The room was dark. The windows on the other side of the building had been obscured by heavy curtains. Even the light of the moon was often enough to disturb her mother’s rest.

The Copper Bell rang once in Shin Sumi’s head, revealing the room as if it were suddenly broad daylight.

And then Shin Sumi breathed out.

Her mother was sleeping on the bed in the center of the room. She looked deep in slumber but her breathing was ragged and her face was that of discomfort.

With two short steps, Shin Sumi was at her side. Without a thought she brought out her water gourd, holding it above her mother’s mouth and letting a few drops at a time calm her sore throat without waking her up.

Unconsciously, Shin Sumi smiled. She didn’t know what she had expected to find in the auxiliary building but the familiar face of her mother was enough to bring peace to her spirit.

“This is not one of those stories the girls in the sect read for fun” she thought, “where a character comes home to find their family killed and goes on to take over the world for revenge.”

These sorts of books were popular amongst the young girls in the sect. Shin Sumi had even tried a few she had borrowed from Fu Xue but it had always felt a bit childish to her.

Despite herself, though, she had been influenced by them, to the point that she feared what she might find, coming back to her parent’s home.

Shin Sumi felt her shoulders relax from their tense state. She hadn’t found a praying altar where her mother used to sleep or in place of her own bed. Her mother was sleeping as usual, her condition not having deteriorated as far as she could tell.

She had disappeared abruptly three years before but her parents still held hope as they hadn’t touched her room at all.

Shin Sumi finished making her mother drink and watched the strained face of her mother turn back into the beautiful features she had always possessed, calm and unperturbed while still deep in sleep.

“This is the water that Nuan purified for me. It can only be beneficial to mother.”

Without another thought, Shin Sumi’s divine sense gently probed the woman in front of her. She had been sick with an unknown disease for almost as long as Shin Sumi could remember.

Shin Sumi only had a few memories of her mother out of her room from before she learned to talk and could run around the garden. At the time, her mother was already often pained by bright sunlight or physical exertion but she could still be a part of her children’s education.

With her powers and knowledge that only a cultivator could obtain, Shin Sumi had half-hoped that her divine sense would help her understand her mother’s condition a bit better.

As she found nothing out of the norm after a brief scan, Shin Sumi cursed herself for not having thought of joining the Shinsoo Medicine Pavilion. They were the ones knowing the human body better than anyone else.

Shin Sumi knew the few medicinal properties of some of the plants she had sold or that Nuan had registered in the magical book, but none of them indicated they could cure the unknown disease afflicting her mother.

Even Nuan, when brought out of Shin Sumi’s wrist, only looked slightly curious at the woman sleeping in front of her and showed no signs of being able to do something for her.

As the sun was about to rise over the land, signifying the waking up of the entire village, Shin Sumi took out a few spirit stones, hiding them inside the mattress her mother was sleeping on.

If anything could help, it was definitely spirit stones. Maybe it would at least help her mother rest better, she thought as she closed the door to the auxiliary building behind her.

Torn between relief and happiness from seeing her family’s home unchanged after three years, and helplessness from not being able to do anything for her mother despite her power as a cultivator, Shin Sumi left East Seaside Village.

She didn’t know when she would have the opportunity to come back again but she knew she couldn’t stay any longer. She understood herself better than anyone and she knew her willpower wasn’t strong enough to stop her from staying past this point.

“Going to the Silver Sea region was quite the detour to the east. The Sky Earth Sect is at the very south of the Blue Fire mountain range at the border where the Blue Fire country stops and the Sun Lands begins.”

From what Fen Wudao had told her and the records of the Dark Sky Starry Sect, Shin Sumi’s knowledge of the surrounding regions forming the continent had greatly improved from when she was a kid.

In the mortal realm, even the closest regions to her own were like distant lands that one might never go to and thus was of little interest. But for cultivators it wasn’t unusual to travel the world once they left their respective sects.

The Dark Sky Starry Sect was located in the middle of the Blue Fire mountain range, which was part of the Blue Fire country to the west. It had been named after the sect that rose to power following the Moonlit Sect’s demise, and had since become the ruler of the land.

East of the mountain range were the twin regions of River Valley and Silver Sea, which, as far as Shin Sumi knew, had no cultivators and were part of the Dark Sky Starry Sect’s domain.

For cultivators both regions existed as one but for mortals they were part of different jurisdictions. One was where Hoyan River and Wuije’s woods were located and the other was where Shin Sumi had grown up.

Their natural Shinsoo was poor and the regions themselves weren’t big. At least they were not worth fighting over in the eyes of the powerful sects in place.

North of the River Valley region and at the end of the Blue Fire mountain range was the Jankan Empire, of which Shin Sumi knew little about.

What interested her was what laid at the south of the Blue Fire mountain range. Past the point where the sea retreated inland and met with the mountains. There, the Sun Lands began, their large expanses of sand fuelling countless stories told to children by the dark-skinned sailors of the south who stopped their boats briefly near East Seaside Village on their way to Jankan.

