"....now dip the pellucid eyeballs into the liquid for 3 seconds before taking them out for 2 minutes, and repeat the process 4 times."
Hao Xuan was wearing a surgical mask, revealing only his eyes. Fortis was sitting atop his head, as usual, wearing a surgical cap. In his tentacles were small towels with which he repeatedly wiped the sweat dripping off of Hao Xuan's forehead.
This concoction, which was officially called the "Physique Refinement Elixir" had been worked on for over 11 straight hours now.
Once the process was started it couldn't be stopped no matter what, so Hao Xuan had to persevere through it all in one go.
He was exhausted mentally. His eyes were blood red and his body weary. If not for Baracus's voice echoing in his mind like a guiding light, he would have passed out a long time ago.
The mental toll this process took was nothing to scoff at, especially for someone that had never done this before. That's why only certified Alchemists could handle a project like this.
Hao Xuan doing this on his own was undeniable proof of his own lack of knowledge of the cultivation world. There were experts for a reason.
Even with Baracus's supreme intellect and exceptional intelligence, the process took more than 3 times longer to complete than it would have if an Alchemist had done it.
"Now submerge the scorpion bladder into the liquid, very slowly. It shouldn't create any ripples."
Hao Xuan's hands were shaking and his vision was going dark as he tried to put in the last ingredient.
"Focus! Five more seconds and you're done!" Baracus reminded when he felt Hao Xuan's pulse slow down.
"Hng!" Hao Xuan bit his lower lip, forcing himself awake from the pain. He held his breath and as slowly as his body would allow him to move, he placed the scorpion bladder into liquid.
Hao Xuan and Fortis both stared at the liquid without even blinking, looking for that last sign that signified whether or not was the Elixir a success.
The bladder floated atop the liquid's surface for less than five seconds before small grey tendrils shot out of the liquid and violently dragged it under.
"..it...worked..." Hao Xuan murmured weakly. He was far too weak to show any kind of emotion at this point.
His eyes went blank and his legs went limp, making him lifelessly fall backwards with a loud thud.
Fortis jumped off in the nick of time, landing beside the already snoring Hao Xuan with an elegant mid-air spin.
"Take him outside please, the elixir still needs 23 hours and approximately 57 minutes to ferment," Baracus kindly asked Fortis who bobbed his head up and down.
He carelessly wrapped one of his tentacles around Hao Xuan's neck before dragging his body out of the room. But Hao Xuan was in such a deep sleep that he didn't feel any discomfort.
Still with the surgical cap on, Fortis ran outside to find Yun Wentian to play around with, leaving Hao Xuan all alone.
A few minutes after he left Xu Qing walked in with a bucket of clean water and a change of clothes. With some slight hesitation and a pinkish blush adorning her blemishless cheeks, she undressed Hao Xuan and started cleaning him up, before putting on a new pair of clothes. She had done this so many times now that it was second nature to her, but she still felt embarrassed.
The last time he fell into a coma for 3 weeks trying to comprehend the Chaos energy, it was Xu Qing that took care of him. Same for this time when he slept for 5 days straight.
Red and Green would have done it happily but she chose to do everything herself. Before even taking care of her own needs she would wake up every morning and help Hao Xuan, yet he had no idea, or so she thought.
She was well aware of his feelings for her but chose to stay quiet on purpose.
***
18 hours later Hao Xuan finally opened his eyes.
The sun had just set and a cold gentle breeze brushed past his cheeks, making the tree outside his window creak and sway.
Hao Xuan placed his arm over his eyes, trying to remember the details.
"Another one...." he murmured.
Another dream. One that he couldn't recall but still remembered how it felt. The frequency of these dreams was increasing day by day.
It used to be that he would dream like that maybe once every few years, but now it was once every few weeks.
Many people believed that dreams were real.
They were either things that bothered a person subconsciously or were somehow a glimpse of the future.
And then there was another theory, a very old one, one that no one dared believed because it defied logic, even more so than flying men hurling balls of earth and fire at one another.
This theory stated that truth, the universal truth, was relative. It was different for everyone. Every person had their own version of reality, of how they perceived things.
So who was to say what was real and what wasn't?
Was a person living an ordinary life any less real than the one living at the top of the world? Neither could truly imagine what the other was like, yet both existed. So why couldn't other things exist? Things we never dreamt possible...
*Beep*
"You're awake. It's almost time. The elixir will be ready in a few more hours," Baracus's indifferent voice woke Hao Xuan up from his daze.
Hao Xuan sat up and peered out of the bedroom window.
Green, Red, Yun Wentian and Fortis were sitting a few dozen meters away, under the giant maple tree. Yun Wentian was showing them his swordsmanship.
Green and Red gave pointers while Fortis tried to copy him with a dried-up branch, failing time and time again.
"Was I...here?" he mumbled under his breath.
"Of course you were here. Where else would you be?" Baracus responded, confused.
"No, I mean....nevermind."
Hao Xuan waved his hand, dismissing the thoughts popping up in his mind. He got out of bed and noticed that he had already changed into a new set of clothes.
"Was it her?"
"Yes. As usual."
"Hmm..." he nodded in understanding. The corner of his lips arched up unconsciously into a smile.
Putting on his shoes he walked out of the room and straight to Xu Qing's.
He knocked once and waited. He could hear the creaking of the boards from the other side and her footsteps getting closer. She opened the door, a look of surprise on her face.
"You're up..."
His smile widened looking at her flustered expression.
"Mhm. Are you free right now?"
"Y-Yes..." she nodded timidly.
"Good. Come with me, I want to go somewhere," he grabbed her hand as gently as he possibly could and started walking out.
"B-but the dinner..."
"Forget dinner. They won't die if they skip one meal," Hao Xuan pulled her closer and summoned Bai.
He picked her up in his arms. Her cheeks turned red down to the base of her neck as she held on to his shirt.
He jumped on Bai, who with a single leap, vanished into the darkening night.