Chapter Five: Breaking the First Seal

Yai Zia

“Well kid, it’s almost time for your parents to visit again,” I said cheerfully when the kid came out of his meditation. From the calm smile on his face, I could tell that he finally had completely attuned himself to the Dao of Chaos. After 70 years of hard, grueling and lonely meditation the kid has finally attuned himself to the very peak he could with this attunement art until he gains a new Dao to comprehend. This art was incomparably profound, even for the highly talented cultivators of the Dao Origin-Realm, it usually would take around 60-100 years depending on how good the personality of the cultivator matches up to the nature of the Dao of Chaos. For someone like Jing Guanyu, whose personality would be more suited to one of the more dominating Dao’s like Yang or Destruction; this is a very surprising result for me.

“And not only did he completely attune himself to the Dao of Chaos in 70 years, he also has made significant progress on his state of mind. Despite having no one but me for 7 decades, his will is just as strong as ever, if not even stronger due to this tempering caused by isolation from the world and other people.” I thought deeply as the kid in question, Jing Guanyu, opens his eyes with an expression of happiness. However, it is not an expression of the childish and naïve happiness of before he was imprisoned.

“His emotions are far more mature than before, his mental state has slowly been getting colder and more indifferent.” I thought as he had still had that small grin on his face, the only indication of an increase in happiness would be the extra light shining in his now slightly fathomless eyes. The kid has always been a handsome child, but now he has a solemness and gravitas in his bearing. Despite still looking the same as he did at the beginning of his imprisonment, the kid seems to look more mature, due to the tempering of his mental, emotional and spiritual states. The kid stands up slowly, doing his stretch routine that is so familiar to the both of us, that we could probably do it in our sleep even if we suffered amnesia.

“How long?” the kid asks me, obviously asking about his parents. Jing Guanyu has even become more taciturn since he was imprisoned. That’s only to be expected, however, isolation can do strange things to people’s mind, body and soul. Answering calmly, I continue to ruminate over how the kid has changed in the short 83 years of life. From a kind, gentle and relatively quiet boy; to the boy with an indomitable will and determination; to the calm, collected boy possessing an even stronger willpower and determination far exceeding the previous two phases of his life so far.

“They will be in around 6 hours or so.” Hearing my words, Jing Guanyu’s smile gets slightly wider as he replies. “Well, in that case, I will just practice that unarmed combat art you taught me as a way to keep my mind, body, and soul calm.” After saying so, the kid walked back to the center of the room and assumed a relaxed stance. After a breath of time, he started to slowly and leisurely move around. Although his movements looked seemingly random, someone who is familiar with combat will notice the hidden potential each of the movements has and just how difficult it is to coordinate all the muscles in the body to truly use this combat art. I had given the boy this art because it emphasized maintaining the inner-calm of the practitioner at all times. It is called the “Calm Sea, Immortal Virtues” and is among the best of the combat arts I have for him.

This choice so far has been proven to be a great choice as it has helped Jing Guanyu remain calm and also has given him a way to defend himself after the escape has been enacted. What would happen if he had landed in the middle of a battlefield or in danger when he escapes to the lower realms? There would be no time to teach him a combat art for self-defense, so to teach him one now was a win-win situation. It helped him maintain his inner-calm in this isolation and also taught him one of the stronger beginner level combat arts I have in my possession. My actual body had meticulously studied everything possibly required during the time he was waiting for the kid to begin his path of Divine Cultivation so he would be ready for when Jing Guanyu did become a cultivator. The spirit body was simply a powerless copy of the real body, thus it has the knowledge and comprehensions of the real body.

As I watch the kid slowly train, I wonder at what the future will bring for him.

“heh. After he escapes of course.” An unbidden thought sounds out in my head, replying to the contemplative thought.

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

Jing Guanyu

“Yu’er!” A voice yells out in joy as a beautiful woman rushes towards me. With a wide smile, I open my arms and hug her as she leaps into my embrace. It is my mother, Jing Muyu, here for the decadal visit. Strangely enough, my father isn’t here, though Jing Muyu just parses it off to the empty air with something about looking for an artificer for a new weapon. After an hour or so of reminiscing, we start to talk about my progress so far. My mother turns very serious at this point, listening to me carefully.

