It was the first time Luo Mingyu saw people actually die. She was already familiar with the concept, as she was not a naive girl. But knowing something and actually seeing it happen is very different. Wu Long could ask her to close her eyes or look away, but he knew that it was a very important step in the process of the creation of her own path to comprehending the Dao, as well as her own mental development. The sheltered life Luo Mingyu led prior to meeting Wu Long was what was limiting her own development, and now that she came out of this shell she had to see the world as it was.
It did not mean that he could not comfort her after, as he did just that, sitting her on his lap and hugging her as she burrowed her head into his embrace and tried to calm down the tumultuous heart that came with witnessing the scene before. As she gradually settled a little, she was able to talk about that experience as she was processing it. Hua Ziyan, Ye Ling, and Shen Min were also supportive of her, sharing their insights with her until she was able to concentrate on the meaning the scene before had in the Dao of life.
“Mingyu, take your time, there is no need to rush”
He said after some time.
“What do you mean? I am not…”
She tried to brush it off but when she saw his eyes, she lowered hers a little and nodded, as she realized that she was seen through. She had a lot of things to comprehend now that she was experiencing life more fully. Their dual cultivation sessions, the knowledge about Martial Dao from teaching martial skills and techniques to others, the new understandings from their conversations, as well as the life and death struggles of the cultivation world. The food for thought she had was so abundant that she now had trouble processing it all, but she tried to take it in all at once, in order to show that she was capable of keeping up with Wu Long.
He brought her face up by her chin a little to look her in the eyes.
“You are not only a Dao Cultivator, and you do not need to worry about being always perfect. It is great that you want to improve, but you need time to properly digest everything”
He then smiled at her.
“Besides, you are already doing great”
She nodded slightly and went for a kiss which he reciprocated. She smiled and sat a little more comfortably on his lap to continue her discussion with the others a little more relaxed.
“Those assassins… are they related to the people you talked about before?”
Wei Lan asked Wu Long in the meantime. As Wei Lan heard the conversations between the man in gray and Wu Long, as well as heard her former sect master allude to a certain power that influences everything from behind the curtains, she naturally had suspicions so he explained to her in general terms about the situation, though he did not tell her any of his speculations regarding the culprits as that was not verified information, and would also cause a lot of questions about the knowledge that allowed for these speculations to be plausible.
“I cannot say for sure, but it does not look that way, or at least not completely. The reason I decided to stay here instead of moving out immediately was precisely because of the probability of those people in the shadows trying to attack me falling to the floor when I killed that man next to your sect leader. So I am fairly certain that these people were moving independently, besides, they belong to another major power”
“Hm? Why would the probability of an attack from them fall? Wouldn’t they be even more eager to hunt you down now that you have messed up even more of their plans?”
“It is because of suspicion that I might be related to some of their peers. The fact that I continuously ruined their preparations and had defeated so many of the experts sent against me which were supposed to be undefeatable by anyone not related to major powers is making them nervous”
“You mean that they might suspect someone is backing you or even sent you specifically to mess up their plans?”
Wu Long nodded.
“You see, the circle of powerful people is actually not that wide, and they all know each other. About now some of them, including the ones who are planning and scheming in the kingdoms are looking at the others with suspicion since they cannot be sure who sent me since they do not believe I could pop out of nowhere on my own without a hand of a major power”
“But even if they are cautious, they should at least do something to interfere with you, right?”
“Hmm, sending more of the same level people would just be spending resources without much result, and human resources such as these are valuable. You cannot find highly trained people in the Foundation Building Realm that easily, as they take time to be brought up.
But they cannot send more competent people since then they would have to send their own, and that could bring them into a direct conflict with someone they are imagining backing me or giving me orders. In other words, I am now protected by their caution against other big players on the gameboard. My leisure in staying here is somewhat playing on that caution and intensifying it since it looks like I am provoking them into attacking me”
He explained and she nodded with understanding.
“But we should start moving shortly as some of the clueless people are going to start to annoy us here soon enough”
“You mean those who would want to see if there is anything left of value here?”
“Exactly, unlike those people moving with caution despite their power, these powerless people will move without vigilance since they do not have the same considerations, and therefore will take their chances”
Wu Long confirmed that it was time to leave this place to travel further to the Liugwei Kingdom. .𝙘𝒐𝒎
After some final preparations, they soon set off. They traveled on foot as that was faster, but this time they chose their route so that they could stay in inns at night, as while Wu Long did not particularly care even if he had to lodge under the open sky, he did not want the same for his women. They also had training sessions in the mornings, which took time. So they traveled at a slightly slower speed than Wu Long did alone.
The Liugwei Kingdom was located at the southern tip of the continent, the furthest from the Azure Eagle Empire. It was also the only kingdom that had access to a relatively safe sea.
It was clear to Wu Long that the three continents were once part of one giant continent, but in the battle that fractured this world, the centermost part was lost while around 70% of the landmass was either completely obliterated or submerged under the water.
The parts that survived were the outskirts of the past continent, laid out in long and relatively thin if compared to the former continent, strips of land. The center of the world was still severely damaged, and the Spiritual Qi that flowed to this world from the rest of the Seven Boundless Worlds, as well as the Spiritual Qi that was produced by this world’s World Root, was sucked in by the damaged parts to heal the impairment, hence the lack of quality and quantity of the Spiritual Qi. That was also the reason travel to and from the other worlds was severed, as the channels were turbulent with Spiritual Qi that headed in to heal this world.
The Seven Boundless Worlds was like a living and breathing organism, with every minor world being parts of its flesh. All of them were connected to form a system that constantly exchanged Spiritual Qi which was like its blood. The link to the other worlds was in the case of this world located in the former center of the continent.
The ‘fractured’ in the fractured world held double meaning, as the world was both damaged and also in a way fractured off from the Seven Boundless Worlds.
The travel between the continents lay through the three seas in between them, bypassing the center part riddled with broken space, and the outer ocean was too dangerous for any kind of activity as demonic sea beasts there were incredibly powerful for the current world inhabitants.
Wu Long and the company arrived on the northwestern border of the kingdom a few days later. As they visited one of its border towns, smoke rose from one of the numerous kingdom army forts that were located throughout the border since kingdoms engaged in warfare quite often.