"And what about your injuries?" Vedna asked.
Rudra looked at his right thigh as he sighed "It will be alright for now!"
"But it can be infectious if left like that." Vedna replied.
"She is right, it needs a proper treatment," Sohika chimed in.
"How can you even expect me to find a high level saint here in this wasteland?" Rudra asked.
"I know a saint residing in nearby outer mist mountains, maybe he can help you?" Isha chimed in.
"And where will you guys take shelter in the while?" Rudra asked.
"I have already discussed it with Isha, her companions will lead us to her village, we can stay at her abode as guests," Vedna replied.
"She is right, we should follow this plan," Sohajan nodded in affirmative.
"For now, it is more important for you to recover."
"Don't worry, we will be careful."
"Isha will guide you," Skandha said.
"Fine," Rudra took a deep breath "Let us separate our ways."
The group split into two, the first division consisted of Rudra, Isha and her companion Musha whou would guide him to the Saint they were taking about. Where as the second division had Vedna, Sohika, Sohajan, seal warriors and isha's other companions.
Rudra with Isha and Musha traversed through the wasteland and reached the brink of the mist mountain ranges, filled with dense trees and bushes. They carefully guide their way through the wilderness, even avoiding attracting the attention of low level beasts. The forest was like a natural maze that could drive anyone hopeless with no visible chances of finding anything else.
But Rudra trusted on Isha and Musha as he kept moving. The night had arrived, while they had still not arrived at their destination. Therefore, they decided to take a break and stay by the shelter of a huge tree for the night. But in this wilderness it would be stupidity to sleep without ensuring security, due to which Rudra asked them to take rest and he will keep an eye on the surrounding.
Isha looked worried at first but when she saw Rudra had already began meditating, she became relaxed and went to take rest. Here with a flash before his eyes, Rudra felt his consciousness drifting into a much compact space within the talisman. He opened his eyes to find himself inside the illusionary space of the talisman including the huge stone tablet with nearly tons of mantras inscribed on it.
The stone tablet emit out a ray of light along with thousands of particles that manifested into the figure of a familiar old man. Rudra suddenly felt a surge of hope through himself as he knelt down. As Acharya saw this, confused expressions flashed on his face before he realized.
"Acharya, in such situations, a teacher is said to always guide their students."
"Now I have no teacher left except of you, as your student, help me. "
"Help me to become powerful, help me to become strong enough to face such situations in future."
"Teach me, and I shall become the best warrior," Rudra said while trying to stop his tears, which managed to trickle down his face.
"Only if you are ready, let me remind you, everything will not be that easy. Even I don't know about the cruel and complex training tactics and techniques encrypted in this talisman,"
Acharya took a pause,
"Now, it's time for things to get serious."
He formed some specific hand mudras and recited a mantra, which in reaction triggered the stone tablet to emit out a golden light gleaming on its surface, before the light enveloped Rudra and Acharya before fading away in just a few moments. But Rudra was shocked to see the view in front. A space filled with sheer darkness, with not even a single light around him, except of Acharya.
He glanced beneath to realize he was standing above a void, he looked at Acharya with confused expressions. Acharya smiled before explaining.
"This is a special fragment of space concealed within this talisman."
"Although I do not know what's it's purpose, you can use it for your benefits by storing any item you want in here," Acharya then snapped his fingers, bringing them back to the normal illusionary world inside the talisman.
"I have activated a special program in this talisman through which now I can interact with you through inter spiritual connection."
"Now let us talk about your thigh injury."
"Even though I can teach you to treat it, You will still need a 2nd or higher Chakra saint to operate on it."
"Because for now, you lack the accuracy and precision to do it, and I won't recommend taking any risks."
"Doing so could even paralyzed your right thigh for your entire lifetime," Acharya explained.
Rudra was utterly shocked upon hearing this, but right now anything like that won't happen. Therefore he didn't worry too much about it.
"Now, you should go back to meditation and focus on recovering as much energy as you can." Acharaya said as he flicked his hand and with another flash, Rudra returned to the normal world.
After that Rudra began to meditate, absorbing the cosmic energy to nourish his chakra and restore more kundalini within his body to fasten his recovery. Very soon, the half arc of sun had risen above the distant horizon, mixing a gradient of bright red and yellow colors into the sky.
Rudra, Isha and Musha continued their journey. After walking another hundred steps, they came across a water well near the foot of a small hill. Atop that hill perched a magnificent banyan tree beneath which was a small wooden shed and a huge boulder right beside it.
After nearly an hour, they were able to climb up the hill and reach the wooden shed, only to find a middle aged man with a white colored dhoti wrapped around his legs and saffron drapes swathed around his upper body as he was immersed in his deep meditation.
"Maybe, we should wait for a few minutes," Rudra whispered.
After nearly half an hour later, the saint opened his eyes, breaking out of his deep meditative state. His gaze met with Rudra's and within an instance a smile spread across his face, recognizing the other saint in front of him. Rudra stood up and bowed to the middle aged man as a gesture of respect. After all, this middle aged man was the only second chakra saint he had ever seen after his Previous master.
"What is the purpose of your arrival?" That saint asked.
"Saint Arsh! As you have already known, this is Rudra, another talented saint cultivator just like you!"
"He is suffering from a fatal injury in his right thigh, and we believe only you could treat it.
"This will be a huge favor!" Isha said.
Saint Arsh nodded as he indicated Rudra to come closer "Let me have a close look of your Wound to examine it,"
Rudra removed the Vaidrika leaves tied around his thigh, revealing a severe cut that shrunk in comparison to before, but due to exposure without proper medicinal applications caused the nearby regenerating cells to get damaged, faltering his recovery.
Saint Arsh carefully caressed his hand on the wound, ensuring not to hurt Rudra while inspecting it in brief. Rudra could clearly feel saint Arsh's powerful spiritual energy that crept in through his wounds and began to spread inside, moving around to examine every bit of it. He even began to chant some mantras while diagnosing his injury.
"This wound seems pretty deep, opening from both the sides of your thigh.
"This will take quite an effort. I will do it…," Saint Arsh took a pause.
"But with only one condition."
Confused expressions surfaced on Rudra's face, seeing this Saint Arsh replied " You will have to accompany me onto a venture in the mist mountains to find a rare herb."
"What type of herb?" Isha asked.
"Red rose lotus, a high level of medicinal minerals containing herb, we will find it in the outer mist mountains after I treat him."
"So, what is your choice?" saint Arsh asked.
"I agree,"
"Do you really know the true dangers of Mist mountains?" Arsh queried.
"Yes."
"Then I gotta admit, you are really brave" Arsh said as he went inside the wooden shed and brought out chipped pieces of wood.
He carefully organized and pile those chopped woods between two huge rocks, poured a special liquid over them and scratches two stones to ignite the fire. Then he brought out a small metallic vessel and tucked right above the fire between the two huge rocks. He then poured a mug of water in that metallic vessel and left it to heat.
While the vessel heated, he collected some specific flowers and leaves, he even pulled out some from his Sack bag and carefully dropped them into the heated water. Arsh then took a huge piece of burnt wood and used it to stir the water until most of the nutrients from the herbs dissolved into the water, preparing a special boiled decoction.
After preparing the decoction, Arsh took a few more special herbs and channeled his kundalini into a bowl to extract the essence while grinding the ingredients with a stone. Slowly the ingredients began to shine with a faint glow as they were grinded by the piece of stone, turning into a dark green mixture of those different ingredients. It was a medicinal poultice prepared by Arsh.
Arsh then carefully collected the decoction in a bowl "Come inside and lay down."