The smile widened.
Our leaders exchanged long-worded and polite greetings and began negotiations, which sounded more like bargaining over nothing.
I didn't know what to do. The last time we spoke, Tao Song wanted my head on a platter! Was she trying to get my guard down so she could lure me away from the walls and kill? Was she trying to confuse me? Well, in that case, it worked.
I smiled back, trying to appear friendly and nonchalant, a charmer of all the aunties with spare food back in the village. At the very least, that would confuse Tao Song back.
She tilted her head slightly, and something sparkled in her eyes. I felt like she wasn't fooled by my acting, even for a second. Like she was telling me, "You are in a besieged city, Ru Yujin—there's nowhere for you to run."
I put everything I had into appearing too handsome and nice to kill. The smile, my earnest eyes meeting hers—everything.
Her eyelashes lowered. But did that mean that Tao Song was receptive? Or was that a gaze of a predator stalking her prey?
She turned away before I could decide, and I was left staring at the waterfall of her golden hair.
"Disciple."
I jolted and snapped my head toward Lin Chu. He was looking at me with disapproval.
"Are you going to stay here until tomorrow?"
Only now I realized that Tao Song turned away because the negotiations were over. With a rushed apology, I went after Lin Chu.
"Disciple, if the Tao clan was allied with the Lin clan, you'd be a toad lusting after a swan's meat."
I winced. Damn, what did everybody who saw me and Tao Song smiling at each other thought? Wait…
"But we are enemies, Master."
"Yes. So you are simply a suicidal fool."
After that meeting, I was rattled like a snake. Or maybe it was the lingering effects of my concussion. The Bamboo Growth technique did a lot to help me heal, but it wasn't a miracle cure.
It was clear that I would meet Tao Song again, and since I didn't want to end like my last corpse puppet, I needed to get stronger. Fast.
Thus, as soon as we returned to the walls, I asked Lin Chu to let me talk with him.
"Very well. I suppose I have nothing pressing to do at the moment. Junior Sister Lin Wu, you can arrange the burial teams on your own."
She saluted.
"I will, Senior Brother Lin Chu. Thousand blessings to you."
Lin Wu went to shout at soldiers to move faster, while I turned to Lin Chu.
"We won't make undead soldiers or anything like that out of the bodies, Master?"
"They will need Qi put in them to last more than a few hours. I don't have enough Qi to spare for any worthwhile number of undead. There are other considerations, too. Despite what the Crystal Phoenix Sect likes to say, usually the Lin clan finds more value in living soldiers. Zombies are best used in the simplest jobs, like tilling soil or mining."
I nodded, feeling like I heard this being spoken before. Lin Chu walked to the less crowded area of the wall and gestured to the soldiers to move aside, giving us privacy.
Then he turned and looked down at me.
"What did you want to talk about, Disciple Ru?"
I stood nearby and looked outside to gather my words. Tao Song's blond hair flashed in the distance… No, looking outside the city didn't help.
"I had some questions, Master, and hoped you would share your wisdom with me. Recently, I had remembered a tale that puzzled me… have you ever heard about 'spatial rings'? Treasures that let their user store a massive amount of things in a mere ring?"
"A mere ring? This sounds like an item of legends—legends that don't exist in real life." Lin Chu hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe in the Guanting Nation, if anywhere, and even then I doubt. There is an element of Space, and there are theories it can make things smaller or bigger, but I know no cultivators who can use it even in techniques, much less in forging."
I nodded, hiding my disappointment. This answer clarified nothing about my dream at all. Except that Guanting Nation was more likely to have an answer than any other place.
"Master, can you tell me more about the Guanting Nation? I thought this world was ruled by sects."
Lin Chu gave me an EXTREMELY unimpressed look.
"When this war ends, I will make sure you have the same basic education in natural sciences and geography as every other noble cultivator of the Lin Clan. I know you have been born in the dirt, but for my personal disciple, this is shameful."
I scratched my cheek. "Master, I'm sure that if we had more time before that war happened, this wouldn't be a problem. All this rush…"
He huffed.
"Indeed. Very well, listen. We live in the Black Land continent. It is, true, ruled by many sects. However, there's also a Dragon's Nest continent, dominated by the Guanting Nation. Like us, they worship the Divine Dragon, although in a different form. Despite this, they claim we are heretics, and kill every cultivator that comes from outside."
"Legends say that the Dragon's Nest continent was the place where the first humans appeared in this world, brought from the Heavenly Palace by the Divine Dragon's immortal servants. Finally, besides the Black Land continent and the Dragon's Nest continent, there's the Forsaken continent. No one settles in this place—the monsters that roam its endless forests are too dangerous."
Suddenly I had more clarity about geopolitics than for my entire life.
"Thank you, Master. I apologize that I had to bother you with these simple things."
He waved his hand in dismissal. "I hope you had something more important to ask me, besides that, Disciple."
"Yes. Please teach me a technique you used with your sword before! That one with a purple blade wave."
"You meant the Purple Dragon Claw? Disciple, don't be a fool—this is a Qi Condensation technique. Even if you can comprehend it, your Qi reserves won't let you use it more than once or twice in a fight!"