Ma Su, while not happy with Bai Qi's orders, still acted on them. She also held some interest in meeting Lan Yanzhi, a companion from Bai Qi's previous plane, and even more curiosity to mean an ex-bandit who had turned out to be a follower of her master, even if the latter didn't want to accept the fact.
Regretfully for her, in place of reaching the [Guanming City] in a single teleportation as planned, Ma Su would get teleported to the nearer spot to her destination, [Chitang Chengshi], a small city usually known as the [City of Ponds] or [Pond City], home to nothing more than a few weak untiered powers, a 4th tier ruling vassal and the nearest [Teleportation Formation] to her destination.
***
"I am truly sorry, young lady, but it is impossible to continue from here. While one thinks that [Teleportation Formations] are instant and face no difficulties while the end gates are safe and secure, that isn't the truth for a system as the inter-city ones. All formations between cities use the ones on the path as nodes, and you were stopped here, in such an abrupt manner, because the connection between [Chitang Town] and [Guanming City] has been damaged by an unexpected beast tide assaulting our town just a couple of days and reaching this formation."
After listening to the lengthy explanation, one that the Warrior Lord tending to the [Teleportation Formation] gave her as soon as her mind stopped spinning after a forceful break-out of her planned path, Ma Su only asked a single thing, "When it will be repaired?"
"I am again very sorry, young lady, but we were notified that it will take nearly a week for the formation master to arrive from the [Radiant Orb Academy], and as the road is too dangerous at the moment, we had even to send our scouts on foot to every other nearby settlement in hopes of the tide only affecting ours." The middle-aged bowed once more. While he, as one of the elders of the [Lu Shui Tan Sect], would not bow his head to anyone, his experience told him that the person in front wasn't simple.
Knowing that the man in front had nothing to do with the issue itself, well, except that their power was unable to defend the city well enough, something understandable from the damage to the formation and also, as she looked around, to the dilapidated state of the north-eastern side of the city, the one that both housed the [Teleportation Formation] and was the one facing the [Radiant Orb] controlled area, part of which the [Pond City] was.
"I understand, and I don't hold it back. Is there any place where I can buy a few supplies?" While cultivators of her level did not require supplies, Ma Su decided to prepare in any case, as there was no way to know what or who he would meet during her nearly 400 miles travel to follow, and as Bai Qi had been showing her, there was no need to ignore the helpless, at least if one could avoid doing so.
"Well, the commercial street wasn't affected - so you can do it there..." Hearing that the still unidentified female cultivator didn't try and pick a bone or ask for compensation, as the price for traveling here, a veritable backwater, and to the [Radiant Orb Academy] controlled city was different by a good two spirit stones.
Inside the [Great Forest] territories, except for a couple of places, the formations were all part of the income net of the [Great Forest Sect] and weren't even property of the powers or cities themselves but directly part of the [Overlord] income net. While each location received a cut from that, and the price varied on the normal tax per location, it wasn't rare for the one in charge of the location to be held responsible for any issues outside of malfunctions, and so, were also obligated to compensate, via housing, money, food, or whatever any failed user of the formation.
But before Ma Su could walk away, the formation gate cultivator panicky called out to her, "Young lady, you aren't planning to journey through the forest that the tide just passed, are you..?!"
Regretfully for the good-intentioned elder, Ma Su wouldn't even answer him, as she directly disappeared, deciding against buying supplies after checking everything she had on hand and was handed by Bai Qi, overtaking the more protected formation place and then cruising outside the city, ignoring the half-destroyed wall guards' precautionary words while leaving the small shard of tax in the booth and launching herself at full speed towards Lan Yanzhi's location.
The reason for this decision?
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While Bai Qi had probably worried about the Beastmen the least, knowing that neither of the three pairs who split from him during this unexpectedly complicated journey since he left the [Steel Fang Region], and he was right, neither Heise Zhao and Zhua nor Kass Shaa'r and Gi La had even returned to civilized territories, the latter now undersea, trying to close-up the treasure, Bai Qi's hunch confirmed, the source of the beasts that could respawn as a mirage but still were actual flesh and blood, while the former, well, they were enjoying a mix of fights and feasts for the last weeks without even a sign of them starting the journey to reunite with Bai Qi, even if it was planned for them to be the first and receive the others.
