Li Fan walked the paths of the Great Dao Sect, his mind churning.
The mountain gates were adorned with lanterns and colored banners, and the festive cheer had finally managed to lift the gloom left by the recent calamities.
Now and then, disciples would cross his path and stop to bow. Li Fan acknowledged each one with a nod.
As the sect leader's Dao Companion, he had access to cultivation resources most cultivators could not accumulate in an entire lifetime. He also commanded respect, even if it was just a facade people felt obligated to maintain.
Yet Li Fan had already made up his mind. He would find an opportunity to flee the Great Dao Sect as soon as possible.
Senior Sister Zhao has only just ascended to the position of sect leader and is buried in sect affairs. Representatives from other sects come frequently to offer congratulations, and she must find time to receive them all.
This is the busiest she will ever be. Her attention is stretched thin. She won't notice me.
If I miss this chance and she finally has a moment to breathe and turns her focus back to me...
The thought hardened his resolve.
Two days later, seizing a moment when no one seemed to be watching, he slipped away alone toward the sect's exit.
He paused and looked back at the familiar scenery of the Great Dao Sect. The image of Senior Sister Zhao rose in his mind, his Dao Companion of over a hundred years. Hesitation stirred in him.
But he gritted his teeth and flew out.
He sped eastward without stopping until he had crossed beyond the Great Dao Sect's territory.
The inexplicable sense of crisis that had been coiled in his chest finally began to ease.
My premonition was right after all.
He was quietly congratulating himself when two streaks of radiant light shot past him from behind. In the blink of an eye, they landed ahead of him, blocking his path.
"And where might our esteemed junior nephew be off to?" A long-browed elder regarded Li Fan with a smile.
"Senior Uncle Dong... Senior Uncle Jiang..." Li Fan's face went pale.
These two were members of the Great Dao Sect's council of seventeen Dao Unity elders.
His escape had been discovered.
Even so, Li Fan had no intention of waiting passively to be taken.
"Heh, allow this junior to explain." He forced a pained expression onto his face and began to edge slowly closer to the two elders.
"While I share in the honor of my senior sister's ascension, in truth, my heart has been somewhat troubled. Her status is now exalted, and her power grows with each passing day. Yet I, as the sect leader's Dao Companion, remain merely at the Spirit Transformation realm. It is inevitable that people will gossip. The pressure... it weighs on me."
He feigned deep distress. "The sect is recovering from ruin, and every disciple and elder has their duties. Only I wander idly day after day, truly..."
Without warning, a beam of chaotic gray light shot from Li Fan's eyes and struck Elder Dong and Elder Jiang squarely in the face.
It was a vicious divine ability of the Soul-Severing Divine Reflection Technique he cultivated: the Divine-Slaying Soul-Smiting Light. It could directly injure a cultivator's soul. Even against Dao Unity powerhouses, Li Fan was confident they would suffer a significant blow if caught off guard!
Without waiting to see their reaction, he immediately activated the Divine Reflection Evasion Art, intending to flee at full speed.
But to his horror, Li Fan discovered that the surrounding space had been completely sealed at some unknown point in time. He was swift, but had nowhere to go.
Worse, Dong and Jiang had seemingly anticipated his attack. Each held a treasure mirror before their chest, and the Divine-Slaying Soul-Smiting Light shattered harmlessly against them.
They looked at him with identical mockery.
"The entire sect has witnessed how the sect leader has treated you, Junior Nephew. Yet you would commit this act of betrayal..."
"If the sect leader were to find out, one can only imagine how heartbroken she would be."
Li Fan struggled, but their combined strength subdued him completely. He could not move.
My life is over.
When they brought him back to the sect, Senior Sister Zhao was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, his cultivation was sealed entirely, and he was thrown into a secret chamber. Though called a secret chamber, it was no different from a prison cell.
At first, Li Fan expected to see Senior Sister Zhao soon. He organized his arguments carefully, intending to rely on his silver tongue to preserve his life.
But Senior Sister Zhao never came. Neither did anyone else. The Great Dao Sect seemed to have forgotten him entirely.
In that confined space, there was nothing but Li Fan himself.
He could not cultivate. Whenever he tried to concentrate, or to ponder and deduce divine abilities and techniques, the surrounding walls erupted with incessant sounds of ridicule and scorn, leaving him restless and unable to hold a single thought in place.
It was likely designed to prevent him from breaking his shackles.
At first, Li Fan maintained his composure. But as time passed, even with his temperament, he began to feel bored.
Later, he grew somewhat irritable and angry.
Finally, he lost himself entirely, battering the hard walls with his own body.
It was useless. He only left himself mangled.
In the end, the light in Li Fan's eyes slowly faded. He sat dully on the ground, like a statue emptied of its soul.
An unknown length of time passed.
Then one day, the long-sealed door of the secret chamber rumbled open.
No one entered.
Li Fan seemed not to notice. He offered no reaction, simply letting the door stand open, utterly indifferent.
More than ten days passed before awareness finally returned to his eyes.
With great effort, he pushed himself upright, trembling, and took one step toward the exit.
His body had forgotten how to walk. He collapsed immediately.
He struggled back to his feet. Took another step. Fell again.
Stumbling, crawling, he made his way out. By the time he emerged, he had barely recovered a semblance of himself.
The Great Dao Sect before him looked no different from the one he remembered.
Disciples moved among the mountain peaks, cultivating. If anything, the sect seemed more bustling than before.
Yet it was deathly silent.
Not a word, an argument, or a murmur could be heard anywhere within the sect's bounds. It was as if all the cultivators living within were mute. Or perhaps... they were all of one mind, having no need for such a lowly means of communication as "speech" to understand each other.
Without even needing glances or divine sense, they could comprehend each other's intentions.
Li Fan staggered through the sect.
Having been imprisoned for who knew how many years, he was a wreck. But every person he passed looked straight through him, continuing whatever they had been doing as though he did not exist.
This constant, pervasive dismissal gnawed at Li Fan's very soul.
At last, after wandering every corner of the sect without finding his target, he could bear it no longer.
"Senior Sister!"
"Senior Sister, where are you?!"
It took him a long moment of struggle to remember how to form the words. Then, with a voice ragged and hoarse from disuse, he roared.
The sound grew, swelling in volume until it echoed through the entirety of the Great Dao Sect.
And every cultivator within its bounds turned as one to look at him.