143 - Pushing One's Luck

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“What are you thinking?" Kerak asked, noticing the devious expression on Qin Yun's face. Qin Yun's gaze was locked downward onto Ressa's unconscious body, and Kerak couldn't help but feel a slight chill.

“Nothing, really,” he replied as this expression vanished, returning to normal. “She won’t be unconscious for long. We should probably tie her up. I doubt she’ll suddenly become cooperative once she wakes up.”

Kerak felt conflicted about doing such a thing to a fellow outsider, yet he had no better option. He knew full well how wilful she could be once she made up her mind. Qin Yun's worries weren't unfounded.

So they tied her to a tree using the chains that Qin Yun provided. They weren't made of anything exceptional, just your normal iron, yet they were thick enough that not even Kerak knew whether he could break them with his bare hands, much less the much smaller Ressa.

Once it was done, both men simply waited for her to come to. Meanwhile, Qin Yun focused on healing his wounds, but there was also something he wished to inquire about. From the bottom of his black box, in an area he had never ventured into in this life, Qin Yun extracted a single red pill.

It wasn't anything magical. There was no spiritual fluctuation, nor qi wafting out from it, for this was no pill born of the techniques of this world. He had acquired this a long time ago, in another lifetime.

He held it in his hand and waited—waiting for something to happen, yet nothing of note did. In fact, the only change was the gaze he always felt on them was growing slightly stronger, yet he felt no threat.

Unlike the Heavenly Dao, it doesn't seem as omnipotent. I guess it already has its hands full, keeping this world alive, and has no time to smite me down.

Qin Yun relaxed a little, and a smile appeared on his lips. He then opened his mouth and threw the red capsule in. It broke when it struck his tongue, spilling the granular content down his throat.

Qin Yun felt a warmth spread throughout his body, vitality coursing through his veins. The pain receded, becoming a minor itch as the wound slowly healed.

"What was that?" Kerak asked as he watched him take the pill.

While the Outsiders had no discipline of alchemy, they knew very well how the mainlanders' pill looked, and this capsule was unlike anything he had ever seen before. For one, it wasn't a sphere, but some sort of tube with a slit in the middle, almost as if two halves had been stuck together as a vessel for something. Somehow, it felt unnatural.

“Just some regular medicine,” he replied. “Something I came across on my travels.”

Kerak was unconvinced as he wasn't a fool. He could clearly sense that something had shifted around them, but unlike Qin Yun, he wasn't versed in this world's nature. All he had was his instinct, and they screamed at him that something had changed, yet it wasn't enough to threaten them.

A soothing sensation overcame Qin Yun, and the fog over his mind slowly dissipated. He could finally think clearly again as the damage caused by his overuse of his intent slowly faded.

Qin Yun basked in that warmth for over ten minutes, feeling all his fatigue fade, yet he noticed something concerning. The medicine couldn't reach his qi centre. It was blocked from ever going too close by a golden barrier created by the now-dull characters shining on his lotus. Qin Yun couldn't help but chuckle.

Even here, cut away from the world, the Heavenly Dao still tries to exert its will over me. There really is no free meal. This tribulation qi did come with some restrictions.

Still, Qin Yun merely shrugged and reached back into his black box, delving even deeper this time. Out came another pill, but this one was pure black. Qin Yun looked at it with hesitation in his eyes.

Then, the ground beneath their feet began to shake. A sharp gale blew through the thick vegetation, breaking branch after branch, even threatening to collapse the tree around them. The ground cracked, forming deep fissures that ran for many meters, and even as Qin Yun looked down into one of them, he couldn’t see the bottom. There was only darkness as the eye could see.

"What's happening? What did you do?" Kerak asked, seeing the timing. He would be a fool to not notice that all this happened as soon as Qin Yun took out this black capsule. Still, Qin Yun ignored him. Instead, he raised his gaze and looked to the sky as if awaiting something. His hand containing the black capsule remained near the black box, ready to return it immediately.

The sky darkened gradually, almost like night had fallen, yet there were no stars, only thick dark clouds blotting out the sun. Fortunately, Qin Yun could not see lightning arcing on their surfaces, nor did he feel the oppressive dread that Heavenly Tribulation usually evoked.

Qin Yun merely waited, yet for Kerak, this felt like an eternity. His instincts screamed at him to run away, lest he face the might of this world, yet this might never fell, almost as if it couldn't. Gradually, he grew used to it and could keep his legs steady, keeping them from buckling under the pressure.

Surprisingly, Ressa didn't wake up, and Qin Yun could only be thankful for small mercies. He had no interest in dealing with her now that something of this scale was happening. But, after a while, the clouds dissipated, and the world returned to peace; however, something had changed.

The surrounding vegetation was slowly wilting, almost as if something was sapping its strength. It wasn't enough to topple the massive trees rising to the sky, yet countless much smaller bushes were reduced to ash, picked up by the wind, and scattered everywhere, almost creating a dust storm.

