Know yourself and your Opponent

Wei Huoran was currently home, sitting on the bed alongside Meirong as he reviewed the contents of his internal space. As a Void Refinement realm cultivator, it was convenient to have this instead of storage rings or bags, but he still wore his wedding band. This was not a tradition of this world, and even though Huoran tried to adapt to this world's ways, he would sometimes bend the rules. For instance, in this world when mortals married or cultivators became Dao partners, women would not change their name. A person's parents had given a name to them, and it was seen as disrespectful to the parents and family if that were to happen. Meirong though that Huoran's proposal to wear a set of rings was strange, but once she saw the high quality of the wedding bands, she accepted.

A few days after he had given her the rings, she had shown it off to her friends, and soon others were requesting something similar. Not everyone made rings like Huoran did, instead they made a wide variety of accessories to signify their commitment. When Huoran witnessed this, he had thought of saying something. In the end, he stayed quiet after some thought when he saw that everyone was keeping to the spirit of the gesture.

"Are you ready to go?", Huoran asked Meirong.

"Yes", she answered.

"Let us go then", he said, and as they exited their home, a taxi was waiting.

Huoran scanned his QFold, and the taxi started moving forward. A few minutes later, the pair exited the car, and walked into a large center where bustling traffic could be seen arriving and leaving. They checked in at one of the many counters, and made their way to the teleportation room before finding a place to sit.

"I'm surprised you wanted to go with me", Huoran commented, "I do not think it will be dangerous, but you were happy to learn more inscriptions after breaking through to your new realm."

"That is true", Meirong replied, "But as you are the one that researched most of the rune formations, I'm sure you can teach me just fine while we take a trip."

Huoran laughed, "You got a point. Anyways, I think it will be a good trip for you. The language and writing of the locals is not that different from our own, though there have been a few awkward moments due to mistranslation."

"Why do you think that happened?", she asked.

"Most likely, and this is just my guess", Huoran responded, "The source came from one place, but once the continents drifted over time and everyone was separated, each region had their own unique evolution of speech."

Meirong was about to respond, but an announcement that the portal was about to activate interrupted her, so they got in line. An hour later, the pair were leaving the center on Twin Dragon island.

"Let us look around real quick before we go", Huoran suggested.

Meirong nodded, brought out her personal car, and smiled before saying, "I'll drive."

Huoran laughed and got into the car, "Sure, take your time and see everything before we head off."

Meirong took off, and they spent the afternoon going around discovering all the new businesses that had opened since their last visit. The two of them were eating at a restaurant with outdoor dining when Meirong asked Huoran a question.

"How do the cultivators of the southern continent cultivate?", she inquired.

"Oh that", Huoran replied, "They have a very unique set of ways. The tamers tend to have powerful minds, and will fuse their spiritual consciousness with spiritual beast's embryos before they hatch and the two will cultivate together. The other method is implant the spirit beast egg into the dantian during a cultivator's body perfecting realm progression. As their cultivation progresses, tamers will add new beasts to their stable while the other implant eggs of higher potential strength into their bodies. Both ways require a balanced approach based on the roots of the person and the beasts."

This caused Meirong to make a strange face, "That means those eggs will never hatch?"

"That is not entirely correct", Huoran explained, "The egg hatches inside the dantian, and through the use of their own methods, the man and beast become one. If the beast has fangs and claws, the man will grow them, you understand now, right?"

"I do not like that", Meirong frowned, "Having to share a body with someone forcefully sounds horrible."

"I do agree that it sounds bad", Huoran admitted, "I was told that this a better future for the eggs than staying with their parents because if the parents detect weakness in their children, they are abandoned."

"I understand that", Meirong pouted, "I just do not know why they would fuse together with a human over being hatched with a tamer."

"Oh", Huoran was slightly embarrassed, "I forgot to mention that the eggs that the tribes of the beast fusion method take are ones thought to have no chance at hatching. It really is there only chance at survival. Anyways, I think lunch was good. Shall we get moving now?"

"Yes, there is not anything else I want to visit for now", she replied as they both stood up. A quick trip to the new city office was made so Huoran could inform the mayor of his departure to the northern continent.

"It is a pleasure to see mayor Jiang", Huoran greeted the mayor.

"Venerable Wei, Daoist Zeng", Jiang bowed, "The honor is mine to have you return again."

Meirong just smiled as Huoran spoke, "We are about to embark on the exploration journey, so let our people know. Also, just have people ready just in case something does not go as planned."

"Understood", the mayor stated, "My your journey be safe and path be unfettered."

After a bit of small talk, a knock on the door was heard, and the mayor called the person in.

"Mayor, Seniors, a launch site is ready for your use", the man told them.

"Excellent", Huoran replied as he stood up, "We will stop imposing on you now mayor, and we will see you when we return."

