The great hall was nothing special. It was adorned with the usual splendor expected of the wealth that the Zhou Clan now held. Marble floors, carved stone columns, expensive vases filled with spiritual flowers, wooden furniture crafted by the best of the best, Chen Wentian's eyes glossed over them before settling on a massive map on the ground. It stretched from one side to the hall to the other and covered almost all of the empty floor space available.
"Nice, so this is what you've been working on!" He said and walked over it, examining the details.
The map was impressive. It depicted the northeast quadrant of the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent, over fifty provinces in total, as well as wide swaths of the Eastern Wilderness. There was Cloudy Mountain and Red Bamboo on one side. There was Dragon Flower Province around the middle. There was even Beast God Province to the south and a bit of the Northern Wasteland as well.
The map also went beyond simple border lines. It included major geographic areas such as mountains, rivers, lakes, and plains. It included major cities, notable local sects, and the estimated area of influence for all immortal sects in the area. His provinces were colored an eye-catching shade of light blue and were spread out over the entire map from east to west.
He paused beside a small red flag that had been planted beside a town, one of many that dotted the entire map.
"What's this?" He asked.
"This is Tranquil Town in the Great Basin Province. They were attacked by several jiangshi and wiped out five days ago." Zhou Ziyun said from beside him, having followed him onto the map.
"Several? The same type that Qingcheng ran into?"
"Yes."
"Sneaky bastards. What happened to them after?"
"I don't know." She replied, "Some of my information is delayed by several days and I only have a few people in each province. The best information is first hand."
He nodded and moved on to other parts of the map. He stopped at the northern border of Glacier Province.
"I just came from here." He said, pointing a series of mountains, "Three ice fiends decided to pop out of their ice caves and cause trouble. They were barely at the upper levels of the Spirit Initiate Realm so it was a bit of a joke."
Zhou Ziyun produced a red flag and placed it where he indicated.
"Any human losses?" She asked.
"A few small villages, nothing really important. Here, here, and here. Probably less than a thousand deaths." He said.
Zhou Ziyun wrote down the information in a booklet before putting it away.
"Come, master." She tugged his arm.
She led him to the center of the map and turned him around in a circle.
"What do you see?" She asked.
"Huh?"
She pulled him around in a full circle once again, "Look closer, what do you see?"
Chen Wentian looked around the map more closely but didn't find anything unusual. It was just a map with a bunch of red flags everywhere, a lot of red flags.
"Am I supposed to see something?" He asked, still confused.
Zhou Ziyun smiled smugly, "It's something I have discovered by creating this map, something that wouldn't have been possible otherwise that reveals a very important bit of information about our unknown enemy."
"Really?"
"Mmhmm."
"What is it?" He asked.
"You really don't see anything?"
He let out a sigh, "Ziyun, I am not as smart as you, please tell me."
She let out a laugh and hugged his arm, "It was you who said that, not me. Remember that in the future!"
She pulled him along once again and they crisscrossed the map once more. She pointed out each of the attacks one by one, describing when it happened and the aftermath.
The attacks themselves were spread far and wide, with no pattern or reason behind any single attack. All the provinces on the map were suffering equally under this mysterious onslaught of demons. It seemed that, at least for the moment, whoever was causing all this trouble didn't know the exact location of the origin of the message talisman that had summoned it here. Otherwise, Cloudy Mountain Province should have been the only one attacked and not all the provinces in a whole region.
"I agree with that but that's not the discovery I made." Zhou Ziyun said and pulled him beside a peculiar province. "Tell me, what's unique about this one."
It was named Gold Sand Province and consisted of mostly desert and sand dunes. It was the only place that had no red flags while all the surrounding provinces had multiple red flags.
"Why did this place not have any demon attacks? That doesn't make sense." Chen Wentian said, "There's quite a large human population there and even an immortal sect."
"Think about it. What do all the other provinces have that Gold Sand Province does not have?"
"Well… it's a desert so there's not a lot of water. Wait... are you saying that this is somehow related to water?" He asked.
"That's right. This is my discovery and my conclusion after analyzing the recent attacks on this map. Your unknown demon enemy is most likely something that is attuned to the element of water and has the ability to hide in water. I thought about why none of our detection nets caught any immortal approaching from east. It seemed impossible as our nets can catch even the smallest birds and insects. The only conceivable way was if it had a powerful innate ability to sneak around, similar to Chen Mo who utilizes shadow and darkness." She explained.
"Are you sure? A water demon?" He rubbed his brow as he felt a headache developing, "Maybe it was just coincidence. Maybe the demon forgot about that province."
"Unlikely. It has attacked over fifty provinces without regard. There is nothing else special about this desert province. Plus, you would still have to account for how it can travel across so many provinces without being detected by us or any other immortal." She argued.
Chen Wentian thought about it some more but he could find no fault in her reasoning. The fact that he had not been able to locate or even get a whiff of the unseen enemy had been annoying him for many days. It being a water demon made sense but this only lessened his worry by a tiny amount.
As someone who utilized Chen Mo to the fullest to sneak around and cause chaos while unseen, he knew how fearsome it was to be on the receiving end. A water demon sounded like a tricky opponent, one that could launch an attack from anywhere at any time.
He had to thank Zhou Ziyun for her contribution. Out of all his disciples, she was the only one that could have made this discovery. This was the power of her intelligence.
"Alright, alright, you convinced me. Thank you, Ziyun, this helps a lot! Now, I can tell from the look on your face that you want a reward. What do you want, I'll give you anything!"
"Master, I want a massage!"