An indistinct murmur filled the air as the voices of the disciples blended together.

  "Fuuuu..."

  Irritated by the noise, a bull let out a loud huff as it stood before the carriage it pulled, parked before the inn's entrance. It let out a loud snort as it shifted irritably, urging for its reins to be released.

  Ying Shi seemed clueless to its plight as he stood behind the open doors of the carriage. The boost of height served as a makeshift stage, elevating him slightly above the crowd of disciples.

  "Ying Shi!" Mohei yelled. "Why did you take so long to come back?"

  "Huh? He clearly came back sooner than expected!" Sanguang scoffed, and the two of them glared at each other.

  "Where's the elder?"

  Ying Shi was swarmed by the disciples like a pack of ravenous hounds as they bombarded him with questions. All he could do was gesture for them to settle down as he answered patiently.

  As Baiyun and Qinghe approached the scene, she raised an eyebrow in surprise.

  "He's back already?" she mused.

  Ying Shi's paused at the sound of her voice, a miracle considering the clamour, and he gestured for the disciples to quieten. He turned over and stared at the approaching duo as he craned his head over the sea of disciples.

  "Baiyun, Qinghe. I'm glad to see you've returned." he said.

  Mohei jumped excitedly and waved to them as he opened his mouth to shout, only for Jingfeng to yank his sleeves from the side. He deflated and reluctantly remained silent, while Fei An snickered to the side, pleased that she wasn't her brother's only "victim".

  The disciples parted as Baiyun and Qinghe approached, the circle adjusting to make room for them.

  "Welcome back, Master Ying Shi." Qinghe said.

  "There is no need for the courtesy of a title. We are both heirs of respectable clans after all." Ying Shi said calmly.

  With all the members of the group gathered, he began to explain what happened.

  Ying Shi did not take long to return to his clan, where he immediately sought out his father, the clan leader. He planned to ask why the supervising elder was absent, only to find out his father had gone on an outing of sorts. Left without a choice, he asked the other elders, who said the supervisor had gone out for an urgent task.

  He then asked them if they could serve as substitutes instead. The elders however seemed to be busy with various tasks and could not accompany him.

  Baiyun frowned. Ying Shi might have framed it generously, but those elders were clearly making excuses. How could every single elder in a clan be busy to such an extent? This amount of disregard for a clan leader's child was absurd!

  For the clan master and the supervising elder to be absent as well, the entire incident reeked of foul play.

  "Ying Shi, do you think someone might be conspiring against your clan?" Baiyun hesitated for a moment before speaking. "This seems too much to be a coincidence."

  Ying Shi turned over, his stoic face looking oddly surprised.

  "I can see why you'd think that." he nodded. "But it's that time of the decade again, and the elders need to make preparation. A force of nature cannot be orchestrated, and while I cannot call the elder's absence expected, it is far from contrived."

  "What do you mean by that?" Baiyun's frown grew deeper.

  He didn't understand why Ying Shi was being vague.

  "Ah! It's the Spatial Storms, isn't it?" Mohei suddenly raised a hand excitedly. "I heard the elders say they're approaching sooner than usual!"

  Baiyun stared at them blankly.

  Spatial storms?

  From the way it was described, it seemed to be some sort of natural disaster, but the name made absolutely no sense. He was certain it was metaphoric, much like how Pale Devil's Ashes were not actually devil remains.

  "I've lived through one in my lifetime, but I wasn't old enough to remember it." Ying Shi said. "Elder sister Yingtao, I'll have to trouble you to recount it."

  Yingtao nodded and revealed herself from within the carriage, marching over and standing beside her little brother. As the only adult here, she was the only one who could properly recount an event that only happened once per decade.

  "The elders told me these storms only began to happen after the laws of the 9th Heaven were established." she said. "About a century ago, they were still wrestling with the implications of the heavenly laws and trying to negotiate with the beast continent. But suddenly, they were caught off guard by a disaster!"

  "Spatial tears began to open everywhere, cutting through even the toughest stone like butter. The WanLing prison experienced a breach and many dangerous prisoners flooded out. Between the spatial tears and the criminals, there were so many casualties!"

  What?! Baiyun widened his eyes. No, it wasn't as he thought... the name was very literal!

  Spatial tears were an Aberration effect and should only be possible to create by those who attained Spatial Daos. How could such an effect become a natural disaster? He found Yingtao's words very difficult to believe, but the young masters and guards were listening attentively and nodding.

  The 9th Heavens only passed 3 laws. With the law of Death and Karma accounted for, it could only be the final one.

