Within the confines of a tower that had a patched-up wall, were two people standing around a large piece of paper where several others were strewn all over the ground.
Anyone unrelated to the subject will find it hard to understand the scribbles and random shapes on the parchment and the strange symbols that it represented.
"That little bastard, I never thought he'll solve it, this actually makes far more sense," Master Rain spoke to his attendant.
"I still can't figure out how he managed to realize that this was a mathematical inscription," the attendant said.
"I don't understand too, he said something about Algorithm, and when I asked him what that was, he said it was a jargon he uses. Basically, it's some sort of cumulative and finite succession of predefined course of operations that will permit one to resolve a problem." Master rain said.
"And what is that?" asked the attendant.
"I have not a single clue what the hell he was talking about, but he seemed sure of it, so I took it with a grain of salt. Anyway, he managed to solve this, so what do you think this is?" asked Master Rain.
"Well considering the result of this parchment ended up in a succession of numbers it's pretty obvious that this some sort of Coordinates to a location, the problem is, it's not one set but several sets of them," said the attendant.
"I had the same idea, but I don't think it's possible for them to be sets of coordination, this is all one single location," replied master rain as he took another look at the parchment.
"How would you judge it to be so?" asked the attendant.
"Usually normal coordination will have specific degrees north or west for example, but here we have even Depth and incline, it seems that this isn't a location on a planet, but more like coordination for a none fixed place," spoke Master Rain.
"How can you put fixed coordination for a none fixed location?" the attendant asked.
"You can only do that...if you're in a place where there is no sense of direction..." Master Rain said.
"You're not talking about that place? The last time we went..." the attendant couldn't finish his words.
"Yes, but that time we weren't prepared. And now we have some sort of direction, so we'll have to go there..." Master rain said.
He then pulled a pen and paper and began jotting something down.
"What's that?" asked the attendant.
"I'm leaving Shen Bao a message," he said as he handed the attendant the paper.
"Give this to the Dean, and tell him to give it to Shen Bao, make sure to be quick, we'll leave in a couple of hours, I need to call a few...friends," said Master Rain.
The look on his face was grim.
If anyone were to look at Master Rain, they'll clearly know that he himself didn't want to go there.
***
"I meant, what do you mean by three years ago, at most I probably lost consciousness for a day or two, I do not feel that...old," I said.
"Nor should you, you're a cultivator not a mortal, anyway, the Grizzly Spider assault happened three years ago and some change the aftermath was pretty ugly, we lost a good deal of elders, and that caused our sect to delay the re-opening of our sect," Elder Wei said.
"This is all too sudden," I spoke feeling another headache creeping up.
"Wei, you can leave I'll finish your report," spoke someone.
Turning to face the direction of the voice, I saw the sect master. Standing tall like a mountain.
"Sect Master," Elder Wei bowed then left the room.
"Ling Cao, how are you feeling?" asked the Sect Master.
"Slightly lethargic and very confused," I replied.
"Right, well, it seems that you have some sort of...mental problem," the sect master said.
"Hey, don't call me an idiot, I know I might not be conventional, but I'm not crazy," I replied.
"No, I didn't word that correctly. You appear to have something that is making your mind reel whenever you overuse your Qi. I called upon many doctors and the best answer was that your soul seemed to have evolved and is feeling suffocated in such a tiny sea of consciousness. It's as if you are possessing your own body," the sect master spoke.
He wasn't wrong, and I was feeling slightly worried because possession is the act of Devil Cultivators and we all know the Ancient Sect's stance against that.
"At first, I considered killing you," said the sect master.
Blunt but honest.
"Ah... and why is that? Is it because you belie that I'm possessing my own body?" I asked.
"Yes, and I had plenty of reason supporting that theory, the fact that you were able to become uncanny, strong beyond belief, and pretty much, hosted experience that no one your age should have... as you has shown when battling against a half Saint Class creature while you were nothing but a Nascent Soul cultivator," he said.
"It was more like cheap-shoting it to death, but your point?" I asked full of confidence.
"My point is if you actually were possessing this body, for whatever reason, and you really are not Ling Cao, then, there is actually no point. You didn't show hostility to the sect nor to your peers even after they treated you badly, you didn't harm anyone and actively sought to protect the sect by helping the sick members and devising a plan to retaliate against the Spiders," He said.
"I could still be a bad guy acting good," I said.
"Hey, I'm defending you here, stop incriminating yourself... anyway," he said.
"The doctor took more days inspecting you and it seems that the earlier diagnostic was half true," he said.
"Which half?" I asked.
"The possession half, so you're in the clear. More diagnostics revealed that you had probably come in contact with something that overly inflated your soul force. You have so much soul force it's absurd. Not even my own soul force can hold a candle to yours which is not realistic. Whatever you consumed is actually working against you right now, it's killing you... your body is far too weak to contain such abundant and absurd soul force, thus whenever you use your Qi, your whole being will start feeling like it is going to rip apart," the sect master said.
"It's just a headache..." I mumbled.
"A headache that will kill you if you don't rise up in cultivation level. Anyway, all of this isn't important for the time being," he said.
"Well, I'll find it pretty hard to think that there is something more important than me dying, but yeah, go ahead what's more important?" I asked.
"Ugh, your sarcasm is still the same." The sect master turned his head away and said, "We're probably going to die. All of us," he said.
"That's a given no one can live forever," I said.
"No, there seems to be something wrong with the world itself...it's a premonition I have... there seems to be a calamity brewing and I have no idea how to solve the upcoming trial." The sect master said, and this caused the hairs on my back to stand up.
Finally, a real clue about the calamity.