I had walked for a while before I was able to leave the sect's large territory.
And even longer before the hou waves died down.
The sect master and former Queen Jiya definitely can't catch me now.
But…
That aside.
I could still feel the energy I absorbed from Jiya burning my inner world, creating chaos and rampaging as it searched for a way out.
Like an explosion waiting to happen it danced moving between my dantians.
******
The searing heat had weakened the black energy over the long period of time i had walked.
Essentially wearing it away.
I can feel the steam rising from my body.
I stumbled. My hou had now been depleted almost completely.
My hair strewn all over and my clothes torn in multiple areas, my boots dirty and worn. They had seen better Days and the fight with two ridiculously strong powerhouses didn't help any.
I stumble again this time almost falling. My temples throb, the searing pain was causing my spatial awareness to warp.
Sounds were beginning to echo and the ground shifts with every step.
I needed to find a way to purge this energy as quickly as possible.
But who knows what ancient beasts roam these woods?
I need to find a safe place first.
But…
Before this I had never been outside of the sect and had long lost any sense of direction not that it mattered.
I was only hoping to find another town.
But now the fact that the chaos from my inner world was now causing me physical damage was becoming more unavoidable.
I noticed when a soft trail of my blood flowed over my lips when I failed to suppress a sudden cough.
Even worse was the realization that I was barely conscious and only stumbled forward one step at a time.
I was tired after-all.
The massive and chaotic hou depleted my energy and my willpower slowly drained away with it.
Darkness encroached on my vision from the corners of my periphery.
It wasn't sudden even. Just a realization that i was on occasions blacking out. Coming 'to' a few moments later and realizing that I am still walking.
**********
Breathing is a struggle now. I had stumbled-crawled my way into the hollowed out cavity of an extremely large tree among the sea of trees.
I had to stabilize my mentality before I could even begin to repair my inner world, not to mention expelling the rampant energy.
I sat in full lotus. My legs crossed, my arms and shoulders relaxed.
I slowed my breathing, slowing my mind and causing my outer thoughts to fade.
Finally, the darkness was held back no longer and I fell into its blackened maw.
****
Cold wind and rain stung my face alerting me to the heavy down pour.
-Where… am I?-
I open my eyes slowly.
The heavy sheets of rain drenched me causing my hair to be matted to my forehead.
I am no longer in the forest or the tree.
The place houses a familiar feel however I have never been here before…
The immediate area consists of jagged mountain peaks slick with the heavy constant downpour and loose mud. With only one of said mountain peaks having a platform to stand on.
The one I currently occupy.
Something was strange though. Why did the area feel so damn hot despite the torrential rain?
Thunder grumbled miserably in the distance cursing at the lightning passed.
The dark sky cast its miserable aura over the whole region.
I was suddenly made aware of the massive tower of flame behind me over one of the many mountain peaks that dotted the horizon.
"Where the heck is this and what the hell is that burning pillar of flames?" I wondered out load.
"Do you dare be so rude in-front of this master?" the voice boomed from the center of the towering flames.
I stepped back instantly as the voice carried way too much power with it. The voice seemed to wear something in me away.
I instinctively wanted to growl at the voice. I didn't know why but it felt as though my territory was invaded. But that couldnt be.
"You!" the woman's voice demands, its force making my head throb. "Why am I here? And where's my Proxy, Jiya?"
The pain intensified and I close my eyes in response to it. Out of my lips came the only thing that could.
A shrill scream that responded to my pain piercing the heavens and echoing in the void between the distant mountain peaks.
The throbbing pain suddenly stopped escalating and instead, died down gradually. I could once again feel a familiar presence. Slowly I open my eyes and there he stood.
A figure I had seen only once before.
"Master Numinous..." The words escaped my lips in a whisper as he'd turned to face me.
Once again, he seemed fragile, distinctly well dressed, not even having the presence of a dragon yet he had a presence akin to the crushing waves of hou that occasionally covered the Iron region and the sects therein.
Something invisible like wind, but destructive enough to sweep away entire villages.
From the flames a giant hand formed from the flames it burned with immense heat as it reached out to me.
Intending to crush-burn me with its incredible power.
I didn't notice it and would have died if it weren't for Master Numinous' intervention.
He had already held up the palm of his left hand and had easily blocked the giant hand using the invisible force under his control.
It blew away the rain. The force pushing against me gently dried my clothes and hair.
"You!" The woman's angry voice from the column of flame boomed surprise emanating from it.
The invisible force master used wasn't anything I was used to or even anything that I'd ever experienced.
It wasn't hou, nor was it a bloodline technique. It wasn't aura or bloodline suppression. This was something new.
Something I've yet to see or feel even.
"You're supposed to be restricted to the earth sphere!" The voice from the flames seemed to recognize Master.
-But what's the earth sphere?-
"Master...-"
"-Wait." He replied cutting me off and turning to face the pillar of flames.
"The deal was that you lot keep to yourselves so that the world sphere would remain a realm independent of dragons and demons, untainted by the the war raging in the upper realms."
-War? What war?-
" 'WE' kept our part of the deal!" the woman's voice boomed.
"Yet the void monarch see's herself as being above it." Master replied. "And she even dared to put her filthy clone in my realm copulating with my people and coveting our power to cultivate."
Monarch?!
We?!
That pillar of flame.... could it be?? The remnant energy from the flame monarch?!!.
Slowly it started to make sense. Master had ever only appeared to me in my inner world... so this place.. could it be that this..
-This place... its my inner world?!-
Just how did it get so BIG??
Questions pooled in my mind but it was all I could do to tune them out.
My inner world had undergone a massive change. Its land spread out farther than the eyes could see.
Even forming mountains and rivers.
I could feel it even thought only slightly.
but this change was something I had to slowly observe later.
Right now...
If these two fight in here... wont my inner world be destroyed?
I have to find a way to stop them!