Chapter 1096: Chapter 1096: Imprisonment

Zen dashed forward with the Heavenly Phoenix Horse as his mount.

Only a month had passed since he had made the appointment with Lincoln, and five more months were there for Zen to do whatever he wanted.

He had met Freya through a chance encounter but she had helped him to collect life vitality jades in the mines.

He wondered what kind of trouble she got into after they went their separate ways.

Pondering this, he spurred the horse onward and left the trans-border channel. The soldiers guarding the passage sized up his horse and were immediately respectful towards him.

Normally, it cost travelers a large amount of life vitality jade to use this passage, so Zen was about to pull out his Gauze Token, which would give him a free pass, but to his surprise, the soldiers permitted him through without asking for the toll.

These soldiers were obviously smart. They knew that a warrior using a legendary beast as his mount was not someone they could afford to offend. If this distinguished visitor on the Heavenly Phoenix Horse had a bad temper, they would regret inconveniencing him. Therefore, no one dared to keep Zen even for a second.

After Zen left the trans-border channel and entered the common teleportation channel, the soldiers stared after him and began to discuss in low voices.

“Oh my goodness! It's a Heavenly Phoenix Horse! Such a rare thing in a remote supreme world like ours!”

“I bet that even the Saint Lord of our Spiritual Force Sacred Place doesn't have the ways and means of getting this horse. Who's this talented young man?”

“Could he be the son of a world lord? He must be! There's no other explanation. But it's strange that he has no arrogance of a rich man. Instead, he seems like an easygoing man...”

They didn't know that six months ago, Zen had just ascended from the Lower World. Back then, as a warrior from the Lower World, he was imprisoned in the mines of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place and had to collect life vitality jades to gain freedom.

After leaving the teleportation channel, Zen returned to the land of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place.

The Spiritual Force Sacred Place only occupied ten to twenty percent of the Spirit Reading World's territory, but it was still very expansive.

Outside the teleportation passage was a large city. Zen jumped down from the Heavenly Phoenix Horse and started to study at his surroundings. Hoping to find a person in the Upper World was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, he had exchanged message runes with Freya, but the one he gave her only worked at a distance of twenty thousand miles.

Without thinking too much, he sent a message using the rune, “I've received your message, Freya. Where are you?”

He waited for a while but didn't get any response.

'She's still too far...'

Zen thought and once again mounted his Heavenly Phoenix Horse. He gently patted the horse's neck and spurred it to soar towards the sky.

He flew up and stayed within a radius of several hundred thousand miles. He kept altering his position and trying the message rune.

He finally received a response on the sixth attempt.

Freya's voice whispered into his ear.

“Zen! It's you! You've left the mines!” There was a hint of surprise in her voice.

She had sent Zen the message through the rune merely in a desperate attempt to save herself. He hadn't chosen to leave the mines after accumulating 100 life vitality jades but instead he had remained in the mines to collect more jades. Freya, on the other hand, had only wanted to visit her uncle to seek shelter and thus, she opted to leave.

This place was more than sixty thousand miles away from the mines. Freya didn't think that Zen would be able to receive her message even if he had left the mines.

What she didn't know was that Zen had already traveled across a thousand supreme worlds. It was a distance that she could never imagine. Many warriors of the Soul Sea Realm would never be able to cross such a distance in their entire lives!

Coincidentally, Zen's destination this time was the Dark World, which was not too far. He had been traveling through the trans-border passage when he happened to receive her message from the supreme world below. 𝖗ÁƝ𝐎𝖇Ёṡ

When he received Freya's response, he knew that she must be no more than twenty thousand miles away from him. And there was only one big city, called Bright Sky City, within such radius. Without hesitation, Zen had turned his horse and headed straight for the Bright Sky City.

For Zen it was a big city by the Central Region's standards, but that was not accurate in the Upper World.

In fact, there were thirty-six thousand cities of a similar size in the Spiritual Force Sacred Place. Master Shen and Master He, who had taken Zen out of the mine, were each in charge of over a thousand such cities.

After arriving at the Bright Sky City, Zen ordered his Heavenly Phoenix Horse to descend to the ground. There was a no-fly ban in the city, so it was not a good idea for him to ride his flying horse into the city.

After he landed, he took out the spirit beast bag, wanting to drive the Heavenly Phoenix Horse into it.

The space inside the spirit beast bag was quite large, but to Zen's surprise, the Heavenly Phoenix Horse seemed to be rather resistant to the spirit beast bag. It raised its forelegs and kept retreating, refusing to enter the spirit beast bag.

“What's wrong?”

The horse had been very docile the whole way. So Zen was perplexed by the beast's reaction. He couldn't understand why it resisted the spirit beast bag.

“Could it be because of the Ancestral Dragon?” Lavender asked.

The Ancestral Dragon was a very special creature after all. Despite its submissiveness to Zen, its overwhelming aura couldn't be ignored. The Heavenly Phoenix Horse was also a legendary beast, but it had an instinctive fear of the Ancestral Dragon, so Zen had no choice but to lead the horse into the city.

