As this was Aki’s first proper trip outside the sect, he took apt precautions. He had recently witnessed first-hand the extent of his martial prowess and was not delusional enough to give himself any chances in a fair fight against an opponent of equal cultivation to him. Besides, who could guarantee that the danger would be at that level? He would not let a possible fight be fair.

As a result, he ended up slipping 5 [Mega Death Beam] talismans into his pockets. It was about half of the sect’s whole supply of them, as only elder Midnight Sun actually had the skills required to make more. As long as he was able to aim it in the general direction of his enemies, he should be able to manage a win. And by “win”, he meant “total incineration of target”.

In addition to those, he packed plenty of protective talismans and his flight tools. Aki had decided that for this trip he would bend on his insistence towards food and sleep. He was not too keen to sleep in the brush after all, nor to make clumsy attempts at cooking. He did however hope to sample local delicacies in any villages he passed through.

His main goal for this trip, the Soul Food school, was located in the grand city Ko Vola, which was also the base of the Suvi clan. Both were vassals to the Thousand Lakes sect, but Aki only had plans to visit one on this trip. Matters less urgent than his hot wings could wait a few years, probably.

On the way to the city, they would stop by White River Pavilion, where Aki hoped to make some necessary business dealings. Overall, their journey should be a round trip of about a week, as cultivators could travel at quite respectable speeds.

His travelling companion for the trip, Winter Gale, was lightly equipped. Besides a small pack by her side, Aki saw nothing different from her usual attire. She even had a bag of spirit cherries in her hand as the pair prepared to set off, which she was eating from every now and then.

“Now, disciple. I have an important training task for you, which you are to keep up during our trip.”

The woman finished eating a cherry, then put the bag to her side.

“What kind of training task will this be?”

Aki stroked his beard and evoked his sagely aura with all the force of his will. This one would require some effort to at all be believable.

“Disciple, your task is to ensure that during this trip no spirit bees make it to within a thousand paces from me. I’m sure that you will be able to see the purpose of this task after enough meditation.”

Aki was not going to be caught unaware again.

Winter Gale looked a bit confused for a second, but accepted the task without complaints.

The pair set off and were soon flying over the lake-dotted landscape. The Thousand Lakes sect was not named so idly, and thus its territory was naturally absolutely full of the things. Most were rather thin, sinewy things, slithering between the many hills and cliffs around the landscape.

For a mortal such terrain would have been rather troublesome, but it proved to be no issue for Aki and Winter Gale. Flying did have a distinct advantage here, and even though second realm cultivators could only glide around sporadically, it was still extremely convenient comparatively.

Small hamlets of houses could be spotted throughout the landscape, arrayed into groups for protection. The farmlands around them seemed to primarily host rye, probably the most fit grain for these latitudes. The houses were small single-room huts, often painted red.

Although flight was the convenient method of travel, Aki liked to swoop down for walks along the wagon trails every now and then, as he couldn’t really chat conveniently with his disciple in the air.

Aki had long wanted to be able to have more casual conversations with his disciples, and he had decided to choose Winter Gale as his first test subject. There was just something about her manner that convinced Aki she would be the easiest to crack.

The disciple was maintaining vigilance around them using some sort of technique, so Aki had been spared contact with any spooky spirit bees. Her gaze did not however seem that watchful. She was languidly eating some wild spirit strawberries she had found in the forest nearby, seemingly not focusing on her surroundings at all.

Aki decided to start off with a topic he had some confidence in.

“So, disciple. You seemed to be getting along well with Passionate Seeker during the council meeting, have the two of you chatted since?”

She spit out a few strawberry stems onto the ground and shifted to a posture that made her seem slightly taller.

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“It is merely exchanging pointers with the younger generation, master. I am naturally the most capable person she could consult on some matters. That technique of yours has been most entertaining to prick open.”

Aki was getting worried about the direction his [PowerPoint] technique was going in the hands of those two, but decided to leave the matter for now and carry the conversation on.

“Do you often trade pointers with the younger generation?”

“Generally most pupils are not worth the effort. The few tutoring requests I have entertained did not generally result in second appointments.”

Aki was rather curious about what precisely she had done to scare away any applicants, but that was not the key matter here.

“So, you would consider Passionate Seeker to be worth your effort?”

The girl twisted a bit, turning her face away from Aki towards the forest.

“Well, I suppose she is rather capable. You didn’t pick her as your personal disciple for nothing, right?”

At those words, she hopped up on her knife and flew off from the ground. Aki had to pause his walking and sigh for a moment. I guess it isn’t that easy to chat about friendships with them yet. I’ll try a different approach later.

