Chapter Four: Imprisoned

Jing Clan Patriarch

“What scary eyes. It would be in the best interest of the clan if I to use my full strength and comprehension to seal him!” Was the only thought in my head as I began to seal the boy’s soul. I gave him 9 seals, one on the bottleneck between each of the remaining realms. The final seal of the nine seals went onto the barrier between the 9th stage of the Foundational Evolution and the 1st stage of the Immortal Evolution. While doing so, I couldn’t help but stare at the boy’s eyes. Such a strong a determined gaze, it actually makes me fear for the future if he is ever given a chance to cultivate properly. Luckily, I am sealing his soul cultivation, the highest he will ever go will be the Peak Mortal Spirit Sensor. Unless he submits to me, that is.

After sealing the boy, I use my soul power to knock him unconscious, not damaging him at all. Seeing his eyes roll back into his head as his body collapses, I release a breath of tension I didn’t realize I was holding. “It is done. He is sealed,” I think to myself as I toss the boy’s body to his grandfather, giving him instructions.

“Take him to prison room 72, I had the elders prepare the arrays to hold his body’s aging and growing functions in stasis over the week we gave him to make his decision. That will make it impossible for him to cultivate Essence even if he wasn’t crippled. Since he also doesn’t have an energy system and the formations tinker with the natural Dao in the room, he is unable to cultivate energy or comprehend the Dao to unseal himself either. Just dump him in the room. Give him enough food to stay healthy, but I don’t want it to be anything more than necessary, in both quantity and quality. Ok.” The grand elder I instructed nodded, flying to the prison area of my Jing Clan’s territory. Turning to the boy’s parents, I walk over and speak to them about the finer details of his imprisonment. Although people call me harsh, I know what it is like to both be a son missing his parents, and how it is like being a parent with their son in danger. For all my anger at the boy refusing to become strong, I would never cause the mental breakdown of a kid that hasn’t even grown hair on his balls.

“He will be imprisoned until he is willing to submit to my will. I will allow you a visit every decade at this time. I will allow you a visit in around an hour, and every visit will be for a maximum of a single day, starting at the same time you enter the cell. You may bring him food, though any spare will be taken away upon the end of the designated visit time. These are the best conditions you are getting so don’t bother trying to get better ones. In fact, if you try, I will half the visit time and double the time in between visits; making it half a day visits every 2 decades.” I smirk slightly as I see the defiant brat’s parents open their mouths before shutting them after hearing my final words.

I then walk away, preparing the guard roster for in front of the brat’s prison cell. Although I know his cultivation has a ridiculously weak limit, I know that one pair of clan members would attempt to break him out if I don’t sufficiently powerful guards. As I am organizing the guard roster, I still have on thought in the back of my head.

“What if he escapes and we can’t find him?”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jing Guanyu

After the patriarch knocks me unconscious, my soul is brought into my soul realm. There, I see Yai Zia smirking at me as he laughs “Heh, you damn kid. That is some guts you got staring at an Immortal Lord level expert like that. Truly a good kid.” I look at him, confused as to why I am in my soul realm when I am mean to be unconscious. “How can I be in my soul realm while unconscious?” Hearing my questions, Yai Zia laughs heartily before answering.

“hahaha…. Well, the soul realm is like a little space in your soul that your soul and spirit sense can enter whenever you want. It becomes more important during the second and third Evolution of cultivation, but that is a few too many millennia away for you to know."

I am being imprisoned after having my Divine cultivation bottlenecks reinforced and sealed, so I really don’t have time for these confusing thoughts. “There will be plenty of time after I escape and start to try become a true expert to learn such things,” I tell myself as I wait for Yai Zia to say something. Finally, Yai Zia sighs and tries to comfort me. “I am sorry Jing Guanyu. I know how stressful this is for you, but you made the decision yourself and I promise I will help you get out of this completely fine. No, I will make sure you get out completely fine, no crippled body and able to become an Essence, Energy, and Divine Cultivator. To allow you to become a True Cultivator so strong that even this High Heaven Realm will have to bow down at your very name.” Looking at me, I can see a glint of determination now in his eyes. With a confident smile, I reply in kind. “What, you are going to make sure I will become like that even though it will make no difference? Whether I can cultivate Essence and Energy or not won’t make a difference. I will still become strong enough to make the Jing Clan bow down to my might and for my parents to be repaid for their kindness.”

