Life changed for Laude after his little midnight experience in more ways than one. The following day, Alnus summoned him to his busted mountain shack and informed him about the future that awaited him.

To put it bluntly, Laude had a tumultuous destiny waiting for him outside the confines of White Dew Society.

As someone had been chosen by the Heavens, he would undoubtedly be a person of interest to a myriad of influential individuals, groups, Societies, and other organizations across the cultivation world.

It was the general consensus in the cultivation world that Oseo was in the process of being abandoned by the Heavens. Yet, amid this estrangement, it had selected someone for an unknown purpose.

"That reason alone will be enough for everyone in the cultivation world to pursue you. In all probability, they will hunt you down," said Alnus grimly. "They are akin to desperate men lost in a desert, you see. And to them, you will appear like a beautiful, life-giving oasis, the answer to all of their problems."

It would not be an understatement to say that every major power in the cultivation would gladly spill oceans of blood if it meant securing Laude for themselves. Such was the importance of a person who possessed a unique connection to the Heavens.

If Laude's connection could be successfully exploited, there was no telling what these major powers might do with it.

"Perhaps they'll try using you to redirect the world's flow of Spiritual Qi to their country, or they might try to use you as a tool to reach the Heavens by some unknown means. A rogue Society might try to turn you into a weapon to use against the Heavens or sacrifice you in a macabre ritual," said Alnus.

"There's also the very high probability that an organization may try to kill you outright. Rather than permitting an unknown and potentially dangerous element like you cause havoc around the world, some of the more... extreme orthodox and rogue Societies will opt to have you assassinated to keep the peace."

Nothing was off the table. Either way, Alnus told Laude that he had only two options if he was to survive.

The first option Laude had was to cling onto the leg of a major power. That is, he should join a powerful Society or organization and use their backing to protect himself. All he had to do was stroll into the territory of any influential Society and tell them his identity.

"This path will secure your safety, but it will come at a price. You understand, right? You'll be treated like a heavenly treasure, which is nice on paper but..."

"Treasures are precious things that are kept locked in safe places. That's what you're getting at, right?" said Laude. "The price for that safety I'd obtain will be my freedom. If that's the case... I reject. I refuse to become a jewel for some high-and-mighty Society to show off."

If that was the case, then there was only one path available to Laude at the moment — to live a life perpetually on the run.

There was no other choice. Without someone to protect him or a status to back him up, Laude would have to fend for himself.

"You'll never be able to remain in one place for too long, so you'll have to become a wanderer. You'll also have learn how to hide in plain sight. Not just from cultivators but also from mortals, too. Many organizations use mortals as spies and informants for a variety of purposes. Deception and trickery will become the most important tools in your arsenal," said Alnus wryly.

"And you'll have to learn how to fight. With so many people out to capture and kill you, it's practically guaranteed that you're going to be getting into fights. You might even be forced to kill to protect yourself. You will have to be prepared to take a life if necessary..."

Although White Dew Society taught its disciples how to fight, the martial arts style that was taught was founded on the principles of self-defense. It was by no means a martial art style suited for killing other people.

The most violent moves that were taught at White Dew Society involved dislocating joints and breaking bones. At worst, the ideology behind these moves was to severely incapacitate an opponent into submission.

White Dew Society did not teach its disciples lethal techniques such as Meridian techniques, which involved forcibly injecting Spiritual Qi into an opponent's meridians to cause massive internal organ damage, or Qi Force techniques that used Spiritual Qi to cause external physical wounds.

Alnus let out a deep sigh and said, "I will be honest with you, Laude. White Dew Society is not strong enough to shelter you. The approaching storm headed your way would destroy this Society we tried protecting you. Let me be perfectly clear, Laude. There are only two types of people I despise in this world — people who break promises and betrayers..."

Laude smiled politely and replied, "Don't let it get to you, sir. I know you promised me safe refuge for as long as I needed it, but circumstances have changed. And there's no way I'd ever allow you or the rest of this Society to suffer on my behalf. In any case, I'd like to express my gratitude once again for taking me in and—"

"Whoa there, lad! Don't start packing your bags just yet, alright?" said Alnus, waving his hand casually. "Even though we cannot protect you from the parties that will surely pursue you, that does not mean we plan on throwing you out into the rain without at least giving you an umbrella and some warm clothing. Sure we're weak, but we're not heartless, my boy."

