Chapter 192: The Survivor

“What’s so special about a cultivator's body?” Senior Brother Yuan Shen said as he looked at it with a casual disinterest. “We’ve seen plenty in far worse shape.”

“Not a body.” Senior Brother Fan Xiao corrected coldly.

Yang nearly gave himself whiplash with how fast he whipped around to stare at the mummy. Or rather, the person. It was completely impossible to discern whether the figure had once been a man or a woman, though that detail hardly mattered compared to the more pressing question of how anyone could still be alive in such a state.

"How can someone survive like this?" Senior Brother Zhen Hao murmured, more to himself than anyone else, stepping back as Senior Brother Song Weilong moved forward, crouching beside the figure and placing a hand against their forehead, a gentle glow radiating from his palm.

It was clearly a technique intended to soothe pain as Yang watched the person's face ease slightly from the twisted one they had been wearing. Though it wasn't much, the dehydration seemed to have turned the body into hard leather stretched over bones. It was horrifying beyond belief that anyone could survive in this condition. Death would have been a mercy at this point.

Hearing movement behind him, Yang turned to find Senior Brothers Qing An and Fan Xiao flashing quickly through the cavern and the passageways, checking on the other figures one by one. They disappeared into the passages briefly before returning.

Senior Brother Qing An shook his head grimly. "This is the only one left alive, but there are countless others further in, lining the passages as well." He glanced toward the passage openings. "We did not dare go in deeper. If something came at you while we were separated from the group, we would be in a difficult position."

"What should we do?" Yang couldn't help but ask. They were already in a great deal of trouble, and now they had another severely injured person to take care of. He wanted to help but was utterly out of his depth. Senior Brother Song Weilong also looked up in curiosity, all the while stably maintaining the healing technique he was channeling into that person.

"We help as much as we can, provided it doesn't put our own safety at risk," Senior Brother Fan Xiao said, ending in a deep sigh as he stepped over to crouch on the other side of the person and produced a small vial from his storage ring. He opened it and used his left hand to gently pry open the person's jaw before releasing a single drop onto their tongue.

He paused to observe the man's face for a few seconds before administering a second drop. "Keep up the soothing technique," he said to Senior Brother Song Weilong, continuously dropping small amounts of medicine into that person's mouth.

"Senior Brother, what do you make of all this?" Senior Brother Yuan Shen asked Senior Brother Qing An in a hushed tone. Yang stepped closer to listen, joined immediately by Senior Brother Zhen Hao.

Senior Brother Qing An looked very serious as he took out his puppet and directed it quietly. "Watch the passage entrances," before turning back to them.

"This place is teeming with danger," he warned. "I am afraid the creature before was only the beginning." He motioned subtly with his chin toward the person Senior Brother’s Fan Xiao and Song Weilong were taking care of. "That one is a Nascent Soul cultivator." He shook his head. "How he has survived in this condition is beyond my understanding. Even his soul has taken severe damage. Whoever brought these people to this condition is not something to be taken lightly." He added before continuing. "If even a Nascent Soul cultivator is not safe from it, then every one of us is at serious risk. Senior Brother Fan Xiao is the only one among us above that level, and there is no guarantee that whatever we are dealing with is also not just as strong or even stronger than him."

They all went quiet and pensive as Yang glanced back at the man. The treatment appeared to be having some effect on him. The eyes, which had been shut, were now barely open into slits, just a sliver of awareness behind what still looked like an enormous amount of pain.

Senior Brother Fan Xiao stopped with the dropper and looked across at them. "There are more and more bodies as we go deeper in the tunnels. We will set up camp and take rest here for now." He looked at the man. "At least until this one recovers enough to speak. He may be able to tell us something about what we may be facing."

The tension in the group eased slightly at that. They were staying for a while; it was most likely as good as they were going to get. The small cavern was as safe as anything they had found since arriving in this world.

He watched intently as Senior Brother Song Weilong carefully rose, using his qi to gently levitate the frail man onto a small bed produced from his storage ring. Then he sat beside him and resumed the technique he had been doing to provide relief to the man.

Meanwhile, Senior Brother Fan Xiao took out what looked like a whole chest of pills and elixirs and began working through them methodically, administering what he could in small amounts, using a technique to guide each one down his throat since the man was incapable of swallowing on his own.