Now that Shin Sumi understood the Cultivation World a bit better, all the stories she remembered seemed oddly familiar to her.

She had always been told that the sailors' stories were simply that; stories. However now her view of the world had vastly changed.

"These were all cultivator tales. From what I heard, the Sun Lands should be a cultivator paradise if even the mortals are aware of them."

She looked at Nuan perched on her shoulder, then straight ahead at the long road to the south.

"Maybe in the Sky Earth Sect I will have the opportunity to leave and go visit the Sun Lands. For now though we should hurry to the Sky Earth Sect. I'm afraid if I stay longer in this region, my cultivation base will drop a level due to the lack of Shinsoo."

It was with renewed enthusiasm that Shin Sumi made her way to the mountains in the south west of the Silver Sea Region.

After seeing her family again and releasing all the tension and apprehension she had held inside her for years, she suddenly felt like a free spirit again.

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Even her speed seemed to improve and she realized that she had been slowing down unconsciously by fear of what she might find in her hometown.

***

In three days, Shin Sumi was climbing the eastern side of a large mountain when she suddenly felt the change around her.

"Shinsoo! Oh I've missed you!"

Even Nuan had glittery eyes, jumping all around happily. There was Shinsoo in the Silver Sea region because even mortals, crops and cattle naturally had some energy of nature in them, but its level was too poor to even acknowledge.

As she climbed further up, it was like a refreshing rain after a long summer season. Her body felt less heavy and her Shinsoo Sea seemed freed from invisible shackles.

For her first night in the mountains, Shin Sumi stopped under the moonlight, finally finding an opportunity at cultivating the Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow.

Even reading the techniques she had stolen from Elder Zhu's bag of holding proved infinitely more useful here than it had been below in the valley.

After a full week of walking and climbing mountain paths, Shin Sumi started stopping less and less frequently to cultivate. The renewed Shinsoo quality after a long drought seemed to be what she had needed to advance her cultivation.

Even before leaving the sect, Shin Sumi had been somewhat stuck in her progress of the Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow. The moon stone was of great help but even with its pure Yin type Shinsoo, Shin Sumi couldn't seem to break through her limit of a hundred or so cultivation cycles.

Maybe for a normal cultivator the moon stone would be plenty enough of an energy source but Shin Sumi was unrivaled in that all sixty-four of her Shinsoo passageways were open.

The complete opening of her Shinsoo Doors had given her an abnormal amount of Shinsoo, reserves deep like the ocean, as well as an ability to connect any and all doors she needed for cultivation.

Compared to other disciples of the same step, Shin Sumi was free to cultivate all sorts of techniques instead of relying heavily on the ones her meridians allowed. It wasn't to say that others couldn't cultivate different types of techniques, but it was hundreds of times harder than it was for her.

However there was a limitation to that. As big as it was, her Shinsoo Sea needed Shinsoo even more than others.

It only takes a few drops to fill a glass with water. It takes plenty more to fill a vase. How many drops would be needed to raise the level of an entire lake?

With Shin Sumi only able to cultivate the Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow for a few dozen cycles in one sitting and no more than a few hundred in a day, her Shinsoo Sea only absorbed a few droplets of Shinsoo per day at most.

"Fifty cycles", Shin Sumi opened her eyes after an intense cultivation session. Sweat dampened her clothes and she felt tired but in a good way.

"I am still far from being able to cultivate the Moon Shadow Ephemeral Technique while I run, climb and fight but this progress feels immense" she spoke between two mouthfuls of spirit fruits.

Nuan was munching on the fruit's stem, hungry and seemingly not paying attention at all. When Shin Sumi's hand lowered over Nuan to pet her, the latter quickly bolted, the juicy stem firmly between her teeth.

"I'm not going to steal your food, Nuan. I know you need it. You're still growing and you're making good progress as well!"

In recent months, Shin Sumi had seen Nuan grow from a baby Lion Bat as big as her hand to a clever companion the size of a small dog.

She had been trying to fly ever since the strange little nut hatched but so far had only managed to glide rather than properly flap her skeletal bat wings.

Much like Shin Sumi, Nuan had greatly benefitted from a short Shinsoo drought. Even as she was cultivating intensely, Shin Sumi could feel the spirit beast move around with her divine sense. It was awkward at first but Nuan had finally managed to find her balance and propel herself forward with her wings the color of night.

A warm feeling took over Shin Sumi as Nuan finally let herself be caressed, her food being completely gone.

"Now you'll be able to fight on equal ground with all the butterflies."

It was unsure whether Nuan had understood that last sentence but she equally seemed excited. Every flying insect she crossed paths with seemed to taunt her by taking flight instead of falling prey to her small but sharp teeth.

After petting her a few more times, Shin Sumi's hand parted with the furry creature.

"Can I have another look at Elder Zhu's techniques now?"

With a last yip that was almost a content bark, Nuan turned into a vortex, the large book falling gently on Shin Sumi's knees.

***

A week into the mountains later, Shin Sumi was still going in a southern direction. According to her estimates she had passed the border of the Silver Sea region.

