Searching for Treasure

A young man and a young woman, both with black hair, walked from Paraj to the forest outside it. The two were similar enough to look like relatives, but their appearances were fairly average so they normally wouldn't attract attention. However, that was only the case if you didn't know the situation inside the city. A pair of relatives who managed to leave the city at this time without any signs of being roughed up couldn't be ordinary.

As the two were about to enter the forest, another young woman stepped out from the shade. She was slightly prettier than the other girl and possessed an air of mystery.

"I'm glad you made it out. I wasn't sure what I would have to do if your plan failed at the last moments."

"I wouldn't blame you if you left, I just wouldn't look for you."

"I know. That's why I waited."

The woman who approached with a faint smile was Maha. She had cooperated with Shui in order to escape from the city, by disguising as low level members of the alliance and maintaining the chaos through spreading misinformation on the red woman's location. Shui's plan could have likely succeeded even without the assassin he used thanks to her, but he wanted to increase their chance of success. Maha had escaped by disguising as one of the alliance members encircling the city and taking advantage of a moment when the rest of the alliance members in the encirclement were either worried about what was happening inside the city, or the Hornfrost clan. On the other hand, because he had to stay in the city longer in order to coordinate with Alia, Shui and Emily used a different method to escape. He hadn't expected that the mayor would use the arrays to suppress everyone's cultivation, but thanks to that he was able to sneak out of the city easily with Emily since there were less experts capable of catching them.

"By the way, is this the one you were talking about?" asked Maha as she looked at the young woman beside Shui.

"That's right. She's my little sister."

"Nice to meet you, please call me Shino. I've heard that you've been of great help to my brother, so I would like to thank you for that."

"Oh?"

With a hint of amusement in her eyes, Maha elegantly closed the distance between her and Emily who was disguised as Shui's sister. Maha then caught Emily's chin between her thumb and index finger and gently tilted it forward as if admiring a fine work of art. However, Maha was much stronger than Emily so all she could was beg for help by staring at Shui, but he was also at a loss. He changed her appearance with Mutation Control, so he doubted that Maha could see through it, but maybe she had somehow deduced her identity.

"Um, Maha, what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

After a few more seconds of examining her, Maha removed her hand and Emily quickly went behind Shui while glaring at Maha like she was a dangerous animal.

"Brother, are you sure about letting this person follow us?"

"It'll be fine. Probably."

"Shall we go?"

Maha didn't seem to mind the drop in trust that Emily had in her, and simply took the lead to go further inside the forest. Shui and Emily followed her, but Emily made sure not to get too close.

"Is it a catfight already?"

Before he knew it, Alia was sitting down on his shoulder as if it was her natural position. He didn't like what she was implying, but he ignored it.

"Is it done?"

"Of course. I'm sure they're all devastated. To have all their 'hardship' be wasted, maybe I should have left a clone so that I could watch. I probably would have gotten a good laugh from it."

Once he heard about what would be the main attraction of the auction and remembered the warning he received from Alicia, Shui realised that it would be too much trouble if he simply attended the auction and bid for it, so he asked for Alia's help. In exchange for buying whatever she wanted with the money that was leftover from his budget, she would create a clone to sneak into one of the VIP rooms and bid for the pill in his place.

He left the VIP to accompany up to her discretion, so Alia chose one that had harassed one of her faithful. He could never get her to admit it, but it was obvious that she had a soft spot for them.

"Wasn't it funny enough when you were playing tag with them?"

"That's different. Even if it wasn't hard to hide from them, I still had to do a lot of running so I couldn't enjoy the show. Still, it was more enjoyable than I expected. I wouldn't mind doing it again, not for free of course."

"I don't know why it sounds like I have to pay for your entertainment, but thanks I guess. For this time as well, you really helped me out."

Alia accepted his words with a pleased expression. She still hid many mysteries, but at times like this she seemed so simple.

...

The completed map showed a tier 6 array like Shui expected. If understanding this array was essential to finding this inheritance, then he would be hard-pressed to do so before he had to go to Ashen Star City. Luckily, after consulting with Emily and Maha, all of them agreed that the map seemed more like a key than a hint, so they headed to the location where Maha suspected the inheritance to be, the Scorched Desert.

At the western border of the kingdom, there was an enormous desert where the temperature was never low enough for mortals survive. Though there were rumours of reclusive forces staying inside it, there were no cities in the desert. However, due to the unique environment, many rare and powerful fire attribute creatures and materials could found here, so it was considered a treasure land for cultivators that were strong enough.

They moved at a fast pace without breaks at any cities along the way, therefore, the three made it into the desert in only a few days.

"So, hot..." Emily lamented.

Even cultivators could get heat stroke in this weather. Shui and Emily came with various measures to defeat the heat, such as support artifacts, talismans and cooling arrays, but it was all useless. As if the heat ignored their defenses, they were relentlessly attacked by the sun's ruthless rays. Luckily, Maha knew a special cooling spell that could reduce the damage they took, but since Emily looked unsteady, Shui carried her on his back while helping her use the cooling spell.

Maha didn't probe into Emily's identity and she provided information about the desert, so Shui believed that he was right for letting her come with them. Furthermore, she was even leading them towards an oasis they could use to set up camp.

In any desert, an oasis would be a resource as precious as a gold mine, much less here where they only existed in the outer circle. Therefore, it was extremely hard to find an unoccupied oasis, but Maha told them that she knew of one that should be free since the two groups that discovered it, fought over it and died. They could hope that no one else had found it since then, but they weren't afraid of confrontation regardless.