" What's with your eyes, senior brother ? .
Oh, you mean this, don't worry about, it's just a normal effect after swallowing a huge amount of the White Mist Of Insight here, it would return to normal after a few minutes on its own .
He said this and pointed at his eyes and seem to have understood why I was so nervous, I got the name that he called that weird white smoke, or mist as Senior Brother called it now .
" Isn't that dangerous ? .
It's not fetal, if that was your asking, but it indeed brought some sense of discomfort and irritation, but it's a small price to pay for gaining insight, was that what made you choose to read this book instead of continuing to gain insight in your Martial Techniques and Skills .
It seemed that you were afraid of falling into an illusion again, you should have persisted more junior brother, this mist should have been able to heal your injuries completely, how wasteful .
Senior Brother said this and began shaking his head as if disappointed at me, from his words, I understood that he was having red eyes because he was keep fighting his way out of the illusions he kept falling in, that why he was currently looking like a walking corpse .
Hearing his berating tone, I wanted to let go of the matter at first, but then I began to think that this might be a chance for me to solve some misunderstanding that might happen in the future, I cupped my fist and said :
" Senior Brother shouldn't be feeling pity on me, I was reading this book just now, but it wasn't because I wasn't able to bear the illusions that this weird mist was throwing at me, but because I had gained all the insights I could get from that weird mist .
Oh, from your tone, you really seemed to have gained something, how about showing the insights you had gained to me then ? .
Senior Brother said this directly after hearing what I had to say, his tone seemed a bit doubtful as I looked normal to him which shouldn't be possible, since if I were to gain insights, then that meant that I had fought my way out of the illusions here a few .
If I did gain something, then I should at least look like him, but he didn't know that unlike him, I had a Panel that allowed me to breathe in the mist here as I liked without it creating much a trouble for me, no it was more accurate to say, it let me completely at ease when absorbing this kind of mist just now .
As for the opportunity that was presented to me on a silver plate, it was the opportunity to clear any sort of misunderstanding that might appear in the near future, I said :
" Senior Brother, I had gained some insight in the the Solid Rock Fist Technique and Gliding Swallow, the first gave me the feeling that there was something weird with my body, I hope senior brother can clarify what was that I currently feeling for me .
As I said this, my senior brother couldn't help but become surprised at that, he arched one of his eyebrows at me and cupped his chin, then began to say :
Was one of those feelings you have, is a feeling like as if you were standing in front of an almost closed door, but something was still restraining you from going inside, close but fleeting, was that the the kind feeling you currently have ? .
Now that he mentioned it in such manner, I did indeed got that feeling yesterday, but it was not as fleeting as he mentioned, if I could describe mine, it was like I had already kicked the door open, then turned my back to it and moved backwards, that was the feeling of having a breakthrough .
But since Senior Brother had no much of a business or need to know this, then there was no issues in keeping acting ignorant and nodding my head, I did just that, then a second later, he put a hand on my shoulder and his face carried a hint of disbelief on it as he said :
Junior Brother Tian, you have gained enough insights to breakthrough, that's unbelievable, congratulations, congratulations, but how long has it been, I don't think that even a full day had passed since you have entered the Martial Path, yet you are already making progress this fast and even with the issue with your body, our Dojo might really be witnessing the birth of yet another Dragon .
As I nodded my head, senior brother's face and tone seemed to carry a mix of emotions, he seemed to be excited, yet worried and there was even a slightest hint of being a bit fearful as well in his eyes .
Seeing him like this, I couldn't help but reply directly :
" I don't know if that had to do with the insights I had gained here, it started as a quite faint feeling after I woke up, but it got stronger after I was able to execute the 7th posture of Solid Rock Fist without a problem .
" As for Gliding Swallow, I feel like I had reached just the tip of the Entry level of mastery, but I will need to try it later myself to see, whether or not have I actually achieved this, I think I owe my Senior Brother again a debt of gratitude .
" I don't think that any of those things helped me more than the sparring session with Senior Brother, I believe that would be the main thing that triggered a breakthrough in me, thank you Senior Brother .
Just as I was mixing truths with flattery, I was about to bow my head to him, but as I tried to do that, I felt a slap hitting me in the back, it was a powerful slap that made me almost spat a mouthful of blood, my body currently still quite fragile, my Blood Qi was restored to a degree but it was still nowhere enough to deal with the person in front of me .
Even a casual slap was enough to injure me that much, I once again was glad about how I managed to do in that sparring session, I was fighting handicapped, the handicap was not being able to cause even the slightest bit of damage to my opponent, while he can completely overwhelm me without even trying .
Yet, I was able to last for a quite long time under his hands and that was enough to show me how much had I grown in such a small amount of time, this was done with a little bit of cheating, but him being a veteran and fighting a newbie like myself might be considered cheating as well, so this created some weird balance between the two of us .
Hahaha, you are sensible alright, but I had already told you to stop with this nonsense, we are now brothers, I'm actually wanted to apologize for you, I might have used a little bit more of my strength in that flying kick, it was hurting my pride to not being able to hit you accurately, that what misjudgment of mine is what led you to fall unconscious and for that I'm sorry .
So that what happened, I thought that he was berating me for wasting this opportunity due to his care as a Senior Brother, but it seemed that he wanted me to make the best use of this chance as to try and write off some of the guilt he was feeling towards doing this to me .
As I was reminded of how painful it was at first, I couldn't help but hold my jaw, it was completely out of instinct, seeing me like this, senior brother pulled a green pill and said :
ThisPill should be able to allow you to recover from the rest of your injuries, Azure Wood Pill that was the name of this Pill, it's a sacred Pill that help healing injures, ailments and even solve most poison, this Pill is quite precious, it is a Peak-grade 2 Pill in Rank and the one in your hand is of High quality .
