Jack couldn’t even say anything before Men Shi said, “Come on, follow me.” Jack raised his hand in protest but seeing how he was ignored, only sighed in response. He then rose to his feet and followed behind Men Shi. They exited the room and Men Shi didn’t say a word any more but rather had this serious look on his face as he led the way through the winding corridors.

Finally, they arrived at a door that was guarded by two men. The door was like any other but something was different, the door was open. The two at the door cupped their hands in salute towards Men Shi and Men Shi just nodded to them as he led the way. He walked in through the open door but Jack hesitated. For some reason, he felt immense danger from this room. He couldn’t see anything wrong or anything different but he had this subconscious feeling of danger towards the room.

Seeing Jack halt like that, Men Shi smiled as he said, “So you feel it, huh?” Men Shi then beckoned his hand and Jack lifted from the ground and floated behind him. When Jack entered through the doorway, the word changed. He was now in a purgatory world and in front of him, there were seven huge towers arranged in a circle with an eight tower standing in the middle of the circle. The ground was covered in complex and intricate glowing lines and all the lines started from one of the seven towers and ended in the eight tower. Jack’s eyes opened wide as he looked around in astonishment. Men Shi didn’t say anything but led the way to the tower in the middle of the circle.

On the way there, Jack could hear some screams and what he believed to be curse words coming from the towers from the circle around them. When they arrived at the tower in the middle, Men Shi flashed some sort of badge and a door appeared on the tower wall. Without saying anything, he entered the tower and after navigating a bit in the hallways, entered a giant room that seemed to span the entire floor. The ground was covered in complex lines and some of them were glowing, some of them weren’t. However in the middle of the giant array of lines, was a small orb. It was as white as first snow and it seemed to be glowing but at the same time, no light emitted from it.

As Jack checked out this peculiar room, Men Shi’s voice echoed out, “This is the [Prison]. The most important and most dangerous place in the entire Plane.” He paused for a second before adding, “Even the Celestial Palace where the Heavenly Emperor lives isn’t as important or dangerous as this place.” Jack raised an eyebrow in astonishment as he looked towards Men Shi, waiting for an explanation. Men Shi turned around to look at Jack with a dead serious expression as he said in a grave tone, “Here we imprison all the Invaders from other Planes and the most heinous criminals of our Plane. This place has two purposes.”

He raised on finger and continued, “First, to imprison all those people we can’t kill for some reason, either due to an invulnerable form or due to some other circumstances.” Jack slowly nodded his head as he understood the point of number one. Seeing the nod, Men Shi raised another finger, holding up two now. He said gravely, “The second is to harvest their energies to circulate around the Plane.” Jack tilted his head with a weird expression, he understood what he said and at this point, he wasn’t even surprised that there was some giant formation to encompass the entire Plane.

However, he couldn’t understand why, what was the purpose of this. Just to raise the quality of energy in the air? No, to go through all the trouble to create a Plane wide formation just to raise the quality of the energy in the Heaven and Earth was a bit of an overkill in his opinion. Men Shi saw the weird expression on Jack’s face but he didn’t explain any more but rather beckoned his hand for Jack to follow. Jack followed Men Shi through a door that led down into a room far bigger than the one they were in.

In the middle of the room, there was a white ball that was like the one in the room above. Jack’s eyes opened wide as he stammered, “This is...” Men Shi sighed deeply as he confirmed, “This is the Original Energy Core of our Plane.” Jack looked at the ball, it was vastly different from the one upstairs. At some spots, the pure whiteness was tinted with greyness or other colours and also, the ball was missing bits and pieces here and there. It was obvious with only a glance that it was severely damaged. Jack looked towards Men Shi waiting for an explanation.

Men Shi turned towards Jack again as he continued explaining, “During the countless wars with invaders and native troublemakers, the Core got damaged severely. It needs a long time to recover and repair itself but if we keep drawing Qi from the Core, it will never be able to repair itself, in fact, it will only get more and more damaged until the day it breaks.”

Jack gulped as he asked, “What happens when it breaks?” Men Shi stayed silent for a moment before he gravely said, “When it breaks…. All Energies will dissipate from our Plane. With about a billion years, there will be no more Energies of Heaven and Earth. With no way to replenish our Qi, we would also grow weaker and weaker with each fight or with anything that consumes our Qi.” Jack’s eyes opened wide as he gulped heavily.

Men Shi didn’t need to explain further what would happen if the Energy’s disappeared. With each fight, they would grow weaker and weaker until there would no longer be anyone to defend the Plane from outside threats. When that happened…. Anyone could just come and claim their Plane as their own. Kill anyone who opposes and mould the Plane to worship them. When there were no more risk factors, then they could implement some sort of similar system that was upstairs.

Suddenly, something clicked inside Jack’s head as he asked, “This is what they are after?” Men Shi nodded his head and said seriously, “Their goal is to destroy our Energy Core to make us all powerless. When we have no way to replenish our Qi, we will quickly fall. Then take over and apply a similar formation that’s upstairs. This is the safest and most sure fire way to take over a Plane.” Jack gulped. If this was true, then this means that they had nearly succeeded once. But where did the formation upstairs come from?

Jack’s eyebrows furrowed as he thought about that and as if Men Shi could read his mind, he said, “That formation that is upstairs and acting as a replacement until our Core itself repairs itself is our most valuable spoil of war. We accidentally salvaged it from the belongings of an invader and that was also when we understood, what they were after.” Jack nodded his head to the explanation. He didn’t want to downplay their own Plane but from what Jack had seen amongst these people and all he had learned, that Formation was several levels out of their understanding.

