Auugh, my head hurts like crazy, that sounded oddly familiar, I said similar words when I first appeared in this world, at that time I was having a huge headache, but the pain I was dealing with currently was completely a physical one, my head was still under the effect of that flying kick I got just now .
It felt like someone had hit my head was an arm length gas cylinder and I accepted the full power behind that hit directly to my head, only then could I accept that was in this much pain already, yet that wasn't the case at all, just one kick and it was all over for me .
That taught me yet another huge lesson, the important of decision making and how it always need to be decisive and accurate, I could have retreated backwards or used Tiger's Pounce or Tiger's Lunge and I would have been able to create the distance needed .
But I was destined to lose the second I lost my focus and as a result I wasn't able to choose the right moves and in the end here I was, unconscious and staring at the darkness in front of me unable to open my eyes, I couldn't have possibly died from that flying kick, could I ? .
Probably not, senior brother was holding his punches against me all along, so it shouldn't be, if he really wanted to do so, he won't kill in daylight and in the Main Training Hall, that would be much of a bother .
Look at me talking like an experienced killer, anyway, I shouldn't have died, but at most I might have a concussion, there might be some bruises and luckily I hadn't tried to block his punches and kicks with my body, forgot about concussion, I might have ended up breaking a limb or two .
But all in all, I would like to label the sparring session a success, I hadn't planned to be put out cold like this, but for my very first actual comprehensive fight, I'm giving myself an 8 out of 10 .
Initially, I would have let myself lose after a few more exchanges, using the exhaustion as an excuse to finish the battle, but I become so invested in exchanging blows with Senior Brother that I had almost lost the ability to stop and Senior Brother's fighting spirit seemed to have been triggered as well .
Both of us were fully engaged in fighting that any plans in our mind seemed to have dissipated and we were only focused at the exchange we were having, that was what made stopping midway fighting or feigning exhaustion completely impossible .
As the fight went on, I was really beginning think of a way to outmaneuver my senior brother and take him by surprise, but no matter how hard I tried, there was no other way I could see myself wining other than to use a secret move a dangerous move .
Right after the thought of hitting him in the private parts appeared on my mind, his last attack came and I found myself to be the one who had overestimated myself and the one who got outmaneuvered and taken by surprise .
My pride was hurt at the fact that I was still able to see the trajectory of the kick, but were no longer able to do anything at all to evade at that point of time, it was as if with my losing of focus, my body too soon gave out, as for that flaying kick, I'm ashamed from the fact that I had engraved it in my mind .
As I thought of this, my eyes were trying to squint, but my eyes were currently closed, so my eyelid shook a little, I tried to open my eyes up, but I felt that they were still quite heavy, I tried to circulate my Blood Qi, but found that it was more difficult to move than normal, I couldn't help but panic and when I did, my eyes went wide opened involuntarily .
What came into my view was whiteness, turning from blackness to pure witnesses like this should have at least stung my eyes a little or caused me some discomfort, but there was no sign that this would ever happen, I felt nothing at all .
What was even more weirder, I was surrounded with white smoke like clouds, I felt my mind directly become at ease as I took a few deep breaths of that smoke in front of me, I was beginning to feel high, or at least that was how the I interpreted current feeling that I had .
The pain I was feeling disappeared, instead I felt that my whole body was numbed, that's why I couldn't help but associate it with being under some kind of drug's effect, it was either I was under some kind of drugs to be seeing stuff like this or I was currently in heaven, even though I doubted both possibilities, they were all that I currently have in mind .
So you have finally decided to wake up, I really was beginning to wonder if I had hit you this strongly, or were you just faking it ? .
Just as I was beginning to think of a third possibility and that possiblity was that I might have lost my mind and that this was nothing but hallucinations, I heard the familiar voice of my senior brother Fu, it sounded from behind me .
I was still laying down on my head, but I was able to look around me, but no matter where I looked all that met me was the white smoke like clouds surrounding me, just as I was about to try and circulate my Blood Qi and direct it to my eyes .
