They were all women and just as they arrived at the courtyard, they frantically asked;

"Where's his highness, we need to treat him now!?

"

The Elders didn't want to say anything because they didn't want to be the first to speak of the King's death;

But at the same time, their eyes kept moving from the women to the unmoving torso on the ground;

Suspicious of their odd gazes, the women traced the Elders' gazes to the corner of the courtyard beside a huge flower vase where they saw something from their wildest horrors…

Instantly, the four women fell to the ground and fainted, but in that exact same moment, within the Ji Tribe, Dara screamed to life;

"Arrggghh!

"

Instantly, everyone within the clinic, including the healers, the disciples and even the Ji Wang duo, but it was Elder Ting that arrived first, as she saw Dara panting hard with his bandages now soaking with fresh blood His sutured and stitched wounds tore open due to his abrupt movement and scream…

But just as Elder Ting saw him and his currently soaking bandages, all the pain from the ruptured wounds and broken stitches assaulted his senses and he instantly fell back to the bed, unconscious…

"What happened!?

"

The Senior Disciple asked with bated breaths and heaving chests, she seemed to have ran her heart off up the stairs;

"Stop standing there and come help me!

"

Elder Ting yelled at her Senior Disciple as she used her hands to block the fountain of blood spurting out of Dara, but her hands did nothing to cover it as it still kept leaking from the sides of her hands…

The Senior Disciple saw this and rushed over to the drawer full of worms before taking two handfuls back to the table and pouring them all by their numbers into Dara's open wounds;

Then like fishes released into the wild waters, the worms squirmed faster than normal sucking the all the blood within Dara's wounds as they kept leaving the sponge like fluid behind in their tracks…

"We heard screams, what happened!?

"

Ji Wang burst into the room as Elder Ting quickly walked over to the entrance and used one hand to push Ji Wang out whilst using her other hand to pull the covers over the entrance, indicating that no one was to come bother them again…

Ji Wang looked at his body and saw Elder Ting's glaring handprint on his clothes and it was stamped in blood; one Ji Wang was most certain wasn't hers…

He returned to the entrance of the clinic, as Uncle Min gasped in shock when he saw a bloodied handprint on the body of Ji Wang who just left him about half twenty seconds ago…

Ji Wang then explained everything to Uncle Min who used every shred of will he could muster to prevent himself from barging into the ward…

Meanwhile…

Whilst all of that was going on…

Within Dara's mental space...

He His golden soul

/consciousness was currently lying beneath the massive tree, unconscious, gradually diming and fading, signifying that should it completely fade or get snuffed out, then that would be the end of his life journey…

Of the three roots, two was gradually shriveling, with the one attached to his soul shrinking at a faster rate than the one attached to his body…

The root attached to his soul continued to shrivel as the fading of his soul continued and when it reached the point where it was just about to completely fade out, the tree trembled slightly, and then aggressively, before the root attached to his soul actually pierce through and emerged from the other side before shooting off into the distance seemingly in search of something…

Few seconds later, the surging root stopped and began to retract at an even faster speed than it shot out, and by the time it arrived by Dara's soul, there was a white soul with a mysterious ancient formation attached to the tip of its root…

Then the root began to pulse as it shot out once again into the distance, and moments later, just like the first time, it returned with a black soul in tow…

The root then wrapped around the two souls as well as that of Dara's fading golden soul, as it began to suck the glow out of them…

The lights passed through its root into the trunk, and then up to the top of the tree where a branch began to grow out of the previously branchless and leafless tree…

The moment this happened, the Senior Disciple suddenly felt the blood flowing out of Dara gradually slow to an abrupt halt;

"Um… Master, I'm not sure, but the worms shouldn't work that fast or did someone swap the worms!?

"

She asked as Elder Ting looked over and hurriedly moved over and placed her hand on Dara's chest, and instantly her eyes widened in shock;

Then she lowered her head and placed her ears on his chest, before gasping in utter shock;

Not willing to admit the situation, she grabbed his wrist and placed two fingers on it as she felt for a pulse…

Then the anticipating Senior Disciple suddenly saw her master's eyes redden before she then slouched to the ground sitting on her legs as tears began to spill out of her eyes in massive quantities…

"Master, what's wrong!?

"

"Why're you crying!?

"

The Senior Disciple had suspected what went wrong, but she simply didn't want to believe it as she went on to do the same procedures her master just did, as she grabbed her mouth to prevent herself from wailing out loud…

A few minutes after, the Junior Disciple walked in and froze at the entrance when she saw her master and senior apprentice sister wailing quietly, then she looked towards the operating table, at Dara and noticed that his chest was not heaving, as she placed her hand over her mouth…

Elder Ting saw her younger disciple and noticed that she seemed to be seething with a scream, and just as she was about to stand up to go meet her, the little girl ran out of the ward and down the stairs as she burst out of the clinic before puking her guts out stunning Ji Wang and Uncle Min who were standing guard at the entrance…

Ji Wang and Uncle Min felt their hearts tug heavily with a very ominous vibe, as they both rushed over to the girl;

"Hey, are you okay?

"

"What happened in there!?

" They asked as the girl pointed to the clinic;

"Tr- tribe Leader…

" She stuttered before fainting on the spot…