The journey was a pleasant one, one Shu He settled into their small group they opened up to him, he talked about his past a little first of course, how he learned about cultivation alone living in a small village, the tragedy that befell it and how he set out on his cultivation journey afterwards.
Of course, he conveniently left out many details, such as his entry to the Titanic Steel Sect.
Soon after, Tao Yang began blabbing about their sect and how the three came to leaving on a journey. The Crystal Coral Sect is one of many smaller sects that resides near a central trade hub in the Water Region, a large island named Central Scale that resides in the Flood Dragon Archipelago.
It was a fairly new Sect that was barely over 20 years old, compared to a lot of other sects it was still in its infancy, and because of that the strongest disciple was actually Tao Yang himself, but in order to progress as a sect stronger disciples are needed, so he set out in order to advance to the next stage of cultivation.
'Elemental Infusion' requires one to absorb Qi of all five elements and infuse them into your core flame and body, the problem is that the amount required is a high, and the quality needed depends on ones innate talents, unsurprisingly Tao Yang is quite talented as he was barely over the age of 20 when he entered Balance Attainment.
Of course, that's by the standards of the smaller sects.
Elemental Infusion is the first stage which acts as a true gate for cultivators, not only does the stage require you to control all five elements to absorb and infuse them, getting the Qi in the first place is a massive obstacle.
Shu He understood this point already, combined with his 'gluttonous' core flame and its unique feature he had been planning to stockpile many crystalised Qi stones in an attempt to breakthrough, that is until he learned something just now.
It turns out that each of the five sects has a wellspring of Qi matching the region they're in, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, and every one of them contains an uncountable amount of it, plus the quality is top notch, they exist as a foundation for each sect.
And along with this there is an archaic 'rule' among the five great sects, it's a rule that allows a cultivator not affiliated with the sect to request a challenge to grant them access to the wellspring of Qi so they could break through to the fifth stage.
And the process of travelling across all five sects is dubbed the 'Keystone Pilgrimage'.
"Why's it called 'Keystone' though?" Shu He asked out of curiosity.
"I'm not sure, the elders of our sect only knew the outlines of the rule and not the details" Tao Yan shrugged his shoulders.
Of course, he wasn't alone, the two with him were approaching their consummation at Balance Attainment so they joined him on his journey, they planned to stop near Orefine for a while as Tao Yan attempted the challenge but became interested in the rumours about Pure-Pond, so they took a detour.
"I'm looking forward to seeing a large sect, my specialty is Metal Qi so I'm hoping they will be generous while I'm there!" The big man, Gong Jie said while laughing.
"We probably won't even be allowed anywhere but the challenge arena, don't get your hopes up" The green haired girl doused him with words as she looked out the window.
'She's right, based on how guests are restricted, they probably won't see much of the sect at all' Shu He thought as he too looked out the small window, the flora was beginning to thin, and signs of human habitation began to show themselves.
"We'll be there soon! I can see it in the distance!" Tao Yan shouted from the driver's seat, so Shu He picked up his stuff stretched slightly, this wagon wasn't as comfy as the one Xiao Fu, the merchant from a few weeks back had.
'Let's see what this spirit beast is up to then'.
…
"I can see why this place is called 'Clear pond'" Shu He murmured as the four of them walked into the village, they had parked the cabin near a stable on the outskirts and paid the stable hand there to take care of the horse.
The village had a small river running through it, and that river split off many times into tens of ponds filled with fish and other life all over the village, the key point was that the water was so clear it was almost crystalline, it was quite a beautiful sight.
The houses themselves were high quality and the path was properly pathed with stones unlike a lot of the other small villages in the region.
Shu He walked up to one of the ponds and took a look, he could easily see the bottom of the pond where the plant roots grew out of the soil.
"Quack!"
'Hm?'
A duck came up to him, staring at him like it wanted something.
"Oh, I see, you want something to eat?"
Shu He put his hand in to his robe and pulled out a pouch that contained a mix of seeds, they were all harmless and suitable for bird consumption, he had kept it on him since he started tending to animals in the Beast Taming Division.
"Here" He held some out in his hand before the Duck happily smashed its beak into it to eat the seeds, he watched on with a smile on his face.
'The colour of the feathers is a bit different to the 'Ducks' I'm used to, but It looks basically the same…' He stared at the light brown and pink coloured feathers covering the small bird.
"Hm, if you think this is nice you should see the waters around Central Scale! The number of different fish and wildlife combined with the pure water makes for a beautiful sight" Gong Jie replied, a slightly arrogant look on her face.
"Huh? Are you inviting him to our sect?" The large lug of a man said with confusion.
"No! I just meant if he comes by there in the future."