Looking at each other, the determination in our eyes mirror each other. After a minute like this, Yai Zia finally opens his mouth and speaks. “You actually can embark on the Energy Cultivation path as well as the Essence Cultivation path. You just need to do one more thing, that is to take the Primordial Rebirth Pill. As for your meridians, don’t worry about them because you can solve that issue before you start cultivating.” In reply, I simply nod. Despite the fact that Yai Zia said he would only give the information on my options and let me choose my path, he knows that no matter what, this would be the path I would choose. Therefore, he skipped the whole “so what is your choice” part of his teaching routine.

“Ok, I overheard that your parents are going to be able to visit in an hour for around a day. We need to plan a course of action with them during that time. Come here, let us discuss our part and when your parents arrive; we will all discuss this together and make a plan.” Saying so, Yai Zia and I begin our plans to escape the prison cell I am trapped in. Neither of us talked about the seals on my body, Yai Zia being confident in my determination and tenacity to overcome that obstacle. Meanwhile, I was confident in Yai Zia’s stunning breadth of knowledge. Thus, we simply planned. Discussed ideas and slowly, a plan was formed for how we would escape.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jing Muyu

As I walk to the prison cell the Jing Clan is keeping my son, I think of how he stood up even to the patriarch of our clan. My son had denied one of the strongest cultivators of the entire High Heaven Realm so he could walk his own path. I can still see that resolute, straight and yet small back as he stood in front of the entire hall of elders. In front of such pressure, he proclaimed his own will, even though he knew that he would suffer for it. Such determination and strength of will made me truly happy for him, yet also truly angry at the clan which forced him to hold so much on his young shoulders. Arriving at the cell my son was residing in, I grabbed the hand of my dear husband, Jing Heng as we walked into the cell.

Sensing the nature of the arrays in the prison cell, I almost exploded in rage. If it wasn’t for the warm and comforting hand of my husband, I would have already been on a rampage despite the impossible odds stacked against me. Looking around the cell, I saw my son in a strange meditation position as he waited for us. Upon noticing our arrival, the spirit body of his spirit smiles and seems to send a mental message to our son. Almost instantly, my son’s eyes snap open as he gets up and walks towards us. I am surprised to the depth of my soul right now. Despite the near-calamitous situation that has befallen my son, he still has a calm and confident smile on his face as he stops in front of us. With a slight grin, he speaks.

“Come, mother and father. I have something I wish to talk about with you.” After saying so, he walked towards the middle of his cell. It was quite the spacious cell considering that he defied the patriarch’s command. Usually, people that disobey the patriarch will be in a 1.5mx1.5m square cell which is extremely claustrophobic. “I guess he didn’t want my son to have a mental breakdown. He sure is pushing the edge of a mental breakdown though, I guess he wants Yu’er on the edge of a mental breakdown. That would make it easier to make Yu’er submit considering Yu’er has no wish to submit.” I think as we sit down on the cold stone floor of the cell. Smiling at us, the voice of our son penetrates our minds.

“Calm down, Yai Zia is facilitating mental communication between us. He swears it will not get detected. Just talk in real life like nothing suspicious is happening and we should be fine.” Hearing our sons mental message, I start to speak to him in real life, worrying over him like any mother should. Even though I was truly worried for my son, I knew that he needed support, not a mother stressing over him. So, while we were conversing in real life, Yu’er was explaining the situation via mental communication.

“During the time since I have been locked in this cell, Yai Zia and I have come up with a plan to get out of here. However, we need outside help to escape as well as a particular pill in the possession of our clan so I can cultivate the three paths of cultivation.”

“You mean the Primordial Rebirth Pill correct? We know that this is the only pill in the High Heaven Realm that can heal your physical injuries. We have a way to get it, though it will be hard to do without the patriarch detecting us.” Jiang Heng answers mentally. While in real life, he is laughing at a joke that I had made about Yu’er’s new spirit contract being extremely high class. Back in the mental discussion, Yu’er replies to Jing Heng.

