# Chapter 103: The Youth in the Midst
In the end, Jiang Wang turned back.
He knew well enough the danger, and understood that turning back was nine in ten chances of death.
But whatever the case, White Lotus had once saved his life; he could not simply turn and walk away.
He could not pretend ignorance of her plight, could not let it pass unheard.
He lurked with utmost care, not daring to let the slightest battle intent betray him.
But the great battle between White Lotus and Ji Xuan was terrible in its power.
He could not even bear its residual effects, and so drew back again and again, detoured round and round.
He kept seeking his moment, but a battle on this scale was indeed beyond what he could take part in.
He shifted his position countless times, sought countless angles, and still could not cut in at all.
He held his sword for a long while, yet the sword would not leave its sheath!
He waited, waited for one sword that would split the heavens and startle the earth, waited for that most glorious possible instant.
But Ji Xuan was not Xiong Wen, nor was he pressed down by White Lotus—and the peak of the Inner Prefecture realm was not a thing the Dragon-Rising Realm could compare with.
After pushing open the Heaven-Earth Gate, one realm was one world. Those words were not spoken idly.
To hold his sword through a battle of this kind was a gain that needed no elaboration.
Crisis tempers the heart; the Dao-heart whets the sword.
If this night he could loose a single stroke, the whole world would be different from then on.
...
After a dizzying flurry of battle, all of a sudden, White Lotus was sent flying in entirety.
And it happened that she flew past directly above the patch of grass where he lay hidden.
There was no time to think; his body moved faster than his thoughts.
He burst out at the first instant and caught White Lotus.
The sword had not left its sheath, but he had already dealt this stroke!
Within the battle of Inner Prefecture strongmen, the youth stepped forth.
Puh!
The instant he touched White Lotus's body, the residual force of Ji Xuan's fist came surging in, ripping through his Dao-essence defenses like a whirlwind.
A mouthful of blood sprayed out.
Knocked flying, crashing to the ground, rolling—
He scrambled to his feet and ran, clutching White Lotus.
The Four Spirit Body-Tempering Art spun at full power, replenishing his stamina. Never had he run so fast.
All he could hear was the wind, the wind, the whistling wind.
He knew in his heart that he might not escape, but he had to try.
It was only when the roar of great waves came from behind that he knew something had changed back there, but he did not dare stop to look back even once.
So he had no idea what had happened behind him.
He did not run straight for Fenglin City. Instead he ran first toward Wangjiang City, then doubled back east, then doubled again and turned again, and only finally went north.
Now that he had established two Celestial Star-Dou Spirals, his Dao-essence was plentiful enough for him to run all the way back to Fenglin City in one breath.
But he did not do that. Instead, after cleaning up his tracks, he plunged at random into a mountain forest.
He did not know what had happened that kept Ji Xuan from pursuing him immediately, buying him precious time. But he knew very well that his speed was far inferior to Ji Xuan's, and that once his trail was exposed, he would be caught with ease.
And the one running on the road tonight was undoubtedly the most obvious target.
So he chose to find a place to hide.
After locating a cave and beating the daylights out of its owner—an ordinary black bear—Jiang Wang carried White Lotus into the cave.
But he did not kill the black bear. Instead he kept it pressed down in the cave, a cover.
Only then did he have time to examine White Lotus's injuries.
...
The cave was dry. This black bear had standards for its living quarters.
Carefully laying White Lotus flat on the ground, Jiang Wang casually gathered a ball of fire and hung it in the air for light.
The black bear was visibly frightened, but a glare from Jiang Wang kept it obediently sitting in place.
White Lotus was completely unconscious. Those captivating eyes that could steal a soul were now closed.
There were many torn places in her black clothes, revealing a fair and moving sight. The black veil that covered her face was intact, surely not an ordinary thing.
Jiang Wang steadied his breath.
The most severe wound seemed to be in her abdomen. The whole area around it was a mass of mangled flesh and blood, the shreds of her robe and the torn flesh so entangled that not a single whole spot could be seen.
The Foster-Life Art, a mid-grade C-Class healing Dao art, was the only healing technique Jiang Wang knew.
In principle, it did no more than gather wood-element primary qi to help the injured revive their life-force and promote self-healing.
For an injury like White Lotus's, it was better than nothing.
But Jiang Wang could only try.
