I rushed to their side, not wanting them to wake up alone. Waking up meant that their situation wasn't critical anymore, but their cultivation was still filled with problems. The last thing I wanted was for them to panic and try to use their power, putting themselves back in a critical condition.

As for disguise, I didn't wear any. For them, I was Arthanum, giving them a familiar face was much better than trying to juggle yet another fake identity. Luckily, the existence of the fake mystic land gave me a chance to explain my power.

"I'm so glad I don't have to undersell my abilities for once," I muttered. If there was one critical advantage to the situation, with their expertise in the ancient martial arts. The System didn't reward me with ancient martial arts or registered the strength from it as power — which, admittedly, started to make more sense once I realized the existence of two different types of Providence — meaning I didn't need to create some complicated situations to make them provide gifts for me.

It was a nice change of pace.

Though, even then, I needed to pick a direction. I either had to admit that I had Qi cultivation, or I would disguise myself as a martial artist. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, but I decided to settle on Qi cultivation.

After all, most of my abilities were still reliant on that side, from Alchemy to formations.

I moved to the edge of the caldera, where they had been resting. It was a semi-open area, the magma bubbling underneath while the blizzard raged on over us, swirling furiously around their bed. At thief first glance, it looked like a terrible medical wing, exposed to elements, but considering their unique condition, it was inevitable.

It was also the reason why Elsana was placed at the side of the volcano, while Lannayin was at the core of the blizzard. I was trying to balance their unbalanced essence with external forces. I sat on the floor, waiting for them to wake up.

Elsana stirred for the first time since I had pulled her from the brink. Her eyes fluttered open, blue and sharp as shards of ice — a temporary effect of her new martial cultivation — immediately narrowing as she took in the surroundings. Then, her gaze fell on me, and her expression was replaced with shock.

"A-am I dreaming?" she muttered.

I stood up slowly, making sure to make no threatening move just in case. Luckily, she wasn't alarmed, so I continued walking toward her. "Well, if it's a dream, it's a good one," I said as I stood next to her, watching her reaction.

Seeing her lean toward me, I gently put my hand on her cheek, and she leaned against it. The moment stretched, gentleness contrasting with the howls of the blizzard and bubbling of magma. For a long while, she said nothing.

Silence stretched until a flicker of surprise passed through her face. "H-how?" she stammered.

"You need to be a little more descriptive, and beautiful," I said, smiling.

That made her smile despite the situation. "Don't be obtuse. You know what I mean."

I chuckled. "I don't," I said. "Genuinely, I don't," I added when she looked at me, shifting to anger. "You might be asking about why I was here, in the depths of the misty mountains. You might be questioning how I saved you from the hands of the sect cultivators. You might be asking why I have the ability to use Qi… You might even wonder how I managed to achieve the impossible and got even more handsome —"

The last one earned a playful slap to my shoulder. I smiled even more. "I see that you're still arrogant as ever," she said, then she looked more serious. "No, I have an even more important question. Why do I still have my cultivation?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Because I helped," I said.

"How?" she said. "Forcibly replacing our cultivation with the ancient variant was already deadly, and with that demonic artifact did to us… Saving our lives is incredible enough, but I can feel that my cultivation is stronger."

"And, I'm sure you want the long answer," I said, and she nodded seriously. It didn't surprise me. There were aspects of life that she was frivolous, but her abilities as an apothecary were not one of those. "How about I give you a quick answer for now, and once we move you to a better place, we talk more in detail."

She looked like she was about to argue, but looking at her best friend lying on the next bed, she said nothing, just nodded.

I appreciated the silent display of trust. Not rushing immediately to check Lannayin showed that she trusted me to cure her as well.

"How much do you learn about the spiritual pillar and their role in martial arts with the cultivators," I asked.

She winced. "Not much, only that their existence was critical to reaching higher realms, and breakthroughs in this plane were strictly forbidden," she said. "It's one topic even our teachers are not allowed to learn about. Even the suspicion is enough to be executed."

I nodded. Based on what I had learned, the precaution of the sects didn't come as a surprise.

"And, what about ancient martial arts?" I followed.

"Slightly more, but mostly on how to identify it, and report to the sect so that they can be … exterminated, along with the city they had been discovered," she said, her disgust apparent. "But, they don't have any problem raiding the ruins and selling the findings for profit."

Good, I wasn't the only one who was bothered by the cultivator's utter lack of care about mortals and their insatiable greed.

"It means you know that the volcano is related to the ancient martial arts."

"Yes, it's why the sect sent us to the mission, thinking that the nature of our martial arts would help. But, we didn't expect the team to be infiltrated by demonic cultivators. Suddenly, they killed the other half of the team by driving them to an ambush. The rest, I only remember the pain."

"Alright. To keep it short …" I said, then gave her a breakdown of everything I had done to help her, from how I replaced the spiritual pillar with the presence of the blizzard around the volcano, how I replaced the essence with a stronger one to overwhelm the old parts, and how I separated them from the demonic artifact.

However, to make sure the explanation took only minutes rather than weeks, I only focused on the results, and not the process. For a change, it was not because I wanted to hide anything from her.

Explaining how I combined alchemy and apothecary through formations and artifact refining to achieve what I did required a basis that I only had due to cheating, and required days to explain in a worthwhile manner.

Elsana might have realized it as well, as she didn't interrupt me for a long time. "An impressive treatment. You have changed quite a bit," she said.

"Not entirely my own efforts," I said. "Once I had been taken away from Markas, the ones that took me brought me to a mystic land. There, I had an immortal encounter that taught me a lot."

She nodded, not showing any doubt. The degree of improvement between our last encounter and the current one was so stark in terms of my capabilities, that nothing else but an immortal encounter explained it.

Admittedly, other than the timeline of that encounter, it was more or less the truth. It was possible to treat the System as some kind of immortal encounter on steroids, with lasting effects. One that, even failing at the assessment let me end up in a point that would have left every other cultivator jealous.

"It feels like a long time since everything happened, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, the siege caught all of us unprepared," I admitted even as I caressed her cheek, and she leaned against my palm once more. "It was a close call."

She sighed. "It feels so long ago, but also it was yesterday," she said as she grabbed my wrist, and pulled me to the bed. "Do you understand?"

"I do," I said. "It's okay to feel when you're working hard, with days filled with nothing but work. Every day feels endless, yet, emotions and desires stay locked up, just as fresh."

"As always, you speak too much," she said with a chuckle before she pulled me for a quick kiss, one that had the potential to be more if it wasn't for Lannayin starting to stir. "We'll continue later," she promised.

"I'll hold you to that," I said even as I stood up. "But, I better leave you alone with her. We don't want her panicking. Just remember, no using your essence. I don't want you ruining all my hard work."

She gave me a grimace. "Damn, is this how it feels to be the patient?"

I just chuckled as I walked out, happy to see her mood recover. While she dealt with Lannayin, I studied, as I had a lot to learn.