  ~All shall split into rings of six.

  None above descends to realms below.

  Divine walls keep malice at bay,

  Sprouts of gold asleep beneath.~

  Of all the laws, its ambiguity was by far the worst! Baiyun could see no connection between the wording and the spatial storms; how could it possibly cause such a disaster as a side effect?

  But more importantly, this news was truly horrifying. He knew firsthand just how deadly spatial rifts were, even capable of cleaving apart cultivators who could wipe out mortal worlds alone! How could anyone live in peace if entire Spatial Storms ravaged the entire planet every decade?

  The strange air of focus that had unknowingly shrouded him faded, and his perception of time returned to normal.

  Yingtao seemed to notice Baiyun's distress and waved her hands at him in hurried assurance.

  "You don't have to be so worried! Remember the preparations by the elders we mentioned? Thanks to the sect's efforts, we now have a Spatial Diversion Grand Formation! As long as you stay within the WanLing sect, everything will be just fine."

  Huh? Baiyun's face went blank again.

  Divert spatial rifts, an Aberration effect that stood at the pinnacle of Daos... with merely formations from a mortal world!? He felt like his entire worldview was being turned upside down.

  The only explanation he could come up with was "owner-less" natural rifts were fundamentally different and easier to divert, but it was just a guess. But that was still absurd!

  First the unique alchemy, the illogical effects of the Martial Expertise and now this... What exactly was going on in this world?

  Baiyun had to take several deep breaths before he calmed down. There was much he had to learn, that was for sure. For a mortal world to make him feel like a clueless country bumpkin... he never thought the day would come.

  A sudden thought came to mind. Previously, he had wondered how spatial bags could be cheap and disposable enough to be even passed to servants, as well as the spatial properties some beasts showed. This had to be connected somehow!

  With that thought in the back of his mind, Baiyun began to listen to Yingtao's speech with intent eyes, keen to learn more. But Fei An suddenly jumped and floated above the crowd.

  "Ah!" she shouted. "Ying Shi! I just remembered. Didn't you tell me to watch over the cocoons in the centipede forest? You came back just at the right time, they ripened just yesterday!"

  Ying Shi's calm facade jolted, shock taking its place for a moment.

  "What?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? There is no time to continue the discussion, we must make haste. Pack up your belongings and move out immediately!"

  Baiyun's eyes twitched.

  "Eh?" Mohei cried out in dismay. "But-"

  His words came to a pause as he saw the disciples flood into the inn without hesitation, marching past the baffled innkeeper and upstairs. The sound of overlapping footsteps on wood echoed loudly like a stampede, yet they moved orderly and without chaos.

  Aside from Ying Shi and Yingtao in the carriage, Baiyun and Mohei were the only ones who hadn't rushed in.

  Baiyun clenched his fists and for a moment, he wanted to punt Fei An, but she had already flown into the inn. Yingtao shrugged at him helplessly, and he gestured for Mohei to follow as he headed upstairs as well.

  He returned to his room and let out a sigh. With how sudden the trip was, he didn't even have time to use the Black Earth body forging elixir. There wasn't much he had to pack, save for the remaining Blackhorn Root he couldn't stash into storage space.

  Thankfully, he now had the perfect space to put it. He grabbed the root from a drawer and reached for the cauldron, the mole letting out a squeak as he opened it.

  Seeing Baiyun holding the Blackhorn Root, it let out an excited cry and began to scamper about! It watched as he held the roots closer and closer to it and began to salivate... only for the hand to shoot past its body and place them into its herb bag.

  "I command you not to eat it." Baiyun said, a strange glee to his words.

  With the contract, he didn't have to worry about the mole gobbling it up. He felt a strange sense of peace; he could now be certain he was the owner of the herb bag once more.

  The mole froze for a moment as it tried its best to process the alien language. Baiyun watched as it stood there pitifully and felt a little bad, misunderstanding the reason for its silence. He expected it to throw a tantrum, yet it was being so obedient...

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "Okay, you can have a small piece."

  Had it gone feral on him, he absolutely wouldn't have given it anything. Baiyun thought to himself that good behaviour should be rewarded, as he tossed it a small cut of the roots before shutting the lid. Were he a second slower, he would have faced the tantrum of an animal separated from its food.

  Baiyun picked up the cauldron and scanned the room one last time to confirm he had left nothing behind,

  At that moment, the storybook, "The Tree of the Old Yan" almost seemed to beckon to him from the table. Odd. He could have sworn he placed it back into the bookshelf previously.