"The very least we can do for you now is prepare you for what is to come. That way, you will stand a chance at surviving and, perhaps with enough time, treading your own path through life without too much worry. To this end, I have convened with the Head Elders, and we have created an accelerated teaching program for you," said Alnus.

"Accelerated teaching program? What am I going to learn?" asked Laude curiously.

"Mostly practical skills. Immortal Arts, martial arts, talisman crafting, and the construction of array formations. As I understand, you're quite the scholar — Elder Tilia has informed me that you have read almost every book in the Spring Pagoda that is not part of the prohibited section. That is no small feat. The written scores you have received in your previous examinations also reveal your acumen regarding mystic theory. It's one of the reasons why we believe you'll be able to handle these tougher lessons."

Lauded grinned and said, "I'm always ready for a new challenge. So, when do we start?"

Alnus laughed as he admired the young lad's zest and eagerness to devour new information. Laude reminded him of himself back in the day when he had been completely enamored by the grand mysteries and wonders of the cultivation world. He had grown especially fond of him after Laude tried to excuse him for breaking the promise he had made to him.

The idea of forgiveness was extremely important to Alnus, and the fact that Laude had the heart to forgive was more than enough for him to put his best effort into teaching him everything he could. Bizarre as it all was, Alnus deeply offered his thanks to the Heavens in his mind for permitting someone like him to mentor such a good child...

The days passed, and snowflakes had begun to descend before Laude even realized it. In what seemed like a flash, another half-year had vanished, and Laude had grown into a proper man.

Although Laude had not aged a day, he now possessed an assertive mien that was completely unlike his former self. Paired with his crisp and tidy elder disciple robes, Laude made quite a sight to behold.

He still couldn't match a natural-born Cassanova like Shorea Ingel, who was blessed with a handsome face, but his new demeanor and style had been enough to turn some heads among the ladies at White Dew Society. Not that such a development mattered since Laude barely paid any attention to his surroundings recently.

When he wasn't holed up in his room studying, he could usually be found in Acadia-Soul Mountain's practice range performing some strange Immortal Art experiment. And every now and then, he'd show up at Mist-Shadow Mountain to spar with other disciples, an event that many disciples dreaded.

The problem lay with the fact that Laude was undying and therefore, did not tire. Unlike his human peers who would gradually become exhausted as a fight continued, Laude had the stamina of a zombie. And even though he still felt pain, Laude possessed the tenacious spirit of a cockroach.

No matter how badly he got thrashed, not once had he ever tapped out of a fight. He would just struggle and struggle and struggle until he either beat his opponents into submission or wore them out until they fainted outright.

There was nothing more disheartening than watching Laude spar someone. Watching Laude relentlessly attack his sweaty, tired opponents as they gasped for air was the stuff of nightmares. The only guaranteed way to win against Laude was to one-hit KO him...

The disciples of Cherry-Heart Mountain once called Laude the Book Demon because of his studying obsession, but these days he had earned himself another name on Mist-Shadow Mountain — the Kung Fu Zombie.

"...You do know that people fear you a little bit nowadays, right?" asked Belladonna as she attentively watched Laude create a defensive talisman with Spirit Qi-infused calligraphy ink. His background as a former government official had unexpectedly come back to help him when it came to making magical talismans.

The effectiveness of a magical talisman depended on the precision of the mystic glyphs written and the concentration of the Spiritual Qi contained within the calligraphy ink.

"Uh-huh. That's amazing, Bella. I can't believe that happened..." murmured Laude as he focused on penning a one-third-centimeter-wide mystic glyph. It was small enough that a single flick of his wrist would ruin that tiny mystic glyph.

The creation of talismans was an art form, a test of patience, and a measure of one's dexterity. Truth be told, it was also one of the best professions in the cultivation world. Talismans penned by grandmaster calligraphists had immense value in the mortal world as works of art and life-saving tools or trump cards in the cultivation world.

