I watched as the other cultivators retreated with fear on their faces. I understood the reason for it, as the pressure from two Golden Core cultivators was enough to physically change the landscape even as they floated in the sky.

I didn't retreat, staying safely behind the safety of the defensive formation I had created, confident for my safety as long as I avoided a direct confrontation. I needed to watch them, because I wanted to be ready to destroy the ruins the moment they tried to push forward. I didn't trust my defenses to hold back Golden Core elders, and while I had set up some automated defenses, I didn't want to rely on them.

However, it wasn't the biggest reason. No, I wanted to see the prowess of Golden Core, to understand just how far behind I was of them. It would affect my future significantly.

Still, I couldn't help but curse Pearyin's mystery disappearance. The only reason I took such a risk was her disappearance. I couldn't run away and leave her, so I needed to understand the limits of true power.

The old woman of Entsa Pavilion raised her hand for a palm attack, and a suffocating wave of Qi hit against my formation, even the aftereffects enough to make the defenses creak. Through formation, I could feel that the Qi she used was different. It was denser, almost liquified.

At the same time, a palm imprint that was as big as a house appeared in the air, and flew toward the other old man.

I was glad for the existence of my formation, as I watched the palm attack, I found myself mesmerized, as if I was a teenager and saw an incredible view at the party. I wasn't able to pull my eyes away from the movement of the mystical energy cutting through the air.

It was far more spectacular and complicated than anything I could come up with.

I could have watched for hours. However, before I could get more than a glimpse, the old man replicated a similar action with a punch, which neutralized the palm attack, which only threw him a few steps back.

"Do you really want to fight against Kartpa Valley about this? Wouldn't it be better for you to deal with your problems instead? It would be a pity if your precious Pavilion gets destroyed while you're busy outside."

"Our great sect is not weak enough that the absence of an outer sect elder would make a difference," she answered, but she didn't follow up with an attack, her gaze turning toward the ruins that had been creaking at the aftermath of their attacks.

They looked at each other silently, in a tense standoff. "Usual rules, then," the old woman sighed. "The ruins are clearly for Qi cultivators. We will let the younger generation fight for it," she declared.

"Agreed," the old man answered, and both of them waved their hands, and two layers of pure Qi appeared around the ruins, sealing it temporarily. It was not as strong as their previous attacks, so I believed that it was more of a warning than actually keeping people out. However, it would probably still keep any ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator away.

It would have kept me away as well, but my formations already gave me a secret tunnel I could use.

I stayed in my hiding spot for an hour even after they disappeared, making sure everything had gone perfectly. Luckily for me, the elders that had visited didn't seem like formation experts, allowing me to pull my bluff better than I expected.

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Of course, it was clear that the move had only made things more complicated in the longer term, when the real experts arrived, but at this point, I was happy to distract them for a few days.

And, if it came to worst, I could always trigger the destruction of the ruins when an expert started poking, making it look like it was their mistake that the ruins had been destroyed.

On my way back, my first stop was Markas, checking to see if there was anyone who had discovered what had been going on. Seeing that it was safe, I reinforced the formations around the valley to a significant degree.

Then, considering the danger that was going on, I created another medicinal garden and started flooding it with excess Qi from the spiritual vein, focusing on growing plants that could provide essence for martial artists.

It wasn't immediately needed, but with everything going on, I wanted to be ready to create Connate Realm martial artists en masse.

However, I wasn't able to expand it as much as I had wished, because,, merely an hour after I had started, I felt a strong Qi presence entering the border of Zaim, flying toward the capital. Whatever it was, it wasn't just a flying cultivator, radiating too much Qi for it to be the case. It didn't take long for me to realize that its destination was capital.

Whatever it was, it moved far faster than me, forcing me to race toward the capital with all my might. Luckily, whatever it was, it slowed down halfway, allowing me to reach the capital with some advantage of time.

Once I arrived at the capital, I felt myself relax. With the spiritual vein giving me a lot of Qi I could leverage, I was confident to deal with anything below Golden Core, and even against them, I could probably get away with it.

I thought about alerting Aisnam, but she was still in her throne room. While I could contact her, there was limited benefit to talking with her. Instead, I went toward the hidden training room, where her army of female warriors had been training.

I paused just for a second to change my looks into an old man before I appeared. "Gather around. It's time for treatment," I called, and even as I said so. Knowing the structure, they lined up one by one, and I started feeding them essence pills while applying acupuncture, allowing them to break into the Connate realm,, using all my pill reserves in the process.

While I didn't know what was about to happen, there was no harm in preparing myself for the worst. And, giving Aisnam a stronger army seemed like a reasonable precaution.

While I worked on what was going on, the Qi presence stopped somewhere near the edge of the territory of the capital. Even though I was yet to finish empowering the army, I left for a while and rushed out, wanting to what was the object I could feel through my detection formation.

A mad dash later, I was looking at a … flying ship. It looked like an ordinary seafaring ship but without the sails, and it was quite large, easily a hundred feet from one end to another. Its ability to fly was not shocking, considering it was leaking Qi. An expensive tool to run.

I heard a few cultivators mentioning the existence of flying ships that stronger and richer cultivators used, though I didn't expect to see one, as they were supposed to be out of the reach of even the smaller cultivator families, let alone the itinerant ones.

Though, it was hard to argue its usefulness.

While the flying ship was fascinating, two other details caught my gaze. The first one obvious. A small army was currently disembarking the ship. They were dressed ordinarily, but my gaze was too sharp to miss the fact that they were Tiger Fist experts. It looked like they decided to add some reinforcements, which, ultimately wasn't too surprising after the most recent development.

What truly surprised me was the flags that were on the flying ship, declaring its ownership. There were two distinct symbols. One of them belonged to Kartpa Valley, which was not a surprise. The real surprise was the other flag.

Verdant Family.

I was tempted to intervene directly, but I didn't dare to. I wasn't scared of the flying ship. At this point, I had too many tricks to be leveraged against such a threat.

What scared me was the flag of the Kartpa Valley, making me fear the potential consequences if I touched the ship. Things were getting too complicated.