'd learned to stop sending his senses out in every direction. Instead, he focused them into narrow cones, directed bursts of awareness.
It wasn't perfect, but it greatly reduced the mental strain and helped him stay in control.
After he determined it was safe in the direction they were going, he spoke to the system in his mind once again.
"Hey system, one of the people I'm supposed to save is in a lot of pain right now. Is there anything I can do?"
A moment later the system responded:
System Message: "This cultivator is exhibiting early signs of Qi Overflow, a condition that can result in fully ruptured meridians and near-certain death.
With your current capabilities, the only viable treatment is to forcibly cycle her Qi using your own cultivation technique.
Warning: the risk of fatality during this process is high. Do not attempt unless absolutely necessary.
Immediate recommendation: relocate the cultivator to an area with lower Qi volatility."
David inwardly sighed. This was not even close to the first time he and Juliya had been in a life or death situation together, but this was the first time it was happening in what was supposed to be the relative safety of the NLS.
BOOM
As he was grumbling to himself, an explosion shook the block they were on, and in her weakened state Juliya immediately fell to the ground.
Because of the distance between them David was unable to get closer to her before he heard the rumble of engines coming toward them.
In a moment of panic he shouted to Juliya, "Hide in the rubble! Stay hidden!"
Gripping his sword tighter, David did the same and hid under the frame of another wrecked, but not burnt out, car.
As they were waiting, David's mind raced, hoping that Juliya had gotten somewhere safe, hoping that whoever was coming was not their enemy, and scared if he would be able to kill a person if necessary.
David had killed tens of abominations in the realms when he travelled through them, and killing humans in those realms was something that inevitably happened. However, he had always been able to avoid that fate.
He held his breath as the sound of vehicles grew closer. Eventually he was able to make out voices.
He caught the middle of a conversation between a masculine and a feminine voice.
"- really should have done this another way. The people here have nothing to do with the NLS." The masculine voice seemed to be pleading to someone.
David's heart started pounding even harder. He realized that these people were his supposed enemies.
The feminine voice responded with the soft authority of a mother speaking to a child. "I know. But this is something that needed to be done. Besides, a majority of the innocent people are on the outskirts of Boston. Everyone this far into downtown has directly benefitted from the NLS and their exploitation."
The finality of that statement seemed to end the conversation.
While waiting for the convoy of vehicles pass, he had a thought, "These people seem completely unaffected by the violent Qi in the area."
Trying to confirm his guess he spread out his Qi sense and took a look around. Contrary to what he thought, the Qi was just as violent around the convoy as it had been around him and Juliya for the past hour. This convoy had no special artifact to stabilize the Qi around them.
He was stumped. Juliya was a mess and the only reason that he was fine was because his meridians were healed.
At that thought David froze. "Other people know how to fix meridians?"
While that could generally be called a good thing. In the past 5 years David had never personally met someone with completely healed meridians, and now presumably an entire convoy of people passing by had healed meridians.
What was going on?
After being lost in thought for what felt like hours, David let out a panting gasp after holding his breath the entire time.
He pulled himself out from under the car and rushed to where Juliya had collapsed.
Frantically, he threw his sword to the side and ripped away the piles of debris and trash she had managed to drag over herself. Beneath it, her pale face came into view.
Her eyes opened in a squint, still adjusting to the light of the now setting sun.
"David," she gasped, her voice strained and eyes pleading, "the Qi's getting worse. It's getting harder to ignore how intense it is."
David's concern deepened. He was sure they were close, maybe just a few minutes away, and was already debating whether to carry her the rest of the way or to forcefully cycle her Qi.
Before he could act, Juliya's eyes closed, and her body fell limp.
That's when he saw it, the dark pool of blood spreading beneath her. Her arm lay twisted at an unnatural angle beneath her, clearly broken from the fall.
David's mind went into overdrive. He was running through everything he had learned from the NLS, but mainly Juliya herself.
He gently rolled her onto her back, checking her vitals with trembling hands.
"Juliya!" he whispered harshly, panic tightening his throat. "Juliya, can you hear me?"
