My reflexes took over as I started constructing a formation … an illusory one, creating a scene of destruction even as I dodged the attack. Luckily, my Black Grade ship was nimble enough to achieve that. The Qi attack was fast, but the great distance gave me a chance.

However, since I didn't have much time, I pulled about five thousand strands of Qi from my inventory, as much as I didn't want to. It wasn't the amount of Qi I had in my inventory. With my prison for rogue cultivators growing, all I needed was to manufacture a fake conflict for them to start 'insulting' me by intimidating me with their presence, giving me enough Qi to deal with the situation.

Five thousand strands of Qi was a significant amount, the kind that was out of reach for any Foundation Establishment cultivator I had interacted with, including the sect outer disciples.

The problem was, that it drew the Providence from the environment, which was already something I was reluctant to do. Here, with the nebulous feeling that, somehow, Providence was locked and imprisoned at the horizon, I was even more reluctant to do so.

However, that reluctance was nothing compared to the threat from the Qi attack traveling to me at a shocking speed. Dodging the first attack was easy, but the follow-up attacks wouldn't be. I needed to convince them that their attack succeeded.

As I constructed the illusion formation, I felt the Providence around me flicker. Only then, I use the full speed of my boat, dipping down to the ground. A good choice, as even through the defenses, I felt the overwhelming power of the attack.

I didn't fancy the chances of my boat against it.

As I landed, I immediately shrunk the boat into its miniature form and rushed toward the nearest cave, only when I was at the entrance of the cave, safely behind multiple formations — once again using four hundred strands from my inventory — I turned my attention to the giant flying ship that appeared.

When I said giant, I wasn't exaggerating. It was big enough to treat an aircraft carrier as a sailing boat. An accurate measure was difficult to get from such a great distance, but its length was easily more than thirty thousand feet.

A size that, if it was aligned vertically and one side was on the ground, would create a very valid hazard for airplanes back on Earth. It took a while for me to pay attention to its flag.

Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

My eyes widened. Based on the way the other forces paid respect, I had expected them to be strong. But, this strong … However, before I could really ponder the implications of their power, I had to pay attention to other things.

At first, I had thought that my attention would be occupied by the dozen figures that had left the ship, all but one on their flying swords, the only one exception at the center, flying on his own power, indicated a team of Foundation Establishment cultivators, led by a Golden Core Elder, all dressed in the distinct colors of the Treasure Pavilion, no doubt wanting to check my location.

It changed with a sudden, earth-shattering explosion from the volcano, spewing ash and superheated steam. It would have been a perfect coincidence … only I could feel the stirring of Providence from the volcano, telling me that it was not a coincidence in the slightest.

I gulped, glad that I wasn't closer to the volcano. With the ash cloud blocking my sight, I didn't know what happened to the team that had just left to examine my location, but I wouldn't bet on their survival. Not when I could feel the essence as a part of the explosion, making it far more dangerous than an ordinary volcanic explosion.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

And, a volcanic explosion was dangerous enough without any such enhancement, even against cultivators.

"Let's not waste the opportunity," I muttered even as I started working hard to manufacture some items that believably came from the destroyed wreckage, using environmental Qi for the task instead of my inventory.

I didn't want to tempt another explosion.

Luckily, the ash cloud gave them something more urgent to deal with, which gave me some time to work on the fake crime scene without tapping into the System, letting me use the new spread of abilities. Artifact forging to create pieces that could conceivably come from the wood of the flying boat, alchemy to give them an aged look as well as adding some very convincing fake blood and flesh, calligraphy, and formations to make it more convincing, and even a few talismans to look like a storage room that burned.

It took five minutes for me to create what hopefully was a convincing outlook, leaving me alone with my real problem.

What to do.

Every instinct I had told me to retreat. After all, not only the mountain itself was an extremely dangerous location, evidenced by the intense explosion, but the presence of the Treasure Pavilion made things far more of a challenge.

The safest tactical move was to retreat, leaving them alone. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the best idea in the long term.

For one, finding an intact ruin had taken a long time for me, and that was by following some clues I couldn't just replicate. Clues that I was reluctant to write off as coincidence considering how every random decision I had taken brought me toward it.

Knowing Fate is not just nonsense that had been created to con people out of their money made it difficult to write things off as coincidence. Especially since I was a literal chosen one, albeit a discarded one.

But, even discarding the value, there were strategic reasons for me to stay. For one, the presence of the giant flying ship itself. My own experience with the flying boat showed me just how ridiculously expensive was compared to establishing a physical base. The only reasonable excuse for operating out of the ship, was that it was a recent arrival.

It made sense. The main base had recently started to receive Providence through the auxiliary symbol that I had been supporting. From there, my best guess was that one of the explorers who was better than the ones I had been dealing with had informed the Treasure Pavilion about the discovery of a new base, and they came to raid the place.

Considering the single-minded interest they showed toward the ruins, their presence wasn't surprising, but the fact that they were able to discover it faster than me despite all the advantages I had meant nothing good. This might be my only realistic chance of somehow getting in contact with the intact form of ancient martial arts.

And, even if the worst case didn't happen, I would still require years. Years that I didn't have, with Pearyin's Dao Gate, Everdawn Conspiracy, the fake mystic land crisis of my own making … I didn't have years.

Worse, even if I took that risk, and assumed I could keep all those problems simmering, it didn't solve the most urgent problem.

That the Treasure Pavilion had the ability to track me back. Just like how I could follow the track of Providence, they could follow it back to my mountain base. And, since my understanding of Providence was very limited, I had no idea whether I could resolve it by destroying the mountain base and reversing the cultivation of the recruits.

And, even if fixed it, then what. My search for the ancient martial arts was still a vital part of my future path, and sooner or later, and even if I decided to abandon the mortal domain, the misty mountains looked like the only option.

Even if I relied on a blind search, sooner or later, I would come across them.

Of course, none of those actually prevented me from feeling like an idiot as I ignored every survival instinct I had and approached the volcano that spewed out an endless stream of magma and ash. The blizzard around the mountain, getting more and more intense, hardly helped the situation.

However, as I approached, I wished that I had some of the Burning Ice martial artists with me. I had no doubt that, seeing the way the essence of ice and fire danced together, they would have leveled up their understanding significantly.

For me, it only represented a devastating danger especially since I was reluctant to actually cultivate the essence, still afraid of the implications.

"Onto the breach once more," I muttered as I moved toward the volcano on foot, multiple formations around me to keep me invisible and secure.

Hopefully.