Snuffing another oil lamp, the Prince of the Wind Celestial Realm came to my spiritual Sea. His entire being seemed to be exuding far more Qi than before, which was good, he was on his way to recover.
"Seeing how you fare right now, I say you'll be able to get yourself out in no time," I said.
"Stop fooling around, not even with my full power can I get out of here, I'll need the help of my father. Those assholes imprisoned me and had definitely not told my father where I was imprisoned." The prince said, his face was fixed in an annoyed scowl.
"Who are they?" I asked.
The prince shook his head, "You don't need to know, actually it would be best if you didn't know. Some people actually can sense when you even think about them, and if I were to impart you with their name, affiliation or origin you'll only bring unwanted attention to you. The only thing you need to know is, they are a terrifying force within the Vast Expanse. Forget about this, Shen Bao, now let's go about the thing you asked me before."
"Yes, more about cultivation, and Domain?" I spoke.
"Yes, Domain, what comes to your mind when you hear the word Domain."
"Property, area of control and subjugation, a place where one holds complete authority," I replied.
"That's a good answer, and in cultivation, one can make their own domain, but they need to understand law first." The prince pondered for a moment and said.
"It would be difficult to try and explain things to you due to your severe lack of understanding of how cultivation work." Zhang Tian said.
He was right, and I wasn't going to refute him, after all, I'm a transmigrator with memories of a civilized and an 'apparently' ordered world with its own rules. In a sense, I have yet to fully integrate with the cultivation world, and in another sense, I actually don't want to. I would like to keep my mindset the same as I had when I was back on earth, at least a good part of it.
"So, since it would be hard to explain it in normal terms, why don't we take it a step further. Imagine law to be the same as the Inscriptions you make to create a formation. And the Domain is the formation itself." Zhang Tian said.
"So far I'm following."
"Good, then if you understand law, as in inscriptions, you can mold it to create an inscription that is your domain."
"Right, that I understand but what does a domain do?"
"Simple, it makes you god." Zhang Tian said. "But it would be best to show you, "Wisdom of the Ages."
Almost immediately, my whole sea of consciousness was filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves that extended from the depth of hell to the height of the heavens. And from within these rows of books, scrolls, and parchments, a man stood tall within them, Zhang Tian, looked like an otherworldly scholar, with an aura of a savant and the demeanor of a saint. He had no disregard nor lofty arrogance to his face, but a serene understanding of nature, yet at the same time pity for those who lack knowledge.
"This is my Domain. It takes upon the theme that is closest to you. And once you trap someone in your own domain, you can use it to break them."
"Impressive and all," I pointed at the books, "I know the Pen is Mightier than the sword and all, but I find it really hard to understand why not go for a full sword arsenal, most these things can do is a paper cut, and since they're really old even that would be a hard task."
"That's what many had thought before they ended up there," the prince said as he pointed behind me.
Looking back, I saw a single shelve, which was by no means small, and underneath it were hundreds upon hundreds of corpses, of men women, old and young all littering the place under that shelve. Where in its midst were hundreds of books.
I used my divine sense and immediately understood what this was.
"781 corpses, 781 books. Are these all domains?" I asked.
"Exactly, for every domain I beat, I can wrench it from its owner and have it added to my own bookshelves, not to mention, I can even use them."
"That's some op shit."
"What is Op?" Zhang Tian asked.
"Oh, overpowered, never mind, damn this is some powerful stuff," I said as I gazed at the bookshelves. There were many domains and each with a different name and symbol.
"As I said, I'm really strong. But still, I'm not omnipotent, I had my share of losses, and some of the most memorable losses were at the hands of beings far too strong then you can believe, and the Poison God was among them. Would you like to see our battle?"
"Of course! I would!"
"Then go and snuff another lamp." Zhang Tian smiled.
"Man, you're a slave driver, alright, I'm on it." I said and woke up from my sea of consciousness.
"HOLD! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?" came the question, rather far too loud for my ears.
"Wow, you almost ripped my eardrums. What are you talking about?" I said.
"You just casually left a "*"'@@//*- realm cultivator's Domain on your own without having a shred of power compared to me, nor understanding of where you were. They say a newborn lamb has no fear, but this is impossible."
"Euh, I just woke up, same as you do when you know you're in a lucid dream."
"Lucid dream? Right, dreams. Yes, that's what mortals experience when they sleep. But that still doesn't explain this. You were in my world, my domain, my territory, and unless I allowed you to leave you shouldn't have left."
"Well, I don't know, but my guess is, as long as I knew that was an illusion, it wasn't affecting me. It was good amazing and frightening, but illusions remain illusions."
"If anyone of my level heard you calling a domain an illusion, they'd throw up blood, but I've become slightly immune to your unusualness. Domains aren't illusions, they are the hard cold truth of the world, they are laws bounded and forced into one's own control and submission, and you just…ignored this fact. This is most intriguing, once I turn to my father's side I'll be sure to experience with this knowledge. Now go, snuff that candle, I still have much to teach you."
I nodded and left the villa. The formations weren't that difficult to handle, just manipulations of inscriptions that I already had prior knowledge of.