Abyssal Awakening

The closest mark that she could find was Sect Master Jian. He was the closest to her when the ritual hit so she wasn't sure about the kind of damage he took from the eldritch energy.

But to her surprise, when she arrived at the tent, she saw both Sect Master Jian and old man Mo being placed next to one another. Jian was lacking while Mo seemed annoyed.

"Seems like I didn't need to be too worried after all." Alice folded her arms.

Glancing over, a vein bulged as Old Man Mo clicked his tongue and looked away, refusing to acknowledge Alice.

"Ignore the baby. I'm glad to see that you are safe." Sect Master Jian smiled as Alice nodded her head.

"Same to you. Are you… perhaps hearing any voices or anything of the sort? I know the… ritual wasn't exactly a harmless one." Alice asked, but Sect Master Jian shook his head.

"I was feeling something for a little while, but I managed to purge it with the help of my old friend over here. He's proficient in dealing with the cult. Unfortunately, those with less resistance suffered quite a bit. To the extent that not even he can help them." Sect Master Jian sighed.

The people that were caught in the cross fire was the people he vowed to protect after all. Disciples and civilians who wanted to enjoy a festival.

"Oh? This cranky old man can do that?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

If she could learn how he purged the Eldritch power then…

"Yes but not without drawbacks. I've lost quite a bit of power and one of my eyes was blinded." Sect Master Jian shrugged with a bitter smile.

Unlike Old Man Mo, his body wasn't accustomed to fighting against Eldritch power. A Lord he may be, but against this level of corruption, the fact that he could still live to fight another day was already impressive.

Losing an eye and some power was a small price to pay.

"Unlike some of us, seems like the potential cult member is untouched. In fact, that corrupt energy around you only grew stronger." Old Man Mo interrupted, surprising Jian.

"I'm aware. Though it's something I can't control and it's not like I'm completely unharmed. This energy is bad for me as well, ya know?" Alice shook her head with a shrug.

Despite bringing their attention to the energy surrounding Alice's body, Old Man Mo didn't say anything else and only huffed.

He didn't try to attack her as he knew that if she was involved with the cult, she wouldn't be injured like them.

Not to mention the fact that the ritual wouldn't just randomly end the way it did.

The Abyss Tyrant Sect may have arrived to help but there was no way they were the ones who stopped the ritual. It was simply impossible to come that quickly with the distance they needed to cover.

Meaning that something had stopped the ritual while it was happening.

With everyone being dragged into it, and Alice being the only one relatively unscathed and the increase in corruption around her, he came to the conclusion that she was the one who stopped it.

Now, there was the chance that she might've used this as a ploy to get their trust, but there was no reason to do such a roundabout thing when they were practically dead.

So the chances of her having ties to the cult were unlikely. It was simply a case of this girl being suspicious as hell.

While Old Man Mo was coming to terms with his own thoughts, Alice and Jian chatted away regarding what had happened.

Unfortunately, neither of them had too much information on the event.

Regardless, Alice was happy to see that he was safe and thanked him for letting the sect leader of the Abyss Tyrant sect know that she wasn't a threat.

With the checkup on Sect Leader Jian done, Alice made her way out and targeted the next closest patient.

Hualing and Xiao An.

Both of them were spectating the fight when the ritual happened.

According to Cayla, Alyss had found Hualing in the ritual realm connected by a strange tether.

Alice had to admit, she was a little worried about the damage potentially done to her.

But as she opened the tent, she couldn't help but lean to the side.

"Seeing as how the two of you are so… heated up maybe I didn't need to worry after all."

In front of her, Hualing was laying on the bed while Xiao An was leaning over her.

With Alice suddenly intruding, Xiao An coughed awkwardly, standing up straight while Hualing let out a laugh.

"It's not like that. I still get a headache every now and then, so he wanted to check if everything was okay with me." Hualing wanted to sit up but Alice shook her head.

