Punishment - Chapter 1

“Woo Yeah!” I was hyping myself up in the mirror pumping my fists into the air while doing a little dance; but I started to calm back down squinting my eyes around the room, hoping no one was spying on me right now with their spiritual sense. Well if they were then when I got my elder robes I knew the first person I would be tormenting.

With a pep in my step I slightly shifted my shoulders back a little more and moved my head a little higher - posturing myself as a soon to be elder.

I boarded my red bolt sword as I glanced over at the ‘No flying sword allowed’ sign, I mean technically I wasn’t allowed to fly over to the main hall, but the no flying requirement was as strictly enforced as jaywalking in the mortals lands - and hey the name's Jay so what can I say for me it's just walking. Well I guess bending the laws a little bit isn’t a notable deviation from my character, I'm the type of guy whos kind of fed up with all the precautions in life and just want to relax and not worry too much, my buddies always pester me that eating mortal food will cause Qi constipation, but ehh a couple of years of setback and a little pain for that lava cake is worth it.

Bump– ‘Shit! I think I hit something… well whatever there’s no time to waste - proceed onward!’

***

I could have sworn the hammer was falling in slow motion as the hall reverberated the sentence–

“Lightning Realm Cultivator Jay Jaysonson, Is now sentenced to 50 years of mortal confinement with a complete suppression of his cultivation base.”

“Although the punishments are harsh, the crime is greater, having completely impaled the patriarchs son with no sign of mercy, and according to section 4 commandment 20, the murder of the future inheritor of the sect is a crime punishable by soul torture and complete death, but due to the unfortunate circumstance and war coming upon us, the punishment shall be lighter.”

“Commencing… drop down to the mortal world.”

Whooshh, The drag of the wind alerted me that this was not just a fever dream, and the ‘speed bump’ I had hit earlier was probably a little worse than I imagined.

“GOD DAMMIT, I DIDN’T KILL ANYONE, THOSE FREAKING CHEATS DIDN’T EVEN LET ME DEFEND MYSELF!!!” I shouted so loud that my throat started to burn.

“URGHHHH” I slammed my fist down to my thigh in rage, as the ground started coming closer, I saw the reflection of the calm Lake Geneva one of the landmarks of my beautiful mortal homeland called Iceland, but before I could appreciate the scenery my instinct started kicking in and I shifted to a dolphin nose dive position, even if I was falling into water the force of impact is like a small truck, so even with my flawless falling technique this was gonna hurt a little.

As I divided, it was like molten glass being shaped around me as the water arced up and I landed with only a couple of bruises - pain an experienced cultivator like me could handle.

The shock of the cold water made me realize what I might have just done.. ‘I think I just stabbed that MF patriarch's son with my flying sword’.. ‘Well shit.’

I looked up to the sky and shouted “PLEASE INSIDER SECT, I DIDN’T MEAN IT, PLEASE TAKE ME BACK!!”

No response from the chaotic sky knocked some reality into me, ‘those brutal sons of guns, of course they don’t care about my side of the story.’ I begrudgingly got out of the lake and walked to the side of the road looking at the scenery. ‘Damn, I haven’t been here since I was like 5 years old it has changed a lot since I was a little mortal’

Iceland was very beautiful, even using my knowledge of mystical cultivation lands as reference.

I got to the side of the road and whipped up a thumb hopping for some good samaritan to pick me up. ‘Well me - the renowned cultivator - is hitchhiking, this is a huge bruise to my pride.’

My looks were welcoming enough, before when I looked down at my reflection, not much had changed since I got my cultivation sealed. I looked above average with a slightly dropped chin covered with bristles of hair and big but not long lips.

A car started slowing down to pull up to my soggy figure, but just as it turned in a shadow of a moose appeared in its headlights, It swerved out of the way avoiding collision.

Whooshh– Bam— Skrrrr– Crash

The wind got punched out of me for the second time in the day, but without any cultivation this was even worse. I heard the snapping of bones throughout my body as I whipped to the ground - the lady in the car worriedly rushed out.

