Baiyun sat on the bed of his inn room and looked around.

  It in and with few furnishings, merely a bed, a table and a small bookshelf inside. A small potted pnt with vibrant fleshy green leaves ced oable, a gss spray bottle of sorts beside it. The bookshelf was only poputed with books quarterway; the slightly dusty books and abandoned spiderwebs made it a rather sad sight.

  While the room was far from luxurious, it was retively and well kept.

  Baiyun walked over to the table and picked up the spray bottle, pressing the primitive metal meism and squirting a few streams of water towards the pnt.

  He checked the shelves and saw the books were mostly informational with a few fis in the mix. None of them seemed particurly iing but one caught his eye.

  "A visituide to Forest Tortoise."

  Baiyun flipped past the uing babble within and arrived at a map that listed the various facilities of the town. His eyes darted across the map quickly. He wondered if he had made a strange habit of memorising every map he came across.

  It seemed there was a bookstore in this tiny town. Iing...

  Baiyun stroked his and headed out of the room with the book in hand.

  "Baiyun! You're out!" Mohei suddenly called out.

  A few thuds came from the staircase as Mohei ran up to wave at Baiyun.

  "You're out?" Baiyun frowned.

  He had merely been in the room for a few moments!

  "Ying Shi is already heading back to the sect. He said we could do whatever we want for the few days!"

  So soon? Baiyun thought Ying Shi would at least stay the night, but it seemed the kid didn't like to waste time.

  Mohei's eyes were filled with excitement. Baiyun suddenly had a bad feeling. Was he about to be buried by a mountain of duel requests again?

  "I'm going to the bookstore." Baiyun said.

  "Ehhh? I wao ask if you wao go fishing with me!"

  Ah. Baiyun coughed, realising he had misuood.

  "Sorry! Maybe ter."

  Mohei's dismayed look made him feel almost bad, but he didly have the time to dally around. This trip had uedly given him a 2 week ticket away from the surveilnce of the spirits, so he o make the most of it.

  With the twisted forest close by, a pnt that could sustain even a Soul beast, it was a sure sign the world veins here were particurly dense in qi, meaning the surrounding area was certain to be filled with opportunities!

  "Wait, how did you even know there's a bookstore? Have you been here before?" Mohei frowned.

  Baiyun merely raised the guidebook in his hands and flipped to the page with the map. Mohei stared at it and squinted.

  "Wow... you barely went into the room for a few minutes and you're already digging through the books?" he said. "I thought you were just making an excuse, but you actually like reading!"

  Mohei stuck out his tongue before running dowairs.

  "Bye nerd! I'm off to do something actually fun!" he ughed. "Have fun with your b books!"

  Baiyun shook his head as Mohei's voice echoed from downstairs.

  He returhe guidebook to the inn room before heading out, following a road and turning a few ers. Amenities were just a short walk away in a town this small.

  The bookstore in and devoid of decoration. About two rows of a dozen shelves full of dusty books could be seen from its open doors. Were it not for the wooden price tags, the shop could have easily been mistaken for a storeroom of unwanted books.

  Baiyun frowned slightly as he walked ihis town really o take care of their books better.

  The store owner was a musan with a perma scowl. It seemed the popution of this town sisted rgely of elderly mortals.

  He ighe stare from the man as he browsed the books, searg for a specific title he hoped would be present. His eyes narrowed as they darted bad forth, before suddenly lighting up.

  "Local Wildlife", "Local Vegetation".

  Guides like these would be perfect for finding nearby opportunities!

  He grabbed them off the shelf and flipped them open, only to be interrupted by a shout.

  "Oi!" the store owner yelled. "This is not a library! If you want to read something, buy it!"

  Baiyun's eyes twitched. So be it, he could just use diviouch-

  "Reading my books without permission is stealing! You got that?"

  Baiyun's eyes twitched even harder aook a deep breath. Would his pride as a former elder stop him from doing the practical thing? All he o do was to s the books and walk out.

  ...

  He sighed and pced the books bato the shelf. The price tags revealed each was worth 5 copper tokens.

  What did he think he was doing by letting such trivial things bog him down? But even if it was by some ridiculous standard, he had no iion of stealing.

  He forted himself by telling himself this was a sign he had character and dignity. Probably.

  Baiyun headed out, but the old man suddenly walked over and blocked his path.

  "Oh? My books are too good for your refined little pate?"

