Chapter

2

It Appears We Have a Problem

I

Lei Shan had dreamed flying—to ride a spiritual cloud, an arm’s length away from the common clouds—from the moment he joined the sect. Alas, the novelty wore off quickly, and by the second day, he felt nothing but boredom—a feeling he had long since grown used to but had never felt so strongly as he did now.

No one talked. Everyone seemed content to mind their own business, and Duo Lan's feud with Song Tian didn't help the situation. He didn't know the story behind that, and he wasn't too keen on asking. What he did notice was that the feud was mostly one-sided. As far as he could see, the problem lay with Duo Lan, who seemed determined to antagonize Song Tian as much as possible. Song Tian, on the other hand, just appeared to be exasperated with her antics and was trying his best to ignore her.

Watching them had been his main source of entertainment, but even Duo Lan seemed to have grown tired of it after a while; it had been a day since their clash, and for the time being, the only female member of their team seemed to have settled for pretending Song Tian didn’t exist, a decision Song Tian appeared to wholeheartedly support.

Now he had nothing to do. Staring down at the landscape had grown boring after a while—after a certain point, the views just started repeating themselves—and he couldn’t cultivate either. He was already at the peak of the nascent realm; only enhancing was left, and he couldn’t do that now. For the past four years, cultivation had been his only constant—a boring one, admittedly, but something to do nonetheless—in his life, and now he didn’t even have that.

They would reach their destination around midday according to Yang Yi, who occasionally gave them updates. Dawn had only just broken, so he still had about half a day of nothing ahead of him. He did have to power the spiritual cloud when his shift came, but as Yang Yi had explained, it was like activating spiritual essence into a spiritual item, an action that required very little effort; all he had to do was to channel his spiritual essence from his spiritual core into the spiritual cloud below him, and by this point that came to him as easily as breathing.

But he was used to boredom. Even if he couldn’t do it now, internal cultivation was, for the most part, a repetitive and dull process, and after four years of it, he had indirectly cultivated a high boredom threshold. He was bored, yes, but boredom had been his constant companion for about four years now.

When he wasn’t out doing missions for the sect, he’d be in his room, sitting on his meditation cushion, drawing the ambient spiritual essence into himself, converting it into personal spiritual essence by binding it to himself, and then infusing it into his spiritual core, gradually filling up its outer layer. To common cultivators like him, that was pretty much what internal cultivation consisted of. He had heard that there was more to internal cultivation—that core disciples would study the absolute laws, create personal laws, and use those personal laws to create spiritual seeds—but thinking of what he’d have would do him no good.

He gazed at the horizon—at the rising sun—and nodded to himself. He could handle this much. Once they arrived at their destination, he’d finally have something to do.

Little did he know that he’d soon be looking back to this boredom-filled journey with fondness, recalling it as the last moments of peace in his life.

II

Their destination, it turned out, was a valley near a small village. After descending, Yang Yi gave them a moment to stretch themselves. Apparently, that was something the inner disciple didn’t need, because instead of joining them, he quietly retrieved the spiritual cloud into his sleeves and stood there waiting for them—which soon turned into waiting for Lei Shan because Duo Lan and Song Tian only needed instants to get themselves ready.

“All right, here’s what we have to look for,” Yang Yi said, handing each of them a record crystal. Upon channeling his spiritual essence into it, he saw three images form in his mind’s eye. “The first one is sunpraising grass. We need at least ten blades of it. In the record crystal, there’s information about where it usually grows. There are also two other plants there—bloodpetal orchids and shadowseeker daffodils. Although they aren’t required to complete the mission, we’ll be given an extra reward if we bring some of them back, so keep an eye out for them.

“There’s no special method for collecting them, but to be on the safe side, don’t pull them out directly; envelop them with your spiritual essences and carefully lift them off the ground. You can cut their roots, but make sure not to damage the stem or the petals. They aren’t particularly powerful or sentient, so you don’t have to worry about them resisting, either. ”

They listed in silence. The instructions were easy enough to follow, and Lei Shan had done some missions that had required him to tend for spiritual plants, so the only part new to him was having to search for the plants.

Yang Yi’s instructions hadn’t ended yet.

“The valley is pretty big, so they could be anywhere. To increase our chances, we’ll spread out and meet back here by nightfall. If we’re lucky, we can still go back today. I’ll take west. Song Tian will take north; Duo Lan, south; and Lei Shan, east. Understood?”

They all nodded their heads—though Lei Shan had hesitated for a moment. He had considered the possibility that they would split up to cover more ground, but he didn’t like it. Alas, it wasn’t like he had a choice.

“Very well. Just remember to be careful—this is supposed to be a peaceful area, but you never know. If anything happens, send out essence flares, and we’ll rush to your location.”

Without another word, they all turned in their assigned direction and left. As Lei Shan walked, he sent his spiritual essence into the record crystal again and reviewed its content. They were accurately named for the most part. Sunpraising grass liked the sun, whereas shadowseeker daffodils grew in shadows. Bloodpetal orchids weren’t as intuitively named. They didn’t have a preference in terms of lighting and could be found pretty much anywhere.