  Despite his strange anger at it previously and his currently furrowed eyebrows, he felt compelled to take it with him. His hand subconsciously reached for it, but he shook his head as reason won over impulse.

  What was he thinking? He wasn't a thief.

  Baiyun retrieved the spray bottle from his bag he had borrowed and returned it beside the potted plant. The bottle was now full of stale onion juice however, a mystery for the staff to scratch their heads over later.

  He tidied up the room one last time before leaving with the cauldron in hand. The door shut behind him; as he headed downstairs and out of divine thread range, it was certain it was the last time he would see that room.

  Atop the table where the storybook of the Old Yan sat, its pages seemed to tremble.

  Bit by bit, its pages slowly crumbled into black dust.

  The air was still, yet its fragments frayed into the silence breeze and vanished.

  It was as if the book had never been there.

  ...

  Outside the inn, the disciples stared at Baiyun as he lugged the cauldron into the carriage. Ying Shi raised an eyebrow at the sight and turned to Qinghe, but she only shrugged, seemingly amused despite her lack of expression.

  Mohei pulled the lid open with a grin only for the mole to swipe at him.

  "Ack!"

  He let go of the lid and it fell back into place with a rumble. Confused gazes from all around the carriage landed on Baiyun.

  It was at that moment when the carriage took off.

  The bull trotted at a leisurely pace across the paved roads of the town but huffed with impatience. Even as it tried to slow its pace, its footsteps grew faster and faster, until it stepped foot onto the grass outside town; where with a loud grunt, it shot into the distance, charging towards its destination and trampling all its path!

  Far behind, the townsfolk raised their heads at the sight.

  Ying Shi spoke with Yingtao at the front of the carriage as it rumbled.

  Behind, the disciples pestered Baiyun and Qinghe, bombarding them with questions about the mole cauldron. Fei An was the most annoying, bragging about their trip into the forest shamelessly!

  "Wait, you two found the mole and Baiyun wanted to tame it?" a guard asked.

  Fei An nodded happily, seeming quite smug for some reason.

  Baiyun's eyes twitched as he held a textbook in hand.

  Why was she openly revealing it? She was the one who wanted to keep it a secret! He thought back a little further and revisited his memories, then realised the only things she wanted to keep secret were the ridiculous keywords for the mole's bindings.

  His hands to tremble with slight rage as he clutched the textbook. He was about to get to the most interesting part, yet Ying Shi sprung the trip suddenly, delaying his use of the Black Earth elixir as well. He wanted to hear more about the abnormalities of this world from Yingtao, yet Fei An interrupted it. And now that he wanted to read during transit, the disciples had to bother him constantly.

  Baiyun humoured and even got along with the children previously, but right now, he felt like they were the most annoying beings in existence!

  Qinghe tried her best to placate the disciples while holding back laughter.

  "Alright, alright! Baiyun wants to read, so stop bothering him." she said.

  "Wait. Explain why he has your old cauldron and those textbooks! What happened exactly, why is he studying alchemy?" Sanguang shouted.

  Qinghe's face paled as the disciples changed their target to her, swarming her like hyenas around a carcass. Jingfeng tried to settle them down, but his words bore no fruit. All that could be seen of her was the lone hand she raised in a desperate plea for help.

  Baiyun looked at her with eyes of gratitude. This sacrifice... he would repay it tenfold someday. He did his best to ignore the noise as he continued his read, flipping page after page.

  A moment passed.

  "We've arrived." Ying Shi said.

  Already? Baiyun felt like only seconds had passed.

  The moment the carriage came to a stop, the disciples left the carriage in an orderly line. All around, they began to set up camp. The guards took out stakes and began to hammer them into the ground to support tents, which the young masters ones placed down spatial houses.

  Seeing them at work so quickly without a single command from Yingshi, Mohei began to grow flustered and ran out as well.

  A loud thud echoed as something massive hit the ground, before he ran back to the carriage where Baiyun was still clutching his textbook reluctantly.

  "Baiyun!" Mohei ran over with a big grin as he waved his hands. "You don't have a house or a tent, right? Come over to my base for the night, hehe!"

  Baiyun scanned the surroundings with divine thread, but the range wasn't enough. He let out a sigh before peeking out from the carriage door with a squint.

  Much like with Qinghe's workshop, rows of miniature spatial buildings had been placed down. What was once wilderness now looked like the beginnings of an exceptionally small village in moments, a testament to the wealth of the young masters gathered here.

  The only ones in tents were Ying Shi's guards, a few staring enviously at the convenience the rich were entitled to.

