Where Passion takes Root

Chapter 1

It had been a little while since Shen Qingqiu had returned from his mission, but somehow he felt entirely exhausted, as if his body had totally lost its integrity. He already had to put up with a bad constitution, but this was just a laughably weak state even compared to his usual fragility. If he possessed any less pride he may have gone to Qian Cao peak or gotten Mu Qingfang to come to him instead to have this be treated more confidentially. In hindsight though, maybe him having this much pride was actually a good thing.

Shen Qingqiu at some point had to lie down, feeling his head spin wildly. He almost thought he would faint, but laying down actually helped a little. Yet the issue didn't go away and the more time passed, the more horrible he felt. At first he felt like his head was progressively turning to mud. He was not even able to form one clear thought, it felt like the worst migraine attack he had ever had, just without any of the pain. Just when he thought he had reached the epitome of how bad this could get, Shen Qingqiu started feeling like he was on fire.

At this point Shen Qingqiu had to force himself to get up. His mouth was so dry he swore he must have gotten the quickest fever in all of history. On the way to the kitchen he only half consciously managed to get out of his outer robe, undressing until he was down to one layer, but it just would not get better. In the kitchen, he chugged down a cup of water, and then a second and a third, his mouth drying up right away again. In another wave of dizziness, he just barely managed to keep himself upright by using the stove.

By this point he really regretted not having sent someone for Mu Qingfang, but he feared he might faint before he could even leave the house. Weakly, he dragged himself back to his room, not even noticing that one of his robes that lay on the ground in the corridor got caught on his foot and dragged along most of the way to the door. He had almost reached his bed when suddenly a new sensation started ebbing through his body and he had to quickly take a hold of the bedpost before his legs gave in underneath him.

Shen Qingqiu's eyes widened as a strong tingle went through his nerves. This tingle suddenly pushed aside every last feeling of exhaustion that he felt, but that made Shen Qingqiu no less unable to trust himself to walk. Shen Qingqiu was not really able to categorize this sensation into anything he had ever felt before, but on the spot he would not really have been able to. Even if he had possessed a last piece of his cognitive abilities before, at this point even that had been eroded. Shen Qingqiu leaned to the bed, breathing heavily, unable to remember what he wanted to do.

At some point, he just got away from his bed, wandering back out of his room. He did not know what led him or where he was going, but it was definitely somewhere outside, because this was where his feet led him. He did not even notice the confused and worried looks and calls of his disciples as he stumbled out of the bamboo house, bathed in sweat and in nothing but his undergarments.

He only halted for a moment when someone took a hold of him. Shen Qingqiu did not really recognize who it was, barely hearing the anxious "Shizun?" that came from him. Without thinking, he reacted instinctively, swatting the person away with a strong movement of his arm that almost sent them flying.

"Don't touch me!" he blurted out, retracting backwards before breaking into a full on sprint away into some direction without even looking.

Someone called after him, but he didn't listen or even think about stopping and whoever attempted to follow was not even remotely capable of keeping up with him. At some point Shen Qingqiu changed direction, running onto a rainbow bridge and dashing over until he reached another peak on which the disciples he came across were equally as puzzled. Running past the people who tried stopping him, Shen Qingqiu rescued himself in the nearest building, where for the first time he started slowing down.