BTTH : Wandering Soul

Xiao Yan was stunned to see those beasts emerge. They were like a lizard-like beast, with body covered in rugged, blackened scales that glowed with cracks of molten orange, as though it had been carved from lava itself. A single, curved horn atop its head shimmered with a faint red glow, exuding a menacing heat. Its slow, deliberate movements belied its strength, and the intense warmth radiating from its body distorted the air around it, creating a fiery mirage as it locked its glowing amber eyes on him.

Xiao Yan decided to use the sword given by his father. It was a common sword, but with good quality materials, making it a good weapon for beginner like himself. As those beasts started to surround Xiao Yan slowly. They were a bit stronger than him individually, but with two of them present he had no chance to defeat them.

But with no way to escape them in this closed space he resolved himself to fight, thinking that at least there were in limited number. With this thought he lunged himself at those lizards. His sword was blocked by one of them, with their tough exterior, while other spewed fire from its mouth towards Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan immediately backed off, but still got some burns. Before he could even regain his footing the other lizard lunged forward to bite off his arm, but he quickly deflected it using his sword and used the backward momentum to attack other lizard.

The sudden strike caught it guard down, and the sword passed through its neck, slicing off its head. The hard body of the lizard made his hand go numb from pain. Now with only one remaining, he quickly used its slow reflexes and weak point to slay it within next three strikes.

Though the battle lasted less than 20 breaths, it was Xiao Yan's first life-and-death fight, and a single mistake could have cost him his life. His brief relief was quickly shattered, however, as three more lizards suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Earlier battle had exhausted most of his energy, but he had no other choice but to fight. And so he fought. Unlike the previous fight, he couldn't get upper-hand. He only managed to slay one lizard, which gave others opening, and they lunged at him. 'So, this is how I die... Sorry, father...' These were his final thoughts before searing pain overwhelmed him and he lost consciousness.

As soon as he lost consciousness, the world changed to previous state, with two sides, and the volcano like structure in the middle, fluctuating with energy constantly.

Soon the lizards disappeared. The cores from the two dead one's slowly flew out of their bodies and under scorching red flame, which flew out of the volcano, those cores were disintegrated. Soon their impurities vanished and only pure energy remained. These pure energies merged into a single one. As soon as they were merged, few medicinal plants from both sides flew and joined the refining process under scorching heat of the mysterious red flame. After a while all of these refined materials were transferred to Xiao Yan's unconscious body. His injuries started to heal at a visible rate.

After his injuries were completely healed, the red flame entered his body and started to tamper it by mild temperature, unlike the scorching heat before. His body struggled to cope with the relentless heat, the strain mounting with each passing moment. Just as his body showed signs of breaking down, the flame shot out from his body. After a few breaths of time, a frost-blue flame emerged from the volcano in the center and entered his body, but instead of tampering it to cold extremes, it gave soothing effect, healing his body.

This went on for a while, the red flame tampering his body from fiery heat and then the frosty blue flame soothing and healing his body. With each cycle temperature of the red flame would increase, pushing his body limit. After an unknown amount of time this cycle stopped and the place again became quiet, with no movement except for the mild energy fluctuation at the center.

Xiao Yan found himself in the dream realm once again. This time, a growing suspicion gnawed at him: he might be trapped here forever unless he deciphered the words of that mysterious figure. But how could he possibly understand them when he didn't even recognize the language?

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, the eternal darkness shifted. Instead of the mysterious figure, two small dots appeared in the distance, faint but distinct.

As the dots drew closer, Xiao Yan realized they weren't merely points of light—they had fish-like forms, though their shapes were fluid and ever-changing, as if unrestricted by physical boundaries. They swirled around their central cores: one radiating a soft, moon-like glow that exuded a calming, soothing energy, while the other burned fiercely like a blazing sun, radiating intense, scorching heat.

The two entities moved toward each other, but their union was far from harmonious. Initially, they resisted, their mere contact unleashing violent energy fluctuations. Yet, despite their reluctance, they began to circle one another, spinning faster and faster, their movements a mesmerizing dance of opposing forces.

Finally, they merged. Their swirling forms fused into a perfect circle, each fish occupying half of the shape. One held the sun at its core, the other the moon. Together, they created an exquisite balance—a flawless manifestation of yin and yang, each chasing the other in eternal harmony.

Soon, the mysterious figure emerged once more, repeating the same enigmatic words as before. This time, however, Xiao Yan felt a faint connection, as though he was on the brink of understanding them. Yet, something seemed to elude him—he needed just one final push.

Before he could grasp the meaning, the figure vanished, leaving him alone in the endless void of eternal darkness. Despite having grown more resistant to the devouring emptiness, due to this time being longer than before, his condition remained unchanged. His crumbling mind teetered on the edge of collapse, barely holding on.

At last, as his thoughts began to fracture entirely, the darkness disappeared, and he jolted awake in the real world with a start, gasping for air. This tested his endurance and was far more effective than any exercises in the world. But so was the risk of losing his mind.

As he calmed down and focused his attention on his body, he was surprised to see that all his injuries were healed. And not only that, but he could feel his body was stronger than before, albeit with small margin. This gave him immense happiness, as this was way more effective than his usual training. But before he could rejoice, again the same thing happened as this time nearly a dozed beasts appeared, half on hot red side and half on the cold blue side.

This time he took a step towards the icy blue side. And just like before the fiery red side vanished, leaving behind only icy blue side. And the beasts on this side were different, but with same approximate strength. They were white pythons the length of 10 feet and thickness similar to human torso. This tine there were six of them. He barely managed to slay two of them before losing his consciousness from the intense pain of his wounds. No matter how he thought, he felt like he should have died from those attacks, but just before their attacks could give a fatal blow, they were erased mysteriously.

And just like before this time also the world changed to previous state of two opposing forces of hot and cold, and just like before the monster cores were refined, along with some medicinal plants from both sides and entered Xiao Yan's body. And this time instead red flame's scorching temperature being for tampering his body, the frosty blue flame was used. The frosty blue flame, now instead of mild temperature and giving soothing effect, was now at intensely cold temperature. As it entered his body, slowly frost started to emerge and spread throughout his body. This time his body was being tampered by icy cold temperature.

This time as well just before his body couldn't endure anymore, the frosty blue flame shot out and after some time the red flame, now at mild temperature entered his body. This time the red flame gave soothing effect as it was now at milder temperature, healing his cold body. White smoke was slowly emerging from his body and at the same time his tense body was being relaxed under the red flames healing effect.

This process repeated in a loop for unknown amount of time. After that everything was quiet just like before, with no movement except for the energy fluctuations at the center. He woke up inside the dream realm again. Facing the same picture of forming a balanced yin yang, but with more details. Or maybe same details but he was the one who was starting to understand that picture more clearly. This time as well the mysterious person repeated the same words, and he felt like he could grasp them, and just like before, it'd delude him. And this time the tine he remained in the void increased. So despite his grown resistance, as the difficulty increased, he could just barely manage to avoid his consciousness from collapsing. And just like before, the moment his endurance reached its limit, the darkness dissipated, and he jolted awake in the real world, his face etched with fear.