  What the hell? Why was this man pig a fight?

  Baiyun hid his anger and forced a smile.

  "I fot t my wallet, so I'm heading off to pawn some things off."

  "Hah! What nonsense is that? Look at that spatial bag on you!" the old man ughed. "Such btant lies! Who oh would put their money in a wallet when they have a ste artefact?"

  Baiyun furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. Why were the people of this world so needlessly antagonistietimes? Sometimes it felt like people were alig a fight with him! Was it a cultural issue?

  "What's that look on your face? Are you angry?" the man jeered. "Then e at me! Hit me if you dare!"

  Baiyun's face turned bnk. Then the gears in his head spun.

  Oh.

  This man was trying to it insurance fraud.

  Baiyun walked around the man and out of the store before he could be stopped.

  The store owner must have realised he was from Ying Shi's party and wao be beaten up by a cultivator for some kind of payout.

  But it probably wasn't an actual insurance priven the rural surroundings. Baiyun imagined what he thought was the most likely sario. Perhaps in the past, a civilian here had gotten injured by a member of the hunting party in a past trip, leading to Ying Shi apologising and personally pensating them. Word spread, attrag fools who wahe same payout.

  Hah... If the man mao anger a merciless cultivator, his head would have hit the floor already. What pensation was more valuable than one's life?

  Baiyun headed off and ighe old man's shouts.

  There was a market close by where he could sell the mushrooms he and Jingfeng worked together to harvest. They were spirit ingredients, but richer mortals would buy them anyway for their properties.

  Baiyun haggled with merts for the 30 minutes and sold them off for a total of 5 silver tokens and 67 copper tokens, worth 567 tokens in total.

  Mn. He nodded happily.

  Judging from the price of herbs in the Veiled Garden workshop, this wasn't actually all that much money. Perhaps the merts had even taken advantage of his ck of knowledge and undercharged him. But their essences were rgely useless to him and he needed quick funds.

  Baiyun finally had a little spending power!

  He returo the bookshop and tossed 10 tokens onto the ter, before taking the two books.

  "Huh. You really were penniless earlier? Hah! Did you have to pawn something off? Seems like you ck even the slightest bit of impulse of trol, spending all the money your mom-"

  Baiyu before the insurance fraudster could say more, theuro the inn aered the room.

  There was a lot he o do before midnight came.

  He quickly sed the tents of the two guidebooks with divine sehehem on the bookshelves. He had already memorised them, so he might as well leave them here for future guests. Anyone who read them would have 2 less books they o purchase from that man's store.

  Baiyun thought through the details of the books and came up with a qui for the night.

  Theook out the Thousand Wills ring and used divine sense.

  It was surprisingly intricate despite being a mere qi gathering artefact. For a barrier to be incorporeal to his body yet able to block attacks, there was some plicated internal logivolved.

  When he used the barrier in the caverns, he distinctly remembered the sphere phasing through the grouh his feet right before being shattered by the tipede's spike. It meant the ring could determine what was ground somehow!

  That made sense. After all, if it treated the ground like a solid object, he would be unched into the air whenever he used it.

  Baiyun did not uand formations and seals, but as an alchemist, he had a det uanding of spellcasting. He could tell the barrier the ring summoned was incorporeal by default, but when touched by something deemed hostile, it would solidify and block the attack. If it met something qi-proof like a servant's body, it would simply around the object without trying to force its way through.

  The ring also had a separate sensing formation that read the air through some unknown means. If it detected anything off, it would summon a barrier. But this aspect was rgely useless to Baiyurusted his rea speed more than the ring's and would always activate it manually.

  It was no wohe artefact had a staggering price of 2000 tokee only being a qi gathering artefao, even that seemed too cheap! Perhaps it had been sold to Ying Shi at a disted price as a favour.

  Ying Shi might not have beeirely shameless with his cim that it was 5000 tokens; perhaps it was his attempt at estimating its actual value.

  But before Baiyued the ring, he o firm if he could charge it. It would be a disaster if he wasted all the charges duriing and had no way to replenish it.

  He could barely reise any of the plicated meisms inside, but it was easy to figure out what the qi battery was. It was a dense ball of metal taining as much qi as a 5th stage qi gatherer's dantain, pulsing streams of qi into the surrounding formations.

  Baiyun shut his eyes and focused as he made a thread of qi sense as thin as possible, squeezing it between the meisms and feeding it into the battery directly. He smiled as it absorbed his qi.

