Soul

Three Great Clans, One temple and Five Ancient Sects.

It's not an exaggeration to say that these forces stand at the peak of the food chain and together, these forces can be called heaven of the Soul River realm.

Ji Clan is one of the Three Great Clans, along with Feng and Chu Clan. It's also the most mysterious, not only due it being the oldest among them but also because of their frightening origin.

It is said that in ancient times when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth were as abundant as the endless sky and laws of heaven and earth were easier to enlighten. Boundaries of Soul River realm were immensely larger than they are of today. It was also in those times that cultivation thrived, when Ji Clan was the sole overlord of Soul River World.

Those were the times when the surname Ji was the heaven of Soul River realm, Reigning over countless beings. This all changed when a calamity struck 567,000 years ago which the ancients called, the Starry Sky Calamity.

Years ago, because of an unknown reason all of the high level personnel of Ji Clan went to the starry sky, outside of Soul River realm. But none of them returned, on the contrary shortly after their disappearance, earth shaking changes started accrued on this world.

It is estimated that Soul River realm shrank to half of its former size, in the process countless creatures, forever returning to nothingness.

Ever since that Calamity, this realm hasn't been able to produce a True Immortal. Making Deity Transformation the peak Realm that could be enlightened.

That Calamity greatly damaged Ji Clan, giving other forces the chance to rise and fight for their place in this world.

Not only did all the Core members of Ji Clan disappear, even the main cultivation scripture and high level treasures disappeared along with them. Giving Ji Clan no choice but to give up their hegemony of the world.

But even so, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Even if Ji Clan was greatly damaged, the other newly rising forces still couldn't suppress or destroy them.

The remnants of Ji Clan came together and built the foundation on which Ji Clan stands today. The Soul Sealing Hex Qi scripture, which is the main cultivation method of Ji Clan of today, was just a low level cultivation method derived from the real Soul Sealing Hex Qi scripture which was destroyed back then. But even so it can still stand toe to toe with main inheritance method of other great powers, or even slightly surpass them

..

After receiving the Elder Council's decree, Ji Tian flew straight to the Punishment Hall, located on the left most mountain of the five mountains. 

Punishment Hall is located on the peak of the mountains, stretching one third of the mountains. It consists of 9 levels, with the first 5 levels holding criminals of the Clan, according to their strengths, with 1 being the weakest and 5 the strongest. Landing lightly on the gloomy dark entrance of level 4, where usually only core formation cultivators are held.

"I have seen the deputy master Tian". Surrounding guards saluted as they clasped their fists.

Ji Tian nodded indifferently as he went down a gloomy flight of stairs.

There were some ghostly flames on the sides of the wall. The flickering of the fire made this place even more eerie.

When he first stepped on the stairs, it was very quiet, but as he went down, sounds of shouting and roaring could be heard from the depths. These voices were filled with killing intent and resentment.

This staircase was very long. After a long time, he arrived at the end. The end was very creepy; it was like a giant cage that had been divided up into thousands of separate cages.

Waves of shouting and roars along with countless curses echoed within the area. This sound was too loud; if it was a normal person, their ears would immediately ring endlessly from the noise. 

Ji Tian opened the door made of unknown material from which the shouting was coming from. One could see rows of black steel cells stretching out.

Ji Tian's expression was neutral as he walked past rows of cells. Countless hands reached out from the bars as if they were trying to catch him.

"Surname Ji, back then I loved to kill you Ji the most!"

"Shut up, newcomer! He is the deputy master of the punishment hall. Don't drag us into trouble"

Pairs of blood-red eyes stared at Ji Tian from behind the bars. There were various emotions behind those eyes, some had fear, some anger, some lifeless seeming to give up all hope. 

Ji Tian ignored all this as he walked towards the deepest parts of this abyss, stopping before a cell secluded from the rest. 

Ji Tian looked at Ji Long who had long lost his previous resolute look, replacing it with a look of despair instead.

He entered the cell as the formation automatically opened the door, recognizing his authority.

J Tian didn't give a chance for the other party to react nor speak as he put his hand on the dantian of Ji Long.

Silver white spiritual energy gushed out from his hand and brazenly entered the opposing dantian ignoring his constantly twitching face, implying of how much of pain he was experiencing. It recklessly destroyed Ji Long's merdains along with his spirtual roots, thus forever loosing hope of becoming a cultivator again.

"Summon Ji Luo," Ji Tian said lightly.

One of the guards outside the cell quickly departed after hearing Ji Tian. Shortly after he returned along with Ji Luo, who was Ji Tian's direct subordinate in punishment hall, also a core formation cultivator.

"Congratulations, dep-" 

"No need," Ji Tian waved his sleeves as he gave him a meaningfully look.

"Escort young master Long to a mortal empire, and prepare a team of guards for his protection. We wouldn't want to hear any complaints from our young master, would we?" Said Ji Tian as he smiled lightly at Ji Long who trembled after hearing his fate.

Ji Luo also smiled thoughtfully. If Ji Long stayed in the clan, he might still have some chance of rising again but sending him to a mortal empire, specially with guards who were more of surveillance than protection. Not to mention rising, he might not even come in contact with anything related to the cultivation world.

Ji Long precisely understood this fact, for this reason he knew he was doomed to be a mortal for the rest of his life.

"Don't worry young master Long, the guards I appoint would certainly make sure you are protected from all hostile forces." Ji Luo said as he laughed heartily.

Ji Long raised his head, making eye contact with Ji Luo's eyes and understood that he was done for.

Maybe he still harbored some hope after his cultivation was abolished, after all there was no lack of legends of treasures that could heal one's spiritual roots. But now even if he found one such treasure, it would be taken away by the "guards" for his "protection".

After handing this matter over to Ji Luo, he flew back to his residence, Shining Moon palace.

Sitting cross-legged in the cultivation chamber, he took out the white jade he received earlier and lightly placed it on his forehead.

At that moment he seemed to see illusionary golden clouds above the Ji Mountain, emanating unimaginable power.

"Spiritual Luck Clouds!" Even though this was not his first time gazing upon this scene, Ji Tian still felt shocked.

Spiritual Luck is a rare high level spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the quantity of which is closely related to the prosperity of the said faction. It has numerous functions, but the most important is definitely speeding up the speed of cultivation and increasing the chances of gaining enlightenment.

For a faction to give birth to Spirtual Luck, its qualifications must be very high. Hence the reason for Spirtual Luck being so rare that only few forces in this world are able to give birth to it.

But it's very limited, so only high level figures of forces are able to use this mystical energy. Even though he hasn't officially become the Saint Son, just being the first in line for the position has already allowed him to have access to some of it, which can triple the speed of his cultivation.

One can only imagine the benefits after he officially became the Saint Son of Ji Clan. This was precisely one of the reason he lusted after this position 

Not wasting anymore time, he started cultivating as a golden light beam fell from the clouds, connecting to his forehead. Enhancing his speed of cultivation.

Ji Tian closed his eyes and threw away all distracting thoughts in his mind. He let his consciousness sink into the sea of mind, which was pitch black except for a gray character flying in the middle.

Even though Ji Tian didn't know which language that character was written in. But he subconsciously knew what it meant.

Soul!

This was a mysterious character that had been with him ever since his birth, which is the main reason he opened his sea of consciousness before he became a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Ji Tian spread his consciousness covering the soul character, comprehending the mysteries in it.

He could feel a cool air passing through his consciousness every time he understood some aspects of the character, which slightly strengthened his soul. It was precisely because of this that even though he was just a foundation establishment cultivator, his soul could be compared to a core formation cultivator.