“...many claim that this land is the original continent before the world was remade after the last Primordial Wars. With this specific area where the final battle against the previous calamity had occurred. The denizens of the world, our great ancestors, awoke one of the three mighty Primordials locked in battle,” Zhong Da said as he pointed at the three interlocked skeletons of monsters the size of mountains. “The Flying Tiger awoke and finally slayed the great beast.”
Yin Hu looked back towards the setting sun and the land of multiple colors, fissures, ravines, and marks of what could have been rivers mode of the blood of Kaiju sized creatures that had fought on the face of the planet. Each one the size of Godzilla if not bigger. Yin Hu could see the form of a massive snake, a humanoid creature, and a feline of some sort huddled together in positions of ripping each other to shreds.
They were nothing but skeletons now, covered by greenery and the discoloring of numerous years.
He could only wonder what they looked like when they were alive. What power did they hold within their limbs and bodies? Did the world shake with every step? Did they erase mountains with every swipe of their hands? That type of world ending power seemed so ridiculous. How did they not accidentally kill off entire races by sneezing in the wrong direction.
If I get that type of power, the first thing I would invest in is control. Can’t be a walking calamity that almost destroys entire planets afterall.
Yet, as amazing as they were, the scene was not what concerned him at the moment.
The system was going haywire. Its normal silence was missing as it blared like a storm alarm in his mind. The girls and everyone else was blessed to not have their ears nearly blasted deaf by uncontrolled sirens and endless prompted system notifications that made no sense to him.
He was sure that the whole thing had nothing to do with the primordials. Yin Hu and the group had seen them from a great distance while still on the grass plains. They were gargantuan and could be seen miles away as mountains in the distance. No, something else was here that caused it to malfunction. He could not venture a guess as to what that could possibly be. He wouldn’t even make that attempt considering how dangerous it was.
“Is that so?” Yin Hu said.
Maybe whatever this calamity in their history books was could shed some light to the situation.
Zhong Da nodded enthusiastically. “This is something I would’ve never assumed to get a chance at witnessing my entire life.. It's a blessing to be here and surely if I can meditate for a day or two, it would bring me and my wife moments of fleeting enlightenment. Just being within this sphere has sufficed us with more Qi and bits of the Greater Dao than we would have ever experienced in a lifetime.”
“I see no problem in sitting here for a day or two. The girls could benefit in a bit more time attempting to understand the Dao anyway, plus, the place is magnificent to say the least.”
Yin Hu had said nothing but the truth, but he knew that wasn’t his only motivation.
The Calamity was buried here somewhere, he intended to find it.
He looked across the area once more. The landscape was gorgeous and covered with bright colors of flowers and lots of living greens. Yin Hu could see how the place looked teeming with critters running about within the areas around the supposed blood trails. He felt an awe and reverence he would associate with fantastical universes. It was a picturesque image he only wished he could take a photo of and immortalize on a painting in his soon to be living room, whenever they made it the Righteous Bloc or the Hu Clan.
Yin Hu sighed quietly as he remembered once having the dream to go around and explore the cultivation world near the very beginning before he was located by Shui and ended up adopting the two girls. He had forgotten about that hope, that plan, ever since being so preoccupied doing his best to figure out their training plans, surviving and dodging Demonic Cultivators, and finally getting them to grow properly without something or another ruining their cultivation.
The longer he stayed on this miserable planet, the harder it became.
“Thank you, senior.” Zhong Da said as he bowed to him before going to prepare the campfire and ready the water for Yin Hu to make tea and rice with. Placing a pot and kettle on the campfire he had up within seconds.
Yin Hu ignored the rest of what the kindly man was doing. He pulled out his lounging chair and took a seat, the Compendium appeared in his hands, though he wasn’t planning to read any of it that night. He brought it out to hide the fact that he was searching through hundreds if not thousands of spasming notifications to figure out what the system was attempting to tell him. More importantly, why was it freaking out? This whole issue had tainted his awe of the area and the beauty of the world around him.
The fear that something horrible had happened crept at the back of his mind.