“I have managed to finally achieve complete attunement of the Dao of Chaos just a dozen hours ago. I will have to start meditating on the Dao of Chaos so I will be able to disengage the first seal.” I inform her. However, the calm and contemplative expression makes me seem like a child trying to be serious with my still immature features. Seeing the childish appearance, Yai Zia and Jing Muyu can’t help but start making weird faces as if they were trying to keep quiet. When I raise my left eyebrow at them in confusion, they both start laughing loudly. After a few breaths of time, the pair of parental figures finally show their maturity by quelling their laughter. Jing Muyu, still nearly giggling, answers my unvoiced question.

“I am sorry Yu’er. You just looked like such a child just then. It reminded me of the time when my husband and I went on our first mission. Your expression was just like the one from back then.” While my face was still contorted in slight confusion, Jing Muyu and Yai Zia continue to make plans; showing their maturity as they quickly act like nothing happened. Deciding to forget what happened to avoid unnecessary confusion, I ask about the progress of our plans on their side.

“How are things going on your side mother?” Jing Mu smiles brightly as she replies.

“Things are going great, Jing Heng is actually in the process of completing the trade for your Primordial Rebirth Pill and the conditions of the trade are fair. Once the trade is done, we will be unable to give anyone else the technique for a millennium.” Upon hearing her words, Yai Zia also grins and puts forth his opinion.

“That is a good deal. I think it will take Jing Guanyu around 2000 years or so to finish everything. What? The attunement gets exponentially harder to progress in the more Dao are infused into the art. Remember, it can have a maximum of six additional Dao infused into the art and for each extra Dao added, the difficulty will get exponentially harder. Especially considering what your other 6 Dao are going to be like.” Yai Zia was forced to add a few additional sentences to explain his reasoning because of the dark look I gave him. Hearing his explanation, I simply nod my head and return my attention back to my mother. Jing Muyu, still warmly smiling, answers positively upon hearing the opinion of Yai Zia.

“2000 years or so and you two will be ready?! I thought this escape would take five thousand years at the minimum… After all, comprehending the Dao of Chaos enough to break those seals while still imitating the seals’ energy signature is very hard.” I nodded my head in agreement at my mother’s words. Yai Zia had eventually managed to make me understand just how high of a comprehension I would need. Yai Zia smirked, unconscious of the arrogance within his smirk when he heard Jing Mu’s words.

“2000 years just to gain those insights? No, to gain the required insights will at most take another 350 years or so considering how sensitive he is to the Dao of Chaos. He also only needs to get to a certain level and he will naturally be able to undo all of the seals. The only thing that would prevent him from undoing all of them the instant he has the comprehension; is the sheer amount of spiritual energy required to condense enough of the Laws of Chaos to undo the seals. This is considering how hard it will be to make his foundation’s solidity high enough to achieve this without resources. Either way, although we will be ready to escape at that time, we will likely delay this for up to another 2000 years if we have to.” The words of Yai Zia caused a frown to appear on my mother’s beautiful face.

“That is a very fast estimation. Are you sure Yu’er will be able to do it in that time?” my mother asks skeptically. Yai Zia just grins knowingly as he answers.

“Well…… He could do it in 1000 years, but he would only have the requisite comprehension of the Dao of Chaos. The 2000-year estimation is if a miracle happens and the kid encounters no bottlenecks in the other things I have planned for him to do in here before the escape. At worst it’ll take nearly 10,000 years for him to achieve all that with a barely passable result. If he wanted to have everything completely perfect, at worst he would take nearly 20 millennia to do it all.” At Yai Zia’s answer, my mother’s mouth drops in shock. It was for a good reason, although technically people who have achieved the Immortal Evolution have an infinite lifespan; The rigors of life will always eventually wear away the soul and will; causing cultivators to lose their desire to live. This is one of the demises cultivators can face during their journey to the peak of cultivation. In the High Heaven Realm, the longest time a cultivator can live without losing their will to live is from 10,000 to 100,000 years depending on their Divine Cultivation level. Divine cultivators would usually live longer due to the fact that their soul, and thus their soul and will is far stronger than an Essence or Energy cultivator.

“10,000 years is enough time to cause quite a few Immortals to lose their will to live!” I think to myself as my mother regains her composure. Once she has calmed herself, she then speaks calmly, but incredulously to Yai Zia.

