Path of the Ascendant

By the late evening, after some hasty scrounging of supplies and a lot of work, mostly done by the servants, they were finally ready to set out. The elder, who did not move from the rooftop this entire time, reappeared with a red face, as if he truly had gone out drinking, temporarily confusing Yi Wei until she saw hints of him using one of the techniques she had previously learned.

“You all done?” he asked, wobbling slightly on the spot. Whatever this man’s genuine character was, his acting was completely impeccable.

“We’re done, elder,” Yi Jiazhi said, “We have a month’s worth of supplies, and Yi Ping has confirmed that there is a large population of edible planar beasts and fruits, so there should be enough for us to complete the exploration task.”

The elder nodded, “Good. Then, go.”

With no further ceremony, he swayed to the side and walked off, not caring about the people behind him.

“Everyone, let us move. Whoever locates the hidden grounds, or some other treasure, will be allowed first pick of whatever is in there,” after recovering from the elder’s confusing actions, Yi Jiazhi turned to the group, “Even if you are a servant, though, at that point, I expect that your original master would want a look at the things you earn. Now, servants, Yi Wei, take a bag of supplies each. Once we reach the outer border of the district, we will take a rest, so it shouldn’t be much effort for you.”

‘He’s still singling me out for some reason,’ Yi Wei frowned, taking the bag nearest to her, ‘Perhaps he has some untoward intention toward me? I’ll need to watch out for any suspicious behaviour from him.’

Long, long ago, Yi City sprawled across the vast majority of the continent. Across all of human history, it was the largest settlement to ever exist under the defence of a single person. Thus, it was, without a doubt, the only territory to qualify as a megacity – though it was closer to a vast empire.

Under the Master of Yi City’s protection, the settlements, kingdoms, empires and other territories outside of the city still remained, but were utterly miniscule in comparison, and were effectively controlled by the authorities within Yi City. They provided their resources for the lowest prices possible, and if the Master of Yi City decided that some part of their territory was needed for his city, they had no choice but to give it up. If they tarried, all the Master of Yi City had to do was rescind his protection over their lands and the powerful monsters he opposed would destroy them in minutes.

At that point, Yi City could simply expand to their territory and take whatever they wanted.

Things changed once the most powerful forces in the world disappeared. At first, all outside forces waited to confirm that they were truly gone, but once there were no signs of their return, they began to act.

At first, they began to press various claims, both legitimate and otherwise. Certain requests were granted very quickly, as they were convenient to the city’s administration, but with each claim that was accepted, a dozen more sprouted up as the other nations gained more and more confidence. They became more and more brazen, and one small empire even had the gall to demand all of the city’s territory in one go.

That made the city’s leaders refuse any further demands on their territory, but it did not dissuade the other forces.

Instead of taking the city outright, they came up with a new plan. They began to raise prices on their exports, pay less for any of the city’s imports, and generally create problems for the city. Then, they waited.

At first, Yi City did not suffer, for they used a spatial treasure to store vast quantities of supplies and were able to ignore the raised prices, purchasing less and instead consuming what they already had. According to the tales of the past, that treasure was able to freeze time itself, thus holding any perishable items placed within without any deterioration whatsoever.

Naturally, these supplies did not last forever, and the internal troubles of Yi City did not help matters.

In between every district, and in some portions of certain districts, there were gardens, parks and small groves where various planar beasts and herbs were reared and planted, as there was no other reasonable use for such a vast area of space, and due to the usefulness of having a method of production for food within the city. They were originally kept in check by the Master of Yi City – who, in hindsight, likely had more involvement in every matter of Yi City than he really should have had – but after he was gone and attention had to be diverted from them to other areas of the city, the beasts there bred and grew until they could no longer be restrained by the people responsible for them.

When combined with a number of those gardens intentionally being allowed to grow to be able to provide more food to the city, the city’s internal groves slowly spread out like a web, consuming areas of the city on the inside while the empires on the outside did the same to the borders of Yi City.

Initially, there were large highways connecting each city district, lined with large quantities of houses and markets to service various travellers, but they were the first to be claimed by the growing woods, making travel between districts significantly more difficult once the planar beasts settled in. Thus, the minor districts on the border were forced to return to the territories outside the city and accept their nonsensical prices and demands, and just a few generations later, they either became independent of the city or joined those outer territories.

