Hunting High and Low

Wei Huoran was flying over the land, quickly making his way to the White Tiger sect. He was somewhat regretful that the internet access steles hadn't been installed yet, but there was nothing he could do with the Draco Empire watching the island. Part of him felt he had created the steles with an outdated idea, and it dawned on him his idea was would always be in jeopardy if he tried to implement it.

'Well, that's disappointing', Huoran decided to share with Quanliyuan, 'I just had a realization about creating a network.'

'Well, since I don't have anything else to do, I guess I will listen', Quanliyuan responded.

Huoran looked at the artifact spirit only to see it appearing as a raccoon beastkin.

'That's an interesting choice', Huoran commented before continuing, 'In the original design of the stele, you would position and imbed a line of them from the island to the nearest city, but there's a problem.'

'Sounds to me like the artifacts would be an easy target for anyone to attack', Quanliyuan replied.

'That's exactly the problem', Huoran agreed,

'This is bad, we already had many people order them.'

'It sounds like to me that you will have to be honest, and take a loss on this then', the artifact spirit advised.

Huoran scrunched his face in annoyance, 'You're right, but I don't like it. In the mean time, I have to come up with a different solution. Let me contact Minister Song for now, and we can deal with this after I return.'

'Why didn't you create the steles to work like the portable access artifact do?', Quanliyuan asked.

'The tribes I sold those to aren't as populated as a major city in Nanying continent', Huoran answered, 'Also, if it runs out of power they have to replace the spirit stones inside. It just means we need to create a new stele, but the old steles will still be useful. In fact, I should implement this at the island, too. If I set it up correctly, it will make our Qi consumption more efficient. Thank you old friend, I knew speaking with you would be beneficial.'

Quanliyuan chuckled as Huoran went to call Minister song. Three rings later a hologram of the minister was floating inside the cockpit.

"Boss Wei, it's a pleasure to hear from you, how is you're trip? How can I assist you today?", Song greeted him.

"Good day to you as well, Minister", Huoran said, "I was reviewing recent projects that had either been completed or would be completed soon, and I noticed a problem. I need to delay the Network Access Stele artifacts from being shipped out to the customers."

"Of course", Song answered, "What should we say to the customers?"

"Tell them that we detected a security flaw in the current configuration, and are working to correct", Huoran instructed the minister, "Also, inform them that there will be no additional costs for this correction."

"Boss Wei, even if it's our mistake, we can't give away valuable products for free", Song reminded him.

"We aren't giving it away for free", Huoran slightly frowned, "I'll be personally responsible for covering the cost for all that are affected by this. Talk with Minister Wu and Ren, and let them know the construction and security teams that were going to travel to install the steles are on standby until further notice. I have to contact the sages after this to get the correction started."

"I understand, Boss Wei", Song told him, "I will make it my top priority."

"Thank you, Minister Song", Huoran said, "Farewell for now, I'll check on it again later."

Soon after, Huoran called Secretary Su and arranged a conference call with the artisan sages while Minister Song spoke with Ministers Wu and Ren. Once everyone was on the same page, Huoran refocused on his trip.

A few hours later, Huoran arrived at White Tiger City, home of the White Tiger sect. As Huoran exited his ship, and placed it in his storage ring, Sect master Kong Chun had arrived to welcome him.

"Welcome to the White Tiger sect, Daoist Wei", Kong bowed.

Huoran returned the bow, "It was rude of me to show up with little warning, Thank you for the welcome."

The two men entered the city, and headed towards the sect.

Kong asked, "So what brings you to our small humble city?"

"As the Sect master Kong knows, I'm currently working on a project that will create living secret realms without taking more land from the world", Huoran explained, "I have a solution but it requires an intensive effort to search for unknown secret realms."

Kong furrowed his brow, "As Daoist Wei says, it is difficult to locate secret realms. The timing or conditions for a secret realm to open is very mysterious, and requires luck."

"That's why I'm here", Huoran remarked, "I wish to go through any historical records you keep, and search for a location that was the site of a battle between Void Refinement cultivators."

"I must admit, I haven't made an effort to study history", Kong said, "But you are welcome to our pavilion, and I'll instruct the elders to assist you."

"I'm grateful", Huoran responded, "I should get started right away then."

Kong almost tripped as he had planned to invite Huoran to a banquet, but he also understood Huoran's personality so he quickly recovered. Soon the two arrived arrived to their destination, and Kong informed the elders of the situation. Kong excused himself afterwards, and Huoran got to work reading through all the scrolls, manuals, and books the elders had brought out. It took two and a half days to read all the material in front of him, but thanks to his perfect memory, there was no issues.

'Now that the long part is done, it's time to organize our thoughts', Huoran said.

'The closest time that a fight of that caliber was recorded was eight hundred years ago', Quanliyuan, in the form of a mermaid, stated.

With a mental command, Huoran conjured up a map from all his travels in a 3D format.

'This is current map according to my travels so far', Huoran commented before displaying a second map, 'Let's take what we learned from the pavilion to construct a map from eight hundred years ago.'

'One moment', Quanliyuan replied, 'First we should find a reference point, even if eight hundred years isn't long for a world, a few things do change over time.'

As Quanliyuan spoke, changes in the second map appeared. The coastline of the sea was the first to be displayed then mountain ranges, forest, lakes, and rivers. When the artifact spirit finished, the two of them looked and compared the two maps. There were many empty spaces due missing information from the sources of the pavilion, and Huoran's lack of travel.

