Otherwise, we would be on our own.

However, that meant Zhu Jiao and I would be left on our own again, and I was well aware that the dangers facing two people were a lot more than if we were in a more numerous group. Of course, it would be counterproductive to move around in large groups, which would let magical beasts know in advance that we were coming, even if they weren"t driven off by the sheer numbers of humans. Furthermore, it would make fighting over the spoils of war – or the plundering of spirit artifacts, treasures and weapons in this case – a lot more…complex.

Far easiler to split up the drop items and treasures among a smaller group than a laege one, where conflict over who got how much would inevitably tear the group apart. Not to mention, we would have to watch out for backstabbing and betrayals, particularly if the group members were people we weren"t familiar with.

In a place like this, with so much at stake, and the value of ancient treasures, weapons and artifacts beyond measure, I wouldn"t put it past our fellow humans to succ.u.mb to their greed and desires, and turn on their former comrades the moment we left the tomb.

Someone we can trust, huh?

Only my friends from Wu Ling Academy and the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect came to mind. If I could link up with Tang Qi Hong, Tong Xue and Lian Rou, that would be the best. Zhu Jiao offered no alternative, for unlike me, he was only from the Golden Kirin Sect and had not joined a secondary sect to learn non-combat skills or secondary martial arts techniques to supplement his first. No doubt he did learn techniques from other sects – Xiao Yan learned the Three Thousand Lightning Movement from the Three Thousand Lightning Pavilion or whatever that sect was called, and Li Fu Chen learned over a thousand sword techniques (did the author seriously think readers would keep track of all of them? I only remembered the Red Jade technique, which mysteriously was never mentioned again after the first fifty chapters, some meteor sword technique or wind sword technique, which was then replaced by iron sword technique, only for that to be replaced by Earth or Heaven cla.s.s sword techniques – in other words, the author was just throwing a bunch of new techniques while discarding the old ones over the course of a thousand chapters, and no sane reader would bother keeping track of all of them unless they were really obsessed with Eternal Reverence. At least Xiao Yan was a lot more restrained, and we knew from the start what kind of essence fires he would learn, and Lin Dong was also known more for his mental energy thing than learning a zillion sword arts.

Okay, I really had to stop bashing Eternal Reverence but Li Fu Chen was such a horrible Mary Sue protagonist that I couldn"t help taking a snipe at him whenever I thought about the illogical inconsistencies of wuxia or xianxia novels.

"…nothing."

Unfortunately, my plans crashed and burned when I found myself unable to locate the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. there were hundreds, if not thousands of martial artists gathered outside the mountain range, and looking for my friends among them was like searching for a needle in a haystack (or a needle in the ocean"s depths).

"Ugh, and there"s no signal here too…"

I cursed when I glanced at my cell phone. Once again, my attempts to call Tang Qi Hong or Tong Xue had stalled, my cell phone informing me flatly that there was no service. It was only natural. We were located all the way in the mountains, far away from any human civilization. Of course there wouldn"t be any reception here.

"What do we do?" Zhu Jiao asked. I sighed in frustration.

"No choice. I guess it"s just the two of us then."

"If only we can find Ning Xue," Zhu Jiao murmured, glancing around. While I had been busily searching for my friends in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, my best friend had not been idle either. He had been actively looking for Bai Ning Xue and the White Tiger Sect, in hopes that Bai Ning Xue"s high status would allow her to convince her other sect members to accept our presence. "We could join their group as well if we did."

"…maybe."

I didn"t hide the skepticism in my voice. While I trusted Bai Ning Xue, I couldn"t say the same for the other White Tiger Sect members. The only other person I knew was Kuang Hu, and that b.a.s.t.a.r.d was a ruthless bully who reveled in the pain and suffering of others. Having faced him in the tournament last year, while I was confident in his combat capabilities, I couldn"t rule out the uncomfortable suspicion that the s.a.d.i.s.tic scoundrel would stab us in the back when our guard was down, and then laugh at our misfortune.

