Ning's POV:
When Ping kicked down the door, dad came flying out of the cabin to tackle him at full speed, letting out a shockwave as he passed us.
As Xing is a crippled cultivator, his body is a lot more fragile than before. He might be a little more resistant to certain types of attacks, but aside from that, he is not much different from a mortal. Which is why I had to use a bunch of energy to quickly create a barrier of rocks and dirt strengthened by my qi to protect us from the blast.
"Hey, Xing! You, okay?" I asked.
*Incoherent muttering*
Xing gave no response. He was just sitting on his knees as he grabbed at his hair, while mumbling incoherent words as tears dripped out of his eyes.
"Damn it, Ping!" I said in anger.
After his cultivation was crippled, Xing started developing a mental trauma around the 'Lunaria' or more specifically 'Lunaria Chrystalla'. He would have a panic attack from just hearing her name and it only got worse after mom went into a coma and we had to flee to the 2nd continent. He seemed like he was finally starting to get back on his feet when … well, when he got back on his feet, but then that bastard older brother just had to kick him where it hurt the most.
'She is the daughter of that wench Chrystalla!'
Dad had made us promise not to tell Xing the truth about the pipsqueak, because we were afraid, he'd lose his mind completely.
*Incoherent mumbling*
*sigh*
"Oh, crap! Mom!"
I had been so worried about Xing I had forgotten the whole reason we were out here in the first place. The pipsqueak said mom would die if the door was opened. I looked towards where the cabin had been as the dust cloud dad had left behind started to fade.
"What's that?"
The cabin had been blown down and in the center of where it used to be was a giant, pulsating blue and brown egg made from fire. I could sense an incredible amount of earth qi inside it, and looking closer I could make out a silhouette sitting inside the center of that ball of energy.
*BOOM*
Suddenly, the top of the egg burst open, firing a giant blast of energy through the mountain barrier before piercing the clouds. The energy column slowly began to shrink, becoming thinner and thinner until it disappeared.
"What just happened?" I muttered, in confusion and disbelief.
"Little Nox sacrificed herself to save Ai!" Dad said as he came floating down behind me, with Ping slumped over his shoulder.
"What?"
Dad just pointed towards where the column had been. At the center sat a black skeleton surrounded by small blue flames that littered the ground around it as a mix of lights could be seen between the gaps in its ribcage.
"From what I understood, the treatment needed to take place in an isolated space with a stable and controlled environment, like an alchemy furnace. She somehow realized she wouldn't be able to finish treating Ai before Ping broke through the door, so she took your mother's soul and body into herself to do the finishing touches, turning her own body into an alchemy furnace."
"Y-You're pullin my leg, right? When did you start tellin such morbid jokes dad? That charred skeleton can't possibly be-?"
"It's Nox! It is all that is left of her!" Dad said, while wiping away his tears.
I bit my bottom lip in frustration so hard I drew blood, as I got a sinking feeling in my stomach as reality set in.
"Then where is mom? I don't see her! ALL THIS CAN'T HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING!" I shouted.
"She's there! Can't you tell?" Dad said as tears started flowing down his chin again.
It was only then that I realized that dad wasn't cryin over my niece's death. He was cryin cause of what was glowing inside the ribcage.
*Smash*
Suddenly the black skeleton was smashed to pieces by a shockwave from the brown ball of light inside it. It soon came flying up to Xing as it transformed into …
"Mother?" Xing said as he looked up at mom as she gave him a hug.
"There! There! Mommy's here! Now tell me! Who made my little Xing cry?"