Sometimes, I hated being right.

Thanks to the flying boat, visiting all forty-two capitals didn't take long. Only thirty-six of them actually had stone gates underneath, at least what I was able to discover, each guarded by Qi Gathering cultivators.

Of those thirty-six capitals, twenty-two were under Kartpa Valley's sphere of influence. And, of those twenty-two, none of them had their protections intact. Including Markas, it made twenty-three. A dangerous number. Worse, every single one of them had trap formations around them, strong enough to take down Foundation Establishment cultivators, no doubt they were to kill the first responders.

They didn't have any precautions against Golden Core cultivators, but presumably, whatever happened would happen before they could respond en masse. I doubted even the sects kept more than a couple Golden Cultivators nearby.

I had sabotaged those Formations subtly, but it didn't solve the inherent problem. I couldn't defend all those points all the time, certainly not against a mysterious enemy. Meaning, I had to understand exactly what they were trying to do.

And, that meant I had to get some information, from someone that I never wanted to talk to again — someone that might as well not be a human. Which meant, that no matter how little I wanted to do so, I needed to take a huge risk and touch the sealed knowledge in my mind.

For that exact purpose, I was back to Markas, standing in a new formation I had created for the exact purpose of cleansing my body if necessary. While I didn't expect whatever was in my mind to suddenly take over when I was guarded, it never hurt to be prepared.

With a sigh, I reached to the sealed knowledge in my mind, and let it fill my consciousness.

The moment I did so, I cursed myself for the decision. The first thing I felt was pain, the unique kind that I only felt once, when I activated the language jade I had received from the sect disciple I faced when I had arrived for the first time, only rougher.

It was nothing like the smooth, elegant delivery of the System, which not only settled into my brain calmly, but also gave me the comprehension of the knowledge. It was more like a jagged piece of metal stabbing into my brain. The information exploded in my mind as I tried to process the flood at the same time.

I wondered if the information was supposed to hit that hard, or if my attempt at containment somehow made it degrade, making the absorption more difficult. Likely the second, as that being was trying to use me rather than trying to kill me.

However, as I processed the information I had received, I stopped wondering about the objective of that being and focused on the contents.

Shockingly, it was a martial arts technique.

"Or, at least, it's supposed to be," I muttered as I analyzed its structure. Even without a deeper comprehension, I could easily see that it fulfilled the conditions of martial arts … yet it was completely different from any martial arts technique I analyzed to this moment.

The most obvious difference. It wasn't limited to the Connate realm. Not only that, it referred to all five stages of martial arts — Initiate, Muscle Reinforcement, Skin Refinement, Bone Forging, Connate — collectively as the third-class, which implied the existence of at least two more realms above it. It even included the breakthrough method from the third stage to the second stage, but nothing else.

Clearly, it was the bait of that being. A temptation for me to finally break through my bounds, giving me the strength to fight against Foundation Establishment cultivators.

I had to admit, it was an excellent bait for anyone else. As for me … it was still promising, but far from urgent. At this point, as long as I was near the spiritual vein, the Foundation Establishment cultivators didn't even qualify as a threat. However, the potential was still valuable in the longer term.

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Assuming that the technique was actually correct — which was not a given — it was promising. Sooner or later, I would have to rise to the upper realms, especially if I wanted to travel. However, I had no idea how to solve my lack of an Immortal Root. While I hoped that I could solve it with the System, having a potential alternative was always welcome.

So, unlike any other martial artist facing the temptation, I didn't have the temptation to suddenly practice the skill and test its effects. Instead, I pulled a bunch of paper, and started to write the technique, as cleanly as I could manage. Not just to see if I could recycle it through the System to get a complete version, but to give myself a chance to understand it better.

My comprehension of cultivation techniques might as well be garbage, but the reverse was true for martial arts. On this topic, I was a genius even without the System.

As I analyzed, it didn't take long for me to realize a huge difference between the martial arts techniques. Up until now, most of the martial techniques I had functioned based on totem beasts, and the strength of the totem determined both the power of the technique, and the upper limits of the power. However, they had also come with a side effect. The stronger the totem beast, the stronger the technique.

Even the volcano and blizzard arts, or my forest art, worked similarly, treating those concepts as generalized spirits.

The martial art technique I received, on the other hand, didn't have a beast totem. It still has a totem, though it was called a spiritual pillar. And, from what I could sense, that pillar was supposed to be an Empire. I didn't know exactly how an Empire could function the same way as a beast totem.

To be fair, I hardly understood how a beast totem actually functioned.

Many other questions flew to my mind, like what a totem actually was, how an empire could function as one … whether any other political entities could replace it. A kingdom, a tribe? A democratic republic? An anarcho-commune.

"An interesting question for the future," I muttered as I continued to analyze the technique, trying to search for a weakness. The technique had some gaps due to the degradation it suffered, but no matter how much I analyzed it, I couldn't see anything different from other martial arts.

Of course, it had many different moves and techniques, but none of those had anything out of order, like something that could allow a weakness to be possessed. While it was possible I was missing something, I didn't think so. Especially when I had a very obvious suspect.

The spiritual pillar, which was supposed to be an Empire. And, not just any Empire, but a specific one.

One is called the Everdawn Empire. And, the technique was aptly called Everdawn Saber.

It made sense. Accepting an Empire as a spiritual pillar was certainly a subservient act, and it wasn't shocking that it created some kind of mystic weakness against the higher-ups of the same Empire. After all, the whole concept of royalty relied on that kind of superiority. It might be mere fiction back on Earth, but I doubted the same applied here. The being imprisoned under the capital clearly had some link to the Empire, and

It certainly explained a lot.

Then, I shivered as I realized another very important detail, one that I had been ignoring up until now. If having an Empire as the spiritual totem was a potential weakness for possession, what did it mean to have a beast as a totem pillar?

I didn't know, but it clearly wasn't good. At least, I suspected it was the reason for martial artists were unable to break through. However, I didn't rush to fix it. I wasn't stupid enough to do so. Even discounting the very glaring risk of possession, trying to spread those techniques would be suicide.

If I could discover that, the sects, who had been keeping those beings trapped for some reason, clearly knew this fact as well. Yet, they were keeping it hidden. Some of the reasons were obvious. The biggest advantage sects had over mortal kingdoms was their higher-end power. However, the naming of the technique I received implied that, there were at least two more stages to it.

It would be far too hard to suppress the mortal kingdoms if they had martial artists that could rival Golden Core, or even Foundation Establishment cultivators. The sects might have stronger cultivators, but even if they stayed superior to the kingdoms, the balance would inevitably change if a Foundation Establishment cultivator couldn't casually scare a city to submission.

A part of me wanted to just burn the pages in front of me and forget that I ever learned it, but I ignored that part.

The fact that I took over the spirit vein was enough to make me an enemy of Kartpa Valley. Even though I suspected that it was the work of a singular elder, eventually he would come for it. And, depending on the method he chose, it had a high chance of pitting me against a whole sect as long as I didn't want to surrender the vein.

And, I wouldn't. I was reluctant to do so in general principles, as having that vein was an unimaginable force multiplier for me. And, I certainly couldn't do so before Pearyin returned.

Then, there was the fake mystic land, a potential invasion of Markas, another sect deciding to make trouble, and even a beast wave from the misty mountains — which apparently happened, just like a natural disaster.

No, with my luck, I didn't have the luxury of ignoring such a potential force multiplier.

It was time for research.