Thanks to Baotian's quick thinking, the two of them had managed to sneak along. Now, they were quickly confronted with another problem: they had arrived at the exact same place as Wu Leihao and his guard, and the latters were looking directly at them.
"Would you look at this" Wu Leihao said. "It seems that some cultivators managed to enter with us. May I know who these two fellow cultivators are?"
"This one is Meng Kai and my companion is Ra Cheon" Baotian lied with a straight face. "We sincerely thank fellow cultivator Wu for allowing us to enter in advance. I hope a genius such as you will show his generosity and keep the contest fair between us"
"Hmm, fair, you say? Are you two not the ones who just leeched off my Earth talent to enter? Fairness would be to not let you gain an advantage by exploiting others, don't you think?"
Hearing Wu Leihao talk, the demonic pair quickly became nervous. Truth was, if a fight was to happen, their chances would likely not reach twenty percent. One of their enemies was at the grand perfection stage and the other, at the late stage, possessed a powerful Earth talent and likely numerous artifacts given by his sect master, making his power closer to an early stage Core Formation.
With their new artifacts, Zi Moyan could exercise pseudo-early stage Core Formation power, and Baotian late stage Qi Building power by using the Blood Burial Mantra, but they were still inferior by about a minor stage: not enough to guarantee defeat, but enough to guarantee they wouldn't be able to keep searching for treasures. That said…
"Fellow Wu, you bastard, no need for lengthy talks. We can't defeat you, we're aware of it, but we still do possess our own trump cards. You would be wise to believe me when I say a confrontation between us will only lead to disaster for both sides" Zi Moyan said. "I'm not like the mindless brats outside, I easily guessed why you came here, to accomplish great feats and solidify your position as one of the six geniuses. But do you think you would even keep this title if you got put out of action before most of the participants even entered? Think carefully, 'Leihao'"
Immediately after she finished, the temperature seemed to decrease a few degrees. Baotian thought that a battle would be inevitable but, in the end, the two righteous cultivators chose to back down:
"It's fine then, fellow Meng and fellow Ra, there's enough treasure for both sides" Wu Leihao said. "Let's discuss these matters again latter"
After saying that, both the youth and his guard left, leaving Baotian and Zi Moyan alone. The latter was obviously proud of herself, and even her comrade felt impressed.
'Sometimes, senior sister's personality makes me forget how smart she is' he thought.
At least, that was the case before. Twenty-five years…
"Hmm, but let's keep our guard up, junior brother" she said, cutting his thinking off. "From the last part of what he said, it's easy to guess he's going to try getting his revenge later on, when the stakes are lower and his other guard joins him as well"
"That's what I thought too, senior sister. Then, let's act fast and put our spiritual senses to work for the next hour while we don't have to be too careful!"
And so, for the next hour, they moved with nothing but haste. The inside of the Void Hurricane was a devastated version of the territory that was there before, but there was something more to it. Despite the environmental destruction, there was no trace of a single body, mortal or not. Baotian found this strange: even if the Void Hurricane was detected early on and an evacuation order was issued, there would always be some fools deciding to stay behind and die like dogs.
In addition to this, the strange wind in the Void Hurricane seemed to have caused spiritual power particles to stick to each other, creating bright shards made of pure energy that flew around, like so many dragonflies. Truly, while it wasn't close to the Purple Sky Village, Baotian was starting to feel like he was in a horror movie. In comparison, Zi Moyan was having a much better moment, enjoying the peculiar scenery.
Still, Baotian cheered himself up with the resources: there were so many of them! Every few meters, he could find a little pile spirit stone and, a dozen times over, he could even find one-time charms that had a direct use in combat!
But the best thing he could find, without a single doubt, wasn't any of these charms, nor was it the twenty thousand spirit stones he had accumulated. No, instead, it was a Core Formation Restoration Elixir!
'With that, I'll be able to restore the Owl's Spirit Core! Consuming it with the Blood Burial Mantra, and combining it with the Core Formation pill, not only will I be near certain to succeed in my realm advancement, I will also have a decent chance to reach the mid stage directly, or at least halfway to it!'
Just that alone was enough for the entire trip to be considered worth it! Even more than worth it, a complete success!
Just at that moment, Zi Moyan returned, a large, childish smile on her face as well.
'Senior sister… truly looks better with this expression'
He hastily shook his head as his companion joined him:
"Haha, junior brother, guess what I've found!" she exclaimed.
"Hmm, wait, let me guess: a Core Formation pill?"
"Haha, I see junior brother is still as smart as always! But believe it or not, I found something even better! And, if you help me make the best of it, I will let you have everything else!"
Baotian felt a bit shocked by this: what could she have found that was this precious?
As if hearing his thoughts, Zi Moyan continued:
"Guess what, I found a method that'll allow me to create my own way to reach Nascent Soul!"
…
"Uh?"
"I know right, isn't that great? I will advance to Core Formation here, today, and evolve my Erratic Phoenix Dance to the next level"
"Oh, I see"
Baotian nodded in understanding:
"You simply lost your mind"
But Zi Moyan was in such a good mood that she didn't even react to the insult:
"Ba Ke, did you notice? These luminous shards flying all around, the closer we get to the center, the fewer they are."
