The first elder opened the door whilst the second elder grabbed a very familiar glaive from the side and handed it over to the village chief;

Jia!

The massive door opened, and the other elder grabbed two flaming torches and handed one to his partner as they led the village chief through a winding downward tunnel…

This place was extremely humid, chilly and eerie, especially when one considered the occasional plumes of black smoke pouring out from every angle…

Most times they would take form the agonizing faces of a man and a woman with a screaming expression before dashing towards the incoming trio, but the elders would simply point the blazing torches in their hands at these smoky and ghostlike images, and they would disperse once they came too close to the flames…

After about ten minutes of a seemingly endless descent into the ground, the trio were finally standing in front of two separate cages placed beside each other, but far apart to ensure that nothing physical could be swapped between the two prisoners within them;

"Ah, you two…" The village chief sighed;

"You both are still not willing to talk…"

"Why are you being so selfish?"

"The village took you in, gave you shelter and a secure place to raise a family after you were both abandoned and banished from the Land of Light, but yet, you have something in your possession that could help  improve the entire village as a whole, but you kept it from the village to use for yourself…"

"Though, your actions are enough to see the village banish you into the dark lands and never to return, but how would we possibly recoup our loss of resources you have gotten for cultivation, the food you have eaten and fed your family, and finally, the shelter we could have given to others who are genuinely willing to help the village grow?"

The village head spoke with a persuading tone and also added some occasional pitiful sigh, like he was being forced to do what he did not intend to; trying to appeal to the emotional state of these two prisoners and perhaps break their will to get what he is after…

"Spare us your compassion you two faced beast!"

A middle aged female within the right prison caged yelled weakly;

"You are life force is slowly eroding, how long can you go without eating; it's been almost three years since you have been down here, eating only once in a week, aren't you scared of starving to death!"

One of the elders positioned a chair and a table in between both cages whilst the other one brought in a strongly deliciously smelling dish and placed it in front of the village chief who waved them off and began to eat, whilst the starved duo simply frowned in hatred...

Then the shriveled lady who was still very pretty despite her physical condition rushed to the edge of her cage and spat into the chief's food;

"We have survived for three years already, do you think another three would kill us!?"

"Pathetic!"

Pa!

The lady added another fry spit that landed on the village chief's face;

"We know who you are, pretender!"

"You will get the technique and then hoard it to yourself like the rest of the good ones, and still send weaklings who have little to no cultivation into battle to die just because you want to accumulate more resources to yourself!"

"Even if we have to suffer the same fate in ten different lives…"

"But there is one thing I know for sure, we have unlocked more meridians than you ever will in your lifetime, and whilst your poison prevents us from absorbing any form of natural energy, we can still hold on for another three years…"

"By then I am very sure someone would stumble upon this hell hole, and then your secret despicable deeds would be revealed to everyone!"

The shriveled man in the other cage  also raged exhaustedly through gritted teeth;

"Haha ha!"

The village chief erupted with a roaring laughter as he gazed at the shriveled couple with a ridiculing gaze and added;

"Firstly, I have pronounced both of you dead shortly after I had you both secretly kidnapped three years ago; and as far as I am concerned, this place doesn't exist to anyone asides from the seven of us you have seen down here over the last three years so no one would come finding you…"

"Secondly who do you think will come save you? Your kids?"

"Haha ha… Just so you know, your daughter is already dead, and her cops has been violated in search of the technique you refused to share…"

The couple's eyes glazed with murderous intent as they heard the village chief's statement;

"Though, your son ran away and we didn't find it on your daughter's uprooted corpse, but we haven't stopped search-"

"Gu Ya! You will burn for what you have done, and your entire lineage will waste their entire lives searching for this technique and never find it…"

The man rushed towards the cage wall but was restricted by the chains he was being bound by as the lady began to shed dry tears, since she has been dehydrated for a very long time now…

"Oh, about that, I am really sorry to tell you, but one of our scouts has recently found the whereabouts of your son…"

"Apparently, he had built a mini fortress for himself and is now living in the Grey Lands, but we will set out tonight and capture him…"

"Then we will bring him down here and torture him in more ways than your wildest imaginations combined, right in front of you…"

"I will be here also, because it would be really fun to see who breaks first amongst the both of you..."

"But know this; one way or another, I will get my hands on the technique, even if I have to skin your son alive in your presence and have his bare wounds infested by disease…" The village chief said as one of the elders walked in;

"Chief, the five hundred men you told us to prepare are ready…"

"They are waiting for you at the village square with some of the residents who are curious about the reason we have summoned so much force…"

"Ignore them, they would gather around for anything as much as a bug bite!"

"Arm the men, we are going to catch a big fish!"

The village chief spoke as he rose up and then looked back at the couple before adding;

"They spat on my food, reduce their weekly dish by half for the next six months!"

He ordered the elder before leaving, whilst the elder who was stunned by such gruesome punishment managed to stutter;

"A-a-as you wish, village chief…"

Then he turned around once more to the couple and spoke;

"Why don't you just give him what he wants, and you will be set free..." The man asked with a pitiful expression;

"After how much we have suffered!?"

"What are the guarantees that he will let us leave…"

"He has said it himself, out punishment warrants us to be banished, but here we are, for over three years, about a hundred feet deep into the earth, eating only one a week for three years straight…"

"Do you still think he is the type that keeps his words?"

The shriveled man spoke resolutely, whilst the lady simply sunk to the ground with her back against the cage and wept;

"He killed my daughter, and now he is going to kill my son too…"

Her eyes poured out the little bit of liquid left in her body as the man looked towards the elder once again and shook his head, then the elder bolted towards the lady and knocked her out…

"Thanks a lot, she would need all the energy she can summon once our opportunity to escape comes…"

The elder heard the man's statement and shook his head with a helpless sigh before leaving the prison…

Meanwhile…

At the surface within the village…

500 men had gathered around with weapons on their hands as they stood with vigor in front of the village chief;

"Village chief, which village are we going to plunder today?"

One of the men asked with a huge grin, he had the expression of one of those lecherous people who will see a 3000 pound gold on one side and a virgin young girl on the other, and still choose to take the girl;

"You will find out when we get there, but first-"

"We will set out in an arrow formation with a hundred heavy men being the arrow head, and a hundred fleet-footed men being the feather, whilst the rest would surround the three of us and make up the shaft!"

The village head commanded whilst gesturing to the Left and Right Elders respectively;

"Open the gates!" He bellowed;

Jia!

Bang!

The three middle aged men who were there when the bloodied Ji Hai came into the village lowered the village's massive pole gates;

"Advance!"

Shrap! Shrap!

Shrap! Shrap!

The five hundred men formed an arrow looking formation and marched out of the village, with Ji Hai marching in front of his father and the two elders who were riding a rhino looking wild beast as they marched towards the location of the plateau;

"Our timing is perfect, we shall arrive at the location by tomorrow at dusk!"

The village chief spoke to both elders on either sides whilst Left replied;

"Then we can use the cover of the dense jungle and the darkness of the night to advance without being detected…"

"Hmm… Your tactical thinking ability never ceases to amaze me, chief!"

Right chipped in as the village chief grinned to himself;

"He will never see us coming!"

Meanwhile…

Back at the plateau…

Dara was already past opening his right great meridians and strengthening his physical body, and had just begun to unlock his principal meridians when he suddenly gave a heavy sneeze;

Achoo!

"Who could be thinking of me this much!?"

He mumbled before sniffing and wriggling his nose, then he continued cultivating, but just as he closed his eyes, it was as if a cord snapped in his mind as his body shrugged intensely;

"Unh, approaching danger!?"