Jia jumped into action, flinging herself at the core formation realm cultivator in the center, her snow white sword swinging through the water slower than normal but still faster than a mortal would be able to track. As the sword arced through the water, a chill came over the water around us seeping through my clothes and deep into my bones. I was more than used to Jia’s abilities so the chill didn’t bother me all too much but the other men in the group trying to attack us weren’t the same.
I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind one of the foundation establishment realm cultivators. I was astonished that I stepped behind him faster than I expected which ruined my surprise attack and gave him enough time to turn around and strike out with a silvery qi coated fist. I recognized the steel qi that Ji used so I coalesced my sword of wind and earth and sword of wood and metal and parried his blow. The qi in his fist dissipated and was absorbed by my qi swords reducing the strain on my reserves.
The remaining members of the group jumped toward me to try and overwhelm me with numbers. I launched a halcyonic abyssal cutter at one of the men. The size of the slice I sent hurtling toward the man surprised me but I didn’t have time to wonder about the increase in my abilities. The man was forced to protect against the arc of cutting power launched toward him which left me against the remaining three men for the moment.
I stepped behind one of the men and quickly cut him down before he could react. The remaining men formed up into a group and did their best to protect each other’s blind spots which hampered my ability to take them down. Luckily there were only three of them which didn’t provide them full coverage from my attacks.
I was thinking about how to best approach them to take them down and spared a look over to see Jia’s fight. She was easily overpowering the man but he was doing his best to hold his own. He was probably banking on his compatriots to come to his rescue so they could overpower her with numbers. I wasn’t going to give them that chance though.
“Look out on your left!” The demon’s voice rang out within my head. I ignored his voice and swam upwards quickly managing to dodge the attack launched from the group of men who took advantage of my momentary lapse in attention.
I took advantage of my position above the men to launch a pair of halcyonic abyssal cutters at the furthest men from me. I then launched into a flurry of blows that quickly pushed the closest man back, but his movements in the water were too slow and I was able to make full use of my enhanced speed to cut him down where he swam. The growing cloud of blood in the water around me clouded my vision, but I knew the other men were busy blocking my strikes.
I swam out of the cloud of blood and down to the remaining two foundation establishment realm cultivators. One of the men was clutching his wrist which I noticed was leaking blood into the water while the other looked unscathed. At my appearance out of the cloud of blood the remaining two men swam back toward the city, the injured man grabbing his severed hand as he swam. I didn’t hesitate and within seconds I had used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step next to each of the fleeing men and cut them down in the water. As I slew them I felt a strange sense of glee float up from deep within me. I went to assist Jia, but by the time I had arrived, the core formation realm cultivator was now floating in the water, icicles protruding from a diagonal cut from his shoulder to his hip.
“What happened to the others? Did they run away?” Jia asked.
“No, I killed them.” I told her. She gave me a strange look, but then she shook her head and we examined the bodies of the slain men. They each had small satchels with them, and from within the packs we found another two hundred spirit coral to supplement our own amounts. We took the spirit coral and after looking around to make sure there weren’t any Mertalians nearby I stored the spirit coral within my storage ring.
We swam to the city, talking about the fight as we traveled and soon enough we arrived back at the large underwater dome. Standing guard at the entrance to the dome was a pair of Mertalians. Next to the pair was a small ornate box on a pedestal. We approached the guards and one of them held out his hand in a ‘stop right there’ gesture. The other looked at some notes on a tablet he was holding and glanced over the two of us.
“One core formation cultivator and one foundation establishment realm cultivator. A total of two hundred and twenty five spirit coral for the daily quota. Will you be paying your quota now?” The Mertalian asked. We both nodded and handed over our sacks filled with spirit coral. The Mertalian not holding the tablet walked over to the ornate box, opened its top, and dumped the first sack overtop the box. The box was half as large as the opening of the sack so wouldn’t the spirit coral just fall onto the sea floor?
My confusion turned to shock as I watched the spirit coral buds flow out of the sack and get sucked into the box on the pedestal. It must be some kind of storage treasure!
