"That's intriguing," I said even as I approached to the cave that supposedly led to the ruins, surprised by the lack of savage beast attacks even as I isolated the whole mountain. Previously, even the smallest disturbance of the ruins had triggered their reaction. Right now, there was nothing.

It wasn't just the lack of existence, as I could sense the hints of essence, one that reminded me of the Snow and Volcano essences Elsana and Lannayin had mastered. It meant I was at the right location.

"It means the mist doesn't actively protect anything but Everdawn Essence," I guessed even as I approached the small cave that led to the sect.

And, I found myself at a large cave, which was filled with the remains of many buildings, but they were long decayed and lost any discernible quality. The only thing that was still intact was a drawing on the far wall, which carried a hint of essence.

I ignored the drawing for the moment and instead focused on the ruins. They had been destroyed due to the passage of time, but most of those ruined buildings still show human-inflicted damage. Maybe Elsana and Lannayin were responsible for the damage. Or, maybe, someone else had done it. Either way, even after I searched with the assistance of formations, I failed to find anything.

However, even without finding anything, I was able to make some deductions based on the size of the enclave, and the way it was designed. It was almost certainly a hidden auxiliary base, and if I were to guess, I would say that a martial sect had been established during the battle between the Everdawn Empire and the rebellious sects.

Whether they were a part of the rebellion and were trying to save their heritage in case of a defeat, or they were a small sect trying to get away, I could hardly guess.

Then, I turned my attention to the giant drawing.

I didn't approach it directly but cleaned it by using formations. It was an interesting drawing, showing the stylized conception of a snow-covered active volcano. From that drawing, I could sense a hint of essence, one that seemed to be shifting between two concepts freely.

I carefully examined the essence, and compared it with what I had seen from Lannayin and Elsana. To my surprise, the essence at the door was different from the Snow and Volcano essences I had learned from the two.

Similar, but certainly not the same. I couldn't help but remember my own Forest Dance martial art, which I had enhanced based on the concept of growth I had learned from the Spring Palace while I was trying to impress Aisnam.

It was merely a few months ago, but it felt like years had passed.

"Focus," I admonished myself as I continued to examine the essence from a distance, using an unnecessary number of formations as a protective layer to carefully probe the drawing.

Its existence alone was an interesting phenomenon. The mist hadn't damaged the drawing, but it didn't support and enhance it like it was doing the Everdawn essence. That neutrality surprised me, particularly since when I had first arrived at the mountains, I had tried to use both Volcano and Snow essences when I had first visited the misty mountains.

Mist had suppressed both essences, but the one on the drawing continued to exist. If I had been less experienced when it came to martial arts, I would have explored whether the balanced mixture of the two essences could push away the effect of the mist.

But now, I knew that it was something simpler. Just like I had used the conception of the Spring for the Forest dance — or the conception of the savage rabbit for the sprinting martial arts — they had used the conception from the drawing to develop their own martial arts.

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And, such a similarity was not a coincidence. The development of new techniques and styles was not an accident. While the others didn't have the System to help them improve their skills quickly, it didn't mean that they received no help.

Every time a skill had reached Perfection, it was accompanied by the Dao glow. Improvements after Perfection created even more commotion than a mere glow as my experiences had shown — such as the mysterious gate that still stayed at the heart of my base.

And, since there was such feedback for later breakthroughs, it was not impossible for the earlier breakthroughs to have a similar, but weaker mechanism.

I hadn't noticed something like that, but to my defense, it was hard to notice a few random insights among the flood of comprehension given to me by the System return.

It was a reasonable theory, one that explained how the techniques I had managed to invent could attain a spiritual pillar. However, it raised many more questions.

Like why the mist attacked the martial arts that was created with the assistance of the providence.

Suddenly, I was far more glad that I had gone through all that trouble to get a Foundation Establishment pill recipe. Kartpa Alchemy technique was still my only tool to understand providence and Dao, meaning pushing it above Perfection had suddenly turned even more critical.

I needed a deeper understanding of Providence.

Meanwhile, I started examining the drawing and everything around it even more carefully. Soon, I noticed one of the stones behind it was radiating a certain kind of energy, one that was integrated with a subtle essence-based trap that would destroy its contents.

Unraveling it had been easy. All I needed was to create a facsimile of the same essence that had been displayed in the drawing. I had a feeling that the intent was to make someone practice the technique until they could generate a pure essence, but I bypassed it by faking it through formations.

I didn't want to go through the trouble of cleansing my body again.

That was enough to trick the mysterious mechanism, and soon, I was holding a book, each page etched into gold. A good material, which resisted the ravages of time, but could easily be destroyed by even a hint of flame.

I was glad that I had gone all that trouble to learn the old language of the Everdawn Empire, as it allowed me to read the document. The first page alone was incredibly interesting.

'To the fated person who had discovered the last remains of the Order of Burning Blizzard,

You who had found this ancient scroll, I greet you from beyond the veil. You have displayed the true balance of fire and ice, and deserve to carry the legacy of our martial fire. Our bodies had long turned to dust, but our souls were still weeping with the pain of betrayal.

We have fought hard for our future, but ultimately, we failed. We have risen to save our world from the merciless dominion of a crazed Emperor, only to fall when the outsiders stabbed us in the back. However, don't try to take revenge.

Not before you can find the true treasure of our sect, and elevate the soul of our sect to the next level. Study our heritage and understand the true balance between ice and fire, and it'll illuminate your path to discover the slumbering martial soul of our sect.

Embrace the duality of its existence, and follow your heart,

May your journey be filled with both triumph and adversity. May you honor the legacy of the Order of the Burning Blizzard.'

"Well, that's annoying," I growled in frustration even as I finished reading the first page. Fucking cultivators — Qi or Martial — and their desire to be enigmatic. Why couldn't they just write it openly? Their desire to be enigmatic meant that I learned very little from that letter.

It didn't help that my command of their language was not perfect, so I was basically guessing half of the words. The general gist was accurate, but the nuances were lost. For example, I had no idea what they meant by the world. Were they referring to the whole world or just a figurative way to refer to their country? Who were the outsiders? When they referred to slumbering martial soul, were they talking about something real, or was it just a fancy way of saying their heritage.

Worse, whoever wrote the first page was not a calligraphy expert. Oh, he certainly thought himself as one, but he was a hack. As a consequence, the meaning behind his words didn't linger enough to give me any clue.

Still, even though it was frustrating, it didn't change one very important fact.

I finally had an intact martial technique in hand. I had no intention of cultivating it directly, but I didn't need to. I just needed to learn and study it to design one of my own.

I didn't start reading it immediately but returned to Zaim Kingdom.

I was going to have to do a lot of experiments with the System, and what better location than where I could mobilize thousands of martial artists with one word.

I didn't forget why I was going all this trouble or searching for a new martial art.

Martial arts that the System didn't register, allowing me to improve my power without sacrificing the System multiplier.