Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 101 Scrolls Of Wisdom

Jie struggled to cling to consciousness with all she had, terrified of what might happen if she blacked out.

A storm of dragon lightning qi howled within her dantian, roaring up into a part of her she'd not explored before, closer to her chest. Roaring, crackling, snarling dragon lightning qi slammed against black, red, and white energy that covered an ornate seal like some elaborate gate she just couldn't quite make out beneath the energy.

Lightning screamed, arced, and struggled against the energy barrier like a desperate beast howling to break through, adding to her pain.

Jie teetered on the edge of blacking out but clung to consciousness with a desperate, determined will.

As she refined more violet fire qi, so it joined the dragon lightning qi roaring against the barrier. Time ceased to have meaning beyond the increasing cry for air in her lungs.

Finally, she refined the last of the violet fire qi and her dragon lightning qi seemed to grow tired of its desperate attempts to break through the barrier and flowed back down to her lower dantian.

Her lower dantian had expanded significantly, she noticed. Yet so too had her quantity of dragon lightning qi. For once, her cultivation felt unbalanced and chaotic beyond her control. She felt full. As though one more drop of Essence and she'd explode.

The excruciating all-consuming agony settled down to a more bearable level of torment. Though Jie's lungs screamed louder for air than ever before. She tried to breathe but coughed around molten metal that'd poured down her throat and started spreading into her lungs.

Something scrabbled on the metal around her and Jie struggled to free herself. She reinforced her muscles with qi and pushed in every direction as she formed qi armor around herself and forced it to react to the metal around her.

Metal cracked and groaned and as it did so, Jie gained more freedom to move which she used to struggle all the more until at last, she broke through her metal cocoon with a dragonfist.

She felt air on her hand but still could not breathe. Her head grew lighter as the world around her started to fall away. She felt her grip on consciousness slipping and redoubled her efforts.

Jie struck out again and again and ripped her way free of the metal cocoon. It came apart all around her. Hands grabbed her and hauled her out of it even as Jie clawed at the metal blocking her airways.

Driven by sheer panic, Jie pulled on her qi and forced it up through her throat. It tore through the metal and sent it spraying out of her mouth, cutting up her tongue and cheeks as it did so and Jie exhaled a stream of uncontrolled dragon lightning qi that blasted a pillar on the opposite side of the room.

Jie took in a wheezing, gasping breath that tasted of blood and pain. Never had air tasted so sweet.

She coughed and took in another wheezing breath, her lungs still protesting against the metal half-blocking them even as she took in grateful, wheezing breaths.

A hand shoved a healing pill into her mouth and soothing energies melted over her tongue. Relief washed over her, and she would've given a grateful moan if she weren't still struggling to breathe.

Hands slammed against her back, trying to help her cough out the metal. They didn't help her do so, but somehow just the knowledge she wasn't alone and that friends were beside her, trying to help, lessened her fear.

Jie finally became aware of an insistent call that'd no doubt been screaming at her for some time as Xue tried desperately to communicate something via their bond.

Jie recognized it as the same thing he'd done during the fight with the ghosts and she listened to it now as she had then.

Her burned, blackened body lit up with an ethereal white glow and the unrefined pieces of metal giving her so much trouble came free. They slid through her body as though she were made of water, in an uncomfortable sensation that made her shudder. Her friends' hands did the same and Jie crawled away from them all as shards of metal fell through her onto the floor. She coughed again and took in deep lungfuls of air as the room spun around her.