~~~

Every step is pain.

Every breath is agony.

Every second a new torture.

Liu Jin is barely aware of where he is. Is he still in Poison Fang Canyon? Is he close to Eastern Port City? He does not know. The only thing he knows right now is his master’s back. As long as he follows that back, he should be fine. The alternative is death, and death is not acceptable. Liu Jin has only seen nine springs in this world, and he’d rather see many more. Thus, he follows his master.

Step by step. Breath by breath. Second by second.

As he does, the rest of his being focuses on a much more critical task. Keeping the poison under control.

Liu Jin cannot explain what Nine-Headed Snake God did to his body. Regardless, the result is clear. His body now produces a deadly poison, seemingly without end. The poison flows through his body using his Qi, his own lifeforce. In a way, it is a betrayal of the highest order. His own energy has been turned against him.

Without the dragon bone needles his master gifted him, Liu Jin would surely be dead. If he hadn’t figured out he needed to divert the flow of his Qi to isolate the poison and expel it from his body, the poison would have undoubtedly left his body a rotten husk by now.

The poison would have rotted his body… and his master would have let it happen, Liu Jin realizes. His father warned him. Old Jiang is a harsh teacher. Even Old Jiang warned him and gave him many opportunities to turn back.

Back then, Liu Jin thought he understood all those warnings. He thought he understood what he was getting himself into, the danger he agreed to face. He really thought he understood.

Only now, as the poison tortures his body, does Liu Jin realize how naïve he was.

The realization causes him to lose control for an instant. The poison spreads, introducing new kinds of pain to Liu Jin’s body. He bites his tongue. The taste of copper fills his mouth, but it’s nothing compared to what the rest of his body is feeling. Liu Jin would like to say his body feels as though it is burning from the inside, but there is no way fire could ever be this cruel.

Before a full second passes, Liu Jin forces the poison back to its proper flow. The dragon bone needles vibrate inside of him, but he wills them to stay inside his body.

“We are almost there. Keep going.”

His master says something. Liu Jin vaguely hears the words. His mind is in no state to process them. Just walking after his master is taxing enough. The bulk of his mental faculties is dedicated to keeping the delicate balance that is preventing him from dying on the spot.

There can be no more miscalculations, no mistakes. Liu Jin needs to keep doing this again and again perfectly for three years. He needs to repeat the process until it becomes as natural as breathing. Until Liu Jin reaches that point, he cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He cannot rest.

How long will that take?

Weeks, Liu Jin realizes. At a bare minimum, it will take weeks for his body to get used to repeating the process, weeks until he can do anything else. Can his Qi sustain his body until then? People who have reached high levels of cultivation can go without food or rest for long periods of time. Xiao Nan once told him he could go for over a year without eating if he wished to.

However, Liu Jin is not Xiao Nan. Liu Jin is but a child in the Inner Realm, the second realm of cultivation. Even calling him a proper cultivator is too much at this point. Can his Qi really keep his body alive until he is able to eat on his own?

Liu Jin is not sure.

The realization opens a pit in his stomach, but he does not let it destabilize him. Either way, the path forward is clear. His Qi will have to last. That is all there is to it. The alternative is death, and that is something he does not want to dwell on.

“We are here.”

The words barely manage to pierce his consciousness. Where is here? Is he home at last? Has he walked all the way back from Poison Fang Canyon? Liu Jin barely feels his body being pushed down into a bed. There is something in his neck.

“You did well, disciple. Rest now.”

His master’s words reach him this time. Knowing he is in a safe place, Liu Jin’s focus fully turns inward, and the outside world vanishes from his senses.

~~

Time goes by. Liu Jin remains deep inside his own mind, his body unmoving and barely breathing yet alive. Occasionally, Liu Jin feels someone pouring something down his throat. Someone is trying to keep his body hydrated. His master? His father? In any case, those are but small moments scattered between eternities, so rare and brief from his perspective that Liu Jin wonders if he isn’t just imagining them.

How long has it been now?

Months? Weeks? Days? Perhaps, it has not even been an hour. His sense of time is yet another thing Liu Jin has discarded. It has no bearing on the task at hand. Sights, scents, and sounds also do not exist for him as he is now. There is only the Qi flowing through his body and the pain the poison causes him. There is only the process by which he slowly purifies his being.

Liu Jin purges the venom without end. Each time, he tries to refine the process further, to make it faster, more efficient, easier. Each failure brings agony. Each success eases his burden.

Liu Jin fails many times.

Liu Jin tries to keep count of his failures if only to keep track of time in some way. He manages to do so until he hits quadruple digits. The number is lost soon after that. His successes are fewer, yet with each one Liu Jin gets closer to fully refining the process. Not by much. Not by 10%. Not even by 5%. Perhaps not even by 1%. He might as well be an ant trying to climb a mountain.

However, Liu Jin does not stop.

With 523 successes, Liu Jin can take back control of 6% of his body.

With 1355 successes, Liu Jin can take back control of 31% of his body.

With 8753 successes, Liu Jin opens his eyes at last.

Liu Jin is greeted by the familiar ceiling of the clinic. He has seen it countless times, but it is the first time he wakes up as a patient. He tries to get up but finds himself too weak to do so.

