“Zenth, you can’t seriously believe that a human child can solve a problem even we couldn’t handle.” A Frost Elf elder directed his sharp criticism at Elfina’s father, his tone laced with skepticism.

The urgent assembly of the elders clearly irked some of the more egotistical members. Their pale skin wrinkled in displeasure, and their long, bluish hair failed to conceal the irritation etched into their expressions.

Zenth, Elfina’s father, was one of the eight Frost Elf elders. That made sense. Elfina was their priestess after all. But it did raise an interesting question. Was she chosen as the priestess because her father was an elder, or did Zenth become an elder because his daughter was the priestess? The age-old chicken-or-egg dilemma. Well, not that it mattered, I suppose.

“Yes, I saw it with my own eyes,” Zenth declared, his voice unwavering despite the scornful stare. “This boy’s sister was infected with the same crimson fog that plagues our great tree. Not only did he fight back against the fog, but he also destroyed it completely.”

Zenth’s conviction painted me as some kind of savior. I wasn’t.

And technically, I didn’t destroy the Demonic Qi, I devoured it. But that was a detail best left unspoken. The less these people knew about what I could do, the better.

The critical elder, clearly unimpressed, shot me a look dripping with disdain before addressing the other elders. Placing a hand on his chest as though speaking from the goodness of his heart.

“Elders, the World Tree is our mission, our lives, and our dignity,” the elder began with a dramatic shake of his head. “We cannot let a random child walk into our sanctuary and claim that he can cure our great tree. What if he can’t do it? What if he makes it worse? There is more at stake than just us here. The Great Tree has protected all of us since The Great War. We cannot allow such reckless action to jeopardize our survival.”

He paused, letting his words hang in the air before turning a scornful glance at Zenth. “We cannot believe Zenth’s word blindly and take such a risk.”

His little speech stirred murmurs among the other elders.

Well, damn. Who died and made you a politician?

I hadn’t expected to meet an Elf willing to put their own benefit above all else while simultaneously dragging down a peer. Yet, here we were. Longevity didn’t necessarily breed wisdom, it seemed.

Still, his theatrics weren’t entirely useless. I picked up some valuable information.

From his words, combined with what I already knew and observed, The Great Barrier was a tsunami frozen over a sea during The Great War long ago. Afterward, this World Tree was planted to create some kind of magical barrier, either to prevent the Abyss Crawlers from awakening within the wave or to stop more of them from coming through from beyond it. The power source for this barrier was the Frost Elf’s World Tree.

And now, with Demonic Qi targeting the tree, it was safe to assume that at least one goal of the Demonic Arts users was to destroy The Great Barrier and unleash the Abyss Crawlers.

“This is no time for your petty games, Aaron,” Zenth said, his voice steady, his expression calm yet firm. There was a dignity in his tone that subtly dismissed Aaron’s theatrics.

“You!” Aaron pointed a shaky finger at Zenth, his face flushed with indignation. “See? He’s trying to...”

“Enough,” an older Elf interrupted with a voice so deep it was almost a growl. The wrinkles on his face and the weight of his words silenced Aaron and the murmuring crowd instantly. Aaron lowered his hand, his mouth snapping shut as if physically compelled to obey.

The elder, clearly a figure of authority, opened his eyes and fixed his piercing gaze on me. His stare wasn’t one of hostility, but it was heavy, like he was peeling back layers to uncover my secrets.

I had nothing to hide, nothing harmful to them at least, so I met his gaze directly. The silence between us was intense, like a battle fought without words.

“Can you truly destroy the crimson fog?” he finally asked.

“Lead me to the infected, and I'll show you,” I replied without hesitation.

There was no need for explanations when actions could prove everything. Trying to convince them with words would only be a waste of time.

The older Elf rose from his seat. The room shifted with him as everyone else followed suit. He glanced at me once more, his gaze steady, before turning toward the door.

“Come with me,” he commanded.

We followed him through the village, arriving at an igloo far larger than the others. Its size alone made it stand out, but the double-leaf door carved from a single block of ice instead of wood cemented its importance.

