Chapter 912: Crashing Through Mountains and Forests

John watched through Kirii's memories as he plummeted to the world below, streaking through the air like a meteor, picking up speed every second. A trail of fire streaked behind him as he carved his way through the sky, the land growing larger beneath him.

The continent they had arrived above was massive, filled with more biomes, mountain ranges, lakes as large as oceans, and other natural wonders than could be counted. He also saw sprawling cities larger than anything he had ever seen, with buildings piercing high into the clouds above, more like mountains than man-made structures.

The land he tumbled towards was a lush, forest covered area, the forest spreading for tens of thousands of miles in each direction, maybe more. John watched as he plummeted to the land below, a mountain range growing larger before him as he approached it.

He winced as he watched himself smash through the peak of the mountain, his body shattering the mountain as if struck by a heavenly body crashing into it. He pierced through the other side, his momentum slowed but not stopped, smashing into the forest lining the mountains, crashing through the titanic trees, carving a long path of destruction through the forest.

Tree after tree snapped as he smashed into it, the forest trembling violently from the collision. The forest lit ablaze from the impact, like a meteor ravaging the land. Beasts scattered away from the scene of destruction, wanting nothing to do with the cause of such chaos.

John finally came to rest after carving a trail of destruction miles long through the forest, his broken body resting against the base of a large tree, its trunk hundreds of yards wide. Smoke wisped off his body, one covered head to toe with blood, dirt, and ash.

Sometime later, a group of cultivators approached him, several men and women led by a man in the front with a scar on his face, all wearing plain clothes that made them look unimportant, almost as if they were trying to hide their identities. A large beast followed behind, pulling an even larger caravan.

"So, it was this boy that fell from the sky?" one of the women asked curiously, yet skeptically. She turned her gaze back towards the trail of destruction John had carved into the land.

"Doubtful," the scar-faced man said. "A fall like that, one that can cause this much destruction, would have destroyed this boy's body into nothingness. He was probably just unlucky and got caught by whatever crashed down here."

The others nodded, accepting the man's assessment of the situation.

"Regardless, he appears to be around eighteen and is at the Dao Transformation realm," the man said, inspecting John's clothing. "And he's not wearing the clothing of any of the three Dao Sects or any of the lesser powers either, so no worth caring about should be looking for him at the moment. Whoever he is, he'll fetch quite a good price on the market. Take him."

The others nodded, picking John up. The last scene replayed to him was him being thrown into the caravan, or the cage as he now recognized it, one of the men binding his feet in chains before leaving.

The memories ended. John opened his eyes, the cage returning to his vision. He frowned at the memory, understanding why his body was in even worse condition than he had expected waking up. That fall had nearly killed him, and he had only lived thanks to his heaven-defying body durability. Even then, the fall had torn skin, ripped muscles, and broken bones.

"Why didn't you help me during the fall?" John asked Kirii, grumbling with displeasure.

"I couldn't," Kirii replied defensively, "you were unconscious, and that means your soul is instinctively closed off. I can leave your soul-space freely when you're awake, as you recognize me as friendly, but when you're unconscious, your soul is in a pure defensive state. I would have needed to break free of your soul to appear in the real world, and that would have done more damage to you than the fall did, if not outright kill you."

John frowned. This was the first time he was hearing about this, although he supposed he had never been in a situation before when he passed out and Kirii needed to save him. He had been knocked unconscious before, but never in times that Kirii's help was truly needed.

"It's alright," John sighed apologetically, "it wasn't your fault."

"Do you need me to come out now?" Kirii asked, his voice heated. "Those bastards dared to chain you like some slave. I'll murder them all!"

John was surprised by the anger in Kirii's voice, and smiled lightly, but shook his head.

"No," John said. "We don't know the full situation of what's going on right now, but I'm pretty sure I have a decent grasp on the situation. It seems as though I was quite unlucky to run into some sort of slavers, who decided to take advantage of my situation and capture me as well. But it doesn't seem as though there's any immediate danger, so focusing on healing my body is more important at the moment. That way, if the time to break free comes, I won't be useless."

"Alright," Kirii obliged, slightly disappointed.

John smiled and shook his head, but understood where Kirii was coming from. His companion spent most of his time sleeping in his soul space, and had not had much excitement in his life recently. He was a Kirin, a heavenly beast, and was definitely not content with sleeping his life away. Not to mention, Kirii was a child, and had childish energy to expend. A battle was perfect for such a thing, but now was not the time for that.

"Did you manage to feel their cultivation levels?" John asked. "The ones who appeared in the memory you showed me."

"Aye," Kirii said, some cheer back in his voice. "Most of them were at the Peak Dao Transformation Realm, with one of them at the Half-Step World Expansion Realm. The man with the scar on his face."

John raised an eyebrow, then nodded his head, assessing the situation.

'Half-Step World Expansion realm? That kind of cultivation can make one a powerful sect leader back home, and yet here, they're nothing more than slavers. Interesting.'

He shifted his gaze to the two youths, realizing that this world might be at a higher-level cultivation wise than his own. He put the thoughts aside after a moment's consideration, focusing on the next task.

'If I regain my full strength, dealing with them shouldn't be a problem, but that's only if Kirii saw everyone I would need to fight. If there's someone stronger lounging about, it could be a problem. The best thing to do right now is to heal my body, and figure out more about this group, as well as this mysterious world I've arrived to. I also need to figure out where master went, so taking time to ask the others for information might be helpful.'

A plan decided, John remained still for several hours, slowly absorbing Qi from the air to replenish his dantian, and fuel his Limiter of Healing. Much to his surprise, the Qi in the air was incredibly dense, even denser than the Qi on the Divine Martial Continent. Each breath John took felt incredibly invigorating, a pleasurable sensation John could get used to.

'Using spirit crystals to absorb Qi would be faster, but my captors took my spatial ring it seems. Thankfully everything of value is safely in my palace realm, but taking out spirit crystals now would alert them that I have other means to store valuables. That would bring more headaches than it's worth, so for now I'll heal using the Qi around me. Once I heal enough, I'll unlock my Limiter of Life, which should speed up my recovery even more.'

With the plan set, John closed his eyes, slowly but surely healing the damage done to his body. His arrival to this world had been a brutal one, and he had been instantly greeted by terrible people, his opinion of this place lessening with each passing moment.

'When I regain my full strength, I'll make sure these slavers get what they deserve. Each and every one of them.'