Chapter 96: The Last Peaceful Days

"Junior Sister Lia! I'm telling you, but you're not listening, ugh! Why do you need that strange boy from the Heavenly Soul Sect?! Huh?! When we have plenty of others just as good, even better, right inside our own Sect!" Walking behind Ruste Zen, Nea Emmia loomed over Lia Kult, trying to change her mind.

With a heavy gait and constant sighs, Lia Kult crossed her arms and demonstratively looked away, wondering why she hadn't left the moment she saw this annoying senior sister approaching.

"Ugh! You're impossible, Junior Sister! You're like a century-old oak, cold and stubborn... Oh! By the way!" Wrapping her arm around Lia's shoulder, she pointed at Ruste Zen ahead and grinned. "What do you think, Junior Sister? I'm thinking of taking him under my wing, so to speak." Trying to speak quietly, Ruste Zen still heard her and began sighing deeply as well.

<"Stop!"> Hearing a sudden voice in his head, Zen stopped abruptly.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" The two behind him looked at him, and Emmia immediately asked.

<"What happened, Master?"> Zen began looking around while asking the old man in his ring.

<"Ahead, in that grove. There's someone there... Though he's trying to hide his leaking Qi and suppress the traces of his cultivation, his technique is incomplete and very unstable... But since his movements are calm and confident, it can only mean one thing... this cultivator has broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm!">

As soon as he heard the old man's last words, his eyes widened in surprise. Then he saw an unremarkable cultivator in worn, dirty robes, with disheveled hair and faintly gleaming green eyes, step out of the dark grove to meet them.

Seeing him, the two behind him stepped forward, drawing level with Ruste Zen.

Nea Emmia placed her hand behind her back and gripped her massive axe, ready to unsling it at any moment. "Who are you? And who allowed you to be in this restricted area?"

"Senior Sister Nea, this is a disciple from the Heavenly Soul Sect who came to our camp today." Standing at Ruste Zen's other shoulder, Lia Kult touched only two fingers to the hilt of her sword at her belt, remaining calm.

"Hmm? So you really are a spy? Walking around, snooping, sniffing in a restricted zone?" Emmia frowned and activated her Qi, preparing to attack if necessary.

"First of all, this Sacred Land belongs to its owner. Every mountain, river, bush... well, you get the idea. And your talk of a restricted zone? Do you even realize how foolish that sounds?" An carefully examined her from head to toe. 'I have to admit, her fiery temper suits her appearance perfectly.'

"Secondly, if you attack me... No. Then I'd have to leave... Fine. If you do attack, I'll break your arm before you even realize what happened. Oh, and yes. Don't think this is the kind of threat exchanged between sect brothers and sisters, or in a tournament duel, where threats are just words to intimidate or boost one's ego. I'm being serious... I'll break your right arm before you can raise your axe above your head." With a calm face and empty, gleaming green eyes, An looked her straight in the eyes.

'What is this? Am I getting scared?' Unexpectedly, she felt fear deep within herself, looking into those empty green eyes devoid of any emotion. 'No! Idiot!'

"Hahaha! I've never met such an arrogant boy at just the eighth layer! You say you'll break my arm? Then I'll crack your skull open first!"

<"Stop her! Now!"> Hearing the voice in his head, Ruste Zen extended his hand in front of her face. "Enough!"

"There's no point in starting conflicts between righteous brothers and sisters. It's better to stop before we all regret it. Do you agree?" Throwing a serious glance at Lia Kult and Nea Emmia, he turned his head toward An.

Seeing his expression, Lia Kult immediately understood and, stepping closer to the senior sister, tugged her arm and shook her head when Emmia turned toward her.

'Hmm, he's definitely hiding someone in his ring. Though I'm wary of reading the energy flows from the ring into his head, I'm certain someone is in there whispering to him...' An just watched the ring. Though curiosity gnawed at him, he understood that inside that ring could easily be a former ruler of this world, or perhaps something even more powerful.

An simply nodded and continued walking.

As he passed Nea Emmia, she suddenly looked at him with rage in her eyes. "I'll be watching you. If anything happens, next time no one will save your head!"

Hearing this, An just rolled his eyes and kept walking, having no desire to waste time on her.

….

Waiting until he disappeared into the dark forest behind them, Nea Emmia turned back to the two and, looking into Ruste Zen's eyes, began grumbling with a puzzled expression. "You shouldn't have stopped me. Ha! I haven't had a good workout in so long! And this was a perfect opportunity that came right to me! Besides, no one would have said anything, everyone thinks he's a spy anyway... Ha! And you ruined it, Junior Brother!" Crossing her arms, she began huffing, constantly wrinkling her nose.

Ruste Zen continued staring into the forest after An. "Everything he said was true. If you had attacked, you'd be lucky if he only broke your arm. And there would have been nothing we could do to stop it."

Hearing this, Emmia's face twisted. Getting another blow to her ego, now from someone close to her, she was about to object when she was interrupted.

"Is this your intuition again?" Lia Kult looked at him with visible concern in her eyes.

Ruste Zen nodded. "If he had attacked, not only would we have been unable to protect Senior Sister Nea, but no one on this mountain could have stopped him from leaving... So everything he said was pure truth."

'O-oh?! S-senior Sister Nea? He called me that for the first time! Ah!' Hearing his address to her in that form, Emmia’s forehead flushed and her nose itched from an involuntary growing smile. All her anger and wounded pride seemed to evaporate. But hearing his continuation, she tensed slightly again.

