Chapter 169: Awakening (Patreon)

“Well…”

Qingge pressed the Enforcement Hall’s stamp onto the final report before sliding it onto the stack on the edge of her desk.

“…I think that’s it for today.”

She stretched her limbs, trying to get rid of the weariness to little avail. Whether she liked it or not, she’d have to get a good night of sleep today. She’d been skipping that for several days at a time to keep up with her cultivation – between the continued search for the two missing disciples, the fruitless effort to investigate Yifei Xia’s death and an ever-increasing tide of corruption cases against the Training Hall, she was swamped with work at day – but even at the Soul Realization Realm, she could only handle so many skipped nights before the fatigue became too much.

Qingge picked up the stack of reports and stood up.

“You can all head out.”, she addressed the group of people she’d been working with. “I’ll just get all of this to the archive and…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the door was suddenly flung wide open, her bodyguard – and, by now, close confidant – Yang barging into the room.

“Lady Qingge…!”, he began, before stopping himself as he realized that she wasn’t alone. Qingge was still getting used to working with a larger group as well, but with the recent workload, it had been unavoidable.

“I apologize for interrupting. I have an urgent report for lady Qingge.”

Apparently not willing to share whatever he wanted to tell her with the others, Yang made his way over to her desk with hasty steps, leaning over to whisper into her ear.

“The boy… He’s showing signs of waking up.”

Qingge’s eyes widened in surprise. Zixin had been in coma for over a month now, and they hadn’t been able to do anything about it except wait.

“Does Elder Shi…?”

“She has already retreated for cultivation for tonight. I’ll inform her as soon as she returns.”

Qingge nodded.

“I’ll head over immediately.”, she declared, before her eyes fell on the stack of reports still in her hand.

“I’ll take care of ‘em.”, Daiyu said, taking them out of Qingge’s hands.

“Thanks a lot. I’ll get going then.”

Qingge hastily stepped around her desk. She stormed out of the room and through the Enforcement Hall’s corridors. The air outside was warm and the sky was clear and all fatigue was forgotten as she began her descent towards the library.

…

Zixin felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness. Deep, quiet darkness was wrapped around him like a warm blanket, and every time he felt his mind stir, he let himself drop back into the comfortable nothingness. Time seemed to stretch whenever he did, untold years passing by him, against the seconds of consciousness he experienced.

Still, a waking mind couldn’t be kept asleep forever, so, at some point, a first thought began to form.

Are you sleeping in right now?

That one thought was enough to pull a thick layer of the comfortable darkness away, even though Zixin tried to keep it around.

He wasn’t one to sleep in. If anything, he should be up early, so he could wake up Chonglin. But somehow, he barely seemed to care right now. He let himself drift deeper into the darkness’ alluring embrace again.

What about your training?

Another layer of the darkness disappeared from under his grasp. He didn’t want to slack off. But he was so comfortable right now. Just a little more…

If I don’t keep up, Qiao is going to leave you in the dust.

That was enough to truly rattle his mind. He couldn’t let that happen. She was already so far ahead of him. He needed to be diligent to be able to stay by her side.

Yet another layer of darkness drifted away and suddenly, Zixin felt like something was wrong. Like he’d forgotten something important that he was supposed to remember.

What… where… why am I even sleeping?

He couldn’t recall having gone to bed. In fact, he couldn’t recall what had happened yesterday at all.

Slowly, feelings returned to his body. It was aching all over.

What in the world… Zixin’s mind snapped fully awake. Something was wrong. He tried opening his eyes and was met with unexpected resistance. His muscles weren’t responding like he wanted them to.

Zixin concentrated all his effort into the task. Finally, light pierced through the darkness. It was dim, but it still burned in his eyes like fire. Zixin pushed through it. Slowly, blurrily, his sight returned. The first thing he could make out was an unfamiliar ceiling. Where was he?

Before he could try to think up an answer, he felt a hand softly clasp his own.

“Zixin!”

He turned his head towards the familiar voice. His neck screamed at him, offering even more resistance than his eyes had, but he pushed through it. His vision was still blurry, and it worsened at the movement, but there, in the midst of a room that seemed utterly unfamiliar, right before him, it was. Her face.

A mix of distress and relief was written across Qiao’s face, tears welling up in her eyes. Zixin had never seen her cry. He wanted to tell her that everything was alright, but confusion and shock sealed his lips.

“Finally!”

Another familiar voice, right next to Qiao. Chonglin. He looked exhausted and disheveled, like an utter mess. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to suggest that he hadn’t been sleeping enough. He too seemed overwhelmed with relief.

As Zixin’s vision cleared up, he could make out more details of the room. There were bookshelves, a couple of candles, an assortment of pills on a table… nothing that would tell him where he was. All he could say for certain was that he really had never been here.

A couple of steps behind his friends, Elder Wei’s disciple, Qingge, sat on a chair, observing the three. Beside her, no one else was present.

Zixin tried to sit up, only for a jolt of pain in his back to clarify that that wasn’t a good idea. His attention returned to his body. As the feeling returned to his limbs, he realized that he was covered in bandages.

Something had happened to him. A thought occurred, one that could explain much of the current situation. Zixin took a deep breath and began to speak.

“How long… was I out?”

His voice was hoarse and his words came out stuttering, as if he had to get used to speaking.

Nevertheless, his friends seemed to jump with joy when they heard his voice.

“Over a month.”, Chonglin responded. “Really kept us waiting.”

A month? Zixin felt his stomach turn. He’d been out for a month?

That did indeed explain his friend’s reaction to seeing him wake up. And seeing what state his body was in even now, it couldn’t have been pretty back then.

“What…What happened?”, Zixin asked.

“That’s actually what we would like to ask.”, Qingge responded.

Zixin paused. What had happened? Wasn’t he the one who should know? For a while, his mind was blank.

And then, the memories came flooding back in.