Gramma looked at the old man, who Althea just presumed was her husband, and then turned back to her.

"I have no idea. What do you want in return?" she asked. So, negative on the trust. Ok, she could still work with this.

"Oh, nothing." Althea replied, trying to give her most conciliatory smile. Gramma just seemed to get more wary. So, that was not the way to go.

"The situation simply reminded me of something I faced long ago." she said. Perhaps she should have told them she wanted something. But it was too late now. And she didn't know what the heck she wanted. Asking for people was just morally wrong...and they didn't seem to have anything else she would want.

"The heir to the Diery family was once powerless?" Gramma expressed her doubt. "Even I have heard of your family's name, Countess. Forgive me if I do not believe you."

"Not every parent loves their child, Gramma. To some, they are just nuisances." Althea gave her a sad smile. Gramma would probably presume that the old countess had done something to her. That was close enough to the truth, anyway.

The old woman stiffened, and then her shoulders relaxed. The wariness fading from her expression. Althea was sure that Gramma didn't trust her fully yet, but she wouldn't kick her out. For now, she believed her.

Muttering something about families, Gramma gestured for her to follow her into a tent. Althea extended her senses towards the village, realizing it was much bigger than she had thought. There were only a few hundred houses, but there were a dozen people living in each one.

The people were also very weak. A lot of them had the same element as Aasha. Like two thirds of them.

"Is this a refuge?" she asked.

Gramma raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"

"There are a lot of people with the same element. And most don't seem related to each other." she said.

The old woman's brows furrowed. "Aasha mentioned you told her she had an element. How can you be sure? Even those with greater cultivation than you have said that they do not have an affinity for any element."

"I have a Skill. As for those people, if they cultivated the manual Aasha talked about, then they could have missed it. The manual one cultivates shades their mana sense." she said. The thing she detected first was consistently one of the four natural elements.

This wasn't just because they were common, she had an affinity for them. The Skill she had made her better...but it wasn't perfect, and her mana sense was innately flawed. Althea wondered if she could sense meridians if her skill leveled up. And if it would help her sense what the Great Mother was up to. Even if she could block Mind tendrils, who knew what else this super powerful entity had up her sleeve.

"The Martial manual does not have any element." Gramma commented.

Althea shook her head. "Yes, but it has an inclination. A manual must have an inclination, something that focuses it. I suspect that it has something to do with Path. A manual provides a Path for the cultivator, and one can only sense so far beyond it. At least, using power you gain from the manual. The Grandmaster stage probably removes a lot of those limitations."

Or did it? The Grandmaster involved the Path. How much did it involve? Just because the Path was causing problems right now, didn't mean that it was that important. To be honest, the relation between the Path and manuals was something she had figured out from the burning tree's words. The entire hypothesis was new and untested as of yet.

Then again, she still had no idea how to test it.

"I shall have to take your word for it." Gramma said. "I have no idea what a Path is. Is this element something that you have come across before?"

Althea sighed. "Not really. Finding a manual that suits them will be difficult."

"A pity, but expected." Gramma said. "Do you mean what you said about killing Lord Zhang?"

"Yes, though I might need your help." Althea said. Even if she wanted to kill Zhang, she still remembered what had happened when she fought someone from the Southern continent before. "I have very little experience fighting Masters. The last fight I had did not go well."

Gramma furrowed her brows. "Aasha thought you could defeat Zhang. The girl can be surprisingly reliable at times, especially when it concerns her brother. And far too smart. I doubt she made such an assumption carelessly."

Althea suppressed a giggle at Gramma mentioning how it was surprising that the girl was reliable. Aasha clearly had a reputation for being reckless.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Aasha is still a Novice. Perhaps I do not know her well enough, but she could have simply been impressed by my powers. A mage's power can be a bit more flashy than a martial artist's." she answered.

"That is true." Gramma said. "I take it that you want a spar?"

"That would be preferable." she mentioned.

"Asking for us to show you our power minutes after you enter the village. If I didn't know better, I would say you were scoping us out."

Althea's smile vanished. How had she missed that implication? That was careless of her. Oh, fudge, she had been underestimating the person in front of her. That...was terrible of her. Thinking about other things when she should have focused on what she did was unladylike of her.

Had she done that in a ball, the nobles would've had a field day with her. The art of misunderstanding what someone was saying was a big part of noble society. What was being said was often the only thing that wasn't being said.

Althea opened her mouth to defend herself, but Gramma put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thankfully for you, I believe you. A spar it is. I will call Adita over. That is my husband that you met before."

