Elder Ru

Elder Ru of the Whispering Wind Sect entered the shopping mall without much fanfare.

He walked around the fountain, away from the more populated areas near the entrance.

At the back of the main room, one of the hallways had a young boy and girl in the Foundation Establish Realm sitting on either side of it. As Elder Ru approached, the two young cultivators stood up and bowed to the old man.

"Elder Ru, the Sect Master is waiting inside for you."

He nodded and walked past the young boy and girl without saying anything. The people waiting inside were too important for him to keep waiting.

After entering the hallway, there were no crowds of people or stalls. The customer markets were primarily built in a single hallway with a large room near its entrance. The other hallways were still more or less empty.

Some people did enter these empty hallways to cultivate in a more secluded environment or to explore, but it was relatively rare.

There was so much unused space within the shopping mall that anyone who wanted to would be able to find some isolated place to use however they wished. Most people would use these places for cultivation, but some were even beginning to use them as makeshift houses or places to stay.

There were so many miles of empty hallways and scattered rooms that no one would care to fight over someone claiming any particular space.

The Sectarian Union had a different plan, though. Due to them being south of Great Yan, they had to travel across the entire country to reach the shopping mall. News of the shopping mall had reached them later than most other groups currently in the shopping mall, and the time it took them to investigate the claims was longer as well.

This left them at a disadvantage compared to Great Yan and the Kingdom of Zhou, who had used their early mover's advantage to significant effect. No other faction was quite so prominent as those two major players.

The Sectarian Alliance, made up of many small players, was well used to being weaker than these large organizations. Moreover, the sects that made up the alliance were primarily there for collective protection rather than any intention to cooperate.

Truthfully, many of the sects in the union hadn't sent even one representative to the shopping mall. They were mostly disinterested in fighting for more opportunities as long as their position remained stable.

Not all of the sects were so content with their lot, though. Those that wanted to grow bigger and stronger saw the shopping mall as their chance to raise the power of their sects far beyond where they were before.

Three of the more prominent sects within the Sectarian Union had banded together to fight for resources. Together, they gradually sent over more and more of their disciples to cultivate within the shopping mall. The members of this alliance had worked together to claim an entire hallway for themselves.

After walking into the alliance's hallway, there were fewer people than in the market hallway. At this point, the three sects had sent over around one hundred disciples. There were plans to bring over many more, but, for now, the hallway was relatively deserted.

Elder Ru followed the dimly lit path for some time before emerging into a bright room with a large table in the center.

Sitting around the table were five people, one of them being the sect master of the Whispering Wind Sect, Lu Shuchang.

"Ru Fen, you're here. How are things at the border?"

Elder Ru bowed toward Lu Shuchang.

"Things have gone well. We've obtained more than two hundred shopping mall meals."

Elder Ru took a storage ring off his finger and placed it on the table as he sat down. Sect Master Lu picked up the ring and smiled as he checked its contents.

"Good, we can nurture many geniuses with these resources you've obtained for us."

A beautiful mature woman interrupted from the side. Her lips were stained a dark red, and her clothes seemed designed to draw the eye deliberately to her voluptuous body. None of the men in the room dared to look anywhere but her sharp eyes, though. Her name was Sun Taisong.

"Don't forget the Burning Heart Sect's share. You would have never been able to intercept so many caravans without our help."

"Don't worry. The Whispering Wind Sect won't forget your contribution, Sect Master Sun."

A younger man seated at that table sighed. He had no hand in robbing the Zhou caravans and was only entitled to a small amount of the resources. He was Diao Wu, the sect master of the Dazzling Sword Sect.

"Now that Elder Ru is here, can we get down to business? How are we going to proceed regarding the Kingdom of Zhou?"

"I think we can continue to take a portion of their caravans. Though, we'll have to be more careful now that they're on guard. What do you think, Ru Fen?"

"As long as Sect Master Sun's Burning Heart Sect can continue to give us information regarding their route, we will have no problems catching them. My only concern is that they will begin to place Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators of their own in the caravans."

"Even if they do, they won't have enough to guard every shipment." Sun Taisong said dismissively.

"They might choose to ship everything together if we keep going after the weaker caravans." Diao Wu suggested.

Sun Taisong shrugged.

"If that happens, we will need to rely on your Dazzling Sword Sect to help us."

"If it reaches a point where we can no longer deal with it, then the gains from robbing them should be more than enough to convince another sect from the Union to help us," Sect Master Lu said. "I welcome them to try if they think it will help."

"When are we going to bring more disciples over? Now that we have more resources, we shouldn't wait to convert it into strength." Diao Wu was impatient to bring people to the shopping mall. He had already been advocating for the three sects to hurriedly bring more disciples before this.

Sect Master Lu paused for a moment as he organized his thoughts.

"The next group of disciples should be arriving within a few days, and I've already sent word back to my sect to send another group. If you haven't already, you should do the same."

Sun Taisong nodded.

"I'll do so, and I'll have the Burning Heart Sect's disciples continue to supply Elder Ru with the location of the different caravans."

"That would be for the best."

——

"Brother, how are you supposed to hone the bones for martial cultivation?"

Lin Feng blinked as Mei asked him this question out of the blue.

"…Why do you ask?"

Lin Feng had no idea how to hone the bones, and Mei hadn't given him much warning to think up a lie.

"Well, even with overflowing vitality, it seems to have little effect on strengthening the bones."

Lin Feng was dazed. Where did this come from? Was someone actually trying to cultivate the martial path?

He struggled to think of some reason for why the bones would resist being honed.

"…Martial artists aren't cultivators." Lin Feng slowly explained. " You have to practice martial arts to progress in martial arts." Lin Feng hoped he didn't sound as unsure as he felt. "But you shouldn't try to practice this yourself. If you know someone trying it, tell them that knowledge of martial arts was compiled over many generations. If you try to start from scratch, you'll just hit a dead end."

Mei looked disappointed as she listened to Lin Feng.

"Won't I be able to ask you?"

"I can't claim to know everything about martial cultivation."

"But you know a lot of it, though, right?"

"…Yeah."

"Then it should be fine as long as people take it slow, right?"

Lin Feng felt bad looking at how excited Mei was.

"It… should be okay," Lin Feng reluctantly said. "But you're a fox. You can't practice martial arts. So don't try to become a martial artist. You'll only hurt yourself."

"I know! I'll wait until I can take human form before trying!"

Lin Feng was silent as Mei made her promise. He would have to come up with another excuse soon. Mei wasn't that far away from reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

It might be cruel, but Lin Feng didn't care if someone else ruined their path of cultivation or wasted their time. But if Mei was going to fall victim to his ramblings about cultivation novels, he would have to find some way to stop her.