"I'm not going to be here for long, just wanted to make sure you were feeling alright. Are you perhaps hearing any… voices?" She asked, grabbing a chair and sitting down.

Hearing Alice's question, Hualing paused before a sad smile appeared on her face.

She nodded her head.

"Sometimes I hear the voice of my sister. Nagging at the corner of my mind. I thought it was my own thoughts, but it doesn't seem like it from what you're saying."

"It's most likely a byproduct of the Ritual. Just… try to ignore it for now. I don't know what'll happen if you let that voice, well… Hmm… I guess if you listen to that voice, nothing good will happen." Alice furrowed her brows.

She couldn't exactly warn them about something specific since she wasn't sure herself. The Voices just give her an eerie feeling.

After all, she had to deal with Zal-Ka'Rith of the Writhing Script. He had messed with voices in her mind quite a bit during her journey.

Chances are, the people that fell victim might've had a 'seed' planted into them, waiting to germinate and there wasn't anything she could do about it for now.

She simply reinforced the marks for future use if she found a cure.

Gifting Hualing a small bottle of mead for her to drink at her own convenience, Alice left the tent.

She wanted to check up on Qiu Qiu, though unfortunately, she wasn't awake yet so Alice had to skip her.

This only left Jin, who was also unconscious, but because Alice was his master, she was allowed to check up on him regardless.

Entering the tent, Alice saw him lying on the bed.

Even now, she could see the corrupt energy weaving through the strands of energy around his body.

The twitches in his shadow.

She could clearly remember him being held captive in a capsule of sorts with dark energy being injected into his body. So the fact that he was now lying here was concerning.

Unconscious he may be, it didn't change the fact that Kazira tampered with his body.

'Are you able to give him a check up?' Alice asked as Cayla furrowed her brows.

[I'm the eye of the Abyss, not a medic. But I will see what I can do since I'm not exactly proficient with Eldritch Energy.] Cayla sighed in mild annoyance since for someone who had sealed her away, Alice was asking quite a lot from her.

Alice could feel Cayla's gaze and simply tried her best to ignore it for now.

Even if she wanted to undo this seal, it wasn't something that Kaden could undo easily either. He made it so that it'll undo on its own rather than through brute force.

[Erm… You know how you're rather proficient in examining the energy lingering on the body now?] Cayla spoke up after a moment of silence.

[I think it's better for you to examine his body yourself than I tell you. You'll get a clearer picture of it if you do.]

Raising her eyebrow, Alice didn't reject and did as Cayla told her.

Placing her hand on Jin's chest, Alice focused on the strands of energy around his body. The way they moved, how the Eldritch power was trying to merge and corrupt.

Following the flow of energy, it soon reached a pathway into Jin's body and then…

Emptiness.

'The f*ck.' Alice couldn't help but curse in confusion.

There was nothing inside.

It was a similar but very different situation to what she's in right now. She couldn't use energy as it would harm her body for this period of time.

Jin didn't have any Abyssal Energy inside him, which shouldn't have been the case. He had Sigils that modified the shell of his soul so there was always going to be Abyssal energy stored within.

So why was there nothing?

Furrowing her brows, Alice tried to check again, wondering if she misread the flow only for it to reach emptiness once more.

'Why is it empty???'

[Don't look at me, I don't know the answers. I may have prior knowledge of Outer Gods, but that's pretty outdated after everything we've seen in the ritual.]

'What about theories then?'

[One. This kind of emptiness probably signifies one thing since your power to observe energy came from me. And I'm connected to the Abyss. Inside this body, there is probably not a single speck of Abyssal energy left. Meaning, there's a chance that the capsule he was in converted everything into Eldritch power.]

Hearing this, Alice paused for a moment as she thought back to her previously mentioned theory on the shell of the soul.

But more importantly, with Jin not having a single speck of Abyssal energy meant only one thing.

He was now a fully Eldritch being!