"Yes, I noticed, that's normal for a strong wind phenomenon: the weaker area is always in the middle. I suppose it's only logical that the shards adopt the same behavior considering this Void Hurricane's properties" Baotian reasoned, combining Earth's physic knowledge and this world's knowledge to emit an hypothesis. "So it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that indeed, trying to advance in the middle of it would make the advancement easier. The will of heaven wouldn't reach inside the hurricane, so the tribulation will necessarily be formed from the surrounding spiritual energy.
Thus, at the point where the energy is the most scarce, the tribulation's difficulty would be decreased tenfold… but I don't think that's worth the risk advancing in the middle of a dangerous area, where righteous cultivators can flood in at any moment and where a certain genius wants us to suffer, neither do I see how it could help you advance your scripture"
But his companion shook her head:
"You'd thought so, but when I approached the middle, I was enlightened: tribulations are a law of the world, unless you offer something particular through a miraculous method in exchange, it's impossible to lower their level of danger. So, instead, the tribulation would compensate for the lack of raw power by complexifying it. Junior brother, can you guess what is the easiest way to do that?"
Baotian thought for a second, and then his face paled:
"It would extract the dao principles of the Void Hurricane to higher its efficiency!" he exclaimed. "Senior sister, I can't let you do that, this is insane! Not only would this tribulation be even more dangerous than a regular one, but the phenomenon might even attract more righteous cultivators! And when you'll be forced to use your techniques to fend off the tribulation, they'll realize you're a demonic cultivator. Do you realize what it means?"
Baotian clenched his teeth and grabbed her by the shoulders:
"Zi Moyan, be they of the demonic or righteous path, not a sane soul would want to be trapped in a place cut from the outside world with a demonic cultivator one realm higher than everyone else! Everyone without exception will try to kill you before you're finished, and your only defense would be me! Me! In terms of power, loyalty, situation, anything, do I look like I can fend off an army of people as strong or stronger than me? That's not even courting death, that's pure suicide!"
"Don't worry, junior brother, I have a plan-"
"I. Don't. Care! Even if I'm overwhelmed, I can still let them get you and use the opportunity to run away. But if you truly wish to reincarnate this soon, senior sister, then do it without me, this cultivator refuses to have a hand in your death! Please, just give up this insanity!"
Zi Moyan looked him right in the eyes, not budging:
"And then what?"
"What do you mean, what? Obviously, we'll resume our cultivations while searching for new means to advance in level-"
"Ba Ke, my cultivation method, the Erratic Phoenix Dance scripture, only goes up to the late stage Qi Building"
Baotian winced. For each major realm, as far as he knew, the early, mid and late stages each had their own cultivation formula to reach the next stage. Completing the late stage formula made one a grand perfection stage of their realm, allowing them to attempt the advancement by facing a tribulation. Put more simply, a scripture containing the formulas up to the late stage of a realm allowed one to reach at best the beginning of the next realm.
"Can't you ask help from your senior Bai Zisheng? From what I understood, he is pretty influent in the demonic path, and your relation with him isn't bad, so there's chances he will have a scripture that allows to reach Nascent Soul reach"
"And then? Not to mention that sir Bai, this bastard, would probably only accept to give me anything if I became his dog, and even if I manage to convince him to grant me a compatible scripture for a reasonable price, then what? I spend decades, maybe even over a century learning the subtilities of this new scripture, and then cough blood day and night to barely reach Nascent Soul? Let's assume it goes like this, then what? While influential, Bai Zisheng is still in the Core Formation realm, he won't have much more than Core Formation scriptures.
So tell me, assuming I manage to reach the Nascent Soul stage this way, what should I do next? Somehow miraculously find a better scripture, spend hundreds of years learning it, and then hope the time I have left is enough to drag myself to Void Ascension, where I'll then become slave to the royal family to get a chance to reach the mid stage and ascend out of the realm?"
"We… we can find a better solution, we already did it a few time, we-"
"Wake up, Ba Ke! We aren't some kind of geniuses, nor are we blessed with luck, or a unique talent that can help us navigate through problems! Opportunities like this won't just fall on us any time because we need it! That's your problem, junior brother, you're so afraid of death that you refuse to take risks for your life! You're only ever willing to risk your life to survive in the present moment, never in the future!
Ba Ke, I am not stupid, I know you only joined the demonic path to gain some kind of background so you could shelter yourself from some powerful force, I need to evolve my scripture, and you need a powerful individual to back you for the time being. For once, you and I need to look further than just today and tomorrow!"
She grabbed his shoulder, her scarlet hair dancing as she looked him the eyes, her gaze almost pleading:
"Please, Ba Ke, I need your help"
Baotian, left alone with this view, was once again reminded of the Purple Sky Village. Back then, when he had to choose whether to risk or not their freedom by sparing her, he had taken a risk, allowing the both of them to escape alive. Did that mean he should trust her once again? Or, instead, should he be humble and not try his luck one too many times?
He then remembered what Xue Lan had said: be blind, don't be brave. He had already chosen to be brave once, he couldn't step back anymore.
Sighing, he started to fly away, prompting Zi Moyan to follow him:
"Alright, explain me your plan while we move to the Void Hurricane's center"
And as his companion did so, Baotian's expression somehow managed to crumble even more.
'From now on, I shouldn't accept anything that I know I will regret in the next incense stick of time' he decided.
He sighed again: at least this time, he was going to have to deal with it.
And so, Zi Moyan's Core Formation advancement plan began.