Elves hurried around the structure, carrying baskets brimming with Bleeding Berries and a variety of other herbs inside.

“Elder Thnari!” an Elf exclaimed, her hand pressed over her heart in a gesture of respect as we approached.

“How are those affected by the fog?” Thnari asked.

The woman’s face fell, and she shook her head. “We can only slow down the symptoms. At this rate, I’m afraid…” Her voice faltered, trailing off.

It was clear what she meant. Without a cure, their only option would be to end the suffering of the infected before they became a danger to others. This new variant of Demonic Qi was as cruel as it was insidious.

“Show me,” Thnari said, striding forward with steady steps. The rest of us followed him inside.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

As I stepped through the doors, a faint but perceptible pressure pushed against me. My ears buzzed momentarily.

An isolation barrier.

Once inside, a thick, overwhelming herbal aroma filled the air. The scent clung to my senses, creating a drowsy effect that almost felt like a sedative. The spicy, tingling smell of Bleeding Berries being ground into powder was unmistakable, lingering in the air.

The interior was exactly what one would expect from a simple clinic. An open central space lined with rows of beds, smaller rooms on the left for preparing medicine and storing materials, and a few rooms on the right for the healers to rest.

I hadn’t sensed it as clearly from the outside, but now it was obvious that all those lying on the beds were infected with Demonic Qi.

Disheveled hair, spasming muscles, bloodshot eyes, veins bulging beneath pale skin, frothing at the mouth, incoherent ramblings, guttural howls that barely sounded human, and most telling of all, the faint crimson mist clinging to their bodies.

Thnari led us to the first bed in the third row from the left. There, a young Elf lay writhing. His features bore a striking resemblance to Thnari with his red highlights, golden eyes, and a slightly crooked nose. The young Elf’s face was twisted in agony, his body spasming with every breath.

Though Thnari stood tall and composed like a sturdy pillar, his tightly clenched hands betrayed his emotions, veins popping along his knuckles.

“Your son?” I asked.

Thnari turned to face me, and for the first time, his unwavering gaze faltered. The weight of desperation in his eyes was impossible to ignore. He was grasping at straws just like everyone else here.

“Please,” he said, his voice wasn't that of an elder, but of a father.

I nodded. “Leave it to me.”

“You can’t possibly...” Aaron started, but whatever he was about to say died in his throat as Thnari shot him a glare sharp enough to cut steel. The threat in the elder’s eyes was unmistakable, making Aaron hold his tongue.

That, however, wasn’t my concern. My focus was on the task of purging Demonic Qi from these Elves.

I stood beside Thnari’s son and gently grabbed his hand. Focusing my Qi, I poured it into his body, just as I had done with Sera.

Closing my eyes, I recalled the teachings of the Tang Clan woman who had created the technique to dispel Demonic Qi in the first place.

According to her, Demonic Qi was like a sweet yet insidious poison, one that slowly drove its host to madness. Once inside the body, it consumed the host’s life force, converting it into an immense amount of Qi that enhanced both body and mind. This transformation created a euphoric rush, a feeling of overwhelming power that dulled the mind and burned through the host's remaining life force.

The danger lay in what happened when the Demonic Qi was depleted. To sustain that intoxicating power, the host would often resort to using Demonic Arts, injecting their negative emotions into their Qi. This act corrupted their normal Qi into more Demonic Qi, perpetuating a vicious cycle. The more they indulged, the more crazed they became. Until they inevitably succumbed to the Demonic Cult, or death.

A sweet poison, but a poison nonetheless.

The Tang Clan woman approached this poison as she would any other. Her clan were renowned poison experts, and she had been their genius.

Her method was deceptively simple.

She would first use her Qi to strengthen her own life force until it outmatched the host’s deteriorating one, provoking the Demonic Qi into revealing itself. Then, she would flood the host’s body with her Qi, redirecting and isolating all the Demonic Qi into a single point. Once contained within a cocoon of her Qi, she would pull it out of the host entirely. The process was similar to how Peak Realm martial artists handled poison extraction.