Yang caught sight of Senior Brother Qing An speaking in hushed tones with Senior Brothers Yuan Shen and Zhen Hao, but he stayed closer to the healing going on here. Feeling pity for what the man had endured, he also couldn't help his burgeoning curiosity about the healing methods of cultivators. It was his first time watching something like this. Though Yang was still unfamiliar with the broader intricacies of the cultivation world, he recognized that almost anyone else coming across this person would have lacked the sheer resources and skill required to save him, even if they were inclined to try to do so. 

He watched, standing a bit aside so as not to disturb them, as gradually the man seemed to start looking a bit better; instead of the initial freeze-dried mummy look he had going for him, he now simply looked like a starved corpse, a faint trace of life returning to him.

Senior Brother Fan Xiao also used a technique that stripped away the grime and decayed outer layers, giving him a far more human appearance before he stopped and looked at the man, who seemed to have fallen asleep, for a few seconds before turning to Yang. "Still watching?"

"I was curious to see how you would treat him," Yang admitted.

Senior Brother Fan Xiao gave a single nod. "He has reached his limit for pills and elixirs for now. I will continue the treatment once he has had time to rest and absorb the medicines already in him."

"How do you think he ended up like this, Senior Brother?" Yang asked.

"I believe he fell victim to some formation or a cursed artifact. I have enough knowledge to treat his physical state from my experience as an alchemist, but the soul is beyond me." He paused. "Maybe if Senior Brother Xiao Zhan was here."

Yang went pensive. He was also cultivating the same technique, but he still had a long way to go before he would be able to help with something like this. Looking back up, he asked, "Do you think this is connected to the creature we encountered above?"

"No, I don't believe so," Senior Brother Fan Xiao said confidently, causing Yang to blink in surprise. So far, everything had been speculation. Senior Brother Fan Xiao's pure confidence in this statement was a bit abnormal.

He seemed to catch Yang's expression and allowed one corner of his mouth to twitch slightly. "You don't believe me." Yang quickly shook his head, now even more surprised at the teasing expression.

"We fell through another rift," Senior Brother Fan Xiao clarified. "You may not have noticed during the fall, but when we broke through the cavern floor, we crossed a spatial boundary. We are no longer in the same space."

Yang was now really stunned. Another rift? Just how unstable was this place? Was this a connected world or a cosmic sieve with how many holes it had?

"Why under the floor?" he couldn't help but ask. "Is it tradition to make rifts in the sky and underground?" What is the wrong with the traditional style portals, why go to the length of making dimensional gutters? Navigating such a world would be an absolute nightmare.

"I doubt it was intentional." Senior Brother Fan Xiao snorted. "Yang, while this space is anchored, tethering a completely whole, independent world to our own is a monumentally difficult task, almost impossible, in fact. What we are walking through is not a whole world. It is the shattered remnants of one."

"Is that common?" he asked. "Fragmented world remnants?"

"No. Quite rare." Senior Brother Fan Xiao considered for a moment. "Think of it as a vase that shattered, with most of the pieces reduced to dust. Only the strongest, most durable sections survived as larger fragments, and those fragments were condensed together into a smaller, twisted, incomplete version of what it had been. That is what we are dealing with."

"Was it the creator of the secret realm who did it? Did they bind the fragments together so they could anchor it to their realm?"

Senior Brother Fan Xiao shook his head. "Not a person. Some worlds simply do this on their own. No one fully understands why. There are theories about something like a world's will to survive, preserving whatever is strong enough to endure the destruction but they are only theories. The creator of the secret realm likely found the world and tethered it to their secret realm"

He placed a hand on Yang's shoulder and squeezed once, then summoned a bed against the wall with his other hand and gestured toward it. "Rest, Junior Brother. We will be here until this man is recovered enough to speak."

Yang obediently nodded and took a seat on the bed and gazed over the cavern they were in as Senior Brother Fan Xiao made his way to Senior Brother Qing An, who stood next to Senior Brothers Yuan Shen and Zhen Hao.

Yang lay on his back but was feeling jittery and knew he wouldn't be able to take any rest for the time being, so instead he decided to instead use his time to do something useful while the others discussed the theories on what may or may not be going on, as he could hear clearly from the distance. He was a cultivator and had good hearing, and none of his Senior Brothers were trying to hide what they were saying, even though they were speaking quieter than normal. Maybe in consideration of the injured man or the possible danger. Either way, Yang wasn't feeling like joining in for now.

He took out the first manual in his storage ring, his hand catching without thinking of any particular title, and raised an eyebrow as he realized what he would be reading.

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