Yin & Yang Pleasures of Cultivation

Aniela and Masami's Spirit Senses immediately inspects Darcel's entire being as their faces were warped with concern. 

Darcel seemed just so perfectly healthy mere moments ago; how could he abruptly fall over like this?! Both girls' thoughts swirled in a frenzied loop, sharing a similar sentiment.

But almost immediately after sensing Darcel, both Aniela and Masami's expression immensely relaxed. 

"Fuuu~...." Both girls exhaled a big sigh of relief. They felt all the immediate tension stacked on their bodies quickly leave them.

Still, as Aniela stared at Darcel's resting face, she began inquisitively tilting her head. "I'm so glad he's ok. But….this is so strange! He was perfectly fine literally moments before! And it's not like Darcy is the lazy type to just randomly fall asleep."

Masami as well was tilting her head in confusion, trying to find any possible explanation on what just happened. Though, just like Aniela, nothing reason sounding came in her head. 

She just shook her head with a sigh, saying, "Maybe it's stress? I mean….we do want to go up against a huge behemoth of a sect. But at the same time….he rarely or, if ever, shows a stress face around us. And I don't believe he would hide something like that to us."

In the end, all Aniela could do as well was sigh. 

She looked around the Qi Haven space and told Masami, "Let's just sit down. Since he's just sleeping, he'll eventually wake up again. Hopefully, the ground is comfy."

After taking another look over the whole Qi Haven Space, Aniela and Masami relented, shrugging their shoulders. 

Since there's no furniture or visible wall, the girls slowly sat down right where they stood while adjusting Darcel's body on them.

Aniela had put Darcel's head on her soft lap, supporting the upper half of his body. While Masami sat shoulder to shoulder with Aniela and had Darcel's lower half of his body crossed on her lap.

They both took off their masks, revealing their beautiful faces that are still warped with slight concern. 

Masami just shook her head again and said in a slightly exasperated tone, "I guess you're right. Since he's sleeping, let's just let him sleep then."

Suddenly, Masami's lips curved up in a slight smile as she observed their current position. "I bet if he was up, he would spout some flowery words about this being a heavenly sensation."

Though her tone was joking, Masami actually felt a calming warmth generate in her from holding Darcel's body. She nearly wanted to wrap his legs up with her arms because he just felt so comforting to have.

But Masami regained some self-control. And she didn't dare let her overt desire show on her face since Aniela was right there to tease her about it. 

A smile had returned to Aniela's face, and her tone began to turn mischievous. "Hehe~, yea, he really would! But now….I guess since he is sleeping...." 

Aniela suddenly turned her gaze towards Masami, who felt some slight dread at Aniela's increasingly mischievous smile.

"I think it's time for some more good ol fashion girl talk! Not like our cultivation will increase in just one short night." 

Masami only gave a little sigh towards Aniela's suggestion but didn't protest. 

Masami knows she can't stop Aniela whenever she wants to talk or do any energetic event she has in her bright minds of her. 

Although, as a small smile slowly formed on Masami's lips, she also knows any talks with Aniela are undoubtedly highly entertaining.

….

Darcel snapped his eyes open in a frantic rush of emotions. Upon coming into his consciousness, Darcel immediately felt a crazed jumbled mix of emotions and sensations viciously assaulted his brain. 

"Nnng!!" Instinctively, Darcel clutched his head.

He didn't know what was going on. All he can tell that whatever is going on is causing immense distress in his soul and body. 

Darcel simultaneously had to deal with an intense churning in his soul and a chaotic rumbling in his bloodline veins upon awakening as well.

This all cultivated to a head-shattering headache that Darcel swore was going t split his head into two! 

"Dammit! Where….where….huh?! Oh no…." 

As Darcel's eyes quickly focused on his surrounding, an addition of dread filled his mind.

He was back in a familiar space he hoped he would've never seen again. 

It was the entire yellow space that assaulted his dreams just a couple of days ago. And just like the first time, everything felt so familiar and vague here.

"This….this isn't a mistake. I'm sure of it now. But….just why…." 

Darcel clutched his head tighter as his headache only got worse with each second he spent in this hellish yellow nightmare.

Suddenly then, Darcel blinked his eyes a couple of times. He clenched his hand, again and again, realizing something. 'Last time I couldn't move at all….but now, I can….'

Despite the tremendous pain violently impacting his head, Darcel slowly took his hands off his head. He let his arms fall to the sides and further realize he had complete control over his whole body.

