Black wispy smoke leaked from within, and was neutralised by the Qi around it within a moment, as it only left searing hot vapours that vanished within moments. The miasma to my senses was like a black cloud, almost as if the color of my qi senses were inverted within the area the miasma was present.

It was difficult to understand, and even more difficult to describe what I was sensing and seeing. But there was an innate understanding in me that this was bad, and extremely dangerous to play around with.

I turned towards Liuxiang, sending a message. “I’ve found some miasma festering in the turtle’s shell.”

I saw the boy’s head snap towards me in surprise as his hands froze. The shock passed soon and Liuxiang returned his attention, back to the villager. I could tell one of them was close to waking up from the fluctuations in his Qi.

“This one will be there soon as the wounds have been tended to.”

I nodded, returning my attention to the miasma. The giant turtle’s shell, mostly covered in grass and the parasitic plants, was extremely rotten as if it had aged for centuries in corrosive acid. The shell was fractured and white, with bleak dark gunk sitting in a pile beneath the flower, looking like a layer of tar.

“Great Master… what is that?” Labby asked me, tugging at the clothes on my shoulder.

“It’s… miasma. Liuxiang had talked about it. It’s dangerous so don’t get close to it. It eats at your Qi.”

Which is exactly what the plant was doing. A large amount of Qi was being stored in the lotus, which the plant seemed to concentrate into a denser form, that travelled through it’s stems and fed into the core of miasma underneath the flower. I could see fleshy bags forming within it that were covered in dark gunk.

From what I could tell from the shake of the bags, they looked to be some kind of seeds. Fleshy bags with Qi present at their cores, otherwise filled with pungent miasma.

The turtle shook below me, groaning. I patted it’s shell, feeling sympathy for the misery it must be in.

“Can Great master not help the turtle?” Labby asked me, sensing my emotions.

“I don’t know Labby. I don’t know if I can. It has survived for so long, perhaps it can survive for a while longer till the sect arrives here. The faster we move the better it’s chances of survival.”

I sensed a conflicted emotion coming from Labby as she looked at the turtle. “It looks like it hurts… Labby feels bad. Can the lotus not heal the turtle? Great master can make a pill from it and help the turtle, no?”

I didn’t sigh, I couldn’t. Yet right now, I definitely wanted to. I kicked away the roots trying to bite into my ankle as I jumped down from the turtle, with a light splash. I walked around the turtle’s side, making my way up to where it lay on the ground, breathing lightly, as it kept it’s eyes shut.

The look of an animal that had accepted its imminent death.

I walked towards its massive face, as I put my hand near its mouth. The turtle’s skin was thick and rough, a creature of this proportion. I could only wonder how old it was, and how it’s body even functioned. A marvel of nature, and what was possible in this world of magic.

I saw the turtle shift slightly, as its nostrils flared. It’s eyes opened slightly, a white transparent eyelid opening to reveal green and black eyes underneath as it stared silently at me.

I felt the Qi within its body. Even as it was being drained, the amount of Qi the creature held was staggering. Like a blazing sun, the Qi swirled within its core, burning with a deep intensity. Yet even so, I could feel the Qi dimming each moment, being consumed by the parasitic plants around the creature.

I sent a pulse of my own Qi to the turtle, sensing it’s attention on me. “Can you understand me?” I asked, reaching out to it. I sensed a jumble of thoughts come back and cover me, as if I was a rock on a shore bank being washed by a roaring wave. The thoughts were mostly incomprehensible, my mind failing to grasp anything from them. Yet some emotions rose through the tide, being unravelled in my mind.

The turtle opened its mouth, a loud bellowing noise coming from within it. I heard it’s call, and the intent it shared from it’s Qi.

I was being invited to some place. Being shown something.

I stood silently for a while, before I returned a nod. Qi swirled within the turtle’s core as it reached out into me. A whirlpool of Qi began to form around me, flooding through my Core. Like a wave guiding me, I felt my surroundings dim, as I was sucked into the torrents of Qi.

I blinked my eyes, staring at my surroundings. I stood in what I could only describe as emptiness. Like a void, that had been torn into the world. I heard a click come from ahead, and turned my head.

A calm lake was further ahead, floating in the centre of the void. I saw a lush grove surrounding it, filled with life and Qi. A place of harmony and peace, and I saw a much smaller turtle living happily swimming around in the lake.

There was Qi everywhere here. Like an extension of myself. I was the Qi, and the Qi was me. I tried to form a whirlpool around my palm. The Qi in my surroundings obeyed my command, forming a whirlpool. I lit it on flames and a fire inferno had formed.