One could say that it was the [Death Hunter] pair the ones tasked with the most straightforward mission, as they had to negotiate and trade, even if with barely intelligent beasts, while the [Lizardmen] duo had to both hunt for cores and investigate a mystery that hadn't been solved even by the local powers. And yet, Kass Shaa'r and Gi La had been advancing closer and closer while Heise Zhao and Zhua, the ones supposed to finish quickly, as if everything failed, they could use force, their strength above their targets, and yet...
*
*
As for the third duo, Bai Rui and Bai Ze, since their separation after the events at [Zihoadao], they had not been in contact with either Bai Qi or the other Beastmen, their path leading them back through two entire regions, following the call of their now awakened [White Tiger] bloodline. As their distance grew, the link that they considered impossible to diminish, their blood link with Bai Qi, diminished more and more. As they went around the [Demon Worshipping Region], nearly backtracking the path they had taken but then crossing the desert and entering the cliffs and crags of the mountain range surrounding the [Void Tear Region], they could barely feel Bai Qi, and only barely noticed that their sensation of him had disappeared. It was a fact they thought that they were prepared for as they noticed the link weakening, but, still, they had to force themselves forward in place of turning around, their thoughts aligned,
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It was fun how the most aloof of the pack became so attached to someone, especially a human. Still, considering their actual link... who could say if it wasn't expected?
What neither of the sisters would know, was that just at the moment they felt the link disappear, it had been the same moment that Bai Qi physically died during his escape from [Dongpo City]. But maybe it was for the best?
***
What no one could have expected, not even Bai Qi himself, would be that the rumors would reach Huo Laohu before Bai Qi's message would. In the same manner, no one could predict the reaction of the main general of the [Steel Fang Region] attack on the [Souther Beasts] or that even the man-beast kings would also act on the trouble met by one of the few humans they called friends, not only issuing an order to deal with all the so-called good-intentioned cultivators that rushed towards them to share the news, Bai Qi's connections now being in open discussion but also sending a clear message to the [Great Forest Sect] that if they heard more of such rumors without actual proof, they would have to rethink their allied status with the powers under the [Sect].
Something that they would not hesitate to prove just a couple of days later of unsuccessful negotiations, as a small team under Tiaowen, a man-tiger from Huo Laohu's closest aides and someone who had a deep respect for Bai Qi, as well as Bowu, a racial relative of the Bai sisters who, while having been at odds, ended up accepting Bai Qi as someone worthy, left towards the [Dongpo City] with not only their Warpack's but also a [Steel Fang] banner raised pointing forward, something that served as a declaration of advancing even if they weren't allowed to. One clear declaration as it could be, when one considered an actual elder, a 6th level Saint Beast of the [Feathered Snake], one of the [Man Beast Kings], Warpack accompanied them!
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The other people of Bai Qi's group, like Ye Su or Fan Jia, had been stationed in [Shoumen City], and while Bai Qi had no idea that Fan Jia had left on a training journey as soon as she recuperated enough, both of them, as well as the two girls he had taken along from the slaver-controlled village where he had met Ma Su, had been spared from the rumors and news. For one, because his identity in [Shoumen] was actually Zhen Guang, so no one with the so-called good intentions knew of the connection to inform them. As for the second, the few people among the higher-ups in the city were silencing the rumors while preparing a response, one that, thankfully, was stopped by Bai Qi reaching out to Grandmaster Li.
And while [Shoumen City] would denounce the rumors publicly, after announcing that Bai Qi was someone who had provided services to the ruling clan of the city, it would be made in a diplomatic manner in place of the nearly punitive operation that Elder Deng had been brewing and the City Lord was close to accepting.
***
Surprisingly, there would be a few small powers that denounced the rumors as impossible, but with their small size, their names would not even reach the ears of the actual source, except for one, the [Eastern Inscription City] [Sima Clan]. Not that it would be surprising, considering that the actual source of the rumors, and also the ones fanning the flames were nothing else than the remnants of the [Yuwen Clan] of the same city, as well as their new official backers, the [Go-Zan Sect].
