The establishment where he was held at was on an island, separated from the other countries by large bodies of water as far as the eye could see which made escaping, nothing but a pipe dream....in theory.

This high-grade mental asylum for criminal could also infact be considered a pretty big gathering point for evil of all continents.

"So, it only makes sense that people would try to escape I suppose...but to think that it would happen on such a large scale this time."

Even though interactions with the outside world were restricted to a maximum, the island was still far from self-efficient with all those inhabitants, so every 3 or so months large cargos would be brought over via blackfalcons.

Blackfalcon being the codename for high-grade supersonic jets that easily reached speeds of mach 1 after take-off, their top speed remained confidential. But all that was known about the planes were that they were capable of flattening a person to a pancake if they weren't careful while piloting them, which was the reason why 8/10 of them usually went down and to top it off it boasted top notch stealth capabilities and usually came with a decent weapon for self-defense measures.

Many of those planes arrived once every 3 or so months to with deliveries...

"Truthfully, I can't figure out whether the higher ups in charge are simply baked idiots or overconfident idiots, in any case they're idiots." The male muttered with a sly grin.

The escapee's plans were rather simple, they would get a 'hacker' to take over the control systems of the island with the help of the corrupted guards, then make their escape via blackfalcons.

Crude and straight forward, but it made sense.

Sighing he looked up to the ceiling. "Now hopefully I can manage to get a plane on my own and escape too..."

He might've looked calm on the outside, but deep down he was troubled.

I have barely gotten started, yet I've already reached such a steep slope.

Cultivation, when talking about a person could be categorized in two categories, soul cultivation and bodily cultivation. For one to truly be regarded as strong they had to work both in harmony.

Let's try that again then- He thought to himself as he closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath he attempted to pull energy into his soul, but to no avail. It was like thousands of black chains had wrapped themselves around his body, stopping him from moving a step forward.

"Damn....to think that guilt would be this powerful." He grimaced as he gave up, now it made sense why cultivators in stories had always tried to avoid these so-called heart demons, not only did they slow you down. If your willpower wasn't strong enough, they might even damage your soul...worst case scenario. They kill you.

"Well then, I'll find a way to fight against it once I'm out of this hell.... For now, I can still temper my body and refine some artifacts in the process.... but what do I even turn into an artifact?" Glancing around the room it was utterly empty, but just as he looked down while thinking of giving up.

"Oh...my clothes...." Looking back, he lightly tugged on his shackles. "And those too. Guess that'll do, right Darkie?" He glanced at his shadow seeking approval, but it took an ungodly amount of time for him to respond this time around.

"Come on dude...are you okay? You've been like this ever since we did that contract thing." The male once again sighed, usually it wasn't talkative unless prompted, but now he was taking an even longer time to respond and just seemed slow... He had some guesses as to why that was, upon making the contract. It was as if part of the entity in his shadow had become his, he could now feel it. He also felt stronger because of it which all went back around to those chains around his soul, protecting his soul was a faint and negligible looking membrane made out of a dark aura which protected it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"He is doing his best to protect me right now; I shouldn't let him down!" He would've grit his teeth right now if he could as he began rapidly pulling energy particles towards him, breathing the particles went into his nostrils and slowly moved into his body where they flowed to every little corner, flushing out like impurities before being flushed out his pores alongside the undesirables. Just before entering his lazy state Darkie had explained a few theories to him and now it was finally time to put them to work.

Minutes passed, he sat there, inhaling deeply then exhaling softly, beneath his clothes his body was steaming but he barely felt it.

Hours passed; viscous land sticky liquid had gathered on his skin making a small layer that slowly dried up due to his body heat.

A day had passed, his body was now mostly purified, his eyes opened lazily, a small growl then immediately reminded him of his hunger.

"Damn....good thing eating here is free and avaible 24/7." With a pleased smile he went to move forward...

He tried to move forward.

And again.

"What the!?" He was utterly stumped, moving around he tried to figure out what was wrong, that's when the terrible stench attacked him.

Don't cry...don't cry... It'll be fine you're a grown man now! have some pride! He tried to convince himself as his face cringed "This stinks..."

He wanted to dig a hole and burry himself right now, it stank so bad that he couldn't move.

"Damn it, what to do..." Looking around he tried to figure out what to do next, good thing the smell had chased away his hunger "I can't call the guards... If they see this, they might think it's some sort of illness and god knows what will happen after...." Sighing he circulated energy around his whole body, the soothing sensation helped him calm himself down.

With his weak soul he could gather the surrounding energies to cultivate, but if he tried to expulse them, at most he would get it three centimeters out of his fingertips for example. Then his soul would ache for a while like a stomach burn deep within himself, it was unpleasant at best. Harmful at worse.

He could try to use his shackles to break the hardened substance...but after some quick thinking he dismissed it, he was stuck in this awkward sitting pose. If he fell over now it would be too bothersome.

But soon the answer came to him. "Well, if I can't break it from outside interference, I can break it from inside...so I have to strengthen my body."

"I'm trying to get food, so the arms are out of question. Guess I'll focus on my legs for now." Sighing he closed his eyes and focused his mind on his body.

After his awakening he had gained an ability similar to a weaker mind's eye of sort, it allowed him to see energies around him for a short distance. inside of him included.

And with the help of that and instructions Darkie had given, he quickly found the main meridian points of his legs, starting from the feet.

With a deep inhale, energy was pulled into his system and was slowly guided it towards his feet, but then the energy vanished out of his pores similarly to when he was tempering his body.

"What the...?" He frowned and tried again, only to fail in the exact same way.

"This..." he huffed, clearly displeased before trying two more times, both times failing.

"I manage to get the energy to flow down there...but it seems unable to focus on the meridian I wish to target?" He lowered his eyes while pondering. "I must be doing this wrong... Oh wait-" Thinking about it, he quickly found the problem. Up until now he had been the one moving the energy around by himself, he was also the one to target the individual meridian.

The otherworldly energy was infact, not fully integrated into his body yet. Aside from his brain no parts of his body were capable of harnessing it yet...which all brought him back to his most vital and important organ, the heart.

"Could this...." Gently closing his eye, he breathed in, the energy that was pulled in just like a gentle breeze made its way to his heart, but then stopped there. "Mhm..." He mused to himself with a mocking smile "The answer is there isn't it..." Relaxing both his body and mind within their jails he then entered another round of cultivation.

Each breath was an intake of a sliver of the mysterious energy and slowly it accumulated to weight down on his heart's meridian.

The good thing about cultivating was that when doing it he entered a half-awake, half-asleep state. Where he was aware of his surroundings but not so much, as long as everything stayed the same. He wouldn't wake up from it unless he wanted to himself or due to the needs of his body as confirmed before by his growing hunger waking him up.

Not having to worry about dying of boredom while getting stronger was truly a wonderful thing.