Sho didn't wait for the others. He placed his hands on Sumaya's chest, where his heart lay. It was where the biggest Qi Waygate he saw from Sumaya's body, he wanted to flush out the Impure Energy there.
His instinct told him that if he didn't stop the Impure Energy inside his heart, it would be too late to save Sumaya.
Upon contact, he felt the dark Impure Energy invading him. He didn't panic, he was expecting it.
While the invasion happened, he immediately released his Pure Qi Energy, blocking away the Impure Energy trying to invade him. But he didn't stop at just blocking, soon, he released more Qi Energy to start purging away the dark energy. Pure Qi Energy started fighting the Impure Energy, Sho started to sweat. It was not as easy as it sounded. The Impure Energy was condensed, not even any random Pure Energy was within it. At least, not that he could sense it.
He knew that purging Impure Energy, he needed to find the Natural Pure Energy within, exploit it and expand it with his Pure Qi Energy.
The more he felt the energies, the more he felt familiar with it.
*Was I an expert of Qi before? Was that why I suddenly became a Qi Cultivator when I practiced Qi Energy?* He asked himself but couldn't answer.
*It's like Light and Dark Energy. But this Energy has too many Dark, invading the body with too many Dark Energy can cause death. I need to put on more Light until it's balanced enough that the Light Energy can purge the Dark Energy itself.*
He knew his and Sumaya's current Pure Energy couldn't help Sumaya, that's why he immediately opened his eyes and looked around for more Pure Energy around him. Slowly, he was successful in purging the Impure Energy that's invading him.
Now, he needed to purge the Impure Energy within Sumaya. He started to transmit Pure Energy–from the surroundings–to Sumaya, he was gathering the Pure Energy around them and at the same time, trying to guide the Pure energy Towards Sumaya's heart Qi Waygate. Slowly, forcing the Impure Energy out of his Qi Veins.
What he was doing was simple to understand. He was just putting Natural Pure Energy on Sumaya, that way, there would not be enough space for the Impure Energy to take over his heart.
He can slowly purify the Impure Energy but that solution would be in stalemate. It was better to force out the Impure Energy so that he could proceed to the next step.
It was to look for a specific energy that was trying to attract the Impure Energy inside Sumaya. He knew that even if he was successful in driving out those dark energy inside Sumaya, if he wasn't able to find the source of attractions, then he would just be stuck on driving Pure Energy inside Sumaya forever. It wasn't the solution he needed.
Although everything sounded simple, putting in action takes more process. The first is Sumaya's Natural Pure Energy entering Qi Waygate then passing through Qi Vein into Qi Waypoint before the Energy gets accepted by his human body system. Since Sumaya doesn't have any System Energy Storage, he also needed to guide the Energy. And there's also the process of Sho accepting Impure Energy in his Pseudo System Energy Storage purifying it naturally before passing it to Sumaya.
Carefully, he focused on one pure energy and guided that energy to travel on Sumaya's Qi Vein. He heard Sumaya grunted.
*This pain should be normal. Not everyone has access to their Qi Veins like me and Miya. This pain should be like when Sumaya activated the trap and got invaded by Impure Energy. I'm also invading his Qi Veins, there's nothing I can do to dwindle the pain. At least not as of now. But compared to Impure Energy, I don't have any ill intention.*
He willed the Pure Qi Energy to show its friendliness. It was weird, but that was what he was doing. Sumaya's antibody was able to accept his Pure Qi Energy because of this. He was truly amazed, he just followed his instinct and didn't expect it to work.
He silently let out a breath while continuing his search. After a long while, he was finally able to find the source.
*I need to kill this source!*
He knew that simply driving out the energy wouldn't be good. If he expels that energy and another person gets into contact with it, that person would suffer the same fate as Sumaya.
That wasn't a solution he wanted.
So, after finding the source, he poured more Natural Pure Energy on the area. Pure and Impure Energy collide. Each wanted to purge the other.
Sumaya grunted in pain. He wanted to scream but was too weak to do so. Sho muscles tensed while he concentrated. The Impure Energy wasn't hard to purge, the problem lies in its ability to attract more Impure Energy. After he attacked it with Pure Energy it started to rampage and attract more Impure Energy. It seems endless. But after a while, Sho was finally able to kill the Impure Energy Source that attracted more Impure Energy.
He used both Natural Pure Energy and his Qi Energy for it to work.
He let out a sigh, but he didn't let down his guard. He scanned Sumaya once more, making sure there wasn't any other source. After thorough search and confirming that there were no other Impure Energy Sources, he balanced out Sumaya's Pure and Impure Energy and let him go.
"It's done…" He whispered. Looking at the time window, it took him more than six hours to fix Sumaya's energy problem.
He immediately became worried for Duke. He looked around and found Duke and Miya one meter away from him and Sumaya.
He was shocked. Miya was doing similar things to what he was doing.
*Genius.* He couldn't help but compliment. He immediately had a guess. Miya had been observing him for some hour, and seeing he wasn't close to healing Sumaya and Duke was getting worse, she decided to step in and slow down Duke's "infection".
"You're doing a good job." he said even though he was aware she wouldn't be able to hear him. Just like him, her focus was solely on Duke's energy.
He nodded and sat opposite Miya. She really had done a good job. She didn't let the dark energy invade her, she also was able to stop Duke's situation from getting worse.
*This, with just observing me.** Sho was once again awed by Miya's talent.
But she couldn't completely imitate him. She was a tad slower than Sho because she wasn't a Qi Cultivator. Unlike him he could just absorb Impure Energy, she had to purify everything.
Duke's situation was far from over. He reached his hand over Duke's pulse in his arm. Since Miya already has hold over Duke's chest, he didn't want to disturb her Pure Energy injection. Instead, he began his search for the Impure Energy Source.
Qi Vein by Qi Vein, his Pure Qi Energy searched for the tricky Impure Energy Source. After a long while, he finally found it. It was in a different place from Sumaya's, which was why it took him time to find it.
He repeated what he did with Sumaya and defeated the Impure Energy.
Once he did, he exhaustedly lay down on the ground, not bothering about the dirt. He was just too tired. He knew killing the Impure Energy Source wasn't the end of it, but he trusted Miya would do a good job balancing Duke's energies.
At ease, he let himself close his eyes and took a rest
***
Hours before, Alpha's group emerged on unknown terrain. Looking around, Alpha nodded.
"We're in the right place."
Seeing the wall of plants, he knew they'd come to the right place.
Everyone immediately heard the notification from the system. Immediately, they knew that they entered a different Zone named Misdirection Maze.
"I can trace Elger again." Kali released a sigh of relief. Because he lost his track earlier, he wasn't sure if he could track Elger again.
"Let's go. I'll put markers, Rahmath, you put marker clues too. So that if my markers disappear, Sho's group can still see another marker." Alpha commanded, he started slashing at the wall of plants.
Rahmath was very glad with the task, she instantly thought of leaving clues on the ground because Alpha was already leaving clues on the wall.
With that, they moved forward following Elger's trail.
Little did the group know that the maze wasn't something simple. When the sun set, they discovered they were trapped even after following Elger's trail.