‘And now, after a lot more decay, we might be traveling through a place that was once one of the biggest markets in the entire Yi District,’ Yi Wei sighed as she lowered the bag from her back onto the grass. They had travelled for a few hours alongside the other teams and found a good, open place to settle down, with the lights from the Yi District still in sight at the horizon.

One of the servants practising fire-type techniques ignited a bonfire in the middle, while the rest set up tents.

Most of them looked exhausted, each of them having carried enough items for ten people, save for Yi Wei, who had more than enough strength for it even with the added pressure from her training weights. To not stand out too much, she faked a tired look and found a place to rest after setting up her tents.

Unfortunately, she had no opportunities to break away from the group, nor the five other teams currently surrounding them, so she could only continue her practise of the Kong Mental Arts. The group leader came to her again, speaking about various insignificant matters, but he left quickly despite having said nothing of substance. She had almost wondered whether he was attempting to affect her with an offensive mental technique but found no trace of it within her psyche.

‘How strange. I do not understand his motives, but I can’t let down my guard just yet.’

She leant back, resting on the tree bark behind her, and looked up into the sky. The large, rising moon shone back at her, covering the campsite in its ethereal yin light.

“Hey, Yi Wei, right?”

In response, she turned around and saw a woman that was also dressed in the pure red robes of a servant. She was blond, her hair reaching to the lower half of her back, with dark brown eyes, as well as extremely sharp features that made her look much angrier than she presumably was.

“That’s me. What can I do for you?”

“Watch out for that dickhead, alright? He’s got a bad rep in the district,” she said, her voice being just as stern as her appearance, “That Yi Jiazhi’s charmed a dozen of us servants ‘fore tossing them away. The worst thing’s that some then got picked up by that witch, Yi Taizhi, and then they disappeared completely. Oh, I’m Yi Bai. Nice to meet you.”

“Good to know… all of that. Thank you for warning me. Do you know how he manages it – is it his so-called natural charm, or is he using some technique?”

She spat at the mention of natural charm, “Fuck no, he can’t charm a blind and deaf girl, not to mention someone that is mildly healthy. I haven’t experienced it – he’s no M, apparently – but it ought to be some sort of bullshit charm skill.”

“Noted, but, well, what’s an ‘M’?”

“He ain’t a masochist, apparently. Don’t know what my appearance has to do with that, but screw that jerk anyway,” Yi Bai explained, turning around on the spot, “Anyway, later.”

“Huh,” was all that she managed to say as the stern-looking woman walked away without another word, leaving Yi Wei to ponder matters for herself, ‘So, it wasn’t just me that found that man suspicious. However, no matter how much someone may find him suspicious, if he doesn’t actually target me with his techniques, I don’t have any reason to avoid that man. In addition, it would be detrimental if this… relationship… can deliver me a number of boons and I break it due to one accusation.

‘I suppose the best solution would be to wait. As soon as I spot something, anything, I can make sure to distance myself, or, if I am able to catch the man on my own and he confronts me, then I can try to deal with him… I am unlikely to beat him, but if this takes a while, I might break through a few stages…’

Yi Wei sighed, and leaned back.

She wasn’t entirely happy with someone attempting to control the minds of others, but she knew better than to just barge into whatever was happening and cause more issues down the line.

Night descended, and the last few watchers headed to sleep after setting up a defensive formation array. On the other hand, Yi Wei got up, confirmed the exact function of the array and escaped from it, running to a location with no sight of the camps before digging out a small pit via earth techniques, where she ducked down.

‘Cultivators do not need to sleep as much as regular people, and assuming that most people haven’t spent as many nights practising things as I have, or do not have a technique to limit their necessary resting time, the ones at the second realm should only need six hours, and the likes of Yi Jiazhi will need five. Since they did not all go to sleep at the same time, and some might awake in the middle of the night, I do not expect to have any more than three hours for this. In that time, I need to get as close as possible to creating an entirely new technique with no particular influence or inspiration to draw upon…’ she thought while she calmed her mind, ‘Good. Challenges are meant to be good for one’s growth and progress…’

Yi Wei could not use the lightning of the Storm Blade Wreathing nor the gold and violet colours it created. In theory, the simplest method to obscure her true identity would be by portraying the opposite of Da Gang, as it would be unreasonable for anyone to practise both sides of the coin simultaneously. As a result, when his energy was substantive and shaped, she could use something shapeless and illusory, replace something hard with soft, yang with yin and yin with yang…

‘But what in the heavens is opposite to lightning – or, at the very least, something significantly different from it? What do I-’

In her eyes, a dull orange glow rose, almost as if it was heading over some unseen horizon. Soft beams of light emitted from it, washing over the entire forest as it slowly ascended to completely occupy her silver pupils. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the light slowly faded, but not before an old light within her reignited, and the seed for her techniques was set.