This Pill is both my reward and compensation to you, think of it as a compensation of me using more strength than what I promised I will, for that I will consider this sparring session as my loss, this is your reward for forcing me to use more strength than I promised, take it, you have fully earned it .
Just hearing about the effect of that pill, I'm already able to know that it sell like hot cakes, meaning that the demand on it was high and it was also quite expensive to buy, so even though I was indeed injured because of him not holding back as he promised .
And even though the reasoning behind him giving me this was correct, I was still a bit reluctant to accept this, but he directly put the Vial containing the pill in my hand and said :
Don't act coy with me, it's not like I am asking you to marry me, take this as my congratulations gift on your breakthrough, if your senior brother here can also ask you for a favor, don't tell Master about what happened in the training session .
In fact don't tell him about the sparring session completely, also don't tell him that I had brought you here unconscious, or else that Old man might really skin me alive, you can do that for your senior brother's sake right, right ? .
As he said those words he got closer and closer unit his face was directly opposite to mine, his eyes that were still red like as if they were from a horror movie, didn't ease things in the slightest, if I'm certain that he wouldn't fight back and kill me or injure me in the process, I would have punched him in the face with how close he was to me .
But since, I wasn't certain, I went with the second best solution, I nodded my head and approved of his request and thankfully, he directly let my shoulder go and made some distance between us, I took a deep breath and as I saw the Hall around me now, I couldn't help but say :
" Senior Brother, I won't be saying a word to Master, but can I ask where were we even .
Ooh, right, I forgot that you had only joined recently and have no clue that this place even existed, well what you are seeing here is the core part of the Meditation Hall, here the concentration of the White Mist Of Insight was the highest as well .
It's a relief that you had gained something, otherwise who knows how many months would it take for you to witness something like this again .
" Senior Brother, can you explain to me how was this mist forming ? .
You are curious about these kind of stuff, don't you, well who isn't, the mist is released naturally from a tree seedling that Master had brought with him when we came here, he said that its name was Moon-Whispering Willow, the reason for it being called as such will it's connected to what it do .
The name was given to it by Master, the mist was released from that Willow as for the span between each time it released the mist, this was completely random, but as you should have guessed by now, the mist does have a faint connection with the moon, from the day it reached juvenile, it was noted to release that mist after two or three days after a one complete Lunar Cycle .
But the exact time, that was completely left out to fate, at first it was released every month, but now it was completely random, you are quite lucky, it had been 3 months since the last time this mist was produced .
Master say that it was going through a change of somo sort, but I think that it was just dying, even some of its leaves were falling off, so I guess its time might have come, so it was best to try to make the best of it as much as we could, then we would have any residual regrets after it's gone .
The smoke or mist it releases help us concentrate and even have a healing effect that depend on calming the circulation of our Blood Qi, giving the chance for Blood Qi to warm the places that were injured .
You should have already tested some of those effects yourself, how I wish that my challenge was similar to yours .
As he said the last line, I was able to tell that he was actually envious of me and that he wasn't kidding, even though there were a lot other bunch of stuff that I wanted to know more about, I couldn't help but focus more on that challenge he mentioned, I said :
" What challenge are you talking about, senior brother ? .
Was that how easy the challenge you needed to deal with, are you trying to make me even more envious ? .
" I genuinely don't know what are you talking about, wait, you must be talking about the illusion that came with consuming that mist .
Yes, I'm exactly talking about this, I was really beginning to think that you are trying to make me go berserk with envy or something .
" But why would you be envious though ? .
I might have slapped you to death if not for the fact that I know how ignorant you are, well I'm envious because that cursed Willow seemed to have some conscious about who might it allow to consume the Mist, either this or the Mist itself was possessed .
I looked at him up and down and directly evaded to the side, as he saw the weird look of pity in my eyes, staring at him as if he gone senile, he directly issued an attack on the spot, but I was able to evade in the neck of time, the slap brushed by my bangs and I had no doubt that I might have gotten to consume that Azure Wood Pill he gave me right here and now .
You are lucky that I owe you one, or I might really have taught you a good lesson, anyway, I'm envious because the higher your Practice Realm, the difficult and the more frequent illusions you might need to encounter, just to gain a pitiful boost to your comprehension .
I think you should now have a more clear understanding of why I'm envious of you, with your looks, I can tell that you had a much easier time, on the other hand look at me, I was fighting for my sanity in there .
He said this and stared at me as if wanting to eat me alive, I didn't know what exactly I might be able to say, all I can do was to nod at him, he seeing my nod continued to say :
But this shouldn't be an underestimation to your own efforts, if anything this was an indication of how focused are you on your path and how steady was your heart .
Seeing him praising me like this, I couldn't help but since my cheeks burning up with a bit of shame, I was able to completely discard of the need to deal with these illusions he mentioned thanks to the help of the Panel in my mind .
I can already imagine him coughing blood if he were to know about something like that, I couldn't control my facial expression and he seemed to have noticed the smile on my face, he said :
What's wrong was something on my face ? .
" No senior brother, I was just wondering if you know what might happen to those who failed to break through the illusion they fell to and whether was it dangerous for something like this to happen or not ? .
Well, it's dangerous to be engrossed in the illusion for long, the Mist will began consuming Blood Qi and the end you will lose conscious .
The most dangerous thing was the shadows that this incident might leave in the heart of those who fell into the illusion, making there Path for the Peak of Martial Arts even more harder, these shadows will continue to make them feel uneasy and might even evolve to become an Inner Demon that will attack them mentally everytime they try to make a breakthrough to the next Realm .
As I heard about this, I couldn't help but suck a breath of cold air, it sounds quite dangerous, even though I had no clue what that even mean .