He had no idea how much time had passed.
Loa felt as though he had slept for a long, long time. There had been no dreams, no awareness, only the comforting feeling of sinking into warm water. His whole body had felt warm, like when he had curled up under his quilt in winter as a child, the wind blowing outside while he sweated beneath the covers.
Then he woke.
The rubble-strewn bottom of the Thunder Pool was pitch-black. There was no light at all, not even a piece of fluorite.
But in the darkness, a pair of eyes suddenly opened.
For an instant, daylight seemed to flash through the sealed space.
Loa blinked, adjusting to the darkness.
He discovered that he had not a single injury left. The wounds from his desperate fight with the Thunderfang Tiger, the flesh charred by lightning, the shattered bones-all gone. His skin was smooth, as though he had never been hurt, without even a scar.
His mind was brimming with energy, too.
Not the kind that came from getting enough sleep, but like a dry sponge that had just soaked up all the water it could hold, every inch of his mind so full it overflowed.
Except...
He felt a little stifled.
Loa moved and discovered that he was wedged in the rubble. Huge rocks surrounded him, with still more piled on top. The air was thin, with only tiny gaps between the stones barely allowing it to flow in and out.
He flexed his fingers, ankles, and shoulders.
His body was not stiff. On the contrary, it was more flexible than before.
He extended his awareness into his dantian.
Inside his dantian, liquid Two Forms Battle-qi flowed slowly. Unlike the shallow stream before he lost consciousness, this stream was now nearly twice