Feng Zhiming found himself sitting on a bed the night of his negotiations with the guild, they had agreed to set out together tomorrow morning.
Within his room which he protected with his own spiritual sense he had an expression on his face that he seldom showed others, deep contemplation.
In his hand lay the compass he had destroyed an entire sect for, in his hand he felt the weight of thousands of lives.
"The path of cultivation guarantees death and it came to them as it was promised, it makes no difference if they die by my hands or suicide." He thought to himself as he infused the compass with Qi.
He was not a heartless person, however at the end of the day it was the value of his will over all else and his will would weigh more each time.
He hadn't struggled with the idea of killing someone in a long time, even that girl with the eyes, an ethereal core cultivator such as herself, she had climbed upon the bodies of many others to get to that point.
The compass needle began to bounce erratically going from north to south to west to east, until it finally settled on north, coincidently the same direction as Feng Zhiming.
He raised his eyebrow, it reminded him distinctly of when inscriber Wu first demonstrated the compass, it had been pointing north towards him the exact same way.
"Have I been lied to?" He stood up and slowly walked to the door.
"Impossible, he swore to the great Dao." Feng Zhiming stopped and tried to reason.
His eyes fell to the compass once more and now it had changed and pointed south once more, straight towards him.
A shadow crept over his heart, he slowly rotated himself, he was now situated in the west, and just as he had feared the compass shifted towards him.
"Just what is this…"
He went to his bed and sat back down before focussing on the compass which seemed to follow him.
"Was this because of the thing that appeared in my dream?"
The compass shook as his hand tried to shake it into correction, unsurprisingly ineffective.
"It could be my aura interfering with it as well."
A different theory appealed to him now/
He activated the art of Demonic Suppression, his cultivation and aura effectively vanished.
The compass began to erratically fluctuate, it eventually settled on the direction of south.
"The southern region of the Wildlands?"
Feng Zhiming said to himself as he confirmed the reading by walking around the compass, it did not fluctuate this time and stuck with south.
He lifted his technique and the compass fluctuated erratically before landing in his direction.
"Just what the hell does this compass look for? Is aura actually capable of interfering with its reading, but if that was the case why didn't it point to inscriber Wu when he held it."
[A compass used to locate D??L??S a relic forged by the I((umin@r6@* a great civilization of ages past]
He fell on his back as foreign thoughts appeared in his head accompanied by a burst blood vessel in his head.
He panted frantically as he regenerated from the brain damage and blood loss.
"The Shadow?!"
Feng Zhiming didn't receive a reply as it went silent.
It was a sleepless night for Feng Zhiming as he sat on the bed contemplating the nature of the compass.
He wasn't just curious, this made him feel something else entirely.
…
"Where's your subordinate?" Madam Hua asked as she saw Feng Zhiming slowly walking over to the trio, alone and with a half eaten dumpling in his hand.
Feng Zhiming chewed the half the was in his mouth before replying.
"She had some business to take care of."
He had asked her to meet up with him near one of the southern cities after she completed the task he had given her.
The continent of Etheria was shaped in a peculiar fashion, he had been surprised after laying eyes on its map, it had been split into half, but not down the middle, the division was akin to a yin and yang symbol intertwined with one another.
Within the strip of land that ran along the border between the orthodoxies and the unorthodox factions, there were three major cities, Wildland City where he currently stood, closer to the south a city known as Southhaven Spire, and towards the north there was a city known as Beastbane fortress.
"Are you actually ready to depart?"
Ellia asked as he looked him up and down.
"I travel light." Feng Zhiming said as he slightly raised his hands to show that he wasn't bringing anything else with him.
Lyra who crossed her hands kept silent and didn't speak, it was as if she knew that if she spoke the outcome would be negative.
Feng Zhiming explained that the compass was pointing south and the trio in front of him nodded slowly, all thinking about the same thing.
"The south?" Madam Hua's expression shifted to concern.
"You better hope it's in Southhaven Spire." Lyra grinned at Feng Zhiming.
"Indeed, if our destination goes any further south." Ellia's expression also tensed up.
"I checked on the map, multiple maps, there's nothing but barren lands beneath Southhaven Spire."
Feng Zhiming explained as he noted their clearly less than optimistic expressions, had he missed something? That was very unlike him.
"It's a placeholder, in re-." Ellia tried to explain
"It's a bonafide burial ground." Lyra cut him off.
"I heard that within that place lay the secret of the yang energy imbalance, of course most survivors who emerge are considered crazy or insane due to the kind of things they say."
Then she shrugged her shoulders before concluding her thoughts.
"At the end of the day it's all hearsay, no one actually knows what's really in there, so don't take everything I said as literal."
Madam Hua exhaled slowly and spoke in an annoyed tone.
"It is uncharted and otherwise known as the Heart of the Wildlands."