Though no one admitted it, since possession of the excessive money was frowned upon, mystic calligraphists had some of the wealthiest people in the world in their ranks. And that was precisely why Laude was so obsessed with refining his calligraphy skills.

He was going to need money in the future when he eventually left White Dew Society. Even though he didn't need to eat or drink, he would still need money to pay for new clothes, transportation, lodging, raw supplies for producing elixirs and talismans, and everything else that had a price tag under the sun...

The overwhelming majority of all cultivators received money by exorcising dangerous wraiths, cleansing land of spiritual impurities, and setting up defense arrays that slowed down the accumulation of lost spirits and malevolent energy. And what was the unifying connection between these activities? They all required the use of talismans in some capacity.

Most cultivators were paid with food or a bit of money for their services, even though it was an unspoken rule to never ask for payment. On the other hand, acts of charity were acceptable if the offering party insisted.

As a result, most wandering cultivators traveled wherever jobs were, much akin to vagrants. They were homeless most of the time unless they were part of a Society or similar organization with a permanent headquarters.

Laude had no interest in becoming a homeless drifter, traveling wherever the damn wind took him. He'd kill himself (if he could do it) before ever doing something as unsightly as that.

Even some animals have nests, burrows, or dirty little holes they call homes! Humans live in houses! Civilized people live under a roof, even if it's a roof made of straw or branches! I refuse to wander around from inn to inn like a dirty merchant!

While Laude was fuming inside his head, Belladonna scowled and said, "Hey, are you listening to me? I said that Head Elder Ohtal is asking for you! He wants you to head over to Lantern-Bridge Mountain for something..."

The words "Head Elder Ohtal" immediately snapped Laude out of his rage-induced tunnel vision trance and he said, "...What time is it, Bella?"

Belladonna thought about it for a second before she replied, "I think it's about three hours past noon? Why? Is somethi—"

In the span it took for a housefly to flap its wings once, Laude shot out of his seat like a cannonball, tossing his work desk — and his painstakingly (and still wet) half-finished talisman and inkpot into the air — as he madly made his way out of his room with the speed of an escaped convict on death row.

The talisman sailed for a couple of seconds on an outside breeze before it landed on Belladonna's bewildered head. Laude's inkpot had a slightly lower trajectory and crashed into her lovely white robes, dyeing them black instantly. When Belladonna realized what had happened to her, she bristled with rage and burst out of Laude's room in pursuit like an enraged bull who had seen the color red.

It all made quite a bizarre sight to behold. Several disciples gaped dumbly as they watched Laude run wildly toward Lantern-Bridge Mountain, only to witness the ever-serene Belladonna chase after him with a bloodshot expression.

After the odd duo passed by, the disciples glanced knowingly at each other and shook their heads. None of them desired to know what that was all about — the less they interacted with Laude, the better they'd be off. It wasn't as if they hated him or anything; they just knew that he had a penchant for getting involved in troublesome matters...

...Or rather troublesome matters had a way of finding him.

In the last half-year alone, Laude had gotten himself in trouble with three other neighboring Societies. Every time Laude had been permitted to leave White Dew Society for an outside training session, he had gotten in trouble with other Societies.

During one of Laude's outside sessions, he got into an altercation with a bunch of disciples from Clear Stream Society over who would accept a notably profitable exorcism job. Several heated exchanges later, Laude had beaten all of those disciples unconscious and used them as living bait to lure out a soul-eating wraith.

Naturally, this sort of unruly conduct did not go over very well with the Head Elders of Clear Stream Society. But in the end, no one was killed or severely maimed in the incident, so the fogeys at Clear Stream Society were only capable of complaining to Alnus about it. A half-hearted slap on the wrist later, Laude was released back into wild to cause more trouble.

Unlike the majority of well-raised disciples who had grown up within the confines of White Dew Society, Laude was someone who was born on the outside. His adherence to the Five Constant Virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness) was flimsy at best...

Even so, no one could deny that Laude was abnormally gifted in the mystic arts. In the span of two years, he had become an elder disciple. That alone would not have been a very impressive feat until one accounted for that Laude had only begun cultivating after he arrived in White Dew Society as an ignorant mortal.