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Men Shi then walked towards the damaged Energy Core and said, “This is only known to the Warden and the Heavenly Emperor. No one else even knows that this place exists or that our Plane has an Energy Core. More specifically, they do not know it is damaged.” He then looked directly at Jack as he said seriously, “The Nether Prison was founded when the Core was damaged and the First Warden set up the giant formation to take place for the Core. I am the 98 Warden, so now do you see how long this Core has been recovering for?”

Jack’s eyes opened wide as Men Shi continued, “Each Warden stands guard over the Plane for a Quadrillion years. During this time, the Core has managed to repair only about 20% of itself. For the Core to completely repair itself, it would take at least another 98 or 99 Wardens to guard it.” Men Shi’s eyes fell down as he sat down on the ground and produced a flask and a few cups for wine. Jack then fell into thought as he asked, “Isn’t it possible to link up the formation upstairs to the Core to speed up the recovery rate of the Core?”

Men Shi looked at Jack with praise in his eyes but then sighed, “There have been several Wardens that have had the same idea but none of them could raise their understanding of Formations to high enough level to accomplish it.” Men Shi then offered Jack a sip of wine from the flask as he gestured for him to sit down as well. Jack sighed as he sat down as well.

Men Shi then continued, “All of this is something I should have told you way in the future but seeing as you were, I decided that it was better to lay all the cards on the table now.” Jack took a sip from the wine he was offered as he kept his silence. Men Shi continued, “I observed you for several years and I know that you have exceptional adaptability and also, you have a knack for being able to see everything from a new angle.”

Men Shi then took a big gulp from the wine cup he had taken out and continued, “The problem with cultivators is that they are always inside their little box of understanding and progress is very slow.” Men Shi sighed as Jack raised an eyebrow. Men Shi continued, “They are all always stuck in their old traditions and their old legacies. When someone starts exploring an area outside the box, they are quickly shut down. Another thing is…. They are all way too greedy.”

Men Shi sighed deeply at this. He then continued with sorrow in his tone, “They turn everything into a competition and without any merit, they wont move. The only exception to them is the Five Primordial Beast Clans. They are our biggest allies and with them you know, if you contact that you need help, then they will show up in full force and won’t pursue benefits for themselves. However, with most of the renown Schools, Sects and Clans…. Unless you offer them rewards for their help, they won’t help at all.” His mood turned sourer and sourer as he continued talking. Jack was flabbergasted at this.

He asked with astonishment, “Doesn’t this concern the survival of the Plane? Who the hell do they think will spare them when outsiders take over the Plane?” Men Shi shook his head and raised his shoulders in confusion as well, “I have no idea but they somehow think that when we fall, they can intimidate the invaders with their influence. However, they fail to realise, that our influence and strength is enough to destroy several of them, at the same time, with no effort. If we fall, what chance do they have?” Jack stayed quiet as he tried to wrap his head around the mindset of the big schools and clans.

“Arghhh!” after a few minutes of silence, Jack grabbed his head as he rustled his hair. Men Shi was startled from the unexpected cry and looked at Jack with big eyes. Before he could ask what happened, Jack looked at Men Shi seriously and asked, “Did those idiots fall on their head repeatedly when they were small or have they been hit in the head far too many times? What do they expect to happen when the last defence line for the Plane falls? When the Core breaks, they have no way to replenish their Qi, with no way to replenish their Qi, what do they expect to happen? No matter how tough their Sect Guarding Formations and stuff are, they will run out of Energy fast. Once that happens, they are only lambs for slaughter.” Men Shi thought about it this way and understood what Jack meant.

He had observed Jack for long enough to know that he was a logical person to a perverse degree. If he couldn’t find any logical reason to do something, then he saw no reason to do so. Currently, he just couldn’t understand what the big Sects and Clans were relying on. There was no logical reason to act the way they were. Jack then sighed deeply as he said, “Unless they had already made some agreement with the Outsiders that are trying to invade, I see no logical reason to act the way they are acting.”

Men Shi’s hand froze mid sip. He slowly lowered the cup as he said seriously, “Say that again and explain.” Jack looked at Men Shi as if he was blind, “It is obvious as day that they have reached some sort of agreement with the Outsiders…. Like, there is no reason for them to give up the Plane to some outsider if they hadn’t reached some sort of agreement, that their Clan, Sect or whatever would be untouched when they take over.”

Jack then took a sip from the cup that held his wine before continuing, “I have no idea what the actual agreement is but my best guess is that they were promised more lands, rewards and more influence with the new ruling regime.” Jack then sighed as he said, “I may have read too much cultivation novels back in my world but it seems like this: These Clans and Sects all care about their own survival. Their “Legacy” is what matters to them. So, they choose the side that will give them the better benefits. Alliances change solely based on these two facts: Who can guarantee their Clans or Sects survival better and which side can give them better benefits. The better the benefits of joining a side, the more they can grow their Clan or Sect.”

Jack then nonchalantly took a sip of his wine. Men Shi looked at him with big round eyes as his mouth hung open. In his head, he went over all the past actions of the Clans and Sects and to his dismay, now that Jack had pointed it out, it truly was as obvious as day. “Seems like we are far too used to complex multilayered schemes…. What this young friend says is most likely the case and since we are far too used to looking for a hidden or deeper meaning, we missed this obvious conclusion.”

An aged voice sounded out form behind Jack and when he turned around, he was greeted by an aged man with greying hair, sturdy build. He wore grandiose golden robes and his whole demeanour made Jack feel the need to prostrate in front of the man.

Men Shi then said, “Long time no see Emperor, as you said, we truly do seem used to finding hidden meanings too much to miss this obvious thing….”