The Mertalian finished depositing our spirit coral and he inspected the box after closing the lid. He nodded to the other Mertalian and the one with the tablet tapped on the screen a few times then nodded at us.
“You both have met your quota for the day. Feel free to do whatever you wish with the remainder of your day.” He told us and we both entered the city and decided to wait for Zi Fu and the Captain. Within a few hours the pair of nascent soul realm cultivators swam up to the dome along with the Captain’s crew. They all turned in their quota for the day and entered the city. We told Zi Fu about our encounter with the extorters and he frowned.
“I suppose when they said they didn’t care about how we got the spirit coral they were serious.” He said.
“From now on, you two should stick close to the Captain or I to ensure your safety.” He told us and we nodded, though it hurt our pride, we couldn’t risk running into a nascent soul realm cultivator and losing all our spirit coral for the day.
We went to the market and browsed around. I took the liberty to speak to one of the shopkeepers and ask about how the economy works in the city.
“Ah a new face eh?” The elderly shopkeeper asked. I nodded and he nodded.
“Yes I suppose that makes sense. But that information won’t be free. It’ll cost you ten spirit coral. He told me. I frowned, but I wasn’t really lacking spirit coral at the moment. I handed over the spirit coral and the old man pocketed them and smiled at me warmly.
“Thank you kindly, dear. You see, just as the information costs spirit coral, everything within the market costs spirit coral. The Mertalians don’t care about you hoarding spirit coral for spending, but anyone found using spirit coral for their own cultivation will be killed on sight. Each shopkeeper sets their own prices for goods and necessities and the Mertalians allow some of the farmers to sell excess produce in the market so you shant run out of food if you still require it.
That made sense. What use was money down here when the only truly valuable thing was the spirit coral. I thanked the kind shopkeeper for giving me the information and Jia and I grabbed some food from one of the local stalls selling fish and then headed back to our home. I spent the remainder of the day reading through the journal to all the pages I had skipped over before. It was interesting reading about the life of someone who was so enamored with the Church of the One True Dao.
The writer spent his days harvesting spirit coral and pondering on the truths of the world. He worked hard and truly believed in the teachings of the church. Luckily he didn’t fill his journal with his proselytization but instead just recounted his good and bad experiences as a member of the church.
Eventually it turned to what I assumed was nighttime and I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to harvest more spirit coral. The days went on like this and I bided my time until I could find a chance to go looking for the prison mentioned in the journal. Maybe there would be something there that could help us escape! Finally after a few days of waiting it came time to go harvesting spirit coral in the south western quadrant of the spirit coral forest.
As a group we ventured out further than we ever had before. We were within a league of the encroaching darkness at the edge of where the mysterious lights covered. We harvested the spirit coral under the watchful eyes of the Mertalian guards. When we got to the latest batch of coral trees, text suddenly popped up in my vision.
“DING: abnormal qi signature detected. Possible treasure located nearby” I read the notification and looked around for the source of the notification. I saw a faint blue glow coming from a nearby group of rocks and went over to investigate after telling Jia what I was doing. Luckily the Mertalians weren’t paying too close attention to me so when I disappeared within the rocks and swam through the crevice for a short time noone kicked up a fuss.
The path I was swimming in was cramped but i kept swimming and eventually it curved upward and I broke through the surface of the water and into an open cavern. The air was stale, humid, and cold unlike in the domed city and the walls were covered in bioluminescent lichen that reminded me of the cove up on the surface.
I walked by one wall but stopped when Text highlighted a familiar symbol I recognized from the outskirts of Liusha city. It looked like a Church of the One True Dao hidden door. I performed the same pattern to open this door as I had near Liusha city and with a loud rumbling and the sound of rocks rubbing against one another a part of the wall swung open. As the door swung open, the temperature of the room rose drastically and I immediately began sweating. I wasn’t sure what was in the room but it was clearly very hot.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I walked into the large cavernous room and noticed a few things immediately. To my left, lying on the ground was a lone skeleton. No clothes were left on the skeleton but it did have a metal container that looked like it was meant to hold documents within it stored on the body. Most of the ribs on the right side of the body were crushed into nothing more than fine power leaving nothing to imagine about what had killed the person. The second thing I noticed was the half naked elderly man sitting within a formation in the center of the cavern. It was from this elderly individual that the powerful fire qi bathing everything in a powerful heat was emanating.
