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This information could be useful for any future lives that I would be spending within the Nine Rivers Sect, but it didn’t change my plans for the rest of this one. Even if the city was safer than I had imagined, I wasn’t willing to stick around for any surprises from the PangBo Merchants. Besides, I would have to reach Profound City before I could continue advancing anyway.

Walking the path to the next city might be dangerous for the unprepared, but I much preferred the uncertain dangers of the path to being within the reach of people who could infect my soul with demonic insects. So, the day after I advanced to Martial Lord, I left Yellow City through the eastern gate and began heading further up the mountain.

This path was similar to the one that I had used to leave Mortal City. The main difference was that I was climbing the mountain instead of merely heading toward its base.

After several minutes of walking, I reached a fork in the road that led to three different tests, just like last time. The Path of Soul continued around the mountain, remaining at the same elevation. The Path of Body was a steep climb up the mountain. The Path of Mind led to a cave opening a few dozen meters away.

I was told to take the Path of Mind, but I wanted to check something before I did.

I followed the Path of Soul and found the marker stones that signified its entrance. I approached the stones and tried to pass an arm through the opening. A barrier appeared and blocked my hand before it could cross the test’s threshold.

The Nine Rivers Sect had shown multiple times that they valued diversity in a cultivator’s abilities. This barrier demonstrated that sentiment yet again. While one was able to advance to Yellow City with only a single area of expertise, if they wanted to reach Profound City, they would need to be proficient in at least two different disciplines. To proceed to Earth City, they would almost certainly need to be masters of all three. The only lingering question was what tests existed after that point.

Gaining this insight was valuable, but it wasn’t what I had come for. I returned to the fork and headed down the Path of Mind.

I entered the cave opening and walked carefully through the tunnel beyond.

The passageway appeared to be a natural opening created by water seeping through the mountain over several millennia. The stones had a dampness about them that indicated an ongoing process of erosion. However, there was an artificiality about everything. The passage was too flat. It didn’t slope in any direction like a normal cave would. If this place had ever been natural, then it had been carefully modified by cultivators from the sect to better suit their needs.

This first tunnel was not very long. It ended in an atrium with eight stone arches. Beyond each arch, tunnels continued into the mountain and curved out of sight. Across the top of each arch was a label for each of the different professions I had become familiar with such as alchemist, refiner, and illusionist. I spent a long moment staring at the archway labeled ‘Gu Keeper.’ That was not a path I had any desire to explore.

I naturally walked towards the arch for alchemists, but only a few steps away, I halted in my tracks. I felt a twinge from my spatial affinity. Staring deep into the arch, I understood what it was trying to tell me. This wasn’t a simple passage into the mountain. It was a portal to somewhere else.

Knowing that walking through the arch would teleport me somewhere didn’t change what I needed to do, so I stepped through confidently. However, as I walked, I mentally noted that this wasn’t simply a tunnel into the mountain. I might not even be on Dragon Peak anymore. I wasn’t sure what I could do with that knowledge, but it was something to keep in mind.

The next cavern I entered was a large square room hewn out of the surrounding stone. Across from me was a closed wooden doorway. To my right was an alchemy workbench that held a small cauldron and several herbs. To my left was another stone arch.

Before investigating the workbench, I wanted to examine the archway.

Again, my spatial affinity indicated that this was a portal to somewhere else. Beyond the opening was an immense cavern that was overgrown with vegetation. Through this passage, I could hear countless insects and other animals that lived in the subterranean jungle as well as the sounds of running water in the distance. I could also hear what sounded like the chaos of a battle hidden within the dense foliage.

I turned back to the workbench to try to understand what I was supposed to do. A scrap of paper laid out my mission succinctly.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Create one Rank 4 Basic Healing Pill and place it on the formation stone to be graded. If it is of sufficient quality, the path to the next test will open. You have three chances. If you fail, you must enter the holding area for 48 hours before trying again.

The herbs on the workbench were precisely three sets of the ingredients needed to concoct such a pill. This was a simple task, so I picked up the first set of herbs and moved to the cauldron to begin my work.

As I did, a voice sounded through the passage to the holding area.

“Hey guys, look, we got some fresh meat!”

I whipped around and looked out the stone archway and into the cavern beyond. Standing near the opening was a large, well-built man wearing combat robes and holding a long spear. Along the shaft of the weapon, I saw specks of blood that he had failed to properly clean off.

The man stared at me with an evil chuckle and a smirk on his face. Moments later, four more men in similar attire walked out from behind the foliage.

One of the newcomers laughed and turned to his companions.

