The day of the second quest has finally arrived. All the participants are ready at the 东方优雅 (Dōngfāng Yōuyǎ) 'Eastern Elegance Platform', waiting for the masters to instruct for their next quest. All the masters and The Five Brothers lined up in the early morning with other medicine scholars to assist the participants for the quest. Master Guang speaks up.
"All are here?"
"Eh…? Wait, where's my Xiao' Yi? Why is she still not here yet?" Master Lian finally raises his voice.
All of them look around and each other looking for the missing disciple. Their faces went from nervous to worried, all because of this one girl.
"Where is Xin Yi senior?" Mengyang asks rhetorically while also looking around the platform.
Suddenly, there's one of the Huashan disciples running to the place where they are gathered. He is looking distressed, all sweaty and panting.
"What? What is it? Is there something wrong?" Master Yao asks the disciple instantly.
"The disciple… from Wutai…Xin…Xin…"
"Xin Yeying?!" Master Lian's face shortly turns to double worry when he hears about his disciple.
"Xin Yeying is not waking up!"
All of the masters immediately vanish into thin air to transport to her chamber.
The disciples with no time to waste, hurriedly run to the dormitory to look at Xin Yeying who is said not to be waking up. Masters who just transported to the room using their 御风术 (Yù Fēng Shù) 'Wind Riding Technique' are already besides Yeying who is not conscious.
"What happened to her?" Master Rong is worried looking at the pale skin of the girl.
"Let me take a look at her." Master Jianjun sits beside her on the bed, checking for her pulse while putting his finger on her wrist."
The disciples finally arrived. They are more concerned about the situation than to be tired from all the running,they are surely panting but still. All of them in silence waiting for Master Jianjun to say something, hopefully something good, bad news is the least thing they want to hear now.
"...no." Master Jianjun's focus expression now drained from his face, replaced by a haunting look of confusion and fear.
"Her… Qi... I can't feel her Qi..."
All of their minds raced with disbelief, struggling to comprehend the weight of the news. They fell into silence, nobody could let out any voice. Master Lian was taken aback by the news, and couldn't stand properly; he fell onto the floor.
"Jianjun..!" Master Yao supported him on the ground, holding his arms and shoulders.
"How could this happen? Was the demon too hard for her to fight? No...It can't be, the demons were all low level, and she already surpassed the 7th Jianji."
Master Rong is confused but still in sympathy with what happened to that poor girl.
"How… How is that even possible? Nobody ever can break an immortal Qi, since…" Jin Yeying was hesitant to continue her sentence.
"Is there no other way to fix it?" Song Zhi asks with a hopeful look. Others also look at the man who is still beside Xin Yeying.
"There is… it's a rare herb from our mountain. Unfortunately, it has never been seen since… a century ago…" Li Mei standing beside her Master while putting hot cloth on Xin Yi's forehead.
Without a notice, the worrisome sphere in the room faded away, as Yichen remembered about a book he had read a long time ago. He tries to explain about a rare herb which was suggested by Li Mei.
"I have read a book about medicines that were used by the Heavenly Maiden. I remembered that there was a recording about a flower that can help to heal an immortal Qi, so the Heavenly Maiden gifted one flower to each immortal sect of mountains, oceans and earths."
"What is the name of the flower?" Curiously, Mengyang asks.
"金丝兰 (Jīnsīlán) 'Golden Lattice Flower'." Tian Ji replied with one sentence, that brings a surprised look to all the disciples, the masters are not an exception.
"No! Impossible, nobody can ever enter that area. I won't allow it!"
Master Yao focused on every person in the room. His voice was harsh towards them, but deep down he was actually concerned about their safety.
"But that's the only way, Master..! Otherwise, she would…never recover to be immortal again. She… could never be reincarnated ever again. At least let us Brothers go, we already passed 10th Jian Ji, we could handle it." Song Zhi still tried to convince the masters to let them go.
"I'll go too, she is my junior from our mountain. I took a vow to protect them, I'm not going back on my words. Whatever happens, I'll go."
Although he's saying that in monotone, Haoran's intention is not bad. He's trying to help, he couldn't stand seeing his own members from the very same sect suffer losing her Qi. But, no words came out from the masters, how heavy their tongues were to utter the reply that those disciples were looking for. Mengyang looked restless, eager to ask more, why can't they step their feet in the area where the flower is planted.
"Why Master? Why can't we go there? How could we save her then?"
"Because…" She slowly looked up and looked at the other masters.
" Because one of us tried to take it too…" Master Rong replied with a shaky voice, as the sorrowful memory started to flash back, slowly transporting her to the top of the mountain five centuries ago.
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