So she had been right about them being a couple. The names were Indian, but the society seemed to be very different. Weren't Indians vegetarian?

"Thank you. "she replied, getting up.

The two of them headed out, though Althea seemed to be the only one excited about the battle. The thought of testing her abilities out on someone that wasn't as frustrating to fight as Feng gladdened her.

On the other hand, if every battle turned out to be as frustrating as the battle with Feng, she would be core blasting every enemy from here to the northern continent. There would be no mercy for these people.

The wind picked up as she walked towards a clear area. A rack of weapons lay on a makeshift shelf nearby. A crowd was gathering already. Althea smiled as her dress began to glow, mana gathering as she prepared.

"Are you ready?" she asked, her opponents.

"No." Gramma said with an unamused expression before starting to crack her joints and do basic warm-ups.

"Just because you young uns can go around battling doesn't mean we can." she said, continuing what looked like a sit-up. Well, she now knew where she should look for a workout plan.

A few minutes later, the two of them were finally ready.

"Now?" she asked.

"Yes." Gramma said, rushing towards her. Althea pushed her onto the ground the same as Isa, slowing it down when she realized the woman wasn't defending. The old man rushed at her, but she just trapped him in an Earth cage.

A fist punched through the Earth as the old woman got up. The fist was bleeding, the old woman had trouble standing up, her knees looking uncooperative. Althea flashed towards her as noise suddenly exploded from the peanut gallery.

"I don't think this is working.' she said as she helped the old woman up. Fighting someone that couldn't stand up was quite frustrating.

"I can still punch," Adita protested weekly.

Althea looked at him, mana gathering as Earth trembled below him as he jumped up, side stepping out of the way. The ground started transforming into boulders, erupting out of the ground as they shot towards him.

"Can you block that?" she asked as the old man tried to block one boulder, just coming into the path of another.

The thing about Feng was that he was faster than her. This old man wasn't. In fact, he was significantly slower. So slow that she could chuck boulders at him.

"No." the old man said, looking at the boulder. "Didn't you say you didn't fare well in a fight? Just who were you fighting?"

"Feng." she answered, not sure if they would know about him.

"Haven't heard of him, but Lord Zhang is gonna have a hard time fighting you. The man is fast as heck, but he can't punch worth shit. Just throw a few walls at him and he'll be dead. How'd you get the wall to be that thick, anyway?" he asked. "Haven't seen that happen. And I fought a lot of those pointy-eared bastards."

Althea raised an eyebrow. The Elves did skirmish with humans from time to time, but she hadn't expected to meet someone that had actually fought in one.

"I simply had the earth grow denser. Transforming it a bit can do wonders for structural integrity. Think of granite instead of sandstone." she said.

"And here I thought Earth mages depended on their surroundings. Wouldn't want to fight one of 'em on a mountain, but the desert's another matter." he commented.

"The desert actually presents a variety of interesting options for Earth mages, there is plenty of earth mana to go around." she answered, smiling. "Just imagine a sandstorm turning into a storm of boulders."

The old man looked at her with a look that was dangerously close to a puppy. Did she just talk about battle to a battle fanatic? Althea had a feeling she would not be free for the next several hours.

sc

The feeling of hers turned out to be correct. The spar might have been less than useful, but the information the two could give was quite useful. As it turned out, battle manuals were less plentiful than she had been led to believe. The manual most of the continent cultivated was the Martial manual, but battle manuals were only available in sects and clans.

As the Steward had said, there were no nobles in the Southern Continent. The Continent was quite like a xianxia world, where the Sects and Clans only superficially divided land among themselves. That led to small territorial lords like this Zhang popping up.

This part of the continent had been cleaned of any powerful forces when a certain black fog had rolled through it. That meant she was in the eastern part of the continent. The South Eastern part of it to be exact. Gramma had a map.

To show their gratitude, they had helped her plan a route that would have her avoid any important factions. There was just too much danger going through the territory of a powerful faction. If they recognized her and decided to take advantage of her, then it would be difficult.

Heck, she probably should not have revealed herself to Gramma. The old woman had hit her on her head with her staff for her overconfidence. Presuming her assumptions were correct was becoming a bad habit of hers.

But it was done. The day passed away like that, and Althea spent most of the night meditating. As a Master, she didn't really need sleep, and sleeping meant not paying attention to attacks in her mind. That meant the Great Mother could get in and mess with her. Of course, she could not let that happen.

Althea sighed as she saw the sun rise. The time had come. There was a plan of sorts. The location was still missing, but they had an idea of where to start looking. The only thing left was to get on with killing Zhang.