“U- Ugh… why does my arm hurt so much all of a sudden!?”

  “Xu, what’s happening to you? Why is your lightning spiraling out of control suddenly?”, Mer Xia would ask with a frown, clearly worried about my sudden predicament.

  “I… don’t know, but this is almost as painful as my awakening in Yuiren’s cave…”, I would mumble, struggling to contain the lightning within my right arm so as to not affect the rest of my fatigued body, “The source of the problem seems to be the ring itself, whatever those cultist demons did during our fight in the Demon Realm seems to have taken a toll on the ring.”

  Moments later, I would come to a sudden realization, while trying to contain the lightning, the lightning itself would being cut off from my body, as if it would forcefully be contained within the Ring of Thunder by an unknown force.

  “Ugh these damn demons… they cut off my lightning cultivation… Merry, you go on ahead, I need to find Yuiren,” I would remark, “she’s the only one I know of that could help right now, since the portal to the Demon Realm has closed behind us...”

  “W- what?! Surely that’s not possible… r- right!?”, with confusion on her face, she would start to mumble in a thinking pose with a hand on her chin, “surely cultivation can’t be that easily cut off, there are meridians to take into consideration, the inner core as well, this cannot be possible…”, she would ponder for a moment, “I shall go with you, if you think Yuiren can help with this then she could maybe take a look at me as well, maybe she can help with the soul transfer situation.”

  “Of course… why didn’t I think of that? If she has the ability to enter my inner world and forcefully awaken my memories, then maybe… yes, let us go!”

  And so our journey back to Yuiren’s cave would begin, but not before saying a last goodbye to my home and my parents whom I would hurriedly bury, as time would not be on our side, but this felt like the right thing to do. After the hastened ceremony we would take turns to rinse our bodies of the blood of the demons, in the pond from within the inner garden of the Hao Ren estate ruins and be on our way.

  Days of excruciating pain later and lots of pondering and attempts to ease my pain, by Mer Xia, we would reach Yuiren’s cave where we would be met by the brood, where Dangly would lead the way towards the inner depths of Yuiren’s Sanctum.

  “Master, you’ve returned!”

  “Yes, Yuiren, however we might have a serious problem…”

  After explaining the situation to Yuiren and everything that has transpired, she would be left in shock, as the Demon Realm should not be a place where you can enter unless you do so through the Demonic Grounds Portal every 15 years. “Whoever did this to you, master, seems to be linked to the wench you’ve fought during your first moments in the Demon Realm.”

  “You think so too, Yuiren!?” Mer Xia would exclaim, “I thought I was the only one with this inkling…”

  “Whatever they did, I cannot circulate my lightning qi through my meridians and I cannot seem to begin gathering it within my inner core anymore, it’s been cut off from the ring…”

  “That is a serious issue… let me try to circulate my qi through your meridians, assume the lotus position, master, I shall try to cleanse the impurities from within.”

  “What? You can do that?” Mer Xia would ask, shocked in disbelief.

  “But of course, I am a demon after all,” she would reply on a playful and dismissive tone,”come now master, we must hurry with the process of cleansing your meridians, I shall look at the ring after.”

  “R- right, Jorōgumo, LeiLei has mentioned this some time ago…” Mer Xia would mumble to herself, “but how is she even able to do this, normal martial arts are not invasive?...”

  “Yuiren is a blood cultivator, Merry, the demons do not get intimidated like the humans do, they also have no taboo cultivation techniques, they will do everything to achieve a higher state of power.” I would explain, while assuming the lotus position and beginning to meditate with my eyes closed.

  “Very good master, I am pleased that you remember. I shall now begin circulating my blood qi through your meridians and injecting it into your core to begin the cleansing process.”

  Hours later, Yuiren’s qi would leave my body, “Master, your body does not seem to have any impurities, there is nothing physically wrong with you…”, she would sigh, “this is not something normal cultivation techniques can fix, master.”

  “No impurities? Xu, was your lightning cultivation really that strong while only at the peak of the Golden Core realm?” Mer Xia would ask in shock, “I need to train harder…” she would sigh in disbelief.

  “That’s a story for another time Merry. Yuiren, please, take a look at the ring, I can feel a strange force blocking my qi circulation from within it.”

  “But of course, I was about to suggest this as well, master, please hold your hand out.”

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  She would put her left palm bellow mine and her right palm above the ring, then she would proceed with both palms doing rotations opposite to one another, her hands would slowly begin to glow with an ominous red aura.

  “This is not good… master, there are traces of a powerful curse on the Ring of Thunder.”

  “A curse? Can you do something about it?”

  “I’m afraid not, master, this is not something any lower demon from the Demonic Grounds could fix either. Miss Avrora might be able to do something since she’s of a higher rank than me and has more resources in the Demon Realm.”

  “She’s of higher rank than you?” Mer Xia would inquire, “Wait a minute, what is your rank within the Demon Realm, miss Yuiren?”

  “Yes, it’d be for the best if we knew all the details, with my memories unlocked, I lack too much information on the matter,” I would explain, while pondering what to do, now that my lightning cultivation has been rendered unusable.

