This all started as an opportunistic attempt to recruit a second Nascent Soul. I should have turned around as soon as I saw the name ‘Thundercloud Sect’. Heh, I let that ‘victory’ over the Black White Army get to my head and nearly lost it. Lightning is the bane of spirit form, so they can probably kill me for real pretty easily. I could escape into the Universe Ring, but then what? Instead of a prison sentence, now I’m working as a mercenary. Hidden Domains always have good stuff, especially since it seems they just found this place. Or else they would have ways to deal with this problem already.

The yellow sands weren’t that bad. As soon as he arrived, Sage had sensed a poison in the air and it was at a level he barely noticed. Except, as he traveled closer and closer to the body of water it kept getting worse. Nearly a week into the trip he caught sight of the purple lake ringed by blue vegetation. That’s also when he fell to the ground like a heap. A change in the wind was the only warning he had before he was curled up on the ground in the fetal position. His muscles were spasming, and he couldn’t do much more than lay on the ground helplessly and look within.

A sea of choppy black water stretched out in every direction, disappearing into an opaque fog in the distance. In the sky above, the grey clouds churned. In the center of this strange sea the clouds had parted to create a perfect circle and bright sunlight fell down upon a solitary fortress. A cylindrical building seemed to erupt abruptly from the water. It was made of a greyish blue stone that blended quite well with the water. It looked to be crafted of identical bricks, perfectly placed with gaps so small that even a slip of paper couldn’t fit between. It had one large rectangular gate, and was dotted with dozens of small arrow slits. Inside that fortress there were many labyrinthine passageways with strange designs carved onto all of the walls, floors, and ceilings. After dozens of perfectly chosen twists and turns, the core could be reached. In the core of the Fortress, there were a few special rooms. Outside of one of those rooms, Sage’s consciousness was looking through a set of bars on the door and assessing the situation inside.

A red-skinned demon was smashing against the walls of the room. It looked vaguely humanoid, covered in vicious barbed spikes and razor sharp scales. It had hooked blades at the tips of its fingers and looked like an all around terrible character. Sage might have been scared if the demon was an actual creature. Instead, this was a trick he’d learned after advancing his Spirit Cultivation to a certain level and being constantly poisoned by Guan Zhenyan. This building was the Infinite Immaterial Seat. The first rank of Spirit Cultivation was to build a mental island. The second rank created a structure, and the third was to upgrade that structure into a fortress, of which he had recently completed. Spirit Cultivation was the method to interact with and empower the mind.

Constantly tortured with the pain of poisons far beyond his level, Sage realized he could sense an apparition of that pain within his mental fortress. With a little trial and error he figured out how to track it down and eventually locked it up in a room. He compartmentalized his pain, locking it up so it wouldn’t affect him. The greater the pain he suffered the more frantic and wild the demon grew. This was also the reason he was able to stay conscious and clear headed even when there was terrible pain coursing through his body.

In the outside world, Sage finally started to stir. The shift in wind had steeped him in poison. He had no way to escape it and it grew to a level that overcame his whole body. Trapped in the fetal position, he waited for his Poison Meridians to absorb all the poison, but unfortunately it was constantly pouring into him at a faster rate than he could absorb it. The rest of his body continued to suffer, his enhanced healing ability fighting against the constant damage.

At this rate I’ll be stuck here at least a couple days until my body can adjust.

His thoughts were interrupted by a dust cloud. The cloud was caused by the approach of something huge and darkly colored. The fetal position he was in made it hard for him to see what it was until it got a bit closer and that’s when he saw what looked like a truck sized cockroach skittering towards him. His plan to cautiously adapt to the poison was tossed aside and he gave up on stealth, revealing his power. He’d intended to keep hidden, but now that he was spotted he spread his Qi into the air, resonating with the Law of Poison and bringing it under his control. After just a few seconds, he rose to his feet, getting a better look at what was coming his way. Is that fur?

As the roach moved closer, he saw that it wasn’t alone. Some sort of saddle was strapped around its torso and it was being ridden by not just one or two, but four furry humanoid figures. They were covered in dirty grey fur and had long snouts with whiskers and beady eyes. Their limbs were long and gangly, with sharp claws and they wore ragged leather clothing. Rat men?

He wasn’t a stranger to demi-humans, but they were usually far less severe than these creatures. Usually they looked more like humans that had extra or replacement animal parts, like a Naga, Centaur, Faun, or the many variations of people with animal ears and tails. These creatures looked like full on anthropomorphic rats. The one holding a set of reins even had a pair of goggles over its eyes. As they got closer, the three in the back drew out long cylinders and held them up to their shoulders. Those do not look like guns, but then again, close enough.

There was no way he was going to take the weapons for granted. The Blacksilver Pawns appeared in front of him and rushed towards the approaching enemies. They were moving slower than usual, the poisonous air was already infiltrating their ‘flesh’ and ‘bones’. Shame the Dragoons can’t stand the poison.

There was a violent flash of purple light emitted from the ends of the rat-men’s weapons. The light was not emitted from the weapons, but from what the weapons released. Sage stomped on the sand and used the Sovereign Stone to solidify it into a crude rock wall to hide behind. At the same time, he observed the bright purple lights crash against two of the Blacksilver Pawns. Turns out they had fired out projectiles, small crystalline shards were lodged into their tar like flesh like tiny brightly glowing blades. They continued to emit light and apply pushing force to the Blacksilver Pawn’s chests. After a few seconds the light dimmed and the force died down, which meant something about the brightness was related to their propulsion.

The Blacksilver Pawns were slowed down when they were hit, but unfortunately for the rat people, their weapons fired far too slowly. They loaded a single crystal in and then fired it a few seconds later once the purple light had built to a certain level. Even so, it was a matter of twelve against four and the twelve weren’t injured by their weapons. The rat men realized it too late and they turned their giant cockroach mount around to run, but the effort was futile. Soon the oily black figures caught up with them and incapacitated them with incredible speed. The giant roach responded like a docile pack animal and soon the four rat people were brought back in front of Sage with fear in their eyes.