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Dao of Healing - Chapter 9
🕑 Added 2025-01-01 10:02:12 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 8 | Index | Chapter 10 >>
Raising my arms to guard my face, the acidic spit splashed against them and burned. The pain was searing, but after my agonising breakthroughs I wasn’t fazed.
In fact, when I lowered my arms I saw there was barely any damage where the spit had sprayed against them. Another side effect of absorbing the venomous essence?
The viper had noticed me despite my cunning and stealth. That was a bear faced lie. I hadn’t even been able to escape my furry friend’s detection.
I turned to see its slit-eyes staring right into my own, hateful venom lacing its gaze. This snake really needed a massage. Or perhaps a mate…
Seeing as my cover had been exposed, I had little choice but to join the battle. It had proven it could strike me at a distance so running wasn’t an option, but how could I fight back?
The snake refused to leave its bubbling swamp, the bear helpless to attack no matter how furiously it tried to. All it needed to do was sit back and spit venom at us until we succumbed to its toxins or fatigue.
Despite that I still moved to close the distance. I was useless this far away and at least up close I’d have a better chance of spotting a weakness.
The bear didn’t seem to notice my approach, but I figured it was more enraged with the viper right now and wouldn’t bother me anyway. As I ran, the viper spat more globules of its vile venom at me, aiming for my face.
Most were easy to dodge. They flew fast but each time it spat, its neck would bulge, telegraphing the strike before it happened.
The worst part of the spit though, was that even when I dodged it splashed against my legs and arms, burning through my robe and skin. Finally I reached the edge of the swamp, jumping backwards to avoid a huge spray of toxic sludge the snake flicked my way.
I hadn’t expected the sudden shift in tactics. I could only curse my tendency to tunnel vision as the sludge soaked my left arm.
The poor hand was taking a beating today—first crushed under the weight of an eight-star spirit bear, then after being healed it was about to get dissolved.
The bear growled in my direction, but I only saw pity and rage in its eyes. It held no malice towards me, only the viper which had turned it rabid.
In that moment we came to a silent understanding, a shared bond of hatred and a disdain for venom that I hoped would let us work together to slay the snake.
Unfortunately for both of us, working together still didn’t solve the problem of the snake’s terrain advantage. It hissed at me as I grit my teeth through the pain of my skin rotting, unable to strike back.
The pain faded fast and looking down I saw only a little of my flesh had been consumed by the potent venom. Again? But my blood essence is still dormant… I wondered why my body was so tough even while the aggressive sparks remained unaffected.
They’d rushed to devour that venomous energy before, so what had changed? Was it my body itself, rather than the blood essence that filled it, which made me tough against toxins?
I had these questions and more racing through my mind, but right now I had to focus on the battle at hand. I saw the bear’s rage reaching a boiling point and its legs tensed.
Did this dumb beast seriously think jumping into the swamp would end well? So much for the fabled intelligence of spirit beasts… Given the two I’d met I was starting to think such tales were massively exaggerated or just straight up lies.
On second thought however, perhaps it wouldn’t be so suicidal for the bear to take the fight to the viper’s swamp? It wasn’t fighting alone after all.
And if there was one thing I was confident in, it was my ability to heal wounds. I’d already proven I could cleanse the venomous corruption and my blood essence had even evolved since then, taking the vile energy and making it my own.
Then again, just because the spirit bear had left me alive once, that didn’t make us friends. It had proven its intelligence wasn’t the greatest. It roared in defiance and the snake turned its attention towards the furry beast.
Right now, I had a window of opportunity. I could make a run for it. I knew the venom wasn’t deadly to me, at least not in small doses.
I took a single step back, then another. No. I wasn’t a coward. I scolded myself, halting my retreat.
A faint murmur of icy dread faded from my core. It seemed my oath wouldn’t have allowed me to run anyway, at least not without suffering a backlash.
Even though the bear got itself into this mess, it was still suffering and in need of my help. I clenched my fists. The bear narrowly dodged a ball of corrosive spit.
It roared and I saw it bend down on its hind legs. It was now or never. I raced forward, leaping into the air at the same moment as the bear.
We collided mid flight, though I managed to grab hold of its fur and awkwardly straddle its back as we flew towards the viper. The snake seemed shocked that we would dare challenge it in its foul domain.
