"What is your opinion on the vassalage that Yvonne is seeking?" I asked Clement.

I had planned on ending our conversation once I'd set the bait, but Toi asked that I keep talking. She had been examining the Weir as Clement, and I had been speaking, and she had noticed something that she thought she could make use of.

"Administering the territory comes with no real upside or downside," Clement replied. "Cultivator Yvonne selected a Fief next to yours, but in the interior as it is, there are no settlements, no towns, no people.

"Until that changes, and the resources the area might contain can be exploited. Yvonne's request does nothing but place her territory under your control. With nothing to farm, protect. With no imports or exports. The territory will remain more a wildlife preserve than anything else."

"The Weir is producing a small amount of spiritual energy, enough that I might be able to trace and track the connection back to the location where the four individuals are watching," Toi informed me through our astral connection once she finished examining the Weir.

"Track it," I sent through our bond. "See if you can pinpoint where they are, at least relevant to the Sect's location."

"Then I'll discuss the situation with Yvonne. I want to know why she needs someone to administer her Fief first," I replied to Clement, and for the benefit of those watching and listening. "I don't think she is the type of Cultivator that would try to sabotage me or my Fief, so there should be no harm in finding out her motivation behind this."

It had become second nature to hold two conversations at the same time by this point. Storm and I had always sent each other messages, no matter who I was with or what I was doing. Those messages had often been more emotive and visual then language, but the practice I had garnered from those discussions had come in handy.

They had given away their general location with their discovery. Toi had triangulated their position, placing them in the area of Mount Krackus. But searching Mount Krackus for egress into the cave system they were using would still be a daunting task. They will have shielded the opening behind illusion formations. And anyone willing to scour the mountain for that entrance would eventually be noticed.

Possibly attacked.

Instead, once they noticed Cultivators searching, they would hope to remain hidden and desire to remain undiscovered. But they would be found. I recognized the thematic nature of their masks. It bore a similarity to the Nascent Soul Realm cultivator that had attacked Xiwang.

That person had been part of the smuggling ring, and he had worn a mask as well. A faceless black mask that had been enchanted to absorb light. I had thought little of it at the time, assuming that the mask was a means of hiding his identity. But seeing these four individuals masked when they had no reason to be had me reassess that assumption.

There was a reason they were hiding their identity. They didn't trust anyone, and it seemed not even themselves. Patriarch Umbra and Elder Shadow would undoubtedly be interested in questioning any surviving members of that smuggling ring.

"The terms Adept Yvonne is offering are more than fair," Clement pointed out. "She's not even requesting you invest in the area or try to establish a village or town. If you never develop the area, then you never have to worry about profits and shares that normally are the major concern between Lord and Vassal."

"How can Yvonne afford not to have at least some income from her barony?" I wondered. "Is there nowhere suitable to build a settlement and advance it into a town or city? Or has she not had the area surveyed?"

"Adept Yvonne seems to be focused entirely on her secondary profession," Clement said. "She is not only striving to advance from Adept to Master; her goal is to reach the Grandmaster rank as an armorer in leather by the time she reaches the Nihility Realm.

"She is an interesting woman, spending as much time and effort in innovation as she does in custom crafting armor tailored to a specific person. Her skills and unique designs are highly sought after."

"The armor she crafted for me has allowed me to be as effective with my offense as I am with my defense," I replied in agreement. "The spatial pockets she integrated into the armor allow me to pack reams of fabric I can release instantly.

"That might not seem that important, but with my control over wind, I can use that billowing fabric to confuse and confound whatever I am fighting. It works as well on beasts and monsters as it does on cultivators, none expecting to be buried under a pile of cloth."

As we spoke, my Dharmic body felt a tug from Toi, a connection across the astral that hinted at worry and fear. I hadn't realized it was possible to have my astral body dissociate from my body and follow the connection we shared, not until I felt that tug.

It was a surreal sensation, an out-of-body experience that was part dream, part spirit, and completely disorienting. But I followed that astral thread, heeding the warning and worry that I felt from Toi.

Once I arrived, I found myself not in the room the four individuals that were spying on us were watching us from, but in a cavern system that led deeper under the mountain.

"I thought I might scout the area," Toi explained once I was able to orient myself to my surroundings and the strange experience of my Dharmic body leaving my mindscape. "I thought it best that you see for yourself."

The cavern that she was leading me toward was filled with a pool of bubbling lava. By extending my perception, I was able to trace the lava byproducts that fed into a lake of molten magma. I doubt my physical body could withstand the heat, pressure, and poisonous gases that permeated the area, but my Astral body could ignore the physical world.

The bubbles of lava continued to burst like an obscene parody of water geysers and, while more active than I would expect, seemed natural enough. That was until one of the more significant lava eruptions revealed the monsters hidden within.

I wasn't aware that this type of monster even existed. Giant Fire Krakens. Squid-like creatures that I'd only known to live in ocean water. Whomever these people were, they had managed to breed a version of Kraken that would be able to survive on land.

If they managed to enlarge the lava tubes that crisscrossed the island, allowing these Kraken to navigate those tubes. These monsters could erupt beneath the very foundations of towns, cities, and even the Sect.

I had already planned on reporting this to the Sect, but this required immediate action. The Patriarch would have to act. I could not deal with this on my own. The individuals spying on me were probably at least the same Realm as the cultivator that had died attacking Xiwang and that had taken the help of the Triad of Spirits, Yvonne, Storm, and a bit of serendipity and a lot of luck.

If I factored in the discovery of these new monsters?

There was no way I could deal with this, even with Toi and Clement's help. The Sect would have to get involved, root out these cultivators, and find a way to deal with the Fire Krakens. Before, they drilled deeper into the planet's mantle and used the lava at the core to escape the island and attack not only the Empire but all civilizations and kingdoms across the world.

The Empire might be large, but they weren't the only planetary government. And if the other political parties received even a hint that something like the Fire Kraken had been developed and unleashed on the world because of events and people from the Empire, they would ignore differences in policy and culture to destroy the Empire for its negligence.