Once I heard about the declaration of war, I knew that Aisnam would have to go and deal with it despite it still being midnight. It was too important not to be dealt with, but I also understood why she wanted to engage with it disguised as a servant.

She wanted her enemies to believe that, Queen the Cultivator was too wounded to respond, and spend nights recovering.

Aisnam waited at the door for a moment, processing the information. "Tell the guards that Her Highness will see them tomorrow."

"Madam. What if they —" the messenger started.

"Her Highness' orders are adamant. She's not to be disturbed while cultivating. No envoy can change it," she declared. "I'll come and oversee the preparations."

"As you wish, Madam," the messenger answered as she gave a bow and left.

Aisnam returned to my side. "Let me guess. You need to go deal with an emergency," I said.

"I'm sorry. It's nothing important. Just an emissary, but…" she said as if the news hadn't been about a potential invasion to mix with the current situation.

"I understand. With everything, emergencies are important," I said. She kissed me one last time before leaving.

I had to admit, I wasn't particularly torn up about the sudden intervention, not when I wanted to finally test my newest improvement. So, the moment Aisnam had left, I activated the illusion that made it look like I was meditating, and walked into the secret tunnel.

As I walked, I threw a fleeting glance toward the Stone Door, wondering if the next level of Nabata formation skill would allow me to comprehend some of its secrets.

Not enough to repair it. As I improved, I was starting to realize that even a Foundation Establishment level technique couldn't repair it under normal circumstances. At a minimum, a Golden Core level technique was required.

Meanwhile, the Nabata formation technique was merely for the Qi Gathering realm.

My talks with Aisnam gave me some idea about the differences between various cultivation realms. For example, I learned that Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators used a different form of Qi, transformed from available Qi, which required a completely different set of techniques to utilize. As a result, they were far more devastating.

Apparently, they could still use the ordinary Qi, but under most circumstances, chose not to.

So, no matter how much I improved the Nabata formation technique, I didn't expect the ability to repair the formation of the stone door.

Comprehension was a different issue.

Even when my formation skill at Major Immersion, I could feel the general function. It held back some kind of mysterious being inside, that much was obvious, but it was not a prison like I initially expected. No, it was more of a conduit.

It was channeling something in … but nothing was left. I also knew that whatever it was channeling was not Qi, or I would have been able to detect it.

"Maybe I'll understand it better once I leave," I muttered. I was still afraid of the being hidden inside, so I was yet to touch the technique in my mind, that they forcibly imparted.

I wouldn't do so until I got a better idea about exactly what that Stone Door was. Even Aisnam didn't know.

Oh, she thought that she did. She had told me the story of a demon, trapped here, in a Qi-poor zone because it couldn't be killed, and she was telling the truth. Or, at least what she thought to be the truth, which was not exactly the case.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

No, there was a different mystery behind that door, especially since, according to Aisnam, to her knowledge, some of the other kingdoms — but not all of them — had similar crypts. I was tempted to go and visit the others, to see the differences between different gates, but I decided against it.

I had too many troubles already, and couldn't afford to find more.

I started running once again. I left the tunnel behind immediately, and, an hour later,, so was the Zaim Kingdom. However, continued running, until I left Xanhum Kingdom behind as well, and settled into the desolate area between the two kingdoms.

I was tempted to go to Linnass Kingdom for the experiment so that if I failed to contain it, it would fall to their head. But, after considering it for a while, I decided against it. If such a thing happened the same day as their declaration, some people might decide to check Zaim kingdom just in case.

And, I couldn't afford such a development.

Once I reached my target location, I spent some time searching for a deep cave, and even more time setting several layers of formations to ensure protection. Just to be on the safe side, I even activated several purification and protection talismans.

Considering the talismans I had been using were Peak Yellow grade, just by activating them, I had wasted a treasure that could have probably purchased a mortal city, maybe even two.

Not that it mattered when I could write hundreds of them each day. Not to mention, I couldn't sell them without getting myself killed. So, ultimately, it didn't matter.

"Now, let's see the commotion created by Minor Integration," I muttered as I triggered the skill —

And, immediately thanked every divine being I could remember that I had gone through all those troubles isolating myself. I had been surrounded by a multicolored glow, one that almost felt like a bridge. I found myself immersed in an illusory river, if only for a moment.

No, it was not a river, but a road that I had been walking endlessly.

No, it was not a river, but a mountain I was climbing…

No, an endless waterfall…

No, an avalanche…

And, many more. It was the single weirdest experience I ever had. However, with that weird experience, came an intense understanding of formations, the kind that turned my earlier understanding into a joke. As I glanced at my previous work that surrounded me, all I could feel was disgust for shoddy work.

The jump was many times greater than between Perfection and Minor Immersion. Even the gap between Perfection and Major Immersion wasn't this wide.

"I'm so glad I had taken extra precautions," I said as I examined my formation, and realized that, the energy from the breakthrough had eroded them significantly.

Worse, some kind of presence stuck around. As if, what I had done had left a mark on the world itself. I had no idea whether it would fade in a few days, or stay longer.

"Luckily, it happened with formations," I muttered even as I started reinforcing the protections around the cave so that they would stick around for years, something I could achieve with ease with my formation abilities increasing even more.

I was about to seal it completely, when an idea occurred. "What would happen if Aisnam could discover here," I muttered. Of course, I first needed to see if the aura had indeed stuck around like I expected or dissipated.

Either way, it was something that I would only address when my current trick of remote teaching stopped working. Just because the letters didn't prevent the System from working didn't mean that the aura wouldn't either.

No need to waste things.

Once I reinforced the protections of the cave, I returned to Zaim Kingdom. It was already noon when I had returned, but there was an impressive commotion. There was a show at the entrance of the city. Five men were in cages, each wearing the sigil of Linnass Kingdom.

Their mouths were tied to prevent them from speaking, and their bodies showed strong signs of beating … but, with my strong medical knowledge, I could see that they suffered no permanent injury.

I just needed to listen to the gossip to understand exactly what happened. Apparently, once Aisnam declared that they wouldn't have any audience, the envoy started causing trouble, even going as far as attacking the palace guard who delivered the news, injuring him seriously.

In response, Aisnam, as the Queen, declared that, by attacking her soldiers, they violated her hospitality, which removed their diplomatic immunity. As a result, they were captured and imprisoned.

Not a difficult achievement, as the envoy was barely at Muscle Refinement, while his guards were at Skin Refinement. It felt like an intentional provocation. I wondered if the king of Linnass actually would have preferred them to be killed.

Either way, it was another problem I only needed to be aware of indirectly. I prepared to return to the Spring Palace, to see if could delve deeper into the mystery of the Stone Gate. But, halfway in, I felt a tickling sensation.

A cultivator just triggered my passive detection formation around the capital, approaching the city.

I could easily ignore the threat of mortal armies.

Cultivators, less so.

I started moving in that direction.