"You should thank me for not planting a slave seal in you as well. If I had, you would instinctively call me master whenever you saw me now.
"You should be even more grateful that I didn't refine you into a puppet. Then you would no longer have any consciousness of your own!"
The short-haired young man in black stood in the air, looking at him with an indifferent expression.
"Who... who exactly are you? What do you want? First you seal my cultivation, then you release it.
"My young friend... name your terms. I can satisfy your demands. Anything is negotiable, as long as you let me leave this place."
Once he saw the other man's face clearly, the green-robed elder shuddered again. But feeling his magical power recover gave him a little confidence.
He already knew that this was probably a space the man had refined, and that he could not withstand even a single exchange with him.
Even so, he forced down his fear and began asking questions.
"Young... friend?"
A smile suddenly appeared on the short-haired young man's face. Yet when the green-robed elder saw that smile, an ominous feeling immediately rose within him.
Before he could react or work out what was wrong, he suddenly screamed, clutched his head with both hands, and collapsed to the ground.
"Aaargh... what... what have you... done to me... aaah!!"
Piercing screams poured endlessly from the green-robed elder's mouth. As he rolled on the ground in agony, he frantically circulated all his magical power to resist.
To his despair, however, the excruciating pain seemed to come from the depths of his soul. It was clearly inside his body, yet when he directed his magical defenses toward it, they were no more effective than scratching an itch through a boot.