"In here!" Iris's voice sounded out as she dashed into a cave that they had stumbled upon. They had already fled for over one hundred miles, and Iris finally found a suitable place to hide. Her eyes scanned deep into the cave, confirming that it was empty of any other life forms.
The group quickly followed her as they all entered the cave. The cave was roughly one hundred yards long, and quite spacious at the end. A relatively large chamber opened up at the end of the cave, providing them a place to rest.
"Adam, can you use your formations to cover and hide the entrance?" Iris asked.
"On it," Adam replied quickly as he nodded his head. He would normally scoff at a command from Iris, but the situation was far too dire for him to joke around. Adam appeared at the cave entrance and immediately set down many formation disks. He carved intricate formation runes into the cave floor, while he also scattered spirit crystals at various formation nodes to power the formation.
After working for several minutes, Adam's formation flared with power. The open entrance of the cave shimmered for a moment, before it faded away to look like the rest of the desert sand in the area.
He inspected the formation for any flaws, and added some warning formations as well to detect any intruders early on. After confirming everything was working, Adam returned to the end of the cave, where he saw Iris and Chase kneeling before John, who laid on the ground.
"It's done," Adam said to Iris, who smiled and thanked him for his help. Her gaze shifted to Chase, who was closely inspecting John's body, his expression turning more grave by the moment.
"How is he?" Iris asked.
"I don't know how he's still alive," Chase replied, his voice grave.
"Its that bad?" Iris asked, her worry growing.
"Yes," Chase replied without hiding anything. "I've never seen anything like this. Most of his body is charred and torn, both externally and internally. I really don't know how he's still alive."
"Can you save him?" Iris asked, as her feeling of guilt began to rise by the second, as this situation was caused by her heavenly tribulation.
"I'm not sure, but I'll try," Chase replied as a pill appeared in his hands. He moved the pill to John's mouth, and attempted to push it in his mouth to swallow. However, much to his surprise, he was unable to do so. He tried again, but once more found resistance.
"What's going on?" Iris asked, confused by Chase's actions.
"I don't know. There's some sort of energy in his mouth, blocking me from feeding him this pill," Chase replied.
"Let me try," Iris said as she grabbed the pill and tried to give it to John, but she too found the energy blocking such actions.
"What's going on?" Iris asked, confused by such a thing happening.
Chase's hands hovered over John, as his Wood Qi surged outwards. While Wood Qi was not as good as pure healing Qi for healing bodies, it was still quite good at injecting the body with vibrancy, helping it heal.
His expression turned into one of confusion again as he found his energy blocked, unable to enter John's body.
"What the hell is going on?" Chase grumbled, as his every effort was stifled.
"I'm not sure…maybe it's some sort of natural defense of his," Iris replied after a moment, while her dagger appeared in her hand. "Here, I'll open up his chest, and then you can directly enter your Qi into his body. Maybe that will work"
While furthering John's wounds was not something Iris wanted to do, it was all she could think of in the moment. There was something blocking them from helping John, and she needed to get through that barrier.
Chase thought about it for a moment, before he nodded his head in approval.
"Do it," Chase said to Iris.
Her dagger reached John's chest, but stopped as shock appeared on the faces of everyone in the room, while Iris's dagger stopped in place.
"There's no need for such actions," a voice suddenly filled the room. The voice was ethereal, yet commanding. Calm, yet holy. Just hearing the voice made the three of them want to kneel in reverence to whoever had spoken, as if it belonged to the highest and most regal person in existence.
"Who?" Iris asked after regaining her senses. Her gaze swept all throughout the cave, but she was unable to see anyone within. "Who are you?" she asked once again, "are you the one stopping us from helping John?"
Speaking to this voice in such a way almost felt like a sin to Iris, but she did not care at the moment. She only cared for John's safety, and was willing to do whatever it took.
"Indeed I am," the voice replied once again, coming from all directions.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Iris asked, her frustration growing. At this time, both Adam and Chase also regained their wits, taking a bit longer due to their lower soul power and cultivation.
"That does not matter," the voice replied calmly after a moment of silence, "but I cannot allow you to heal this boy."
Iris felt a wave of pure anger and rage flood within her body, as she pushed her eye powers to her absolute limit. They had transformed due to her recent tribulation, as the heavens had no choice but to bless her based on the level of tribulation she had survived. Her eye talents were beyond compare to before, and her gaze swept around the room again before resting on John's body.
She studied it closely, as she could tell that something was strange about it. She had noticed this strangeness before, but couldn't tell if it was her imagination or not. Now with her raised eye talents, the picture within John's body changed slightly.
Her gaze rested on his stomach, where his dantian was located. She could see his essence, which was beyond anything she had seen before. Its power was beyond compare, but that was not what she focused on.
Her gaze lingered next to his essence, dantian, as she gazed at an empty spot in John's body. Nothing special was there, but for some reason, Iris could tell that there was more than meets the eye. She pushed her eye abilities to her absolute limit, at which point a hazy cloud suddenly appeared in her vision.
She could not see through the hazy cloud, as despite her immense talent, the cloud was too profound to see through. However, she could tell that something incredible was there, and could also detect the faintest hints of light emanating from the cloud. It was so faint as to almost not be visible, but Iris could just barely detect it.
One of the lights was white, holy, and magnificent. It made her want to kneel, like a subject before a heavenly king. The other light was black, with the faintest hints of red. It made her feel as though she were plunged into the depths of hell, despite only experiencing the tiniest portion of whatever it was.
Iris's breathing turned heavy as she gazed at the ominous and sinister light, but ignored it after a short while as she gazed back at the holy light. Her gaze lingered on the light, studying it closely as she could just barely detect its existence. After studying it for quite some time, she was finally able to piece together the truth of what was happening.
"It's you! You're inside John!" Iris exclaimed, as she could just barely connect the feeling of the voice with the feeling of the light.
