Chapter 4: The Old Man (Part 2)

Soon, both Jason and the old man disappeared from the house. The house became quiet and slowly went back to the city and stood at its original place as if nothing had ever happened.

As the old man uttered the incantation, Jason could feel his surroundings becoming dark. Even though he had his eyes wide open, he could not see anything.

After the formation of the white soul shield around his soul, the pain had substantially reduced. Jason could now focus on other things. But as he could see nothing, he decided to talk to the old man.

"Old man. Who are you? Where are we going? How long will it be before I can start cultivating? I promise you that you won't be disappointed with my performance. Once we leave, can we come back to this world? I need to take revenge on certain people. Hehehe. Fat-face, just you wait for this granddaddy to come back. I promise my torture will be at least one hundred times more painful than what you did to me. At least. Hehehe"

Jason simply could not contain his excitement and kept on rambling. For him, his entire dreams were about to come true. All the torture he had to endure to date, all the struggles he had to go through, everything had come to an end. This was the start of a new road, a road that led to greatness.

"Patience, boy." The old man just said these two words in his calm voice, before turning quiet again.

"Humph, forget it. It is not like I am dying to know anything." cried Jason as he struck out his tongue.

Seeing that the old man had no reaction, Jason decided to ignore him completely. He decided to focus his mind on the black skull tattoo.

'Ahhh, that really hurt. I knew that the path of cultivation is supposed to be painful. But would it hurt to let me know about it in advance so that I can prepare myself? Also, didn't this old man say something about medicinal baths? Why did he not take me to that miraculous bath directly? At least I wouldn't have had to suffer from all the pain I went through. Is it because they are expensive?' thought Jason

'Humph. Just you wait, stingy old man. Once I start my cultivation, I will definitely have my revenge. Let us see how you continue to remain stingy at that time. Hehehe'

But deep down in his mind, he had a very uneasy feeling about something. He tried to describe that feeling, but could not find the words to. There were many things that he was unable to understand and did not make any sense to him.

But there was one particular thing that was constantly eating at him with great urgency.

'Why did the black skull tattoo feel so… so fundamentally Evil?'

'Hmm, the boy is already suspicious of me and the mark of the Skull Lord. Even though he looks and acts like a shameless brat, he is quite perceptive and cunning. I have to be careful so as to not ruin any of my plans.' The old man thought as he saw the look on Jason's face.

Unlike the old man, Jason could not see anything. When he realized that he could not understand anything, he cried out in frustration.

"Old man. Are you not my teacher? Am I not your disciple? Why don't you teach me something? Do you want your disciple to be a weakling in the cultivation world? Won't that bring shame to your face? As a righteous disciple, how can I bring shame to my master?"

In reality, the old man was a corrupted demonic practitioner who served as the liaison to the ancient Skull Lord. He couldn't care less about Jason, as his only objective was to bring the boy to the Skull Lord's temple to enable the Skull Lord to devour his soul and the magnificent soul energy contained within it. In case the mark would have taken over Jason's soul in the first place, he wouldn't have had to go through all this ordeal.

But now, it seemed that a change of plans was necessary.

"My boy, stop being so impatient. I, as your master, will definitely not treat you shabbily. Since there is still some time left before we reach our world, I will start teaching you some very basics of how the cultivation works in reality"

"Ah, old man! Finally, you are willing to teach me. Don't worry your disciple is listening with utmost attention" exclaimed Jason when he heard the old man finally open his mouth.

"Stop calling me old man. Do you not know that in the cultivation world, you need to respect your master?" said the old man with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Master, O great master. Forgive this disciple's blunder. Please accept my kowtow. From today on, we shall share a bond of master and disciple for all eternity" exclaimed Jason as he prepared to kowtow.

But then a strange thing happened. No matter how much he tried to bend his head down, it did not happen. It was as if something was preventing him from bending forward and had locked his back and neck in place. Jason found it very strange, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't budge an inch.

The old man who could clearly see Jason's actions sneered in his mind. 'You don't even want to kowtow properly and expect to learn from me? You think just because you can't see me, I can't see you as well? Bah! Forget it. It is not like I really am your master or anything. I will just consider whatever I speak as a trade-off for your soul. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use any of my teachings in practice.'

"Master, what is your name?" suddenly Jason asked, pulling the old man out of his thoughts.