‘That’s right, I had the image of a sunrise in my head some time ago, but I nearly forgot about it… That could work very well, couldn’t it? My lightning is targeted, except for all the time that it supposedly gains free will and creates a massive storm, but sunlight is formless and global, hitting everyone who does not hide themselves in the shade. The general colour scheme is a little similar, but that often happens when there are five elements for people to chase, not including their combinations. Both are also technically yang, though most do not consider that particular aspect of techniques particularly important. With that… moment of inspiration, I suppose… I even have a few ideas for the offensive methods, so I should see if I can come up with something before the sun actually rises.’

She gathered her knowledge of the more shapeless skills at her disposal, considering their benefits and negatives while attempting to understand which part of the technique created that particular effect…

Crack!

Yi Wei snapped her head in the direction of the sound, finding the silhouette of a woman emerging from behind a tree.

“Who are- Yi Wei? What’re you doin’ there?”

“Oh, Yi Bai, you… you scared me,” she recognised the voice and let out a fake breath of relief, “I was just resting here, away from the camp. Why?”

“Did’ya see that light? What caused it?”

‘Eh? What are you… she also saw that sunlight? I thought I had just imagined it… If this happens every time I practise, I will have a lot more to worry about,’ Yi Wei thought, briefly considering a reasonable reply, “I’m afraid I don’t really know.”

In situations like this, it was best to do as little as possible to answer the actual question, just in case that it was a trick question. After all, if Yi Wei had been up to suspicious and Yi Bai decided to test that via asking about something that didn’t even happen, answering in the positive would surely make her look all the more suspicious. On the other hand, if no such motive is present, then the most trouble answering so vaguely would cause would simply be a temporary misunderstanding between her and the other servant.

“Tch. I was hoping that it’d be something interesting,” Yi Bai shook her head subtly, “How did’ya know that the array wouldn’t catch you if you went out?”

“That…” to further distance herself from Da Gang, Yi Wei would have loved to claim that she had no understanding of formation arrays whatsoever, but she had unfortunately gotten to participate in this mission due to some knowledge of them, so she had to give a partial truth, “I happen to know a few things. Although I can’t identify the exact array, I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t do anything. Even if it did, all I’d have to do was explain myself.”

“You’re hopeful, aren’t you… Let’s get back before anyone else wakes up.”

Yi Wei nodded, so the two of them returned to their previous resting places.

“… Potential disruptive elements – two. One allegiance confirmed, second is unaccounted for. Cover is maintained. Further investigation will continue. Mission safety currently ensured.

Memory, seal.”

On the next day, after travelling for the majority of the sunlit hours, they settled down for camp once again, but it was much more difficult to sneak out unnoticed. Yi Bai was not the only person who saw the false sunlight, and thus Yi Jiazhi’s group voted to have a few people keep watch in addition to the sensory array.

Fortunately, Yi Wei had the stealth skills from the Deadly Martial Colosseum, allowing her to slip away under their observation.

She found a small hollow beneath a large tree and settled down there, shutting her eyes to minimize the risks of creating more sunlight by accident. While keeping some of her attention on her hearing, she applied the rest to generating the basic concept for one of her sun-based techniques.

Her intention was to create the basic circulation path for an offensive skill that could be used in a variety of situations, and then refine it in actual combat under the guise of having had some sudden inspiration after reading some old book back in the Yi District. It would be a somewhat suspicious story, obviously, but it would make it seem that the technique is somewhere out there, perhaps even in its complete form, and would dissuade most from coming after her for it, especially if she intentionally displays some obvious flaws in her development process.

Regardless of whether those faults are real or not, she could later solve them once the technique is complete or keep displaying them until she needs something to turn the tide of a difficult fight.

Due to the power of Elysian Palm, the first technique that spontaneously generated within her mind, Yi Wei was attempting to create as much of the dawn technique herself, without relying on the techniques she already had for anything more than inspiration and guidance, which made the likelihood of running into a number of such flaws rise significantly. After all, she had only been tampering with techniques like this for one and a half months at most. She had a long way to go to become a master.

