Monk Chen faked a cough into his hand to ward off the awkward embarrassment that was Zhao Bing catching onto his partner, whom was by the way already floating toward them.

  “Well, that is monk Eun-jeong, a fellow elder of my Chensun temple.” monk Chen said, gesturing at his approaching partner. “I take it, he is the one your brother mentioned?”

  “Yeah, he is. Can you guys help me out first, before we get into all of that!”

  Monk Eun-jeong floated up to peek over the fence of ice and she remarked in a calm voice

  “Is he diseased with the madness of the Pale king?”

  “Yes but he just became a Scholar, it shouldn’t occur like this” Zhao Bing refuted

  “Are you sure?” Monk Eun-jeong asked from above “this flames are not something a new scholar can conjured up”

  “Yes, I am sure. He just awakened now, in front of my eyes” Zhao Bing started before thinking better of it and a coffin of ice formed beneath his feet, taking him up to the same height as elder monk Eun-jeong.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Monk Chen hopped lightly into the air and landed on a tree branch at the same general level as his fellow elder monk and Zhao Bing, staring into the space confined by the ice fence, he confirmed the words of his fellow monk. In the confined space, a strange green flame had covered every inch of the space and reaching a height of about two-thirds the length of the fence and it was steadily rising, in height and intensity. Within he could barely make out the outline of the screaming boy with his head in his arms.

  “this.... have you seen this before?” monk Chen asked his fellow monk.

  “If what the man is saying is true and the boy is really a new scholar, then no, I have never seen anything like this before.”

  “Why would I lie about something like this?” Zhao Bing argued, glaring at elder monk Eun-jeong. She just shrugged in response.

  “And if he is lying?” Elder monk Chen asked, still observing inside the fence of ice.

  “Well, if he is lying then we are looking at an ‘episode of madness'. It is a late stage symptom of the Pale king’s disease, it begins when the victim reaches the end of his fourth tier or more commonly in his fifth tier. When it happens there is a fifty percent chance that the victim will lose himself and go mad.”

  “wait, what? I am telling you, he can't be having episodes yet, he just entered the fourth tier this evening.”

  “But, brother Zhao, the boy has the Pale king’s disease, correct?” Elder monk Chen interrupted Zhao Bing.

  “Yes.” Zhao Bing replied with a sigh, the fight leaving his body

  “Then we will walk with the assumption that the madness came early.” Elder monk Chen turned to look at his fellow elder monk “You said a fifty percent chance, right? Is there anyway you know to tip the scales in the boy’s favour?”