Chapter 7: Aftermath

Jin rested for a couple hours. From time to time there was a dull *THUMP* produced somewhere inside the aperture, but at this point it’s threat was low enough that it couldn’t prevent his rest.

“What was this thing anyway?” - asked Jin.

“Thunder Godheart Resonance Heavenly Tribulation.” - replied the boy. The boy wasn’t standing anymore, he made himself a throne made out of void.

Jin gave it a little thought. He knew not what a heavenly tribulation was, but the name was somewhat fitting in his mind. And had the power to match it.

“Heavenly tribulations are created by the heavens. Or its residents, whoever they may be. Not much else is known besides patterns of when it is likely to form. It’s hard to say why this heavenly tribulation formed exactly.” - the boy looked up - “ It might have been to help us. It might have been to kill us. It might have been to test us. It also could have been just a nasty prank. Reading too much into it is a fool’s affair.”

Jin didn’t reply. He only understood that he’s seen something very exotic. He rested a bit more. He didn’t hear any “resonance” for a while now.

“It’s done.” - said the boy - “The tribulation has dissipated completely.” - he confirmed.

“I’ll send you back now. I don’t know about the situation outside, but quite some time has passed by now. I’m not aware of the outside situation, I can only assume it is a mess. Handling it is your responsibility.”

“Come again once the circumstances allow. I need to brief you.”

“I’ll try.” - Jin replied. He wasn’t sure how to come in here, but he probably can figure it out if he did it once already.

“Good luck.” - the boy said, as he dismissively waved his hand.

Jin woke up. He smiled.

It was very early in the morning. The sun, although it hadn't peeked above the horizon yet, was about to do so as the colors of the sky were announcing its arrival. The moon was still visible. Jin looked at it. It wasn't high above the horizon anymore. It's brightness wasn’t enough to stand out in the sky anymore, it was not able to match the soon-to-rise sun. Jin felt no pulling force. He felt no convulsions. All he felt was the aftermath of the previous struggle. His stomach felt like an empty pit. His muscles felt like they had been torn apart. But, he also felt great. He didn't remember having this kind of energy coursing through him before.

There was nobody outside. Jin wasn't far from the wagon he had struggled to scramble out of.

He didn't want to enter it. The sunrise was about to start. It's the first sunrise he's seen in a long time. He has been a heavy sleeper since he remembered.

Jin stood up, slowly approached the wagon with a slight limp. He climbed to the roof with some difficulty. There, he just sat cross legged waiting for the sun's arrival. His eyes half open. His back straight. And a delicate smile on his lips.

An hour passed. People started walking out of the wagons. They were inspecting what had happened.

Jin raised his eyebrows. He started thinking that the whole event affected only him. He was the target of the tribulation after all, and he didn't notice any sounds coming from anywhere. Even animals seemed unaffected so far. But now that they woke up, there was a lot of unease in their movements.

After 15 minutes nobody was more clear on the situation than they were before.

A thud sounded behind Jin's back. He turned his head.

It was Bei.

"Good morning friend." Said Jin, sporting a wholesome smile.

Bei approached him and gave him a tight slap, tumbling Jin to the side.

"Who's your friend?!" Bei sneered.

Jin has recovered his position and massaged a freshly hit cheek which was flushed red now.

"This is too cold." - complained Jin. " Is this a way to act towards your lifelong, closest, and most beloved friend?" Jin asked.

Bei gave him another slap, on the other, yet untouched cheek.

"Is a friend someone who's supposed to change your diapers? Is a friend someone who needs to feed you, lest you starve yourself? Put water in your mouth? Carry you back and forth? Cloth you? Give you a bath? I thought that’s a manservant’s job instead!"

Jin massaged both of his cheeks now and started laughing out loud.

"Serves you right! Haha! Who knew you'd fall victim to your own ploys one day! Haha!” - Jin laughed hard seeing Bei so flustered now.

“Who's the fool now?" - he kept jeering while laughing.

"..." - bei only frowned. He shrugged as he unfurrowed his brows.

"What happened? Why are you up?" Asked Jin.

"I thought you might have an answer. In the middle of the night, everyone got paralyzed by some nasty phenomena. I didn’t escape its fate either, nor did our wagon-mates. You on the other hand, from the sounds of it had some sort of spasms and struggled outside the wagon somehow. My body started responding only half an hour ago.” - said Bei, observing Jin carefully

“I’m still terribly numb." - Bei sighed as he added - "What brought you back? Do you know what happened?" - he asked. Something was up, he could sense it.