I had enough to worry about in the tomb without needing to divert some attention into watching my back from erstwhile allies who were supposed to do that for me.

"Well, let"s not waste any time." Sighing, I started disa.s.sembling the tent and packing up. The best-case scenario would be to find trustworthy allies to team up with, but without any method of contacting my friends in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, and less ideally, if Zhu Jiao wasn"t able to contact Bai Ning Xue, then there was little point in loitering around. We might as well just head straight to the ancient tomb. If fate willed it, we might even meet up with Tang Qi Hong, Tong Xue, Lian Rou and the others there.

Or Bai Ning Xue and friends, for that matter.

While we went forward, I caught sight of a group of men just ahead. They were hara.s.sing another group of younger people, who seemed to be from one of the academies or major sects. The young people seemed to have the situation under control, but as always, Zhu Jiao wanted to run in and intervene. I rolled my eyes.

"That"s Song Dao! The leader of the Blood Slaughterer Gang! We have to stop him…!"

"OH NO YOU DON"T!" I roared, smacking Zhu Jiao"s head and sending him sprawling forward. "Stop your nonsense! Those guys don"t need saving! And this is the b.l.o.o.d.y tomb arc! What do you think this is, Wu Dong Qian Kun? We"re not going to get sidetracked by stupid side arcs and fighting a f.u.c.king gang when we"re supposed to get into the tomb as soon as possible! Who the f.u.c.k cares about Song Dao, the Blood Slaughterer Gang and the Thousand Gold a.s.sociation? They can take care of themselves! If we"re supposed to explore the tomb, then let"s get to the b.l.o.o.d.y tomb as soon as possible instead of being sidetracked by these random, irrelevant narratives that have absolutely nothing to do with the main story! What, you want to waste another few chapters on a fight scene against the Blood Slaughterer Gang…just to show how powerful you are and how you can defeat Song Dao? Who the f.u.c.k cares about that?!"

I jabbed my thumb at the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range.

"Our goal is to get the treasures from the tomb, not to get into unnecessary conflicts!"

"But…those guys over there…they need our help…"

"No, they don"t! Do you think just because the protagonist isn"t part of the group, they"ll automatically lose? That they exist solely for the sake of letting the protagonist rescue them all the time so that he can show off his superior abilities?!" I grabbed Zhu Jiao by the ear and began dragging him away. "Now let"s stop wasting time and go!"

"Wait! Those guys need our help…"

Zhu Jiao gestured frantically toward the students, only to stop and gape at an incredible sight. The older guys from the Blood Slaughterer Gang who were surrounding them didn"t know what hit them. One moment they were leering and preying on the group – particularly approaching the girls somewhat in the center, and the next moment a huge flash of qi blasted out and struck them. The Blood Slaughterer Gang turned into the Bloodied Slaughterer Gang in an instant, throwing up blood and writhing on the ground in agony.

"Guh! What…what…?"

"What the h.e.l.l just happened?!"

"S…spare us, heroes! We"re sorry!"

Lying sprawled on the ground, the Boodied Slaughterer Gang looked up and pleaded the impa.s.sive students for mercy.

"W…what just happened?!" Zhu Jiao demanded, astonished. "I was so sure that…"

"You mean you don"t recognize those guys over there?" I shook my head. "They"re from our school. They have artificial qi. A bunch of thugs will hardly be able to threaten them. Never mind the quant.i.ty of qi, we"ve been trained in the academy to fight men like those." I recalled how the instructors would always emphasize that we spar against each other and make full use of the training facilities, especially the battle puppets and training dummies. Those students in particular, I had often seen training in the training facilities when I visited almost everyday back when I was still in the academy and wasn"t spending time learning Spirit Engraving or Heavenly Armament techniques from Elder Zhao in Tushan City. "We might lack experience, but we certainly don"t lack the strength. Or training." I quickly amended my words so as not to emphasize the artificial qi.

