Although Red was eager to leave this place, there were still a few matters he needed to check. He was so caught up in the appearance of this ghostly woman that he didn’t have time to check on the state of his body or new “acupoint.”

What Aurelia told him about there being no more than a single acupoint in the third eye vein was consistent with the information Red acquired before, but he would rather check it himself. A cultivator that didn’t open their Spiritual Sea yet wouldn’t be able to inspect their own bodies thoroughly, but Red was different.

He had his meditation technique.

The youth sat down cross-legged on the ground. The snake was still on his shoulder, invisible, and although Red wasn’t at ease in its presence, it didn’t seem like the creature was eager to move about. Once he settled down, the youth entered his meditative state with a deep breath, as if it was second nature at this point.

His awareness expanded, and the state of his inner body was revealed to him. Immediately, one thing stood out to him. The crimson mist, which on most occasions occupied a large area of his torso, seemed to have been reduced to a small blob near his heart.

Red was shocked.

He reached out to the mist, hoping to establish a connection with it. “What happened?”

There was no response, other than a small shiver from the mist. It was too weak to respond.

Red stopped reaching out and was left to reflect on the situation by himself.

‘Was this caused by my breakthrough?’

His body was constantly healing the damage from moving so much energy in his veins back then, and the only reason Red even attempted such a reckless strategy was due to his regenerative abilities. They didn’t fail him, as he managed to accomplish his objective.

However, perhaps the struggle wasn’t as comfortable as he first thought. The crimson mist must have acted on its own, doing its best to keep his body from falling apart, and this must have cost it a substantial amount of its power. Red wondered what this meant for him and the being.

Would he lose his powers if the crimson being disappeared?

Blood would always work to help it heal. This he knew. However, he obviously didn’t plan on absorbing any more blood essence unless necessary.

‘There are no wounds or pains in the rest of my body.’

This was almost a miraculous outcome, considering what he went through. In more ways than one, it was all thanks to the crimson being inside of his body that he opened the final acupoint. Without it, Red just didn’t think it would be possible, which left him yet again baffled about Viran’s initial plans for him.

‘There’s still one thing I need to check.’

His expanded awareness traveled up his body, all the way to his head. He then reached into his Third Eye vein, and what he saw left him baffled.

Like what Aurelia said, what Red opened wasn’t really an acupoint. Instead, it was like a pulsing sac of energy, resembling a foreign organ located just behind his glabella. It was still connected to his Third Eye vein through a pathway, but it clearly didn’t look seem to function like an acupoint.

There was another thing that stood out to Red, too. Viran’s special acupoints were designed to keep Moonstone energy inside of them. This organ seemed to do the same, but there was far more energy inside of it than on all his other acupoints, and it didn’t seem to be leaking either.

‘Will this suffice against the curse?’

Red couldn’t learn anything else from this position, so he left his meditative state and opened his eyes. His attention immediately went to the snake in his shoulders, finding out to his relief it was still resting without moving.

Then, with his right hand, he reached for his forehead, feeling the space around his glabella.

‘There is no bulging.’

Red was confused, to say the least. This “organ” was relatively small, no bigger than a pea, but it was located in such a position where the youth should still be able to feel it under his skin. Yet, no matter how he pressed around, there was no sign of this organ.

‘I wonder what will happen if I try to send Spiritual Energy into it.’

With such an idea in mind, Red got up and prepared to do his Rain Dance.

“What are you doing?” Aurelia’s voice came from behind him.

Red didn’t look at her. “I’m experimenting.”

“At this time? Can’t you wait until you go back to town?” The woman seemed impatient.

“I could.” Red nodded. “But I don’t want to.”

“… You’re just going to cultivate with that snake in your shoulder?”

“It seems pretty calm.”

Aurelia snorted. “Just do as you wish, then!”

“I was planning to.”

The woman didn’t say anything else.

Red could obviously wait until he was back in town to experiment, but there might be unexpected results with what he was about to do that could draw attention to himself. That, and he was curious.

He started his vein opening technique dance. There was no point to the technique anymore since he opened all his acupoints already, but just because of that, the skill didn’t suddenly stop accumulating energy into his body once put into effect.

A few minutes later, Red felt a wave of Spiritual Energy enter his veins. The invisible snake on his shoulders shook slightly at this change, but it didn’t do anything else.

