That night, we feasted.

Nalaar’s eye was bandaged, cloth wrapped around the wound. I didn’t know if they had prosthetics for them here; Hellfire fueled eyes were probably off the table. Dozens of goat people congratulated Nalaar for his victory and new battle scar, often butting horns with him as a show of respect. An extremely large goat-person even picked him up in exultation.

Nalaar was mostly quiet when he wasn’t engaging in pleasantries with the people congratulating him. Around him, others bragged about their kills; in the fields, they had clashed with the Iron Gut again, taking revenge for their last set of killings, wiping out dozens of them.

We had stayed far from the fighting. Some of the fighters that died on both sides reached the Third Realm or higher.

A few congratulated me, but most of the clan were strangers.

The Matriarch attended the outdoor bonfire, bringing with her a pile of corpses the size of the compound. She ate their flesh greedily, offal and viscera spilling around her as she tore into the corpses. Huge chunks of red stone would occasionally surface from where she devoured the monstrosities, and she devoured them greedily.

[The fighting will escalate.] Interface said, unusually reserved and quiet.

“It always does…” I muttered at the table.

Nalaar stared over at me.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“It hurts like hell.” Nalaar replied.

“Not the eye.” I waved a hand. “You guys have prosthetics, right?”

“Not cheaply. I’m probably going to be living with this.” Nalaar rubbed at his eye.

“You still want it?”

“The prosthetic?” Nalaar asked.

“No.” I said, staring down at my food for a second. “The fighting. The strength.”

“More than ever.” Nalaar replied.

I slept uneasily that night. It felt like I was responsible for Nalaar’s injury — like I had pulled him into this. I wasn’t used to caring about my numbers — my fellow soldiers, my coworkers. But I was regretfully starting to care for Nalaar.

I had stayed at this place too long. I needed to leave before I got attached. But I would need a lot more power to escape through the Celestial scar. Even more to escape over the ramparts. I doubted they would believe me if I told them I landed here on accident. There were entire generations contained in the prison.

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So the only thing to do was to continue cultivating.

[K’Thre] [First Realm, 0.25% Cultivated]

[Hellfire: 48% | Exhaust: 11%]

[Leg Cultivation]

[- Scale the Mountain(Earth/Life) 1% Mastery]

[Arm Cultivation]

[- Unbreakable arms(Green. Life?) 20% Comprehension]

[Body Cultivation]

[Head Cultivation]

[- Heralding Dawn(Light/Anti-Light) 10% Mastery]

I pushed away the state of lost awareness that [Heralding Dawn] brought. Every time I cultivated the technique, it felt like I was pushing closer and closer to something. Like I was swimming in a dark sea, waves buffeting me, but there was a shore I could reach.

Guard duty continued like normal. Today, there were no attacks. One of the guards taught me a card game and we played in the back of a dusty warehouse; it was filled goods that werent valuable enough to take to the main compound, but were valuable enough to have guards.

The day passed relatively quietly. It itched at me; there was a constant tension for when our next clash would be. The Iron Gut were likely recovering from the last few fights, accumulating their readiness to attack us.

“I feel like we can do more to prepare.” I said, talking to interface outside of the warehouse. People came in all shapes and sizes in the prison, each visage more alien than the last.

[We can visit that prison shop tonight. You have currency now — 119 Stone.]

“Good idea.” I said. “Maybe they have armor or something.”

I met Nalaar and explained my intent to go. Mora, his kid, was playing with others behind him.

“I’ll show you the way.” He said.

We had to leave the city. There was a direct route toward the shop — it was at the base of the pillar, on one of the great concentric circles at its base. A gigantic staircase led up and onto a road.

“Don’t make eye contact with anyone.” Nalaar said. “Keep your head low. We have to pass through the higher city. Upper realm cultivators live here. We’re not much better than insects to them.”

The entire city above was of a higher caliber, buildings manufactured with an attention to detail. Salesmen tried to hawk wares to us along a main thoroughfare, shouting at us from beside the street. As we moved closer to the pillar, huge fences walled in the road, manned by guards who stared dismissively at us. I couldn’t even make eye contact if I tried; they looked at us like we were bugs before looking for actual threats in the street.

The road grew messier, trash and litter and a few people sleeping on the street as we approached the prison’s ‘shop.’

A huge, domed building sat open, archways all the way around holding up the roof. The inside was completely open. Wind rumbled as it rolled over. We stepped inside, the shadows and a chill overtaking us.

Treeguards lurked in the roof, like spike balls of living trees, their movement hurting my eyes.

Nalaar strode up to a stone wall that rose out of the ground. Trash and dirt accumulated in corners. Bugs buzzed in the air. Jade tablets were embedded in the side of each of the walls. Some were broken. The whole ones glowed with a soft light, qi spilling out of them. Below each was a downward hole into the wall, sliding away into who-knows-where.

Below the slides were metal indents into the wall of varying sizes, like lockers to receive goods.

“Each one of these tablets tells you whats for sale there. You just touch them.” Nalaar said, putting a palm to a tablet. “This entire wall is food.”

I walked up, touching one of the tablets. Information flooded my mind, making me wince, but a second later Interface grabbed the qi, processing it.

[Cinnamon Swirl Bun. Sounds delicious.]

“Wow. Can you make one of these?” I asked Nalaar, not taking my hand from it.

[Oh, this is interesting. It’s a formation. A really complex one. It’s almost like circuitry. Hold on — ]

The metal grate popped open.

I felt the focus of all the treeguards above me lock onto me a second later, the pressure of their qi buckling me to my knees.

[Oops.]