"I do not know his name, but he should be an elder of Ya Hall of Gen Zadan, a demonic sect up north. He specializes in camouflage and disguise and was aiming to take over our identities." explained Ingra as he handed three spatial rings to Kle In.

Kle In telepathically stored the rings as he was busy putting back the books on their respective places. He had been wondering why a capable assassin did not go for a killing move. It turns out the assassin had a more sinister purpose.

"Tell me about this conflict of yours."

Ingra cleared the table and laid a map.

"On the surface, they wanted our Sem Bagtu Alliance compensate for the death of the patriarch of a prestigious family and taking over a disputed land. Only recently did the spies gathered by the alliance that two of the four major Spiritual Veins supporting Gen Zadan is rapidly in decline.

Fifty years ago, humans trespassed the Elven lands and kidnapped countless Alchemy Apprentices and Gen Zadan Sect stepped up and tried instigating a war convincing other Elven sects to conquer the municipality at the border, however Sem Faction and Bagtu Sect are the first to decline despite the fact that they are neighbors with Gen Zadan.

We estimate that they have at least less than twenty-five Nascent experts which is the same number compared to the alliance our sect belongs to. In about fifty years when the Peak Late Nascent elder of Sem Faction passes away, this impasse will be broken.

The alliance has just fixed an ancient teleportation array and five years from now, a full-scale retaliation will transpire. If this esteemed master will help us, will certainly compensate if..."

Kle In activated his aura to the 4th degree releasing a suffocating pressure interrupting Ingra then threw him a ring.

"That ring contains two Spiritual Veins and should be enough to power the Teleportation Array. Go back to your little alliance and tell them to prepare. I will show up in five days."

Ingra saluted with his fist and left the room silently with haste and vigilance.

Kle In looked at the map laid on the table. Ingra summarized and went straight to the point and said everything he needed to hear but he interrupted him when Ingra was about to beg for assistance. This world is ruled through power and he should start doing the same. It is a race against time, and he will intimidate and flaunt his power even if not needed.

He is glad to know the ongoing conflict is at its worst and he should be revered a hero once he lends his hands. Getting them fulfill his wish should be easier once he defeated their rivals. However the problem is the act of defeating the enemies themselves. For a sect to have at least twenty-five Nascent Soul Experts, means that the sect has an enormous influence and their sect members should be thousands.

Even though they are of a demonic sect, he feels like not having the courage to stomach and bring forth carnage and cull such number of cultivators. Even if they were of the same sect who went after his life, he feels like his conscience would break and would not let him sleep or may not let him have peace in the afterlife. He could still remember the bandits he killed on a random hill.

Kle In sighed in ambivalence and thought, "What difference does it make when I am dying anyway."

He looked at the map laid on the table. The plan has slightly changed and is now to have this sect alliance filter reincarnates. His other problem is how to convince them to continuously cooperate and do his bidding even when he is gone. There is just no guarantee that they will keep their promise even if he gifts them Spiritual Veins. He could build a Spiritual Garden and grow precious herbs and set up a reward system, but most sects already have them.

"There must be a way this practice will be maintained like a ritual."

Kle In thought of his options. At this point, the most viable is to build a large-scale sacred sanctuary which opens every few years. Many sects have them to encourage competition. By limiting the number of Spiritual Veins bestowed, these sects would look forward to outside competitions their members could join in once in every few years to secure resources. He did not want to complicate things so he stopped with a simple plan.

Now for the biggest problem of this project which is the process of determining reincarnates. Just like him, they cannot just proclaim they could remember their past lives as they might be targeted or labeled insane. He needs to devise a strategy to dig them out without revealing anything about them.

Kle In is in deep thought when he saw the blue marks on the map labeled Water Volcanoes.

Before the Unification War, these were homes to Variant Elvens whose upper bodies are that of High Elvens but the portion below their waist looks like a tail of a snake. Most cultivators refer to them as Naga. Kle In remembered they were mentioned in Ancestor Avur's odyssey. He took it out from his ring and turned to the page about Core Formation Breakthrough Pill.

"I intentionally lost to my brother so that he may receive a Core Formation Breakthrough Pill. In exchange, they will allow me to roam freely. The truth is, I did not want to witness anymore in-fighting. In fact, I had not informed the elders, but I broke through to Foundation Establishment without relying on pills and I believed that I could do it again to break through to Core Formation.

I headed towards north near Sab Angan Water Volcano and for twenty years, I had been a guard during Naga mating season. It was there I had come to love rainy days.

Ul Al'iya clan believed that the reason Mother Nature is unable to birth Spiritual Veins is because of the imbalance caused upon by Black Qi eruptions and in an attempt to restore this balance, they built a Three Elemental Formation around the volcano and planted a Lammin Lotus Essence Flame at the center.

The Formation channels water at the center of the volcano and the Essence Flame in turn will heat and cause the water rich in Spiritual Qi evaporate into the air filling the atmosphere blessing kilometers and kilometers of vast lands when it rains.

The other reason the Formation was constructed is for Ul Al'iya clan to build a symbiotic relationship with the Nagas. Naga cultivators need to travel to fire volcanoes to temper their bodies but the Essence Flame at the center of the water volcano will give them a superior experience. These cultivators just need to collect and surrender the black goo substance excreted from their bodies during body refinement.

Combined with regular herbs, the black goo will be turned into an elixir which greatly improves the constitution of terrestrial cultivators. In fact, this elixir according Ancestor Brung is necessary for cultivators to resist the second tribulation to become Ascendants.

I was seventy when I broke through to Core Formation which still qualified me to open the reliquary left by first Ancestor. Grandpa said that it contained Heaven Qi Crystals which can allow Peak Nascent Souls reach Ascension Level. Unfortunately, when I opened it later when I became a patriarch, it only contained a note that such crystals can only be found on planets near "hotspots". I do not know what that was, but it is probably a higher form of Spiritual Vein which Ascendants can only absorb.

Anyway, I was rewarded a lesser elixir and I still cannot believe I survived twenty years to get a chance to eat Naga excrements. As a patriarch, one must have the foresight to.. "

Kle In closed the book as he was inspired on a better plan. He wants to study the feasibility in adopting the methods of this long-lost practice without repeating what happened to Ul Al'iya clan.

He is still amazed and bewildered at the same time as to how a mighty sect ceased to exist and not even a successor. The chronology of events dictates that a thousand year before their fall, the number of Spiritual Veins has already plummeted, yet they unsparingly built a formation to distribute Qi to the environment in hopes of reviving the planet's ability to birth Spiritual Veins.

However, none of the books he has read contains information as to how they were attacked or any significant events that would besmirch the clan or anything that would trigger an attack.

The only lead he has is the galactic war between Federation and Immortal Blood Sect. While records indicate that they were attempting planetary expeditions, if seen from a third party perspective, their noble acts to explore other sources of Spiritual Qi cannot cover their acquisitive nature and for one ultimate purpose, Ascension.

Many of the elders of Ul Al'iya clan must have reached the peak of Nascent level and they were probably looking for a way to reach Ascension Level. Although the reason of their demise still remains a mystery, the only logical inference for a powerful clan with massive influence to be eradicated is that they were attacked by Ascendants which means that somewhere in or outside this planet is an Ascendant overlooking and guarding or rather is playing gods with this planet.

Kle In sat down and concentrated on stabilizing his primary meridians. That mystery can only be solved in the future. His task is to build them a foundation and just leave them a message that a mighty clan once perished when they planned to Ascend. As long as they won't go beyond this ambition, they should prosper like Ul Al'iya clan.