However, this method had a significant flaw. Not everyone could control their Qi with such precision. Without her unparalleled skill, the fatality rate for the procedure skyrocketed to a staggering sixty percent.

And that was for the original form of Demonic Qi, not this parasitic, mutated type.

However, the first step of the process remained the same. Plus, I had a cheat.

As I poured my Qi into Thnari’s son, I used myself as bait, forcing the dormant Demonic Qi to reveal itself. Once I pinpointed the parasitic entity, I controlled my Qi to attack and agitate it.

Unlike the original method, I didn’t need to redirect the Demonic Qi. With my unique abilities, I could devour it directly.

As expected, the Parasitic Demonic Qi — aptly named — reacted violently. Similar to what had happened with Sera, it surged out of the host’s body, seeking to spread and infect others.

“Stay back!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the murmurs of the onlookers.

Right after that, crimson fog erupted from Thnari’s son’s eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and every pore. The thick, malevolent mist rushed outward, trying to latch onto anyone nearby.

But before it could spread, I activated [Plundering Qi], pulling the crimson fog back inside the host and forcing it toward the navy-blue vortex forming on my palm.

I couldn’t absorb it all, doing so might raise suspicion about how I eradicated Demonic Qi. If they didn’t understand it, they would question me. Since that was the case, I decided to put on a little show.

Once only five percent of the Parasitic Demonic Qi remained, I stopped. I compressed the remaining Qi into a small, glowing crimson ball that hovered above my palm. Letting go of Thnari’s son’s hand, I spread my arms theatrically, as though preparing for an embrace. With a sharp clap, I crushed the crimson ball between my palms, shattering it like fragile glass. Slowly, I opened my hands, letting the crimson shards fall like grains of sand.

“Done,” I said, turning toward the Frost Elf elders.

Every jaw in the room had dropped, especially Aaron and his supporters. Zenth, on the other hand, wore an expression of smug satisfaction for some reason.

Snapping out of his stupor, Thnari shouted toward the group of Elves watching from a distance. “Healers! Where are the healers? Check my son’s condition!”

One of the Elves, dressed in a white coat, rushed forward and began a thorough examination. When the healer finally finished, his voice trembled with awe.

“There’s no sign of the crimson fog,” he said, as though struggling to believe his own words. “The fog… it’s completely gone.”

His declaration sent the room into an uproar. Elves swarmed toward me, their voices overlapping in a clamor, each pleading desperately for me to save their loved ones.

“Enough!” Thnari’s roar silenced the crowd instantly. The Elves stepped back, though their anxious eyes remained locked on me.

Thnari turned to me, placing a trembling hand on my shoulder. His grip was weak, but his golden eyes brimmed with a jumble of emotions — gratitude, relief, and something deeper.

“Thank you,” he said. “Truly… thank you.”

“It’s too soon for thanks.” I gestured toward the rows of other patients still writhing in pain. “There’s still much to do.”

*****

*Ding

[You have plundered Qi from multiple living beings. Level up: Level 11 –> 12]

[Plundering Qi Level up: Level 3 –> 4]

[Plundering Qi Level up: Level 4 –> 5]

After hours of dispelling the Parasitic Demonic Qi and using it to further refine my Qi Core, I finally plopped down in one of the chairs in a break room. I took a deep breath, trying to collect myself, when the door swung open.

Thnari entered, leading a group of Frost Elves.

“Thank you.” They all bowed deeply. “Without your help, we would have lost too many of our youth. Truly, thank you.”

“THANK YOU,” they said in unison, their voices reverberating.

Thnari stepped forward as I rose to my feet. His expression was solemn but filled with relief. “From now on, you are our greatest benefactor. You and your descendants will always have our unwavering support, no matter what.”

He held out a golden leaf, its vibrant hue unmistakable — a gift from their World Tree, a symbol of eternal friendship.

“Thanks.” I accepted the leaf, discreetly sending it to my Inventory.

“But,” I said, my tone firm as I met Thnari’s gaze, “we still have the biggest challenge ahead of us.”

His eyes hardened, understanding the weight of my words.

I continued, “Show me your World Tree.”