Transcending Dreams

B2 - Interlude: Princess Jin III

Princess Jin knew she was going to die. Her body couldnt hold on any longer, not with the endless torture she had to endure.

There had been far too many times when she was close to breaking, revealing the exact details of what happened in the Shard. Anything to have a reprieve from the endless pain, even if it was only temporary. It was only the memory of Empress Sophia that stopped her.

A flash of lightning blinded the land, leaving the afterimage of an icy blue bolt connecting the dark, stormy sky to Princess Jins mangled body.

She clenched her jaw tightly to avoid screaming. Her vocal cords were already shredded, and there was no need to make it worse.

Jiner, your brother has returned, a voice boomed from afar.

Princess Jin whimpered in fear when the sky thundered as if warning against anyone interfering. There had been a few times in the past month when help was essential. Without it, her body would have failed, and the heavenly punishment would have succeeded in destroying her soul.

The anger the heavens showed after a helping hand was devastating. The bolts that ripped through her body eroded her will to endure, her sanity slipping with every punishing strike until it took her to the very edge before pulling back.

It was as if the heavens were sadistic, doing just enough to torture her while also making sure she wasnt completely broken.

Princess Jin regretted ever having the opportunity to take the Golden Heart. She hated Wei Liang for letting her have it instead of being selfish and taking it for himself. She despised her grandfather for telling her to go with them, causing her to get dragged into the Shard. She loathed the heavens for what she had been through over the past month.

The sky rumbled menacingly as if it knew what she was thinking. Princess Jin shivered and crushed all of her thoughts before emptying her mind. She knew that she was incapable of thinking about anything but hate at the moment.

Jiner!

Princess Jin glared at the old man in the distance, preferring him to shut his mouth before the heavens gave her a harsher punishment.

She didnt know where she was taken to go through this heavenly punishment, but there was nothing but flat plains as far as the eye could see. Of course, this was without considering the scorched, gouged, and hellish ground that surrounded her.

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Over ten miles on all sides of pure destruction, with her as the lonely figure in the center.

Your brother has returned! He has news from the Jade Healing Sect!

Princess Jin let out a choked gasp when the air stilled, the pressure rising to a level that felt like it would crush her bones into dust. She ignored her grandfather and looked up, trembling at the coiling yellow lightning traveling through the clouds, converging to a single spot.

Right above her.

This was the end. In multiple ways. She had gone through the nine waves of heavenly punishment, the most powerful a cultivator could experience. It terrified her when the waves never seemed to stop, but she could hear the onlookers chattering excitedly in the distance.

It would be a boon to the imperial family if they gained a cultivator that survived nine waves of heavenly tribulation, let alone nine waves of heavenly punishment.

In a tribulation, the heavens gave the cultivator a chance to survive while also purifying the body, readying it for possible ascension in the future.

That was not so in a heavenly punishment. While all the benefits still applied, the heavens only had one goal by the end. Erase all traces of the cultivators existence for offending it so.

Bloody tears dripped down Princess Jins face as she stared at her end. She instinctively knew there was no chance for her to survive this.

The only reason she had lasted so far was the help of the Jade Healing Sects Grand Elder. He had disappeared after the eighth wave, too injured to be of any more help.

Sister Jin! I have a gift for you!

Princess Jin looked away from the increasingly vicious lightning coils to see an unfamiliar man standing beside her grandfather. She had one brother, and that was the wastrel Prince Yuan.

This man was not him.

Catch!

She eyed the small box thrown toward her, extremely aware that the flashes of light above her increased in intensity by a magnitude. This must be the last help she would get before the world above collapsed on her.

Take the pill, Sister Jin!

Princess Jin knew she had no time to question anything. Even if this pill was useless or harmful, it would make no difference in the end result.

She reached a shaking hand out, unfazed at her blood-soaked arm, and picked the box off the ground. She opened it and barely saw the pill before swallowing it and looking up, expecting the worst.

Some yellow coils of lightning were on the edges of the dark sky, still making their way to the center. She hoped that meant she had a few seconds to process the pill she had taken.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Taking the pill triggered the anger of the heavens.

The flash of lightning blinded Princess Jin, immediately followed by a level of pain she never knew existed.

She could feel the immeasurable anger the heavens had toward her. To challenge its authority, to dare to use something originating from one that had already defied its will, to seek a way out of the rules it set on the world.

Princess Jin opened her mouth in a silent scream as the heavenly lightning burned her flesh and pulverized her bones. It tried to erase her soul, but something protected it. Weak, but just enough to stop it from succeeding.

She writhed in pain when the lightning redirected all of its focus on her mind. If it couldnt destroy her soul, it decided that tearing apart her mind would be a close substitute.

Princess Jin tried to keep ahold of her identity, her memories. She didnt know if she was successful since her body finally shut down.

She welcomed the comfortable dark.