  Good, it seemed he would be able to charge it without too much hassle. But it was an expensive luxury as he could nee qi without meridians. Any form of qi ption would permaly deplete his cultivation base; he would even drop in cultivation if he used too much qi!

  Baiyuhe few hours activating the ring and fiddling with its meisms, trying to manipute it in various ways. A few dents were left on the wooden floorboards by act.

  A knock suddenly came from his door as a waiter hurriedly ran up with a bowl of noodles.

  Baiyued. Did they hear the barrier hit the floorboards and thought he was demanding room service? He was oh floor!

  In any case, dinner was served. He apologised for the noise and finished his food, before heading down to return the bowl and utensils.

  Midnight came soon.

  The hoot of an owl echoed and Baiyun opened his eyes.

  He gazed outside the window and saw a town of dark windows draped in moonlight. At this te hour, not a single person wahe streets. He firmed with divihread that the disciples in the neighb rooms were asleep.

  Perfect.

  He grabbed the spray bottle a out of the window from the 4th storey. The wind howled as he entered free fall; it seemed his feet would sm into the ground and be shattered at any moment.

  But Baiyun opened his mouth and revealed his teeth, where the Thousand Wills ring was clutched iween. With a quick jab of divine sense, a barrier expanded around him just in time for the nding.

  It struck the ground with a strange reverberating sound and bounced several times before ing to a stop. Baiyun floated within, seemingly affixed to the middle of the light sphere.

  The barrier faded and he nded on the ground with a grin.

  During his testing in the room, he figured out how to make the meism treat the ground as a foe. It would allow him to use the ring to break his falls and enhance his jumps!

  Holding the riween his teeth was undignified, but using divihread from his stomach was the best way to activate it quickly given his eridians. He had no iion of smashing a hole through his finger each time he wao use it.

  Baiyun ran off into the distand past the marketpce, but a sudden light made him pause. He was surprised to see one of the stalls was still ope this hour.

  Surrounded by a sea of closed shops, that loall was like a bea in the night sea. A middle-aged vegetable seller held a bucket of water and several pieces of dirty cloth as he wiped dowarp roof. He yawned, closing his eyes and wrinkling his dark eyebags. It seemed he had trouble sleeping.

  Baiyun noticed the man had yet to stash his goods away as he ran over.

  "Whoa!" the man suddenly jumped. "You scared me! I didn't expect to see a this hour. What are you doing here kid?"

  Baiyuhe price tag and grabbed 3 onions before tossing a copper token into the stall's box.

  The vegetable seller rubbed his eyes, but Baiyun was gone when he opehem.

  "A halluation? ...I really need some sleep."

  No sane person would be buying onions at midnight.

  Meanwhile, Baiyun ran to the river al. He unscrewed the spray bottle and poured the liquid out, then took out a rge bowl.

  He grabbed the 3 onions and crushed them with his bare hands. They ched and fizzed as he squeezed all the juice he could out. Baiyun's eyes were shut tightly and watering, but he could still sehe tents of the bowl with divine sense.

  Enough juice had beeracted to fill the bottle, so Baiyun tossed the crushed onions into the al as a treat for the fish. With his eyes closed, he was blissfully unaware of them fleeing in terror instead.

  And the finishing touch... he plucked off a k of the bracket fungus from Martial Elder Guan Qiang's temple and crumbled it between his fingers into the bowl. It would slow the rate the crushed onions lost their potency.

  Baiyun nodded in satisfa as he poured the liquid into the spray bottle. He had been pnning to make an "anti-beast" spray with what he could find in the wild, but a vegetable stall was still open uedly.

  He did a few stretches before running out of town, following the trail of destru the bull had left.

  In its mad rush, it had destroyed all vegetation in its way and pacted uneven soil, creating a surprisingly funal pseudo road.

  Baiyun pushed himself to the limit and ran as fast as he could. A little over an hour passed before the Twisted Forest came bato view, much to his surprise. He thought he'd have taken 3-4 hours to get here, given the speed of the carriage.

  The forest that was dark as night during day was now pitch bck.

  He sat down to meditate for a moment, resting and mending his muscles with his soul. Then he grabbed a nearby rock before marg in with a ntern. Light would draw attention, but it was exactly what he wanted right now.

  Other than his footsteps, there was only dead silence, quieter than even a cemetery.

