Chapter 21: What Have I Gotten Myself Into?
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Ethan decided to set aside the problem of the cauldron and the trouble it might bring him.
It had been a few minutes since he found himself in this place, and he didn't know how long he had been unconscious before waking up.
Ethan had fainted in the Pavilion of Medicine, and he didn't know if anyone had found him yet.
So he was worried about what might happen if he delayed further.
The last thing he wanted was to be expelled from the Pavilion for wandering around without permission, and worse, to lose his few remaining contributions in the sect for failing such a simple mission.
After all, his performance over the past year had not been the best, and he felt every day that the day of his expulsion was drawing near.
Shaking his head, he pushed away these dark thoughts. He wasn't sure how to leave this place, but he knew whom to ask for help.
Looking down again, he couldn't see the giant being he had seen before, but he was sure it was still there somewhere.
Just as he was about to address the creature, he realized a problem.
He didn't know how to address the being.
In the confusion of the moment, he hadn't bothered to introduce himself or ask more about the creature, so he was a bit unsure of how to proceed.
He decided to go with something standard.
"Um, senior, I would like to stay here a bit longer to talk to you, but my situation does not allow it.
Would you be so kind as to tell me how to leave this place?
As soon as I have time, I will try to return here," he said calmly and courteously, trying not to hide his thoughts.
From his previous interactions with the creature, he had understood that it could read his thoughts to some extent, so he tried to keep his thoughts under control.
Shortly after he spoke, he heard the creature's voice resonate in the environment.
"Boy, you are still too inexperienced to deceive me.
Do not worry, as I said before, I am trapped in this place, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't do anything to you," it said in its calm voice.
Ethan's expression almost crumbled upon hearing this, but he still didn't lower his guard.
"This is your sea of consciousness, so it only takes a thought for you to leave and enter from here," it said.
Although the process was a bit more complicated than that, the being understood that it was pointless to explain everything to Ethan because it was useless for him to know all this.
With the Amphora of the Seven Sages in his possession, certain knowledge became quite obsolete and unnecessary.
Ethan, hearing this, thanked him and, without wasting time, thought of leaving this place.
As if by magic, his body became transparent until it dissolved into nothingness, leaving the sea of consciousness empty and silent once again.
Under the surface of the water's mirror, in its dark depths, two large blue eyes were silently watching upward.
No one knew what the being was thinking, but its gaze seemed to grow deeper as it observed the Amphora of the Seven Sages, which continued to float in the air.
Time passed, and the creature continued to stare at the Amphora until it spoke.
"I don't know why you chose that human as your new owner, but with his current talent, he won't go very far," it said, as if talking to the object, but it did not seem to respond.
Slowly closing its eyes, it spoke again:
"I just hope he is able to free us all from this prison once and for all," it said, completely closing its eyes.
***
Ethan, who had managed to leave his sea of consciousness, found himself witnessing a rather peculiar scene.
He was currently in an unfamiliar place, where, for some strange reason, he was lying slumped headfirst against a wall.
If that wasn't enough, a few meters away from him, two people seemed to be arguing about something.
Perhaps arguing wasn't the right term, because one of the people was sitting on the ground with his head lowered, while the other person, who seemed to be a girl, was standing in front of him, furiously saying something.
Ethan, still dazed, couldn't understand what the girl was saying.
With a lateral push, Ethan pulled himself together and stood up, struggling.
For some reason, his body seemed a bit sore.
Now that he had somewhat recovered, he noticed that the boy sitting on the ground with his head lowered seemed a bit familiar.
'Isn't that the attendant who went to get the pills??' he thought, wondering what was happening here.
Yan Mei, who had been lecturing the poor attendant for five whole minutes, noticed that the other culprit seemed to have recovered.
Shifting her angry gaze towards him, she examined him from head to toe.
Seeing that he didn't seem to be from the Pavilion of Medicine, she asked in an irritated voice:
"Who are you, and how did you dare to break into my refining room?" she asked, still angry.
Just thinking about the whole situation made her boil with rage.
She was almost about to create her first mid-level grade one pill when these two appeared out of nowhere, destroying the door to her refining room and ruining her hours of effort in refining the pill.
She was holding back from flaying these two alive.
"Breaking into your room?"
Ethan, who had just recovered, heard the girl's question and didn't understand what she was talking about.
He looked around and noticed that he was indeed in a room.
Seeing the destroyed entrance of the room, Ethan wondered what had happened.
He wasn't sure how he ended up here, but from what the girl had just said, it seemed like he had something to do with all this.
'What the heck happened while I was unconscious?'
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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:
As usual, if you have any comments/criticisms/errors to point out, don't hesitate to write them down here, and while you're at it, let me know what you think of the novel so far.
See you next time.