‘If I add the method of execution from the Cherry Blossom Strike, or perhaps adapt it to forgo movement completely, which could allow me stand in some respectable fashion while fighting off hordes with beams of dawn light,’ she imagined, shifting her work in that direction.

Having the ability to use a skill without movement could function as an additional trump card, since it could still be used alongside some specific action to create a mistaken impression of the technique, eventually using this misunderstanding to take advantage of someone who believes that they understand her style of combat.

She put together a rough version of the skill she came up and attempted to use it.

‘No, that’s not it. I can’t complete this technique unless I make use of a particular element, since cosmic energy cannot be shown, and I can’t use fire without raising some questions…’

There seemed to be a good option already available to her, but she could not think of it before she heard the subtle sounds of movement from the camp and had to retreat to the servant’s tent.

Contrary to her expectations, the person that woke up headed straight for the same tent, raising the flap to reveal his identity as the team’s leader, who looked around the inside of the tent before his eyes locked onto her figure.

“Yi Wei, could you step out for a moment?”

She raised an eyebrow at this, but followed his instruction, as she couldn’t think of anything he could possibly do to her in the middle of a camp with sentries within a few metres of them.

“Can I help you?”

“Hey, we’ve known each other for some time, haven’t we? Let’s talk a little more casually, why don’t we?” he suggested, “Also, I’m thinking about setting up practise sessions every evening starting from tomorrow. If you’d like me to, I could personally train you and help you out with a few things, instead of letting some other guy beat you up.”

‘Now even he’s doing this? I suppose there’s no harm in it, as it will both give me the opportunity to start displaying the dawn abilities, but also help me figure out whether he intends to attack me,’ she decided, “Sure.”

“…” his lip twitched, but he quickly corrected his expression while faking a cough, “Alright then, see you later.”

Yi Jiazhi turned around and departed, leaving Yi Wei to settle back down in her bed.

‘What a strange person. Why does he keep having these brief conversations with me? I recall Yi Bai mentioning the fact that he has charmed a number of servants, but… I wouldn’t describe any of that as particularly charming. Am I missing something?’ she wondered but could not figure out anything. To distract herself or accidentally figure out in a more relaxed condition, Yi Wei reached into her pouch and took out the various items given to her by Chu Ling.

They were medicines of a one-star grade and could be affected by her cosmic energy in the same manner as any pill, vastly accelerating the rate at which their effects occur while also increasing the overall effect significantly. Since the breakthrough to the false Planar Pool realm, her planar energy had somewhat increased in its effectiveness, multiplying the power of any pill twice as much as it did before, though the duration also decreased slightly, causing the overall effect to only be 1.75 times as great as before.

Nevertheless, that was still much greater than the base product, and allowed her to apply the various creams and balms more frequently while also extracting far more effect from them. She did not have any access to mirrors or sufficiently stagnant pools of water, so she could not tell how much of an effect they had on her just yet, though she had noticed that a few of the gazes occasionally drifting over her lingered a little longer than when they first came together as a group. Since that could easily be chalked up to any other number of causes, like some rumours spreading regarding her proximity to the strange sunlight, she did not want to judge the final effect until she could view it for herself.

Once she was done with it all – it still took a lot of work for her to remember and correctly use all of the things given to her by her pill refining teacher – she lay back down on her bed, and shut her eyes while practising her mental techniques to rest and repair her mind.

The next day, their group stopped earlier than before, clearing out a number of trees to have enough space for everyone to stand several metres apart from one another.

Yi Jiazhi ordered them all to arrange themselves in a simple formation before speaking, “Everybody, we are approaching the area containing the hidden grounds, and there is a high chance of the area containing a much larger quantity of hostile planar beasts. We need to be prepared to combat them, so we will train. Those of similar combat strengths, spar with one another, and try to share as many issues with your opponent’s combat techniques as possible, and familiarise yourself with them. When we fight beasts together, this can mean the difference between life and death.”

Everyone quickly looked to someone else in the group, including Yi Bai, who glanced to Yi Wei. However, the latter was quickly approached by Yi Jiazhi, who bowed to her while looking at the other servant. Yi Bai frowned, but after Yi Wei confirmed that she was fine, she reluctantly found another sparring partner.