“Over 10,000 years at worst! You do realize that by the time that he has escaped, most of the current immortals will be dead?! What would be the point of escaping then?” Yai Zia simply widens his grin when he hears Jing Muyu speak. I also open my eyes from my quiet thoughts and give Yai Zia my full attention. I am also interested to know the answer to this question. Yai Zia simply smirks and starts to leisurely fiddle around with his appearance as if he was bored. After a minute of doing this, he notices a glare directed at him from my direction. Turning around, he sees me staring at him with a glare, demanding him to answer the question with my eyes. With an exaggerated sigh, Yai Zia finally answers slowly.

“10,000 years is not as bad as you think. Everyone in your clan cultivates along the path of Divine Cultivation and one of the other two paths usually. Even if a clan member of your clan becomes an Essence or Energy Immortal, their soul is still strong enough due to their Divine Cultivation to allow them at least 30,000 years to live. That is also excluding people like the patriarch, who is a True Immortal who is at Immortal Evolution with all three paths currently. He would likely last 500,000 years or so at best and half that at the worst. Given that Jing Jiao is a talent on the same level as the patriarch, he will also survive this time period. There would only be no point in doing this if it would take 50,000 years or more to do everything since the patriarch would likely just either forget it or have found a ‘true talent’ to nurture that is apparently on the kid’s level.” With a nod of understanding, both my mother and I finally understand the thought process of Yai Zia in this aspect of the plan.

After Yai Zia has explained this, the three of us continue to speak care freely until the time is up. Once my mother has departed, I look at Yai Zia and ask him something which has been on my mind for the past 7 decades.

“Yai Zia, how am I supposed to meditate on the Dao of Chaos to comprehend the Laws of Chaos when the arrays prevent me from doing so?” Yai Zia simply looks at me for some reason, before bursting into laughter. This time, it takes him quite a while to regain his composure. When he does, however, he is still smirking at me.

“Hahaha, you forget who and what I am. I am a Dao-Spawn of the Dao of Chaos. I myself am literally a body made of the Dao of Chaos that happened to gain a soul. If you want to meditate on the Dao of Chaos, just meditate on my within your soul realm. I may not be a real body condensed of the Dao of Chaos but I still maintain my knowledge and comprehensions of the Laws of Chaos. Besides, this spirit body is structured the exact same way my original body was formed by the Dao of Chaos. With a living being born of the purest prime essence of the Dao of Chaos, how can you not meditate on it?” My mouth drops open in surprise. Seeing my shocked expression Yai Zia starts to laugh at me heartily.

“Well kid, back to work. You got 300 years of comprehension to do. Best start it now heh heh heh.” With a joking glare at Yai Zia that was betrayed by my eyes, I proceed to the center of the room and begin to meditate.

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

Jing Heng

“Have you got the pill then?” I ask almost eagerly to the man standing in front of me. This man is the biggest prospective purchaser for the alchemy technique given to Jing Mu and I in anticipation of this kind of situation. The two cultivators had told us that this technique was only for the purpose of gaining a Primordial Rebirth pill for when my son was 18. This man was the legendary Alchemical Immortal, an Immortal alchemist and the greatest in the High Heaven Realm. Even he was extremely interested in such a technique, easily willing to trade it for a Primordial Rebirth pill. Right now, we were doing the trading of the technique for the pill. Since the technique was what was being sold, the Alchemical Immortal, knowing my reputation, handed the Primordial Rebirth over to me with no hesitation.

After signing the contract and receiving the pill, I immediately grabbed a jade slip while I initiated the copy and record function inbuilt into the mental imprint the technique was stored on. The mental imprint then immediately replicated itself, including the technique, as it transferred the copy onto the jade slip. Once done, I respectfully gave the jade slip to the eager Alchemical Immortal who thanked me.

“Thank you Jing Mu. Here is a communication talisman so you can contact me if you need to. You are a fine man, let us keep in touch.” As the Alchemical Immortal said this, he handed me a tough talisman made of the skin of a strong demonic beast. The talisman already had the talisman signature of the Alchemical Immortal upon it and I smiled widely with joy when I received it. Getting the pill for my son and becoming an acquaintance of the Alchemical Immortal; today was a great day for me. Bowing politely, I lead the Alchemical Immortal to the door of the inn room we used for the transaction. It was an inn I often frequented due to it being owned by a family that my wife and I had saved on an adventure once.

