Choosing the path we would walk on our way to Yellow City was more complicated than I had originally imagined.
For LiTing, Yan, and Meng LuYao, the path that made the most sense was the Path of Soul. They had sufficient knowledge of high-level martial and profession skills, so the other two paths would be easy for them as long as their cultivation levels were sufficient. However, while they knew how to cultivate their souls, rapidly raising them to a level suitable for a King or Emperor was still a bad idea. By taking the Path of Soul first, they would be removing a potential future bottleneck.
JiaQi, on the other hand, hadn’t mastered many of the high-Rank beast taming skills. If she waited to take the Path of Mind until the trip to Profound or Earth City, she would have a difficult time passing it. Therefore, she needed to walk that path on the way to Yellow City.
I didn’t want her to walk it alone in case she got into trouble, so since the order I walked the paths wasn’t overly important, I joined her on the Path of Mind.
Before entering, I handed her a second-generation version of my communication formation to see how it would handle the path. I had made this one after we reached Heaven City last time, and while it didn’t have many improvements over the first iteration, it should have a longer range. I also found a way to let it pierce through weak shielding formations. The plan was for her to buzz me the moment we entered the path. Then, if either of us had to enter the holding area, we would signal the other with two buzzes.
Once we were both ready, we passed through our portals and entered the Path of Mind.
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I decided to stick with the test for alchemists. While my purchased knowledge would have let me pass the test for talisman artists, I didn’t have any attachment to that profession, and I didn’t want to give the Master of the Lightning Peak the satisfaction of seeing my talisman skills. While I would have also been fine on the formation specialist path, I just stuck with what I knew to avoid any additional complications.
When I entered the first test cavern and found the ‘challenge’ waiting for me, I was almost ashamed of how simple it was, but I didn’t let that stop me. Its simplicity just meant that I would be able to get things done sooner than I had hoped.
However, before I could get started, two things interrupted me.
First was a buzzing from my communication formation. This was the signal that JiaQi had entered her test. I sent a buzz back to confirm that everything was working properly.
Second was a shout from the ‘holding area.’
“Hey boss, we got a new one over here. Come take a look!”
I walked to the portal and looked out to see a stocky middle-aged man wearing a fraying pale brown robe. He had several bandages wrapped around his arms and legs, showing his time in the holding area hadn’t been overly pleasant.
When he saw me walk toward him, he gave me an evil smirk.
Shortly after I approached the portal, a group of two women and two men raced out from the underbrush.
A tall lean woman with an angular face gave me a nasty look before glancing at one of her male companions.
“Check him.”
The man reached into his storage bag and pulled out a large stack of papers. After rifling through more than half of them, he stopped, pulled one out, and handed it to his leader.
“He’s here, boss. He’s wanted by PangBo.”
The leader’s mouth curved upwards when she saw the paper.
“Interesting. Has someone been causing problems for Master Pang? Well, we can’t let that happen, can we boys?”
She turned to the other woman. “Take the other notices. Check to see if his friends are also on the path. There’s a bonus if we can grab them all.”
Then, she looked at me with a greedy glint in her eye. “Come on out here and we’ll make things quick. Master Pang has a large bounty out on you and your companions. We only need your life. We don’t need to torture you unless you make us upset.”
I cocked my head to the side and looked at them. This was the third time I was walking the Path of Mind, but I had never visited the holding area before. Doing so could be considered ‘unfinished business.’ Maybe it was time to see what it was like in there.
Using my communication formation, I sent two quick buzzes to JiaQi. Then, I stepped through the portal. According to the test’s rules, I wouldn’t be allowed back onto the path until two full days had passed. That gave me plenty of time to look around.
I had never been completely sure if the holding area and the people threatening me from it were real or not, but looking at them in energy vision, I saw that nothing here was fake, it was all real. This was a bit of a shock on its own since it meant that an herbalist had been able to grow a lush jungle deep beneath a mountain. If that was possible, then my plans for my storage space weren’t as far-fetched as I had feared.
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The gang’s leader laughed at me. “Good choice. Now stand still while I end this.”
I didn’t move, but I did watch carefully in energy vision to make sure there were no hidden surprises.
She threw out a punch.
When it came within a centimeter of my skin, my defensive formation flared to life and flung her backward.
I grabbed a standard Rank 1 refined staff that I had purchased from the sect from my storage bag and slammed it into each of my attackers, sending them to the ground in a heap. As I had expected, anyone hanging around in the Path of Mind’s holding area wasn’t very skilled.
By this point, the leader had struggled to her feet, but I sent her back down to the ground with a solid kick.
Standing over her, I smiled down at her kindly. “Let’s talk.”
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My two-day stay in the holding area was rather boring. The jungle biome held a variety of herbs, animals, bugs, and mineral deposits, so it would be a decent area for weaker cultivators to practice their professions, but I doubted it got much use. Most of the time, it would just be a staging ground for robberies.
