CHAPTER 1 - Void

Through the wilderness of the Yixine empire, there was a convoy of carriages moving at incredible speed. There was an intense thunderstorm outside. The carriages were floating a bit off the ground, and horse-shaped golem constructs were pulling them. This convoy was carrying primarily passengers. Carriages such as these were never used to deliver material products.

After all, the organizations behind such convoys had enough money to send somebody with a relatively spacious dimension ring to do their bidding instead.

This premium carriage was designed to transport passengers to and from the empire's capital.

And inside this little carriage, Neave lay on the ground, tied up head to toe.

Was it possible to escape from this situation?

Yes. It was, and it probably wouldn’t be that difficult. But given the fact that Marven would likely just catch him and tie him right back up again, it wasn’t the brightest idea.

A short time after setting off on a journey together, Neave started showing unusual symptoms.

Extreme ones too.

Symptoms such as freezing up, intense cramps, sweating, and paleness appeared. These symptoms didn’t subside but instead only got worse and worse. Marven was worried about him, so he gave him a rough checkup.

Simply put, he was dying. It was a miracle he wasn’t already dead. The sheer quantity of abuse his body had suffered during the last few weeks was so immense that Neave’s every cell was effectively falling apart. His body and spirit were injured to the point that Marven had to restrain him physically and spiritually so that he wouldn’t move and make things worse.

Neave was wrapped in ropes, bandages, seals, chains, and extremely expensive qi insulating thread. He was covered in what could practically be described as a cocoon of restraints. If he moved, he risked making things worse. It would be a miracle if he lived for another two weeks.

His current situation, at least outwardly, appeared to be completely fine. But his body and spirit were in such a drastic state of imbalance that if Neave had been beaten for 10 hours straight, stabbed a thousand times, and then set on fire, he would still be doing better than he was currently.

The carriage was relatively spacious. Gabrias sat in one corner, tied up, but that wasn't strictly necessary. He was frozen in fear. Not only was he captured by a kid that could fight off three gold path cultivators at once, but now he was also under the direct supervision of a platinum path cultivator.

Right next to Neave sat Marven. It was rather hard to recognize him with his bald, fully polished head. Without his distinctive crimson hair, Marven looked like an entirely different person. He checked on Neave every once in a while. Harel sat a bit further away, huddled up and staring into the wooden floor of the carriage.

Everybody was silent. Neave felt horrible, but this was barely a problem for him. The thing that was truly bothering him was the fact that he was being treated this way. Rationally speaking, he knew this was for his own good.

After all, he had already felt something was happening within his body that might need additional attention. It was probably a limitation of his rank that he couldn’t handle the imbalance himself.

Neave was extremely uneasy about the fact that he couldn’t manipulate his life force currently. The restraints were fully sealing off his energy manipulation since a whole other layer of seals was dedicated to keeping them in balance.

Neave felt he could do that job perfectly fine but conceded to this treatment for one simple reason. He could sleep this way.

If he was in charge of keeping himself together manually, there was no way he could allow himself to go unconscious. He didn’t want to drop his guard, but he felt he was in such a terrible and vulnerable situation that being awake wouldn’t help him much.

Not to mention that sleep could help him recover.

Neave closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall asleep.

ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ

Neave woke up. But he wasn’t inside the carriage.

“Oh, this is another dream like the one I had before…” Neave looked around the space surrounding him. It was exceptionally dark. Everything was deeply overgrown by thick obsidian bush. What was once the hellish loop he found himself trapped in had become an even more desolate wasteland.

And it was cold.

Neave didn’t feel like visiting the underground chamber. It was for the simple reason that he would probably meet his corpse again. He chose to mess around instead. Lucid dreams were fun.

Why would he let it turn into a nightmare?

Neave focused and tried making himself fly. But it didn’t work. He waved his arms around in the air like a magician hyping the audience up for a trick, but no matter what he did, it just didn’t work.

“Huh…?”

Something was strange. Neave realized that he still felt horrible. His body was in agony and…

Oh no.

Neave felt like an ice cube had slid right down his back. He felt pain. He felt the cold.

Why did he feel the cold?

The last time he was here, it just felt like a dream. The coldness of the realm was more like an idea than a physical trait of this place. Neave grabbed a nearby obsidian branch and broke it off. He thrust the makeshift dagger into his skin. Once he felt the pain sinking into his flesh, he laughed.

Neave laughed and cackled.

“I’m back… I’m fucking back.” He clawed at his face, and every muscle in his body shook in terror.

He was back inside the loop.

Neave looked around and sought to see if there were any demons around him.

But there was nothing.

Neave lifted his hand. It was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

He wanted to kill himself.

To see whether he would go back. Whether he would live through another restart.

But he was scared.

He was petrified.

