My mind pours over the information flooding into me from my scan. The star renewal flower is an extremely rare 10 pedaled flower that grows in deep, jungle-like, spiritual beast territory. Knowledge about where it grows is rare because uses for it have not been publicly determined at this time.

Its name comes from its appearance, as well as the fact it seems to periodically bloom at night. In addition, it has the tendency to bring lightning bugs around it when it blooms. Only problem is, these bugs are parasitic and will latch onto low tier cultivators, like ticks. With similar risks and treatment needed. Not a fun situation, especially if you have to head to a physician covered in the equivalent of Christmas lights.

That isn’t the serious part, though. It’s the fact that you have to go deep into a jungle with a large variety of creatures, plants, diseases, and a whole mess of other traps/environmental hazards. This jungle is also covered in low tier spiritual beasts of all shapes and sizes.

A treasure trove for higher tier cultivators that can easily handle such dangers and near impossible for low tier ones (without support).

With that said, if you had support, as would normally be expected, you would be able to buy a number of different concoctions and talismans to be able to make it through this journey.

So, in all technicality, this really is a normal request for low tier cultivator that believes they have the support and framework together to be able to handle a normal inner court request. Especially, since anyone who is able to make it into the inner court would normally either have the skill or the backing to support them being there.

Now, for someone like me, with the scanning and taming ability, this is somewhat difficult, but manageable. I found the information needed, can move quickly, and can handle most of the environmental dangers (including the spiritual beasts).

But all of this should still be, from her perspective, impossible. All because of one stipulation she’s added, the time limit.

The information itself on where to find it would be possessed by alchemists, who would have a relationship with the guild, or the guild itself.

If I skip the guild, they could delay the information by putting pressure on the alchemist I contact. Even for a normal request, this time limit is short. They only need to delay me for a few days and that would be enough to make me fail (if I was normal).

If I go directly to the Alchemy Guild, they can help me and assist me in getting into the inner court at a huge cost.

It’s likely she doesn’t know of the attempt on my life, but even considering that… the Alchemist Guild would likely still negotiate. They could extract a lot from me in that position. For both past offenses and the current request.

There are a lot of things that make this request an absurd one. One that no one in their right mind would take.

Almost mirroring my thoughts, she gives me an out but stresses this point.

“In a day, I will be back here watching some of the other tests. If you would like to cancel this challenge, you can do so at that time. Otherwise, I expect this completed within 16 days, at the end of this series of examinations.”

I see.

By giving me an impossible challenge, she can show she’s followed the guidelines, but is still giving face to the person who requested to keep me in the outer court and the Alchemy Guild. If I accept a request like this, it will show that she didn’t have a chance to prevent me in the first place.

On the other side, that she’s still giving me a chance to ‘rectify’ this shows that there is no true animosity between us. This is an extremely gracious measure, considering what I’ve just done. Now, whether it is a calculated move or a natural part of her personality remains to be seen.

With all of this in mind, I plan to take full advantage of it.

After these words of hers, everyone’s eyes have fallen back on me. Those behind me are watching as my back straightens and my head lifts with pride.

I stare into her eyes and I bow deeply before raising myself back up with a nod.

I then use my enhanced vocal cords to speak with deep respect. A little bit of which, I strangely feel after experiencing her spiritual pressure.

“Yes, Elder Song! As you commanded, I will come back with the petals in hand… or I will be a dead man. Thank you for the opportunity!”

And immediately turn around and launch myself like the Hulk, up and over all 2000 of the other applicants. Unfortunately for me, I did not anticipate how strong going through the spiritual pressure training would make me.

I jumped almost a kilometer within about 6 seconds.

I moved so quickly that suddenly being in air shocked me a bit. Even more scary was the ground coming to meet me so quickly. I jumped again in fear of being hurt by it.

This jump took me even farther… about two kilometers out, at within a slightly longer amount of time.

As I bounded away, a look of shock came over her face at my words and then actions. My scan barely saw the twitch of her hand reach out slightly, but I was already quite a distance away.

My close personal group seems to mull over the events and what to do, while the personal group is both anxious and excited.

Most of the Applicants are itching to be able to contact their information networks about what just occurred.

Senior Song holds them there, though. She even stops the cultivator that I fought with and the other overseeing one, to have them listening, even when it’s clear that they want to head back to elder Ro and the other to their contacts.

The last my scan shows, as the distance grows between us, is her looking thoughtfully in my direction and letting them know she has quite a bit more to tell them.

It seems to be a move to give me more time.

Does she know that I have enemies in the crowd?

Without scanning her, it’s so hard to tell what she knows and doesn’t know. Either way, I can assume this is done with good intentions.

Finally reaching the ground, I use my height and speed to move extremely quickly down the mountainside.

I could use the merchant path, but my scan shows that going down that way will gain much too much attention. I have a small window of time from where information will be shared and I’ll start getting tracked by different groups.

Part of the reason that I did the challenge at the time I did was because at that point in time only the elder there is usually watching. It would be considered rude for another cultivator to use their spiritual sense to watch what’s going on.

By her keeping everyone there, including that cultivator that was interjecting, she’s bought me enough time to reach the forest, if I rush.

The item I’m looking for can be found in several jungles. The most easily accessible is The Injured Web, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

While there are other jungles with the item that is physically closer, they connected this one to a teleportation network in the outer city. If I can get there and pay my way in, I can be there by the end of today.

At the speeds I’m traveling, I actually make it down the mountain well within 30 minutes. Each step downward was a strain, but my time in the tunnels and the constant healing of my body helped me deal with it.

It scared me a little.

What would happen if I actively trained my limits?

Distracting me from this train of thought is something like a notification from my scan. A thing I knew would happen eventually, but was surprised happened right now.

As of this moment, every homeless person on the streets in this part of the outer city has been healed. They haven’t gotten past the giant walls sectioning off the other areas, but within here the healing rats spread to every place.

My first step into this same part of the city reveals something else. Something that directly contradicts what I just received from my scan.

The sick old man is on the corner. The one I saw at the temporary dorms when I first entered the city. And the scanning vibes I get from this… is that if I heal him, I’ll have it.

My Cultivation method.

This seems way too much of a coincidence.

… right?