“So, we speak again, Lady Wei. If you do not mind my enquiry, which weapon do you specialise in? Are you proficient in the sword, fighting with great fluidity, or do you use the saber to slash down your foes-”

“I use my fists. You?”

“… My preference is the guandao, but I am also proficient with unarmed combat. To make things easier, I’ll also fight without a weapon,” he said, removing a long, bladeless black rod from his back before tossing it to the ground somewhat unceremoniously, “Throw any technique you like at me. I’ll show you how to break it.”

He stood in a relaxed pose, waiting for her to act, but she was first more interested in the item on the ground. Apart from the material it was made from, it looked mostly inconspicuous, but with the combination of her spiritual will and natural senses, she was able to determine its true nature.

‘A middle-grade artefact. If his preferred weapon is a guandao, then this item must be capable of condensing the blade from the user’s planar energy… Solidified planar energy at the third realm…’

Unfortunately, she had no use for it, as her cosmic energy would obliterate it in moments if she attempted to use it, so she turned her attention back to the imminent sparring match. As far as she could tell, the man before her had no bad intentions, having thrown away an item that would have been incredibly helpful in killing her, or at the very least surprising her, so she decided to treat this as an opportunity to hone her dawn skill, tentatively named ‘Dawn Flowing Light’. In theory, it should be capable of generating waves of sunlight that would flow onto her opponent and burn them while they are within the light, but it currently lacked a critical element in the form of an appropriate element. Metal did not exactly match sunlight, nor did water, although it could be argued that both reflect light in their typical form.

However, she did not want to simply collect and reflect light… although that could also be an effective method on a particularly bright day… she wanted to have her own light. To create her own dawn, regardless of the true sun’s place.

“Then, I’ll begin,” she said, taking the initial stance of the Cherry Blossom Strike.

Immediately after, she launched herself forward, clearing the gap between them in seconds. She thrust one palm forward, causing a small cloud of petals to burst from her hand and into the direction of the man’s heart. Before those cherry petals flew any further, she stopped abruptly and spun on the spot, sending a kick at his head.

She limited herself to moving more quickly than the average first stage cultivator in the second realm, but that was still slower than an expert in the third realm. With a single step to the side, Yi Jiazhi moved four metres and evaded both attacks, before throwing a single punch.

It wasn’t strong- no, rather, it was weak, incredibly so, but she knew that it was directed at one of her weaknesses, at one point where a true attack could easily harm her.

‘However, the thing that interests me more than my own faults is the energy within his attack. It is weak, passive, but there’s something odd about it. Without taking it on directly, I can only figure it out by letting as much of it pass near me as possible,’ she determined, though she naturally also corrected the stance she was in to prevent that flaw from being exploited in the future. She lowered her posture and sent another cherry petal attack at his leg before pre-emptively dashing backwards.

Once again, he was able to reply with a weak strike of his own, time and time again, as if she posed no threat to him at all. However, although every attack of his contained the same quantity and type of energy as the first, it was clear that he was slowly being forced to take the match seriously.

At first, he barely had to focus on her movements, but as she showered him with all sorts of combinations of attacks pulled from her own imagination and the memories of the Thunder Lord, correcting various flaws as she went along, sweat began to appear on his forehead, and some of her attacks nearly hit his body. Of course, no matter how many times she struck him, he wouldn’t suffer a little bit unless she brought out her full strength, perhaps only if she channelled her planar energy to maximise her power, but it was still surprising for someone to be able to touch an opponent while using no techniques for the second realm beside the Cherry Blossom Strike.

After several minutes, she was finally able to understand the nature of technique he used.

‘It seems that it is indeed a charming skill of some sort, being used in place of a true combat technique as to avoid harming me, or perhaps to influence me with it. However, as I have made sure to not get hit by these projectiles of energy, I do not know what their primary intention is. Letting one hit me seems irresponsible, but… If I prepare with the Kong Mental Arts, I can isolate it the moment it tries doing something,’ Yi Wei thought, and pretended to stumble on the on uneven ground.

A bolt of transparent energy impacted onto her breast, dissipating into her body. Some flowed to her heart, while the rest went to her head.

She carefully watched for any effect, but, after it hovered around in her consciousness for a few moments, it broke apart and scattered without any effect, without even gaining the attention of the mysterious characters.

