"Alright... Cut the crap. This conversation is clearly headed nowhere so I'll get straight to the point. You don't seem to understand the situation you are currently in Mr. Daevion."
"How do you know my name...?" Daevion asked as surprise slowly crawled over his face.
"I know many things, like the fact that you are a 2nd stage Qi-King. The fact that you are only 60 years old. Even more, the fact that you are currently injured and can only utilise the strength of a foundation establishment stage. Do you want to know more or have I convinced you"
"... Who are you?" Daevion was almost shocked beyond words but managed to utter in a low voice
"Who I am doesn't matter, my identity is not something you are entitled to know. What matters more is that you now finally understand the situation that you have quite literally landed yourself in. I'll now explain to you your current position. Since you are now in my hands, I dictate whether you live or you die. However, I -- an incredibly merciful senior -- have decided to keep you alive. Judging by the transgressions you have committed against me, including but not limited to lying, attacking, and unlawfully invading this planet, you will have to pay for your crimes. Your punishment is as follows : You will have to accompany me on my adventures for the next 10 years. Second of all you will not work against me, you will not take any actions that put me in harm's way, you will not collaborate with others or scheme against me in any way. Furthermore, you will take no action that threatens this plan or its residents. Finally, even after the specified duration you will not seek revenge after you have recovered to your full power." Ash mentioned his conditions after a short thinking break.
Daevion immediately started struggling to show his discontent after hearing the first term but Ash payed him no heed.
"Have you not realised that your actions are futile? Or do you wi - " Before Ash could complete his sentence Daevion cut him off
"Physical actions might not work but how about this?"
As soon as Daevion finished his sentence he launched a soul attack towards Ash immediately.
Needless to say, Ash was caught off gaurd, he had thought that what he had done was enough to completely immobilise whatever his opponent had up his sleeve and had let his gaurd down. A blunder expected from someone with little to no experience when it comes to fighting against people.
What is a soul battle or attack in this case? A soul is the core, the life essence, of every living thing. From it comes the consciousness of beings. A soul is that which is confers with the indivuality of a being. A soul can be likened to a blank slate, forged, formed, and sculpted by the experiences, ideologies and Dao* of an individual.
All living beings are conscious is one way or another. Animals for example are aware of danger and avoid it, as well as possess the natural fear of the strong. They too have a soul, and when the soul of an animal develops to a certain level they gain intelligence. That is how demon beasts evolve and grow. For cultivators the case is the same. Eventually down the path of cultivation you come upon the soul realm, or the nascent soul stage as some call it. By that time a cultivator has increased his soul strength enough to have the ability to survive without a container, the human body, at the same time that is the stage when cultivators can begin to actively influence the state of their soul, and the souls of others, without external help from artifacts or other methods.
Well what does that have to do with anything? Since the soul is the container of consciousness, taking control of the soul of an individual makes you quite literally own them. Imbuing a slave curse mark on the soul signifies the ultimate form of ownership you can have over another living thing. Just as well, killing the soul of an individual is literally ending their 'life'.
Inspired by that are soul battles and soul specialists and many other forms of combat among the cultivation ranks. A soul attack is sending powerful portions of the soul in an attempt to overpower an adversary.
Unfortunately for Daevion in this case, the soul he was trying to take over was that of a 'god' level individual. Even a portion, is still overwhelming for a mere Qi-king like him.
Upon invading Ash's soul space, Daevion found himself facing... a huge overwhelming, ocean.
He felt he was but a measly sailor
trying to brave the great waves.
Alas, when faced with the waves
his bravery began to cave.
He was fated be this man's slave.
Otherwise he would visit the grave. *
Immediately overpowered, Daevion instantly made the decision to quit his futile attempts and cut his losses. But Ash, although inexperienced when it comes to soul battlles, took this chance -- obviously guided by the system -- to capture the soul portions that Daevion had sent to his soul space, and using that as an entry point he infiltrated Daevion's soul space, beginning his counter attack.
To successfully take over and enslave someone, a slave curse should be placed on the soul. To do that, you have to first overpower the soul, and then gradually imprint and draw the curse mark.
Imprinting the curse mark is a complicated process that has many tiny details that cannot be missed otherwise the curse mark will fail, any interruptions during this processcan either disrupt the entire thing or delay the entire process significantly. Thus it is crucial to make the host soul submit or completly overpower and restrain it to make sure there was no such disruptions during the imprinting of the curse mark.
There were also several ways to get rid of a slave mark. For example, the pre-set conditions are met. Or slowly removing and cleansing the soul of any blemishes without notifying the curse owner. Another method was to consume the Heavenly Milk Pill which cleanses the user of any negative effects. There are also myriad other methods in the vast universe but these were the most commonly known. There was also the obvious relinquish of the curse mark by the owner, abolishing the "slave" status of an individual.
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A/N :
Dao according to my understanding is just the path of martial arts a person follows.
After taking a short break of about 1 week I came back and wrote this poem and completed the chapter in the process. Praise me lol
Also I will now reccomend you guys epic novels to read in your free time as you wait for chapters :
Recommendation of the week : "A regressor's tale of cultivation" (RToC) really epic stuff you can read online, not available on webnovel. Starts out slow but it picks up the pace and the main character has significant character development