Deep Mines, Seven-Hundred Seventy-Seven:
The days truly felt endless, filled with repetition and indistinguishable time. At this time, Yan Zaizen could only barely assume how long has passed on the outside. Some days, he truly felt that he was going insane, but most felt quite normal.
Even Tao, who had undergone a change since that day, stumbled in his mentality. The sheer amount of ore they had to mine to fit their quota was monstrous. They worked constantly in an attempt each and every day and couldn't stop. Most of their days were filled with mining, and it became to the point where even Yan Zaizen couldn't cultivate other things.
Yan Zaizen was pounding away at the walls, rocks, and debris for ore when mid-swing, he paused.
"What…?" He was stunned. He could feel...his soul?! He immediately investigated his soul form's status, and what he saw gave him a sensation of joy. The soul form wasn't Yan Zaizen, but an outer shell of himself that protects his soul, his true soul form was the thin, squiggly line from before. That could be considered his soul flame.
It is because of this that he could still comprehend the law, remain active, construct and recall memories, as well as utilize a weakened form of spiritual sense. His soul form was like a cocoon that restricted his soul energy, only allowing the bare minimum as if it was undergoing an evolution.
The soul form was now finished with that evolution!
"Finally." A breath of relief escaped his lips, and he could feel his body become lax after the countless days of continuous work. He dropped his pickaxe and closed his eyes. He entered his sea of consciousness, the space where his soul form was stored, and examined it thoroughly. His soul form had three major changes. Firstly, the Aurora Borealis within it was more brilliant than before, having motes of white light that contained traces of the Dao.
"My soul form now has my Dao incorporated into it?" He was startled. He recalled how the Spatial Form of Infinite Stability, Unyielding Flame of Life, and Siphoning Shadow of Death had occupied his soul form. In it, the white flame and inky black orb danced around each other like lovers and rivals, but the Spatial Form of Infinite Stability was simply standing within it. Now, there were motes of his Dao floating about in his soul form, and it was nearly uncountable.
"It seems like...it doesn't have any form, yet." He remarked.
The second change was its glabella and eyes. His soul form's eyes were pitch black and seemed to contain endless hunger within them, and this caused even Yan Zaizen's mouth to dry. This was his own soul form, but it left him feeling odd. As for his glabella, it was no longer a dot. It was a swirling black hole that seemed to attract everything, to consume everything, and had an insatiable need to devour all things.
The third was the most noticeable which was how his soul form looked. It was an exact representation of himself. Unlike before where it was simply a blue-ish humanoid figure, this thing had his muscles, his definitions, every strand of hair, and even had nails. It was still blue, but it was like a blue him.
"It's so lifelike. Like looking at a colored mirror." He couldn't help but pant at this discovery. He didn't know how much this would affect him or even why this transformation occurred, but he had his assumptions. He believed, due to the timing, that his soul change was highly related to the formulation of his Dao. It was as if him discovering his Dao lead to his soul undergoing a transformation. At first, it was only suspicions, but seeing the soul form before him, he felt it was closer to the truth.
As for the swirling black hole, the endlessly deep black eyes, and perfect reflection-like soul form, he felt like it was still related to his Dao as well.
He opened his eyes and felt excited. His soul had obviously undergone a massive evolution, and if the Spirit Matrix Method description was telling the truth in regards to cultivation indication, he had reached the Advanced Aurora Soul.
Tao was mindlessly swinging his pickaxe until he felt something was strange. He found Yan Zaizen soon afterward and him standing there motionless. "Did he?" Tao feared the worst, but luckily it didn't come true. Yan Zaizen opened his eyes soon afterward. His gaze was vastly different from before. It didn't contain that concealed patience, but reckless excitement.
"Hahahahaha!!" Yan Zaizen couldn't help but laugh loudly, startling everyone in the mines. Tao was surprised. Assuming that he lost his mind, Tao rushed over.
"You...okay?" His tone was cautious. In the Deep Mines, you see people crack far too often. However, how could Yan Zaizen care about his cautious tone? He kept laughing, he truly felt great so how could he not?
"Tao! You ready to join me?" He turned towards Tao with a wide grin.
"..." He looked at Yan Zaizen for a long moment before nodding, adding, "Always and forever." His resolve was beyond strong at this moment. He couldn't help but be a little excited.
Yan Zaizen waved his hand, sending a gentle telekinetic pulse outwards that shattered Tao's cuff. Then, with another, he removed his own. Taking a deep breath, he could sense the essence in the air coalesce into qi as it was drawn into his body. His actions caused all the miners to be startled, looking at him with curiosity. Tao's eyes lit up with elation and anticipation.
"Is it enough?" Tao excited asked.
Yan Zaizen softly nodded.
Checking the Meteor Ring, he found out that many of the items within were gone. All of the essence crystals and other cultivation resources vanished, leaving only the books, black wood, Ying Clan's spatial ring and the odd compass. He looked upwards and saw an Aurora Borealis that was several hundred times larger than before, and a black hole directly above it. However, this black hole only stayed there harmlessly, not swirling and consuming anything below.
"I see." He noted this change. It seems his previous assumption was likely correct. His rapid advancement in soul cultivation had to do with the mysterious black hole on his glabella. It was absorbing things to develop his soul, but that made him question even more, what did he absorb initially? When he first developed soul cultivation, it was when Han Genji caught sight of him back then, and the only thing that happened was the appearance of the Meteor Ring. Could it be the Meteor Ring was the reason for the black hole?
He felt that wasn't correct.
Placing those confusing thoughts at the back of his head, he retrieved the spatial ring containing the Ying Clan's vast fortune. He withdrew it instantly. Taking out a few drops high-grade of essence liquid, he gave a few to Tao and consumed a few himself.
