Jasmine Fang was sleeping, for it was all she wanted to do. It was the only place where she could dream of being somewhere else, somewhere other than this timeless prison. In her dreams, she could dream of a loving family, one that didn't throw her away after using her for what they wanted. In her dreams, she could live life, fight enemies, make high grade elixirs, and explore the infinite universe. In her dreams, she could even find love. It would start off with friendship, building into love that would last an eternity. In her dreams, she could escape her everlasting loneliness.

She was placed in the jail by her family. Her family wanted power, more than anything else, and she gave it to them. She looked at the world through a scientific eye, something no one else did. With her mind and intelligence, she improved her families vast arsenal of techniques. She found ways to better the great dao of alchemy, which improved elixirs and pills, and created tiers of medicine never seen before. She even found ways to improve food harvests and produce better qi grains, improving everyone's lives. She even invented ways to create stronger metals for armour and weapons. She gave her family profound arrays and formations that saved their lives many times. She continued to improve everything she could, all throughout her life. She was driven with the thirst of knowledge. All this was for her family and it was expected of her. All she wanted in return was love, praise, and a feeling of being part of her family.

But it was not to be. Her family didn't have the capacity to love, not a single person. Maybe it was a flaw is how they were raised, their environment which demanded power, or a genetic condition. But she was still praised by her parents and they were still family, so she continued to do all she could to give them what they want.

That was until one day she decided her family had enough power, because they could not find any other beings stronger than them. They conquered the planet, explored the heavens and still could not find beings stronger than them. So she told her family she wanted to leave and find someone who she could love, and that person who would love her back, because it was something she wanted to experience, something she needed.

She did not know why she wanted to experience love, because no one else in her family wanted to experience it, only her. She thought she might have been her with the genetic mutation. She could control her body well enough to stop emotions, but the feeling of wanting love always came back to her, and each time, it came back many times stronger. It was as if no net or wall could capture or stop this feeling and it was building within her, until she finally told her family of these feelings and what she wanted to do.

Her family did not agree. They told her that if she left, others would capture her and use her to make themselves stronger. Others would trick her and achieve their own goals. The Fang family told her that she should keep busy, doing what she does, discovering new information and improving everything. They said that the feelings of love would pass in time. If she wanted children, she could have them within the family.

So one day, she decided she wanted to escape. She was the strongest member of her clan, because while she improved the families cultivation techniques, she had made stronger ones for herself. She could fight her way out if she wanted. But she did not want to hurt her family. She wanted to find love but still come back to her family. She did not want one without the other. If she hurt her family, she would be chased to the ends of the universe. It would not be pleasant being under some of the techniques and poisons she had produced throughout her life. But she wasn't afraid of that. She just didn't want to hurt the family she loved because she didn't have the heart to hurt her family.

But she would question herself. Where would she find love. Her family controlled the planet. They would not let others look at her, much less let her roam and find love. She was watched and monitored, throughout her day, even when she Cultivated. The vast and endless universe gave her hope and hopelessness at the same time. It was because she knew there was someone who could love her out there, but she would have to find them, away from her family, and did not know where they were and when she would find that someone. But wanting love drove her crazy.

So she tried, without hurting her family, to escape. She was unsuccessful. They were ready for her and surrounded her, making use of their bodies because they knew that she would not hurt them. So they captured her and put her in a jail created for someone like her, something which she had helped them create. It was called The Space/Time Prison, and it was for someone who could not be killed, or hurt, either because they were family, or because the entity was too strong. She filled both positions. Here, she would be trapped forever, without a means of an escape. The space was created, right at an event horizon of a massive, dormant black hole. The created space no longer followed the laws of physics, and she could only get out with outside interference. She was frozen in space, without a means to move or use her cultivation, with nothing to see, while time was still moving. There was no qi in this space, so she could not cultivate, or any other energy she could make use of. It was a lifeless, barren prison.

At first, she thought her family would forgive her, and she would be let out, because they still needed her. But after a few thousand years, Jasmine gave up that hope. She went through sadness, that her family had abandoned her, and in this jail, she could never experience the different parts of life. Then she went through anger, that they would treat her like this, because she had spent her entire life living it for them, and asked very little in return. For the first time in her very long life, she wanted to slaughter her family. They were parasites for making use of her. Bugs, vile vermin that didn't deserve the gift of life. She regret not looking at them with another perspective, one where she didn't have to hesitate to hurt them, one where she would place herself before them. Then her thoughts went to madness, because the feelings of wanting love would return, and she could not do anything to fulfill the need.

