28 A Chilling Injury

Several hours had passed since Lien Hua and her two friends had started training and everything seemed to be going well. They were just a little tired after all this use of spiritual energy and it could be seen from their sweaty foreheads that they were trying hard.

Of course during all this training time they had not only used spiritual energy but had mainly tried to train their posture in performing the ocean wave palm. Although it might have looked easy, standing still in the horse position for several hours was quite difficult.

Lien Hua was currently looking ahead, focused more than ever on performing the exercise perfectly, or so she thought. 'Why is it so difficult? Even after several hours, I still find it difficult to get the spiritual energy out even slowly!'

But still, without completely throwing in the towel, Lien Hua closed her eyes, and with her mind she thought about letting out the last little strand of spiritual energy left in her body. 'Come on, come on, come on! Yes!' Managing to let it out completely and slowly bringing it up to her belly, Lien Hua felt that she had now reached the limit of her ability to send it forth, Lien Hua opened her eyes and pushed her palms together with all her might.

Watching the small waves of 1-2 centimetres in circumference, much more present than yesterday's waves had formed and then broken after a few meters, Lien Hua was happy.

'Yay! Finally after so many hours I managed to improve, even if only briefly.' Happy with this improvement, the girl turned to her friends who had also made huge progress compared to yesterday.

However, just as she was turning towards them, something happened that made Lien Hua's blood run cold. Lin Yue, who was currently in the horse stance and had her eyes closed in order to concentrate on releasing the spiritual energy from her Dantian, suddenly, as if a small shock had gone through her body, bent over her stomach, and placing a hand on the ground to restore herself, began to cough up blood. *Cough Cough*

"Lin Yue!?! What the hell happened!?!"

Chen Huang and Lien Hua immediately rushed to her side to check on her and were trembling with fear that something bad had happened to her. Looking at her hunched over in such a condition, Lien Hua didn't know what to do. 'What the hell happened? It's probably the same thing that happened to me, but why did she spit out blood.'

Chen Huang meanwhile approached and put a hand on Lin Yue's shoulder to try to help her. He would not have expected that the moment his hand had touched his friend's shoulder, that she would fall to the ground unconscious.

Lien Hua looked at this and opened her eyes wide in terror, fearing the worst. Kneeling down next to Lin Yue, who was lying on the ground with her face turned towards the grass, Lien Hua first turned Lin Yue onto her back and then put two fingers under the girl's nose.

After a few seconds, Lien Hua, with immense joy, could hear a faint breath. 'It's almost imperceptible, but the importance is that it's there... What a scare. I thought I had lost her too...' With hands trembling from fear, Lien Hua tried not to think of anything else but helping Lin Yue; she couldn't make any mistakes.

So Lien Hua turned to Chen Huang who was petrified by the shock of this situation. Irritated, Lien Hua began to shout orders at him and succeeded in snapping him out of his stupor.

"CHEN HUANG! WAKE UP! HURRY UP AND GET A CLOTH!!! MEANWHILE, I'M TAKING HER IN, DO YOU HEAR ME?

"A- L-i Y-u w- o-"

As if his brain had started up again from a blackout, Chen Huang only stammered in response and followed the first command he was given as fast as a cut rope breaks and ran into Lien Hua's house, almost taking the screen door along with him.

Lien Hua seeing that her intent had succeeded, didn't care that she had yelled at her friend, and resting one hand under Lin Yue's neck gently and another hand under the girl's knees, Lien Hua effortlessly stood up carrying the weight of someone relatively her own size, surprising herself with her own strength.

But not thinking too much about her last thought, she immediately went back to helping Lin Yue. Even though she herself was in a great deal of panic, Lien Hua tried to keep a clear mind. She was doing what she could. So Lien Hua, with Lin Yue in her arms, carried her friend into the house very gently.

As she entered the house, Lien Hua noticed that Chen Huang was already holding a cloth and following behind her like a lost puppy. Not paying too much attention to him, she gently placed Lin Yue, who was still in her arms, on top of her bed as if she were fiddling with a fragile piece of glass.

Lien Hua, wanting to check Lin Yue's breathing again, put two fingers back under her nose, and noticing that her breathing was still there and slowly improving, she became much more calm.

