Chương 6: Cocoon?

10 years later

In an area of pure darkness surrounded by a gray spherical barrier, was Samuel. Floating in the center, seemingly slumbering peacefully. Only it wasn't peaceful. IT. WAS. PAINFUL. His body was fine, but his mind was aching like nothing has ever been aching before. The feeling of ants crawling under his skin, was now the feeling of ants gnawing on his brain. The same feeling he had been experiencing for a long time already. However, today he could feel it intensifying, yet also his lucidity increasing. His thoughts finally became coherent again. This equivalent increase continued until Samuel, finally after an eternity, could open his eyes again. The moment he did that, that damned pain disappeared without a trace.

In the most cold and apathetic voice one can ever imagine, Samuel asked, "How long has it been".

Which is a fair question. 10 years of torment and constant pain would feel like an eternity. It would be impossible for someone to keep track of time in such a situation. Or would it? Information quickly surged into Samuels' now reinforced mind.

"10 years outside?"

The coldness in his voice was diminishing rapidly, and the apathy was replaced with bafflement. Not because of the '10 years' part, but rather the 'outside' part.

"Does that mean time passed differently here, compared to outside? Amplified by 10,000 times, what does that even mean?"

As he continued to think about the time he spent in this hell, information kept appearing in his mind.

"WHAT!!! I spent 100,000 years here!? How is that possible? Wouldn't I turn to dust?"

The thought of dust now truly horrified him. Being tortured for 10, no 100,000 years by something will obviously cause some discontent amongst those tortured. It is only natural.

Who would ever think that the lazy Samuel, who spent years of his life living in a pile of dust, would actually become afraid of it?

While Samuel was trembling in fear, as all true men do, the gray barrier started dissipating. Samuel was stunned.

"What even is this barrier? Oh, it's my cocoon, that explains everything. Like hell it does! What kind of breakthrough cocoon is this? It traps me in here for ten years, distorts time by 10,000 times, made me absorb all matter in the range of 1000 square kilometers and forced me to undergo ungodly torture. Why am I so unlucky? 'But Samuel, it means your talent is really, really strong. This is clearly a good thing'. Shut up! Why did I have to suffer for 100,000 years to obtain it? Am I not a transmigrator? How is it cheating if I have to pay such a disastrous price for it, as well as use time to obtain it?"

The barrier continued to dissipate as Samuel was ranting about his cursed luck. However before it could fully vanish, a pressure that can only be described as quite strong, appeared out of nowhere. Well, not nowhere. Just because this world is one of cultivation, doesn't mean it's void of all logic. There is nothing within the barrier except time, not even space. When all the air, spiritual energy and space in the outside world is surrounding physically nothing, pressure is unavoidable. Instantly as the barrier dissipated, space surged in, creating countless cracks, all containing suction forces, which dragged the stunned Samuel into them.

"How many bad things are gonna happen to me!? Give me a break! Please!"

But was it truly a bad thing? What Samuel didn't know was that outside the barrier, there were hundreds of some of the Cyan continent's most powerful people. A huge gray barrier that no living thing has ever emerged from, including some of their descendants, in one of the treasure grounds of the younger generation, would surely attract some attention. And attention it attracted indeed.

"Why is space behaving so erratically as soon as the barrier started to fade?", a burly young man with long, red hair and eyes asked out loud.

"Maybe whoever or whatever was in there is escaping", some other young man replied.

"You foolish younglings, why would the being who set up a barrier formidable enough to withstand our combined attacks for more than ten years be 'escaping'? Look at the area that was covered! There is nothing there. Nothing at all. Presumably the thing inside devoured everything there was inside of the barrier, including space. The barrier must have blocked all entry, including that of space and spiritual qi!"

It was the turn of an old sage-like existence to speak. He had a typical gray daoist robe, with long white hair and beard, a hunched back, as well as a slit between his eyes.

"Master Kellin, does that mean my descendant is dead?", someone asked.

"Yes."

The response seemed to hit hard with a few in the crowd, while some were secretly revelling in their misfortune.

"We should all just be happy this being didn't place the entire world in one of these barriers. Be my estimates, it should be capable of such a feat"

Instantly the entire place fell silent. Until the most well dressed, royal looking man said, "go home. I declare that the Mountain of Ascendance will be barred of entry for the next 100 years. Incase the being returns to this area"

Meanwhile this 'being' was throwing up all his stomach acid, flying in the dizzying and contorted warp dimension.