Pathway

Blue-white lightning played along the black ridges in the sky above him, as Jufeng found himself in a dark and what appeared to be a desolate plain. The appearance of this place was already living up to his name. The absence of thunder made the silence of the lightning-filled sky, extremely mind saundering. With no sound coming from the night and no sign of the whistle of wind over the arid plain, the silence was profound. It was only interrupted by the interminent faint break of a wave on the protruded rocks and his own heartbeats.

Sayong. 

A worldly heave-domain where banished souls resided. In the eerie dark condition of Ju Feng's sorrounding in that night-world, the only sources of light were from the dancing lightning in the shadowed sky and his own nimbus light. His nimbus light of red, blue, green and yellow which confirmed his identity as a zhuji cultivator. According to the grey tree, this was one of the disadvantages of this domain. A nimbus light was visible to all, which determined a soul's ranking on the ladder of a heave-domain.

Things never appeared to match up in a heave-domain. On a night like that, there should be deafening sounds everywhere already, rather, there was an absolute silence. And, no signs of any night creatures? What creatures was he expecting in a spirit world in the first place? Spirit birds? As Ju Feng was still observing the strange world and contemplating on it, he heard two angry voices behind him.

"A-ha."

"We found you, mortal rogue. Do you think you can escape us?"

Ju Feng whirled around to the sources of the voices. He saw two large phantom figures with diffractive gold-yellow nimbus light which made their white halo light to refract. Heave-Spirits. He had never seen one before, but from the words of the tree, he knew that all entities in this world were heave-spirits. Entities whose souls were now trapped in this dangerous and deadly world. A world where souls would be in constant and continous extreme difficulties, with little, to no possibility of escape. Souls of immortals and gods alike.

He had to make sure he didn't die in this world if he wanted to see the physical worlds again.

Ju Feng was having a dreadful feeling as he watched the two entities. Upon closer observation, their look was like that of human-dragons. Huge human-like bodies with golden scales covering covering them from head to toes like armors. Gold scales of wings folded behind their backs.

Golden core dragons.

Or, the soul avatars of the golden core dragons. And going by these two's nimbus light's diffraction, these were powerful golden core demigods at the least. To be faced by two angry demigods upon entry, it wasn't a situation he wanted to be in at all. Why was he even there? He knew he was there to obtain the Soul Banishing Scroll, but didn't know why he would choose such an item. What did he even need that for, exactly?

"Or you mean, immortal rogue? I can smell something of immortality in him."

One of soul creatures spoke in jest of Ju Feng.

"What immortality? I can even taste the mortality in him."

The other creature responded.

"Are you sure you are not tasting the memory of your own rotten flesh?"

"Are you questioning my power of judgement, brother?"

"Since you are also doubting my discernment power, I guess I am."

"What did I do to deserve this? You are like a thorn in my rotten flesh."

"I beat myself in sadness all the time because of you. You are like a rotten flesh in my thorn."

"A crossroad we are, then, brother."

"Yes, a crossroad we are."

With the two spirit entities having a concentrated stand off, Ju Feng silently walked backwards a few yards. With a side eye on the situation, he slowly turned and was about to use the swiftsteps when the two entities, swiftly appeared before him. Their sudden appearance made him staggered backwards in alarm. He tried to use his swiftsteps in fright, but he was glued to where he was standing. He looked at his legs but couldn't see what was holding him. What could be happening to him? He raised his head to the sight of the two entities, staring at him with cold, disturbing eyes.

"Forgive us, immortal mortal."

"It seems we didn't introduce ourselves properly to you."

"Rorrom, nascent soul sky gold-dragon."

The first of the identical heave-spirits uttered with his hands spread to the sides.

"And, I am Dorrom, also a nascent soul sky gold-dragon."

The second spirit indicated with his burning eyes firmly set on Ju Feng.

"You see, we gold-dragons, we are naturally content with what we have. And what we have, we protect. As the same with everybody. Can you see those markers? It means this our territory."

"What we keep in our territory belongs to us. Ours. Do you understand that?"

Ju Feng nodded in fear as he continued to watch where the two heave-spirits were going with their words.

"We don't like when dubious ones come into our territory uninvited."

"Especially, ugly one that would steal our treasure."

The two demigods' souls glowed in anger as their eyes turned blood red and their nostrils flared smoke.

"Wait, what treasure? I didn't steal your treasure."

"Really? Denial is even detrimental to your own soul."

"Either you return our treasure to us right now or we rip your soul off your body."

"Woa! On eternal flame, it truly wasn't me."

"On eternal flame? Really? Then why is your heart beating faster?"

"And your very soul frightened." 

These entities were getting more frightful and going beyond reasoning. He had to think faster. They were gold dragons and they were looking for a treasure.

"This treasure you are looking for, what does it look like?"

"A-ha. The guilty one confesses before death."

"Something shining, something golden. Do you remember seeing it now?"

"Something golden?"

Ju Feng asked curiosly. He was about to tell them he didn't have any shining treasure, when he remembered his share of the Irrium gold coins from Springflame.

"I think I have something you might like in place of your treasure."