  But seeing the look on Mohei's face, Baiyun could tell exactly which one was his.

  A slight distance away from the carriage, a crater had been carelessly smashed into the once pristine grass by a small stone house. Part of its base had sunk into the mud and it was tilted ever so slightly, a sign that Mohei had been less careful than the others.

  The sight of it made Baiyun's eyes twitch.

  It was entirely painted red from wall to roof, countless flame patterns etched all over it with golden and orange paint. Above its doorframe was a plaque of gold that read "Mohei - Inferno Clan".

  Seeing the stifled look on Baiyun's face, Mohei began to laugh smugly.

  "Heh. I can tell you're in awe because of just how cool my base is. I'm going to blow your mind!" he said. "Guess, guess?"

  He rushed over excitedly, getting so close that Baiyun reflexively backed away.

  "Guess what?" Baiyun furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

  "I painted it myself! Heheh! You'd never have thought I was a master artist, would you?"

  "Wow. I can certainly see that..." Baiyun forced a smile.

  The moment he saw that, he already knew Mohei painted it! He could already imagine how this monstrosity came to be. He pictured Mohei calling the Inferno Clan's servants over, asking their thoughts on his "base" with glee. The bootlicking servants heaped compliment after compliment, afraid to critique the slightest detail.

  "So are you coming over?" Mohei asked.

  Baiyun hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.

  "Alright, I'll head over," he said.

  "Yay!"

  It wasn't as if he had anywhere else better to stay either. Qinghe would probably toss him the dingy stone workshop and might even charge him a fee.

  Ying Shi who was still in the carriage with Yingtao shook his head as the two of them left.

  Mohei grabbed Baiyun by the hand and dragged him, running at such a pace that he had to break into a little sprint to not fall over despite lugging a cauldron. The two of them zoomed over to the house and Mohei yanked the doorknob; only for the bottom of the door to bang against the mud the building had sunken into.

  "Er..."

  Mohei scratched his head for a moment, before reaching into his bag for a shovel and digging the door free.

  "There! Let's go in!" he said.

  Not even missing a beat even after that awkward pause... Baiyun was speechless. The house was already odd enough of a sight with its gaudy designs, and now the bottom of its door was conspicuously splattered with mud. From the distance, he noticed a few of the guards snickering from their tents.

  The Ying siblings had finally finished their talk by this point, and he saw them beginning to set up tents of their own like the guards. They didn't have comfortable storage abodes on hand? Baiyun found it odd, but he supposed Ying Shi must have thought this was a show of discipline.

  Otherwise, with his generosity, he'd have purchased communal housing for the guards as well.

  "Baiyun! What are you waiting for? Come in!"

  Hearing Mohei's voice echoing from within the house, Baiyun nodded before following him in.

  The first thing he noticed were the weapon racks affixed to the walls. They were stocked with all manner of strange ornamental weapons with impractical proportions, like a sword with a blade wide as a dinner plate, yet with the flimsy hilt of an ordinary sword. He hoped Mohei had no plans to use it in combat.

  There were painting on the walls as well, depictions of a bustling city etched around the walls of an active volcano, demonic-looking dragons with crocodile bodies and bat wings, as well as paintings of weapons, which felt somewhat redundant.

  But the most surprising was that their bottom right had signatures that read "Mohei". This kid was actually a fairly good artist despite what he did to his abode! Baiyun wondered how Mohei had such terrible taste despite having a knack for art.

  "Baiyun! Tell me more about what happened!" Mohei suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "I wanted to ask Qinghe, but she seemed bothered by all the questions being thrown at her, so I didn't ask anything..."

  Baiyun nodded slowly. Since he decided to show his talents to Qinghe in hopes of attracting an alchemy master, not to mention Jingfeng and Mohei seeing him work a cauldron, there was no point in keeping it secret.

  If things didn't work out with Qinghe's alchemy master, perhaps there were alchemists in Mohei's Inferno Clan would were willing to take him in. With his good relationship with one of their young masters, he didn't think they would mistreat him.

  "Alright, I'll tell you what happened the last few days." he said.

  Mohei nodded excitedly as Baiyun recounted his little alchemy adventure, naturally with inconvenient details omitted. Throughout the long story, Mohei would nod every now and then, almost like a chicken pecking at grain, until a certain detail caught his attention.

  "Huh? You really made a high-grade elixir with Qinghe?" Mohei was shocked.

  Baiyun nodded as he reached into his bag and held up the shimmering Black Earth elixir, with specks that shone like stars in the night sky.