The youth sat down cross-legged on the ground and directed a portion of this wave of energy towards his Third Eye Vein. The current followed his command and traveled towards his glabella and towards this strange organ connected to it.

As soon as the energy touched it, though, something unexpected happened.

All of it disappeared. Not even the slightest trace of energy was left behind.

Red was baffled. He was baffled, and decided to send another small wave of energy towards this organ. The same thing happened again.

As soon as the energy came into contact with this organ, it disappeared. It wasn’t absorbed by this “acupoint”, or simply dissipated as Spiritual Energy tended to do. It just disappeared.

Red thought that maybe the process was too fast for him to detect, but even with further tries with different amounts of Spiritual Energy, the same thing continued to happen. It was an instantaneous transition as soon as the energy touched this small organ.

At one point, it was there, and the next it was gone.

Red let the rest of the Spiritual Energy in his body dissipate and opened his eyes with a dazed look.

“What is it?” Aurelia asked with a curious expression, sitting with her legs crossed on a stump not too far from him.

Red frowned and didn’t respond. Instead, he entered into his meditative state again and checked his new organ. Nothing seemed to have changed, and it still seemed to hold the same amount of energy it did before.

‘How is this possible?’

“What is it?” Aurelia asked again with an impatient tone.

Red looked over at her. “The energy. It disappeared.”

“What do you mean it disappeared? Was it absorbed into that tumor on your forehead?”

“No.” Red shook his head. “I checked it, and it still held the same amount of energy as before.”

Aurelia frowned. “That’s not possible. The energy has to go somewhere!”

“I know, but it’s not there.”

“… Explain me what you felt.”

Red recounted what had transpired with as much detail as he could muster.

However, by the end of his explanation, she looked just as confused as him.

“None of what you told me makes sense.” she said. “Things don’t just disappear. This energy must have gone somewhere.”

“Be that as it may, I checked all over my body.” Red shook his head. “I can’t find anything out of the ordinary.”

Aurelia’s expression worsened as she seemed to struggle to come up with an explanation. “It could have gone to your soul, but… I can’t see anything out of the ordinary with it, either.”

Red wasn’t well-informed on the matter of souls, so he couldn’t comment on her opinion.

She looked at him with a resolved expression. “Try it again. I’ll be watching you closely this time.”

Red raised his eyebrows. “I thought you wanted us to hurry back to town.”

Aurelia glared at him. “Just shut up and do as I say if you want my help!”

Red nodded. If the woman was willing to offer him free help, he would evidently not deny it.

He executed his Rain Dance again, even with his now rather tired body. Energy accumulated in his veins, and Red directed it towards his glabella with Aurelia giving him instructions.

“Slow down.”

“Send a stronger current this time.”

“Do many waves in a row.”

Under the woman’s prompting, the youth tried every possible way to send energy towards this foreign organ until there was nothing left in his veins. When he opened his eyes and looked at Aurelia’s complicated expression, though, the results were obvious.

“Nothing?” Red asked.

Aurelia shook her head. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

“And yet, it is happening. Do you have any ideas?”

“The only similar phenomenon I can think of is of certain kinds of strong portals or teleportation devices.” the woman said. “When things are thrown into them, they also tend to disappear in a mere instant, like the energy inside your body. However… it just doesn’t make sense. I can’t sense any spatial disturbances, not to mention how absurd the idea of you having a portal inside your own head is.”

Red frowned. “So in the end, you don’t know?”

Aurelia gritted her teeth. “I do not.”

The youth sighed and got up. “That’s fine. I wasn’t particularly expecting much.”

“You little bastard!” she glared at him. “If you think this is so easy, why don’t you try figuring it out yourself?”

“It’s what I intend to do.” Red nodded. “You have already helped enough with your portal idea. Most of the time I have to wander blindly through these kinds of things, so having a direction is always preferable, no matter how unlikely anything is to come out of it.”

“You… I will figure this out! You just wait!”

With those words, the woman disappeared into thin air.

With nothing else left to do, Red looked around at the hideout and collected his belongings. Then he checked on the snake on his shoulders once more, before setting off back towards town.

‘Surprisingly, nothing went wrong with this trip’

Or at the very least, this was what he hoped was the case.