However, a successful operation didn't mean they had recovered immediately. Their current stability was utterly reliant on their new spiritual pillar. Meaning, that the destruction of the volcano would result in their demise, and there was nothing I could do about it.
"Well, let's look at the bright side," I muttered. "At least I don't have to decide between staying and leaving." It was not an option with Elsana here. I didn't enjoy the sensation of being trapped, but sometimes, life insisted on being the exclusive supplier of lemons, and all one had to do was start enjoying lemonade.
But, since I had to keep the volcano safe for the foreseeable future, I had to change my approach.
The first thing I did was to bring my flying boat back to full size, and slowly channel most of its reserves to the mountain, leaving only enough for the return trip to the nearest outpost, knowing that, if the worst happened and I had to run away in a hurry, I had to rely on the System.
In that case, extracting some Qi from the system for emergencies would work. Still, I was glad that I had set many recovery stations on the way, making such a trick possible in the first place.
"Now, onto something more productive," I said even as I reached the ship storage, and started pulling spirit plant seeds. Luckily, unlike my storage ring, miniaturization didn't kill the seeds. Seeds of plants I had picked for the express purpose of showing ice and fire qualities.
It was a reasonable precaution considering the objective of my trip, but I was more thinking of providing some Qi to rejuvenate the place, rather than preparing for a siege. Luckily, it was not out of the question either.
However, I didn't start planting the seeds all across the mountain. Instead, I created a small plant nursery, and planted them, not hastening their growth too much.
If the circumstances allowed, I would have awakened my new batch of prisoners and solved it through the System. Unfortunately, with the unknown nature of the Providence battle, I was reluctant to poke around it any more than necessary.
Instead, I went through the items of my prisoners … only for my eyes to widen. Even the poorest of them had wealth that could be counted by thousands of low-grade spirit stones. At first, I assumed that it was about their presence here, but as I went through them, I soon found many low-grade artifacts, some too damaged to be useful, destined to be scrap, too varied to be their own use.
"Robbery," I muttered as I realized the source of their wealth. Which, considering their hidden demonic cultivation, wasn't exactly a huge surprise. The spirit stones, I crushed directly to reinforce the mountain.
As for the artifacts, I broke them down to use them as nutrition for the spirit plants. Some of the spirit plants were hard to raise, requiring delicate treatment, while the others worked even better than the best garbage processor, spreading their roots through the broken artifacts.
Then, once they grew, I could use those plants as fertilizers for the others.
It wasn't the best way to use artifacts in general, but kickstarting a new garden that could give me a renewable source of Qi was more important than anything. Land mastery might not make direct use of Qi, but just like the Burning Ice symbol, it was able to do so passively.
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Once that was done, I finally started working on the storage ring of the inner sect disciple. I had left it to the end, because it had multiple traps … including one that would trigger a collapse if the disciple had been killed, or had a chance to trigger it.
"Let's see," I muttered as I started working on it. Unraveling its defenses took an hour, which was almost an eternity considering my System-given skills, and I had to apply both formations and artifact refining to unlock the traps.
Only to realize the storage ring had two independent sections inside it. "Well, that's a beautiful gift," I muttered even as I went through his stuff, but one of the jade stones caught my eye. I had already assumed that Elsana's presence was yet another ploy of the fates, but this reward was almost enough to earn my forgiveness - for the strategic inconvenience, not for the pain Elsana suffered.
"Mutmah Formation Technique," I muttered even as I examined it cursorily, without activating it. I didn't want to imagine just how many traps were in it to prevent anyone from using it, but I could just recycle it through the System … once I was far away from this place. As for how to learn, I had already perfected the method.
That was not the only technique in his possession, making me believe that their trip had been 'productive'.
The real surprise was in the second, smaller storage. There were only two things there. A disgusting, horrible formation plate that radiated a familiar sense of death and decay, one that immediately reminded me of the stone gate under the capital.
But, the formation didn't have any sign of the Everdawn Empire. Instead, it was filled with the signatures of the Entsa Pavilion.
"A grand conspiracy," I said even as I examined it. No wonder they had so many traps. Its discovery alone was grounds for a declaration of total mobilization for Entsa Pavilion.
I put the unactivated formation plate back into the storage, but I kept the spirit stones out. A hundred medium-grade ones, which was enough to reinforce the lost Qi from the earlier attack and leave some excess for me to expand the garden.
Originally, spending Qi to hasten the growth of the plants would have been an inefficient usage, but since I would stay here for a long time, it changed.
What followed was a long, arduous process, one that was certainly boring considering the presence of twelve Golden Core cultivators doing their best to break through the natural land formation with their ceaseless attacks.
My role wasn't a grand, violent last stand. Instead, the most challenging task I had was gardening. Admittedly, it was surprisingly challenging, as not only I was trying to pick plants that had to survive in the heart of a burning caldera, or in the depths of a blizzard. Even more challenging, both the essence and the Qi those plants provided had to respect the delicate balance between Ice and Fire.
That balance wasn't supposed to be that fragile, but after the long abandonment that likely lasted more than a millennium, many problems crept up during the balance, and the constant attacks didn't help.
So, I spent all the time I had left from caring for my patients and growing the garden to study Land Mastery, using my expanding understanding to solve those problems one by one. A challenging task, especially since I had to keep those improvements hidden from my attackers.
If it wasn't for my ability to pinpoint the weaknesses of the formation, the defenses wouldn't have lasted for another day. With it, however, things were far more efficient. Formations were an amazing tool, but the one great weakness they had, was that the enemy's understanding restrained its greatest effectiveness.
It was even more true for cases like that, where multiple cultivators that were unfamiliar with each other, trying to combine their power to use a formation plate that was beyond their understanding.
Even better, after the last 'accident' I created, they started arguing, each blaming each other for the failure of their approach before retreating back to the ship. The good news, they stopped their attacks, letting me focus on deciphering the secrets of Land Mastery.
Unfortunately, I was afraid that it was just the calm before the storm. After mobilizing such a giant ship, almost as large as the volcano I was on, it couldn't be the only tool they had in place. But, I just continued to study Land Mastery, knowing that, the more I understood, the better it would be.
But, before they could attack again, I had a nice surprise.
My patients were about to wake up.