‘Well, that’s not helpful in the slightest. I’ll split this energy away, just in case, but it is surprisingly ineffective. Was he genuinely attempting not to hurt me or am I somehow oblivious to the intended effects of this skill?’ she struggled to understand, so she decided to follow the standard method of putting things off for her future self and focusing on the matters at hand.

For now, she had to devise a method of using the Dawn Flowing Light without elemental energy, and to end the sparring session without beating up her opponent too badly, but also preferably without getting beat up too much herself.

‘Wait… I’m an idiot, aren’t I? Sunlight is considered to be one of the purest forms of yang, and what do I have flowing through my secondary meridians? Thank you, Yi Jiazhi, for helping me realise this, albeit very indirectly and unintentionally,’ she gave silent thanks to her opponent while also reprimanding and reminding herself, ‘The Kong Mental Arts are extremely useful, naturally, but what I need the most is some method of properly organising and going through my thoughts and memories, or else my potential maximum mental speed won’t do me any good no matter how much I use it.’

Her current attack stopped mid-way as she recoiled, drawing one foot and hand back. The yang within her body surged, bursting along a rough path designed just a second prior, then exploded outward.

A dim yet striking light appeared within her palm, growing outward steadily as it almost appeared to flow out akin to a flooding river. It stormed toward Yi Jiazhi, the orange sunlight growing brighter and brighter with every second as burnt all of the plants and leaves in the vicinity, growing large enough to completely engulf him.

All of a sudden, the middle-grade guandao that should have been on the floor appeared in his hand, a blade made of magma appearing atop it. He spun it around and, at the last moment, struck the wave of light, causing it to split apart and fly past him harmlessly, naturally dispersing after a while.

For a few seconds, they stood in place, neither daring to make a move against the other.

“Sorry for using a weapon despite our agreement. I was a little… shocked by your last technique and reacted instinctively.”

“Right.”

“…” his lips twitched twice, and he took a deep breath to calm himself – though Yi Wei couldn’t determine what she could have said to provoke such a reaction, “Should we resume without… whatever that skill was?”

“Yes, we should. I didn’t even intend to do such a thing, but it sort of… occurred.”

His thoughts were practically written on his face, ‘Sort of… occurred? What do you mean? Since when someone can accidentally create a sun in their hand?’

Two days later, they arrived at the top of a large valley that stretched out for dozens of kilometres, housing an enormous lake, enormous trees that stretched half-way up the valley’s mile-high walls, and even a chasm slicing it in half.

All six groups found their way there at different times, but all of them turned to the servants amongst them and ordered them to cut down trees and construct ladders for them to descend with. It took four long days of work before the first enormous ladder was complete and lowered down onto an outcropping some way down the mountain’s edge, followed by a few more, smaller, ladders to complete their descent.

The day after that, Yi Wei and the rest of her group also began their descent, relying on footholds carved out within the valley wall by an expert specialising in earth cultivation. When they got to a spot of hard rock, the ladder was used to clear the rest of the way. Soon after that, the rest of the travelling parties followed them, and by the seventh day, they were all on the valley floor.

Their accompanying elder descended in some unseen manner and gathered them up again.

“So, we’re here. This is the valley where the hidden grounds might be located. We’re not going anywhere until we’ve either found them, or until I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that there are no hidden grounds here. Since that could take years, you better be fast. Now, scatter.”

Without any further words, he turned around and vanished, reappearing near the lakeside where he created an opaque wall around himself and a part of the lake.

“Why are there two people that are so difficult to speak to around here?” Yi Jiazhi muttered to himself before he turned to his group, “Alright, everyone, you heard the man… whatever his name is… we are going to be searching the valley for the hidden grounds. They may be in some forest, in a cave, that lake, or somewhere else entirely, and we have to find it first! In order to make the best use of our time, let us figure out how we’re going to be doing this. Does anyone have any particularly bright ideas, or may I lead us to glory?”

“It would probably be most efficient to split up,” Yi Wei offered, causing her to receive an angry glare.

“Ugh… Alright, Yi Wei, tell me, why should we split up?”

“Because it would allow us to cover the most space in the shortest period of time. If we all walk in a large group, then unless we happen to stumble upon the grounds by sheer luck – which, considering the words of the elder and how it might take years to be sure of things, seems unlikely – we won’t be able to cover much ground, but if we all walk on our own, or in small groups of twos or threes, then the chances of someone finding them will increase significantly. If we then meet up every few days, like once a week, for example, then we will be able to share our discoveries with one another. Additionally, if someone doesn’t show up, we will know that they are either facing some difficulties, or have found something of note. Then, if we decide before splitting up where everyone will go, then we can go straight to them and see which fate they have met with.”

