The silence in the pocket dimension was fragile. It was barely held together by the tension of unreleased breath.

  Gongsun Yue stood before Li Yu. Her white robes were fluttering somehow in the still air of the artificial world. Behind her the four members of her retinue—Hao, Scholar Mo, Auntie Lan and Grandma Gui—slowly reformed their line.

  As they did, the suppression that had held their powers in check evaporated since the fight was over. Instead of hiding their power as they had done when they first met him, they were not unleashing it for him to see. It was as though this was the last thing they could do to save some face. They had lost the battle but they would win this war.

  BOOM.

  It wasn't a sound; it was a pressure. The air grew heavier, turning into lead. Hao’s aura expanded from the Mid-Stage Soul Formation level he had fought at to something vast, oceanic and terrifying.

  Scholar Mo opened his fan and the air around him twisted into complex geometric fractals. Auntie Lan’s presence felt like a forest that had grown over a continent. Grandma Gui leaned on her cane but her shadow stretched out for miles. It was dark and suffocating.

  They looked down at Li Yu. Not with anger but with the eyes of gods looking at a mortal. They were impressed with this boy’s fighting ability and strength. However, he was just that, a young boy that could not really threaten them. At least not as they are now.

  "Li Yu," Gongsun Yue said with her voice trembling slightly. "Please. This has gone too far. We did not come here to harm you. I simply need my freedom."

  Li Yu stood his ground. The pressure was immense from the powerful beings but his own opalescent Qi flared forward. It created a small defiant bubble of stability around him.

  "You kidnapped me," Li Yu said. His voice is tight but steady. "You threw me in a box. You attacked me. And now you tell me you didn't mean to harm me? That's not how I see it, Lady."

  "You humiliated me," Hao rumbled, his voice echoing like thunder. "You struck me down while I was suppressed. Do not mistake a duel of skill for a duel of power. If I wished for it, I could erase this entire pocket dimension with a thought. And you along with it."

  "Then do it," Li Yu challenged him. "If you're so strong, why are you still talking? Because of the oath right? You would die as well. Don’t go saying whatever you want, fool."

  Hao’s face darkened but he didn't move. He couldn't take action. The oath taken was absolute and he would be stopped by his companions before he could take any action. They wouldn’t want to die because of his stupid actions.

  "Enough," Gongsun Yue commanded. She stepped closer to Li Yu. This was her first time to really take a look at him. There was some softness in her eyes before they firmed up again.

  "I cannot tell you the nature of the current oath," she said hurriedly. "The restrictions are woven into my blood. If I speak of it, I die. My family dies as I mentioned before. But... I can offer a trade."

  "I'm listening," Li Yu said. He also realized that he wasn’t going to escape here with his own power. These people were too strong, he was like an ant to them in their real forms. He hated this feeling.

  For a split instant he thought of the Seven Sins. He would feel like that against them as well. Just like what the ten guardians had said. He needed strength before he could really stand to face them. He gripped his staff even firmer as his resolve to get stronger increased.

  "I will swear a new oath," she said with her eyes burning with intensity. "If you release me from the ancient bond, I will swear a new oath. No, that is not sincere enough. I will do it now.” She then was channeling power and an ethereal parchment appeared in front of her. It began to record down the words she spoke.

  Li Yu had never seen such a thing before and he had no idea how this ‘oath’ thing that they kept referring to was created.

  “I, Gongsun Yue, and all those who follow my banner, will never harm Li Yu. We will never harm his allies. We will never interfere with his interests." She took a breath.

  "If we find ourselves desiring the same resource, at the same time, we will yield it to you. We will not conflict with you or your goals.” She finished and her words were recorded on the ethereal parchment in front of her.

  “I will trade a chain of mystery that I cannot tell you for this new chain that I can. Is that not enough?" She spoke with sincerity.

  Li Yu paused. His grip on the staff loosened slightly. He was a pragmatist and he was analyzing the offer. She offers total non-aggression. She offers submission in conflicts of interest. That basically neuters any threat she poses.

  This made him think. ‘If she was willing to accept those terms just to get rid of the current Oath... then the current Oath couldn't be something like "Don't kill innocents” or “You must do good all the time or something like that.” Because the new oath she proposed would still prevent her from killing him or his people.’

  ‘So what is the current oath?’ Li Yu wondered. ‘If it's not about safety and she's desperate to break it... is it about destiny? Or is it something much more personal?’

  His curiosity flared. The mystery was deepening but he wouldn’t get any answers. However, from how he saw it, it did not harm him at all. That oath basically covered him.

  "That's a heavy offer," Li Yu said slowly. "It makes me wonder what exactly you're running from."

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "I am running from a life that is not mine to control," she whispered.

  The dimension fell silent as Li Yu pondered. The Gongsun family watched him, their true auras pulsing with anxiety. They were powerful beyond measure in this realm, yet they were held hostage by the indecision of a local cultivator.

  Grandma Gui watched Li Yu’s face. She saw the hesitation as he was thinking. She saw the curiosity that he had. And in her old, cynical heart, she saw a risk she wasn't willing to take.

  ‘He is too stubborn.’ The old woman thought. ‘He will ask more questions. He will delay. And every moment we stay in this realm, the risk of detection grows.’

  She made a decision on her own.

  She didn't move her body. She didn't channel her Qi in a way that would be detected. Instead, she reached into the folds of her robe with a hand that moved like a shadow.

  She pulled out a small, amber-colored stone.