He then advised me not to do that and instead he advised me to relax my mind and steady my breathing rhythm and start meditating for as long as possible, thinking that he won't harm me, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, helped myself up with great difficulty then sat in a meditative position .
The moment I did this, I felt as if my spirit was uplifted, I felt as if it was even trying to leave my body, an obscure feeling, but I didn't have any sense of discomfort towards it, in fact I felt good, but soon I felt a shock in my mind and the next second I know, another notification appeared on my mind .
( Consuming a lot of sedatives, falling into a state of hallucination, detected and removed ) .
Whatever that made me feel like my soul was getting detached from my body, was removed by the Panel, I felt my thoughts clear up again, no it was better to say that my mind was much sharper than before .
I don't know where those sedatives that were used to make that white smoke appear, but I can tell that it was beneficial to the mind, I didn't open my eyes and instead continue to breathe as much as I could from it thinking that now that the negative effects were removed, I should be able to make the best use of those sedatives that the Panel mentioned .
It was something that I had noticed, the Panel can't identify thing that I hadn't have no knowledge of, the sedatives that were being used her, might actually be another substance with a different name, but until I knew the name of whatever that was being used here, the Panel would keep identify it as sedatives .
I have guessed that to be the case before, but now, now I was weirdly quite certain about it, as if there was a vail that was blocking me from achieving this understanding, but that was no longer the case anymore, the vail was pierced with the help of this weird white smoke in here .
As I sensed that my mind was currently quite active, I couldn't help but beginning to use it in dwelling on some of the stuff that were troubling me before, starting with the information that I had acquired from Uncle Li, then I was able to found out a new understanding to the information that he gave me and the information that I had read about earlier in the library .
Digesting those new bits of information, then I felt the headache I have with understanding them earlier had completely vanished and instead, every piece of information regarding them become clear to me, sensing that my mind was still active .
() .
Again I heard the notification that mentioned that I was about to fall in hallucinations again, I directly started taking advantage of the state of mind I was in and tried to make use of it as much as possible .
I began to think about some of the things that were troubling me, like my inability to circulate my Blood Qi as normal as before, then the answer came to me effortlessly, I now understood why senior brother told me to sat in meditative position .
The white smoke was inside my body and my Blood Qi was trying to refine it currently, my Blood Qi resonated with that weird smoke and the two collaborated and helped me in reaching the state I was currently in .
This wasn't the only thing that was slowing down my Blood Qi circulation, the white smoke seemed to be helping me in healing from my injuries as well, it seemed that this white smoke was guiding my Blood Qi towards where it hurts the most and that was why I no longer felt much pain than before .
Another confusion got cleared up and I felt my mind and heart becoming at ease again, thinking that there was no need to be afraid that some mishap would happen, any that will, then I have the Panel to deal with it, I opened my eyes and began to stand up .
I wanted to see where my senior brother was, but in the end I decided against it, whatever this place was and whatever this substance here was, I'm certain that it was something beneficial, so I shouldn't be interupting senior brother at the moment .
I discarded the thought of enhancing my eyes and take a look around, first I might might be creating some problems to others that were here, senior brother warning about how dangerous was it to peep at people who were practicing kept sounding in my ears, so in the end, I decided to occupy myself with my own practice as well .
But just as I was about to start practicing here, I was reminded of the book that I had gotten from uncle Li earlier and being reminded of his words about not getting my hopes up, I was curious to find out about what exactly he meant to say by that, so I summoned the book from the pouch and directly opened it, thinking that it would be easy to memorize the information inside it here .
After summoning the book, my muscles were a bit relaxed and insted of letting the book settle in my arms, the book directly fell on the floor, I almost cursed out loud, expecting that it would alert everyone with how heavy it was, but it seemed that I have overreacted for nothing, the book fell didn't even made the slightest bit of noise as it landed on the misty floor .
I was quite taken aback by this, but it wasn't like I hadn't already had my own share of abnormal activities, I bent down and touched the floor beneath in my way and was able to sense that the floor was marbled, white marble that was emiting a slight chill, it was refreshing to touch, but also seemed to help in relaxing the mind .
