The outline of Jin Wang's body fell through hundreds of tons of solid rock, dirt, and metals before finally reaching an open space.
His scrunched-up face relaxed to a great extent upon seeing the blue and green clouds in the surroundings. He forcefully turned around to see the giant mountain surrounded by an endless ocean on all sides below him.
Jin Wang wasn't making any sound initially but when he finally pulled his palms away from his chest, accompanied by a sonic boom his body solidified again and the air pressure sent him back up by dozens of meters before gravity once again pulled him back down, sending him rolling through the air.
"Argh!" he placed one hand over the saber wound on his abdomen to keep the flesh together and used the other to protect his eyes while trying to see where exactly he was falling.
Upon getting another good look at the scenery that was getting bigger by the second, he smirked.
"So this is the inner world huh? I thought it would be bigger…AAAH-"
But his face once again contorted from the pain, effectively muting him for the remainder of the journey down. He allowed himself to free fall.
Every now and then he would punch the air to change his trajectory and speed. But not once did Jin Wang make it seem he was not in control of the situation, as if he knew and expected everything that was going to happen.
A short while later he was finally a hundred or so meters away from the ground. He had managed to change his trajectory by more than a few hundred kilometers and was now near a small gorge located on the right of the mountain.
With a flurry of kicks and punches he decreased the speed before finally landing soundlessly in a small cloud of dust.
And not a second later several mouthfuls of putrid blood spilled out.
"Blurgh!"
Jin Wang wiped the sides of his mouth before following up with a whole slew of curses, "God fucking damn that guy! Why didn't he tell me how strong that asshole was, I could have prepared a bit more…or did he actually tell me and I just forgot?"
After taking a few minutes to regulate his breathing Jin Wang tapped various points around the half-meter-long abdominal wound left by the saber.
He repeated the same sequence of poking and pinching about seven times before the surrounding flesh started squirming and pushed out a handful of red-colored small beads from the wound.
When the last bead fell out of his body the wound started closing itself and in less than a minute only a small scar was left.
He looked at the small pile of beads with narrowed eyes, inspecting each one from a distance "Three laws? Not bad for someone of his age I guess. No wonder Warlord Miu's saber chose him, he really is worthy of it."
When he was sure the wound had closed without any serious side effects, Jin Wang stood up and inspected the sky. The light dimming and would be going out soon.
"I should be close right? Did he say to follow the…air? Or was it the water? Or the trees? Fuck, it was follow something…but, damn it. I should have written it down somewhere. Well, that wouldn't actually have helped either hahaha, Jin Wang you dumbass."
He had a full conversation with himself including insults while moving towards a random direction and it didn't sound like it was his first time either.
Thankfully no one else was around to witness this depressing scene otherwise who knows the kinds of looks he might have gotten.
After half an hour of trekking through the woods that had all but turned dark, Jin Wang finally came out at the top of a small gorge. It was very well hidden and if he hadn't seen it from the air he might have missed it completely.
The spiritual energy down here was much thicker than in other places, at least three times higher. Jin Wang bent down to examine it carefully before once again muttering to himself.
"Hmm, this is it right? But where is the guardian? He said someone would be here to 'welcome' me. I really didn't like how he said "welcome" though. Is someone gonna fight me again?"
But this time a voice answered his query.
"Only if you want to."
"…."
He slowly turned his head to glance at the speaker.
"Hoo, I didn't detect your presence at all. Are you even alive?"
"As alive as one can be," she answered without answering.
It was an old lady with a long smoking pipe in her hand. On her shoulders was a small white fox with several tails that kept looking at Jin Wang confusedly. He stood up to face her.
"Do you have something for me?" she asked.
