The second day in the jungle passed much like the first, save that no beasts managed to penetrate Meirong's stealth technique. She led the way, picking out a path and then hacking down any vegetation that barred the way forward. Jian followed in her wake, circulating his spiritual energy and keeping his breathing even so as not to court unconsciousness due to the defect in his artificial heart.

At the end of the day, they once more climbed a nearby tree and made camp well above the jungle floor. Jian was too worn out to give a second thought to the precarious sleeping arrangement. Once again, a hard day of walking made for a good night's sleep.

On the afternoon of the third day, they began to spot signs of the presence of the Huang family. Jian's first inkling of it was when Meirong came to a stop. He stopped as well, intending to give her room to fight if need be, but she waved him forward.

"This wasn't done by me," she said, gesturing at a vine that would have been blocking their path if it hadn't been chopped down. "We'll need to be careful from here on in."

Jian was glad that they had finished their trek through the untamed wilderness, though his excitement was tempered by the fact that the only people around would be hostile. Especially when he was likely to pass out in the opening stages of any fighting that broke out. It felt a little strange to be grateful for Meirong's presence, but then he'd never doubted her abilities. As long as their interests were aligned, she would make a valuable ally.

She turned aside from the trail that they had been following, vestigial though it had been. Jian had thought that they had been braving rough terrain over the last couple days. Only now did he realize just how good he had had it.

Now, they were moving through thicker foliage, and they were doing it without leaving a trail. Instead of chopping down whatever might lay in their path, Meirong would weave her way through. Jian then had to match her feat. For once, it wasn't the gap in their strength that was an issue, but rather the gap in their height. For all of her cultivation prowess, Meirong was almost a full head shorter than he was, which let her squeeze through gaps that had Jian scraping holes in his clothing.

They continued to pick their way through the thickest part of the jungle for what felt like hours, though they only covered a quarter of the distance that they would have managed at a normal walking pace. Jian was aching in places that he didn't even know could ache. He would have had scratches all over his body if he hadn't tempered his skin. Even with the advantages of his body refining efforts so far, he'd had to stop and bandage up a pair of gashes left by a particularly formidable thornbush.

It was all worth it, though, as Meirong guided him into the middle of a massive shrub. Instead of pushing through and out the other side, when she reached the edge of it she simply pulled a branch to the side to peek through. Jian accepted the invitation to join her and saw a massive clearing.

It was jarring to see something built by human hands according to human preferences. Jian hadn't seen so much as a right angle over the last few days, but the Huang family hadn't been idly boasting when they spoke of their grand plans in the Graveyard of Dreams. Not only did they have a team camping on site, they had grown comfortable enough with the location to begin putting up permanent structures. A wooden building stood tall in the center of the camp, and Jian could make out the framework of another under construction.

Back in Baolei Town, or even Bianjing Town, the buildings wouldn't have stood out. Deep in the heart of the jungle, where humans rarely visited, let alone built anything, it was a remarkable feat. Jian was impressed. He was also eager to see what was inside, impossible though it might be.

Seeing such a massive undertaking made him think that the Huang family was up to no good. After all, what would give somebody the confidence to build in the jungle, other than reaching an accord with the malevolent spirits who drove its hostility? Building this deep in the jungle otherwise was sheer hubris, but yet the buildings still stood.

"What do you make of the formations?" Meirong asked.

Jian tore his attention from the center of the camp and turned his attention to the edges. They had certainly put a great deal of effort into defensive formations. He could tell that much with his naked eye. In order to make out more detail, he would need some mechanical assistance.

He pulled the most valuable object that he'd brought with him from its safe holding place deep in his pack. Though it might look like nothing more than a jeweler's loupe, what he had in his hand was actually an ingenious artifact that allowed him to see the flow of spiritual energy with his own eyes. Perceiving such a thing without help was the realm of cultivators with fully formed cores, and not all of them could do it.

Bringing the viewer to his eye made the clearing in front of him light up in a dazzling display. Jian had to take a moment to puzzle over what he was seeing before he could make sense of it.

"They've invested a great deal," he said. "So far... I don't see anything that looks out of place. The camp has defensive arrays to shield it from the beasts of the jungle, and a spiritual energy diversion array to ward off the bloody mists."

The famous blood mists of the Verdant Doom weren't usually seen in the outskirts of the jungle except in the most extraordinary beast tides. For the Huang family to be specifically warding against them meant that they were serious about establishing this outpost in the jungle. Either that, or they knew that the bloody mists would be spreading much further than usual some time soon.

As suspicious as Jian was, though, he couldn't spot any formations that were outright demonic in nature. Every formation that he identified had a reasonable purpose, even if the sum total of all of them was a bit suspicious.

"How ambitious," Meirong said. "I wonder why they've made such an investment."

Jian nodded. "It's strange. I don't think I can dig up anything else from outside of the formations, though."

"What about from inside?" Meirong asked.

Jian looked at her with alarm. While he'd mused to himself about his desire to look inside those buildings, he had a firm grasp on his own capabilities. He could create a breach in the camp's defenses, given the time and enough spirit stones to work with. To open a gap in the wards without raising the alarm? That much was beyond him.

"We didn't come all this way just to peep on them from the bushes," Meirong said. She then let the branch fall back to its resting place, blocking their view, and tugged on Jian's sleeve. "You'll see, come nightfall."

Following Meirong's lead, the two of them made their own camp for the night in the usual fashion. The Huang family might have cleared a great deal of space, but the jungle still had no shortage of formidable trees. Today, though, while they sat on the branch sharing their meal, Meirong's gaze never shifted away from the direction of the Huang camp.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jian asked.

If they were caught, it would be a great embarrassment. Meirong would probably be fine, thanks to her status as a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect. She even ought to be able to shield him from harm. The damage to their efforts at investigation, though, would be immense. Once their quarry was on alert, digging out their secrets would be that much harder.

And that wasn't even the worst case scenario. They would probably be safe, but if the Huang family had really joined hands with the extraplanar invaders, then they might well be willing to slaughter the pair of them out of hand and leave their bodies to vanish in the jungle. Jian harbored some hope that Meirong would be able to fight her way free and escape should the worst come to pass, but he himself would have no chance.

"Of course," Meirong said. "This is the best lead we have. Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Jian gave her a skeptical look. Usually, as children, any time she'd announced her intention to be careful it had never been long before disaster struck.

Meirong's thoughts also seemed to turn to the past as her cheeks flushed. "Don't think about irrelevant things."

Jian held up his hands in surrender. "How do you plan to get through the wards?"

"I came prepared for this," she said, before shuffling around in her backpack. When she held up her prize, Jian couldn't help but let out an involuntary hiss between his teeth.

A formation divergence array was the kind of thing that sounded simple in theory. In practice, though, designing a formation to divert the energies of an existing formation away from where they want to go and towards where you want them to go instead required one to take into account a bewildering array of local variables. The flow of spiritual energy, local terrain, even the time of year and the recent weather, any little mistake could lead to disaster. It was the kind of thing Jian aspired to be able to do one day, but he knew that he was years away from such a feat.

Creating a generalized formula that would be able to divert any array in common use? That was something Jian didn't expect he'd be able to do in this lifetime. For Meirong to be able to obtain such a thing showed the high regard she had within the Heavenly Sword Sect.

"Pretty impressive, right?" she asked, puffing herself up with pride when Jian nodded. "We'll still have to be careful once we're inside."

The Huang wouldn't be relying on wards alone to protect their budding outpost. No family would survive this long living next to the Verdant Doom if they were so careless. They would certainly have patrols looking for intruders during the night, even if they wouldn't have quite so many people on lookout as they would without any wards at all.