“Yes. That is the pill. If I can get that and manage to escape successfully, then even I if am abandoned in the lowest Realm, apparently, it won’t affect my cultivation at all. If what Yai Zia claims is correct of course.” The conversation continues like this for the entire 24-hour period. The 3 of us keeping up a physical conversation while the 3 of us and Yai Zia communicate mentally. After that, a plan is established to begin the escape in a millennium. Yai Zia had claimed that Yu’er will be ready to escape at best after two thousand years, though it depends on his comprehensive ability. After saying our tearful goodbyes, in real life, of course, my husband and I leave. Although we were worried about our son, we can tell that no matter what, he will achieve what he desires.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jing Guanyu

I watch my parents walk away, a calm and determined exterior hiding the inner sadness in my heart at the fact that I will not see them for a decade. Although they were rarely home the past five years, they were still home a total of a month or two each year depending on how many missions they took and how difficult they were. Now that I know that they took these missions all for the reason of being able to give me a Primordial Rebirth pill, it made me feel even worse. My parents went to so much effort to help me achieve my desires, and yet I ended up burdening them even more than before.

Even though they already have enough to purchase the Primordial Rebirth pill, they cannot do it openly like they could’ve before. Purchasing this pill without the patriarch discovering before it is too late is almost five times harder than actually earning the money to get the pill. This thought tore through my heart like a hurricane, showing no intention of stopping. Yet, despite the ravaging power of the hurricane of emotions that is within my heart, my Heart still beats strongly and my Will still burns strongly. My heart rejects the self-pity and the negative emotions, telling me to do something about it while my Will gives me the strength to do something about it.

This determination, this desire for my family to truly have peace, is what is fuelling me strongly still. After 5 years of extreme, lonely and painful training; this power of desire is still pulling me more powerfully than ever towards my goals. Yai Zia, seeing my emotions with his spirit sense, smiles upon seeing how strongly I resist the negative emotions in my heart. With a grin on his face, Yai Zia says “Come kid. Let us find a way to get past those nasty little seals hey.” Smiling at Yai Zia’s attempts to cheer me up, I nod and mutter “thank you” as we walk over to my new meditation spot on the cold floor of the cell.

Sitting down, I look at Yai Zia, waiting for him to start the conversation. With a slightly awkward smile, Yai Zia starts to speak. “Well, the seals are very powerful but exceedingly simple in nature. Although they would be a cake-walk to my true self, to you, they are extremely challenging obstacles you must overcome. There is no way for you to overpower them with force, only someone of the peak of the next level of Divine Cultivation would be able to even scratch them and the tiniest scratch would alert the Jing Clan patriarch. Therefore, you will need to use a technique, or in this case, your comprehension of the Dao of Chaos to unlock these. I must say though, your patriarch has absolutely no talent in seals. Even if his spirits are as weak as they are, he should at least be able to force you to get to half his cultivation level as well as his level of the Laws of Chaos before being able to slip through the seals. However, that only applies if he is able to place all his comprehensions into the seals. Unfortunately for him, he isn’t even able to put a quarter of his comprehension of the Dao of Chaos into these seals. Thus, despite the exponentially increasing nature of cultivation, the seals get exponentially weaker the fewer comprehensions the sealer is able to place within the seal. This exponential decrease is by several factors higher than the exponential disparity the difference in cultivation gives; thus our current situation." After saying so, Yai Zia sends a mental imprint to me.

As I open it, I discover it is an art that apparently enables the cultivator to attune their senses to a particular Dao. In this case, it attuned me to the Dao of Chaos. The attunement art was truly extraordinary, the higher someone’s perception and comprehension abilities, the better they were enhanced when it came to the Dao the art attunes them to. Looking at Yai Zia in shock, the spirit in question begins to chuckle as he says “Seriously, stop looking at me like that. Everyone in my Realm has one kind of attunement technique like that they train in. That one just happens to be the best one for the Dao of Chaos and just happens to be able to act as a merger for up to 6 other attunement arts of the same type. It’s all a coincidence that I have this one you know. It isn’t like I prepared in advance guessing all your spirits are going to be different attributes.”

As I look at Yai Zia disbelievingly, I suddenly burst out laughing. Unable to control myself, I start laughing and crying at the same time. For some reason, seeing the person in question ‘defend himself’ because he had what he was claiming as one of the best comprehension enhancing techniques was absurdly funny. This was especially so knowing that he was a Dao-spawn of the Dao of Chaos and from the mythical Dao Origin-Realm. It wasn’t even a question of whether he would have this art, it was whether he was willing to give it to me or not that mattered!

Finally calming down, I smiled as I begun to train in the technique. With a smile to myself, I thought “Jing Clan, for all that you have caused my family to suffer, you shall be repaid in kind!”