Chapter 95

  Spirit Sage (II)

  Before I could so much as conjure up a question (and I had more than plenty), Hua turned around and left, leaving me rather befuddled.

  First off: what the hell do Holy Lands have to do with any of what he just told me?! No, seriously. He didn't mention them once in that lengthy-ass expository monologue of his, and he just drops them at the end like a random P.S.

  'Oh, right, by the way, besides all that, the sovereigns of the entire continent will hunt your ass down if they ever find you. Why? I won't tell you. Figure it out!'

  Fun.

  So, so, so much fun.

  All of this is very much fun and not at all anxiety-inducing. Yeah, right! I honestly just wanna curl up in a ball, close my eyes, and pretend this is all a dream! It was bad enough when I thought that the most powerful man in the sect was a Demonic Cultivator, but nooo, it turns out he's a genocidal maniac with stacks of bodies so tall they could build a sky-reaching pagoda!

  Right.

  Calm down, just calm down.

  Seeing as he told me all that, it's safe to assume he won't be escaping with us. No, his parting words practically confirmed it. If I were a betting man (and I'd become one in this world, to be honest), I'd bet on him triggering that singular moment of superstrength or whatever to either severely hurt or outright kill the Sect Master.

  And as he's by far the strongest (at the moment) of all of us, it's not like we can stick behind and quickly rescue him. He'll probably cause a massive scene to offer up a cover and distract the world from us.

  Haah.

  Headache. Such a massive headache. I mean, I knew it was coming halfway through his goddamned speech, but it's times like these I really miss aspirin. Why don't I use Qi to quell it? I don't dare! I'd be shoving Qi into my brain! What if I accidentally touch something I shouldn't?! Nope, I'd rather suffer the pain.

  Though it may be more fun to panic right about now and start weeping uncontrollably, it actually might be more useful to plan ahead a little bit. Like, where the hell should we go after? Well, we'll go to Desolate Cliffs first, I'm assuming, but what about after?

  I gather it's best if we head eastward--from all the literature that I read, it seems that the east is seen as a more 'prosperous' region, especially beyond the Heaven-Piercing Peaks.

  North, supposedly, leads into a harsh hellhole; south leads into a literal 'redacted' area that's only ever talked about so vaguely it was like someone was trying to describe C'thulu or something; and west... well, there's literally not a single word written about west that I could find. This was the west, far as I could tell, and there was nothing west of it.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Save for the Desolate Cliffs, of course.

  My biggest worry is the finances, to be honest--even if I'm currently loaded up, more so than anyone else in the sect, I'm sure, it won't last forever. Heck, now that I'll also have to supply Light, I'm guessing I'm gonna go broke in like four months.

  And I certainly have no idea how to make money--no, wait, isn't there Long Tao? My very own tomb locator? Yeah. Let's just hope he becomes my ATM.

  Gathering myself the best I could, I returned to the house, where I saw everyone besides Hua hard at work. Even Long Tao's brows were knitted; evidently, the art was far harder to master than I anticipated.

  While the '???' were alarming, I'd seen them before and had the kids reach at least Minor comprehension relatively quickly. From the looks of it, however, this one won't be... that simple.

  I can only hope that Long Tao figures it out quickly and then helps others.

  I couldn't help them, actually, despite having technically reached 'Intermediate' comprehension. Why? Because that comprehension wasn't my own. Think of it like this--if somebody on Earth knew for certain that the universe was a 3D hologram projection of a 2D plane, would they be able to explain every minute detail of how that's possible?

  Maybe, but probably not.

  That was me, sort of. I understood, almost inherently, how to do it--but couldn't explain it to save a life. Sort of like how native-level speakers of a language just know how to correctly write it, but if you asked them to logically explain why, unless they studied it, they'd be lost.

  So, yeah. All I could do was make them tea and buy them lunches and dinners and watch over them silently.

  Days passed rather... emptily. The entire sect grew strangely quiet as it seemed everyone retreated to their abodes in order to increase their cultivation as much as possible. I, too, started to feel nervous; I mean, what the hell did I know of anything in this world? I spent the first almost seven months huddled up on a mountain, venturing out only once, and now I'm supposed to take three kids (and an old monster) and make runaways of us?

  Haah.

  Whatever. What must be done and all.

  Even Elder Qin didn't actually come and visit for the duration, but he did continue sending supplies--even more than before.

  Staggeringly more.

  Scarily more.

  No, seriously, by the week's end, he'd sent over 20,000 mid-grade Stones alone, alongside a whole heap of other crap.

  Oh, and did I mention that he delivered them in a spatial ring? That's right--I got a spatial ring! It was rather ordinary, as though copper-made, with no special markings but a few carved-in lines that would glow when I'd put something in or take it out.

  Unlike the satchel, it was quite roomy, big enough to fit all my current wealth and with enough leftover that I didn't have to worry for the foreseeable future.

  With his actions, however, it was clear that even he believed I'd be leaving soon. It was also then that it truly gripped me one last time--I'd soon be freakin' homeless!

  On the ninth day, a notification rang out, telling me that Long Tao gained initial mastery of the art and rewarding me 200 points for it as well as 1% body purification progress.

  Honestly? I kind of expected... more. I mean, it's a Mythological art--them mastering Earth-level arts used to reward me 100 points, and a Myth art is just double that?

  Anyway, with him helping the others, on the eleventh day, all three had finally also reached the Minor comprehension, awarding me 250 points and 2% body purification (as Light wasn't technically my disciple, I only got 50 points from her).

  At least we made it in time, with four days to spare, in fact!

  We can now relax, calm our hearts and minds, and carefully plan out a route--

  There's a bell.

  It's ringing.

  And the clouds on the horizon? Yeah.

  "ENEMY ATTACK!! ACTIVATE THE SPIRIT SWORD FORMATION!! ALL ELDERS GATHER AT ONCE!"

  Hmm.

  Maybe I should start a sect of my own when we leave? Call ourselves 'Lupins' and secretly thieve tombs and sects and taunt the Holy Lands--

  HOLY SHIT, DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT THE WAR WOULD BE A COMPETITION?! WHY IS THERE A LITERAL FREAKIN' WARSHIP BARRELING TOWARD US LIKE A MISSILE?!