I stared at my hand, dissipating the mini fire tornado, before I started to form some water. Water floated above my hand in blobs shimmering with Qi. I wasn’t supplying my own Qi here. All of this, everything, it all moved as I asked it to. As if I could control the very world around me, and bend it to my whims.

“Great Master!” I heard a voice speak, and I turned around to see Labby running at me through the vast endless void.

“You’re here too?” I asked Labby, voicing a pointless question.

“Yes!” she spoke, and I paused.

“How are you speaking Labby? Without sending any of your Qi to me?” I asked Labby. Her voice echoed through the world, instead of being just in my mind. There was a different tone to it as well. Like her voice had changed subtly somehow.

“Oh… Labby doesn’t know. Labby is just talking,” she replied, and I smiled. Well, it was what it was.

“It might be because of where we are. The Qi here obeys you as if all of it was an extension of you. I might even be able to turn into a different creature here,” I muttered, and then tried to see if it worked.

I swirled the Qi around me, trying to form draconic wings behind my back. I then realised I had no idea how such wings would even work anatomically or how I was supposed to guide my Qi and then stopped.

Changing plans, I held my arm out and decided to turn a portion of my skin into scale. The Qi obliged as the smooth skin began to turn red, forming a patchwork of scales on my arm. I stared, in awe the area around my wrist began to be covered in scales. I dissipated the Qi, turning it back to normal soon.

“Oh, then can Labby…?” Labby muttered something and I turned to look at her.

Qi swirled around the little rat, forming a raging torrent. I saw Labby’s fur beginning to glisten as her body began to glow.

Was Labby… evolving?

I stared as Lunar Qi began to pulse around the little rat, and for a brief moment, my eyes met a young girl’s. A beautiful crescent moon mark present on her face, with short deep black hair behind her back.

The Qi dissipated in a splash, as the light faded. I felt frustration coming from Labby as lightning crackled around her with fury.

“Labby couldn’t do it,” I heard my little rat mutter, and I picked her up, gently rubbing her head.

I felt surprised at the raging torrent of emotions flooding me all at once. Was she trying to take on a human appearance?

“Labby wanted to try to be like her Great Master! She wanted to try and see what being human was like!” Labby exclaimed, as her Qi burst forth in a shower of sparks.

“It’s alright Labby. I couldn’t turn into a dragon either,” I replied with a laugh and I sensed a mix of emotions coming from Labby.

I heard a chirp, as a presence brushed against my mind, pulling my attention away from the frustrated rat in my hand. My eyes went to the turtle, it’s head peeking above the water as it’s two beady eyes stared at me.

It chirped, before it’s head dipped beneath the water as the turtle began to swim away. Curious, I walked ahead and started to follow.

With minimal effort, I found myself walking on the water, as the Qi held me aloft on the surface. I made my way through to the centre of the lake.

The water trembled beneath me, as a much larger turtle resurfaced from underneath, lifting me up on it’s back, before diving into the water. I panicked as water rushed at me, as I tried to hold my breath when I paused.

I could breathe through the water somehow.

“Labby you’re okay?” I asked Labby with our link, not opening my mouth underwater. “Labby is alright,” she sent back and I nodded.

I felt an intrinsic feat block me from opening my mouth. My instincts were holding me back. I pushed through as the water rushed in… and did nothing.

“What a bizarre experience. Is this your inner world?” I asked the turtle, as I patted it on its back. I wondered how I’d gotten pulled in here. This was definitely not my physical body was it? I couldn’t tell. Maybe I’d simply been removed from the physical world before being pulled in here. Did that mean an extra dimension existed inside the soul or whatever?

I shook my head, as we continued to give deeper. In the distance, I found a hole within the vast lake, and I felt the water slowly but surely draining through it. Dark mist rose from within, corrupting the bottom as the world around me started to lose it’s life.

I heard the turtle rumble through the water as we went closer. This was the place of the parasitic plant huh?

I approached the hole. A black seed pulsated at the core, spreading the black gunk as it corrupted the world around here. I could already see the vast area it’d sucked the life out of within the lake.

I tried to shift the earth around the gap with my Qi, to close it, or to have the seed pop up by heating it from the inside. Yet something held me back, the Qi unable to reach the pulsating seed.

I stared, frowning, wondering what I could do when an idea formed within my mind. This was a seed. A plant. I could work with that.

I got off the turtle’s back, swimming further down as I took a seat at the bottom of the lake, crossing my legs.

I closed my eyes, letting my thoughts fade as I began to cultivate.