Mist filled Tian Feng’s vision, as the whispers of the world carried by the Qi crawled upon his ears. The rivers of fate had been turbulent recently, clouding his vision of the future. Whatever tribulation the Heavens held in store for them, Tian Feng could not divine.

The Elder opened his eyes from his meditation, taking in the dark secluded chamber he sat in. A small turtle with golden swirls decorating its shell stood nearby, eating happily on some water attuned spirit herbs the Elder had procured for it. Tian Feng would not fault a disciple for mistaking the turtle to be a regular spirit, yet within that small and unassuming shell of the creature was a burning core shimmering with three circles, signifying the mastery over Qi the spirit had achieved. If the spirit hadn’t been recovering its third circle, then Tian Feng held no doubt that it would be able to compete with him in martial prowess.

“Had you taught him that odd attack?” Tian asked, looking at the turtle. The boy had shouted words in some language he was unfamiliar with, yet his divination had allowed him to touch on the meaning of the words. ‘Turtle Destruction Wave’ an odd art, if he’d ever seen one.

“Chirp?” Sheldon replied, seemingly confused.

“Poor technique, yet a masterful skill. To gather and compress Qi in one’s palms before striking at a small target,” Tian Feng said, and Sheldon continued to look at him silently. Perhaps the turtle did not wish to acknowledge that it was aware of Mystic Arts. Spirit beasts of the wild rarely could comprehend such things, and it only further added to the mystery of this particular one.

Spreading his divine sense, Tian Feng peered into the turtle’s spirit, finding a fractured inner world, yet a vibrant one, filled with both life and death co-joined together. The turtle’s budding divine senses pushed back against his, as he sensed the spirit’s annoyance at having his inner world peered into, yet the spirit lacked technique.

For courtesy’s sake, Tian Feng withdrew his divine senses. Turning to face Xiao Dong, he watched the turtle looking back with an inquisitive glance.

“I hope you appreciate the amount of work it takes me everyday to hide that child’s fate. Anyone at the seventh realm could easily peer inside his dantian, at the twin core he harbors, and the twisted knot of his soul,” Tian Feng said.

“Chirp!” the turtle chirped, not relaying any intent through the call before it returned to the feast of spirit herbs placed in front of it.

“It is rare to see you bested by a spirit Tian Feng,” Xian Yue spoke, rising from his dantian with a chiming giggle, as the light of the moon filled the dark room.

“I am far from infallible. And spirits of water have always been notoriously crafty, capable of changing with the flows of the world far sooner than the rest,” Tian Feng replied, though he sensed that it only served to increase Xian Yue’s mirth.

“As you say, Tian Feng. I will say, I am cross that it took you so long to inform me of the fate of that child. To think the grandfather of the fire demon Yang Shen, was teaching someone like him. I would think he would’ve already had you kill the calamity blossoming in our cradle.”

A threatening pulse of Qi washed over Tian Feng, as he turned to observe Xiao Dong, now watching the two of them intently.

“The boy is not to be harmed,” Tian Feng announced with a burst of Qi that covered the chamber. With a side glance, he eyes Xian Yue, to let her know of her mistake before he continued. “As far as Lao Zhang goes. He knows of the old Alchemists’ existence. The previous Lord had been the one to welcome the exiled Alchemist and provide him a place within the seventh peak. That favor has not been forgotten. It had been foolish of the Jade court to let such a man go for the crimes of his grandson. We will not make the same mistake.”

The chamber shook with his proclamation for a brief moment. Tian Feng watched Xiao Dong look at him for a moment longer, before the turtle returned to his spirit herbs.

“It is rare for me to say this Tian Feng. But I hope you know what you are doing. My sisters have been silent, and you know well enough what that means,” Xian Yue replied, meeting Tain Feng’s eyes before the lunar spirit returned to his dantian.

“Only time will tell Xian Yue. I merely hope the boy can resolve the conflict within his spirit before it is far too late. I fear there is not much time remaining for us.”

“Chirp!” The voice came from the turtle. Tian Feng turned to regard the spirit.

“Believe.”

Tian Feng watched the turtle, before his gaze shifted to the mist displaying Lu Jie walking through the forests, as he hid behind a bush to escape from a group of cultivators.

“In the end, that is all I can do.”

***

The rustle of the leaves surrounding me filled the air, accompanied by the sound of my breathing as I hid from the three cultivators scouring the area for me. The situation reminded me of being discovered in a stealth mission except there was no reset option here and I was simply fucked.

It hadn’t been more than a couple of minutes since I’d walked out of the cavern before I’d realized something vital that I’d failed to consider. The potency of all the spirit herbs on me. I was carrying three spirit herbs, all with extremely potent Qi and Essence filling them. There was no way that any cultivator nearby would fail to sense the Qi emanating from them.

Hurriedly, I’d moved the spirit herbs in my pouch, cracking open one of my drugnade cylinders as I carefully extracted the explosive pills from inside, before stuffing the herbs inside. I had managed to get all but the mushroom inside, when the cultivators had rushed towards me at high speeds.

