Heaven's Ichor

Staggering into a nearby alleyway, Astel felt the backlash of using a Dao Spell as powerful as his with no prior experience. His Uncle told him how he had spent weeks learning his Dao Spell, unlike Astel who had just learned it a few moments prior. 

Feeling like his head was about to spilt apart, his vision failing him as he kept momentarily blacking out, crashing into the walls of the alley he was in, Astel started to think that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if he were to pass out now as it'd save him from many injuries he would have sustained if he kept resisting the backlash by force. 

Yet those kind of thoughts immediately distanced themselves from him after he decided to bite his tongue to stay awake, drawing blood. 

Feeling the familiar salty metallic taste in his mouth so soon after his previous incident, the taste not as bad as the previous times, Astel started to ponder about which was worse, tasting blood so often that he'd find it familiar or tasting blood so often that he'd grown to enjoy the taste. 

Thinking such thoughts as to distract himself from the pain, Astel felt his vision returning to him, signifying the end of the backlash, sitting on the ground, Astel felt his lungs hurt whenever he tried to breath and his right arm hurt whenever he tried to move it, an injury he had gained from crashing into the alleyway's walls. 

Felling something sharp prick his hand, Astel finally remembered the flower that lead to his predicament. 

Looking at the Black Rose in his hand, Astel was filled with a mixture of complicated feelings, on one hand he felt excited that he figured out what happened when the sun shone it's light on him for the second time, and about how he manged to learn a Dao spell, on the other hand the Rose almost felt... Alive?

Astel knew that all plants were alive but looking at the Rose in front of him, Astel felt like he was looking at a human if that even made sense, excluding the fact that the Rose couldn't talk and excluding the fact that it was a fucking plant, it made no sense, yet Astel felt like if he talked to it, it would be able to understand him.

Not knowing what to do with it, Astel just decided to bring it with him on his journey to the green mountains that was taking way longer than it should have for what was meant to be a simple trip to take a bath.

Cursing under his breath, Astel continued on his way, moving along the same way as he'd been doing before. 

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. 

. 

5 minutes later:

Finally reaching the treeline, seeing the lush green trees that were a direct contrast to the dilapidated slums, Astel took a deep breath, ignoring the pain from his lungs, a calm expression visible on his face, taking in the the fresh air that he hadn't smelt in ages, yet inside his mind he was still vigilant, if someone was trying to hurt him, this would be their best opportunity, and if he noticed that anyone was following him, he'd be able to out maneuver them through the mountains. 

Seeing that no one attacked him, Astel's vigilance decreased a lot as he was confident that he would be able to outrun anybody who tried to catch him in the mountains. 

Just as he was about to become complacent, Astel remembered the mysterious cultivator hed seen earlier and how he was able to vanish into thin air, 

Remembering to himself to not get overconfident and that there was always someone better, Astel increased his vigilance and decided to tear part of his sleeves off and wrap them around his shoes as to not leave any footprints on the soil, taking a couple minutes extra to make sure he got it right Astel finally entered the mountains. 

Little did Astel know, that his spur of the moment decision would play a very crucial part later on his trek to the Rejuvenating Spring...