Daiyu looked into the distance as she saw it, an opening in a great mountain carved into the shape of a vena cava, the vessel in which blood enters the heart.

“Is it alright for me to be out here?” Krimin asked her as he felt Orion’s glare on his back.

“It’s fine, since we’re close to our destination I’ve gotten approval from the grand elder.”

She walked to the bow of the ship.

“I need you at the forefront to spot him.”

“I still don’t trust you, you speak of a grim future and yet give me no reason to believe, a difficult ask still.”

Daiyu extended her hand to him.

Krimin understood what this meant and shook it.

“I am not a participant, just someone who wants to prevent the end of the world.”

She frowned under her veil.

“You would do well to obey me, every single action we take here can decide the fate of innumerable people.”

“Do not think me your subordinate, woman, I’m merely assisting you.”

Krimin was conflicted, on one hand he had to go into the heart to slay the same creature Feng Zhiming was going for.

Now this woman appeared, claiming that everything would end if he didn’t help her.

He looked to the sky in thought.

There wasn’t much he wanted in life, to make his father proud, lead the clan to prosperity and worship the Beastial Origin. For that he would be prepared to do anything.

He could either doubt her, the possible outcome being Feng Zhiming achieves his goal and wipes his clan from existence in the process.

On the other hand, this woman could be using him for something and he may end up losing his own life, this was a brutal reality.

“I’ll have to face him regardless, he’s another Caelum Juravi.” Krimin concluded internally.

There was nothing to gain from not cooperating with this woman, and everything to lose.

“And If I ask how you know everything you speak of?”

The least Krimin could do to bolster his own safety was investigate.

“Recently, I can’t remember exactly when, I began to have visions, memories that I couldn’t explain and still can’t. It was from those visions and memories that I found out about your love for your clan, for the Beastial Origin, Feng Zhiming’s future sins and his appearance.”

Daiyu continued to look out into the distance as the entrance approached.

“I see, an-”

“Don’t ask me about your future, I only have bits and pieces, I’m practically walking in blind to fight a world ending threat.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What if you a-”

“I can’t just go up to the grand elder or sect leader and say all this, I don’t see them in my memories so I’m unsure about which side they’re on. Not to mention asking him to murder the disciple of another sect, even if it is an unorthodoxy, is a difficult ask.”

It was like asking your parents to beat a baby to death and your justification being that you dreamed the baby was a killer.

She sighed.

Krimin nodded, he was out of ideas and genuinely impressed, this woman had truly thought of everything.

“Putting aside convincing them of future visions, the likes of which are not present in recorded history, even if I could ask a Dao Lord for help, they are restricted to the area of their faction, and the wildlands belong to none of them.”

Krimin looked at her with a curious expression.

“I guess you don’t know yet.” she replied.

“Know what?”

“If the Dao Lords leave their set area the w-"

Her sentence was cut short as the Grand Elder came stampeding out of the room and ran towards the two of them.

“Who invited this lunatic!” he spoke to himself in an annoyed tone, as he flew right over their heads and warped before vanishing.

Orion looked to the startled audience.

“Continue moving to the heart, the grand elder is just scouting.” he said to the disciples who had stopped focusing on their spiritual inscriptions.

Internally he was still fuming, a member of their sect was actually talking to a demonic bastard, and so casually as well.

"Am I crazy, or is everyone else blind?" he thought to himself as he saw Daiyu and Krimin talking to each other, behind the veil of Divine sense.

They even shook hands.

If the grand elder hadn't commanded him, he would have already threw Krimin overboard in the middle of the Wildlands.

Krimin looked at Daiyu with a surprised expression, it wasn't normal to see someone so powerful run like there was an emergency.

“Am I missing something?”

Daiyu looked up at the air still vibrating from the spatial bend.

“If you are, I too am missing said thing.”

…

Feng Zhiming found himself once again sitting atop the crows nest in his now unassigned yet assigned chair.

He had told Anissa to take the beast core and break through to the Condensed stage of Spiritual Awakening.

It was to his side that he saw Dolly sitting there, her eyes closed, focused on piloting the ship.

“You’re far more powerful than you seem.” It was time to tie up loose ends.

She remained silent.

“Is that why you value power so much, because it is something you possess?”

Her eye twitched before she opened it.

“You were lucky when the worm saved you, I would have killed you.” she spoke, her voice as cold as ice.

Feng Zhiming chuckled.

“I have to give it to you, you do an amazing job of acting as a naive girl unaware of how the world works.”

She remained silent.

“I’m not having this conversation for fun, I can sense we’re closing in on the cave, the change in the behavior of Qi is obvious.”

The closer they got to the cave the more Qi had begun to behave erratically, like atoms getting excited under heat, the Qi permeating the atmosphere had begun to fluctuate.

“I need to know, why you’re going to the wildlands, if we must battle I prefer we do it before I have other people to deal with.”

“I’m going to the Heart of the Wildlands to hunt a beast, ordered by my father. If our interests conflict we may battle to the death now.”

Feng Zhiming nodded, but even as he appeared to be surprised, he was not. It was what he had expected.

“If we fight and even if you do emerge victorious I doubt you'd be able to hunt the beast. As a compromise to a fight I’ll ask you a few questions, and if you still feel like you must obtain the beast you can be my guest, I’ll even assist you.”

Dolly turned to look at him with a cautious expression, despite his amicable tone, she felt as though there was something beyond the surface, something just out of view.

It wasn't as if they couldn't beat her, even with her power, she was unsure of defeating all four of them. Not to mention they had seen her techniques in battle and all she had in terms of information was a small spar Anissa had with Ellia.

"Just what kind of scheme are you cooking?"