Jin was quiet.

"I see." Jin pondered.

“So it was like that. I may have a vague idea."

Another moment of silence.

Bei frowned again.

"Spit it out then." He crossed his arms while waiting for Jin to answer impatiently.

Jin smiled.

The three caravan leaders started making rounds, checking the state of the caravan.

Yuan Ju has started checkup on the Southern Alliance’s wagons that were affiliated with the Tai clan.

“Please make yourself present in front of your assigned wagon.” - he announced.

“I’ll be conducting a roll call. Inform me of any victims, injuries or incidents” - he added, as he started walking along the wagons. He proceeded to put his hand on top of everyone’s head and nodded.

Jin and Bei clumsily climbed down the wagon. Their bodies were not allowing them to move as freely as they usually did.

The Kai siblings joined them soon after. Yuan Ju kept a good pace, his uneasiness seemed to disappear as nobody seemed to be hurt. He already managed to take a good look at the caravan’s state and did a mental number check. Everyone under his responsibility was accounted for.

Finally, he approached Jin and Bei’s wagon.

“Tai Kai Yuan, Tai Kai Chi, Tai Bei and Tai Zhen Jin” - he said looking at each of them. He stopped at JIn’s face. He remembered the last time he saw the lad, he was heavily undisposed, acting like a puppet, life almost gone from his eyes. Now the boy looked completely fine.

Jin put on a pleasant smile and bowed.

“Greetings to the caravan leader. I am Tai Zhen Jin, I missed an opportunity to introduce myself at our last encounter. I apologize, and also thank you for the magnanimity of accepting me into the Nan Liang Mountain.”

Yuan Ju smiled.

“Feel at ease.” - Jin has finished bowing - “You have your friend to thank for that.” - Yuan Ju added, after which he continued the formalities.

“Seems like everybody’s alright. Good. Tell me what happend...” He swiped his gaze over the faces again.

“... Kai Yuan.”

Kai narrated his story, including somebody leaving their wagon at the time of the incident,an uncanny drumming heartbeat as well as sounds of thunder, shattering and cracking.

Yuan Ju didn’t hide his surprise. The reports he received before never mentioned anybody moving a finger, let alone exiting the wagon.

“Which one of you left the wagon?”

“It was me.” - Jin replied. - “I wasn’t paralyzed. Instead my body started convulsing, so I struggled outside the wagon. I was trying to compose my body, but couldn't."

Next he narrated the appearance of the cracks and thunder conflagration and menacing sound accompanying it.

"At that point I fainted." - Jin said, finalizing his story.

Yuan Ju furrowed his brows. He approached Jin and put a hand on Jin’s head.

The furrow deepend.

“You are a rank one expert now.” - he said slowly.

“When did this happen? When did you feel your aperture open?”

“I’m not sure myself.” said Jin.

“I don’t remember much before the incident, due to my earlier circumstance. At the time of the incident, I also wasn’t disposed. When I came to, I was already like this.” - explained Jin.

The frown didn’t leave Yuan Ju’s forehead. He started massaging his temple. He knew that they were all lucky. From the reports he had gathered, the cause behind the incident was a heavenly tribulation - Thunder Godheart Resonance. The tribulations don’t randomly appear in the skies. It was said that only those who wanted to go through immortal ascension and develop further had to learn to deal with them. Was there an expert trying to undergo an immortal ascension around here? No... the tribulation was a failure, it failed to form. It simply fizzled out. Otherwise none of them would be alive right now.

Yuan Ju let out a long sigh and shrugged off his uncertainty.

“Strange. It’s all very strange. I’ll have an interesting story to tell back in the house. Here I thought I’m taking an easy and mundane task to rest and recuperate. It turns out I might’ve just lost my life.” - Yuan Ju thought, shaking his head. How whimsical can fate be?

“Thank you.” - finally the silence was broken.

“There’s little point in dawdling on the issue, after the checkup we’ll continue our journey, so please take care of your morning needs and enter your wagon soon after.” Yuan Ju said

“Oh, and congratulations on becoming an expert junior brother.” - He added with a smile.

The caravan soon resumed at an unusually slow pace. Seemed like the animals weren’t spared the aftermath of the tribulation either.