'Phew... if the breathing is coming back like this, it shouldn't be anything too serious right? It's always best to call for help though.'

So with this idea in mind, Lien Hua turned to Chen Huang, who was behind her standing still and silent as a statue. His eyes were staring at Lin Yue who was on top of the bed inanimate.

"Don't worry, his breathing is getting stronger, so it shouldn't be anything serious, but we need to go get help. Can you go get Old Li? He knows almost everyone in this mountain, so he should know a doctor as well."

"Don't worry Lien Hua, I'll go right away. Old Li is always at the houses in the city, right?"

Receiving a silent nod from Lien Hua, who was meanwhile looking in Lin Yue's direction, Chen Huang, leaving the cloth in front of the girl, began to run towards the city seeking help from Lien Hua's former guardian.

Meanwhile, hearing that Chen Huang had run to seek rescue, Lien Hua smiled. 'I can trust him. Just one look at his face before he left and you could see it was one of absolute resolution. *Sigh*... Who knows what the future will hold for you, dear Chen Huang?'

Looking back over at Lin Yue, who was still unconscious in front of her, Lien Hua took the cloth that had been given to her by Chen Huang and began to clean the girl's lips and face from the blood she had coughed up and then washing her face and taking another clean tablecloth, she began to clean her friend's face from the sweat as well.

In the meantime, while Lien Hua was helping Lin Yue, Chen Huang had already arrived at Old Li's house and informed him of the incident, and at that moment they were already on their way back with another person keeping their pace.

Lien Hua, after a few minutes of being there to help Lin Yue, and as if in a trance, was giving her harmless caresses to her face like a mother would do to her young children when they were sick. Doing these little caresses and seeing that Lin Yue was slowly regaining her colour and her furrowed eyebrows were calming down and a small smile was forming on her lips, Lien Hua was delighted and thought about how some nights she had don't this too for her son and sighed with a slight smile.

'Sigh... it's been so many years already and it's still like you're next to me.'

However, she quickly dismissed that thought when she heard the door being opened with great force, and turning towards it, she removed her hands that had just been caressing Lin Yue. She could see that it was Chen Huang, Old Li, and another adult about 40 or so with a height of about 170-175 centimetres. The other man had glasses that made him look very scholarly, a white uniform with blue embroidery denoting he was an outer sect disciple, and a small blue flame that was embroidered above the large lotus.

''Let me analyse the patient first; then you can ask questions. But I'll be requiring a few minutes of silence."

Noticing how Chen Huang was opening his mouth to ask questions already, the middle-aged gentleman who had arrived with him spoke these words as he stood beside the girl lying on the bed.

Placing two fingers on the right side of Lin Yue's neck, the man closed his eyes. From that moment, one could hear even a drop of water fall from the silence that had been created: everything was focused on the man and Lin Yue.

Only after a few minutes did the previously static gentleman detach his two fingers from Lin Yue's neck, and with a sigh of relief turned towards Old Li.

"Phew… We were lucky it's nothing serious. She simply had a deviation of spiritual energy. Luckily it was only a tiny amount. If it had been twice this amount, she would also have possibly died. She doesn't need any external help; her own body can heal the damage."

"Thank you Qi Gao for your help. Even if it was so sudden, thank you very much."

With a few drops of sweat on his face, Old Li thanked the gentleman called Qi Gao with great respect.

"Don't worry, the alchemists' association motto is 'Help everyone without any discrimination', so we'd happily do this and more."

Saying this, and again receiving thanks from Chen Huang, Lien Hua, and Old Li, Qi Gao left the house followed by Old Li, who, after a warm greeting to Lien Hua, told her he was busy and couldn't stay too long.

Left alone with Lin Yue and Chen Huang, Lien Hua turned to the boy.

"Phew... what a scare I must say. But the important thing is that she's fine and recovering."

"Yeah, luckily…"

As they were talking and had almost called themselves down, a knock rang out on the door of Lien Hua's house.

Chen Huang and Lien Hua were a bit strange and suspicious as they approached, and it was Lien Hua who opened the door, finding nothingness in front of him.

'Nothingness? Mh is this a prank...?' But looking around, finally her eye fell to the ground where a small letter was resting.

Taking it in her hands, she could read who had sent it from the back of the letter. The letter read: From Shi Yueh.