Chapter 2: Something Eerie in the Lake

Words : 1755 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

Just when Jason Yare thought he was about to die, an ancient voice rang out: "My name is King Balam. I roamed the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and found no equal. Yet the Heavenly Order has a flaw, and I failed to take that final step. Unwilling to let my life's learning be lost, as I lay dying, I left a fragment of my consciousness within this jade pendant, waiting for one fated to find it." "You have awakened a wisp of my consciousness. You shall inherit my legacy." "Remember, having taken up my mantle, use it to bring peace to the people. If you stray from it, heavenly thunder will strike you down and the Nine Hells will destroy you." In the next instant, a curl of greenish smoke rose from the blood-soaked jade pendant and poured into Jason's body. He sucked in a sharp breath and jolted awake from his stupor. The door stood ajar; the cheating pair were nowhere to be seen. Rage flared back to life. He didn't hesitate. He pushed himself up and went after them. But the moment he ran out of the apartment complex, he froze. Towering buildings he didn't recognize stood in rows, and the streets looked completely different now. He stood rooted to the spot, stunned. He had been comatose for five years; everything he knew was gone. A cool, clean breeze brushed his face. His body shivered, and his head cleared a little. Then he realized, with a start, that his atrophied, stiff muscles were back to normal. Not only that, his body felt full of a strength that seemed inexhaustible. He touched the back of his head in confusion. No wound? Spencer Jenkins had smashed a vase on his skull; the still-warm blood was proof enough. His eyes widened. One golden scroll after another unfurled in his mind, each recording arts of every kind: medical lore and alchemy, the Talisman Manuscript and Array Path, yin and yang and the Five Elements, cultivation methods… The memories crashed in, branding themselves into his mind; whether he wanted them or not, he had to let them flood in. "Did I… see a ghost?" He thumped his head, still dazed. Just then, a cry of alarm carried from the distance. "Someone help! A child fell into the lake!" Jason snapped out of it, let out a long breath, and turned toward the voice. Memories surged. Those five years of suffering were all thanks to Dragon Lake. People clustered along the shore. The next moment, a shadow swept over their heads. A figure dove into the water like a fish, barely rippling the surface. Jason broke through, reached out, and seized the drowning boy. He started to haul the boy up when another figure splashed down. As that person surfaced, Jason's eyes flew wide. It was a face so beautiful it took his breath away. Even drenched, her fine features showed no trace of disarray; instead, they carried a quiet, hard-to-define nobility. She was fresh as a lotus just risen from water-radiant and unpretentious, a natural, effortless beauty. Beyond the shock, Jason felt a tremor of recognition. She looked more and more like the woman he'd saved five years ago. "Hurry, get to the shore!" the woman urged, propping the boy's arm and striking out for land. Jason shook off the memory and swam after her. Then something tugged at his ankle. He remembered the hidden whirlpool he'd encountered when saving someone five years ago. But this felt different, like a hand gripping his ankle and hauling him down. His heart tightened. From the Talisman Manuscript in King Balam's legacy, the method for the Evil Vanquishing Talisman surged up. He didn't waste time wondering whether it was scientific. He bit his middle finger and sketched the sigil in his mind. "By decree!" He pressed two fingers together and pointed into the water. With the shout, the pull at his foot vanished. At the same time, the world dimmed; a crushing weakness swallowed him whole. As he began to sink, a pair of slender, cool hands caught his collar. "Hold on!" Her voice reached him, and some strength returned. She hauled him to shore. Jason gulped air by the lungful, shaken by how close he'd come to dying. Beside him, the woman sat, spent, gathering herself. She wore a loose tracksuit, now soaked and clinging, tracing her slim lines. With each deep breath, her chest rose and fell; her generous curves drew more than a few hungry stares. "It's bad. The boy isn't breathing!" Jason blinked in surprise. In the lake, the boy had flailed hard; how had his breath vanished so suddenly? "Hey, give me a hand," he said to the woman. She pointed at herself. "Me?" Jason nodded. "I know a bit of medicine. Help me over." "Okay," she said, helping him up. They staggered toward the boy, and the crowd made way for them. The boy lay on the ground, his face had a bluish tinge, his lips were purple, and he wasn't breathing. Jason steadied himself and took a closer look. The pages of King Balam's Medical Manuscript rose up in his mind. A sea of medical knowledge flooded his memory, and his whole demeanor changed. The woman glanced at him, puzzled, yet for reasons she couldn't name, a surprising calm-and a faint, inexplicable familiarity-washed over her. Jason crouched and, with practiced ease, took the boy's pulse. "Strange. The pulse is weak, but it shouldn't be enough to make him look like this-unless…" He thought of the uncanny pull in the water and formed a plan. "Heaven clear, earth bright, lend me true essence. Heaven's Eye, open." He murmured, shut his eyes, and opened them again. In the next instant, he saw Black Energy winding around the boy's body like threads. Those threads bound his limbs and gathered at his brow into a black flower. Most startling, the threads trailed off into the lake, their end lost in the depths. Jason turned his gaze toward the water, straining his vision, trying to use Heaven's Eye to trace it back to its source. Then his skin prickled. He snapped the Heaven's Eye shut. There was a monstrous presence on the lakebed. In that blink, he had felt a terrible gaze trace his own back and stare at him. Had he not shut the Heaven's Eye in time, the outcome would have been unthinkable. "How is he? Can you save him?" the woman asked. Jason hesitated. He had just recovered; it was no time to provoke an unknown, terrifying entity. Boom, boom, boom! The clear sky cracked with thunder. Out on the lake, a vortex rose out of nowhere; a pillar of water shot upward, and a great spray burst out like a sudden downpour, soaking everyone to the bone. "He can be saved."

Chapter 2: Something Eerie in the Lake

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