For once, I didn't feel tense as I used my flying boat to cut through the mysterious existence that was misty mountains. With my new formation in place to isolate me from the effects, I wasn't feeling tense as I went deeper and deeper.

My destination was the location of the first ruin, one that I had learned from my prisoner. Luckily, thanks to the primitive lie detection setup I had, I knew which locations had been genuine, and which destinations were filled with danger.

I still wanted to visit the dangerous ones, for one simple reason. Danger meant their exploration hadn't been completed, and I could find more. But, at the same time, they contained dangers that intimated a Foundation Establishment cultivator who was experienced in exploring the ruins.

No, I wanted to start with the ruins that had been explored. I had multiple reasons for it. The obvious one was the risk mitigation, as the more people visited the ruin, the less dangerous it would be. While I should be stronger than anyone else who visited those ruins when the full range of my abilities factored in, I wasn't ready to take unnecessary risks before I understood the true limits of the martial artists.

After all, the only information I had came from two incomplete techniques and nothing else.

However, another reason was that I was hopeful about the content of the ruins. While many visits from other cultivators meant that anything valuable had long been pilfered, I wasn't looking for fortune, but information.

Anything. Random scribbles, letters between ordinary people, nonsensical historical records.

My ultimate goal was to discover the secrets of the Everdawn Empire, which would allow me to understand exactly what Kartpa Valley was trying to do, which then would give me an idea about how to counter it.

However, that was far from my only objective. I wanted to learn how the Everdawn Empire was destroyed and why. I wanted to understand why their techniques didn't earn a response from the System. Were there any other lost techniques that had the same feature, or was it something unique to the Everdawn Empire?

And, the most important auxiliary mission, that whether I could use that feature to my benefit. The ability to get stronger without ruining my multiplier would have been an incredible advantage.

"Well, it's going to be difficult," I muttered once I arrived at the first location. Then my prisoner had mentioned ruins, I expected some kind of abandoned town, or some kind of poorly managed archeological site.

I was wrong.

It looked more like a warzone. The only thing I could recognize as manmade was the bricks of the buildings, and even none of those had been intact. Some had been crushed into pieces, while the others had been cut into pieces in a very deliberate manner.

"Well, it's going to be fun," I said to myself even as I set two layers of formations around it to temporarily protect myself from the mist, and started searching. Without using formations, I couldn't have discovered even a scrap of information from the runs.

I ran a hand over the weathered bricks. "What a waste," I said, trying to piece together what seemed like intricate carvings depicting some kind of heroic man, one that clearly told a story before it had been destroyed, with only fragmented remnants remaining.

I started examining the ruins, trying to come up with the age of the buildings. The destruction was quite recent, that much was obvious, but the original age of the settlement was harder to detect. However, even my most conservative guess started at thousands of years.

Clearly, the excessive distances and absurd population numbers weren't the only troubling part of this new world.

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I had spent half a day in the ruins, trying to find something worthwhile. The best I could able to get was a few scraps of writing, on a language I couldn't read, and even those, I was only able to find based on some very tricky formations I had used.

With a sigh, I had visited a second ruin, once again failing to discover anything other than scraps of murals and writing.

"Alright, it looks like I can't avoid the risk," I muttered even as I moved toward the first ruins that my prisoner believed dangerous enough to kill me. For that, I had far more different plans.

First, I picked a nice valley near the ruins and added several layers of formations. Outer layers were the obvious parts, such as protection, concealment, and isolation from the mist. The inner layer, on the other hand, had been focused on spiritual plant care.

It was a good place to set my first checkpoint.

My initial plan was to visit the capital and use one of the martial artists to launder a great number of spiritual plant seeds to quickly set up a huge checkpoint. Unfortunately, feeling the fluctuations of providence when I had used to get the Heaven-ranked pill from Janassa had been enough for me to temporarily cancel that plan.

Especially after that chance encounter with the Nascent Soul cultivator. Even if his presence was unrelated to me — which there was no guarantee — I couldn't just assume that he wouldn't notice it.

I decided to temporarily add a few rules. Unless it was an emergency, not to use the System for anything but learning. Improving my capabilities permanently was worth the risk.

Trying to save time was not so much, particularly since I could use a combination of alchemy and formations to automate the process significantly. I transplanted the potted plants and reinforced the formations before I went back to Markas.

I replenished the Qi reserves of the flying boat while I added a secondary garden, focused on growing plants that gave the most Qi with the least amount of work. When the boat had been filled, the first batch of seeds had already matured — even though it meant I had temporarily slowed down the growth of the ginseng garden.

Then, I started going back and forth. My prisoner had given me the address of five ruins with a certain amount of risk. I built safe houses near every ruin, making sure I had a place to escape in case of an emergency, while also giving them time to accumulate some Qi.

I wished that there was a lot of ambient Qi, but that wasn't the case. I was still on the outskirts, and the best I could get was occasional winds carrying a few strands of Qi. While it had been a treasure when I had been first trying to grow as a cultivator, it meant next to nothing for my current purposes.

Technically, I could use it. All I needed to set up a formation as big as one I had around the capital and Markas, and it could collect the environmental Qi. Large enough scale and it would be efficient.

It would also be very noticeable. I might as well put a giant board shouting my location.

Establishing all five safe houses meant that, when I was finished with the fifth one, the first one had already accumulated enough Qi for me to start moving. I added several temporary formations on top of the first one, confirming that I was currently alone.

As I put the isolation formation over the ruins, a bunch of savage beasts rushed toward the ruins. They were strong, some of them strong enough to kill the Foundation Establishment cultivator.

With my formation in place, they weren't any kind of threat. They represented an excellent source of essence fertilizer for my base rather than any kind of threat.

However, their sheer numbers would have been enough to kill my prisoner. It didn't make sense, as I was almost certain.

I expanded the detection area, only to realize that even more beasts were gathering at a greater distance. It was too excessive. It would easily kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"The mist," I said in realization. I had already realized that the mist had some kind of control. And, I had just isolated the ruins from the mist, which might register like destruction.

I reinforced that isolation several times, as well as the detection. I was afraid of a potential cultivator visit as much as I feared the beasts, so I didn't want to get ambushed.

Only after I felt secure, I walked into the ruins. It was different than the previous ones, where every single stone had been bisected or crushed in hopes of discovering a secret. It was still a mess. Every building had been smashed down, some with time, most through direct cultivator interference.

"Interesting," I muttered even as I touched one of the intact bricks. Unlike the demolished ruins, I could feel a hint of essence locked in their structure. Not particularly strong. Barely an echo, but I could still identify the traces of Everdawn essence.

It was only possible because of my refreshed martial talent.

Only a few of those buildings had that kind of echo, while the rest had been made of more ordinary materials. It gave me a handy way of identifying which of the half-destroyed buildings were more important.

A welcome direction.

I started dismantling the first building, which rewarded me with the burnt remains of a few books. Still, I could get some information, which was all I needed.