That said, as much as I didn"t care about levels, stages and realms, artificial qi did make a huge difference. The problem now was…how to you categorize and distinguish these levels, stages and realms when kids under twenty had access to sixty years" worth of artificial qi, or even twice or thrice that amount? If these stages, realms and levels weren"t based on the amount of qi one possessed, then what exactly were they based on? Understanding of techniques? So if you didn"t understand or master a technique, it didn"t matter how much artificial qi you have, you would still only belong to a lower stage, realm or level?

"Please have mercy!" the leader, supposedly someone called Song Dao according to Zhu Jiao anyway, was pleading.

"Get lost from my sight," the leader of the group of students, a young man I knew was Zhu Zhang from meeting him in the training facilities in the academy, ordered coldly. The Bloodied Slaughterer Gang all quickly fled without sparing him a second glance.

"I told you they don"t need our help," I crowed to a stunned Zhu Jiao. "Now let"s hurry up and proceed to the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range and the tomb. Stop wasting time with all these irrelevant side stories."

After leaving the campsite, we stumbled upon another lush area filled with dense cl.u.s.ter of trees and foliage. Thick vegetation grew rampantly, concealing shadowy predators from sight. Even though we hadn"t found a group, Zhu Jiao and I weren"t alone. I could see the other groups cautiously proceeding forward, keeping an eye on those lurking magical beasts who were waiting for a chance to spring on unwary victims.

The safest and easiest route was of course the trails that the other groups left in their wake as they cut and bashed their way toward the tomb. Fortunately, as cultivators, they could just use their qi to slice apart any vegetation, branches and thorns, and walked unimpeded without needing to rely on tools like machetes, choppers and the usual trekking equipment that I used in my two-year mandatory military service back in my original timeline.

"This is such a great idea, Wu," Zhu Jiao told me as we followed in the wake of one of the larger groups. Contrary to my own advice, I had elected to follow our schoolmates after all. After they had driven away the Bloodied Slaughterer Gang, they had proceeded to forge ahead, carving a path through the dangerous woods. Seeing an opportunity, I had pointed it out to Zhu Jiao and told him to follow them. We didn"t need to waste time and qi bashing through the foliage, and any trail they carved would be momentarily free of lurking magical beasts.

By the time we emerged from this specific stretch of the forest, it was already past noon. The sun had reached its zenith and was brutally beating down upon martial artists brave enough to venture out of shade. Fortunately, the trees making up the forest provided ample shelter from the relentless rays of the sun, and Zhu Jiao and I paused for a break at the base of one of those ma.s.sive trees. To prevent dehydration, we drank water.

It would be silly to survive the forest and its packs of ravenous demonic creatures, just to die from heatstroke a couple of hours later. Remembering my military training, safety checks and briefings, I ensured that Zhu Jiao drink enough too.

"Fuaaah!"

Zhu Jiao let out a satisfied gasp after he downed a large gulp of water, then tightened the cap of his canteen.

"That feels a lot better!"

"Good." I also put away my canteen, making sure I had enough water for the rest of the exploration. Peering out from under the shade, I stared at the huge mountain peak that towered over the area where we emerged into. "It seems like we"ve reached the location of the tomb."

We weren"t the only ones there. A lot of groups had gathered, including Lao Ren and Lao Tou. Being the sociable person that I was, I ventured over to greet them, with Zhu Jiao enthusiastically following behind.

"Lao Ren, Lao Tou!"

"Oh, you both made it too!"

As friendly as ever, Lao Ren turned to beam at us. Lao Tou merely snorted.

"How can you younglings be slower than us old folks?"

Ignoring the jibe, I turned to stare at the mountain peak. "Seems like we"ve found the entrance to the tomb?"

"Yeah."

Lao Ren chuckled and nodded. However, Lao Tou scowled.

"Even so, it"s pretty pointless if we can"t go in."

"Why can"t we go in?" Zhu Jiao asked, baffled.