“Do not try to move. You’re still too weak.”

It is his father’s voice, and Liu Jin is immediately comforted by it. The moment lasts only for an instant. It soon gives way to panic. The poison!

“F-Father!” His voice is raspy. “T-The p-po-”

“Do not worry about the poison,” His father quickly says. “Do not stop purging it from your body. The master has already taken precautions. Trust me, son. Just continue as you have.”

A steaming cup is placed in front of Liu Jin before he can talk again.

“Drink,” his father commands as he brings the cup to Liu Jin’s lips. Liu Jin has little choice but to comply. Hot liquid slowly pours down his throat. It tastes terrible, but it is nothing compared to some of the poisons Old Jiang made him eat during the past year.

“Master placed a special pendant around your neck,” Liu Jianguo explains as Liu Jin drinks. His father taps a spot on his chest causing Liu Jin to become aware of the new item on his person. It is small, metallic, and hidden under his clothes. “As long as you wear it, you do not have to worry about accidentally poisoning someone. The pendant will automatically absorb the poison your body expels. You must not remove it under any circumstances, understood?”

Liu Jin finds the strength to nod. He knows enough about poisons to understand just how dangerous that would be. As soon as Liu Jin finishes drinking the medicine, he feels an odd warmth spreading through his limbs, strength returning to his body.

“T-thanks,” Liu Jin says, coughing. His father pulls back the now empty cup. “What was that-t? It felt… familiar.”

“It should,” his father replies. “I have fed it to you once every week for the past month.”

So Liu Jin had not imagined that. Someone had been feeding him while he was dormant. The young child blinks and slowly flexes his hands as if learning how to use them again. His muscles are in better shape than he expected. It does not seem like a month has passed, but Liu Jin knows better than to doubt his father’s words. If his father says it, it must be the absolute truth.

“It is called Elixir of the 400-Day Journey,” his father explains. “The one who created it named it as such because he boasted that whoever drank it would be able to go without food or rest for 400 days. His claims were highly overrated. Still, it did keep your body healthy while you were inert.”

Liu Jin stays silent, digesting the information. It takes a while for him to pick his next words. “If father had not given me that… would I have survived?”

His father raises an eyebrow. Liu Jin feels like hiding his face. “Pride ill suits you, son.” Liu Jianguo sighs. “No, you would not have died. At least, I do not believe so. However, without it, you would not be moving your body so freely. The elixir stimulated your muscles and kept them within acceptable parameters for the past month.”

So that is why his body does not feel as bad as expected. If his father had not made him drink that, he wouldn’t be able to get up right now. It would have taken days for Liu Jin to regain full range of motion. As it is, Liu Jin is sure it will take about an hour for him to get used to moving his body again.

“Thank you,” Liu Jin says as he–with great effort–manages to sit up on his bed. His back creaks a little, but that is to be expected.

Liu Jianguo closes his eyes. “It was the least I could do,” he says. There is no trace of false modesty in his father’s voice. Liu Jin understands what he means.

It was really the bare minimum.

Had his father wanted to, he could have probably prepared something that would have helped counteract the poison, making his burden lighter. Had his master wished it, he could have shown him how to perfectly purge the poison from his body instead of letting him figure it out over the course of one month. Both could have done countless things to help him. They had not.

It was his test.

Liu Jin made a choice, and they allowed him to experience its consequences fully. They took him at his word and let him prove himself.

“Thank you, father,” Liu Jin says once more, bowing his head. “From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”

His father looks like he wants to say something, but Liu Jin continues. “You warned me. Master warned me too. I thought I understood what you both meant, but I did not. I understand now how hopelessly ignorant I was. Still, you both took my words seriously, and I thank you for it.”

“Raise your head, son. There is no way you could have known what was expecting you there. Even I did not think master would make you stand before a fallen god. I learned under him for five years before he tried anything like that. That he did speaks of his impatience to pass on all he can before he runs out of time.”

Liu Jin raises his head. “That…It said something about that too,” Liu Jin says softly. “Is master really-”

“That is something you should ask him yourself,” his father cleanly cuts off his question. It is all the confirmation Liu Jin needs. Still, his father is right. He must talk with Old Jiang.

“Where is he?” Liu Jin asks, looking around.

“He sensed you would wake up today,” his father says. “He told me to tell you he expects you at the port. Should you be unable to make your way there, he will consider your discipleship null and void.”

Silence falls over the room as Liu Jin processes the new information.

“Master is someone who is harsh in order to be kind. That is something that took me a long time to learn,” Liu Jianguo says. “This is his way to give you one last chance to give up. When you became his disciple, you could not comprehend the dangers involved. You were not wrong in that. However, that is not the case now. What will your choice be, son?”

Liu Jianguo gazes at his son.

Liu Jin stares back with eyes that brim with determination.

Liu Jianguo sighs. “Of course. I told master it would be this way.”

“I apologize, father,” Liu Jin says. “It seems I will keep making you worry.”

“There is no need to apologize.” His father waves his words away. “When it comes to being a father, I have found pride and worry to be inexplicably linked. Now, you best reacquaint yourself with your legs. The port is a long way from here.”

~~~