Darcel took a moment to peer around the whole yellow space again. 

Despite the chaos occurring within himself, Darcel felt an innate curiosity about this place. And seeing as he had nothing else to do but wallow in pain, Darcel decided to see if he could move.

By leaning his body forward, Darcel slowly began to float along in the yellow space. By moving back, he floated backward and so on with other directional movements. 

'It's kind of like flying.' Darcel remarked as he didn't need to move his legs at all to move. 

He recalled the sensations he felt whenever Masami would pick him up to fly. It bears a remarkable similarity to that. 

Focusing up his mind past this, Darcel clenched his palms and tried to relax as much as possible. 

He leaked a great sigh as he started to force down the chaos rumbling his entire body, soul, and mind. It took a few seconds, but eventually, Darcel felt fine enough to move slowly. 

With a rising curiosity towards this yellow space, Darcel slowly floated forward. 

He didn't know what he would find here, but there was just something he couldn't ignore about this place.

And as Darcel aimlessly drifted further in this yellow place, he felt as if this was a place he belonged to. It was a genuine strange feeling to Darcel. 

He never felt any sense of nostalgia or home towards any place.

The only thing he could honestly say was a homey feeling was being embraced by Aniela and Masami if they decided to sleep. 

However, this yellow space was inscribing Darcel with an odd sensation of familiarity.

At the same time, conflicting with these feelings, Darcel wanted to desperately leave this place. 

The feeling of familiarity was getting overwhelmed a bit by an innate sense of danger. As far as Darcel is concerned, this place is bringing nothing but pain to him.

No matter what, though, Darcel does realize he is temporarily trapped here. Usually, if it was just some common dream, Darcel can easily snap himself awake with Qi. 

But, it's a different case with dreams like this.

It reminded Darcel of the dreams he had with that long hair ethereal-sounding figure. 

He could never leave those dreams with the little bit of Qi he had back then. And even when he left the Parasol Organization and had a dream like that again, he still couldn't wake up from it.

Darcel didn't know how much time truly passed. He guessed only minutes passed, but it felt like it was hours. 

Just mindlessly wandering around in an eye hurting yellow space was almost maddening.

What also didn't help Darcel's mental state was the intense flares of pain; his mind, soul, and body continually pushed out to him. 

But, despite how nightmarish this situation was, Darcel just felt like something was pushing him to keep ongoing.

'I wonder how those girls are doing….' Just to get himself distracted, Darcel began thinking of a true sentimental feeling. The image of Aniela and Masami's smiling face flashed in Darcel's mind, getting him to briefly smile.

Even if it was just a brief flash, Darcel felt his mind alleviate just a bit from the chaotic mess it currently is. 

And right then, Darcel stopped moving. An irresistible pulling sensation called from right behind him.

On instinct, Darcel began slowly turning his body around. Once Darcel had fully turned his body around, he went still again. 

A few inches from his face, Darcel witnessed something trying to open within the yellow space.

Darcel had to squint his eyes a bit. 

He quickly realized whatever that was trying to open resembled a vast human eye! Slowly but surely, this eye-like thing continues to open up. And Darcel couldn't move his body at all.

Or rather, Darcel didn't want to move his body at all. Whatever that was about to open up was putting Darcel in a hypnotic trance. 

It took several minutes. Several minutes of pure silence before the eye-like thing fully opened up.

"!" Darcel's mouth swung open as his whole body went stiff. 

His eyes stared into an enormous yellow eye that stared right back at him. Staring into this yellow eye, Darcel felt as if it was peering into the depths of his soul.

"Wha….nngh! Argh!!" 

An intense headache far surpassing what he felt before ferociously struck Darcel's mind! Darcel immediately clutched his head as sudden imagery began flashing in his head.

Each passing imagery that flared into Darcel's mind felt so familiar to him. 

It was like what he was seeing was memories of one particular event. As the images became more precise, it suddenly clicked with Darcel then.

Out of everything from that memory, the image of a woman's face permeated in his mind—a woman with a highly distinctive appearance that was impossible to ignore. 

A woman that made all of this possible for him.

'The….that woman….it can't be….' Darcel felt like he was being thrown into a loop by this memory. 

As Darcel remembered this specific woman, a voice began slithering into his ears. 

"Darcee…." 

The voice sounded so similar to a woman. But before the voice could finish whatever it was saying, Darcel went still again. 

His vision began going black as his consciousness quickly faded.