Chapter 103 - Prisoner of Blue Fire (1/2)

Bao Du brought Shin Sumi through the areas of the Sky Earth Sect's tower which had already been cleared by the Blue Fire Sect's army.

At this point of the battle, all of the experts had been taken down and the last resisting disciples were being hunted restlessly.

Shin Sumi didn't know how many had been killed in the process and her only wish at this point was that she wouldn't be one of them. Her shoulder has been broken and all of her equipment, treasures and items had been taken from her by the same guy who held her captive.

The Blue Fire Holy Restraints prevented her from moving her arms or mustering enough Shinsoo for any rebellious act. She was completely stuck.

Once outside of the tower, Shin Sumi was taken to where all the prisoners were gathered, guarded by a dozen male and female disciples with robes slightly different from the rest.

As they approached, she could see that all twelve guards seemed to be very young compared to the other disciples. Most soldiers she had seen while walking through the battlefield with Invisible Crane of Oblivion were men and women middle-aged. She had even thought, at the time, that the Blue Fire Sect had not wanted to send any of their youth to war, and yet the twelve people guarding the prisoners were all less than twenty years old in appearances.

Some of them she wouldn't have said to be over fifteen years old. The others looked barely out of their teen years and yet something was completely off with them.

All of them had dark marks around their eyes, so dark that Shin Sumi couldn't tell if they were natural or tattoos made to look like they never slept.

Second of all, their robes were not jet black like the other disciples of the Blue Fire Sect she had seen so far. They were wearing grey robes, but so dark that from afar she couldn't have told the difference, embroidered with very thin golden patterns.

Each pattern looked different for each of these guards but Shin Sumi couldn't properly see them all from where she was.

The only thing she could properly probe was their cultivation level, bringing another look of surprise and shock on her face.

”The twelve of them are all late stage Liquid Realm cultivators!”

She couldn't help but think of Fen Wudao, whose strength and talent were unrivaled in the Dark Sky Starry Sect. Right in front of her, encircling all the prisoners, were twelve people who could compare to Fen Wudao.

”Stay here,” Bao Du instructed, leaving her side for a couple of steps.

As if she would dare to move under the eyes of the twelve young guardians.

Bao Du spoke a few words Shin Sumi couldn't decipher to a young boy who looked so nonchalant and sleepy she wasn't sure he was listening. The boy never seemed to reply and yet Bao Du nodded deeply in a half bowing manner.

Shin Sumi's captor threw her bag of holding behind the young boy where a large pile of similar bags were amassed in great numbers.

”Oh no, I will never be able to find mine, even if I escape,” Shin Sumi lamented interiorly. Even though she clearly had no option available, she still hadn't brought herself to accept the loss of her bag.

Her thoughts were cut off by the returning Bao Du who once again held her collar and forced her to walk.

Now turned to face all of the other prisoners, Shin Sumi could see that most of them were seated on their knees by groups of ten, all of them with a vacant look in their eyes. Just like her they must have lost everything to the attackers, except Shin Sumi had come alone from afar whereas they had also lost their homes, friends and teachers.

Shin Sumi was taken to a group of nine people, all visibly bearing the same Blue Fire Holy Restraints. Surprisingly, they seemed to be a lot more lively than the rest of the prisoners.

”That's one more batch,” the young boy with the golden laced grey robe called out behind Shin Sumi, startling her. She had not felt him approach at all.

Without another word, the boy waved his hands and brought them together in a circle.

It was a simple gesture but the power emanating from him was absurdly strong. In a second, a giant sphere-like barrier appeared around the ten captives.

As soon as the barrier was erected, Shin Sumi could feel her arms being untied to her body and her Shinsoo slowly returning from her dantian into her meridians, circulating. From the exclamations, sighs and general sounds of relief around her, Shin Sumi could tell that the other nine prisoners were also freed from their restreints.

For a very short moment, she forced all of the energy she could to her shoulder, soothing the pain of her broken bones and magically replacing the different parts together. Only that moment didn't last.

After his call, the young boy had been joined by the other eleven young prodigies. As Shin Sumi and the other prisoners were tending to themselves in a hurry, the twelve guards were focusing their energy together, preparing a large scale incantation. When they next spoke, it was all of them at the same time, in a grave voice, directing their energy towards not only Shin Sumi's group but the hundreds of other prisoners as well.

”State of Sleep, form three: Extension!”

Behind Shin Sumi and her group, a very large invisible barrier encompassing all the other prisoners started to shimmer into view. After a second, the shimmering focused on only one side of the large barrier. The next moment, a protrusion was forming, rising towards the new batch of prisoners.

It only took three seconds in total for the barrier to enclose Shin Sumi's group within the enchantment. Given the added power of the twelve young guards, it only showed how strong the barrier was and how inescapable the magical formation had become.

***

Shin Sumi was walking in the darkness, her feet b.a.r.e against a cold floor.

The only sensation left in her was the touch of the tiles she couldn't even see under her. As she progressed and the tiles got colder and colder, she realized that she was walking on a layer of ice.

As soon as she started thinking about the ice, it melted into a slow flowing water current. The water on her skin was soft and pleasant and she half-mindedly thought of a face.

It was a very pretty face. A girl's. What was her name again? Why did Shin Sumi think of her when the water started rising around her knees?

She shook her head and enjoyed the feeling, still progressing in the darkness.

Not one bit scary, Shin Sumi was enjoying her walk, to the point that even if she was given a choice, she would not leave this sensation.

She could feel the water bubble under her, splashing her knees and t.h.i.g.hs. As smoothly as summer turns to autumn, the water turned into flames, l.i.c.k.i.n.g her feet with snake-like tendrils.

Darkness, snakes, another half-memory rose in her empty mind. A strange place, a dangerous place where she had felt safe. Only she couldn't remember anything about it at all.

The roots were rough and hard, but didn't impede her walk in the slightest. As she advanced, although she couldn't see anything, she could feel that the roots were connected together, in what could only be a massive tree.

The tree was far and close at the same time, familiar and mysterious.

Without knowing why, Shin Sumi knew that the roots would turn into paper, then characters written in darkness.

Only before that could happen, a sound so harsh and unpleasant wrung her ears. So out of place in this silent and dark world, the sound made her frown and she unconsciously tried to lift her hands to her ears to cover them.

But her hands were stuck by the roots who didn't seem to want to let her go.

The sound was high and low at the same time, built off of a hundred harmonics. It pierced the tree, the roots, the flames, the water and the tiles all at once.

It was only after the darkness was broken in a million pieces than Shin Sumi realized the sound was not that unpleasant. In fact it was welcome by the entirety of her soul as well as another soul, linked to hers.

It was the sound of a bell, a small bell that looked like copper.