The blurred picture of a man being struck by lightning blasted across her vision as she found herself falling into the river. The surprisingly deep river. Of course, she did not actually drown. Althea was exhausted and more than a little confused about what had happened, but she still had her magic.

Mana churned as she brought herself back to the river's surface, observing the situation outside. As usual, it did not look good. There were two men staring at each other, one of them on the river bank and the other in the sky. Althea recognized both of them.

The first was the one that had just been struck by lightning, and the other was the one she had met while killing Zhang.

"Why do you interfere, Patriarch Zhang?" the man that had been struck by lightning asked. Althea narrowed her eyes. So this was the patriarch of the Zhang family. Which was bad. The Zhang family was an established Clan with an Adept at their head. A powerful one according to Gramma.

"This is my territory, you fool." Patriarch Zhang spat, literally spitting on the man from across this distance. The thought of using magic just to make one's spit fly across the distance made her cringe.

Althea watched the charred man stiffen, mana gathering around him as she prepared to defend herself.

"I said, this is my territory." Patriarch Zhang growled. "Zhang land extends till where the soil turns to sand. I do not remember allowing your kind to enter my territory."

"Are you sure you want to offend the Flowing Sword Sect, Patriarch? This shall have larger consequences than you think! The girl has already cost the life of my familiar! The Emperor shall not be pleased with your actions."

Althea gulped. The Flowing Sword Sect. Yes, she had heard of that. The sect was a small faction operating in the capital, but most of its power was in the fact that they had produced the Emperor. With how quickly Emperors tended to change on this continent, that wasn't as big a deal as one would think.

Still, even without the Emperor, the Sect was no pushover and could probably crush the county in a fight.

"Yes, I do. Complain to your Emperor if you wish. I shall see him if he dares protest." the Patriarch said.

Althea narrowed her eyes. Why was the Patriarch protecting her?

"Do not speak of the Emperor in this-" the man began, only to suddenly make a run for it. Althea was so surprised that she threw a lance of fire at him, thinking he was attacking her instead. But no, he was escaping. Running much faster than her without looking back.

The Patriarch suddenly looked much scarier. If that was what had made the man run. Althea wasn't sure, but it seemed likely.

"Hello." she said, donning a smile as she turned to the Patriarch.

The man just looked at her with a tired expression. Althea looked back. The man was middle-aged, with dark circles under his eyes. The skin on his face looked saggy, like something you would see on old people, but his movements were those of a much younger man.

The full head of hair he sported also seemed to imply that he was younger. Perhaps the saggy skin was a phenomenon of his manual?

"I would like to express my gratitude for saving my life." she said, curtsying. "If there is anything I can do to convey my gratefulness-"

"Get out of my land."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Get out of my land. I don't want you here. I especially don't want your aunt coming here again."

"I- I would like to apologize if I have offended you in any way-"

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"No, you didn't offend me. Please get out of my land. I am being polite, miss." the Patriarch glared at her. "Get out of here. I do not want you and your baggage anywhere near my people.

The last time your family travelled through these lands, I watched my entire sect be eaten by a black fog. I do not care to repeat that experience again. So please, do us all a favor and get the fuck out of my land."

The Patriarch sped off into the sky, leaving her alone, floating on a river. Well, that went well. The powers of the Southern continent clearly knew she was here now, and they also clearly wanted her. The Flowing Dragon Sect apparently wanted her dead for some reason. Althea couldn't tell why. Perhaps because of her talent?

The Southern Continent could be nervous about her talent. Even though Feng had defeated her, it was known that the gap between fighting capability narrowed as one's cultivation neared Grandmaster. So perhaps they still saw her as a threat?

A growl made her jump and turn around to see the bear still angry at her. The beats had gone silent when the two Adepts were fighting, but now it was back. Still not crossing the boundary, but growing at her from it. Why was it so angry?

Althea growled back at it, jumping when the Earth started to quake. The trees fell onto each other, the land rising up like a dough that was being pressed. Perhaps it was unwise to anger the hotheaded bear with earthquake powers. Yes, she would keep that in mind.

Turning around, she pointedly ignored the bear and ran in the opposite direction, avoiding the air for once. The Patriarch was a neutral entity at best. Even if he would protect her from other forces that wanted to harm her, would he protect her from beasts? That was a question.

A question she did not want answered. There was no point in risking her life again. The only thing that had saved her from becoming mincemeat at the bear's hand was luck. The bird could be blamed for forcing her onto that speed, but she was still the one that had gone around flying.