As I entered the room, the figure in the formation opened its eyes in surprise.
“It has been many years since anyone has entered this prison. Perhaps I have not lost all hope yet.” The man said. I frowned at him, but remembering the words from the journal I realized that this might be the prisoner the church was keeping. I walked over to the skeleton and grabbed the metal container.
I yelped in pain and dropped the container, blowing on my hand to stave off the probable burns I had gotten from grabbing the scorching hot metal. I grabbed the container with water qi coating my hands this time and though it was uncomfortable it didn’t last for long as I opened the container and pulled out the paper within.
As I suspected this was the paper the journal mentioned that was stolen from the elder’s residence. I looked back down to the skeleton and frowned realizing now who this must be the body of. I put my hands together and sent out a little prayer for the church acolyte I had gotten to know so well over the past few days.
“Hey you, girl. How did you find this place? Are you one of those crazy church zealots? Be careful how you answer, I may be sealed here but I’m far from powerless. The seal has weakened over the years so don’t think about leaving here alive if you anger me.” The elderly man from within the formation said. I frowned at him again.
“Now that’s not a very nice way of starting a conversation with someone.” I told him, hands on my hips.
He rolled his eyes and eyed the paper I was holding suspiciously.
“Well I’m sorry if my flair for social niceties has disappeared over the decades I’ve been trapped in this damnable prison. Tell me, how much do you know about sealing formations, girl?”
“My name isn’t girl, it’s Astra. What’s your name?” I asked him, determined to have a reasonable conversation with the man.
He rolled his eyes again and put his hands on his face pulling them down and stretching his face as he went. Then his demeanor changed to politeness.
“My name is Azoreth of Flames, sect leader of the Inferno Scorpion sect in the northern continent. Now answer me, gi- I mean Astra. Do you know of sealing formations?” He asked me.
I shook my head.
“I’m sorry Mr. Azoreth, I don’t know anything about sealing formations.” I told him. His face soured and he flicked his hand at me.
“That is a shame. Do you happen to know of anyone on the outside world that could help me? I promise I will pay you handsomely once I’ve returned to my seat of power.” He said.
I thought about it for a moment, but realized I didn’t know if Zi Fu knew anything about sealing formations. I knew Jia didn’t and I didn’t though. Maybe Text would know!
“I might know someone who could help!” I told the man. He looked at me skeptically which morphed into confusion as I began talking to myself.
“Text, do we have any information on sealing formations? I know before you said we didn’t have any books on formations, but maybe sealing formations are different?” I asked Text.
“Astra, who are you talking to?” Azoreth asked nicely.
“Oh, a while back I received an inheritance and as part of the inheritance I have this intelligent AI within my brain that stores the inheritance and helps me out with stuff I don’t know!” I told him. He seemed like a nice enough person. He got quiet just as Text replied to my question.
“There are one hundred and seventy six texts within the inheritance centered around sealing formations, though most of those sealing formations deal with sealing demons.” I looked over to Azeroth and squinted my eyes.
“You don’t look like a demon.” I told him.
“That’s because I’m not.” he shot back.
“But I thought that sealing was for demons, not for humans.” I told him, still wary. I wouldn’t help a demon out of its prison no matter what.
“Humans can also be sealed, though not into objects.” Azoreth told me.
“The type of seal used on me is for particularly powerful individuals to be kept prisoner when they cannot be defeated through combat.” He continued, a smug look on his face.
“Do you know the name of the seal they used on you?” I asked him, if we had the book for that seal in the inheritance then I might be able to undo the seal!
Unfortunately Azoreth shook his head.
“I do not know its name, I suppose this means hope is lost for escaping from this prison.” He said. Then I remembered the paper I was holding.
“Oh yeah! This might help!” I said holding up the paper. Azoreth looked at the paper confusedly but I began reading. I read through the paper and my eyes went wide.
“This paper says that the church’s prisoner, you, was sealed using the eight hexagram arctic aura sealing formation!” I told him. His face soured at the mention of this formation.