I heard the shocked voice of the elderly lady in green and just as I was losing my vision I saw the logo of the car ‘SUBARU’ anger rose through my bones and resentment coursed through my blood.

I woke up to the medicinal peppermint smell of painkillers, held in place like a mummy of bandages lying on a bed.

‘My day is getting worse and worse, it seems like the heavens really spite this lowly man huh’

A nurse was tending to a bloke with reddish hair. ‘Hmm this place is pretty modern for the mortal world, didn’t know they had healing centers like this.’ I looked to my left and there was a small nightstand with some magazines and books on top. ‘I should probably call over the nurse and ask what the hell is going on’

“Hey Nurse” I called over with a raised voice

–“give me a second I’ll be right over”

“So” the nurse said as she walked over.

“What's your name? We found you off I-92 in a car accident and you didn’t have an ID”

‘Should I give a fake name? I think I should build a new identity here so that's probably the best option’

“Yaj” I said after thinking for a second

“Ok Yaj, so what brings you here to Iceland?”

“Well, I’m here for work”

“Oh ok ok, I need to tend to some ICU patients and I’ll be back, make sure to take out your insurance papers in the meantime.”

‘Insurance? What the heck is that, well shit I don’t think I got any of those, what am I supposed to do now’

‘Well what are they gonna do if I don’t have those, they already started treating me… will they bring the car back in and run me over again?’

The thought of that scared me, so to the other patient's dismay I pulled out the little tubes connecting to me and rocked out of the bed.

‘Hmm I might need some of this medical stuff’ I walked over to the red head and took the pill bottle next to him, pills were definitely something I was familiar with, the magical substance that fueled all cultivators, so it was a must to grab them. For some god forsaken reason that man started shouting at me to stop… I mean come on, the hospital can always give you more pills, stop overreacting. So I picked it up to overdrive and ran around taking whatever I could salvage. Just as I heard wheels outside the door looking down for some last items, before I started booking it I picked up the books and magazines in case boredom got to me. And I ran like no other, my physical base was not bad at all so I was going pretty fast, I saw a small closet on the side and ran in to hide.

The room was dark with the faint glow from the vents lighting up the mops and other cleaning equipment. I sat down and huffed out the breath of air I was holding in my chest. I popped a couple pills called “Adderall” hoping to help ease my pain and took a tally of my equipment. In the end I picked up the magazines and looked at the cover, almost as if it was made by the devil to infuriate me, a shiny silver car with the same brand “SUBARU” was printed. My gut wrenched in anger, I was confused with all that was going on around me so I think my mind wanted to hang onto a thread of understanding and rationalize the situation.

‘It must be the fricking Subaru guy who’s plotting against me. I swear I will make the greatest army in these mortal planes and flip over your little bum.’

‘It’s a good idea to sleep but this rage inside won’t let me!’

‘Heheh I will plot all night and by morning I will be ready to initiate my grand plan!’

‘First let me relax a little and read some of the books they left’. There is a long way to go

I picked up the flashy cover called “I shall govern the heavens as an immortal dragon with complete domination” Hmm seems pretty cheesy, although it was right up my alley since I always loved the reincarnation stories when I was a mortal. But this one was kind of different, as I read into the night I realized this was the mortal depiction of the cultivation world rather than a more common otherworldly fantasy setting. The book chronicled some trash talent nobody gaining a secret treasure from the heavens, a system, as they called it and he leveled up using some quests with the backing of a knowledgeable creator contained in the system.

Before I knew it the sun was easing again through the vents, ‘shit I haven’t even started my plan’ the book was awfully long and there were only a couple pages left at this point, although I didn’t believe anything eventful could happen at the end, since if there was one thing this book was good at, it would definitely be its predictability.

I closed the novel, trying to get into the right mindset for planning, thinking: how the hell am I gonna do this?

‘HUH, Maybe that will work!’ A grin overcame my face, ‘HEHEHAHA God is on my side again.’ My epiphany related to this system thing I read about, logistically I thought it would be impossible to create without Qi, but maybe, just maybe I could do so ‘lawful’ frickery to bypass this.

‘I think it’s time to become the hidden system master, and take over the barbaric world!’