Month 22

After I used the talisman that Zhu Jiao gave me, I lost both groups of pursuers. I was pretty sure they were still on my tail, but that boost sent me over the border of the Righteous Wind Province and out into the wilds. I’ve been traveling at top speed for the last couple weeks in order to reach the ‘Great Wilderness’. It’s marked on common maps as a dangerous zone, and given how many huge expanses of wilderness already exist between each of the counties and provinces, there isn’t much need to head out into the wilds.

After hearing the reason from Zhu Jiao, I wasn’t exactly surprised. If there was a sort of kingdom run by Demonic Beasts in that direction, even if a powerful cultivator traveled deep into the territory they would likely find no signs of any civilization. I don’t really know anything about them, but after converting the values from a map each Kingdom seems to span roughly a hundred thousand miles. From what I remember, the Earth’s surface area is about 200 million square miles. That means each of the Kingdoms here is around 50 times bigger than the whole of the Earth. It was already amazing that at least four of these Kingdoms existed, but the crazy part is that I still have no clue how big this world is. Even the most expensive maps in each Kingdom only show their neighboring Kingdoms.

If the Shou Empire, as Zhu Jiao called it, is just as large as the other Kingdoms it shouldn’t be too hard to hide out there for many millennia if I want to. At least, I could if I could figure out how they’re tracking me and stop it. Every group chasing me had one of Whitestaff’s disciples with them, so my guess is that it has something to do with them. If it weren’t for the mutiny, I would have never known that Whitestaff had such an amazing technique. There’s no telling what else she was hiding from me. The same goes for the others in the Jade Horde. I can’t help but think I was a fool to think I could buy loyalty. I thought that if I gave some bandits enough money to make them happy they’d accept my organization as a new home and treat each other like a family. It only works until someone offers them a better deal.

Month 24

I’ve been traveling constantly the last few months and I think I’m about to enter the region on the map where the ‘Great Wilderness’ begins. There’s a sort of empty buffer zone a few thousand miles wide between the Great Wilderness and the Dou Kingdom. While traveling through it I stumbled upon a few interesting places and cave abodes, but they had already been ransacked long ago.

I went into one cave where I found a secret entrance. Inside there was a large sign that declared ‘The Final Resting Place of the Green Firelord.’ Past that I found a large underground complex filled with many large stone pillars. Each pillar was inscribed with a technique left behind by the so-called Green Firelord. Unfortunately, this Green Firelord was far less impressive than he made himself sound. I skimmed through the techniques and found them all to be of lower quality of those left behind by the Timeless Master. Certainly, there were many of them, but they weren’t very powerful.

I’m still on the run so I didn’t want to spend weeks copying them down, and my Memory Forge is in the Universe Ring. It would have been nice to have more techniques I could sell, but that’s a concern for another time. I marked an approximate location on the map Zhu Jiao gave me and then kept moving.

Month 26

I think I discovered the first signs of the Shou Empire.

The wilds seem just like those in the border zone and even those back in the Dou Kingdom. I’ve just been traveling quickly to try and put as much distance between me and my pursuers as possible. I stumbled upon the movement of a great herd of Spirit Animals. They looked something like a water buffalo, but with a dozen horns spaced out over their heads and even armoring their necks.

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What caught my eye was actually a pack of white furred wolves. Each of them were the size of an SUV and they were herding the buffalo. They weren’t just chasing the herd and picking some of them off for food, but they were moving at a slow pace and carefully guiding the herd. If that was all I saw, I would just think them to be smart wolves, but then they moved the herd into a fenced off area. Then one of them rose up onto two legs… and transformed. Its front legs transformed into arms, the feet becoming clawed hands, and its upper body widening into human-like shoulders. It looked quite like a werewolf.

Then more of the silver wolves transformed and they started treating the water buffalo like cattle, checking them carefully and giving pills to some of them. Then they separated a dozen or so into another pen and released the rest. Even this seemed pretty simple, but what really convinced me is when the dozen in a separate pen started to disappear one by one. One of the silver wolves had a Beast Bag!

This is the first time I’ve ever seen or heard of a Demonic Beast using a magic tool before. I watched them for an hour or so, but they left in a direction that wouldn’t take me further from the Dou Kingdom. I was curious to learn more, but I was more worried about being caught.

Month 27

I can feel something watching me.

The first time it happened I was terrified and started searching everywhere. I hid from every bird, beast, and insect in the area. I used my Warp Worm to tunnel away, but even after I emerged miles away I still felt the same feeling of being watched. I thought I might just be imagining it, but I searched carefully. That feeling of being observed, the one where the hairs at the back of your neck stand up is actually related to the sixth sense, the weakened form of Spirit Sense. The weight of someone else’s aura pressing against your own.

I couldn’t pinpoint the source, but I could tell someone or something was watching me. I fled rapidly, thinking it was the precursor to an ambush, but no attacks came. I’ve been feeling the same sensation now for a few weeks and my guess is that it’s a new method to track me. I find myself hoping it originates from the Shou Empire, and as a new arrival they’re just inspecting me, but its far more likely someone else is chasing me.

Month 28

I was right. Someone new was after me.

Without any fanfare at all, I found myself completely surrounded by people that seemed to be at the peak of the fifth rank. Each of them were wearing inconspicuous black clothing with their faces covered by masks. They also carried identical equipment, and they locked me down without using any unique or individual techniques. They relied entirely upon their magical tools to create a restricting formation along with clearing away some of the nearby beasts. I admired their dedication to keeping their identities hidden.

I tried to think of methods to escape their grasp, but each of them were already much stronger than me and there were a dozen of them. Before I could decide on a plan of action, they declared themselves to be agents of the Dou Kingdom. Well, one of them did at least and their voice was low and scratchy with a weird lilting and warbling to it that I figured was from some sort of technique. I was a little reassured when they told me they were going to take me in alive, and they didn’t care if I was conscious or not.

Unfortunately for them, we were in the territory of the Shou Empire. I hadn’t yet chosen to submit or not when I heard loud wolf howls. A moment later, nearly a hundred of those silver furred wolfmen I’d seen before had surrounded the group wearing black. They were all standing on two legs and carrying weapons this time. Only a few of them were over level 50, but a dozen more were in the 40s. They could definitely put up quite a fight with the black clothed team if they were willing to sacrifice themselves.

Then a large bird flew over. It had a long neck and legs, somewhat like a crane, but with features more like a hawk or falcon. Its feathers were predominantly white, but its belly was purple, and the large feathers of its wings and tail had green tips. Then it fixed its black eyes on the person who had spoken before, and clacked its crimson beak a few times. A moment later, it started to change. Just like the wolves it took on a partially human form, a sort of bird anthropomorph. It had the shape of a man, but with clawed feet, a beak on his face, and feathers covering his whole body, especially the odd hands that were more feather than flesh.

Then a different sort of barrier appeared around me and the two parties had a discussion I couldn’t hear.

I never thought I’d end up in a monster jail.