After he formed the hand seal, a ball of cyan primary qi slowly approached White Lotus's abdomen and reacted with the wound.
But a flash of white light appeared, and the ball of cyan qi silently dissipated.
The level of Jiang Wang's Foster-Life Art was simply incapable of healing the wound left by Ji Xuan.
But the moment the cyan primary qi touched White Lotus, a strange change occurred.
Jiang Wang's Azure Dragon chapter of the Four Spirit Body-Tempering Art was complete, which made him highly sensitive to wood-element primary qi. He clearly sensed the dissipation of the Foster-Life Art, but he did not miss, at that same instant, the change in the black candle inside his Heaven-Access Palace.
The black candle had been lit.
In the Heaven-Access Palace, it had caught fire from nothing.
Oddly, Jiang Wang understood instinctively that the candle would burn for the length of an incense stick—a quarter of an hour—and then vanish.
But he did not know how it had been lit, nor how to light it again. He did not even know how to put it out before it burned away.
Everything was vague and dim.
The only thing clear was that it had some connection to White Lotus.
The black candle went out, shorter by a hand's breadth.
It had lingered in his Heaven-Access Palace for a long time, showing no peculiarity beyond being twined around by his Dao Meridian True Spirit. But now it had spontaneously lit, and spontaneously guttered.
And with that instant of light and flame, a Dao art appeared in Jiang Wang's mind.
It certainly should not have shortened by so much in that single instant. It must have been because of this Dao art.
"Let flesh grow over the bare bone, let the soul return to the rotting body..."
Jiang Wang muttered it unconsciously, his right hand forming the seal without thought, until at last it was enveloped in a layer of white light.
The light was a sickly white rather than a blazing white, and should have been gloomy, but it inexplicably gave a feeling of sanctity.
He placed this white light over White Lotus's abdomen, and the flesh of her belly visibly began to writhe and knit back together.
In the end, White Lotus's breathing even steadied.
And Jiang Wang did not even know where this white light had come from, what its principle was, what power it had drawn upon.
All he knew was the name of the Dao art that had appeared in his mind—the Flesh-Growing Soul-Returning Art.
The black candle that had appeared so abruptly in his Heaven-Access Palace... it seemed to be something extraordinary.
Jiang Wang concentrated on treating her, and so did not notice.
Behind him, the black bear had curled into a tight ball, trembling in fear.
...
When White Lotus awoke in a daze, the sky was already bright.
Sunlight had even crept into the cave, letting White Lotus see the black bear quite clearly.
It leaned against the cave wall, sitting very properly, its two paws meekly folded in front, motionless.
Then she caught a strange smell. White Lotus shifted her gaze and saw Jiang Wang.
He was holding something that could perhaps be called a "bowl," slowly walking toward White Lotus.
Sunlight fell upon his face, and White Lotus inexplicably found it rather pleasing.
"Awake?" Jiang Wang said softly.
"Mm." Perhaps because she was still weak from her grievous injury, White Lotus's voice was unexpectedly gentle.
"When you were asleep, you kept calling out about 'rice.'" Jiang Wang held out the thing in his hands and explained. "I thought you must be hungry. But it's not convenient to get proper food now. So I found some wild greens and cooked you a bowl of soup."
"Rice..." White Lotus was startled. "Cooked... for me?"
"Ah." Jiang Wang looked a little embarrassed. "When I was a child, my family sold medicinal herbs. I know wild greens from herbs. Don't worry, none are poisonous. I hollowed out a stone to make the bowl. I used Dao arts to control the fire..."
"Bring it here." White Lotus cut him off.
"Oh." Jiang Wang approached and held the bowl of wild-greens soup before White Lotus.
White Lotus forced herself up to look at it, then immediately wanted to lie back down.
The "bowl" was already rough enough—it was at best a stone with a hollow. And the soup... if that sticky liquid of many colors could be called soup.
Up close, that strange smell was even more terrible...
"Drink it." Jiang Wang pushed it closer, full of expectation and sincerity.
"Nobody has ever cooked soup for me," said White Lotus.
She steeled herself and took the "bowl."
"You're a patient now. You deserve to be taken care of," said Jiang Wang.
White Lotus could not deny it. Setting aside the ugly appearance and the unpleasant smell, this bowl of soup brought her a warmth she had hardly ever felt.
Taken care of...
She had never been taken care of.