Fei Hua made his way to the bottom floor of the tower, in the center of the building, hiding behind pillars and hugging the high ceiling so that the passing patrols wouldn’t see him. At one point he had to crouch behind a plant for over five minutes, relying on the artificial sunlight relic above it to obscure the vision of anyone that looked in his direction. Several times the guards took a second look, and the closer he got to the target the more likely that was to occur, but he managed to avoid being seen before he reached the room.
Outside the door, hanging onto the ceiling, he waited. He didn’t know how he was going to get into the room without being seen. It was unlikely that the room would be unguarded and unwatched, and even the weakest person could sound the alarm, so he couldn’t risk being seen when in there. He briefly considered using a stealth technique, but gave up on the idea due to the fact that any competent guard wouldn’t just be keeping watch with their eyes. They would be using every sense they could, including chi sense and divine sense. He had been using a purely internal technique to obscure divine senses since he neared the core of the city, but one couldn’t do that with the chi released when they used techniques, or at least he didn’t know of a way to do so.
Seeing a guard walk up to the door and give the pass phrase to enter, he decided that was his best opportunity. As soon as the door opened he dropped down behind the man and started sneaking. Perhaps he could avoid being seen long enough to subtly damage the array.
He stepped inside the room behind the man and quickly slid behind the guard that was watching the door. The two greeted each other and Fei Hua took a quick look around. The floor had multiple glowing lines drawn on it, leading to five different rooms on the sides. Each of those rooms appeared to have a massive crystal the size of several people of one of the five elements, and it was obvious that massive amounts of chi were flowing into the rooms to fuel the growth of those elemental crystals.
That was all that he managed to see, however, because as soon as he noticed what the crystals were an alarm started to sound. The two guards beside him looked around and saw him, then drew their weapons, a sword and a mace. “Halt!” the one that had just entered the room yelled, but before they could react Fei Hua threw two daggers into the throats of the two men.
Now that his cover had been blown, the only option was to escape and hope that his disguise prevents them from identifying him. He still had a mission to complete, however. He drew a stack of talismans and threw them towards the other guards, who were running towards him. Nine of the ten papers went off like firecrackers, throwing up bright flashes and enough smoke to temporarily distract the guards. The other landed on the floor, then started to slowly burn.
Fei Hua ran out the door and towards the storage room. He needed to leave as quickly as possible, and not just to avoid being caught and tortured, or if he was lucky, killed. It took him less than a minute to reach the room, dodging any guards that approached instead of engaging them, and upon getting there he burst inside the room and ran for the window, diving as he got there.
Back in the shield room the smoldering part of the talisman reached the outer ring of the formation it contained, destroying the delay circuit and activating the spell. As Fei Hua soared out the third story window a massive explosion came from the shield room.
In the last city the refugees had entered he had secretly met with a fellow agent and received several stacks of talismans. While the effects varied, this one contained an emergency measure, a Nascent level Enduring Explosion spell. While it would destroy anything nearby when it exploded, the main effect was to cover everything in a fire which burned hot enough to melt metal and stone and lasted for hours or days.
He landed with a roll and used his Jump technique to reach the roof of a nearby building, then jumped roof to roof until he was at the outer wall that separated the Core and Inner parts of the city. Once in the outer city he landed in an alley and quickly switched into his fake Inner Disciple robes, then made his way into the nearby street where he merged with the crowds which were drawn to the location.
He managed to make his way to the gate to the outer city, pretending he was going to check if someone else was safe, and just as he got there he saw a red haired teenage girl entering the area. He quickly stood to the side and casually scratched his face, trying to obscure his face without looking like he was. The last thing he needed right now was to draw attention to himself, and she would immediately recognize him if she saw his face, as she had stared at it just two days ago.
Thankfully she was distracted by the burning building in the center of the city and walked past him, after which he made his way out the gate. The guards were mostly concerned with checking the identity of people that were trying to enter, not people leaving, so a quick flash of his sect-accurate storage ring was all it took to let him through. He had managed to beat the alarm to this point, so they didn’t yet know that someone may be trying to escape.
Once in the outer city he once again changed, this time into his normal outfit, and sneaked into the back of a brothel before sneaking into the waiting room. As far as anyone else would know, he was here when the attack occurred, trying to have some fun before having to set out again. The girls and few boys that worked there, having not seen him enter, assumed that he had been waiting for at least a few minutes, and one of the cuter but younger girls came to ask him what he was looking for.
