Yuliana’s poison-blurred mind snapped awake the instant fragrant celestial energy rushed over her. Her eyelids flew open, breath catching at the sight that greeted her.
Instead of a dank prison for demonic creatures. found herself standing upon boundless spiritual soil, awash in shimmering light.
In the distance, rolling hills rose like waves, each peak carved from flawless celestial gems Jared had hoarded from celestial gem mines and fallen cultivators alike.
Between those jeweled mounds a silver stream meandered, its waters nothing but liquefied celestial energy. Old-growth spiritual plants crowded the banks, including ten-thousand-year reishi mushroom and even a handful of Enlightenment Tea Trees, whose leaves wept spiritual dew that spun into tiny vortices before ever touching the grass.
Farther still, the nine-tier Pentacarna Tower floated in open sky, rune-etched walls blazing like starlight and illuminating the entire inner world with a calm, holy brilliance.
High above them, the void shimmered as if the hours themselves were turning like the pages of a luminous book.
Between one heartbeat and the next, Jared watched rare herbs sprout, blossom, and wither, their life cycles racing forward at a pace both uncanny and strangely harmonious.
“W-Where are we?” Yuliana’s voice quivered, the question escaping in a breath that trembled as hard as fingers.
She had toured royal treasure vaults and legendary mineral seams, yet none of those memories could stand beside this place.
The pile of celestial gems ahead radiated such concentrated power that meridians throbbed, forcing the venom inside to retreat inch by inch.
“Inside the Pentacarna Tower,” Jared answered, his tone steady but edged with fatigue. He eased beneath an Enlightenment Tea Tree whose leaves glimmered like jade in moonlight.
Resting one hand on the trunk for balance, guided down, then pressed a cool detoxification pill into palm.
“One day outside equals a hundred in here,” explained. “And the purity of these celestial gem mines will help us heal faster than anywhere else…”
Yuliana swallowed the pill. Cool relief slid down throat, mingling with the tower’s abundant spiritual energy until a silvery sheath formed inside her, isolating the poison and beginning to pry it loose.
She lifted gaze to the distant pile of celestial gems, then to Jared’s face-pale, resolute, and unwilling to yield. An unspoken certainty bloomed in chest. With this sanctuary and with him, they just might wrest back their fate.
“Ah…” A sudden spasm twisted through her. She clutched robes, color draining as discomfort flared.
“What’s wrong?” Jared asked, stepping closer, alarm sharpening his voice.
“I… I think…” Yuliana’s knees drew inward, expression awkward and pained. “Is it the poison? Has it anchored somewhere we missed?” Jared’s questions tumbled out, each more urgent than the last.
She gave a helpless nod. “It entered through my lower abdomen. Now that place…” cheeks flamed, “Burns and itches unbearably…”
The words stunned him. His glance flicked, unbidden, toward the region indicated before forced his gaze upward again. Crimson with embarrassment, whispered, “I can handle it. If I rest, maybe I can drive It out slowly myself.”
“You’re too weak,” Jared countered, voice low yet firm. “If you permit it, I can draw the toxin away for you… By mouth…”
“W-What?” Her eyes rounded, the blush deepening until it matched the petals overhead.
“Will you trust me?” asked, meeting gaze without flinching. Hesitation lingered only a heartbeat before nodded. surrendering pride to necessity.
Jared moved with gentle urgency, loosening the fabric at waist. Lowering his head, used the oldest, simplest method, drawing out the tainted energy with steady, measured breaths, each pull laced with healing aura rather than desire.
The effort drained her. Waves of lightness rolled through body, as though the poison were being siphoned away along with strength, leaving floating between exhaustion and relief.
Time became a blur. When the task was finally done, Yuliana slipped into unconsciousness, a faint murmur of both pain and release escaping lips while the tower’s tranquil light closed around them like dawn.
Jared ran the tip of his tongue across parched lips, stole one last glance at the unconscious Yuliana, then laid gently on a blanket of moss.
Only when breathed steadily did Jared turn away. He crossed to a waist-high pile of celestial gems that shimmered like frozen waterfalls, lowered himself into a lotus posture, and let the hush of the tower settle around him.
Drawing a breath as deep as a bellows, summoned the Focus Technique. At once, spiritual energy ripped from the pile of celestial gems, flooding his meridians and plunging unrefined straight into his elixir freld.
Inside this tower, the energy required no purification, and with time flowing a hundred times faster, every second of training multiplied into entire afternoons.
