"How is our newest member to this forsaken club doing?" the guard asked these kind words with a sinister face.
"I'm getting used to it," Arthur calmly answered and it seemed his calm domineer annoyed that guard.
"Then adapt to being here as no one will come to your aid and you won't see the light of the sun ever again in your life," the guard laughed, "have you tried out our special made bars yet? Have you gotten your first sting?"
Arthur's face darkened when he was reminded by what happened to him when he tried to touch these bars.
"They are special bars made on demand of our general," the guard hit the bars with a short thick stick, "if you touch them I bet you'll dance… Can you show me how well your dance is?"
"Easy…" from the other cell, John whispered. Yet in this totally void place his voice was perfectly heard by the guard.
"Don't try to give him any foolish ideas… John the fool," the guard turned his attention to John as he sneered, "if you have any use of a trick then you should have managed to benefit yourself and get out of here."
"I swear that one day I'll go out and that day will be the last day of your pathetic life," John didn't show any signs of weakness and even openly threatened the guard.
The next moment Arthur saw the guard vanish from his sight, heard a loud bang over the bars before the loud screams of John reverberated in the entire place.
"As you don't want him to dance, I'm glad to see yours," the guard met these screams and the muffled sound like something hitting the ground by a loud laugh. "I'll never get tired of your dancing."
Arthur clenched his fists and felt some appreciation for John. It seemed the guards here have a way that could torture him and John interfered to take all the hit instead. John did that to alarm him about such hidden dark fate that awaited him if he opened his mouth back.
"Thanks."
After the guard threw two rusty plates with dirty pieces of bread over the ground, he moved and left. Arthur said to John when he felt no one was around anymore.
"No need to thank me," John's weak voice came, "after all I need you to be healthy and in perfect shape for the plan to work."
"Do you believe I can succeed?" Arthur was surprised to feel the faith John had in him.
And he was met with a long silence before John finally spoke again:
"This plan… this idea isn't just a mere fantasy. It had already proven its worth, yet the one before you was so mean and didn't help me."
"…"
Arthur wasn't that savage, at least he would repay kindness with the same and hatred with one hundred fold.
"Don't worry old man," Arthur said, "I promise to take both of us out."
"I hope you stick to your words when time comes," John sighed and then he went into silence.
Arthur didn't disturb him as he imagined how badly injured he was at the moment.
'So they don't know anything about the spiritual energy and cultivation in this world... that's a surprise, a good one indeed.'
He reached this conclusion easily when he felt that bug totally ignored the spiritual energy entering his body.
Arthur thought to himself after a long hour of deep thinking and after a couple of attempts to instigate his spiritual energy. 'Yet the spiritual energy here is so thin, I'll need a long time to gather enough energy and barbecue that bitch feeding over my dragonair energy.'
As he started to breathe in and out on a regular pattern, he finally realized how hard it was to gather a few spiritual energy inside his mind dantian.
He was able to unlock a unique path of cultivation before coming here. Despite merging his cultivation base with his dragonair energy to form the ultimate golden pearl energy, it seemed the meridians, nodes, and most importantly the dantian remained intact.
He had a strong base to use once more and start his cultivation path.
And now he had to gather up his spiritual energy once again and start from zero.
'At least that bug can't detect my spiritual energy now, or it can't eat it,' he consoled himself before John suddenly spoke again.
"The secret to get ourselves out of here is to level up your energy a step higher than it was before you came here."
"Raise it?" Arthur asked in doubt, "but I can't do it while my energy is sealed."
"There's a trick for that," John said in a better tone than before, "this bug is glutinous, but each stomach has a limit to it. All you need to do is to give it what it can't chew and then you gather up the extra energy slowly until you have enough."
"And?"
"I'll tell you a secret way about how to level up your energy but leave that for later."
Arthur thought about his words, and he was agreeing on his theory but he decided against using it.
"Alright, I'll need that soon then," he said as he started to redo John's plan according to his own different circumstances.
"Soon?" John couldn't help but laugh, "sorry but the youth's optimism always amazes me. The previous one took at least one year to achieve such a feat," he took a deep breath, "don't rush it as there is no way to have a shortcut here. We have nothing else to do. Take your time and try not to kill yourself like some other fools."
Arthur suddenly felt some doubt, and John didn't give him any room to ask as he continued to say, "They were so much anxious to get out and got themselves killed out of deep pain. You experienced it already and know how insane this pain is."
"…"
Arthur didn't respond as for him he had another method that might only take roughly one week or two.
"I'll leave you to try, and don't forget to stop when your body can't handle the pressure."
John returned to his silence once again while Arthur, sitting on the cold ground, closed his eyes and started practicing his breaths once again.
In fact being able to practice like this was to him like being a fish returning to breath under water. He was feeling too weak and that made him quite frustrated, and gaining such a shortcut to gain his strength made him very excited.
But when he felt the growing strength swelling up inside his body, he was regaining hope again. The impossible dream of breaking through here was finally drawing nearer.
Each hour passed he managed to add a small amount of spiritual energy to his mind. He started from there and kept focusing on his mind dantian and the dense network of meridians surrounding it.
Yet when he started to rotate his energy he totally avoided his belly region. He didn't have the full confidence in confronting that bug head on down there. So he used the main meridians to bypass this spot and head to his arms and legs.
Regaining the old circulation of his spiritual energy back made his body rejoice. He kept spreading his spiritual energy around, feeling his body slowly changing.
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