She would miss experiencing life with her senses. She was not able to touch other people and different textures. She couldn't listen to the sound of people laughing. She couldn't look at the many colours of the world. She missed the delicious tasting food. The lack of these experiences was utterly soul depriving. She could only look with her eyes in this prison, look around at nothing, because she was lucky to be frozen in space with her eyes open. Then finally, she would go through depression. The futility of being able to do nothing, not even cry at her misfortune for all time, was utterly soul shattering. But the thought would not shatter her soul, no matter how much she wished it would. Then the cycle of sadness, anger, madness, and depression would repeat.

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To get herself out of his cyclical cycle, she would go deep in her mind, to look at her memories, each and every one of them, starting from her oldest, and analyze them. She did this because she loved discovering new information about the universe, improving and learning everything she could. It brought her a type of happiness that she believed was closest to love. There were many mysteries contained in the universe, and she wanted to discover them all. She had already discovered information and secrets that she would keep in her soul, telling no one else. So she spent her time improving her cultivating techniques and creating new ones, furthering the dao of alchemy, hypothesizing a plethora of theories about the universe, and learning all she could from her memories and imagination.

The only other option she had was force herself to sleep, to dream. So she spent her days dreaming, a place where her family loved her, where she found true love, where she experienced the different parts of life, and where she was less lonely.

That was until one day, she felt something she hadn't felt in many, many years, someone staring at her. At first she thought it was her imagination, but the feeling continued. Than she got began to get excited, to feel happy, for the first time in eons! She immediately came out of her mind and looked at the being staring at her, for this being could possibly be her saviour or just a family member to talk to! But what she saw shocked her. He was an old man, with ripped cloths, ones that didn't look like they were made of something strong. He had cuts, holes and blood all over his body! She could not see anything else, only him, and his eyes. His bright eyes were of one that made her soul shake. She knew, at that very moment, for the first time in her very long life, she was looking into bright, clear eyes of someone who was in love, someone who was in love with her.

It felt like I was connected to him, and him to me, through each others soul. This connection was very faint, and I knew through this connection, it was because this man was about to die and because he was a vast distance away from me. My happiness immediately came crashing down on me and I would have cried if I was able to. The first person I had seen in countless years, one that could show what it looks like to be loved, is about to die. But I did not give up hope, and used my mind and intelligence to think of all possibilities available to me. To get out of prison and return the love I was seeing in his bright eyes, I must not give up hope! So my mind came up with a plan. It was something I had to do to get out, but I knew there was a slim chance of this working. I had to sacrifice my body and cultivation to use the connection of souls as a gateway to get out. It was very likely I would die and this would not work but it was better than being in frozen limbo and death was better option anyways. I also knew this person was at the threshold of death, so I made my decision. I used all my cultivation to make this connection of souls stronger, and force each others soul to come together at the time of his death, because I did not want him to experience the pain I am about to.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH”

This caused the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. The feeling of your soul being ripped apart from your mind and body is not something that can described, but I knew that if I survived, I would never forget this gut wrenching, indescribable pain. It was as if each and every molecule in my body was being ripped apart at the same time. Hopefully time, which I had a lot of, and love, which I could finally get, could make me get over it. This also gravely injured my soul in the process, but soon the process was finished, my soul was separated from my mind and I was about to travel through the link to meet my saviour. Than everything went dark. My last thought was that 'luck, please be on my side, so I finally live my dream, to find a less lonely and more loving place in this universe.'

Soon the two souls were on a collision course with each other and were going to meet half way. Even with the vast distance between each other, the souls met after a short amount of time. The old mans soul was better off than Jasmines because he did not have to experience the pain caused by the forced separation of soul and mind. Because the moment of separation had been his death, there was no pain. When the two souls met, you could see the difference. The old mans was more substantial and radiant, while Jasmines soul was damaged, dim and meager. What the old man did not know what that his unique technique 'Information Gatherer', was cultivating his soul throughout the entire process of his heaven gazing experience.

Perhaps it was that the old mans soul was still changing and getting stronger, even after death, or perhaps the connection between them was so strong, that at the moment of impact, Jasmines soul went into the old mans, but they did not destroy each other. What happened was that the old mans soul accepted Jasmines, and her soul was placed in the center of his. The connection between the two souls had become even stronger. It was as if he would protect her and nurture her with his own soul. It was as if he was giving his love to her and she accepted and cherished it. Soon, the old mans soul became a protective barrier around hers, and it was providing nurture and care for her injured soul. This caused mutual changes in their souls, because it was an event that had never happened before. The two souls were now connected, changing and becoming stronger than any other in the universe, wandering the endless and vast universe together.

Authors Note: Even though I called our main character 'old man' and our female lead Jasmine, she is much older than him. This is my second novel. My first one is An A.I Is Such A Cheat In The Martial World and I will be writing both simultaneously. Enjoy!

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