The next month saw the journey settle into a productive routine. The first half of the day was spent on travel itself. Once they found a suitable spot to camp around midday, they left the road and began hunting beasts. While they never managed to find another Third Realm beast, there were plenty of the Second, and several were even close to advancement before the three cultivators found them. The bounty of the wilds saw them feasting on awakened beast meat nearly every night, and harvesting cores daily. In that time He Yu even managed to break into the Middle Foundation stage.
“It wasn’t quite what I’d been expecting,” he admitted the next morning.
“That’s the Second Realm,” Yan Shirong said with a shrug over his breakfast.
“It is a bit underwhelming, isn’t it?” Li Heng asked.
“I just expected, I don’t know, more. Going from early Qi Gathering to the middle stage was such a large jump. Then there was the breakthrough into Foundation.”
Li Heng nodded. “It’s just because you’ve had time to get used to Foundation. While it’s true that each Realm is a wider river than all those that come before it, you end up spending comparatively more time reaching each stage. It makes those breakthroughs feel a bit less jarring than they would otherwise. Don’t worry though, from everything I’ve heard you’ll still get your big moments when you ascend to an entirely new Realm.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to push to late Foundation before we arrive?”
“Not without some tremendous fortune,” Yan Shirong snorted. “I’m certainly not making it without help. These beast cores aren’t anywhere near enough.”
That wasn’t exactly what He Yu had wanted to hear, but it did make sense. It had taken him more to reach each breakthrough in both time and resources than it had the previous ones. He’d already long since figured out that his rapid advancement through the First Realm was wholly due to having such a low cultivation base to begin with. It would have been more difficult not to advance with such a low base in an environment as rich in qi as the Shrouded Peaks. There was a reason the sect was located there, after all.
One unexpected upside to his breakthrough, however, was that it allowed them to travel faster than before. Which meant they were able to allot more time to hunting awakened beasts. Although the cores were nice in the absence of spirit stones, the real prize was the meat.
Already He Yu could feel the benefits. All three of them had packed on a noticeable amount of muscle since leaving. None of them were anything close to the hulking mountains of flesh and muscle that either Ren Huang or Fang Yingjie were, but He Yu was beginning to feel as though he was finally beginning to look the part of a cultivator.
Granted, the meat hadn’t done anything for his height. He was still a bit on the slender side, too, but there was certainly a hardness to his physique that very much hadn’t been there when they’d left. Also, his disciple’s uniform was beginning to feel a bit tight around his chest and shoulders. It was a sensation that was as unfamiliar as it was welcome.
Perhaps most importantly, Li Heng and Yan Shirong constantly reminded him that they wouldn’t really see the benefits of their improved diet until they reached the Third Realm. Combining that promise with the way Li Heng had likened it to Tan Xiaoling remaining at the peak of Foundation all this time, He Yu almost wished that he could stay out here in the wilds until the sect deadline to reach Body Refining was drawing close. All things considered, the journey to the northern border of the sect lands was far more productive than He Yu had ever imagined it would be.
It was enough to forget why they’d come. Almost.
The first burned-out village they came across shocked all three of them back from whatever illusions they’d developed on the trip. The scent of charred wood hung heavy in the air. Crows perched on what remained of the buildings, but He Yu thankfully couldn’t see any bodies. Still, there was a stench in the air that made his stomach turn.
“Welcome to the world of immortals,” Yan Shirong said, making no effort to hide his distaste.
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“No wonder the sect marked this King Hao for death,” Li Heng added. Both the nobles had taken on a seriousness that He Yu had never seen in either of them before.
“These people never stood a chance,” He Yu said. There was an unexpected mix of emotions churning in his gut at the sight of this ruined, burned-out village. From all that he’d heard throughout his childhood, he thought he’d been prepared to have to face this someday. Intellectually, at least. As it turned out, facing it in person was quite a different matter.
How could someone willfully inflict such suffering? The heroes of the stories had always been protectors of mortals, but usually from spirits and beasts and demons. When the villains were other cultivators, the grudges were personal affairs. Petty, certainly—but they never involved mortals. Not like this.