Huoran directed the two maps to overlap using his mind, and many small differences were noticeable. Huoran created a screen, and began to write calculations involving angles and distances before turning back to the map. Using two common reference points on the overlapping maps, Huoran charted a path to a region of empty space.

'Look like we narrowed it down to this area', Huoran clarified.

'Yes, should we leave immediately?', Quanliyuan concurred.

'No, I've been a ungrateful guest', Huoran admitted, 'Sect Master Kong has helped greatly, and I shouldn't take advantage. We will leave in the morning.'

That night Huoran attended a banquet thrown by Kong Chun. As expected, it was a more traditional event compared to Sun & Moon island. An assortment of plates and snacks were arranged across the tables, the top elders and their disciples were in attendance, and musicians, courtesans, and dancers entertained the crowd.

"It's an honor to attend your banquet, Sect Master Kong", Huoran bowed in greeting.

"Nonsense, this banquet was thrown for you", Kong laughed.

"Unfortunately, I have to leave tomorrow", Huoran replied, "I must apologize, my search turned up promising leads, and I must go to investigate it."

"Does Daoist Wei have to leave so quickly?", Kong questioned him, "I wouldn't want others to hear that our generosity is lacking."

"Sect master Kong, what you say is true", Huoran responded, "Maybe I should stay a few more days, I could tour the city, particularly the part of the city that the less fortunate stay."

Kong's face grew stiff for a moment before returning to normal, "It seems that Daoist Wei is working on an issue of importance, so just treat my words as wind and pay them no mind. I wouldn't want to hold you back from completing your goal."

Huoran was doing his best to hold back his laughter, and had to use the sleeve of his robe to hide any evidence. The night passed, and he finished his meditation in the morning. It took longer than normal to complete his routine as he had to purify all the impurities from the food and drink from the night before. He also took extra time to cleanse his robes, before putting a fresh black and white robes on. Finally ready to leave, Huoran exited the room that Kong lent to him, and went to Sect master Kong's office.

"Sect master Kong, Thank you for your care the last few days", Huoran said.

"You're free to return anytime, Daoist Wei", Kong responded.

Huoran just nodded, and headed out the Sect master's door and on a balcony the oversaw the whole sect. He summoned his personal flying ship, and with a mental command, flew off into the direction of the suspected secret realm.

As Huoran made his way through the landscape, he randomly mentioned, 'I can tell that the classes they've attended have improved their skills. That being said, I don't want to attend any more banquets until they've improved some more."

'It does seem undesirable to consume subpar foods', Quanliyan replied, 'Fortunately, I do not need to worry about such things.'

'Once I can connect to other cities, we will see a large change to the world', Huoran insinuated.

'Xiao Ran, this seems to be a good time to let you know that we are approaching the target area', Quanliyuan informed him.

As Huoran acknowledged the artifact spirit, he directed the flying ship to start gaining altitude.

'Why are you flying so high now, Xiao Ran?', Quanliyuan asked.

'Even though we have narrowed the search to a much smaller area, it's still a large area', Huoran explained, 'To further eliminate unnecessary areas, it's best to get an eagle's eye view of the mountain range. We can look for clues of a grand battle between two Void Refinement stage cultivators.'

'I understand', Quanliyuan replied, 'According to the records we found at the White Tiger sect, the two cultivators finished the battle with a clash of their strongest techniques. So there should be physical evidence of that clash.'

'Correct', Huoran agreed, 'We have observed several mountain ranges, especially you have, and know the natural formation of them. If there was a large, powerful clash of great power in this mountain range, I suspect it would appear as a bowl shaped valley.'

They both seem to agree, so Huoran stopped the ascent of the flying ship and began to slowly search. After an hour, Huoran saw the bowl shaped lake that he was expecting, and brought the flying boat a tree's height off the ground. He steered the ship to the center of the bowl, and just as he predicted, Quanliyuan spoke up, 'I detect the entrance of a secret realm.'

Huoran was assisted by Quanliyuan, and he also could see the entrance.

'Why does the energy around it feel odd?', Huoran inquired.

'The death of a Void Refinement stage or above cultivator is a special event', Quanliyuan began to narrate, 'When a Body Perfecting realm passes away, they just become substance for a magical beast or the ground, Qi Gathering through Nascent soul cultivators are small to large accumulations of Qi that return to the world when their time is finished. Void Refinement as I stated before have created a world inside themselves, and it takes a long time for their world to merge back into this world. Maybe you haven't paid attention, but Void Refinement cultivators no longer use storage rings or bags anymore. They simply store all their belongings in their world. Once they pass away, it becomes a secret realm and everyone tries to enter to claim the items, resources, and methods inside.'

'So why did a natural formation appear', Huoran frustratedly asked.

'It's because the smaller world is dissolving back into the larger world over many centuries', Quanliyuan answered, 'The natural formation is the result of the process.'

Huoran exited the flying boat and stored it before approaching the entrance.

'Well the only way I can set the beacons is to enter the formation', Huoran stated.

'Wait Xiao Ran! Let's observe the formation for a little bit', Quanliyuan warned him, 'Its incredible dangerous to enter a formation between two worlds like this!'

'Don't worry old friend, I have a theory', Huoran said before he charge into the entrance.