Neave couldn’t bear the thought of it being a reality. He intensely stared at his hand like a lunatic, and eventually, a red mist seeped out of his pores.

Then his body dropped to the ground.

RestarÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ

Neave woke up. It was nighttime, and he was back inside the carriage.

His heart was beating out of his chest, and his entire body was covered in sweat.

Am I back?

“What the fuck is going on?” Neave whispered.

Marven turned and looked at him. He frowned once he saw Neave’s state. It was clear he was in some sort of state of delirium. They had to hurry to the capital and find a treasure to help Neave recover. It would be brutally expensive, but he wouldn’t let that stop him from saving his son.

“How are you doing, Neave?” Marven leaned over, trying to look as fatherly as he could manage.

Neave would usually laugh at Marven’s attempt, but he was genuinely distressed this time. He stayed quiet about what he had seen, though. Something was amiss.

“Nothing. I am fine.“

It was apparent he wasn’t okay. But Marven didn’t want to scare Neave, so he nodded and sat back down.

Neave tried going back to sleep. It seemed insane that he would try doing that after what he had gone through, but his reasoning was quite solid. He just wanted to know what was going on.

Was the curse persisting in some way? Exactly why had he found himself back in that place?

Why did it look so different now…?

Neave wasn’t sure what he was hoping for. A big part of him wanted that to be a hallucination, but a small piece wished to return. The curiosity was killing him.

Neave was horribly injured, and his body desperately craved sleep. He closed his eyes, and within less than half an hour, he was asleep again.

ÞÞÞÞÞÞ

Neave found himself right back in the hellish realm.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?”

Neave had no idea why something like this would be happening. He looked around and spotted something quite alarming.

A broken shard of obsidian glass was on the floor next to his feet.

“Uh…?”

It appeared a little bloody as well. Neave looked at his arm, but it seemed fine. He wasn’t injured outside, either.

Neave looked around again and peered into the darkness. It was dark and bitterly cold in this place, and his body was wrung out from all the torture he had endured. Neave materialized a bit of his qi on the top of his palm and used its soft glow to light up his surroundings.

Nothing.

As far as he could see, this place seemed to be empty.

An idea suddenly struck him. Neave blew fire out of his mouth.

He grinned.

Neave could use his spirit powers within this place. He looked at his arm, and it morphed.

Neave was ecstatic. Was this place perhaps something constructed by his subconscious? Some sort of imaginary world he could enter while he was asleep?

“This… This is fucking awesome!”

Neave had both suffered a rather severe injury and also died.

But he just went back to reality without any consequences. If he kept ending up inside this place every time he went to sleep, Neave would have a playground where he could experiment with his powers to his heart's desire!

ҾҾҾҾҾҾҾҾ…

Neave turned around.

“What was that?”

Neave moved the qi to light up the path in the direction he heard the sound coming from. He nodded to himself and turned around.

“Oh, hell fucking no, I’m not going to check that out.”

Neave had read plenty of books, many of which were fiction. And some of those fictional books were horror stories. It was always the idiot that walked toward the spooky sound that got killed. Neave instead turned around.

And he ran.

Some part of him felt weirdly nostalgic. He found himself in a bizarre world, probably being chased by some creepy creature.

Just like the good old days.

This place had cranked up its ambiance this time around. Some small part of him felt like it was pretty cool in a different way. And just like in the good old days, he was crapping his pants.

Neave ran and dodged through the forest of the obsidian brush. It was painful to navigate until he realized he could just climb on top of the dense jungle of volcanic glass. He had plenty of movement techniques that would allow him to do precisely that.

Neave ran at blazing speed and didn’t hear spooky sounds for a while. Looking around, he was slowly beginning to recognize parts of the environment. It was difficult to see at first due to all the growth, but he had spent his fair share of years within that loop, so he knew it like the back of his hand.

This was still the same place. It just looked like a mind-numbing amount of time had passed.

After a while, Neave tripped and dropped right into the dense forest of sharp branches. He was cut up and injured quite severely, although not lethally. He didn’t understand what was happening at first, but as he cooled off, he noticed it.

It appears that this place perfectly reflected his situation outside. His body was in a horrible state.

Judging by his performance in this realm, he could keep it up for twenty minutes if forced to fight or run away. And then he would die.

He was slowly losing function as he felt both spirit and body unraveling like a chaffed rope. Neave felt dizzy, and he couldn’t keep his gaze straight.

ҾҾҾҾҾҾҾ…

Ne heard glass shattering and spun around in the direction of the sound.

Moments later, something crept up behind him and skewered his body, chewing his limbs off and crushing his organs.

ReÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ

Neave woke up again. It was daytime once again, and the carriage was empty. He was sweating again.

What was that place…?