  It wasn't a weapon. It was a Time-Lock Amber. An artifact from their home realm, designed to seal a target in a state of suspended animation for one hundred years. It wouldn't kill him. It wouldn't harm him. It would just... pause him.

  One hundred years, Grandma Gui calculated. Enough time to take him back home. Enough time to find a way to undo all of this without his consent. Or enough time for Yue to forget this obsession of hers.

  "Forgive me, child," Grandma Gui whispered soundlessly.

  She flicked her wrist.

  The amber stone flew. It moved faster than thought, ignoring the distance, aimed straight at Li Yu’s chest.

  It was an ambush from a being whose cultivation exceeded his own by far too much. Li Yu shouldn't have been able to react. His eyes didn't even track it.

  But Li Yu wasn't just a body.

  Deep within his spiritual sea, something reacted. It wasn't the alert of danger; it was the roar of an apex predator realizing something had entered its territory.

  "Hmph."

  The sound didn't come from Li Yu’s mouth. It resonated from the air around him. Time stopped in a 2 meter area around where Li Yu was standing.

  Two massive, spectral figures erupted from Li Yu’s back. It was his two Nascent Souls. On his left, the Koi Soul materialized. It opened its mouth and let out a silent roar that rippled through the fabric of the pocket dimension. The Law of Time.

  The white sand froze in mid-air. The amber stone slammed into an invisible wall of solidified time. It hung there and was unable to move forward at all.

  On his right, the Fisherman Soul appeared.

  It held the rod that it always had in its hand. His presence was terrifyingly absolute. When he appeared, the vast, oceanic auras of the Gongsun family suddenly felt small. They felt like puddles in front of a tsunami.

  "Two..." Scholar Mo gasped but couldn’t react. He too was frozen by something. "He has two Nascent Souls?"

  "That serpent-like thing..." Hao choked out while his face was drained of color. "That's... that's a Primordial."

  Grandma Gui didn't have time to be shocked. She only had time to be terrified. The Fisherman Soul didn't look at the amber at all since coming out. He had his gaze focused only on her.

  He raised his rod. He flicked his wrist.

  Cast.

  The line blurred. The ethereal hook flew across the pocket dimension in an instant.

  Grandma Gui scoffed instinctively. She was a powerful cultivator several realms above Li Yu. What would she fear from a soul attack even if it was from a Nascent Soul? A hook from a junior? She raised her cane to deflect it but realized she couldn’t move. Reacting to that instantly she channeled her soul power instead. "Begone!"

  The hook hit her defense.

  It didn't bounce. It didn't break. It simply went through.

  It ignored her soul barrier all together. It ignored her spatial distortion. It ignored her cultivation level entirely. It was a hook designed to catch and she was just a fish to it.

  Grandma Gui froze. The hook was inches from her forehead. She felt it. Something that was screaming at her internally. Something that she had not felt in many years.

  Death.

  Not just the death of the body. She felt the true, final annihilation of her origin. If that hook touched her, she wouldn't die; she would be erased. She would cease to be.

  "No..." she whimpered. She never thought she would die in such a place. In such a way. Her eyes went wide with a terror she hadn't felt in thousands of years.

  The hook moved forward.

  ZZZTT.

  Suddenly, the white sky of the pocket dimension tore open.

  A barrier appeared between the hook and the Grandma. It was a sheet of pure Void. It was blacker than black, a slice of non-existence inserted into reality.

  The hook struck the Void Barrier and emerged behind the Grandma without touching her. The attack had been parried.

  The Fisherman Soul didn’t react to his failed attempt at all.He reeled the line back in an instant.

  The spectral old man tilted his head back and was looking up through the tear in the artificial sky. He was staring into the infinite darkness beyond.

  A smile touched the Fisherman’s lips. It was a knowing smile. A smile of recognition. He reached up to the brim of his hat. And he tipped it.

  ‘Greetings.’ He seemed to be saying.

  The Gongsun family stood frozen, their minds unable to process what they had just seen. Someone else had intervened to save them from... Li Yu?

  "Who..." Gongsun Yue whispered. She was now looking at Li Yu with eyes with curiosity of her own. “What are you?”

  Li Yu didn't answer. He couldn’t answer because he was frozen in time. He could vaguely process what was happening but it was happening all too fast for him to fully process.

  Then a force like a gentle but irresistible wind swept through the pocket dimension. It latched onto Li Yu.

  WHOOSH.

  Li Yu was launched backward. The Fisherman and the Koi dissolved into mist. They both retreated back into his body. The same barrier that had appeared in front of the Grandma Gui appeared behind Li Yu and he flew into it.

  Thud.

  Li Yu was no longer frozen but landed on his butt as he skidded across the ground. He blinked, his vision swimming. The smell of copper rushed back into his nose. The sound of distant campfires crackled in his ears.

  He was back. Back to where this had all started.

  Li Yu looked around. The Gongsun family was gone. The pocket dimension was gone. The white sand was gone.

  He was alone in the dark.

  Li Yu stood there for a long time trying to process everything that had happened. He looked up at the night sky in thought.

  Whoever had stepped in... whoever had stopped his soul from erasing that old woman... they weren't enemies. But they were watching.

  "Okay," Li Yu exhaled with a shaky breath that turned into a laugh. "Okay. That settles it."

  He turned and walked toward the camp of his army. He was now exhausted and mentally drained.

  "I am definitely asking Shen Tu for more land."