Fast forward five minutes of chasing and jumping around and here I was, hiding in a bush nearby as the three cultivators ran around, looking for any signs of where I may be.

Twilight shifted under my robes, feeling a bit uncomfortable in the cramped space. I soothed her through my bond, asking her to hold on for a while. Stilling my Qi as much as I could, I turned back to look at the three cultivators.

There was one guy, lanky, and wearing simplistic yet expensive robes. He kept pulling out talismans that turned into flying paper birds, swirling around to find me. Extremely annoying, even if I was also extremely interested in knowing just what kind of art that was. I could sense two herbs on him. The cultivator next to him was shorter, and a wind cultivator from the looks of it, with one herb on him. The last guy straight up had a sword by his side, and also carried two herbs, for a total of five across their group.

I felt all of them to be at the peak of the third realm, and decided that suicide was not on the menu for today.

“But Master, we could gain five spirit herbs if we win! And Labby believes that Master can easily beat those three!”

I shook my head at Labby. “Being greedy is the biggest mistake I can make here. I’d rather not get robbed of all my spirit herbs already. Remember, there’s a time limit that we need to work with.”

“But what if Master gets help from the Snake-person?”

I frowned, focusing inwards at Labby. “Liuxiang? How would I? I haven’t a clue where he is.”

“Labby could find him! Labby can run around and smell for his Qi.”

I paused for a moment, thinking over the idea. It would be a great help to work together with Liuxiang, even if just for a while. Both of us were competing to win, but with the way the spirit herb hunt was set up, there was no reason to turn on one another, or even face one another. The only question remaining was how long it’d take Labby to find Liuxiang and for him to get here.

“Alright Labby, you’ve convinced me. Go and find Liuxiang, and ask him to come here. I’ve got a plan for these three in the meanwhile.”

“Squeak!” Labby replied, manifesting on my shoulder with a crackle of purple lightning. With a blast, she shot off through the patch of trees. I watched Labby run off for a moment, before turning to face the three cultivators. A plan began to take shape in my mind, as I calculated the risks and what preparations I would need to make for it to work.

Concealing my Qi, I stepped back from the bushes I was hiding in. Keeping an eye on the three cultivators, I slowly circle around them, making my way to a denser patch of a forest. After almost a minute of walking, with each step measured carefully to not make any sound, I finally found a location with a bunch of rocks that I could make use of.

Stepping in closer, I let Twilight poke her head out for a moment, as I approached the area. I looked down at Twilight, watching the little girl look back up at me with her beady red eyes.

“Twilight, can you help me grow the plants in this area to cover the rocks?”

“Chii?” Twilight asked, tilting her head, and I repeated myself, this time accompanying the words by a mental image shared through our bond.

“Chii!” Twilight chimed, before I sensed her frowning, as she looked up at me. “Help!” she exclaimed with effort, and I smiled, patting her little flowery head.

“Yes, help. Try and get a feel for the plants as I set things up,” I replied, setting Twilight onto the ground. I watched her walk around, and sniff at the plants and I let her. Digging in my pouch, I grabbed the exploding pills that I’d emptied from my drugnade, and then, carefully crushing the pills I spread them around.

Pulling out another Drugnade, I dug the ground lightly, before setting the drugnade in and covering it back up again with soil. Forming a very thin strand of Qi on my fingertips, I tied the trigger mechanism to the earth, maintaining a thin channel of Qi to the ground.

I grinned to myself as I saw the Qi diffuse in the area properly. As far as landmines went, this was very simple, far too simple in fact. There was a good chance that they would simply explode as I set them up or explode randomly, but I didn’t have time to experiment, so I could only be careful and do things right in one go. But despite the simplicity of it, if nothing else, I could still reach out and explode them manually if need be, so there was some room for error available with me.

Concentrating, I pulled two more drugnades and buried them nearby as well, repeating the steps I’d done so from before. I only have a couple drugnade remaining after I was done, but if I could get my hands on all five of those spirit herbs? I was hoping it’d be worth it.

Turning around, I nodded to Twilight as she chimed. Together, both of us extended our Qi, as I reached out to the world around me, and to the network of plants all around. Closing my eyes, I sensed their connection to the world around them, to the earth that tied them to the ground, and to the air that let them breathe. Quickly, I was able to reach the pulse of the cycle of Qi inside them. I sensed Twilight’s Qi reach out as well, feeble and small, yet infinitely more in tune with the plants around her than I was.

Following her lead, I poured my Qi outwards, as the plants around me began to grow rapidly. Roots spread through the ground, grass and bushes covering the surface as any sign of the drugnades I’d planted vanished.

Taking one last look, I connected little threads of Qi across the area, to the drugnades set into the ground before I turned.

“Now, to get those three to come here without raising too many suspicions,” I said out loud, a shit eating grin on my face, as I held back a mad cackle.

Who said it was martial strength that determined victory in this world? It was time for the Azure-Jade empire to learn the existence of a new Path.

The Path of big explosions.