Most of his attention, however, he dedicated to keeping a sharp lookout for enemy cultivators, spiritual creatures, and any other potential problems. He had also taken out an essence flare—a short rod that, once he channeled spiritual essence into it, would explode, releasing a bright burst of light and letting out a cloud of spiritual essence—the moment he started walking. It hadn’t left his hand since.

Spiritual essence was normally invisible, intangible, and impossible to sense with any of the other five senses. You could usually only sense it with your spiritual sense—something he still hadn’t gotten used to, since spiritual essence seemed to at times behave like liquids, at times like gas, and at times somehow like both, which he had a hard time wrapping his head around sometimes. However, that wasn’t always the case; the cloud of spiritual essence released by essence flares was red—making it visible even in the physical layer—and was particularly distinctive in the spiritual layer, which was why they were must-haves for missions like this one.

Lei Shan was also ready to activate his spiritual seed at the drop of a hat. He hadn’t had much of a chance to use it since he assimilated with it because it was oriented toward protection, and there was little to protect himself from in the sect. But it was for moments like this that he had bought and assimilated it for.

Spiritual seeds were the backbone of a cultivator’s power. Generally, cultivators could only directly manipulate spiritual essence and spiritual pressure—which was useful, but rather limited—but spiritual seeds gave them the ability to convert their spiritual essence into something else and use them to directly alter reality. Some spiritual seeds conferred the cultivator the ability to freely manipulate an aspect of reality, whereas others were more specialized and granted them specific spiritual skills. The one he had assimilated was one of the latter.

It would probably be the only spiritual seed he’d ever have. The number of spiritual seeds you could assimilate depended on what major realm you were at, and he was certain he’d never reach the Second Spiritual Realm. His spiritual seed was crimson, the lowest possible grade, but not even elders could easily afford seeds of higher grades, and he was happy with his choice.

He walked at a slow but steady pace. He came across none of the problems he had been so worried about, and he eventually happened upon a cluster of three golden blades of grass softly glowing in the sun. He could sense them with his spiritual sense—his range as a first-realm cultivator was limited, so he had to get really close—which meant that they also existed in the spiritual layer and had a spiritual aspect. After comparing them with the image in the record crystal and confirming that they were indeed sunpraising grass, he collected them without any issues. A short while after that, under the canopy of a tree, he found a single blood-red orchid, which turned out to be a bloodpetal orchid. He also collected it.

He figured this was a decent haul. Most likely everyone else had collected just as much, if not more, than he had, so they’d probably get to return to the sect today. He glanced at the sky, and seeing that the sun was about to set, started making his way back.

He couldn’t help but smile to himself as he walked. The mission was turning out much better than he had thought. It seemed like he had been worrying for nothing.

When he got back to the location they originally landed at, it was already dusk, but his teammates were nowhere to be seen. Figuring that they would probably arrive soon, he just stood there waiting, but even after a while, there was no sign of them.

He frowned. Where was everyone else? He looked in the directions Duo Lan and Yang Yi had traveled in, but he saw nothing—no sign of anyone approaching. When he looked north, however, he blinked. There was something in the sky a good distance away from him. He squinted his eyes. A faint, glowing, hazy cloud of—

Red.

His heart skipped a beat. He felt the world come to a stop.

There was no doubt about it. That was red spiritual essence. Someone—Song Tian, judging by the direction—had used an essence flare. It was so far away that he wouldn’t have found it if he hadn’t been actively looking for signs of his teammates.

He inhaled deeply and averted his eyes. He could ignore it. Pretend that he hadn’t seen it. If it was something not even Song Tian could handle, then he doubted he’d be of help. Song Tian may have been on the sect for less than two months, but he was a genius, and the bracelet he wore was a second-realm spiritual item.

He glanced at the fading red cloud. Fading. The cloud was already half-dissipated, so some time must have passed since it was set off. Surely by this point whatever trouble that Song Tian had come across must have already been dealt with.

Surely … surely…

He cursed. One curse after another left his mouth in a long string. Clenching his teeth, he sent his spiritual essence into his sealed-space pouch, stored the essence flare away, and pulled out all of the paper talismans he had bought.

Then he set off toward the north.

He was a coward, he’d admit to that much, and he barely knew Song Tian, but he couldn’t just abandon a person like that. He needed to at least see the situation first. If there was a chance he could help, he would do his best. If it was hopeless, he’d turn around and make his escape, undetected. Nobody would be able to blame him then. He’d do what he could.

III

He ran as fast as he could, and it didn't take him long to reach the area directly below the spiritual cloud. It was another clearing. When he saw what was going on, he froze.

He hadn’t been expecting something specific, but among the possibilities he had considered, were spiritual creatures and wicked cultivators.

Not among them was Yang Yi, standing with his arms spread out wide and a grim look on his face some distance away from Song Tian, who was holding onto a bloodied sword with his right hand in a reverse grip, and with a deep stab wound on his left side, just above the waist.

He stood there, shocked, and Yang Yi, who had been staring at Song Tian, blinked and slowly turned his head to look in his direction while keeping his body still.

Their eyes met. The inner disciple blinked.

“Well,” Yang Yi said, his eyes narrowing. “It appears we have a problem.”