"You don't have to be." Lotus responded, "But, you have your own talents to be proud of. Take those talents and make it stronger. As the heir and child of the richest merchant family in Scalding Sands, you should have keen eyes to tell part the quality of products. Rather it's a scam or not, you should be able to tell it apart the majority of the time. Not many have this. Other than you, there is also Jamil who grew up learning from his family. For example, ever since you've entered the nurse's office, you've been staring at the papers in my hands even though I haven't shown them to you. I can't tell if you just have good luck or good eyes, but you confirmed it with your own mouth. You wanted the information of the students in your dorm and I haven't even done anything that made you think they were their papers."
"But, there were printed words from the back of the sheets." Kalim pointed out curiously, "They clearly showed information of our third-year students in the dorm and his sprained ankle."
"Really?" Lotus responded with a smirk and turned the stack of papers in her hands around, "However, to me, they are just a jumble of black ink that's muddled up their message. I can't see the name or the words from the back."
"Seriously?" Kalim looked to her in shock.
"I can't make it out without taking the papers from the stack." Lotus confirmed her words without much effort as she sat down on her tall stool, "You can't see far nor do you have a good memory, but you have a keen sense for details and isn't bound to become overly fixated on the past or your own failures. For others, they could become so obsessed with it that they would lose track of themselves. You instinctively knew how to relax and stop thinking about it. Take these and try to gain experience. Study hard now and gain experience after. Just because you can't reach the moon now, you can at least hold on to the stars in the future with your own efforts. Naive words, but they aren't really wrong either."
She shrugged and placed her papers onto the counter, "Focus on studying hard and working hard now. Leave your weakness to those you trust. In this case, Jamil, right? To begin with you already have the chance to outshine others called skills. If you use that to your advantage properly, you will start become stronger and also help Jamil later on in the future. I don't need to test your resolve, do I?"
As she said this with a smirk, Kalim clasped a hand and said with a wide and confident smile, "Yeah! For now, I'll just study hard and we have have a party for everyone's recovery after the holidays! Great! Now, I know what I can do! Thanks for the advice, Lotus! See you later!"
With that, he ran out of the nurses's office as Lotus calmly waved back from her seat. However, the moment the door was closed behind him. She crumbled to the floor and clasped onto her chest in pain.
Cold. It's so cold...
She couldn't stop coughing as covered her mouth with one hand just in time to catch the black liquid vomited out from her mouth. It was just a tiny spat of liquid, but a handful of black liquid. The scent of blood filled her nostrils as she winced from another wave of pain. Nervously, she struggled onto her feet and stumbled over to the door before locking it tight shut and flipping the closed sign. Then, she crumbled onto the ground as everything around her faded away into darkness.
.....
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in her soul realm and looked upon herself to find that she was back in her red brocade with her feminine appearance. The signs of black liquid and the pain was gone. Looking around, she could tell that she was on one of the peaks left unexplored. It was the strange misty peak that only ever grew clear at night. The moment she looked around, however, she was stunned. Under the mist from the surface, there was a rainforest of a multitude of colors!
It was no different from a color bomb of many colors. There was many tall trees and a large canopy full of crazy Aside from that, the only thing she recognized the red dirt rich with minerals and spiritual energy, similar to the others. However, the energy was cool to the touch, but not cold that nothing could survive from it. The air was warm and moist and many smaller critters could be noticed shuffling around her. The creatures weren't dangerous at all, but that didn't mean that she wasn't in a panic. Or rather, she was very concerned at the moment. She has no fear against the meaning behind the colorful facade of these creatures and plants. Instead, she was more concerned of which part of the peak she was in.
This peak was a little unusual from the beginning since it was a forest covered in mist. Naturally, she kept away from it after seeing the mist the first time, but now that she's inside the matter was different. Despite all this, the pain in her chest continued and her feeble attempt to bite the pain back down only grew weaker and weaker as black ink spilled from her mouth. Despite the luke warm she had felt in the presence the chilled sense of the cold permeated through her body.
Cold...
Looking to her chest, she could see the cold energy radiating from it. It was obvious that it had grown stronger. It was cold and painful...
In this lukewarm place, it was at least better than being stranded on that white peak not too far from here. Still, the pain was at least a little easier to bear. However...
She scowled, "Guh... Looks like moving around is still a no..."
She grimaced and decided to utilize her eyes once more. If she were right, Riddle and the others were on the fire spiritual peak, Leona on the Earth spiritual peak, and Azul was on the Water spiritual peak. If this goes on, then this Life Spiritual peak... should have him on it and this is not the best time for her to see him.
She struggled to pull herself to the side and tried to call out for Little Jun. However, he didn't respond. Frustrated, she grimaced painfully from another spasm of pain. It was always times like these when she was unable to do anything!
Whenever, she was in pain from this, she would lose her connection to the other contract beasts and items as well as be rendered unable to do anything!
Thinking about this, she looked around and saw the area to be full of plant life but bare of anything she requires! It was just poison after poison components as far as the eye can see. However, the pain was not weakening to save herself any amount of relief.
She scowled in frustration before coming to a conclusion. Another bile struggled up, but she bit it back down and immediately sat down then began to focus on her spiritual energy circulating in her body. With the spiritual energy swirling around her, she struggled to gather whatever bits of fire spiritual qi was in the air.
By the time she opened her eyes, the sun had already set and the humid air actually retained its warmth. the pain in her chest lessened greatly and her body had started to grow warm enough for her to move without shivering from the cold. Surprised, she looked around to find that there was no signs that anyone had passed by and grew curious regarding where that guy was. Then, again, it would probably better that he didn't find her or was dumb enough to appear in the area.
"Little Jun..." She mumbled under her breath, "Xiao Li... Medicine..."
She reached out to Little Jun once more. This time, he appeared without much wait and was shocked to see his big sister seemingly hurt on the ground.
"Big Sister!" Little Jun cried out in horror as he rushed over to her.
"You finally heard me." Lotus laughed weakily before reaching out to Little Jun's neck as he helped her up.
She was quiet and calm as she spoke these words. However, since they have a contract between each other, he could tell that she was in intense pain and he was horrified and nervous as he hurried picked her up onto his back.
"Xiao Li told me to bring the medicine to you." Little Jun showed her the white porcelain bottle tied to his horn with a red string.
Lotus took out the purple pill and swallowed it. She grimaced and continued grimacing against the pain that's slowly ebbed away, "That peak where Riddle and the others are... Don't let them see me..."