Yin had no way to figure out what they had started to assume, so he continued his search for what caused his system to go haywire. The notifications were non-stop and relentless. He searched the clearing, frustration bubbling, he still had no trails to follow. Not even a general idea of where or what could be causing this whole thing. The only thing he knew was that there had to be something here.
His gaze paused over the two girls. Both were huddled together and deep in discussions about something or another.
A topic he knew they would bring to him in a few minutes once they came to their own resolution and group decision. That had turned into a habit of theirs. Tag team against him to get breaks, rewards, and other things they couldn’t have convinced him individually. Yin Hu was proud to see them work together as family. He had been worried that Jun would keep her subservient nature about her once they broke out of her needing to fulfil heavier roles.
Zhong Da shifted from where he had been kneeling, stunned. He stumbled listlessly to his wife, Wu Xui, and picked her up in a princess carry. Then he waved his hand, their tent appeared on the far side of the clearing. He walked into it and disappeared without saying another word.
Yin Hu made a mental note to check up on the off couple. Figure out what was wrong with them and why they kept fainting without warning. If they were going to work as a team and travel together as a group, then they needed to be able to communicate better and be capable of trusting one another if a situation that required fighting occurred. He didn’t need Wu Xui fainting in the middle of a fight only to get one of the girls killed trying to rescue her.
Until then, he still needed to solve this current problem.
I've searched the entire clearing twice. Where else could it be? Wait a minute…
There were areas that he hadn’t checked yet. Certain potentialities that he had been ignoring for the most part within this cultivation world. Things that others within their group could possibly figure out for him. The first task he could rely on the girls for. Considering what little he knew about the spirit realm, this could actually be an issue from there.
Shui could talk with whatever spirit lived in these areas and maybe have an answer for him.
Or maybe it was just underground below their feet.
This was far better than his previous fruitless search that was wasting his time. Multiple options that gave him a direction to search and work toward rather than running around in a circle a dozen more times. He knew if they didn’t find something soon, they would be forced to leave the area without an answer, this would bother him for the rest of his time on this world. A mystery that somehow dealt with his obscure, broken system.
If only his own perception extended that far. Talk to the spirits and deal with them himself instead of sending a ten, or however old, Shui to take care of it in his stead.
Yin Hu pinged his perception ability a few more times just in case he had been missing something.
Nothing appeared like usual.
Nothing but an empty void of darkness
He turned to Shui. Supporting her interactions with the Spirit Realm was likely a horrible idea that may backfire, but he recognized that the little rascal was already doing it behind their backs when they weren’t looking. That was the main reason why Jun tied Shui’s wrist to her own and kept her by her side the entire time they were searching for the source of the Void Qi.
Might as well take advantage of her special ability.
“Shui,” he said, waving at her to hurry up. “Come here.”
Both girls stopped their intense discussion and snapped their heads towards him. They shared a look before they rushed to stand in front of him.
“Yes, Ancestor!” Shui shouted louder than necessary.
He noticed, out of his peripheral vision, Zhong Da came out of his tent as well. He was still as pale as before and clearly still recovering from his trembling. He took a few steps and sat on one of the logs near the campfire, a distance away from them but within earshot.
“Do you still talk to those foreign spirits?”
Shui’s eyes widened. She began to mumble a hundred different objections and swears to defend herself from the accusations being levied on her. Eyes snapping back and forth between Yin Hu and Jun.
The older girl, on the other hand, took a few steps back and stared hard at her with dangerously narrowed eyes.
Yin Hu raised his hand to calm her down. “It's okay. Calm down. Though I need something from you.”
Shui snapped her jaw shut, refusing to look anywhere except directly dead at his face. Ignoring the intense glare Jun was giving her from the side.
“I need to ask a few things for me,” he said.
“W-Which ones?” Shui said as she wringed her wrists. “There are many in this forest. But none of them are close to this clearing. They’re all too afraid to come here.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask. Check with them to see if they know where the Void Qi comes from? Can they help us pinpoint it? Or do they remember something we can use to figure this out? Maybe an ancient one that was around when this first started?”
“I can ask, but they aren’t in the area, we have to move–” Shui looked left and right, her eyes growing a slight bit glossier.
Yin Hu had never noticed that happening before. Now he would know exactly when the little rascal was talking to a spirit and when she was actually being a normal girl for once.
She pointed to the west. “–that way! The strongest and oldest one I can feel close by is that way!”
He looked in the direction she pointed. Yin Hu had been planning to have the group split up while within the camp. One digging to find if anything appeared below their feet and the other attempting to talk to the spirits that surrounded the clearing. Covering both bases at the same time and saving themselves a lot of time in the process. If both were deadends, then they could just get out of the area without having to waste even more time on another possible solution.
If they had to leave the area then he could not split the group up. Though Zhong Da was a pretty nice person overall, he refused to trust anyone with his girls.
Yin Hu didn't know what the powerful man was thinking or what demons he carried.
Zhong Da might be a demonic cultivator in disguise for all I know.
He smiled to hide the chuckle that almost bubbled out. That was an absurd thought. The man and his wife were too kind and willing to participate with all their activities to be murderhobo monsters that ate innocents for breakfast and turned entire refugee camps into meat paste because they slighted them a little bit a decade ago. Or was that just for young masters? Zhong Da didn’t look like one.
“Wait here and keep the warg busy. We’ll be back soon enough.” Yin Hu said to Zhong Da.
The man nodded, silently.
“Go ahead, Shui. Lead us,” Yin said.
He got up and left the clearing with the two girls.
Jun had an intense look on her face. Promising retribution and punishment for Shui breaking her promise and staying in contact with the foreign spirits in the outlying forests that surrounded them.