I noticed the bear had sustained more corrupting wounds and immediately poured my blood essence into them. It glanced back at me, a puzzled expression on its face, but didn’t have time to question my actions.
We slammed into the snake.
A roar and a whirlwind of claws erupted, the snake spewing its venom as fast as it could while snapping with its jaws, vicious fangs dripping with corrosive bile. The fight in the air lasted a few seconds at most, but the snake sported deep cuts down its neck. Perhaps we could win after all.
That thought was crushed mercilessly when we landed in the swamp. The bear screeched in pain as the potent toxins began eating away at its paws.
I intensified my efforts, forcing as much of my blood essence into its wounds as I could. I wondered if using my technique continuously like this would have any unexpected side effects, though I soon had no time to think at all.
The bear was able to stand up in the swamp, barely. The sludge coated it up to its midsection and the more vicious bubbles sprayed me in acidic slime, burning at my skin. And that wasn’t all.
Now that we were well and truly stuck, the snake let out a series of hissing sounds. I could’ve sworn it was laughing. It reared up before diving under the water, vanishing in a spray of sludge.
Shit.
If we couldn’t see our opponent how were we supposed to fight it? The bear seemed to share my thoughts, but it was far from intelligent.
It roared and seemed prepared to dive into the deep end of the swamp, to chase after its prey. I took the liberty of grabbing the scruff of its neck and pulling back, making it growl at me and bare its fangs.
“Listen, bear. I think you can understand me a little. If you jump in there, we’re both dead. We need to let the snake think it has the upper hand, then drag it out of the swamp. You get it?” I asked, gesticulating wildly with my hands in the hope the visual cues might drive the point home.
For all my efforts, the bear just tilted its head and let out a softer growl. Despite the fact its legs were the battleground between the burning swamp and my rejuvenating blood essence, it still wanted to dive in.
However, my wild shouts seemed to have gotten through its thick skull. It remained in place, with me perched atop its back. Suddenly, I saw the swamp bubbling more than usual right beside us.
“Right there, get ready!” I cried, pointing at the swamp to grab the bear’s focus.
Two fangs broke the surface, followed immediately by the biggest ball of spit I’d ever seen. The bear reared up on its hind legs with a roar and I grabbed onto its fur tightly.
My legs flung outwards, but I held on. And then the beasts clashed in a spray of blood and venom.
A surge of power raced up my arm, causing me to almost let go of the bear. My blood essence returned, stronger and more numerous than before.
Which was odd, because I hadn’t ceased the technique since leaping onto the bear and making it my mount. In fact, that wasn’t the only change in my technique.
I realised that not only could I see the chaotic battle between my blood essence and the viper’s venomous energy, but I could feel every clash. Every explosion of blood and venom.
Faintly, but still. This was a miraculous change. I drooled thinking of the future possibilities.
Would my healing technique reach a point where I could use my blood essence to sense where a patient needed healing; to pinpoint the source of their pain in an instant?
Such an ability was unheard of on Earth, but doctors would’ve killed for it. Well, perhaps only wounded—death was bad for business, after all.
I nearly fell once again as the viper struck, biting deep into the bear’s neck. My companion roared in agony, but it was not going to be outdone.
It swung its paws, rending the viper’s flesh with its razor-sharp claws. Purplish-red blood seeped from the wounds and the spirit snake hissed in fury.
But my companion wasn’t finished.
The bear unleashed a furious barrage of strikes, slashing at every scale it could see. A few were torn off and others carved in two.
We were finally turning the tides. However, just then I felt the swamp tremble. I cried out, “Bear, dodge!” But it was too late.
The snake’s tail smashed into the bear’s torso and sent us both flying. It roared out, catching the tail with an errant swipe of its claws.
At least we’d done some damage back. However, the snake wasn’t satisfied with a single strike.
It pounced from the swamp, darting straight at the bear. The spirit beast raised its claws to guard its exposed neck as the snake closed in.
But at the last moment it switched directions and sailed right past the bear’s head. I realised too late that I was its target.
A final burst of essence exploded up my arm right as two venomous spears pierced my shoulder. I cried out as the snake bit down and felt my body jerk to the side.