“Blast! I was worried that might be the case. I don’t know much about formations myself, but I’ve heard of this one at least.” He bit his thumb as he spoke.
He was pacing now but I ignored him and his ramblings.
“Text, do we have a book in the inheritance on this sealing formation?” I asked.
“One copy of Domain Solidification realm sealing formations exists in the inheritance. Would you like to take the book out?” Text asked. I nodded my head and affirmed my decision, a book plopping out from midair and into my hands. Azoreth didn’t look surprised at the book appearing out of nowhere, which I suppose didn’t surprise me since he said he was from the northern continent.
“Girl you should do your best to never let this man out!” The demon in the ring warned.
“Why’s that?” I asked the demon.
“He’s dangerous, even to someone as strong and magnificent as me.” The demon said. I rolled my eyes.
“He seems nice so far! Plus I’m going to be freeing him so he should at least be nice to me!” I said to the demon.
“This is not the time to be messing around, girl. We may not see eye to eye, but I don’t wish to die at the hands of this madman! I can feel it within him, he’s an enemy of my kind.” The demon said.
“Well any enemy of demons is a friend of mine!” I said back to the demon, but there was no reply.
I started leafing through the book in my hands until I found the pages outlining the eight hexagram arctic aura sealing formation. According to the book, despite the complexity required in setting up the formation, breaking it was triflingly easy. It seemed seals on humans weren’t designed as strongly as those for demons.
I followed the book’s instructions and made a specific symbol in each of the eight hexagrams located around the periphery of the formation. Azoreth seemed to be getting more and more excited with each symbol I made and by the time I made the final symbol he was laughing maniacally. Wait… maniacally? I looked over to Azoreth to find him flying toward me. He grabbed me by the neck and held me against the wall at the same time an aura of unbelievable heat washed over me. Only my strong constitution and elemental unity physique prevented me from being roasted alive immediately.
“Oh, you’re still alive? That’s quite impressive. I’ll tell you what, girl, first I’m going to go out there and kill all of those foolish church cultivators, then I’ll come back and kill you last!” Azoreth said with a manic grin on his face. My eyes went wide. My friends were just outside of the cave, if he went after them we would have no chance of surviving. This man was clearly unfathomably powerful.
“Why are you doing this? I released you!” I asked him, feeling heartbroken and betrayed.
“What? Did you just think that because you let me out we’d suddenly become best friends? Maybe go frolicking together in a field of flowers? HA! I’m the sect leader of the preeminent demonic sect in the northern continent, girl. No. Your only prize for freeing me shall be a swift death, then I’ll take that precious inheritance from you and bring it back for my sect. Now be a good girl and don’t go running away. If I have to hunt you down after this then I’m going to get mad, and you don’t want to see me when I’m mad!” He said and then without another word, he dropped me and let me slump to the floor before flying high and crashing through the roof of the prison.
The rocks above crushed inward like paper and water began flooding the chamber as he looked off into the various distances and then flew rather than swam directly for the domed city. I couldn’t fly like he could so I waded through the increasing water in the chamber back out to the antechamber and swam back through the tunnel, hoping beyond hope that he would ignore my friends and instead go straight for the city.
I emerged from the small tunnel and was relieved to find my friends all right next to the exit of the tunnel.
“Oh, Astra!” Jia said before hugging me.
“Where did you go? You disappeared and then like five minutes later we heard an explosion and we saw someone flying toward the city. We were about to go in to look for you.” She said. I took some time to explain to them what had happened and Jia slapped her face.
“So you decided to just release the person the church imprisoned here all on your own without checking with anyone else first?” Jia said. I shriveled under her glare but defended myself.
“He seemed nice! He didn’t seem like an evil maniacal serial killer when he was sealed!” I said. Jia just shook her head as did the rest of the gathered people.
“This could be our chance to escape.” Zi Fu stated. All attention was drawn to him as he spoke.
“While Azoreth is busy fighting the Mertalians, we might be able to escape back to the surface.” He said.
We came up with a few plans on the spot and then as a group we swam back toward the domed city.