Tao was shocked. The ordinary ring that seemed completely inconspicuous was a spatial ring? The reason why the ring wasn't taken during Yan Zaizen's arrest or arrival here was only that it did not emit a spatial signature. This caused the ring to look ordinary as if a memento rather than a storage device. It was a truly strange object that continued to bewilder Yan Zaizen. It was as if only he could sense its profound features.
"Recover. We leave today." He stated. However, he looked upwards and after some thought, he changed his mind. "We'll recover today and leave tomorrow. There's something I have to do."
The others in the cave felt the pristine essence fluctuation from the drops and couldn't help but salivate. Some of the prisoners even desired to steal from them. However, they soon realized that the two didn't have cuffs restricting them, and thus retreat. After all, it would be the same as courting death.
Whenever they approached, Tao would give them a look filled with murderous intentions. They backed off immediately, some even thinking of snitching their circumstances to the overseer in hopes of reducing their sentences.
As they recovered, Yan Zaizen was surprised at Tao's cultivation base. It truly was profound; He was a half-step Origin Core Realm Cultivator! This cultivation was by no means low, and it could be considered rather high. For him to be sentenced to the Deep Mines, despite his cultivation, it left much to be answered.
Time slowly passed.
Soon, the quota was received and shipped off. Tao and Yan Zaizen obviously didn't meet their quota for the day. Several hours later, the overseer who's watched over them the past two years descended with a malevolent chuckle. The other miners felt a cold chill travel through their spines. The one who terrorized their every dream was currently coming. The only solace they could obtain was that they had met their quota and thus would not be killed today.
As for the other two? A few even had expressions of schadenfreude, mostly they were the newbies who held some hope for their futures, unable to see the reality of their own bleak situation.
"Two this time? Haha, good. I feel like playing a game today." The overseer laughed, his eyes glinting with anticipation. For years, there have been many individuals who've been toyed to death by him. In his eyes, these people were nothing more than tools for the kingdom's wealth and his amusement.
Yan Zaizen stayed silent, as did Tao. Their eyes simply trained on the overseer, both with a relatively calm look, but the emotion concealed within each of their eyes were very different. The overseer only had a cultivation base at the initial-Qi Unification Realm and wasn't a threat even if Yan Zaizen didn't recover his soul cultivation. However, he couldn't take action due to the fallout that would obviously ensue.
"How about this, I'll let you two fight. The one who kills the other, I'll spare them today." The overseer proposed.
"Silence." Yan Zaizen spoke. As he did, a silver-blue light flashed and entered the overseer's body in a blink. No one in the vicinity, not even the overseer, could react to the sheer speed of this light. However, the overseer's expression was filled with mocking and a little anger, he tried to laugh but as he did, he found out that no voice was emitted.
He immediately discovered the oddity; he was unable to speak. He tried screaming, shouting, and even attempting to make a myriad of different sounds with his throat but nothing came out. 'What did he do to me?!' He looked towards Yan Zaizen with intense fear, but also killing intent. When one is in a life or death situation, their fear could produce two effects: fight or flight. Each person would react differently, and this overseer had the heart of a ruthless man, typically unless the situation was too far gone from his control, he would choose to fight.
Currently, Yan Zaizen had his features concealed with only his amber eyes revealed through the black cloth. Those eyes were filled with an eerie calm. He spoke one more word, "Halt." Unlike before, there was no flash of silver-blue light but the overseer's squirming body. His original intention of charging towards Yan Zaizen and slaying him was immediately put to a pause as his body froze in an awkward position in mid-air.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Yan Zaizen took three steps, ascending into mid-air, while his body was supported by faint silver-blue light. In those three steps, he arrived next to the overseer with no less than a meter of distance between them. At this point, the overseer's eyes were starting to be filled with an essence of true fear.
"Do. You. Know. How. It. Feels. To. Die?" Yan Zaizen words were spoken slowly, each and every word was accompanied by that meter of distance lessening by a few inches until he was directly facing the overseer, looking straight into his eyes.
A cold grin suffused on his lips, "You will."
Yan Zaizen touched the man's glabella, a flash of silver-blue light surged into his soul ravaging his everything it could without immediately killing this man. One could say the damage to the soul was the harshest pain one could suffer. It was like being ripped apart from the inside. The overseer squirmed, shaking violently, his eyes bulging from his head, and his eyes started to lose its color.
"The pain of the soul is terrifying. I know, but what's worse is being ripped apart from an infinite number of directions in total darkness while you wait for death." He calmly said, cocking his head sideways to look at the twitching form of the overseer. "Speak." He commanded.
"Ahhhrhrhrsyfhsfuwrg!! Pl...pl-please!" The overseer tried speaking but was having obvious difficulties. Yan Zaizen cocked his head to the other side, his eyes calm. Seeing this, the overseer realized the situation was not one in which he could control, and his first instincts of preservation kicked in.
"Beg."
"Pl-please! Spa-spar-spare me!! I'll...I'll do anything!!! I'll tell you everything I know, how to escape, and more! PLEASE!" Nearing the end, his voice became more clear and stronger, reverberating throughout the area.
"I wonder, is that what they said? Is that what they hoped you'd do for them? I wonder, what did you do to them when they did?" His questions sent a shiver through all the miners, especially the older ones. "Oh, I know." He lifted his hand and placed it on the overseer's chest, "You let them know how it felt to die." A light push of the man's body propelled him very slowly backward, but space started to contort as if his body landed on a soft marshmallow, the layers of space folded around him, and then a popping sound occurred.
He vanished.
"Chaotic Space, someone like you, you'll enjoy the experience."