"Maybe I will, travelling between regions sounds like a fun thing to do, in the future" Shu He spoke as he went through his future plan in his head.
"Oh! Then you'll have to visit our sect when you do!" Tao Yan turned to him and happily tapped his shoulders.
"Yeah, I'll consider it" Shu He nodded before he went back to scanning the area, he then turned to the three "Say, have you noticed?"
Two of them nodded to him, while the large man tilted his head in confusion.
"Seems there's a lot of cultivators gathered to the west side of the village… 20 or so" Shu He explained.
"You can tell that?" Gong Jie said with doubt.
"Impressive little brother! I could barely pick up a large flow of Qi from that direction, you must be talented!" Tao Yan continued to smack him on the shoulder.
"Please, stop hitting me…" Shu He sighed as he brushed off his hand "Scouting is just a talent of mine".
"You don't need to be so humble! Scouting is an important role to have!" Tao Yan went to smack him again, but Shu He sidestepped and began walking off.
"Let's go and see what they're doing" Shu He said.
The three looked at each-other and nodded, following along.
The village itself was fairly active, like any other village really, people were running about doing their jobs and daily tasks, however Shu He noticed that not a single one bat an eye at their group walking around.
'Seems like they're completely used to groups of cultivators, not too surprising with such a large gathering happening'.
It only took about 5 minutes of casual walking to reach the other side of the village where they could see the flock of cultivators seeming gathered around someone.
Shu He swept the crowd, there wasn't a single cultivator above Balance Attainment, rather there were only 3, 5 including Shu He and Tao Yan now, the majority were at Blood Enhancement with the next few at Meridian Awakening.
"Look here!" The man in the centre held up a small stone, it was clear and tinted a deep azure that gently flickered "This is what we're looking for! I found this one just yesterday! But they are incredibly hard to find, they don't emit QI so you can't see them with Qi Sense, you have to use your own two eyes!"
"And so, I propose that we work together and pool everything we obtain, and I'll buy what you find, got it?"
"Why would we do that?!"
"I came here for the stone not money!"
'What's this sorry excuse for a scam?' Shu He frowned as he watched on.
"Hehe, you're all from smaller sects or lone cultivators so I guess you don't know" The shady guy wagged his finger.
"What?"
"I'm sure you all heard the rumour that some guy broke through after consuming one, but did you also know he died shortly after!"
"What?! No way! We would have heard about that!"
"It's true, the poor soul went off alone and we found his corpse, he exploded from the inside out! What I'm saying is, these stones contain a great amount of Qi, but too much to consume!"
"But that's…"
"How do we know you're telling the truth!"
"Heh" The shady man removed his cloak, and beneath were clear white robes with a silver trimming.
Shu He's eyes widened slightly.
"As you can see, I'm Luo Hu, a disciple from the Titanic Steel Sect! I swear on my Sect's name that I'm telling the truth!" The shady man's announced before pulling out a token from his robes "See, this is my Identification Token!"
"It's true…"
"I don't know about this…"
The crowd was split, as they should have been.
Just the name a big sect wasn't enough to guarantee the offer was legitimate.
"It's fine if you don't believe it, go ahead and search alone, good luck!" 'Luo Hu' announced.
"What do you think, you three?" Tao Yan asked them, whispering.
"I… think we should… you're heading to the Titanic Steel Sect, Senior Brother, we don't want to do something that might cause problems…" The seaweed girl, Gong Jie replied, a drip of sweat falling down her brow.
"I don't know really, I'll leave it up to you Senior Brother" Wang Kang added.
"Yes… maybe it's better to go along with him, if we encounter something bad we should be able to deal with it…" Tan Yan murmured as he glanced at Shu He, he looked at his face, his eyes that were seemingly fixated on Luo Hu.
He felt a chill rise up his spine.
There was no light in those golden eyes.
"Little Brother, are you okay?" He asked, snapping Shu He out of his daze.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"We think we'll go along with this guys deal, money will probably be more valuable to us anyway, what will you do?"
Shu He frowned "You'll… go along with him?"
"Yes, is something wrong?"
Shu He looked over at Luo Hu again and then back to Tao Yan.
"Then, be careful; I won't be participating in this 'deal'."
"Ah.. how unfortunate, we'll have to work separately then".
Shu He shook his head "If we cross path's I'll help you all the same, I have my mission to take care of anyway, remember? I was going to head off alone at one point anyway".
Tao Yan patted his shoulder with a smile "Then, we will help you if we can as well, let us meet again soon".
Shu He nodded and walked off, away from the commotion while giving 'Luo Hu' a look over the shoulder for one last time.
'I guess I have another mission to do as well now'.