He had no idea. Neave didn’t even have a guess. He didn’t see the thing that had killed him, but it was swift. Also, the way it attacked him was incredibly… Well, he felt like he was being bitten, cut, crushed, and stabbed all at once. Neave wanted to go back to sleep again, but he couldn’t. He didn’t feel tired enough.

Neave put this strange phenomenon out of his mind for the moment as there seemed to be a slightly bigger crisis.

Why the hell was he entirely alone?

He was still wrapped in the corner of the carriage.

Nobody was here. The door was closed, and only sunlight poured in through the window. He calmed himself down and just waited patiently. After a while, the doors opened.

Marven walked in, followed by a frightened Gabrias and a tired Harel.

“You’re awake.” Marven walked over to Neave and placed a hand on his forehead. He frowned at the insane heat of Neave’s body.

Neave was going to make a sassy comment about being left behind unattended, but Marven interrupted him.

“We have arrived at the capital. We have some shopping to do now.” Marven picked Neave up, threw him over his shoulder, and carried him outside.

Once they were outside, Neave could barely believe his eyes.

Buildings stretched far into the sky everywhere around them. They came in all shapes and colors, and Neave couldn’t decide which looked the coolest. The people around them were decked out in colorful, predominantly ostentatious robes. The individuals themselves were pretty diverse too.

People of different races walked around the busy capital streets. This also included many spirit beasts. Plenty of large animals were walking around, but those were only low-ranked spirit beasts. Spirit beasts at the silver path could partially transform into a humanoid form with prominent animalistic features. It was only at the golden path that they looked like slightly altered humans.

Marven walked into a sickeningly gaudy building, dragging Neave inside like a sack of potatoes. Harel followed, sticking quite closely to Marven. Gabrias looked like he wanted to take the chance and run away, but a stern glare from Marven shattered that plan in an instant.

The building they walked into was plated in precious metals from top to bottom. It wasn’t a tiny building, either. A host of guards stood outside. They usually stopped individuals trying to enter and asked for identification. Only those with special permits could be granted access to the headquarters of the Golden Thread merchant group.

Marven’s status as a platinum path cultivator was worth much more than some crappy permit. They walked right past the guards, no questions asked, and soon enough, a man wearing flashy robes walked up to them and offered to escort them. Marven nodded, and soon enough, they found themselves in front of yet another extravagantly dressed man.

He was a dark-skinned man with jewelry covering every inch of his body. He was decked out in everything from necklaces, earrings, piercings, rings, hell, the man even had a tiara on his head.

He greeted Marven with a nod and asked.

“How may I help you?”

“I would like a potion made out of the essence of a crimson horror. Highest quality you can provide. Also, give me every potent healing treasure you have, preferably slow-acting ones that can stabilize qi and life force. I’d also like something that can help recover one’s spirit.”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“That will be a rather costly order, dear sir.”

Marven didn’t show it outwardly, but inwardly he winced. His request would be several hundred thousand platinum coins. That was a bit much, even for someone as rich as him.

After getting the healing treasures, they walked to another merchant group, this time looking to buy land.

Keyishin was segmented into three circles. The inner circle was where the most prominent sects were positioned. The middle circle was where middling sects were placed.

And the outer circle was for anyone too poor to get a spot in the other two.

Marven bought a small patch of land in the furthest corner of the capital. Right next to a border to a wild zone.

Why?

Because any other plot of land was so absurdly expensive, he wouldn’t have any money left over for all the other things that had to be purchased. They made their way to the piece of land Marven had bought.

It was tiny.

It was only around a tenth of a square kilometer. It was enough space for a relatively small building and a tiny courtyard. There was a reason all the buildings within the capital were so tall. Every sect had to fully use whatever tiny plot of land they could get their grubby little hands on.

This plot of land had an old, dilapidated, and half-collapsed building right in the middle. They would use it as a temporary base of operations, but within the next week, it would have to be removed and prepared for more legitimate construction,

Marven was about to head into the building, but Gabrias cried out.

“Wha–What are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Marven turned around. “We are just going to get settled here for the time being while we construct our premises.”

“No, I…. I–Uh, I understand that much, bu–but…”

“Speak.”

“This b–building. It is going to collapse.”

Marven lifted an eyebrow at that.

“And exactly how can you tell?”

“Okay, take an, uh, take a rock or something and throw it over at that beam.” Gabrias pointed toward a corner of the building.

Marven was skeptical but decided to listen anyway. The moment the stone hit the support beam, the beam effectively exploded, and the entire building collapsed. Marven was shocked. He had no idea that would happen. Gabrias winced under Marven’s glare and quickly defended himself.

“I used to be a con–construction worker, so I’m, uh, quite familiar with structural integrity!”

Marven stared at him for a bit, and then he grinned.

“Construction worker, you say…?”

Gabrias felt sweat dripping down his back.