Kerak even had to cover his eyes and mouth with a small piece of cloth to avoid inhaling all of it, and he did the same for the unconscious Ressa. Meanwhile, Qin Yun didn't care. His gaze merely remained upwards, watching as the dark clouds dissipated to the last, with his hand still hovering near the black box, always waiting.

Only when they were completely gone and the gaze he felt upon him had faded substantially did he finally relent and let out a long breath.

"What is that pill?" Kerak asked, somewhat irate. He was still shaken from what had just happened, yet could mostly keep his composure. "Is it something dangerous?"

"It's not," Qin Yun replied, shaking his head. "It's merely foreign, something that shouldn't exist in this world, just like the corruption. The one sustaining this world just mistakenly thought it could bring it harm and overreacted. It exerted its strength, but that seemed to have backfired."

Kerak remained confused but gave up questioning him further, for he knew this was all he would get. Instead, he checked up on Ressa, ensuring the tremors hadn't broken her bonds or injured her in any way. Fortunately, his fears were unfounded. She still remained unconscious.

"Keep an eye on her," Qin Yun said as he walked a short distance away before sitting on a large, flat rock. "Alert me if something important happens or if she wakes up. Otherwise, you shouldn't disturb me."

Qin Yun didn't bother to explain more than this. He even ignored the complicated look Kerak was giving him as he reached for his mechanical arm and pressed on the two releases on each of the sides attached to his flesh.

I shouldn't have been so impulsive to reattach it. I guess overusing intent made my thoughts more muddled than I first thought. Had I been more clear-headed, I wouldn't have had to endure so much pain.

Qin Yun couldn't help but sigh, for what he was about to do would look more than idiotic for someone who didn't know better. Once the two latches were held upright, the mechanical arm slowly detached itself from his flesh, retracting the drills attached to his nerves.

The process wasn't as painful as when they drilled into him, but it was by no means comfortable. He felt the same intense itch that was now omnipresent on the wound of his other shoulder. Still, the first red capsule he had taken made this all much more bearable.

Once the arm was entirely removed, he carefully put it back into storage, then eyed the black pill in his hand. He took a deep breath, steeled his resolve and finally took it.

This time, it wasn't warmth spreading to his body but a dull pain slowly rising in intensity. It started out mild as the capsule broke, spilling its contents down his throat. However, it never reached his stomach, for it quickly dug through the walls of his esophagus and mouth to reach his bloodstream.

This was no common medicine, but countless machines too small for the eye to see. There were millions upon millions, even reaching up to a trillion, yet each was a few nanometres long. At this size, they could slip into every cell in his body as they flowed through his bloodstream and could enact repairs on injuries Qin Yun didn't even know he possessed. They were even small enough to enact changes on his DNA itself, mutating him into whatever he wished.

Of course, Qin Yun had no such intentions. All he wished for was to return to his peak, and this method was simply the most effective. Yet this didn't come without cost. The way these nanomachines made repairs was rather barbaric. They simply destroyed damaged cells before prompting the nearby ones to divide further, replacing them.

The more they destroyed his cells, the more pain Qin Yun felt, but fortunately, he had taken the red pill, making this experience much more bearable. However, the worst was his missing arm. It felt as if it was plunged into boiling water. Fortunately, it wasn't in vain, for there were signs of new growth.

While qi could offer the same effect, even without pain, it wasn't close to as effective. It would have taken at least a month in an area brimming with qi to fully recover his arm, yet after just a few minutes, his elbow had already reappeared.

Kerak watched it all in stunned horror and morbid curiosity. He knew even his people had methods to regrow missing limbs, but all of them required the blessing of their god. But even then, they wouldn't quite be the same ever again. However, Qin Yun's growing limb was an exact copy of the one on the other side.

Entranced by the sight, Kerak only just now felt some movement at his side. He turned sharply, only to see that Ressa was now awake. To his surprise, she hadn't said a single word; she had merely watched Qin Yun's regeneration with the same look he currently had on his face. She was too stunned to even attempt to break the chains that bound her to this massive tree.

As for Qin Yun, he wasn’t aware that she had woken. All his attention fell on this miracle, using intent to drive all the nanomachines to his right arm, yet the most he could do was to nudge them in the right direction. Still, they were far from perfect.

Some split from the pack as they began attacking his cells, destroying and regenerating them quickly. This led to rapid aging, something Qin Yun might have been concerned about, but as a cultivator, he could easily remedy this at a later date once he returned to where the world was brimming with qi. At most, he aged maybe a year or two, hardly worth mentioning.

After less than another ten minutes, his arm was now complete, and only one task remained to be done, the most important one, the one Qin Yun had been dreading from the start. He now needed to rid himself of these nanomachines, yet he couldn't just let them loose upon the world, for this was what the world feared most of all.

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