  "Whoa, that's crazy!" Mohei jumped excitedly. "Can I hold it?"

  Baiyun began to sweat a little as Mohei grew more and more excited, pestering him with all sorts of questions. He let Mohei examine the elixir for a moment, but he couldn't glean anything from it apart from how it seemed incredibly dense in qi.

  "The expedition is about to start again. In case anything happens later, I need to find a safe spot to use the elixir now, so I'll won't be able to chat much more."

  "Eh? Can't you just use it here?" Mohei asked.

  "It's related to body refinement, so I can't have any interruptions." Baiyun said.

  He was also tired out by the enthusiasm of the disciples and wanted refuge.

  "Oh yeah! Even though you don't have meridians, you can still body cultivate!"

  Baiyun nodded. The Black Earth elixir didn't serve only to advance his strength, it would also help to cover up abnormal strength he displayed from his cultivation.

  "Okay... I'll leave you to it then!" Mohei said, but he still seemed a little sad.

  Seeing his reaction, Baiyun shook his head. He placed down the cauldron and opened the lid to let the mole out.

  "You can play with this guy while I'm gone."

  "Hehe, I'll take good care of it!" Mohei laughed.

  Baiyun quickly used soulsense to issue a command to the mole.

  "Your task is to cheer up Mohei, and you're not allowed to attack him." he said sternly.

  The mole stared at Baiyun blankly and didn't seem to understand. But before it could process its thoughts, Mohei snatched it out of the pot and lifted it into the air with a laugh.

  "Krrrr!"

  The little creature swiped its claws in alarm, only for its attacks to glance off Mohei's hands harmlessly.

  Baiyun said a quick goodbye before leaving. He went to the tents and asked the guards which abode was Qinghe's, and they pointed him over without a fuss.

  Before long, he was knocking at her door, a plain and simple undecorated house of white stone.

  The door swung open with a creak and was accompanied by Qinghe's sigh.

  "I knew it was you again..." she grumbled. "Come in."

  Baiyun could only laugh awkwardly.

  "Sorry, I need your help again. But it won't take up much of your time, I just want to borrow your workshop for a while."

  Qinghe frowned slightly.

  "Baiyun. You're planning to use it as a breakthrough room for the Black Earth elixir, aren't you?"

  Ah. He was a little surprised by how easily she had guessed his intentions, but he supposed it wasn't a big surprise considering they just concocted the elixir together.

  He could only nod sheepishly.

  Qinghe shook her head.

  "Trying to breakthrough right before the big event... if the forest blooms while you're cooped in there, you're getting left behind until we return."

  Baiyun wouldn't mind if that happened, but he kept that to himself.

  "Well, whatever. I'll lend it to you." she said. "But I should warn you of something. Since you've comprehended the recipe of the elixir, you should be aware of how potent it is. Still, I thought it's best I remind you anyway."

  "Your mortal body is frail, so I would recommend diluting a single droplet into a bowl of water, and consuming that once per day. Cultivation is a step by step process, where patience and prudence are key. If you carelessly consume the elixir, I might find your corpse in the workshop tomorrow."

  Baiyun nodded.

  "I know, but thanks for the reminder."

  Qinghe reached into her bag and tossed him the stake. Baiyun was about to thank her again, but she hurriedly shooed him out and shut the door.

  ...perhaps he ought to bother her less in the future. He learnt from his past disciples how much the youth hated people barging into their rooms.

  Baiyun stared at the stake in hand and saw it was already glowing with Qinghe's qi. He looked around the area for a suitable spot to plant the workshop, eventually settling for a spot close to Mohei's house.

  He stabbed it into the ground and backed off as the workshop ballooned outwards, slamming into the grass just as violently as before. Baiyun had a random thought that this would be quite the effective weapon for crushing a foe.

  The workshop that resembled a boulder was quite the strange sight beside Mohei's "extravagant" house and formed quite the unique contrast, but he didn't think much of it and immediately headed in.

  He shut the door and looked around briefly. Qi-proof, soundproof and windowless; now that he thought of it, the construct seemed more like an emergency breakthrough room modified into one for alchemy. Had it been bought for cheap and repurposed?

  In any case, he wasn't about to complain. Baiyun took out the Black Earth elixir and downed the entire bottle in one go, casually ignoring Qinghe's advice.

  A moment passed as he took there in silence, before his eyes twitched.

  "Hruk!"

  Baiyun's body went stiff as a board as he toppled forward and smashed face-first into the ground. His tensed body rocked and forth for a moment before going motionless.