"Lad, have you not been paying attention to a single word we said last night?" Lao Tou growled, bearing down on a stricken Zhu Jiao. Lao Ren quickly intervened, smiling as he usually did and holding his hands up in a placating manner.

"It"s unfortunate, but the barrier is still up. As long as we don"t undo the seal engraved into the mountaintop, we will not be able to enter the tomb. As expected of a Nascent Soul Stage Pract.i.tioner, the seal is so exquisite. Even after so many millennia, it remains intact and still so powerful."

"That seal is a Spirit Engraving?"

I glanced in the direction of the mountain peak, my Heaven and Earth Sense allowing me to detect the unique emanations of qi and spiritual energy swirling around the mountain peak. Like Lao Ren said, there was a seal, which resembled one of the Spirit Engraving patterns I was forced to study back in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.

"Let"s get nearer," one of the older veterans in the Lao brothers" group suggested. I noticed that the group was entirely composed of men and women over the age of sixty, their hair white and their faces wrinkled. Despite their advanced ages, they were all br.i.m.m.i.n.g with power and an exuberance that exceeded even the youths around us.

"Good idea," Lao Ren agreed. Lao Tou scowled again, as bitter as ever.

"I bet the foot of the mountain is packed full of people by now. We shouldn"t have dallied around."

"It"s tough getting old," another old guy from the group agreed with a wry smile. That wasn"t what Lao Tou meant, but he couldn"t be bothered to argue. He was right, though. when I glanced at the foot of the mountain, I could see a vast number of tents set up in the valley just ahead of us, and even more figures wandering in their midst. As expected, the old tomb was drawing cultivators and martial artists from all over the Middle Continent.

Zhu Jiao and I followed the old dudes, who were walking pretty quickly for someone of their ages. Then again, as the old adage of wuxia and xianxia novels went, the older the person, the more powerful he was. Appearances could be deceiving.

"All right, let"s set up camp here."

The group of old-timers had staked out a place. Ignoring us youngsters, they began to set up their tent. There wasn"t any s.p.a.ce for Zhu Jiao and me to set up our tent, so we decided to move on, leaving the Lao brothers and their group to it.

"Amazing…there"s so many people here…"

Zhu Jiao marveled as we strolled around, weaving through haphazardly organized tents and making our way to empty spots. So many people were mingling around, hanging out in what looked like campfires (but given the bright, sunny afternoon, no one bothered lighting up the fires), or just chatting in the shades of their tents.

There was strength in numbers. Even this deep into the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range, with extremely powerful demonic creatures and magical beasts lurking about and looking for a chance to strike, as long as the humans stuck together, there was no foe we could not take, no danger we could not overcome together.

All of that was to change the moment we charged into the tomb, where it was every man for himself. Greed could change a man, and n.o.body would willingly allow their treasures to be taken by others. On the other hand, before the tomb was opened to the martial artists on the ground, there was no reason to avoid banding together in order to deter the magical beasts and demonic creatures from attacking.

Hence the crowded site.

"The Green Dragon Sect is here," Zhu Jiao whispered, nudging me. I glanced in the direction he was looking at, and sure enough, Li Chun Long, Qing Xin Xia and their fellow disciples had set up camp somewhere. I shook my head and moved in the opposite direction. Zhu Jiao spared them one last glance before following me.

"They haven"t noticed us," I a.s.sured him. He nodded.

Ever since the tournament last year, the relationship between the two of us and the Green Dragon Sect was frosty to say the least. Li Chun Long, despite having grown more powerful, was actually happy when he heard that Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue were officially dating. However, Zhu Jiao couldn"t forgive him for his part in trying to cripple him, and I couldn"t just go back to being "friends" with Li Chun Long, right after that grudge-match in the tournament. We had no enmity toward each other, true, but his actions had irreparably torn a hole in our relationship forever.

Once trust was broken, it was very difficult to earn it back. And it wasn"t as if Li Chun Long could be bothered with the effort.