Although Laude couldn't compare to them in terms of spiritual growth gained through the slow and steady Consolidation practice, he had passed almost every disciple in terms of esoteric knowledge of cultivation and theoretical understanding of mystic theory.

The only people whom Laude could not beat in these academic terms were the Head Elders, auxiliary Elders like Granny Tilia, and a handful of much older elder disciples who were on track to being promoted as auxiliary Elders. These were all people who had spent, on average, a literal human lifetime — 70 to 90 years — studying and researching the Will of Heaven, the Dao, mystic theory, and Immortal Arts.

And the Head Elders? They were all methuselahs who had spent centuries accumulating knowledge on these subjects. As far as Laude was concerned, they were all walking libraries in their own right.

Having exhausted every book, scroll, and journal in the Spring Pagoda, Laude spent the last half-year learning under the direct guidance of the Head Elders.

Of the five Head Elders, Agathis Ohtal was the one Laude had come to enjoy learning under the most. Unlike the other four Head Elders, Ohtal's approach of the mystic and supernatural was based on a relatively new perspective founded only several hundred years ago — the scientific method.

As evident from its name, it was a new method of accumulating knowledge that originated in the Northern Coalition of Unified States, better known as the N.C.C.S. or just the Coalition.

They were a new superpower that emerged roughly four hundred years ago after experiencing the effects of the global decline of Spiritual Qi.

It was said that the first sign of the decline of Spiritual Qi occurred in the northern hemisphere of Oseo and therefore, the countries that were located there had been the first to begin adapting to a world without it.

They had been forced to do so out of necessity — without Spiritual Qi, everything that ran on it was eventually rendered inoperable.

Flour mills, farming tools, self-moving carriages, flying ships, mystic weapons, and everyday appliances all operated by drawing power from Spirit stones or Spiritual leylines. But with their gradual disappearance, these countries had been forced to look for alternative energy sources for their tools and inventions.

From that desperation came the birth of steam engines, electrical power, and the usage of coal. The people in the North switched to mining a different type of stone, and with it, a revolution of thought occurred.

Nowadays, the world was divided between the northern hemisphere that had begun living in a world without Spiritual Qi and the southern hemisphere that still maintained the old ways as Spiritual Qi had not yet disappeared there.

The relationship between the Old World and the New World was an awkward one, to say the least. In many regards, both sides coveted what the other possessed. At the same time, both sides had sentiments of contempt, disgust, and fear for one another for various reasons...

In any case, Head Elder Ohtal was someone who had come from the Coalition. He was a foreigner from the North who had stumbled into the world of cultivation a century and a half ago by accident. He had been an inventor and academic in his mortal days, which is why he had such an unusual method of studying the mystic world compared to his peers at White Dew Society.

The way Ohtal tried to quantify and explain what many before him called a "heavenly mystery" and left alone was what drew Laude to him like a moth to candlelight.

Laude detested such excuses — every time he read the phrase "heavenly mystery" in a book or journal, he took the phrase to mean, "I can't explain what this is, so I'm going to say some ambiguous bullshit". He wouldn't even have been mad if the author had just admitted that he couldn't explain what he had seen; he just wanted them to be honest about it.

That fact that Ohtal had the balls to say the words "I don't know" is what made Laude like him the most. Ignorance wasn't a sin; not doing anything about it was a sin. Laude and Ohtal were of the same mind when it came to that regard, which was why they meshed so well.

When Laude arrived at Lantern-Bridge Mountain, he felt a low rumble beneath his feet akin to a small earthquake. The moment Laude felt that rumbling, he picked up his pace even further and shouted at the top of his lungs, "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU ALL NEED TO GET OFF THE MOUNTAIN RIGHT NOW!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, PEOPLE! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!"

Disciples who heard Laude's warning heeded his orders without question and immediately sounded blaring alarms across the mountain in a smooth, practiced manner. After all, this was not the first time such an event had occurred. Everyone from Lantern-Bridge Mountain knew that something big was about to go down. The question wasn't whether something was going to happen, but whether...

...Laude and Head Elder Ohtal would completely blow up Lantern-Bridge Mountain this time around.