Chapter 148: Crimson lightning.

Chapter 148: Crimson lightning.To any normal person the concept of being full of energy meant they could work hard, exercise or spend it any other way. It was the excessive energy they didn’t need and currently Lee had the surplus power he intuitively wanted to waste.

’Since it’s something I want to waste, why not try to ...’

Lee never intended to help anyone else the way Tess, Alan or Ingrid did – by wasting their own lifeforce. But if the energy was already excessive – he didn’t need it to begin with! It was not like he was going to hurt himself!

Lee sat behind Edward who passed out in a meditative position and put both palms on his back. He took several deep breaths, calming down and focusing on his abdomen, on the elemental particles that happily danced around the two sparks.

Normally both clouds consisting on blue and yellow particles slowly revolved around the sparks, but now, after involuntarily tasting Purple spirit roots, it felt like they woke up and had a party.

Lee didn’t know any healing techniques or methods, but he had a theory. If his body was naturally healed because of the water spark, it should have the same effect on another person. All he had to do was to transfer the elemental particles in the other person in a way making a connection with the spark.

It wasn’t easy at first, but Lee dropped all cautiousness, because Edward’s condition clearly couldn’t get any worse.

For twenty or so breaths nothing happened, but then Edward woke up, loudly gasping for air.

"I’m trying something out." Lee said, "Focus on your cultivation technique."

Xiao Lian curiously observed the two, but in the dark he couldn’t see much.

Meanwhile Lee was struck with another problem.



He was certain that the water particles should be the ones to heal Edward, but as soon as he began to transfer them over, it felt like the earth particles revolving around the yellow spark were starting to obstruct the process. And the less blue particles remained, the more active the yellow ones became.

At first it was hard to notice because Lee’s control over elemental particles wasn’t even close to be as good as he wished. But after a while he noticed the phenomenon and realized that if he continued it could cause some unwanted changes within him.

’What if ... I send the earth particles too?’ Lee wondered, ’The body is made of both – water and earth, right?’

The idea seemed logical and he managed to stabilize the process, but it was until Edward cried out in pain. He tried to suppress it, but apparently he had been in agony already for some time. And only after Edward finally had some reaction, Lee noticed some of his wounds were bleeding again.

From the looks of it the guy had fought the pain for a while, and if he hadn’t, Lee would’ve sooner realized he was hurting him.

Cursing Edward’s willpower, Lee quickly changed tactics. Clearly the earth particles were disrupting the process, thus he pressed his left palm on the rock they were sitting on and tried to directly discharge them.

To separately control two different flows of energy at least quadrupled the difficulty, but Lee persisted, ignoring his annoyance with himself.

Noting that one should never assume of something being so bad it couldn’t get any worse, he focused on the two flows of energy.

"Brother Lee? I think something’s off!" Xiao Lian said.

"No shit!" Lee hissed, trying to not loose focus.

His change of tactics clearly worked, because he sensed Edward’s body’s temperature steadily rising. It clearly was better than him freezing to death, but it was kind of becoming too hot.

Lee thought that Xiao Lian spoke about Edward’s condition, but what he didn’t notice was the direction the guy was looking at.

High above them, occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the dark clouds. It would’ve been fine if another storm was brewing, but what Xiao Lian didn’t like was that the lighting occurred directly above them and nowhere else. In addition, the color of the flashes was peculiar, not the natural white, but dark red, even slightly purple.

"I think it’s working!" Lee said, not stopping the process, "Edward, how are you doing?"



"No idea ..." Edward said. His voice sounded almost normal compared to how weak it was all day, or rather – during the periods he was conscious, "If I didn’t know better, I would say I’m great!"

"Good! Continue to focus on elemental energies ... I don’t know ... fuck ... just continue to what you’re doing. It seems it’s working." Lee said.

The whole thing was an improvised attempt to save the guy’s life and if it worked, it was great no matter if they knew what they were doing or not.

What allowed Lee to slightly relax was the fact that all he was doing kind of felt natural and not forced. And if it was a natural flow of energy, what he was doing couldn’t harm Edward.

They continued for twenty or so breaths, but Edward’s body temperature continued to raise. Lee already began to wonder if it would be beneficial for him to take a cold shower, but Xiao Lian grew increasingly restless.

Both Edward and Lee were focusing on their thing with eyes closed, and only Xiao Lian saw that the lightning discharges in the clouds became more frequent. There was still no sign of rain, and the strangest part was that the wind died down completely.

"Something’s off!" Xiao Lian repeated, "He’s glowing!"

"Don’t you think it’s something people say only to a pregnant lady?" Lee said, but at the same moment a crimson lightning bolt struck both him and Edward.

The deafening blast hurled Xiao Lian several yards away. His ears rang, and vision slightly swam, but when he tried to get up two more lightning hits slammed into Edward and Lee in succession.

Xiao Lian was thrown off his feet again, but when he got up, completely panicked, he saw the two silhouettes still sitting on the same rock.

"Brother Lee?" He called out, and glanced upward.

If he wasn’t worried about Lee’s condition, Xiao Lian would’ve sighed in relief.

Above their heads, one after another, stars began to appear. In the span of few breaths the whole sky cleared up and the earlier darkness transformed into a beautiful starry night.

"Brother Lee?" Xiao Lian repeated and took few steps toward the two.



Neither was moving, but the stench of burned flesh sent Xiao Lian’s mind into chaos. Lee was the first person he ever considered a friend and a thought of something happening to him hurt many times more than the headache he currently had after the three blasts.

He slowly went over to where their backpacks lie and pulled out a torch. Lee prepared few of them in advance and while they used them sparingly, there were only a couple left.

Xiao Lian didn’t care, though.

He lit the torch up and took a step toward Lee and Edward, but stopped seeing the terrible sight.

Hot steam was coming from their bodies, and both their heads were burned black. He couldn’t see their faces, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

He stood there for a while, while tears rolled down his cheeks, and stared at horrific view. He was upset, but then became angry at Lee, and heavens, and this place.

He did force back the impulse to kick Lee, although it felt like some punishment was in order. No one forced them to save anyone and they would’ve been fine running around and gathering roots.

Right. Roots.

Were those the reason the crimson lighting struck them? Was eating few vegetables that bad? Be as it may, the two who ate them were cooked, literally.

Xiao Lian pondered for a bit what to do with the remains and decided to bring Lee’s back. His bag was almost half empty anyway and Xiao Lian wasn’t sure if after Lee’s death he was in the mood to fool around the Serrakar Plateau anyway. He probably had to join a larger group and tag along until they got to the west coast.

He sighed again, walked up to the two, but the moment he intended to split them, a distant shout stopped him.

"Don’t!" He heard woman’s voice from somewhere far away in the dark, "Don’t touch them!"