“Holy shit… how come you’ve never spoken this much to me before? I’ve been trying to chat with you every single day, but…”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, nothing, never mind…” Yi Jiazhi coughed several times, “I’ll admit, planning is not my strength – my strength is my strength, so strategy isn’t too valuable – but it sounds to me like you’re trying to give yourself the opportunity to steal from the grounds once you find them.”

“You’re not wrong about your strength, then. How do you suppose I’ll be able to steal anything? Regardless of what is in the hidden grounds, I cannot possibly take it away. Let’s start with pills. They are small, admittedly, but any more than a couple will stand out in these robes. I also cannot consume them all, since I have no method of quickly digesting them – in fact, I do not think any of us do, nor do we have any spatial storage methods, correct?”

As expected, everyone shook their heads. Even if someone did have access to a storage artefact, they would not have brought it with them, as it would be under the control of their parents or some other superior or it would have been far too risky to carry it in such a dangerous area.

If someone did have such a thing on them, they would never reveal it, but as only one of them was a middle-class member of the family, they would not have access to a space compressing item, not to mention complete spatial storage. Space compression was the more modern variation of spatial storage, as it was much easier to create and far less expensive, requiring as little as a tenth of the material, but it was also significantly more limited in its uses, as it could only allow for the shrinking of items, not complete removal from reality and placement into a storage space.

“The same extends to weapons and artefacts. Any one of us could probably sneak one or two of them, depending on their size, somewhere under our robes or in our bags, but that would be the items we are already entitled to receive if we find the hidden grounds first. The same applies to any inscribed items, and if we find some formation arrays, then I think we should personally congratulate anyone who manages to take even one of those with them without it being noticed. If the treasure is instead some sort of ritual or one-time-use item, then it is bound to take enough time to be used for the rest of the group to notice and then locate the entry to the hidden grounds before it is too late.”

Yi Jiazhi frowned, and one could almost hear the gears in his head turning, albeit incredibly slowly.

By the time the average person had the opportunity to reconsider the matter half a dozen times, he finally came to a conclusion.

“That might work. However, we need to decide whether it is best to separate into single groups, pairs, triplets or fours… no, fours wouldn’t work, that wouldn’t be enough… as well as how frequently we’ll meet up with one another. Fairy Wei-”

“I am Yi Wei. I have no connection to any fairies, regardless of the type… also, I am not among the Sensual Fairies, more commonly known as prostitutes.”

“I-” he was stunned at how difficult she was to speak with. He was just attempting to speak to her politely, having noticed her growing beauty as of late, but in spite of his attempts to speak with her regularly and form a sort of friendly relationship with her, she just wouldn’t work with him, “Then, Yi Wei, you were proposing a weekly meetup, weren’t you?”

“It should give enough time us to explore the area, but also enough time to return if there are any complications. As for the quantity of people in each group, I would suggest no more than two. If we go into dangerous areas in large groups and everyone perishes, it could significantly endanger our chances of success. If a party of two is in danger, one can run for help while the other delays the enemy, and it would limit the attention we get from wild planar beasts, which tend to pay more attention to larger groups due to the higher risk they pose.”

She didn’t actually care too much about the things she was saying, as her real intention was to hang onto the slightest chance possible of getting into the hidden grounds alone with as small a group as possible, before eating up any planar medicines and pills and breaking through to rapidly absorb them.

“Hey, why are we listening to some servant? What does she know about matters?” a random person asked.

Yi Wei sighed, “Then why don’t you just vote? I’m sure you can decide on something like this just by raising your hands, so, if you’re for having one person groups, vote now.”

The group shared a look with one another, then the vast majority of them raised their hands. Quite clearly, Yi Wei was not the only one who had the hopes of discovering whatever inheritance hid in the area and taking as much as possible for themselves. Walking on your own would naturally be far more dangerous, but if there was something to find, then they would be the only ones to find it.

“Very well then, each man shall go on his own. We’ll discuss the rough direction all of us will go in, or the landmark we wish to explore, and then we will meet back up a week later,” Yi Jiazhi said, “Let’s decide on that now.”