After bidding farewell, Huoran and Meirong followed the messenger out of the office and to the mentioned location. Once they arrived, Huoran summoned a ship from his space. Larger than a racing air artifact, but smaller than a frigate, the flying ship had a mirrored finish. Huoran sent a command to the ship causing the doors to lower, and Meirong was boarding as Huoran thanked their guide before getting in the ship himself.

Five minutes later, the ship rose into the air and went north.

It did not take long for the ship to hide by warping light to move it, and suppress its own aura from being felt by the beasts. Meirong was studying runes as Huoran watched the ship, occasionally helping her when she had questions about certain rune patterns. After a few hours, the northern continent came into view as small beaches with towering cliffs behind them appeared. They did not see any large spirit beasts at the moment, so Huoran directed the ship to fly over the cliffs.

Once they got over the top, a misty forest was seen directly in front of them.

"I will release the drones", Meirong said, and a cluster of tiny flying drones flew exited a small door, and went to accomplish their mission. Images of various beasts filled the screen.

"Let us start from the closest drone and investigate outward", Huoran advised, and the ship moved. They would find the beast, watch it for a bit, and let the artifacts measure their strength. After all the beasts in on area were evaluated, they would move to a new location. The first thing they noticed was that beasts that tend to form large herds only formed smaller tight knit groups, and the average strength of an individual seemed higher here. Also, most beasts leaned more towards claiming territory than wandering around. Only a few really large herds would dare to pass through the territory of the strongest ancient beasts.

Huoran and Meirong classified most of the spiritual beasts of the first area when they arrived at the place where the 'boss' watched over its domain.

Huoran and Meirong were currently looking at a giant python that had wound itself around a smaller hill.

"That's a huge snake", Huoran stated the obvious.

Meirong giggled, "It's not as big as some of the flood dragons that attacked the island."

"That is true, but they were not as strong as this snake here", Huoran countered, "This snake is as strong as the dragon emperor before he activated the stone. Depending on how many 'bosses' like this there are, we would still need to expend a great effort to defend Twin Dragon city."

"It is too early to guess how these beasts think", Meirong tried to relax the situation, "It would be better to continue first, and get an accurate view of the situation."

Huoran nodded and after a command, the ship went to the next area. For the next several weeks, they crossed the continent to gain a better understanding of the balance of power. What they come to learn is that the continent follows a strange feudal system. At the top was a small but unknown number of ancient beasts that each claimed a cardinal direction of the continent. From there, leadership was slept up by zone. A forest or desert would be assigned to an appropriate beast. That beast would have its retainers based on its wants and capabilities. There could be more levels of responsibility arranged, but Huoran thought further investigation was useless.

Huoran and Meirong had just finished checking the last area and were returning having already sent in their report. With nothing else to accomplish, Meirong had gone to mediate while Huoran flew the ship back to Twin Dragon city.

As Huoran considered the situation, he turned to his oldest friend, 'Quanliyuan, what do you think about all this?'

'Unfortunately, we do not have another set of ancient beast cores to detonate like last time time', the artifact spirit replied, 'And arranging for your master to make an appearance would be less effective without that power.'

'So that just means I will have to do what I have been putting off for awhile', Huoran said.

'I do not see another way', Quanliyuan admitted, 'With strength, you can negotiate however you wish. Just look at the cultivators from the southern continent, they can only receive what the northern region deems appropriate for them.'

'I understand, I will make preparations when we return and use to our advantage for future talks', Huoran told Quanliyuan.

A few days later, Huoran and Meirong arrived in Twin Dragon city and he handed Mayor Jiang a list of items that needed to be moved from Sun & Moon island to here.

A special construction crew had just arrived in Twin Dragon city but instead of working on a new project in the city, they were escorted to the altars where the tribes of the southern region made offerings to the northern region. They were building what looked like a throne that no only faced the north, but was made taller than the other altars as well.

Meanwhile, in the hotel suite that Huoran and Meirong was staying in, a different scene was taking place.

"Are you crazy?", Meirong could be heard shouting, "You are going to breakthrough to the next realm to intimidate the northern continent?"

"Yes", Huoran replied to his wife in a confident manner.

"But no one has broken through to that realm except for your master", she tried to reason with him, "Do you know how many beings in this world burnt themselves out trying to do what you want to do?"

"I have an advantage", Huoran tried to reassure her, "My master did it, so I should be able to as well. He is the one who told me to do this anyways, so if he thinks I'm ready, I will believe him."

Meirong started pouting because she felt she could not argue with that.

"If you remember my breakthrough to the Void Refinement realm, you know I went through that without any issues", Huoran comforted her, "I am taking extra precautions accordingly to my master's plan, so I believe I will pass through this trial the same."

"It is not like I can stop you if your master ordered you", Meirong's voice softened, "Just be sure to stay safe, and pay me more attention for the next few days."

Huoran laughed, "I can do this for you."

Several days later, Huoran made his final preparations before leaving for his ascension. He arrived at the location and did his final checks before sitting down on the giant throne.