The World
For three weeks, Balor tried to seem like an ordinary student.
He put on the Taoist clothes of the Heavenly Blue Dragon School, which he found in his cave. If Balor needed to leave his cave, he tried to do without his mask. He even went to the free dining room for poor students. Although it was not his choice, he was simply a poor student.
All this time he spent on learning the basics of the language and finding information about this world. And finally, his work bore fruit.
...
"The younger greets the elder."
Having greeted Rou Soo, who, as always, was in her place, Balor walked past her. His face was completely open.
...
This strange world had an amazing structure. It was divided into layers through which you can pass in special places called the Misty Lakes. This place is usually easy to recognize, it looks like a clot of impenetrable, gray fog. This fog has various shapes and different sizes, some maybe a couple of kilometers in diameter, and some just a couple of tens of meters.
The location of the Misty Lake depends on the type of world where it leads. If this is 'the upper world', then it will be located high in the sky and to get there you need to have not only desire but also ability. Misty lakes leading to the "lower worlds" are located in lowlands or depressions. Due to their importance and the possible danger of an invasion, they are under constant protection.
...
"Hm, great, my task has not yet been completed. "
Already about to leave the Assignment House, Balor was surprised to find a strange activity around him. Deciding to find out what was going on, he went to one of the groups of students.
"Greetings. Can I find out what happened? "
The whole group looked at Balor strangely.
"Did you leave the cave? Today there was a grand event, a couple of hours ago, Chao Lin ... "
"Indeed, a grand event."
Without even listening to the end, Balor turned and went to the door. He cannot be blamed, about a week ago, Shanley Lin came to him and invited him to a great competition in alchemy. To the disappointment of Balor, this was one of the most boring things he had seen in his life.
Once he made a mistake in used the Word 'Stupor'. Because of this, he had to lie in the forest for 6 hours and watch a snail crawl in front of his face in circles. And even that more fun than what was in that alchemy contest.
A pair of students entered the arena and throwing various herbs into their small, funny stoves, created pills.
That's all, nothing more.
Therefore, Balor decided not to waste time talking and decided to head straight north.
...
The higher the world, the more Qi energy, and resources. Therefore, every cultivator tries to cross the Misty Lake and head to the 'upper' world. But it is not as easy as it may seem. First, you need to negotiate with whoever owns the Misty Lake on this side, then, somehow, you will need to agree with the owner of the gate in the 'upper' world.
But there is a simple option, to find the gate that no one has yet discovered and hope that on the other side you will not have a hot meeting.
...
"What an interesting mask."
Balor stood at the kiosk and was looking for a new mask for himself. He ignored the strange half-face masks and could not choose between a white mask of a hare and a red mask of a demon.
"Hm, hare or demon, hm, symbolism or brutality."
After a couple of minutes, he nevertheless chose a mask and put it in a new bag, were already bought new black Taoist clothes. Having paid 2 silver coins for the mask, he sadly discovered that he only had 2 gold and 8 silver coins.
...
During his interrogations of students, Balor discovered a very important thing. Each cultivator saw the level of another cultivator if the level was not much superior or if a special technique or artifact was not used.
Since Balor did not have cultivation, no one could see it, which means that everyone saw in him only mortal. But he acted in both directions, without the energy of Qi, Balor did not feel this in other people, and therefore he also could not see cultivation.
For this reason, he decided not to stay in the Heavenly Blue Dragon School for a long time. He will be kicked out anyway when they decide that he has no spiritual veins or worse, they decide that he is a suspicious person.
...
Near the gates from the city, Balor went to the groom who was currently combing his horse.
"How much will it cost to rent a horse?"
"6 silver coins and 1 gold coin as collateral."
"I take it."
...
The world in which Balor was at the moment was huge. To his surprise, the school of the Heavenly Blue Dragon was considered the power of the lower tier. There were also various empires, clans, other schools, and academies.
He was now in the Lin empire, a medium power state. It was surrounded by kingdoms and empires of various strengths, the most powerful of which was the Su empire, located in the north.
Each empire had its centers of power. But usually, it is either an imperial family or a large clan or a school of martial arts.
...
A day later, Balor was already near the right place. Leaving the horse at the edge of the forest with his new bag and things, he plunged into the thicket. After walking a couple of hundred meters in the forest, he stopped.
Having rolled up one sleeve of his left hand, he raised his hand to the sky.
""Dark. Raven. Eye""
After using the spell, Balor's fingers began to blacken, and after that, the blackness gradually dropped to the whole hand, which became like a piece of coal. After a few seconds, the borders of the hand began to wriggle, slowly taking the shape of the body of a bird, and after an instant, separated from the hand, a black raven flew up into the sky. Then one more and one more.
After some time, a dozen blackbirds could be seen in the sky, which flew in different directions.
"Hope the mana I get more than I spent."
Lowering his hand, which had already assumed a normal appearance, Balor went forward. But now you can see that his left eye has turned completely black.