Li Heng shoved a charred beam from what probably used to be someone’s home with his foot. “Can’t be more than a week past,” he said.
“You think they’re close?” He Yu asked, surprised at the heat he heard in his voice.
Yan Shirong shot him a look. “It won’t do anyone any good at all to go in all burning with the righteous desire for vengeance.”
“Yan Shirong is right,” Li Heng said. “This isn’t going to be like your fights back at the sect.”
He Yu couldn’t help but feel as though the other two were babying him. Wasn’t he middle Foundation now? Same level as Yan Shirong, and the two of them were only a stage behind Li Heng. The gap between He Yu and the others had narrowed considerably in the months since he’d joined the sect.
“We should track them,” he said, perhaps with a bit more sharpness than he’d intended.
At least there was no disagreement on that point. Yan Shirong sent off several of his constructs without another word, and Li Heng set to poking about in the ruins once again. It didn’t take long for them to find the bandits’ trail—they apparently hadn’t seen any need to hide. The trail led to the north, closer to the border of the Shrouded Peaks Sect’s territory. Probably just past the official border, Li Heng surmised.
“Is that why nobody’s dealt with them yet?” He Yu asked.
“Most likely nobody could be bothered,” Yan Shirong said with a shrug as they followed the trampled grass and broken underbrush left in the bandits’ passage.
“Couldn’t be bothered?” The bite of the heat from earlier had returned to He Yu’s voice.
“Something like this is beneath the concerns of the sect elders,” Li Heng said, his tone carefully measured. “It would take a far greater threat to pull them from their cultivation. Any one of the core disciples could handle this easily, and so could any of the higher-ranked inner disciples, for that matter. I’ve no idea how many of them there actually are, but King Hao is only Body Refining. Anyone of at least the Fourth Realm could deal with this easily enough.”
“Then why haven’t they?” He Yu demanded.
“So they could send us,” Yan Shirong said with a shrug, as though it were obvious.
Before He Yu could say anything, Li Heng elaborated. “Remember how Senior Sister Zhang said to consider this a training opportunity? That’s why they haven’t done anything. Jobs like this are a good way to push outer disciples. To give them real experience. And to cull the ones who aren’t fit for the world of immortals.”
The very thought made him sick. How could the elders be so callous? There were real people who had suffered—died—while the sect simply stood by, viewing the presence of a bunch of marauders on their northern border to be nothing more than a training opportunity. What if this had happened to Shulin? He Yu had no illusions as to whether Dong Wei would be able to protect the town in that case. It seemed that living under the administration of a sect wasn’t a guarantee of protection either.
He Yu looked up to find Li Heng standing in the path before him. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and he wore a serious expression. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, Yu, but this is the world we inhabit now. Protecting mortals is a righteous goal—noble, even—but we have bigger concerns.”
“Like what?” he practically spat. The anger that had risen in him in response to the burned village and the indifference that Li Heng and Yan Shirong displayed surprised him. He hadn’t expected to feel so strongly about this.
“Well,” Li Heng said, “our own cultivation for starters. If we can’t get stronger, how can we expect to prevent worse things from happening to the innocent?”
A certainty settled over He Yu as he took in Li Heng’s words, activating the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment without being fully aware that he was even doing so. It was reflexive, automatic in a way that it hadn’t been before. Through the technique, he could see that Li Heng was trying to convince himself as much as he was He Yu. The excuse was flimsy, and Li Heng knew it. That stoked the fire in He Yu’s belly even further, and he found that the Heavenly Palace Art, through his cultivation technique, approved.
It was almost enough to shock him from his anger. How could an art approve? He set that aside for the time being. As much as he wanted to explore it, this particular truth was beyond him. The Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment made that fact as clear as it had its approval. If anyone could help him understand why the art would even care, it would be Elder Cai. And he couldn’t exactly consult Elder Cai right now. They had bandits to kill.
“Let’s go,” He Yu said, the weight of certainty settling over him. “We’ve got a job to do.”