  Baiyun sensed various clusters of mushrooms with divihread, but he sighed and tinued onwards. Now that he realised the town was surprisingly close, he wao return by m; there was no time to slowly climb the trees and harvest them. Jingfeng might have taken half the reward, but when they were together, any mushrooms could be harvested in seds.

  He listened keenly as he walked, until...

  Ctter ctter.

  A slight distance away, a gatekeeper tipede reared its head from a entrance, having spotted the unnatural light. Baiyun tossed the rod struck its head with a dull cck.

  The tipede ss mandibles in rage, enraged by the mild provocation.

  Hundreds of thuds echoed from the entrance as it slowly dragged its massive body out. But it did not chase, merely cirg the cave. But the sound of crawling tio echo as a swarm of worker tipedes rushed out!

  Baiyun grinned.

  As the skittering of over a thousa chased him, he ran as quickly as he could, weaving through the derees and leaping around like an agile monkey. It was a good thing the twisted trees only had bra their very top, or his ntern might have been caught in them.

  He escaped the forest easily and waited for a moment, pig up another rock. 1, 2, 3... He tossed the rock at them just as the tipedes burst out!

  Perhaps because of their absurdly tough shells, these tipedes were easy to outrun. If they had speed simir to the wolf pups in WanLing, he would not dare to bait them.

  Baiyun visualised the map in his mind and ran off the beaten path left by the bull. The tall grass was difficult to navigate and the occasional random pockets of mud killed his momentum and slowed his steps.

  It was a good thing his youthful body was light. If he had the weight of an adult behind his steps, with his current strength, he would be uo run in such terrible terrain.

  His legs began to tire even with his soul stantly mending his muscles; beads of sweat trickled down his face. The tipedes behind did not slow as if they had endless stamina.

  But a dense forest of giant trees came into sight. Baiyun's eyes lit up at the sight of it and he ran faster into its midst with renewed vigour, pulling out the onion spray with his free hand.

  He noticed something as his divihread swept the surroundings. There were an abnormal amount of fallen trees strewn about the forest. Many of the living trees had massive cuts and scars, as if they had been sliced by spatial tears. Odd...

  But with the tipedes chasing him, now was not the time to pohat. Baiyun's focus went bato the present as he ran, his feet smming into piles of leaves crawling with bugs. Furious ants crawled all over his legs and ped into them. But at the very least, the dense roots and fallen logs firmed the ground, making it easier to run.

  "Awwoooooooo!"

  A wolf suddenly lu Baiyun from the trees above. But he merely smiled, revealing the ring clutched between his teeth. The wolf was sent flying with a pitiful howl as the barrier smmed into it.

  Dozens of eyes glowed from above.

  opy Wolves!

  They growled and prepared to pounce, but one of them let out a high pitched whine as it spotted something. The tipedes chasing Baiyun had finally caught up!

  The wolves howled as they fled, disappearing into the endless sea of brahe one smacked by the barrier got to its feet and whined, before leaping into the trees and vanishing as well.

  Baiyun ughed as he ran. Just as the books said, the local animals avoided the tipedes like a pgue!

  He pulled out the pebble he made in the prison and nodded as he felt the qi welling up within it. This forest was quite dense in qi.

  "Grrrr!"

  A bear revealed itself from a tree truck. Somehow, it had hidden its massive body perfectly behind it!

  Tsk. The book said "Walk 10 steps and another beast will be upon you", but he thought the author was exaggerating!

  But the bear suddenly wides eyes at the sight of the tipedes.

  "Graaaa!" it quickly turail and ran.

  Baiyun sprayed some onion jui its back food measure. He had prepared it just in case, but if the tipedes were this effective, it might have been for nothing.

  While eadividual tipede wasn't strong, they had surprisingly durable armour and would swarm their foes to death. And most terrifying of all, they would chase endlessly and never lose focus! It was how Ying Shi's guards mao occupy such a rge swarm of tipedes for so long.

  If any of them was killed, they would release danger pheromohat would sptter onto the killer, uo be washed off even by rivers. It was actually easily defeated by sing formations or soap, but that wasly an option for most beasts.

  The tipedes were mostly ral when fing, but anything with that st would be chased on sight by furious is willing to fight to the death. And if the killer's danger st was dense from sughtering maipedes, they would evereat to their and bring ae Warrior with them to put down the killer ond for all!

  It was no wohe animals here wanted nothing to do with the tipedes.