He pried her eyes open and saw that her pupils were pinpoints, similarly to an opioid overdose.
Taking action where he could, he started looking around for something to make a splint for Juliya's arm. Suddenly a system message appeared:
System Message: "Emergency Quest Alert!
| Quest Content: A cultivator is dying from Qi overflow as a direct result of improper cultivation. Forcefully circulate their Qi to stabilize them.
| Quest Time Limit: 15 Minutes
| Quest Reward: Teacher's Red Pen
| Quest Failure Punishment: Juliya's Death"
Upon seeing the message he shouted, "Fuck!"
David turned back to Juliya from where he was digging for something to use and saw her seizing.
David dropped everything and went back to her.
"System! How do I do this?"
The system message changed quickly. As if understanding the urgency.
System Message: "Place your hand on her middle dantian[1] and send in a strand of your Qi.
Begin sending that Qi through her meridians following your technique.
Warning: Attempting to send your Qi through a completely blocked meridian could cause great injury or death."
With no hesitation, David knelt on the ground next to her and placed a hand on her sternum.
He had never done this before, but he'll be damned if he doesn't do this right the very first time. He could not lose Juliya.
With closed eyes he began to circulate his own Qi, and with slow precision he sent a bit of Qi to his palm.
When he felt this happened he opened his eyes to look at Juliya, who showed no reaction to the Qi, he also saw that the timer for failure now said 11 minutes and 34 seconds remaining.
"Dammit David," he spoke to himself, "Don't worry about the time and just save your wife."
With the Qi entering his wife he activated his Qi sense and focused his cone of "vision" to only cover Juliya.
The result was better than he could've expected. He could see all over her meridians based on the flows of Qi through them. He could also see where the Qi was slamming into blockages and began to mentally map out a path for the Qi to travel without hitting those meridians.
When he was granted the Heaven and Earth technique it was implanted directly into his mind. Along with all of it's nuances. What this meant is that he could modify it slightly.
Especially in the meridians surrounding her head, mind, and upper dantian, there was absolute devastation.
David had to methodically find alternate routes in her pathways to ensure he didn't hurt her. All while maintaining his own Qi stationary in her middle dantian as he did so.
After what felt like a few minutes he finished mapping the path looked at the timer again.
|Quest Time Limit: 4 minutes and 6 seconds.
David's mind went blank.
The fastest he had ever completed a cycle of his own cultivation technique was three and a half minutes, and that was with his own completely pristine meridians.
Now he had to do a cycle outside his own body and on someone who had very damaged meridians.
He gulped and then began.
The process, besides the penalty of failure, was rather intimate. He had to flow inside her meridians, while also having to follow the path and natural contours of her body.
David smiled faintly as he completed the Earth portion of the cycle, the grounding phase flowed easily through her lower meridians, which were still strong and stable. But as he prepared to guide the Qi upward, his expression hardened. The smile vanished.
He knew what came next: the fractured meridians near her upper dantian. One wrong move, one miscalculated flow, and she wouldn't just stay in Qi Overflow, instead she'd fall into full deviation. And that would kill her.
With a deep breath he sent the Qi following the preplanned path to her upper dantian.
Guiding the Qi toward Juliya's upper dantian was nothing like the steady, grounded flow of the Earth portion. The moment the energy neared her chest and throat, it turned volatile. The stable flow he had been nurturing became hard to control and violent.
David gritted his teeth and focused. He had to slow the flow to a crawl. Where the lower meridians had welcomed the Qi like a wide, smooth riverbed, the upper pathways were jagged and broken. Forcing him to navigate a maze where any wrong turn could mean death.
He had mapped an alternate route before starting, one that barely avoided the worst of the damage, but even that was a delicate balancing act. Too much pressure too fast, and the Qi would splinter off. Too little, and the cycle would collapse entirely, leaving her system in limbo.
After making the final turn he turned the Qi around down another path and slowly returned to the middle dantian.
David collapsed to the ground, sweat pouring down his face, and looked at the timer.
| Quest Content: A cultivator is dying from Qi overflow as a direct result of improper cultivation. Forcefully circulate their Qi to stabilize them.
| Quest Time Limit: 22 seconds (complete)
| Quest Reward: Teacher's Red Pen (claim)
He let out a long sigh of relief, and collapsed on the ground next to Juliya.