On the way, he continued communicating with Freya through the message rune.

Although she told Zen that she was in great trouble, she was equivocal about it and wouldn't divulge much information about the nature of her problem.

He had no choice but to keep following her directions. He arrived at the appointed place and saw a residence with a pretty good environment. To his astonishment, there were four Soul Sea Realm warriors guarding the residence. He also sensed several divine textures around the house, as well as the presence of hidden auras of powerful warriors inside the building.

Seeing this scene, Zen immediately understood what was going on. Freya was imprisoned here by someone!

“What are you doing here?” yelled one of the guarding warriors when he noticed Zen.

Admittedly, these warriors were not as smart as the soldiers guarding the trans-border channel. The soldiers guarding the trans-border channel had seen many warriors from different places every day. Thanks to their occupation, they had a clear understanding of mounts, which was why they were able to recognize the Heavenly Phoenix Horse at a single glance.

These warriors were under the city lord's order to guard this place. Although they sensed that Zen's horse was not an ordinary beast, they weren't afraid of offending him.

Zen frowned at their bad attitude. He raised an eyebrow and answered honestly, “I'm looking for Freya.”

The warriors exchanged glances with each other. They knew that Freya had just ascended from the Lower World not long ago. They couldn't figure out how Zen knew her.

“We don't know anyone by this name. Now get out of here!” The same warrior replied impatiently.

But Zen pointed towards the residence and said, “I know she's inside the building. She just sent me a message using her life vitality.”

Since Zen had exposed their lies, the warriors had to give up their act. They stared at him with cold eyes and threatened, “Mind your own business! Otherwise, you'll regret coming here!”

Hearing their threat, the corners of Zen's mouth lifted to flash a contemptuous smile. “I wonder what kind of trouble it will be.”

“The woman inside was chosen by our city lord. She will be offered to an important figure of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place as a gift. But she is disobedient, so she has been imprisoned here! Are we clear now, you brat? Can you afford to offend the city lord?” said another arrogant warrior with narrowed eyes.

They bothered to give Zen an explanation only because he had come with his Heavenly Phoenix Horse. Although they couldn't recognize the horse, they knew that it was a strong beast. Plus, although Zen was just at the Soul Sea Realm, his aura was extraordinary and overwhelming.

If it was an ordinary warrior, they would have attacked him straightaway!

“Oh, I see,”

Zen nodded. No wonder Freya had asked for his help but hadn't given any details to him.

The City Lord of this Bright Sky City was Freya's uncle! Zen couldn't understand why he wanted to sacrifice his niece after she had ascended to the Upper World.

“Get out of here now! If you take too long, you won't be able to escape when we change our mind!” When the warrior saw Zen deep in thought, he assumed that his words had the desired effect on him and a trace of pride appeared on his face.

Suddenly, Freya appeared inside the residence. Her cultivation base did not seem to have improved. Instead, there was a trace of weariness on her face.

“Zen! You have already reached the Soul Sea Realm?” Freya noticed the change in Zen, and a bitter smile appeared on her face.

In fact, she wasn't sure that Zen would be able to rescue her.

Although his performance in the mining cave had been extraordinary, he still wasn't strong enough to fight in the Upper World.

However, she had made great efforts to ascend to the Upper World before turning to her uncle for shelter, only to be sacrificed by him as a human cauldron to an important figure. She had her own dreams and ambitions. How could she agree to submit to such an unfair fate?

But she was only at the primary level of the Soul Sea Realm, so she didn't have the power to fight her uncle!

Finally, she had been imprisoned here and wasn't even allowed to go out.

What was worse, the divine textures around the residence were able to cut off all the vitality between heaven and earth. She couldn't even cultivate here!

Freya was filled with remorse. If she had known this earlier, she would have continued mining with Zen in the mines. Once she had accumulated 200 life vitality jades, she could have exchanged them for an independent warrior's identity. Although she couldn't get support from her uncle, at least she would live in this supreme world freely without being imprisoned or becoming a human cauldron.

She was feeling miserable when she saw Zen again.

Never would she have imagined that their experiences in the Upper World would be so different.

In a last-ditch attempt, she had asked Zen for help through the message rune even though she knew that with his current strength, it was almost impossible for him to save her.

Her uncle was the city lord and his cultivation base was at the late stage of the Spirit Supreme Realm, while Zen was just an ordinary warrior who had ascended from the Lower World.

Zen smiled faintly at her and said, “No wonder you asked me for help. I didn't expect your uncle to imprison you!”

“I used the message rune because I didn't have any other choice. But you should leave, Zen. I don't want to get you into trouble,” Freya said, shaking her head. She calmed down a little after she saw Zen, and resigned to her ugly fate. Finding her uncle had been her own choice, while Zen was just a friend who she met in the mines. There was no reason for him to risk everything and save her.

Besides, even if Zen wanted to save her, he probably wouldn't be able to do so.

But to her surprise, he extended his hand towards her and said firmly, “Come with me. It's all right.”

Hearing his words, the guarding warriors' faces immediately darkened.