Cile turned to the core that Inero-ie took out. It was bright. So bright that she had to shield her eyes, still she opened her fingers a little, looking through the slits, curious how he would use it as they had no armor suit.
The previous conversation was no longer as interesting as this.
She had never expected him to do that. It made her even more curious. Still, considering how he had tried to protect her back then and was now leading her back to the settlement, she decided she should warn him against it.
"You will die," she said with the same bland voice that she always used, stable, unchanging. She sat up from the resting space she had created by morphing the ice, getting closer to Inero-ie.
The Qi was absorbed through the fingers touching the Refined Core, into the Qi circuits, moving through his arms, returning towards the core inside his heart. 'How are the circuits bearing that much Qi?' she wondered.
The Grade 10 Refined Core held in his hand was made for armor suits. This thing was what allowed those energy-consuming machines to remain operative for months.
Despite the Qi being qualitatively superior to his own, he controlled it with skills that were acquired only after repeating a task hundreds and thousands of times, but that notion in itself was absurd. That would mean he had overloaded his core that many times and still survived.
'How did he survive until now,' then she remembered the report. Never had he returned in one piece, always injured to the degree of requiring weeks if not months to recover with the last needing multiple months of intensive healing in the pod for him to stabilize.
'How much power can he bring out?' she wondered. It was the most important thing and considering the risks involved, it had to be massive. That would be the only reason he was so calm when talking of crossing the forest and even more so the hoard that would be waiting on the other side.
'But how will he stabilize it?' she wondered while silently observing the entire process. He had some way of using it even if just for a short moment. If he truly could use it, then this Qi possessing the purity of the 3rd Shedding cultivator would make the task of entering the Grand Formation much much easier.
Banishing the stray thoughts, she focused on the miracle that was occurring before her, memorizing each and every aspect from the way he absorbed the Qi to the way he circulated it inside the circuits in such a way that they still had not exploded and especially to the core. The core that was still intact when it should have blown his heart and the body to smithereens.
While he absorbed Qi from the Grade 10 Refined Core, Qi that was circulating throughout his body was slowly gathered back into the heart until not even a strand of Qi was left behind. For the moment nothing happened but if it continued, his body would start dying.
Under his control the Qi started surrounding the core, slowly began condescending until it was a thin film, at that moment she grasped how he would offset the internal pressure. Once that external pressure created by the Qi outside the core became equal to the internal pressure, both forces would counter each other. He would just need to increase the external pressure slowly as he absorbed more and more Qi from the Refined Core.
Soon after, small strands of that higher quality Qi came out of the core and mixed with that film, strengthening the film and increasing the pressure it put on the core. As the Qi increased, so did the size of film until his heart was once again filled to the brim with dense Qi, then it increased even more and the Qi slowly started escaping into the Qi circuits making them glow just like the heart was glowing.
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The Qi circuits were passages for Qi just like the blood vessels for the blood, both superimposed. One was matter, the other energy allowing them to coexist in space. Therefore, despite the irregularities occurring with his core, it did not immediately affect his physical body, though that was also something to wonder about.
After some more time passed, Qi finally started circulating through his body again and she could see the difference. It was almost like life was breathed back into his body. The difference was stark.
***
"Let's go," Inero-ie said while extending his hands to carry the princess.
"You won't explode?" Currently, his Qi circuits were all shining brightly as the dense Qi circulated throughout the body, strengthening him, and making him more powerful. But for how long? Still, it was a sight to see. The Qi circuits inside his body, big and small, were all visible, shining due to the quantity and quality of Qi they were not supposed to handle.
"Your Highness needs not to worry," he picked Cile up, weaved spells that would further enhance his speed, and with a kick, jumped out of the crack and then rushed towards the forest. All it took was a moment and he was at the edge.
He stopped for a moment and thick ice crawled up until his knees. It would act as a barrier stopping the crystalline grass from cutting inside his body suit.
The tendrils gathered together, creating layer upon layer of walls that would hinder his sprint, filled with thorns that enlarged upon the slightest touch, stabbing into the body. At the same time, thousands of vines moved with swiftness and strategy that allowed them to surround Inero-ie despite the speed difference.
He was in this state after being hidden by the Melding. With Melding, traversing through the forest was much easier because these crystalline life forms were unable to directly sense their presence. They had to rely on the webs filling every inch of this forest which made it impossible to remain hidden.
Vines curved towards their direction but Inero-ie kept running without any regard, after seeing the previous display, he was confident in the princess. He was not disappointed.
Without any trace, vines, tendrils, the grass, everything stiffened for the moment, then shattered. Air filled with fine particles shattered of ice.
Threads immediately spread through the air, gathering the shattered ice crystals, merging them, dragging them, as he ran straight into the forest that did its best to drain them both until they were dead. It felt amazing, alone he did not have it this easy, especially when he was in the armor suit. Their size made it impossible to avoid them.
It was different this time. Everything on his path would simply shatter and require not complex maneuvers. All he had to do was run straight.
They left behind a path of destruction but a few moments after they were gone, the forest regenerated, pristine once more, flawless, beautiful. It was like the destruction had never occurred.
***
A grating sound could be heard as they came deeper into the forest, emitted by monsters. The sound was just an after-effect, its true essence lying in the waves of Qi that emitted alongside these sounds, which allowed the monsters to communicate. In this place, however, even this was distorted, another function performed by these webs.
Inero-ie ran in a straight line, the scenery blurring due to the speed and due to that, by the time he heard the sound of toppling trees, he was already there, a towering monster in front of him.
Cile looked at the humanoid monster comparable to a 1st Shedding cultivator. She cleared the surrounding, once again shattering the crystalline life and creating an open ground between them both.
Threads acting as a medium, the Qi flooded out merging with the innumerable particle of ice that he had been dragged along until now. They gathered, then morphed, changing into a rectangular blade. Simple formations were added to it, further strengthening and sharpening it, something made easy when he had a seemingly endless supply of Qi.
Not even a blink had passed since. Its massive maw opening, filled with rows upon rows of spikes that were headed to bite him, he dodged. Almost effortless now that he was so small. A kick sent it crashing against the crystalline life on the other side that had not been in their path and thus not shattered, their tendril quickly warping to capture the monster while vines moved to drain it.
Inero-ie ran underneath its belly, the blade cutting through its appendages that tired to stab him.