The inn itself, while not luxurious or opulent, had a modest but quality feel to it. Everything within it screamed of aesthetic simplicity; this simplicity was what made the inn seem high quality in its own way. Being here would not arouse the suspicion of the patriarch. The only thing which would be mildly suspicious was the fact I visited during the time we can see my son, but my wife and I have pretended to be estranged due to differing opinions on his situation at the moment. Given that I have pretended to want my son to submit to the patriarch, my son and I also being estranged would be natural because of his stubborn disposition. The Alchemical Immortal had completely disguised himself using all of his knowledge as a master of pills and won’t be noticed by anyone.

This whole plan has been intricately planned and slowly advanced over the 7 decades of Jing Guanyu’s imprisonment. I am happy that the trade succeeded, though I still maintained my calm, alert posture as the Alchemical Immortal left. We had pretended to be old friends who met on one of the many missions that had been undertaken by my wife and I over the years. Once the Alchemical Immortal left, I then spent the remainder of the time before my planned return to enjoy my time with the family that I had once saved.

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

300 years later

Jing Guanyu

“Well kid, are you ready?” Yai Zia asks me as I open my eyes. With a smile, I nod my head as I slowly stand up. The past 300 years have been nothing but meditation, sleep, and training in various different combat arts. After I had achieved mastery of the first combat art, the “Calm Sea, Immortal Virtues”, Yai Zia had taught me a wide variety of different combat arts. He gave me 7 other combat arts that were supposedly the “most supreme of their kind” in his words. They were wildly varying with each being focused on a different style. The 7 combat arts were each about balance, domination, insidiousness, elusive, control, aggression and defense.

Each combat art focused on one of these ways of fighting with the “Calm Sea, Immortal Virtues” combat art focusing on being composed and versatile with no real form of fighting. Despite my hard work, I had only mastered the dominating combat art to the minor stage of the first level and gotten to the initial, beginner most stages of the other 6 combat arts. Although I was still working hard, Yai Zia had told me that the 7 combat arts he taught me were among the most supreme of the Dao they followed. The combat arts had no instruction on their Dao, Yai Zia having removed those parts, but I could still guess what the 7 combat arts Dao’s were.

“I suppose I know what the other 6 contract’s attributes are going to be. It is just a matter of which one I will be making the contract with.” I thought to myself as Yai Zia started explaining the process I would need to take and some things to watch out for during the procedure. With a slight sigh, I let these thoughts flow away like a leaf in the wind as I focus on the task at hand. Nodding to Yai Zia, I then sit down and start to use my comprehension of the Dao of Chaos to make my spirit power have the attribute of chaos. This took almost a week, upon the completion of which I immediately cast the spirit power into my soul to find the first seal.

With a slight smile on my face, I find the first seal. While I am studying the seal meticulously, Yai Zia appears next to me with his customary grin on his face as he quickly evaluates the seal according to the standards of the Dao Origin-Realm.

“Well…. It would be a miracle if this was judged as mediocre in any random village in the Dao Origin-Realm. How can a seal this weak and so… Unrestrictive? It is like sticking a table in front of your door and saying it is a high-security lock. I mean sure, it would work for a while, but eventually, some cultivator is just going to punch the door and table into wood chips while waltzing into the house. I don’t even know how the High Heaven Realm can consider this seal as good, let alone as one of the heaven-defying sealing techniques it is considered as.” I simply continue to focus while ignoring the disdainful rant of Yai Zia. I had adapted to his derisive evaluations of anything related to the High Heaven Realm over the past 370 years. He would say practically the exact same thing each time, to the point where I had to ignore it or I would say things which shouldn’t be said.

After a month, Yai Zia and I start to discuss the seal and what we have comprehended from it just to be sure that I know the method of unsealing my path of Divine Cultivation. The unsealing of the path of Divine Cultivation was the easy part, the hard part was making sure that the now ineffective seal still emitted it signatures so that the patriarch of the Jing Clan wouldn’t be aware of the fact that I unsealed one of the seals.

Time dragged on as we continued to slowly and laboriously, unseal my path of Divine Cultivation.