The first thing he was aware of was an ache. It was nothing like the phantom tingles he felt after his wounds from battle and training had healed, those he had become accustomed to. No, this ache was different.

He opened his eyes at the unfamiliar ceiling. Thankfully, a familiar face was sleeping next to him. The small, snoring ball of fur next to him was Shibi.

In came Miss Hong. She smiled at him. “You’re awake,” she softly said.

Shibi’s eyes flew open and looked at Zen. The Scorch Ape began squealing in happiness and sadness.

“It’s okay, Shibi.” Zen said, rubbing the ape’s head. He looked at Miss Hong. “I’m guessing by how Shibi is reacting, I was out for a while?”

“A week,” she said.

Zen’s eyes widened.

“Yes, you were on death’s doorstep.”

“Wow, thank you, Miss Hong, for fixing me up.” Zen said, making a move to sit up to thank her properly.

The ache flared up into pain. He gritted his teeth and fell back down on the bed.

“Careful, I didn’t exactly fix you up.” She said, the concern in her eyes mirroring Shibi’s. “That fight really did a number on you.”

“Fight?” Zen said, moving his hand across his chest in an attempt to locate the source of the pain. “What fight?”

Miss Hong kept quiet for a moment. “What is the last thing you remember, Wang Zen?”

Zen calmed himself and gave up on trying to locate the source of the phantom pain. He instead looked up at the ceiling, recalling his last memory.

“I was in a market with Shibi.” He began. “I saw a mask, it reminded me of my father.” Zen smiled and the pain once again became an ache. “I bought it, with the plan of entering the tournament while wearing it, in honour of my father’s memory.”

Miss Hong frowned at this. “You don’t remember entering the tournament?”

Zen shook his head, no. “Did I do well?”

“That’s debatable.”

“Who was I fighting. Who hurt me this much?”

“Chen Jian.”

Zen frowned. “Figures. Did I beat him?”

“You beat him up but he won your match.” She said. “It was the craziest match anyone had ever seen!” her voice rose in excitement. “At the last moments, Chen Jian pulled out Phantasm Figure. Do you know what that is?”

Zen shut his eyes as he tried to recall while absentmindedly trying to locate the source of the ache once again. “I think so. There’s 5 of them, right? And each one is considered some of the strongest ki techniques to ever exist.”

“Yes, Chen Jian summoned one of them and do you know what you did?”

“Give up?” Zen said. It was the most shameful thing he could think off doing while facing his hated rival, so he assumed that is what he would have done.

“I wish you had! Otherwise, you would not be lying in that bed. You charged at it!” Miss Hong said. “It was a valiant effort but it was not enough to beat a Phantasm Figure.”

“Oh?” Zen said in pride.

“But it really did hurt you. Badly. The memory loss is the least of your worry.”

“But I seem to be okay.” Zen said. “No broken bones, no fresh bruises. Seems you did more than you would usually do when healing me.” Zen smirked, “Are you growing a soft spot for me, Miss Hong?”

“More like I felt sorry for you.” She said.

Zen grew worried at this.

“Don’t you feel it?”

Zen took a moment. “You mean this pain that I feel, yeah, I was going to ask what’s causing it.”

“It’s your diantian, Wang Zen. It was damaged during the fight.”

“My diantian, where my ki is kept?”

“Yes, luckily for you, you were out of ki by the time it broke. If it wasn’t for that all your ki would have leaked out before I patched it up.”

“Seems a bit serious but I don’t understand.” Zen said. “I use up all my ki all the time. It always comes back.”

“What? Do you not know about ki theory?”

Zen shook his head no. “I don’t do Meditation Theory Class.”

“Of course. You’re obviously one of those small brain punchy punchy cultivators.” Miss Hong rolled her eyes. “In your body, there exists 2 kinds of ki. Origin Ki and Active Ki. Active ki is the ki you’re used to. The one that fuels your ki techniques and will sometimes manifest as white-ish energy when outside of the body.”

Zen nodded.

“Origin Ki usually does not leave the body’s meridians. Origin Ki creates Active Ki. That’s why when your Active Ki gets finished, you don’t drop in rank or power and that’s why you don’t need to meditate to get your active ki back, because your Origin Ki simply replenishes your Active Ki. But the thing is, you cannot have more Active Ki than Origin Ki.”

“Oh, I get it!” Zen said. “So when I meditate, I’m making my Origin Ki bigger so that it can create bigger Active Ki!”

“Exactly! So imagine if all your Origin Ki leaked out. It would be like starting from scratch. You’d be no more stronger than a child. Lucky for you, Origin Ki is pretty enert unless there is Active Ki or if the consciousness acts upon it.”

“So you fixed me?”

“No,” Miss Hong said. “It is beyond my skills. All I could was apply a flimsy seal to it. At least your Origin Ki will not leak out but you also cannot use any ki techniques or meditate, as that will cause the seal to weaken and cause your Origin Ki to leak out.”

“So… So what do I do?”

“You need to get a more experienced Wood Elementalist to fix your diantian. It will be expensive… very expensive.”

Zen frowned at this. The last thing his family had was money.

“Luckily for you, it seems you have willing benefactors.” Miss Hong said, looking to the side.

Zen followed her line of sight to see the stack of letters at his bedside. He picked up the letter at the very top. It had the City Lord’s seal on it. “What are these?”

“Nobles and merchants requests for you to join them. Seems you impressed a lot of people in your fight.”

He tilted his head in confusion. “But I lost, right?”

“Seems even when you lose, you win.” Miss Hong said. “Its nice to know that you’ll still be in good hands when I leave.”

“You’re… leaving?”

She nodded. “Treating you made me realise how much I still need to learn. Not only are my skills here being wasted by healing bumps and bruises, they are also not growing. Sure, the money is good but I don’t just want money, I also want to be a good healer, the best. I’m going on a training journey to the eastern mountains. I heard they have some pretty good healers there.”

Zen frowned, feeling sadness that this might be the last time he would ever see Miss Hong.

She smiled at him. “You could always come with me. I can guarantee you that after 5 years or so, I’ll be able to heal you fully,” she jokingly said.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to,” Zen said, smiling sadly at her joke. “Well, I whish you a good journey. You’re already a pretty good healer, so I can imagine that you’ll be the best after your journey.”

“Thanks, Crooked Nose.” Miss Hong said. “You never know, once you are a great and powerful warrior, you might come across me again, needing some healing. And if you do, I’ll give you half off.” She said. She winked as she left.

Zen smiled sadly at Shibi and put his hand on his head. “Things change. Seems like you and I are the only things that stay the same, hey Shibi?”

Shibi nodded and put his head on Zen’s chest. “Zen and Shibi always together.”

“Yes, we’ll always be together.” Zen said before drifting off to sleep.

When next Zen woke up, it was dark outside. He looked to his side at the pile of letters. He assumed he would need to eventually read one of them, see what noble lord he could get to pay to fix his diantian while offering little to know dedication to being part of their workforce.

He scanned the stack of grey and white letters and saw a single red letter. Reaching it, he plucked the letter, causing the stack to fall over. This one had the name of his family’s retainer, Ding Wu.

He opened the letters and the ache turned into a pain as he read the news of his mother. There had been an attempted assassination on her! She was still in medical care and the letter was Ding Wu requesting that he come home immediately.