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In the inner city Shen and Danka made their way to the gate that separated the inner and core city. There was a large crowd around the gate, but unlike at the outer city separating wall no one had the proper identification to enter, as the Elders rarely left the core city. The gathered people were all talking about the explosion and fire, followed by dozens theories on what had happened, from a dragon or demon attack to a mistake with a defective relic. Some had even started accusing Shen of making this supposed relic, but they were likely just people who were associated with inner city relic crafters who were trying to stir up trouble. If the rumors started to spread she would report them to the guards for slander, but for now she would ignore them. Getting mad and attacking them would only make some of the others think the man was right.
After an hour there still hadn’t been any official news, so the crowd started to disperse. Only a few people from new groups or people who loved spreading rumors looked like they had no intention of leaving. Shen and Danka waited a few more minutes but, when no one came out to tell them anything, they left. There was no point in standing around when they wouldn’t learn anything, after all. They could just read the news fliers tomorrow and figure out what had occurred.
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They returned to where Mae and Ponma were waiting, but with nothing solid to share with them they didn’t have much to talk about other than a few of the more credible sounding theories. After another hour everyone said goodnight and went home. Mae seemed kind of worried that the city might be under attack from the demons, as that seemed to be one of the more credible theories given that their armies were only a few hundred li south of here, so Shen sat and talked with her for the next three hours, trying to keep her mind off of the situation until she got tired enough to go to sleep. The excitement had gotten to Shen as well, so she decided to got to sleep too.
Several days passed before their was an official story about what had happened. Apparently someone had broken into the main building and entered the Shield room. When confronted by the guards they threw a bomb and ran away. The guards had no idea who it was or what their affiliation was, but after searching the caravan, refugees, and visitors and finding nothing more suspicious than some spirit narcotics and a few minor demonic techniques, which were confiscated for destruction, they had no choice but to assume that they had nothing to do with the attack and allow them to leave. The building could be repaired more easily than a reputation if they held thousands of people here against their will, after all.
During that time Danka had to work extra shifts due to the guards being on high alert, and Ponma and Mae reported excess work as well. Apparently the sect had purchased the entire inventory of Blossoms from Ponma, including the Foundation realm ones, leading to Shen getting several hundred stones richer. Mae, on the other hand, hadn’t been given a day off since then, and had told them that she had been extracting Essence and making pills with every useful plant and beast part they had due to the sect putting in massive orders with every alchemist. Shen thought that it was most likely because the sect was preparing for imminent war, which proved the Demon theory about the attack.
During that time Shen had also seen an increase in sales. Special orders for weapons and armor had rapidly accumulated and she had been unable to research new ideas when at work. She had even stored all of her books and tools in her ring so that she could work on projects or conduct research any time she got a chance.
All of the workshop’s supplies of blood iron, blood steel, and spirit copper had been turned into weapons that were immediately sold, and she hadn’t been able to get any more. She had asked the mission halls in both the inner and outer cities for help retrieving the ore, but all of the teams were out on scouting or information gathering missions for the sect, so none were available to collect it or escort her so she could collect it. She considered asking her friends to go with her to collect it, but as none of them could get the day off that wasn’t possible.
Shen had been forced to buy normal iron and steel from the workshops and forges in the Fire district and use it to make relic weapons and armor just to produce enough inventory to keep things in stock. This had caused the quality of her products to drop significantly, but as they were still being sold she assumed that they were good enough for now and would be replaced once a better version was available.
On the fifth day she was adding yet another Fire aura formation to yet another sword when someone asked to speak with her. It was unusual, as few people wanted to see the smith that made their weapon, and even fewer knew where to find her, as she sold everything through the main shop. “Can I help you?” she asked the man.
“Mo Shen?” he asked. She nodded. “I was sent here to bring you to the core of the city. Your help is requested with an issue of a secret nature, but I can’t tell you specifics here.”
It didn’t seem like she was in trouble, but this still seemed strange, so she checked her ring to make sure she had all of her swords, her armored robe, and a few other useful things before agreeing to go with him. He lead her through the inner city and when they got to the core gate he showed the guard an ID slip and told him that Shen was with him, and both were let through.
Shen was then lead to the central building where the fire had happened. The fire had lasted for more than five hours before it had been extinguished with Water chi, as normal water did nothing but prevent the flames from showing up where they weren’t covered in water. Apparently the fire was an effect of saturating the material with Fire chi and not an actual fire. Shen was lead down into the underground layer and to the central Shield room. Once the man proved who he was and vouched for her they were allowed to enter.