The moment of joy didn't last long, as he shot up like a bullet.
"She could still bleed out from the open fracture!" He said while berating himself, " What am I doing?"
He went and found Juliya's walking stick he had given her earlier. He grabbed that as well as the med kit from the bag and rushed back to her side.
Her breathing was steadier, but the blood was still gushing out of her wound.
He grabbed a fistful of bandages from the med kit and turned back to Juliya.
"I'm really sorry, but this is going to hurt."
After saying that he grabbed her arm on either side of the break and aggressively set the wound.
Juliya let out an ear piercing scream.
It appears she was no longer unconscious and just asleep after her Qi had stabilized.
"OH MY GOD DAVID WHAT THE FUCK?!", her face red with pain and anger.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry", David stammered, secretly happy she was awake, "Just one more thing ok? Then I'm done!"
Juliya grimaced as David wrapped her arm in gauze and then place on the broken piece of the metal pole. He then also wrapped that in gauze to hold it tight in place.
Juliya continued to scream as David did this. She even began punching David in the arms, head, and chest.
David, knowing he deserved this, just focused on the task at hand and finally tied off the splint.
He fell backwards and said, "Done!"
Juliya continued to groan in agony. "What the hell man?", she screamed.
David looked at her, defeated, "Listen I'm sorry, but it was either that or let you bleed out."
Juliya looked at him, the anger slowly leaving her eyes. "Fine but don't do that again that hurt so bad! It still does!", she looked at her arm, "And what kind of splint is this? If you're going to hurt me that bad at least make it worth it!"
David smiled. Her jabbing at him like that meant she was going to be ok.
"Alright," David began and stood up, "lets get going, state station should be right around the corner."
With that he picked up his wife in a princess carry, much to her dismay, and walked a few more blocks to their final destination.
---
After what felt like a full week of chaos compressed into a single day, the sun finally began to set. In the distance, lit only by the flickering flames of scattered fires, State Station came into view.
The street beyond it had once been a bustling five-way intersection, surrounded by towering buildings and endless traffic. Now, the buildings were little more than broken silhouettes against the twilight sky, their jagged remains looming over the intersection. The ground was littered with bodies. Hundreds of them.
Some of the bodies were wearing the uniforms of the NLS, but others were wearing an unknown uniform that seemed to be similar to the flowing robes of the Vice Head.
David and Juliya stood frozen, staring at the carnage, caught in a trance of horror and exhaustion.
Then, a figure emerged from the station's entrance, rifle raised and aimed in their direction.
"Identify yourself! This is NLS territory!"
David carefully set Juliya down and raised his hands. Juliya tried to mirror him, but her splinted arm barely made it to shoulder height before she winced and let it drop.
"We were sent by the Vice Head! We are members of the NLS!", David shouted, "We are looking for Inner Resident Amber!"
The man clicked on a flashlight, its beam slicing through the smoke and darkness. He examined them in silence.
One shirtless man, bloodied and bandaged, his skin streaked with ash and soot.
One woman, pale and worn, her arm in a makeshift splint, just as filthy and bruised.
He grumbled something to himself about poor reinforcements and lowered his weapon. "Alright get over here! We have a triage center setup. We can get you cleaned up."
David and Juliya sighed in relief. Tension leaving their bodies.
As they walked closer, the man added casually, "Oh yea, Amber is dead. CO is now Outer Resident Sarah Powers."
Juliya immediately grinned, while David flinched.
She leaned in and whispered to David mockingly, "Ohhh, looks like our love triangle is finally complete."
David didn't respond. Though there was a slight frown on his face.
Instead he was focused on one thing. He could finally get what he had been wanting for 8 days now. Since his very first day in the Volcanic Realm.
A shower.
[1] There are three main dantians: the lower, middle, and upper. They are believed to be reservoirs of Qi. The lower dantian is located in the lower abdomen, the middle in the chest, and the upper in the forehead.