On the other hand, Qing Xin Xia was a little strange. I knew that she had a crush on Zhu Jiao, so naturally she was devastated when his romantic relationship with Bai Ning Xue was made official. From what I heard in cla.s.s – particularly from the rumors coming from the girls" gossip – Li Chun Long had tried to hit on her and take Zhu Jiao"s place, but Qing Xin Xia had evidently rejected him. Even now, there was an aloof distance between the two, with Li Chun Long constantly looking in her direction, but Qing Xin Xia pulling away and finding excuses to avoid him.

Well, whatever happened between them was absolutely none of my business, and I sure as h.e.l.l didn"t want to get involved.

"Oh…the Illusionary Puppeteer Sect is here too."

Zhu Jiao suddenly stopped and slowly turned away so as not to attract attention. Beside him, I craned my neck and glanced in the direction where he was last looking at before he abruptly halted, and caught sight of Gu Chun Song.

If Li Chun Long was pleased with the outcome of the semifinal, where Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue were officially dating, Gu Chun Song had been driven mad with rage. Upon finding out that his beloved Bai Ning Xue had agreed to become Zhu Jiao"s girlfriend the moment he was released from his isolation training, Gu Chun Song recklessly challenged Zhu Jiao. He evidently had not wasted his time in isolation training being idle, for his skills had drastically improved, ranking him among the top four Iin the academy, but with his protagonist powers, Zhu Jiao was able to prevail in the end and forced Gu Chun Song to acknowledge his relationship with Bai Ning Xue.

That didn"t mean Gu Chun Song"s grudge was over, however. He continued to simmer with resentment and bitter jealousy, searching for every opportunity to get back at the person he deemed his romantic rival.

No wonder Zhu Jiao wanted to avoid him. Even I wouldn"t want to deal with a crazy fella like that. Good lord.

"The Red Phoenix Sect is there, with Feng Tian Yong. Should we join up with him?"

"Hmm…nah, we only know Tian Yong, but we don"t know the rest of the sect members. I don"t know if they"ll be happy to see us."

I shook my head when Zhu Jiao singled another familiar face out. Why were we running into the people we didn"t want to meet the most (except Feng Tian Yong) but we can"t find my Nine-Tailed Fox Sect friends or Bai Ning Xue?

"Oh…they even opened up a marketplace over there!"

"Eh? Where?"

I blinked in surprise when Zhu Jiao said that. He gestured toward the edge of the mountain peak, where a row of tents were set up side by side with rugs and carpets spread out in front of them. The occupants of the tents were shouting and yelling for customers to come look at their wares. From a glance, it was visible that they were selling weapons, equipment, supplies, food, water and other tools useful for an expedition.

"Wow."

Shaking my head, I couldn"t help but feel impressed. No matter where I went, there would always be people looking for an opportunity to make money. I wished I had the same sort of business sense, but there was a reason why I majored in literature and history instead of business. Unlike many wuxia/xianxia protagonists who earned a lot through selling their elixirs, spirit medicines and various other entrepreneurial nous, I wasn"t a Mary Sue character who could do just about everything. I sucked at Spirit Engraving and crafting weapons. The only thing I could do was fight and study. And even my practical resuls were not as good as my theoretical.

"You want to buy anything?" I asked Zhu Jiao, more as a joke than because I thought he needed anything. He shook his head.

"No money."

"Same."

Sighing, I glanced at the various other people, particularly the Green Dragon Sect and Red Phoenix Sect. there was no sign of the White Tiger Sect or the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, but from what I could see, most of the members who had gathered were young disciples instead of older veteran masters and elders.

"Eh? Where are the masters and elders? Why are there only disciples?" I wondered out loud.

"Politics," Zhu Jiao replied with a shrug. "I don"t know the details, but Ning Xue told me that the White Tiger Sect only intended to send the younger generation for the expedition to the tomb. So that they can gain experience, you know, the usual c.r.a.p. But as you know, even among the younger generation, there"s still a lot of elite cultivators."