"By the way, his first words: 'secondly, if you attack-'. He clearly intended to say something else at first, but realizing he'd have to leave the camp immediately, he softened and only mentioned one arm." Zen looked at her right hand.

"Strange... If you think about it, how did he, completely alone, manage to move through the inner ring without any problems and with no visible injuries? Even if we don't know when he separated from his group, even one day alone in these places... guaranteed death..." Lia Kult suddenly pondered and turned back to the two.

Hearing this, even Emmia paused to think, understanding that everything her junior sister said was true. Even she wasn't sure she could survive alone in the forest. According to their information, the entire inner ring was teeming with second-rank beasts, and even third-rank wasn't out of the question. It was only because the disciples traveled in large groups that they weren't eaten yet.

"Hmm, Where exactly did you meet him before?" Emmia asked her junior sister.

"It was the Alchemy Tournament. Brother Zen and I were in the same sector. As an assistant overseeing our sector, the Heavenly Soul Sect assigned a helper. And that disciple was him." Kult quickly explained. Ruste Zen nodded beside her, confirming her words.

"Hmm, that still doesn't prove he's not a spy..." Emmia shook her head, involuntarily trying to find something negative about that unpleasant guy.

"Unlikely. Judging by the brand on his neck, he was enslaved, most likely by a sizable clan or family. Otherwise, with the artifact used to scout for new children capable of cultivating, its range is very limited, and the chances of disciples going to look for children where there's no benefit, namely, the remote areas of the old kingdom, are extremely small." Ruste Zen began explaining.

"What do you mean?" With her short fuse, Nea Emmia was already tired of the long explanation and tried to hurry him to get to the point.

"If he had been sent by the Demonic Path, the clan or noble family that branded him as their property would have known immediately. That's what I'm getting at." Seeing her expression, Zen shortened it and said the core point.

"Hmm... That makes sense, but what if, " She pondered and suddenly smiled, about to continue, but Kult interrupted her.

"What if he became a spy after becoming a disciple of the Heavenly Soul Sect? He was clearly enslaved against his will. Why would he be loyal to the very people who make up the class that branded him? A Demonic Path agent could have taken advantage of that and recruited him." With her arms crossed, Kult shook her head slightly, trying to logically build her theory.

"Hmph! What idiot thought it was a good idea to bring him into the Sect at all? Should have left him where he belongs! In the fields!" Tired of these discussions, Emmia snorted and began walking slowly toward the grove where An had emerged.

Lia Kult just shrugged, unsure whether she agreed or not. Unlike them, Ruste Zen looked once more in the direction An had gone. Staring into the darkness for a few seconds, he turned and followed his companions.

….

'Sigh... My approach to that situation was based on the reaction of that old monster inside the ring... Whoever is inside clearly realized from my leaking, unstable energy that I'd broken through to Foundation Establishment, all because of the problems with Qi Silence...' Walking and kicking small burgundy-blue cones that covered the ground beneath his feet. With each kick, the cone would open, and white nuts would fly in all directions. Upon landing, white tendrils would emerge from their shells and burrow into the ground, planting both themselves and the seed deeper into the earth.

'That approach was the only right one. If I'd tried to solve it through conversation... who knows how long I'd be stuck there, and in the end, it would have come to a fight anyway, as usually happens in such situations... I just cut out the middleman and resolved the situation instantly... Sigh, I'm such a genius sometimes.' As he walked through the forest back toward the cliff overlooking the camp, he looked away toward the dense, tall forest.

'Someone's coming... It's definitely not demonic followers. The energy is too pure for them... Possibly the second group has finally arrived. But why are there so few?' Seeing the change in Qi deep in the forest, he estimated there were clearly less than a hundred people. 'From three hundred forty people on the first day to less than a hundred? Oh, wait, I forgot their group split in two... Let's just hope this is the smaller of the two...' Reaching the cliff, he looked down at the few campfires at the edges of the camp, where a few cultivators were still sitting, tasked with guarding.

'Maybe I should leave? If I think about it, I have many things I need to accomplish before this space, this Sacred Land, closes.'

'Finish modifying Qi Silence, that's the main priority right now. Otherwise, anyone could sense that I've broken through to the next realm, and I can kiss my freedom goodbye... And second, figure out how to adapt my Evergreen Qi cultivation technique for Foundation Establishment... At this point, I've almost fully understood how the technique works, but I'm not sure how or where to begin modifying it... For that, I need time. Fortunately, I have plenty of that resource... Nine hundred years. Heh!' Reminding himself of his lifespan, An smiled.

Jumping off the cliff, he slowly began flying toward a neighboring mountain, about five kilometers away from the camp.

After flying there and circling part of the mountain, he found a well-hidden old cave near the summit, long overgrown with vines.

Landing on the ground, he smelled the strong scent of age. "Looks like someone lived and died here, turning to dust over time." Pushing the vines aside, he entered.

Scanning the complete darkness, he easily spotted a black stain in one corner of the floor, its outline resembling a creature.

Moving deeper, he discovered a small room with a narrow passage leading into it, clearly not made by a beast. 'Judging by the size of the stain left by the creature's body, it couldn't have fit through here... Unless, of course, it had the ability to change its size.'

Entering the room through the narrow corridor, he realized this section might have been used as storage.

Without much thought, he pulled out his cushion from the ring and tossed it onto the floor. Sitting comfortably, back to the entrance, he closed his eyes and began modifying his QiSilence technique.