Unfortunately, no one in the Iron Pine Sect had their spirit roots revealed by the stone. There were many sighs of disappointment, but they quickly rushed to do their duties with renewed vigor from his speech. It took the rest of the day to pack up the chests of goods onto the horses and carts.

  Once night fell, the Seven Mysteries Gate disciples began their journey towards the city. Miao Mei already knew all the secret passages, so she should be ready to bring them in.

  Dong Qianyu came to say his goodbyes one last time. “Stay safe, sect master,” he said gravely. “You are the sect’s last hope.”

  “I understand. But even if I fall, there are other experts like you to take my place.”

  “No, that isn’t true. You don’t know how crushed many were to hear that their dreams of power and immortality were impossible. They are driven by your prestige alone. Each one of them is trying their best to attain a level of martial arts that can make you proud. If you don’t come back, they’ll lack purpose, and our sect’s rise will falter.”

  Lu Qingshan gave him a slow nod. “I didn’t realize I had that much of an effect,” he murmured. “Don’t worry. I too will stay low-profile and remain cautious of every opportunity.”

  “Good.” With that, Dong Qianyu hurried after the leaving disciples, leaving behind another gift of throwing weapons. Lu Qingshan found himself needing them less and less, but he was glad to continue the tradition.

  Meanwhile, Chen Niu and Tian Du waited nearby, chatting with Liu Yingting, Qin Ye, Li Fanghua, and Meng Zhang. Beside them stood a stoic Wu Ruoling sharpening her sword. A silent Jin Teng and Feng Ranran calmly awaited his next direction. A pair of horses and carts sat quietly nearby, full of supplies. They'd need to restock a few times during the journey.

  Lu Qingshan didn’t know who would survive. Was Marrow Tempering enough to survive the forest? Probably not. The ghost market would’ve likely sent in Viscera Tempering martial artists at varying levels of strength. Maybe even Aperture Tempering experts.

  But five years was much too long to remain stagnant inside a city, sharing limited resources with the rest of the disciples while being forced to remain low-profile. Especially with his promises of higher realms. He knew his sect elders held many other considerations to worry over. They feared for their lives and yet chose to accompany him on this dangerous journey. That was worthy of respect.

  Who was he to deny them the adventure they craved and the power they thirsted?

  ———

  The first major city on their journey, the Golden Sun City, was noticeably smaller than Great Wind City. All it had was a shallow river, zero lakes, and a trio of sects that ruled the entire place along with the kingdom’s constabulary. But trade was still abundant. Thanks to Marquis Zhou’s map, they knew that nearby the city was a Black Iron Mine, along with multiple salt mines and a pair of gold mines, each commodity owned by a different sect. This made the three sects very, very wealthy — and they enjoyed keeping that wealth for themselves.

  Under the authority of the constabulary, the sects here were much more interested in crafting schemes to eke out a slight advantage in the eternal struggle for control over the others' resources. A wise tactic — by pitting them against one another, the kingdom was able to stand on the sidelines and secure a constant stream of wealth without much disruption or risk. But this made the townspeople incredibly suspicious of anyone new coming to the area.

  It was no surprise then that they tried to drive his group out when they approached. Still, Lu Qingshan had to admit, he did not expect Viscera Tempering experts to arrive so soon when he brought everyone out traveling. They stood in front of their small caravan and tried to extort him for money. But Lu Qingshan would not have it.

  With a single move, he crushed one of the experts and threw back another all in one fluid motion. They immediately turned tail and fled. The same vested interests also made them less willing to take massive risks such as fighting strangely powerful travelers for zero gain.

  Lu Qingshan’s group thus easily restocked their supplies with dried bread and meat. But when he sought to purchase some Black Iron ore for the spiritual earthworm, the sect refused to sell to him. With most of the townspeople also refusing to sell anything other than food, they had to leave.

  Most of the cities along the way were not like this. Instead, they were small, mostly useful for restocking supplies as food production was often greater than needed. They could be both orderly and chaotic at times. With the strength of their group, they didn’t need to sleep at an inn, though most of the elders preferred to sleep on real bedding. And there was the occasional snippet of interesting conversation about recent events.

  One of the taverns they frequented had a traveler mentioning a supreme secret medicine appearing in a faraway forest. One portion and a martial artist would immediately become a Grandmaster, no matter their level of martial arts. Even a beginner could ascend in a single step. The traveler said that many in the kingdom were rushing towards that forest in droves.

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  The last time this happened was when the Jade Skies Sect incited a multitude of martial artists to explore the Seven Mysteries Gate’s forest mountain home. Lu Qingshan hoped he was just imagining things. He was already more than halfway into the journey, and going back in defeat was not what he wanted to accomplish.

  They entered these cities quickly and left just as fast. The Seven Mysteries Gate aimed to avoid conflict, as there was no point. But it turned out that no matter how fierce they looked, there would still be some bandits who eyed them as prey.