Not any more she wouldn't. There was a reason that people didn't fly to places around here, and it was large, homicidal bears that could throw hills at you. The ground would be fine for her, thank you very much.

Taking a step forward, she found herself making large footprints where she walked. The ground was wet soil, and she was quite heavy indeed. Leaving footprints wasn't an option either. What if someone used it to track her around? Althea wasn't exactly stealthy, but even she didn't leave a literal trail of footprints behind her for anyone to track.

Calling on the wind, she floated slightly higher, like a foot. Floating was actually more difficult than flying. The difficulty she'd had when she first started flying came back to her. Pushing herself up had been slower. Flying had been easier after, when she simply used the wind to shoot herself upward instead of just mana, but it showed one important problem.

Althea's mana lacked oomph. A hundred and three meridians were a hundred more than she wanted. Even if she could make up for the lack of power by pushing more mana, it was a weakness.

A weakness she needed to rectify.

Finding her path was priority one now. Even more than making her way north. With threats hovering around her, she needed to get stronger. And with Mastery still out of reach, fixing her path was the easiest way.

The only question was: what exactly was a path.

The path was something that could be passed onto another. The path had something to do with manuals, and how many meridians you had. That was about all she knew. There was more, like how she was apparently suited to the burning tree's path more than her own, but she didn't think that was relevant. The burning tree hadn't exactly told her what its path was.

So she had to figure it out by herself. Hmm, how did the first person that had discovered this stuff done it? That was how she should do it. Vader was probably the one responsible, so she should be able to. Now, where should she start?

The trees zipped past her as she moved ahead, moving slower than before, but still faster than someone walking. At the speed of a car really. Magic whirled around her as she closed her eyes, observing with only her mana sense. Mana passed through the world.

The natural cycle was here, but it was disturbed, very disturbed. The wind howled, its mana swirling around her, reaching out to her as she welcomed it. The mana here was even more plentiful than at the county.

What was missing was a cycle to properly balance it. The Earth had nearly no presence here. There was literally no Earth mana for her to call on until you looked a hundred meters below the surface.

What did take its place was some kind of strange mana that reminded her of Feng's attacks? Filled with so many elements that it wasn't anyone individually. Althea stopped flying ahead, observing the phenomenon. This was strange. So very strange. How did mana have multiple elements? The combination screamed it’s unnatural nature to her.

Just observing it made her mind unsettled, like a buzzing sound that refused to quiet down. A buzzing sound that looked like-she couldn't describe it. The phenomenon was so outside her comfort zone that she couldn't rightly say what it was. Like a honking street mixed in with heavy metal, and then some rock thrown in to make it more disorienting.

So disorienting that the more she looked at it, the more her headache ached. And yet, she could not look away. The phenomenon fascinated her. Calling to her like she called to mana, inviting her to explore it.

The phenomenon stank of magic. Screaming to her of the secrets of its formation. Althea wondered if she could figure out something if she solved it. Perhaps she could. That would mean delaying her journey, but…this was more important. The path was more important.

If the path had something to do with how one wanted to live their life, then she wanted to live her life searching for the secrets of magic. Just doing magic, for magic was a wondrous thing. Even if it was just throwing fireballs and whirlpools in this world.

Althea sat down, using her own mana to transform some rocks into a chair-there was no way she was sitting on the ground. The chair making disturbed the ground a little, but not much. The chaotic mana shifted, trying to merge with her mana. A few seconds after she held on, it gave up.

As a test, she let her control on the mana go. The chaotic mana moved again, encroaching on it. The mana in the chair fought for a second, but gave up very quickly. Althea jumped as the chair below her crumbled into soil, transforming into a slightly brown goop of mana. So that was why no plants grew here. The plants must suffer from the same phenomenon. That also explained why so much of the chaotic mana was green.

The mana had eaten the flora. And probably tried eating the animals too. The animals remaining were probably those that were both strong enough and intelligent enough to keep themselves safe from it. A human would not have as much problem, even a baby could protect their mana from it. The benefits of sapience.

But the less intelligent creatures of the world would die easily in this expanse. Althea's curiosity about the mana grew, wondering if she could somehow use it. A mana like that would be a potent weapon. The Warrior clan had clearly weaponized it in some form, she could do the same.

No, she would do the same. This journey had been too frustrating. Patriarch Zhang might want her out of his land quickly, but if she was going to go out and face people hunting her, she was going to do it on her terms. With a few new tricks in hand that could actually do something against Adepts.