  “I am the last descendant of the Jorōgumo bloodline, my current rank and title within the Demon Realm is known as “Queen of Spiders”, however, while my rank is within the top 10 of the Demonic Grounds, her highness Avrora is within the top 5 of the Demon Realm,” Yuiren would continue, “the difference between our ranks is quite big I’m afraid, you see, the top 10 of the Demonic Grounds barely count as within the top 100 of the Demon Realm, and we are all of royal blood,” she would reveal, but the explanation would not stop here, “whoever did this to you, their power is well above mine and is a magic curse user, which differs heavily from my blood cultivation.”

  “Magic? Surely you mean cultivation?” I would inquire, confused by this unknown term that was also used by Avrora and Stramus during our meeting in the Demonic Grounds.

  “No, master, I’m afraid the demon realm has long evolved since your last reincarnation, when cultivation alone was the pinnacle of power, you see, the term ‘magic’ is used for ‘corrupt qi’, something which only us demons have access too.”

  “Corrupt qi? So Xu’s ring has been ‘corrupted’?” Mer Xia would mumble, pondering what to make of this new information we have received, “but shouldn’t you also have access to this, miss Yuiren, since you’re a demon?”

  “While I do have access to corrupt qi, mine comes in the form of blood cultivation, I cannot use magic, I am a cultivator, born in the land of Atris, trained by master Xu during one of his reincarnations, although he was known as ‘Ryu Gehen’ at the time.”

  “I have decided, I shall join your sect Yuiren, I need to hone my physical body in order to be able to go back and meet Avrora.”

  “But, master, the Long Zhou sect is primarily spear focused, you know that, but I see you’ve got a broken sword and a demonic blade on your hands.”

  “Speaking of demonic blade, Yuiren, I have received this as a gift from Yaozrui, could you take a look at it?”

  “The Demon Dragon God? Why would he… you know what? Never mind… I shall look into the blade,” but as I would attempt to give the blade to Yuiren, for inspection, a demonic screech would be heard throughout the cave which would render Yuiren unconscious for an entire minute, it was being emanated by the blade on a frequency which only demons could hear.

  “Xu, Yuiren, are you ok!? What’s wrong with you?!” Mer Xia would worriedly yell in shock, “Come to your sense you two!”, she would be unable to hear the screech of the blade, but while the minute would be slowly passing, our ears, noses and eyes would begin to bleed, as if to warn us not to exchange the blade with one another.

  “U- ugh, my head… master, are you ok? You’re bleeding…” Yuiren would say, not knowing that her bleeding was just as bad as my own.

  “You should wipe the bleeding off of yourself as well,” I would suggest, while doing so as well, “Yuiren, it seems this blade does not want me to let you examine it.”

  “So it would seem…”

  “Both of you … scared the hell out of me just now… ” Mer Xia would remark while falling on buttocks, her knees hitting against each other in an inward motion.

  “Master, it seems you’ve undergone Demonization, that screech was not heard by Mer Xia, moreover, this is a tactic used by royals to avoid losing items of great interest to the Demon Realm. It seems the Demon Dragon God has given you quite the frightening gift…” she would explain, while absorbing the blood from her eyes, nose and ears back into her body, using her blood manipulation technique.

  “So it would seem… I thought it was just a rusty blade at first, but after what happened during our fight in the Demonic Grounds, it is clear to me that this is an item of great significance… and here I thought he was merely jesting… Thrust the world into a new era he said… it might just be possible, if we could undo this curse.”

  With that said, I would ask Yuiren to take a look at Mer Xia, after explaining the Soul Transfer situation, a predicament which would sadden Yuiren profusely, “I’m afraid it is impossible, master, if not even lady Avrora could help with the matter, there is nothing I can do…”

  “I- … darn it…” Merry’s mood would take a sudden turn for the worse, “I guess I should inquire about the Mythic Buddha Reincarnation Method and the Soul Transfer at the Zhòuyǔ Sect…”

  “Yes, that would be for the best, for now. Miss Lei Zhao’s masters might know of a solution to this matter,” Yuiren would further suggest that I start recovering in the sect’s hidden spiritual room, to be able to participate in the upcoming disciple selection examination, which is a tournament where the sect elders select disciples to join the sect, as per my instructions when I have created the Long Zhou sect many reincarnations ago.

  “Yes, that is a good idea, I do not want anyone recognizing me at this current time, especially now that my cultivation has been cut off… I need to begin physical restoration and to re-train my body, it’s been a while since I’ve used a spear.”

  With that said, I would raise my hand and attempt to open the ring’s inner storage.

  “YES! The inter-spatial storage still works, I can make use of this!”

  “M- master?!”

  “This ring of yours has an inter-spatial storage too?”

  Both Yuiren and Merry would be left in shock as the inter-spatial storage rings are known to be extremely scarce and valuable and thus, only the Imperial Palace has the resources and connections to be able to afford them.

  Upon inspecting the inner storage of the ring, I would come across many manuals, while the Divine Thunderstrike manual would currently be useless as it requires lightning qi for it's powerful techniques, a wide selection of fist, palm and spear cultivation techniques would be available, unfortunately, they were all at the level of the Atris Realm and not on par with the Divine Thunderstrike manual's superior techniques, but with some luck I have found the breathing cultivation technique that would be the base for my spear martial arts during my stay at Long Zhou.