The first day and night of the trip passed rather peacefully, nothing unusual happening. Aki was enjoying the sights, and on the second day finally spotted a larger town on the way.

In order to properly feel like he was on a trip, Aki resolved to explore the town for a few hours and sample some local delicacies. The town however did not really have much to offer in terms of sights, so he only managed to wander around for about an hour.

The food stalls in the town square sold different kinds of sausages which Aki proceeded to eagerly sample. He was not quite sure how mortal money worked compared to the spirit stones used by cultivators, so he had just tossed one spirit stone over as payment. Judging by that reaction I may have just overpaid by quite a lot...

To his surprise, even Winter Gale elected to sample the mortal food. She took a few skewers of some type of meat and began gnawing at them fiercely. So far Aki had only seen her eat spirit food, so he was rather curious about the subject.

“Disciple, I did not know you also ate mortal food.”

She turned away from her skewers for a moment, licking her lips clean of the sauce.

“I normally wouldn’t, but you’ve been doing some experiments relating to that, haven’t you master? I was curious to try it too.”

Hmm, perhaps I’ve actually managed to do some change here! His satisfaction did not however last long as Winter Gale returned to her skewers. Aki narrowed his eyes.

I still haven’t been able to draw her into a real conversation. This whole time it’s just been me asking questions and her replying efficiently. Maybe I’ll have to try a different strategy.

On the third day of the trip, Aki chose to attempt some idle conversation on the scenery. The pair had once again landed for a bit of walking along a wagon trail. It was a narrow path, fenced in on both sides by tall spruce trees.

The trees lent the path a pleasant shade from the sun, though Aki’s body no longer had to worry about things like sunburn. Still, he found appreciation for the cool shade. Feeling the late summer wind blow through his hair, he chose to try and start a conversation once more.

“The landscapes around our sect are truly picturesque, aren’t they? It may be a tad monotonous, but there is something calming about an endless landscape of pine and lake.”

“True that, certainly beats those nasty swamps the Slime sect folk lurk in.” The woman assented.

Hey, that almost sounds like something from a proper chat! Aki pounced to continue the conversation.

“Hah, tell me about it.” Aki did not actually know what the slime sect swamps were like, but he tried to play along. “Those always annoyed me too back in the day.”

The conversation actually seemed to go somewhere, as the woman continued on.

“The Cold Vein sect’s place is pretty nice, going on missions there really lets you take in the cool ice Qi. The Dark Star sect is another favourite, sneaking around that gloomy place on missions is always a treat.”

She really got going and continued to list out places she enjoyed and did not enjoy, but Aki began to notice a concerning detail in all the retellings.

It was missions. Missions, missions, missions and more missions.

It seemed almost as if Winter Gale had never done anything other than go on sect missions... Aki raised the question that had begun digging at him.

“Hey, disciple... Have you ever left the sect for something that’s not a mission?”

She snapped out of her retellings and gave Aki a confused look.

“Why would I do something like that? Back in the outer sect we were not allowed to leave at all, and now that I would be allowed, where would I go?”

Aki’s heart trembled. The outer sect disciples are not allowed to leave the sect at all except on missions? Then once in the inner sect all they know is the sect, so of course they wouldn’t leave!

His mind immediately went to the most important issue. Aki gazed wistfully at the far horizon and the forest around him. So much hidden in the dark woods, just waiting to be discovered.

There is no adventure in this sect! Where are the disciples who go on journeys out to the world to discover themselves, getting mixed up in all sorts of adventures in the process! Exploring mysterious far away lands, finding lost treasures, perhaps even meeting a lady you might fancy... They are missing out on so much!

Having lamented the loss of adventure for a moment, Aki’s mind arrived at the second most important issue. His gaze turned from the mystery of the horizon to his pupil.

Besides, are we raising disciples who know nothing of the outside world? If a core disciple only has experience from sect missions, can they really work on managing sect affairs? Understanding the world is key to proper management! I will have to work out a plan to fix this!

Aki’s planning was interrupted as Winter Gale suddenly began to talk.

“By the way master, I have a question...”

Aki was overjoyed. She’s asking me a question this time! Have I actually managed to engage in some casual conversation with my disciple? Smiling happily, he told her to respond.

“Go ahead disciple, ask what you will.”

The woman scurried over to Aki’s side and brought her mouth to his ear.

“What’s your plan regarding this ambush? Are we going to keep pretending we haven’t noticed it?” She whispered.

Aki’s smile froze on his face.

Ambush?