Would he lose the power he had with him? Would the girl's mutations get affected if the system went caput and never returned? Had he guaranteed them horrific, torturous futures by accepting the mutations without having access to the system after today?
Yin Hu could only hope that was not the case.
He peeked over the edge of the Compendium to find both the girls sitting there with scrunched up faces as they studied their ethereal like manuals. Though Shui had the massive warg sleeping with its head on her lap. The little girls still did her best to figure out what the nameless manuals were actually trying to impart upon them. They had come to him in hopes that he knew and could help them figure out what they were supposed to do and how they were supposed to do it, but after reading it a couple times, he had to resolve himself to use his last resort as an excuse.
Namely that this was something that they had to discover on their lonesome if they had any hopes of developing a truly personal Dao. Giving them his own would only hinder their growth after ascension to the next realm. He had no clue if that was true, but it did sound impressive enough that it had convinced both of the girls. Even Zhong Da and Wu Xui had frozen in their spots like an insect being sprayed with pesticide for a few minutes before returning back to their daily activities.
Yin Hu, if he could, would have taken them back and made them continue with their original cultivation sessions rather than attempting to learn whatever this foundation thing they were supposed to be building. The ethereal manuals made absolutely no sense. Secluded meditation for a couple hours a day wasn’t that bad anyway. It would slow down their progress, but it would still be progress. Not this stagnation they found themselves dealing with.
Alas, it was too late for that.
It took some time before they were in complete darkness, with only the campfire available for as a source of light. The group stayed there for a couple hours. Yin Hu had already made the rice and tea. Everyone ate their fair share with the couple bringing their own food. Yin Hu was currently sipping on a piping hot cup of tea made from the leaves of Dragon Blood Mint Tea Leaves. This had become his favorite so far.
Shui started shouting and pointing towards where the valley sat below them.
Yin Hu bolted up from his seat, summoned his spear to his free hand, and nearly spilled his tea on himself, a few drops fell to the ground, sizzling loudly. He ignored it as he hurried to the ledge in case something was trying to eat Shui and Jun. He came to a halt and stared out into the valley as it lit up. Tiny motes of light rose from the entire area below them and were the same exact colors that the ravines themselves were: blues, greens, reds, purples, yellows, and a plethora of other colors as well.
He surveyed the entire area with his perception ability in case there were any dangers. Again, he found nothing untoward and more importantly, absolutely no Qi within the valley. He had come to figure that maybe, just maybe, his perception ability was broken or was not searching for Qi at all. Then again, Yin Hu wouldn’t have found Shao Yating and Jun last time. Nor would he have noticed the two girls cultivating the first day they were out of their unconsciousness.
It was hard trying to figure out what was going wrong with his ability, but he would continue to practice and test it out in hopes that one day it would work.
Yin Hu was not unaccostomed to training for exceptionally long periods on exceptionally boring tasks.
The little orbs of light floated above the ground just a few feet, hovering in their spots.
His system began to go haywire one more time. Throwing error messages and malfunctions by the dozen, though Yin Hu was not panicking at all. He had already seen bursts like this since he arrived in the area, it had become common to him now. It wasn't until he saw a massive orb of blazing white fire in the far distance that his system reacted differently.
The white and black words the system errors tended to come with turned a bright blood red. Flashing ominously with letters and words he could not understand, but was clearly an advanced language with sentence structure.
Yin Hu stared past the notifications and leaned over the ledge of the cliff. Whatever that orb of white fire was clearly had something to do with his system going crazy. Now, he had to decide whether he wanted to go towards that direction or if they should try to circumvent it completely, considering that he had two children with him.
He eventually decided that it may be wise to figure out what that was and how it affected his system in case it vanished and took his rice bag away with it. He would not survive attempting to eat the culinary skills and palate of this world. No he would rather end his miserable existence before that. All the other benefits of the rice bag were secondary to the food and tea.
It was also better than to act ignorant of the situation and the existence of whatever that was. He knew it would only come back to bite him eventually, it was only a matter of time.
“Ancestor? Do you know what that is?” Jun said as she pointed at the massive orb of white flames.
Yin Hu shook his head. “No, but we're going to find out.”