The one bright spot of my holdover there was how nice the former bandits had been once they left the darkness and joined the light. They explained a bit about the bounty hunter system in the sect, and they even agreed to post one in my name after they reached Yellow City.
Of course, I wasn’t so crass as to place a bounty against Manager Pang, no matter what he had tried to do to me. There were much more important issues at stake.
The Rank 3 talisman knowledge that I had gained from the System included one particularly important design. It was for the Rank 3 Soul Cleansing Talisman. When placed on a person’s body, it would send a shock of lightning through their soul and destroy any invading organisms. This talisman only worked on Grandmasters and Rank 3 gu, so I would need to develop something better in the future, but it was a beginning.
The bounty I had them place was simple. For each cultivator freed from the PangBo Merchant Association, I would pay 5 Perfect Rank 3 pills and replace the used talisman. To get things started, I gave the former bandits ten of these talismans and told them they could purchase as many as they wanted from me while I was in Yellow City.
If everything went well, this bounty would become quite costly, but it was a solid way to repay my debt to Manager Pang while helping some poor people find a better life.
To do this, the ‘bounty hunters’ would first need to be able to pass the tests on the Path of Mind and leave this place, but their leader assured me that this wouldn’t be a problem. They weren’t in the holding area because they had to be. They were here because they wanted to be.
The small group left and was on their way out of the path before even an hour had passed.
Finally, after two days of twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the timer to expire, I was able to exit the holding area. Back on the path, it didn’t take me long to complete all the tests and make my way to the exit.
Outside, I found JiaQi waiting for me.
“What happened to you in there? How did you fail?”
I laughed at that. “Just having a little fun. Let’s get going.”
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Upon entering Yellow City, we headed for the spot where we had arranged to meet our companions. When we arrived, LiTing gave JiaQi a worried look.
“You didn’t have any problems on the path, did you? It took you so long. Did you fail?”
JiaQi harrumphed and pointed a thumb at me. “No. This idiot did.”
I waved off the attention. “I was just making some new friends. Let’s focus on what’s next.”
Yan cleared his throat to get our attention. “While we were waiting for you to arrive, I did a little checking around. You can purchase a position as a city steward in the temple, the same place where you buy karmic energy. For Grandmasters, this option is only available to grade 3 core disciples. Just remember, you won’t be the city lord, so you won’t receive any karmic energy from the position. You will only receive contribution points based on the amount of energy you generate. You will then have to purchase the karmic energy back using those points, and I’m certain the price you pay will include a steep markup.”
That was about what I had expected.
“Were you able to get any information on what kind of cities are available for purchase?”
“Anything, more or less. There are no limitations placed on grade 3 core disciples, so you have the freedom to choose exactly what kind of city you want and how exactly you want to manage it.”
That was good, but I was a bit out of my depths. I had helped Prince CaoHan manage his city for decades in a previous life, but the breadth of that experience was limited. I wasn’t well versed in all the factors that might be important in choosing the best location for our future endeavors. Thankfully, I had people to help advise me.
I looked around the group. “Any thoughts on where we should go?”
Everyone immediately turned to Yan.
He cleared his throat. “There are many considerations, but I would say that the most important one is what your goal is. You need the city to generate as much karmic energy as possible. How are you going to accomplish this?”
He took out a crudely drawn map of the sect’s three empires from his storage bag.
“I was able to purchase this map in a small store near the temple. It doesn’t entirely match up with the situation I remember, but it should be good enough for now.”
He pointed out the locations of various kingdoms.
“In general, I prefer to separate cities into two main groups. First are cities on the edge of a kingdom. Kings usually prefer their vassals to raid other kingdoms than fight amongst themselves, so these cities are more militarily active. You can attack cities more freely, and you can expect to be attacked more frequently in return.”
He gestured at some of the cities near the center of a kingdom.
“These will be more peaceful and easier to develop. You will need to focus far more on the prosperity of your people as you will not gain many benefits from raiding. In these cities, you will be competing against your neighbors for economic advantages, not military ones. Of course, these are broad categories, and no city is entirely peaceful. No matter where we choose to settle, we will be attacked by our neighbors. The decision is more about the frequency and importance of such events.”
I nodded in understanding.
“Nothing requires us to attack our neighbors though. Even if we are on a disputed border, we don’t have to attack, right?”
Yan shook his head.
“I don’t know. Even after ChenKun reached Peak Lord and was ready to advance to King, he was adamant about defeating Lord Hao. I’m confident that this was driven by information he learned from his grandfather, but he never shared the details of it with me. All I can say is that it appears defeating other Lords is important for your future advancement. Whether that advancement is to the position of a kingdom steward, or if it is related to becoming a Sovereign, I cannot say.”
The lack of information was annoying, but Yan had told me enough to plot a course forward. As a few plans appeared in my head, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Ning ChenKun and Lord Hao were playing games of dominance to show off for the sect. If that’s the case, we can do likewise and repay a debt at the same time.”
My eyes roamed the map carefully, wanting to stare a hole through it.
“Where is Lord Hao located?”