  One of the smaller cities had even been taken over by a group of bandits. The people giving him supplies were being treated poorly, and Lu Qingshan was forced to step in. He barely needed to lift a finger in any of these bandit conflicts — his Marrow Tempering elders were enough.

  But overwhelming force was overwhelming force. Even with a few of these conflicts along the way, Lu Qingshan's group safely made it to the end of their journey without any major calamities. They entered a second large city along the way, who were fortunately a lot more reasonable than the Golden Sun City. At least the populace was welcoming.

  “You’re sure of this?” Lu Qingshan asked Meng Zhang after sending him to probe for information. “They’re all heading towards the Great Forest City?”

  “Yes. I confirmed this with a dozen different sources. Many reputable martial artists and groups have already left, and they were last seen mentioning that city. Feng Ranran can attest to the same.”

  He looked at the woman, who nodded in agreement. “Same here. Three large sects sent their people down the mountain, along with a dozen small groups, not to mention the lone experts. There were too many to count. And some of them mentioned the same thing we heard many moons ago — bountiful and powerful medicinal herbs.”

  Lu Qingshan was beginning to believe that something was amiss. Still, it was too late to think about going back. Though he hadn't wasted any time practicing his martial arts while sitting on the cart, his stock of useful secret medicine was pitifully low. And so his speed of gaining proficiency in his martial arts had drastically decreased as he'd expected.

  He hoped those rumors were real. Such medicinal herbs would certainly help drive his Giant Whale Breathing Method to the next level. The Seven Mysteries Gate had restocked generic secret medicines and their materials whenever they could, but he found them lacking. So he passed them to Chen Niu as promised.

  After fully replenishing their supplies, Lu Qingshan drove the two carts and horses towards Great Forest City. As the second-to-last step of the journey written on the ghost market's map, this city was aptly named for its proximity to a dense patch of woods that had never been explored fully. Until now. The rumor about Innate realm medicinal herbs remained unconfirmed, but many in the past few months had emerged with herbs that were still very useful for even large sects. And so a large expedition consisting of experts from a wide variety of backgrounds had been formed to find and extract whatever they could from the forest.

  As soon as Lu Qingshan heard this familiarly suspicious turn of events, he paused his plans to enter the forest. Instead, he first wanted to prioritize finding out how many people were going to be their competitors. This wouldn't even include everyone, as many had gone in first. But it was a start to his information-gathering. Everything needed to be in order before he made a move.

  To prevent his profile from becoming known, Lu Qingshan stayed with the carriage, waiting for Meng Zhang and Feng Ranran to gather information. This time he also deployed the rest of the elders, who were able to keep themselves from looking suspicious due to the high number of experts also flooding into the city. They came from all corners of the kingdom according to what his elders discovered.

  “There are a lot of people clearly new and unfamiliar with the environment. It’s definitely similar to the groups that attacked our mountain,” Meng Zhang started. “But something felt off.”

  Feng Ranran stared at the two of them. “I don't know what event you're mentioning, but what I found odd was that there were a few in silk robes and colorful carriages. They didn’t appear to have powerful martial skills. But these people appeared to be the leaders instead, not the strong experts. Lone martial artists and reputable groups alike followed their commands.”

  “Silk robes?” Lu Qingshan was confused. Were they martial artists fighting for their lives or young masters on a picnic? Something definitely seemed different. This didn’t happen last time. “Are they the majority?”

  “No,” Feng Ranran said, shaking her head. “There’s about five of these groups currently.”

  Five young masters looking to secure Innate realm power. They certainly seemed like they had the ability to recruit teams of martial artists to protect them. But Lu Qingshan continued to doubt. “Keep observing them. No need to track the other martial artist camps anymore. Just focus on the things that seem odd to you, including those five groups.”

  “Understood, sect master.” The two of them returned to the city under the guise of traveling merchants. Meanwhile, Lu Qingshan spread his flies throughout the city and into inconspicuous locations, waiting and watching.

  Deep in thought, Lu Qingshan found the people the two had mentioned. Four were men, and one was a woman. He began tracking their behavior. This whole situation seemed less simple the longer he observed.

  In the privacy of the five young masters’ homes, Lu Qingshan found them all seated on a cushion, meditating in a lotus position. It reminded him of how Qin Ye and Li Fanghua cultivated. His suspicion only grew when he saw them consuming secret medicines from a bottle, remaining seated to digest the pills.

  Martial arts training was generally extremely active. Sitting there and meditating was not at all conducive to learning. Lu Qingshan’s stone slab allowed him to keep up even while on the carriage, but what these five people were doing was not martial arts. Living alone inside such large houses should have given them ample opportunity to move around. But they all refused.

  For days, Lu Qingshan watched the five of them, confirming that they didn’t appear to be tempering their body. Instead, they regularly consumed pills from their bottles and remained in meditation for long periods of time. Such a method shouldn’t work — yet it still gave them a proud look on their face after they finished a session of meditation.

  Unless these five people were no martial artists. They were immortal cultivators.