This place hadn't ceased to amaze me, I picked the book, sat down on open it up and the moment I did, I couldn't help but frown a little, a hand note was written on the first page, this page was sticked to the book and not an actual page .
On the page was a warning that some of the Treasures inside this booklet were not even seen once, some are believed to be extinct, some are made up, on the note it was said that in the booklet those treasures had been marked with a red line .
I was already frowning after I saw this, but my mood involuntarily couldn't help but improve due to white smoke which I kept on consuming, i saw no point on dwelling much about it it, I opened the second page and it was instantly filled with illustrations of different colors of herbs and plants all had red lines on them .
But that didn't matter to me in the slightest, my eyes was still glued on the names and the effects of those treasures that I was seeing in front of me for the first time the things in front of me were labeled as Heaven-earth Treasures, that just looking at them made my eyes almost pop out of their sockets .
The booklet wasted no time and directly introduced me to the highest ranked items inside it, I was finally able to understand what uncle Li ment by telling me not to raise my hopes up for nothing, in front of me I saw an illustration of herbs that the author of this book graded at the Immortal-grade :
Tribulation-Refined Thunder Herb : Lightning-struck plant, tempers body for tribulations, reducing failure chance .
Void Lotus Seed 20,000+ years :
Seed from abyssal voids; condenses scattered qi into denser strands, good for mid-realm bottlenecks .
Nine-Yang Immortal Root, beneficial to the evolve of the Yang Attribute Root, amplifies blood qi flow without overheating, enhancing Yang Attribute Techniques, invigorate the spirit, regenerate lost vitality, increase life span, if used for healing, can even bring back people on brink of death .
Eternal Yin-Yang Immortal Lotus :
Dual-natured flower from the intersection of extreme yin and yang realms, perfects yin-yang balance, allowing dual cultivation paths or instant breakthrough to True Immortal .
Primordial Heaven-Defying Ginseng King :
A sentient 100,000-year-old ginseng that walks and speaks; devouring it forcibly ascends mortal roots to immortal-grade and grants a second life, a spiritual creature of Heaven-earth that can cultivate other plants if successfully subdued .
Chaos Origin Immortal Peach :
Grown on the ancient Chaos Peach Tree in the Immortal Realm's forbidden garden; one bite extends life by 10,000 years, reverses aging, and boosts comprehension to heavenly levels .
Nine Heavens Barrier Breaker :
Rare celestial bloom; weakens realm barriers for one attempt, failing can increase the success in the following attempt .
I found my mouth become watery all of a sudden at the scene of those Immortal-grade treasures, any of those treasures would be enough to heal my lost vitality, heck, any of them can make make me a genius overnight .
But all my hopes and dreams was squished as I saw the red line that was glaring at me and indicating that all of those items were either nowhere to be found or extinct, meaning the chances of finding one was zero .
After seeing the names and the effects of those Heaven-earth Treasures, I too almost began to think that these were all made up by someone to trick people .
But the fact that those items were graded as Immortal-grade and the fact that the Eternal Yin-Yang Immortal Lotus actually helped in the breakthrough to become an actual Immortal, made me pause slightly and contemplate seriously about what that could mean .
With the help of this weird smoke effect, I felt the gears in my head were turning faster and faster and I began to think seriously that these treasures might not be found here, but they were most likely in the hands of those Immortals hiding out there .
What reinforced my reasoning was the fact that some of those treasures were talking about bizarre things like Yang Attribute Root, abyssal void, a Ginseng that can talk and other weird things that were similar to the weird things I read before in the book that was in the hands of Lu Si .
But even if I know that the two were connected, there would be still the issue of arriving at their place of hiding and hoping that they will be kind enough to give me a small piece of any of those treasures .
No, even a fraction would be enough to turn my life around, but even though I already clearly understood that things might not go as smooth as I think .
The main problem for me now still lay on how to reach there in the first place, would the Panel be enough for me to be able to bypass The Miasma Swamp, I wonder .