"Yeah, but I"m asking about the masters and elders." I jabbed a thumb at the tomb. "I mean, since the tomb is so valuable, why aren"t the elders and sect leaders coming along? You would think they would want the treasures too."

"Ning Xue says it"s politics," Zhu Jiao repeated, though I could tell he had no idea what that meant. "The elders and sect leaders can"t make a move unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise they would set a precedent. The moment even one of them moves, the other parties will all definitely step in and stop them. They would just end up wasting their time. Stupid, I know." He shrugged. "But that"s what Ning Xue tells me, anyway."

"Well, given that the elite martial artists are all the strongest among the younger generation, and the majority of them have doped up on artificial qi, I guess there won"t be much of a difference between sending them and sending the elders."

I sighed and shook my head in amazement.

"Well, anyway, let"s set up camp and rest for the night."

With the barrier still up, there was little Zhu Jiao or I or any of the martial artists could do except wait. Still, I ended up being intrigued and spent a few hours studying the Spirit Engraving patterns before finally going to bed that night.

The next morning, I woke up when Zhu Jiao shook me.

"Hey, Wu, get up."

"Hmm…it"s morning already?" I suppressed a yawn and glanced around, bleary-eyed. Zhu Jiao grinned.

"It"s rare…I actually woke up earlier than you!"

"What"s so strange about that?" I retorted. "I went to bed much later than you. I spent all night studying the Spirit Engraving patterns."

"Oh? What did you find out?" Zhu Jiao asked with a raised eyebrow.

That was a good question. I pondered for a moment, still half-asleep, and tried to drag the memories of the Spirit Engraving patterns out into the surface of my mind and ran through the conclusions I came to.

"I saw them in the books I studied in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. they"re a barrier-type Spirit Engraving."

"No s.h.i.t. I can tell that and I"m not a Spirit Engraver."

Zhu Jiao rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but are you able to decipher the Spirit Engraving patterns and undo them?"

"Undo them?" Zhu Jiao repeated, and then he gasped. Growing excited, he grabbed my shoulders. "You can undo them?"

"Given enough time, I think I can unravel the patterns and reverse the defensive formations to create an opening…"

"Then let"s get started!"

"Wait." I raised a hand, and my stomach growled in agreement. "I"m hungry. Mind if we grab some breakfast first?"

Zhu Jiao gave me a disbelieving stare, and then he chuckled. "Of course! I"m starving too. Let"s cook something."

"Actually, I suggest we grab a hotdog from one of those stands." I pointed at one of the vendors who had set up shop in the makeshift marketplace that had cropped up in the campsite just outside the tomb. One of them was already grilling a bunch of hotdogs and the delicious aroma was making my mouth water.

"Good idea," Zhu Jiao agreed.

To be honest, I wanted the hotdog not solely because it was delicious. True, it would be cheaper if we cooked our own food, but I had no idea how long we would be spending in the tomb, and wanted to conserve our rations as much as possible, and every bite counted.

After munching and eating a bunch of hotdogs, I rubbed my stomach in satisfaction.

"Ah…that was a good meal."

"It certainly was!" Zhu Jiao agreed as he washed his greasy fingers in the nearby spring. I followed his example, and rubbed my hands to eliminate the greasy sensation. "Ready to crack the Spirit Engraving?"

"Yeah." I was so glad I decided to learn under the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. As it turned out, the Spirit Engraving skills I learned under Elder Tie were turning out to be useful. Even if I lacked the skill to engrave Spirit Seals, I could still decipher and unravel them.

However, we hadn"t taken more than a step when I sensed a disturbance in the force…I mean the surrounding qi. A huge rustle of power came from the east, from where the sun was rising, and a red flash of like streaked through the skies like a meteor, and plummeted toward the campsite as if it was an angel descending from the heavens.

"The elite martial artists…" Zhu Jiao whispered. "They"re finally here!"

I gave him a quizzical look. "I thought a lot of them were already here…"

As usual, n.o.body paid any attention to my tsukkomi.