1652 Escape
Zhao Boqin was just a nascent soul now, unaware of many things other than a few critical information about himself.
His soul had been damaged incredibly and thus had lost a lot of himself in that process. But along the way, he had managed to slowly gain back his strength, and with that had come back a few things that were gone as well.
At first, the only thought he had was to warn the Emperor about what he had learned. Even that thought had been vague and nothing more than just a feeling.
He had roamed the Martial Ground to find a way out, but no matter where he went, he couldn't move along in that direction and was forced to find a different route.
Working purely on instinct too Zhao Boqin is nowhere. He spent many days simply roaming the large lifeless expanse of the secret realm. Days passed to weeks which passed to months.
At that time, vague memories of who he was and what he was started returning. He continued his search for an exit, but it wasn't possible with just what he had.
He continued searching and more memories returned, more of him returning along with it. Days after day he grew as a soul until one day enough returned for him to know what he had to do.
Zhao Boqin knew where he was now. Transcendent Martial Ground. He had come to the secret realm and had been killed by the King of the lowly Southern Continent. He hated that man. He wanted to see him dead.
He could remember how much that man made him hate him. Not to mention how much he hated his talent and potential. How dare he have such a thing? His own subordinate was no better.
He remembered the questions the King had asked him and wondered if he could tell others the truth now that he was dead. Unfortunately, it seemed the oath to never tell anyone what he had spoken about still held true.
He could almost feel his soul being wrapped up by some invisible power, threatening to destroy him should he break his oath.
After days more, he started coming to an understanding of what he needed to here.
He was stuck inside a secret realm, and flying around randomly was not going to help him. He needed somebody else's assistance here. Or something else.
After thinking for a bit, he knew exactly the thing he needed to find. He went around the secret realm then, searching for what he knew he had seen multiple times before but was not sure if he remembered the way.
After searching for what felt like days, he finally found it.
His dead body.
His corpse lay in a heap, hidden beneath a fold of grass that seemed to have grown around his body. The corpse was in 2 parts, cut in half. 3 if you counted his missing hand that had been cut as well.
Zhao Boqin didn't know how to feel seeing his corpse. He knew he was dead, or at least had lost his body and had come to be in peace. But seeing his body again brought back the terrible understanding of his lack of a physical body.
What was he to do about this? He wasn't certain at this point. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't let this feeling of him stop him. He needed to continue moving.
He reached for his body, but not for his storage pouch or the weapon that lay right next to him. He knew he wanted to take them, but as a soul, he couldn't take them away with him.
He hated that fact. Even then, he reached for something else.
He reached for the talisman that was given to him when he entered this place.
He found the talisman and at the same time, it seemed as if it had found him as well. The moment the talisman came in contact with what little Qi his Soul had, a wave of silver energy surrounded him.
Was it luck? Was it fate? Or was it just how the talisman was constructed to work? Zhao Boqin didn't know. All he knew was that he had accidentally done what he had wanted to do with the talisman.
He wanted out, and it was taking him out.
In the next moment, the transparent soul found himself on the shore of the island. He could see the ocean water, and hear the splashes.
He was finally outside.
He could finally do what he needed to do as a soldier of the Empire.
* * * * * * * *
Nearly 2 months passed since Alex had been traveling along with the Ebony King, going from city to city to visit all the different locations that were considered 'must visit' in the Kingdom.
The Ebony King had his own work to do there, so he had no problem giving Alex the proper tour as he wanted.
They had arrived in the Darkstone City just 2 hours earlier, and somehow Alex was surprised to find someone had arrived to meet him.
"Your Majesty!" the Crown Prince bowed ever so slightly when he met him once again.
"Prince Fangyu, I didn't expect to see you here," Alex said. He truly hadn't. He was alone in his room in the courtyard that they were assigned to when the man had arrived out of nowhere.
Alex would question how he even knew where he was, but there were too many points of leak for him to care.
"I have been waiting for your arrival to the city for a while, Your Majesty," the Crown Prince said. "As soon as I learned when you would be coming here, I left for this place too. We are to meet with my Fiance a short distance outside of the city after all."
Alex nodded slowly. The man had indeed planned that, but Alex wanted to visit her alone if possible. He could remember the pleading eyes that he could swear asked for him to come alone.
Alas, it seemed he was not going to be alone.
