Chapter 61

Small Woes and Large

Leo stared at the winding canyon in front of him in a bit of a daze, wondering whether he'd crossed worlds again on accident. However, glancing to the side where he saw the large, muscular, black tiger standing, looking back at him with an 'odd' expression, he was certain that wasn't the case. He was still very much in the same world, in the same forest even, but it was just that the topology of the place ceased making sense.

The trees parted like a sea, giving way to a canyon that was at least five miles long and just about half that wide. It had a lot of strange terraces that bored into the sides, forming caves, and quite a few 'levels', all seemingly populated with life.

When he asked earlier in the camp whether there were any animals he could hunt for the hides, the black tiger was the first one to emerge from between the trees and, while the rest of the animals completely ignored them, guide him southwest. They hiked casually for about three hours before they emerged here, at an entirely alien place--a canyon in the middle of the forest.

"So... which ones can I hunt?" Leo asked gingerly. Instead of 'replying', the black tiger seemed to 'shrug' as it were and suddenly lie flatly down onto the ground, closing his eyes, and falling asleep.

Leo reeled for a moment, but not a second longer, turning back toward the canyon. It likely meant that he could hunt them all--well, not all, since not all animals in the canyon had hides. There were plenty of oversized spiders that he was desperately trying to envision as anything else, but there were also boars, bears, and wolves. The key difference, even he noticed, was that none of the animals in the canyon had Qi--and even the few that did, only had small wisps that couldn't qualify them even as 'Qi Condensation' realm beasts.

Though he'd seen quite a few of the 'normal' animals shutter around inside the forest, he'd never seen them congregate in such a large number at one place.

The next important bit of business was: how to hunt them? His eyes spied a few ways down into the canyon, but even if he could do so, he imagined that attacking one would yield the ire of every other animal, and even if he was a cultivator, that didn't mean that a few hundred of ordinary animals wouldn't chew him out in seconds.

He contemplated baiting them out of the canyon, but that would also be difficult as he had nothing to bait them with--if he used his juice or stew, chances were that every animal would sprint out of the canyon as though it were migration season.

Thus, he sat down, cross-legged, closed his eyes and began to meditate... on how to hunt competently, something he hadn't even done in a game.

**

Xiaoling sighed, pushing herself away from the desk and rubbing the bridge between her eyes. Her head felt like it would split, and it wasn't because of an injury, but because of the sheer amount of paperwork she'd buried herself in the past few days. Thanks to the new admissions, as well as the massive damage that the Sect took, there was a lot of restructuring that took place. And, in moments like these, it was always dangerous--embezzlement, corruption, pure incompetence, if every person and every small copper coin weren't being tracked properly, it could cause a cascade of issues down the line that would hinder the entire thing.

There were parts of her festering with anger toward her Master--she was somewhat dubious on his extraction from everything, and his retreat into the solitary confinement. Though he declared the reason noble, was it possible that he simply shunned all this paperwork onto her, knowing what was coming? Well, knowing him... it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

She, thankfully, wasn't alone--there were six Elders working even more than her, day and night it felt, to keep up with everything. Their already old and thin frames were thinning further, and soon it seemed they'd become sheets of wallpaper against the wall.

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"Alright everyone, take a break," she said, standing up. "We're down to the final stretch. All that's left is Hall Assignments for the newcomers as well as inventory for trade. How are our gift stocks?"

"Not as much as we'd hoped, Sect Master," they'd gotten around to calling her that despite her wishes, and all she could do was translate it into 'Elder' inside her mind. "Most of the local Sects simply added about 20% extra on their annual tax, and though the mortals also donated, it is mostly food and few scarce medicinal plants."

"What about other Tier IV Sects?"

"Celestial Orchid Sect sent twenty Celestial Plums," one of the Elder responded. "Monetarily, it is extremely generous. But--"

"--it's kind of useless?" Xiaoling frowned. "They're those fruits that you eat when you need art enlightenment, right?"

"Yes. They're one of the most profitable exports of the Celestial Orchid Sect. Buying ten, at any given time, is all but impossible."

"Hm. What about the Pavilion?"

"They sent three branches of the Heavenly Tree."

"Those bastards," Xiaoling's eyebrows twitched with anger. Just like with the Celestial Orchid Sect, the branches themselves held immense monetary value--in fact, it was virtually impossible to buy them, as the Heavenly Pavilion only ever gifted them. However, their use was extremely niche--conjuring up a Heavenly Light Formation. With three branches, they could operate the array for about a year, but the benefits of the array were that it cleansed the mind and kept the demons out. Ordinarily, it would be beneficial--but during the reconstruction, it was virtually useless.

"Which Sect sent us the most useful thing?" Xiaoling asked.

"It would probably be Misty Rain Sect," one of the Elders replied. Xiaoling frowned, digging deep into her memory bank to bring up the memories of the Sect.

"Do we have any major dealings with them?"

"Not as far as we are aware, Sect Master. However, your Master, supposedly, rescued some of their Disciples about a hundred years ago in a Secret Realm. Could this be repayment?"

"What did they send?"

"They sent a batch of a thousand of Qi Gathering Pellets, five hundred Bone-Mending Pastes, twenty barrels of Azure Wine, and ten spatial rings worth of building materials."

"Wow," Xiaoling whistled lowly. Even if, speaking strictly in terms of Spirit Stones, they came up short against the two Tier VI Sects, in terms of usability for now... it wasn't even in the same realm. "From what I know, they themselves are a fairly small, Tier III Sect. What's their history?"

"They are a splinter Sect from the Celestial Orchid Sect," an Elder said. "It is not publicly known why they split, but about two hundred years ago, some of the Elders and the Vice Master at the time left the Celestial Orchid Sect and founded the Misty Rain Sect. From what I recall, they only have one requirement for acceptance: girls and women under the age of 30."

"They don't take in men?"

"Hm, not directly. But they do have male Disciples, as the Elders themselves aren't prohibited in finding Disciples outside the Sect and taking them in directly."

"Right. Boytoys."

"Khm."

"Alright," she shrugged. "Make a note that, once this is all settled, we ought to send an envoy and express our gratitude."

"Will do, Sect Master."

Xiaoling walked over to the window, leaning against the pane, and looking over the Sect. The reconstruction was going well--there were seldom traces of the level of destruction that took place here just a while back, but some still remained. Medicinal Hall would take at least half a year to be rebuilt completely, and probably closer to ten years to be fully restocked.

Martial Hall couldn't even be rebuilt--they had to tear down the rubble and construct it anew from the ashes. Luckily, that, too, ought to be done in just a couple of months.

Considering the wounds, the scars would be few--if only the visible ones. What was left was to pick themselves up and move onward; for now, at least. Revenge would come, in due time, no matter who their attackers were.

Stretching, she turned back and saw that the Elders were still hard at it, sifting through mountains of papers, their old skins aging visibly still. She smiled faintly and retreated to her seat--she couldn't let them soak up the worst of it, when the youngest was at least thrice her age. As she said, it was the last push, and once they were past it, they'd be able to simply sit back and recuperate.

"Sect Master!" the doors were suddenly flung open, one of the Outer Elders shuffling through swiftly. "Dragon--Dragon--"

"Calm down and spit it out."

"Obsidian Dragon Realm has opened!"

"--WHAT?!" she exploded to her feet, her eyes widening. Impossible, was her first thought, and for a good reason. Obsidian Dragon Realm was one of the six known Hidden Realms of the Lower Ashlands, and the one with the most consistent opening times--every 13 years, on the dot. Except, it hasn't even been 8 years since it last opened. And it just had to be when they were in the middle of rebuilding. How the hell did this happen...?