Shen could immediately tell where the floor had recently been replaced with new jade tiles, as the old tiles were all slightly glassy from having their surface melted by the fire. Much of the main array had to be replaced, including half of the Fire section and around 20% of the Earth section, most likely because that was where the explosion had occurred.
“Ah, Mo Shen.” said an old man who approached. “My name is Ling Tso. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”
Shen only had to think for a few seconds to realize who he was. “Are your the Ling Tso who used to make all of the storage rings for the sect, and many of the flying swords?”
The old man nodded his head and smiled. “Yes, that’s me. I retired six years ago, but before I did I was the sect’s main source for relics, as well as the one in charge of maintaining the city’s barrier formation. I recently heard of your relic crafting abilities and bought one of your rings, only to be surprised at the quality of the workmanship. I don’t mean to brag but it wasn’t quite as good as mine used to be, but it took me twenty years to reach that quality where it appears it took you only a few years.”
Shen thanked him for his compliment and he continued. “They called me in to repair the formation, but unfortunately I’m not as good as I was when I retired. Cultivation may have given me another one hundred and fifty years, but the time caught up with me eventually. So, I suggested that they bring you in. Of course, you aren’t allowed to talk about anything you see here, or discuss the formation with anyone without the proper security permissions.”
Shen agreed and was lead to the damaged area before being handed a black jade slip. “This includes the full schematic of the Five Elements Immortal Barrier formation and all of the necessary parts of the city and outside chi gathering arrays. It was created 500 years ago, just before the sect’s founding, by Fire Master Xu, who designed the array. This copy was given personally to Water Master Xing. Be extremely careful with it.”
Shen carefully accepted it and bowed, then touched it to her forehead and sent less than a point of neutral chi into it. The knowledge of how everything was constructed poured into her mind in less than a second and she staggered backwards slightly. One of the guards caught her and helped her stand up. “Thank you.” she said, then bowed to Ling Tso again before handing the slip back.
“So, do you have any questions?” he asked.
Shen thought for a while. “Not about the formation, no. I don’t recognize some of these formation fragments, but I assume that they are part of Nascent or Immortal grade formulas.” Ling Tso nodded. “In that case, I can redraw the lines, but without understanding the technique I can’t make it work again. It looks like several critical areas were destroyed which will need to be reimbued, which can only be done by people that understand that part of the technique.”
“That’s fine.” Tso replied. “Master Xing will come to personally imbue all of the necessary parts once you are finished, assuming the quality is good enough. He is, after all, the only Immortal founder left in the sect and unfortunately none of the High Elders have been able to reach that point in the last five hundred years.”
Shen nodded and, without delay, began marking out the shape of the formation in formation chalk. Of course, she would need to remove it before she added the new lines to the formation, but for now it would let her guarantee where she was putting all of the marks.
The sect assigned a Lower Nascent female guard to her and Shen spent the next three days in that room, not sleeping and only leaving to use the bathroom, at which point the woman would escort her. After the end of the three days the formation was complete, however.
Shen had to carve groves of a specific depth into the jade bricks of the floor, then poor in molten metal which matched the element of that section of the formation. All of the materials were at least Nascent in quality, and one, the Azure Platinum water elemental metal, was of initial Immortal quality. She had to adjust the formation slightly based on the quality of the materials, but when she was done she stood on a formation that was more a work of exquisite art than a relic.
When she was finished she was lead into a side room where she was once again ordered not to speak of what had happened, then given a few hundred stones in weight of Foundation level materials in payment before being escorted out. Just the materials were likely worth over five thousand stones, and best of all they belonged to her personally, and not the workshop. While she would prefer to receive even a tiny amount of the Nascent or Immortal materials, the ones she received technically being defective products from the attempts to refine them over one hundred years ago, the sect couldn’t spare any material that could be needed for strategic purposes.
At least now she had the materials she needed to make proper weapons, armor, and other relics, though. It was sunrise and after stopping by her room to tell Mae that she was back but couldn’t say anything more than that she was doing work for the sect, she grabbed her things and took a bath. She hadn’t been able to do so in the last few days as there wasn’t a bath in the main building, but after such a stressful situation she needed to relax. She dozed off in the bath and didn’t wake up until after First Meal was over, so she got dressed and went to work.
