THE MO TENG CURSE
"Lian, Lian. Open your eyes."
The female voice cut through the silence in the tunnel and echoed. Wei Lian felt strong arms hoisting her up. They were walking. Probably taking her back to her chambers. The underground passage was dark and cold, and Wei Lian felt a strong chill run through her veins.
She drifted in and out of consciousness; she was hearing muddled up voices in her head. They were echoing around her. She closed her eyes slowly, allowing herself to submit to the darkness.
...
She woke up with a gasp. She was no longer in the dark, cold tunnel, nor was she laying on the battle ring with all those hypocritical faces lashing at her. She was on her bed in her own private chambers. The soft silk warmed and soothed her skin. The air in the room was heavy with incense.
Xiao Hei, her companion beast, was leaning over her, but now in his human form, his handsome face creased with genuine fear, gently tapping her cheek.
"Lian Lian, wake up. Look at me."
Next to him, Mei Lin, her best friend from the Qingxi Empire, was standing; her hands were straight in front of her, her eyes were closed. She channeled a pale, silver light from her left palm with her left hand to Wei Lian. The light pushed against the dark veins present in her spiritual veins. She pushed the marks and buried them under her flesh.
"Stop it!" Wei Lian snapped, sitting up abruptly and covering up her arms. Mei Lin flinched.
"Lian Lian," Both Xiao Hei and Mei Lin called at the same time.
"What do you think that you are doing?" She asked Mei Lin immediately.
The silver light in her palms extinguished instantly.
"I was trying to seal the wound. What if someone sees it?"
"Wound? It is not a wound. My spiritual veins are damaged. They look infested," Wei Lian yelled. "What if someone sees it? What about you?" She yelled again.
"What if someone sees you using your power on me?" Wei Lian whispered fiercely.
"But there is no other person here," She argued.
"What about sensing? If anyone senses that energy signature, you'll be exiled or worse, imprisoned by my father's guards. We agreed, no power here!" Lian whispered fiercely, her eyes darting to the door.
Even with the sealing arrays of her courtyard active, using that energy was a massive risk.
Mei Lin was from a forbidden clan in the Qingxi Empire and a clan with a special forbidden power. She was the last of her lineage and nobody knows that that power still exists. Her clan had been totally wiped out because of that same power.
Mei Lin's expression tightened with a mix of stubbornness and worry for her only friend. "I don't care about their foolish rules! Your life is more important than their politics and hatred for my clan. The entire sect is in chaos out there. They're already calling you a false prince, Lian."
"Well, am I not a false prince?" Wei Lian asked and stood up to the mirror. "Look at me. Outside I am a male, inside here, I am a female. Which part counts as truth?"
Mei Lian sighed. "Let's talk about your spiritual vein. That is more important."
Xiao Hei put a calming hand on Mei Lin's shoulder. "She's right, Lian. There is a poison in your vein and it is strong. She used her illusion energy to mask the visual marks for now, but your spiritual veins are damaged. This isn't just a physical injury; it's a spiritual curse."
Wei Lian gasped. She had suspected this when she saw the marks.
He pulled the ancient scroll from his sleeve and laid it flat on a table nearby. "It is called The Mo Teng Curse. From the Moiying Valley. I quickly did a sweep of the archives to get information on it while you were asleep. It is dangerous, Lian. It takes three months to consume the host's primordial spirit. You are on the clock."
"We need to do something real fast. It is a rare poison and has been out of existence for centuries now. Only few know what it is, the cure, or even how to wield the energy. By few I mean, one out of a thousand people," Mei Hei added.
"According to the scroll, it is feeding off your primordial spirit, and after three months, it will consume you totally. Good for you, you die, or worst, it turns you into a demon."
Wei Lian shook her head sadly. "How did it even happen? How did I get the poison?"
"I don't think it is liquid. So you didn't drink it," Mei Lin said thoughtfully.
"It takes spiritual exertion for the poison to act up. It takes months for it to grow roots in your veins, but only starts its work once you use your veins or your QI. It is a slow poison," Xiao Hei read directly from the scroll.
"So when could you have gotten the poison? The last time you used your QI! Think, Wei."
FOUR MONTHS AGO
It was the last battle—the day of the grand tournament. Everybody watched silently as the two opponents faced each other in the last round. Long Yue of the Moiying Valley and Crown Prince Wei Cheng (Wei Lian) stood facing each other.
Slowly they faced in on each other; they were kicking, somersaulting, and flying at each other. Long Yue summoned his fire cultivation, but Wei Cheng was faster. He summoned his cloud soaring technique and hit Long Yue. He then summoned his fighting knives and his shield.
Just as Wei Cheng was about to strike with his knives, Long Yue recovered and used his fire on him, and that had sent Wei Cheng flying backwards. He had tried staggering; his hand was on the ground when he landed. Something had pricked his vein just then. It was like a knife that was in the fireball.
Wei Cheng had recovered quickly and sent his knives in Yue's direction, and that was how he had won the fight.
PRESENT:
"The last tournament. That was the last time I fought with my Qi," Lian gasped.
"Does this mean that he could have poisoned you?"
Wei Lian looked at her seemingly normal arm, the skin smooth, yet feeling alive with a vicious, foreign energy. Three months. That was a death sentence.
A sudden, soft knocking broke the tension in the room.
All three froze. The knocking was slow but powerful.
"Empress Lianyu requests entry to her son's chamber," a calm, measured voice came from the other side of the magically sealed door.
Mei Lin quickly folded the scroll, shoving it into a cabinet, while Xiao Hei vanished in a flicker of spiritual energy, reappearing as a small, sleek black fox that leaped onto the bed and curled up innocently.
Wei Lian quickly waved her left hand over her face and it turned to that of "Prince Wei Cheng" as she crossed the room and released the seal.
Her mother entered, her eyes immediately scanning the room and settling on Wei Cheng's face, seeing past the weary expression to the fear underneath.
"I know what happened in the arena," the Empress said simply, walking toward the bed. "And I know what this means."