The Blue Fire mountain range extended as far as her eyes could see, but she could recognize that the landscape was different than what she was used to in the Dark Sky Starry Sect.

Instead of the luxuriant jungles and the sharp peaks of the north of the mountain formation, the south was more barren and dry and the altitude had dropped constantly.

The few trees that still managed to grow here were thin and dark with needles instead of leaves. The large boulders had slowly left their place for smaller rocks and pebble paths.

Shin Sumi was about to think that she was close to the end of the mountain range when a loud whistling sound appeared in the distance.

The sound rose from behind a small mountain and a few seconds later Shin Sumi spotted its origin.

"It's a person on a flying artefact!"

She was speechless for a second as the figure sped off in the distance. In front of the cloudless sky there was no doubt about it, a person was definitely flying on an artefact similar to Fen Wudao's silver arrow.

"No doubt about it, a cultivator" she mused, too far to discern anything particular about the person until they were gone, "are they from the Sky Earth Sect?"

Without a second of hesitation Shin Sumi changed her trajectory, aiming for the small mountain from where the flying cultivator had come.

Shin Sumi was supposed to find the sect on her own. At first she had thought that she would eventually find it simply by journeying along the mountain range, but she knew that in all probability it would be harder to find.

Taking the example of the Dark Sky Starry Sect, by its location the sect was hard to find, well protected as it was between high peaks and neverending clouds.

Maybe its good location was another reason why the Sky Earth Sect wanted to fight them for it.

After leaving the Dark Sky Starry Sect almost two weeks before, Shin Sumi had been looking for clues concerning cultivators. For the longest time she had wanted to know how many there were, where they lived and how they built communities.

From many disciples in the sect, she was aware that cultivator clans and societies existed, but as a girl who had lived her whole childhood oblivious to cultivation she was more curious than most.

"The River Valley is completely devoid of Shinsoo and cultivators. That much is obvious. Does that mean that all disciples who come from cultivator societies grew up in Blue Fire country?"

Shin Sumi's mind was spinning with questions when she arrived near the top of the small mountain. Slowly peering over to the other side, she gasped at the panorama extending before her.

In the valley below, close to a hundred different buildings had been constructed next to each other, forming a rudimentary village. But if by itself it was unexpected for Shin Sumi to find a village here, its surroundings and the valley as a whole were simply awe-inspiring.

The buildings were arranged in just a few streets, all around a plaza that housed a small market. The streets extended in all directions, past the outer layer of buildings and towards the lake.

As she spotted the lake which, at first, was too bright for her eyes due to the sun's reflection, Shin Sumi saw that it connected to itself all around the village.

"The village is on an island in the middle of the lake" she understood.

Far in the distance, on the other side of the lake, a large waterfall was constantly feeding new water to the ring. From her point of view Shin Sumi could almost discern under her a small river from which the water flowed out and away from the village, although the rest was obstructed by the shape of the mountain.

Squinting her eyes too see as precisely as she could from this distance, Shin Sumi observed the village for a long time.

While most streets were empty, the market had a few people walking and talking, as expected. The rest of the villagers were probably either gone or inside the buildings.

The more Shin Sumi looked from above, the more confused she got. If at first she was excited at the prospect of finding a cultivator village, she now was almost disappointed.

"What did I expect, people flying and fighting anywhere? Foolish girl" she spoke harsh words to herself, "but this is very different from the upper valley. Apart from the robes, the people there look like mortals to me..."

Crawling away from the edge of the mountain top, Shin Sumi turned her back to the valley and sat. Immediately, Nuan appeared on her lap as she started thinking about her situation.

If the village really was a cultivator society, Shin Sumi was dying to explore it. She wanted to know what goods were sold at the market, if everyone still had a house with a bed even when sleep was unnecessary, if the townsfolk had jobs like mortal carpenters and bakers.

Shin Sumi's curiosity was reaching a peak for the first time in a very long time. However, as she had a mission given to her by the Ghosts of the Dark Sky Starry Sect, she knew she couldn't simply take her time to explore the world, especially after making a big detour to her hometown.

Nuan looked at Shin Sumi, watching how her brows changed from furrowed to excitement and realization.

"I can explore this place and use it to ask around for the Sky Earth Sect" then, after a bit more thinking, "I will go as Yan Yan."

Shin Sumi's plan for infiltrating the sect was to go as herself, for fear of her other personas being recognized by spies. To avoid suspicion, she and the Ghosts had decided that she would feign being in the Shinsoo Gathering Realm instead of the Liquid Realm.

By switching over to Yan Yan to visit the village in the middle of the lake, she would raise less suspicion in case somebody from the Sky Earth Sect saw her around.

Preparing her approach of the village with extra caution, the sun was already declining when Shin Sumi left her hiding spot on the mountain. She had changed robes and her face was Yan Yan's as she walked quietly to the edge of the lake.

In her preparation she had been so cautious in thinking ahead that she had forgotten one simple fact.

"Wait... there is no bridge..."