With Dongpo Ao's appearance, the matter would have been dropped - but with his demise confirmed by dozens of eyewitnesses during the last moments of the [Eastern Inscription City] incident, the [Go-Zan Sect] had started a move on the entire city, knowing well that the few surviving cultivators, led by Lady Liao, couldn't oppose them.
And with neither of the powers participating in the incident, not even the so-called allies of Bai Qi, the [Pan Trade Family], [White Grove Sect], and [Yuxuan City] paying attention to what was happening, each dealing with the aftermath of the incident as well as their losses, and so keeping silent, one could say that the [Go-Zan Sect], who had suddenly obtained the help of a couple of clans that disliked the [Dongpo Clan] rule and a Warrior King helper of great caliber who agreed to join for a share in the spoils, one could say that everything would work out fine.
Except that the [Go-Zan Sect] simply didn't understand, or even had the relevant information, about what an incident would start just from their attempt to take over the city...
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Li Xia had felt she had found a new family in the [Seven Strokes Hall], being a power not based on martial but academic prowess, and with the help she received from all the instructors, especially from Instructor Jiao, she had spent the several months of training, advancements, competitions, and even a few rivalries as if all of the bad rumors about the cultivator world were nothing but lies.
But her happiness would come to an abrupt end. And it wouldn't be in the same way as when she learned that most of the instructors, including the ailing but always cheerful, with her, at least, Hallmaster Wong were called to join the [Great Forest Allied Forces] launching to fight the war against the banded evil cultivators that now assaulted the region.
It wasn't even as they left and she was left to face the [River Tree City] nearly by herself, as most of the senior disciples and elders also left. Yet, the city wasn't filled up with just good people either, but Li Xia had encountered no real troubles outside of the usual ones of a city, something she had been already accustomed to as a mortal owning a shop during the events on the [Seven Islands Plane]. In fact, she encountered even less, as the [He Shu] or [River Tree] dojo that ruled over the city had been always close with the [Seven Strokes Hall], fairly different from other 3rd-tier powers that ruled over the 4-tier ones inside their territories. And so, it wasn't the city either.
The real reason that made her, even now, wake from her meditation in a cold sweat and sometimes even cry was the truth of the cultivation world.
How could she, who had been sheltered since the start, even if having a few runs with low-level cultivators, truly expect powerful cultivators to start killing right and left..? Just because of some stupid war, one that neither of the present, at that moment, people in the [River Tree City] had anything to do?
***
Barely escaping along with the youngest generation of the [Hall] and a single instructor of the three that stayed to continue the lessons, and mainly only thanks to the sacrifice of the other two and the entire unit of soldiers assigned to protect them by He Dong, the son of the [He Shu Dojo] leader, who acted as his representative as his father was away, now dead as nearly everyone she knew in the entire city, including the entirety of their both rivals and friends of the [Ground Formation Group], the other 4th tier power in the city, Li Xia was trust into the so-great [Yuxuan City], which turned out to be nothing more than a shithole of politics and power struggles.
A shithole in which she was plunged nearly as the representative of the [Hall], the last remaining elder, Instructor Du, unable to recover from his injuries even now, and her advancement to the [Five Strokes Scroll] and the Sage realm placing her above the other disciples of the new generation.
With wolves and dogs gathered around what she had been calling her home for the last months, and no real way to contact any allies, even communication talismans being intercepted by one of the parties that so much wanted to show them hospitality and help them regrow, a blatant lie as it could be, Li Xia was forced out from her emotions as she tried to navigate the [Yuxuan City] dangers while maintaining whatever was left of the [Hall] until the Hallmaster and the other instructors returned.
In any case, today, she was meant to meet just another of the clans of the city that was trying to recruit the remnants of the [Hall], or well, to simply take over the [Seven Strokes Scrolls], the main treasure of their [Hall], and one that they had indeed saved from the burning [River Tree City] hall of theirs.