“Well, look what we have here. He looks like little more than a child. Must be a bit touched in the head to attempt a test meant for Lords at his age. We should do the honorable thing and help him on his way.”

He gave me an unfriendly look. “What do you say, boy, come on out here and we’ll take good care of you.”

That last statement had been a mistake. He gave me too much information. He needed me to go out there which should mean they couldn’t come in here. I took a formation stone out of my bag and placed it next to the archway just to be cautious. Since it was only a Rank 3 formation, it wouldn’t do much to stop a Lord, but it would give me a moment’s warning if they moved to attack. Once it was set up, I turned back to the workbench.

The process of making a Basic Healing Pill was simple enough, so as I worked, I kept an ear out for anything my new ‘friends’ might be doing.

They spent a few moments taunting me, but when they saw that it wasn’t having any effect, they stopped. Unfortunately, instead of giving up, they were just getting started.

One of the men pulled out a formation and put it right next to the opening to my room. When he activated it, it let out an intense, high-pitched sound that was nearly enough to make my ears bleed. This burst of sound then repeated at irregular intervals.

Still, the pill was simple enough to make, and even though I had been surprised at first and let my concentration slip, I maintained a solid lock on everything. After roughly a half hour of work, the pill was complete.

I picked it up out of the cauldron and placed it on the formation stone to be graded. The formation lit up with a faint light, and the wooden door leading to the next test opened. I had planned to take the extra two sets of ingredients with me, but as I moved to grab them, they vanished. It seemed like I would need to pocket any spoils before I had my pill graded.

As I moved to the wooden doorway, the men who had been pestering me shouted.

“See you soon!”

When I passed through the tunnel and entered another similar stone room, I groaned as taunting laughter echoed out of the arch to my left. I began to fully grasp the intent behind the ‘Path of Mind.’ It wasn’t simply a test of one’s skills. It was a test of skill while under pressure from idiots intent on robbing and killing.

The second test was to make a slightly harder pill with only a single set of ingredients provided. It wasn’t clear what quality of pill would be considered good enough for a pass, but I couldn’t allow myself to slip up even once. It had only taken me a single glance to know that there was no way I would survive in the ‘holding area’ for 48 hours against that group of bandits.

I once more set up a barrier formation in front of the stone archway, took a deep breath, and mentally blocked out everything around me as I got to work.

The next three tests were all similar. One set of herbs and one pill I had to make. After I made it, the door to the next area would open. Once I passed the third test, my ‘friends’ outside gave up on taunting me personally and simply relied on their sound formation to provide a distraction.

When I arrived at the sixth test, things changed slightly. Instead of a set of herbs prepared and waiting for me on the workbench, there were two large chests stuffed with various ingredients.

The instructions told me what I needed to make, but I would have to personally sort through the multitude of herbs to find exactly what I needed.

This change would mean a sharp rise in difficulty for a normal alchemist. Not only would they have to already know the pill’s recipe, but they would also have to be able to identify the correct herbs from within an assortment of similar-looking ingredients. However, this wasn’t enough to cause me any problems. My Rank 4 alchemy knowledge was solid enough that I was able to quickly find what I needed and make the pill.

Before I turned it in, I turned to the bounty of extra ingredients remaining in the two chests. I picked up one of the herbs and stuffed it into my storage space then looked around to see if this caused any problems. When nothing lit up and no buzzer sounded, I felt I was free to continue plundering.

As I reached to swipe a few more handfuls, I froze. I had noticed that the first herb had never appeared in my storage space.

I carefully picked up a second one and tried to place it inside. The herb disappeared from my hand, but it did not appear in my storage space.

I didn’t believe for a second that the sect had a way to prevent me from putting things into the space or stealing things from within it. My storage space was supposed to be shielded from the Heavenly Dao. There was no way the sect had an automated system in place that was more powerful than the Heavenly Dao.

I stared at the box of herbs and looked closely at them using energy vision. The more I stared, the more I began to notice a faint sheen covering everything. It wasn’t just on the herbs. It was on the chest, the workbench, and even the walls. Everything looked normal. It just had a faint tinge of something overlaying it.

“An illusion?”

That would explain why the herbs couldn’t enter my storage space. They didn’t really exist. I tested this by placing a few of them into a normal storage bag. They went in and came out without any problem.

“A normal person might waste time trying to steal everything in here, but the moment they leave, it all disappears because it never existed in the first place.”

As I muttered my thoughts aloud, the idiots outside laughed and taunted me even more. I didn’t pay attention to what they said, so I didn’t know if they had already known this or not, but I didn’t care.

I turned to the formation plate and placed the pill I had made atop it. It lit up, and I proceeded to the next test.