With a resounding splash, Bai Yu, who had plummeted from the cliff, found himself submerged in water. Disoriented and wracked with pain, he fought his way to the surface. Gasping for air, he squinted through blurry eyes, wondering, "Is this a pond?" His injuries made even the simplest movement excruciating, and escape from the water seemed a monumental task.
Hauling himself out of the water, Bai Yu collapsed onto the solid ground. A hacking cough erupted from his lungs, spraying a crimson mist into the air. Grimacing, he inspected his battered body. An arrow protruded from his left shoulder, the wound staining his clothes crimson. Agony lanced through his chest with every ragged breath, a sure sign of broken ribs. To his further dismay, a dull ache radiated throughout his abdomen, hinting at internal injuries.
"Standing's impossible," Bai Yu groaned, the agony a white-hot inferno in his chest. He attempted to channel his inner Qi, a desperate hope flickering within him. A fresh wave of pain ripped through him, a searing protest as his cracked meridians, the pathways for his vital energy, refused to cooperate. "Damn it all!" he cursed through gritted teeth, frustration mingling with the ever-present ache.
Despair gnawed at Bai Yu. "At this rate," he thought, his voice ragged with pain, "I'll bleed out or succumb to internal injuries without the ability to heal myself." The knowledge that his fractured meridians rendered his inner Qi useless was a cruel twist of fate. He was adrift in a sea of pain, with no way to mend the very life force that could save him.
A surge of defiance surged through Bai Yu, momentarily eclipsing the throbbing pain. "No!" he roared, the sound echoing off the water's surface. He wouldn't succumb here, not after everything. Visions of his ravaged home, Blue Tempest Island, and the face of Li Feng, the architect of his destruction here, fueled his resolve. "Stormwind Island will pay," he vowed, his voice laced with steely determination. " also Li Feng, I will have my revenge, even if it costs my last breath!"