The bear roared out, but it was powerless to save me. The viper ripped me from my perch and dragged me into the bubbling swamp below.
Not willing to die like this, I writhed and fought against the iron clamp that was the snake’s jaw. It had locked it shut like a vice around my shoulder, refusing to release its prey now that it had been caught.
My punches and kicks made it tremble, its slit-eyes burning through me with a venomous glare. However, its fangs didn’t budge.
All the while, I felt a hundred spears of cold corruption bleeding into my chest through the viper’s fangs. The same energy I’d once devoured, but ten times more potent.
My blood essence stirred, eager for another battle. However, I was weak right now. I’d not had time to finish my healing technique on the bear.
How could I? I’d been constantly renewing it, once again doing something unheard of with the technique.
Most of the applications felt that way. I’d never received proper guidance on the qi healing technique, since Zhao Dan had never reached that level before his unfortunate suicide.
I could only go off my brief observation of Wang Ren’s use of the technique, my instincts and past knowledge, and the desires of my blood essence. It was far from enough.
Missing a large quantity of my blood essence, I was barely able to fight the venom to a standstill. And worse, with the snake’s jaws buried deep inside, they were able to pump a constant stream of corrupting energy into my chest.
It was a repeat of when I’d devoured the toxic energy, but the roles were reversed. This time I was on the losing side.
The air was suddenly knocked from my lungs as the snake smashed me against the surface of the swamp. I coughed and spluttered, but all that did was make me inhale foul sludge.
My chest burned as the combined attack of the venomous snake and the corrosive swamp water ate away at my insides. After all my struggles and triumphs, was this the end of my second life.
I’d accomplished more than Zhao Dan ever had; ever expected to. And yet to me, this was just the beginning of a life, despite having all the memories of an unfamiliar childhood.
I refused to go out without a fight.
Anything would do. I clawed and kicked, screamed and scratched, punched and pulled at the snake. I wanted—no, I needed—to tear its fangs out.
Rip its head from its neck and feed it to the bear. However, for all my valiant efforts and vengeful fury, I accomplished little.
The snake hissed in anger, one eye swollen and half shut while bleeding from a dozen wounds. I grinned, seeing that my dying desperation hadn’t been entirely futile.
However, the corrosive cold was spreading through my chest. My blood essence was losing the battle, slowly but surely.
The snake dragged me under the surface and my entire body began to burn and blister as the corrosive swamp went to work. It was agonising, even with my body’s resistance to toxins.
In fact, that strange ability of mine made this worse. Instead of a quick death, the torture dragged on, the snake refusing to release its prey.
My movements grew sluggish as the venom took hold, petrifying my muscles in place. Even wiggling a finger became hard, though that didn’t stop me from clawing desperately at the viper’s jaws.
Eventually I wasn’t able to even close my eyes, every muscle in my body locked in place. My furious blood essence still fought on, trying its utmost to devour the venom and restore me to health. However, it was futile.
The spirit snake’s venom continued to surge into my chest, constantly renewing whatever I was able to absorb. Finally, I could truly resist no more.
Instead of devouring me then and there, the snake released me at last, letting my body fall towards the swamp’s depths. But it was too late.
Even without more venom surging into my veins, the swamp water was working from the outside, burning through my skin. The outer layer was almost flayed off entirely and I was almost glad my eyes were frozen, stopping me from watching the gruesome process unfold.
All I could do as my mind slowly shut down was cheer on the final valiant dregs of my blood essence as they raged against the odds. They’d taken on a deeper green hue now, stuffed full of venomous energy.
I noticed how effectively they were dissolving the viper’s venom, but there was simply too much of it.
My thoughts went out to the bear. It still had plenty of my blood essence. Perhaps it had healed enough to take down the snake.
At least then my soul could rest easy, knowing I hadn’t died in vain. Though I wasn’t too confident in my rather dumb ally.
So cold…
I moaned, but I couldn’t even shiver. Turning my gaze inwards, I watched as the venom and swamp sludge ate through my body.
The morbid curiosity of a doctor let me appreciate the process with an almost sterile detachment. My mind was so foggy…
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to fall asleep right now. I needed a good rest after all the crap I’d been through. A faint part of me protested, but I was powerless to resist.
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