Armed Robbers Came to My House
Most people go their whole lives without ever getting the chance to use the word overwhelmed.
But right here, right now—
"Insane."
I was overwhelmed.
The world enfolded the East Quarter like a cloth thrown over a mass of shattered glass. Anyone who could look upon this and feel nothing would be the stranger one.
"What in the world is this..."
A formation? A restriction? The sight defied description; my jaw wouldn't stay shut. It billowed in the wind like smoke, like fabric—and yet the texture peculiar to glass never left it.
The soft light streaming down from the sky shattered against that glassy curtain. The diffused sunlight split apart as it poured down, so that the merest breeze sent every ray drifting its own way, shadows shifting into endless new shapes.
The strangeness of the scene was wondrous in itself, but it was the beauty that struck me first.
The grassy fragrance nature offered up. Sunlight carried on the wind, and the immeasurable scent of mountains and flowers. A flood dragon's nose, it seemed, caught a far richer spectrum of smells than any human's—to drink in such a diverse bouquet from a single handful of wind.
"This isn't... a natural phenomenon, is it."
I barely restrained the urge to snap a screenshot and upload it to Yoseonbang. They could use it as a clue to track down my home... I'll behave myself today.
I gazed a while longer at the thing drifting overhead—glass or cloth, impossible to say—until it dawned on me that my divine sense was being blocked. Blocked, I wondered if this might be some manner of seal, but no, it wasn't that either.
"My body passes right through?"
Because it did. From the feel of it, crossing the barrier was closer to wading through water than pushing through cloth. And yet I didn't come out wet. What on earth was this thing?
It hindered divine sense. Yet it let the body through. Which suggested this might not be something crafted with intent at all—perhaps a naturally occurring phenomenon.
"And yet, if that were so..." Something about it felt off. The way it obstructed my divine sense as it reached outward still smacked of design, but I couldn't say what. It was only a feeling.
"Then again, it might be a device built to blind the divine sense of great cultivators at the Nascent Soul or Incarnation stage. If that's all it does, blocking divine sense alone would be purpose enough."
I folded the thought away on that note. Later, I would have to probe Yoseonbang with careful questions and glean what I could.
"Well then. Shall I be off?"
It didn't seem to be doing me any harm. For a moment I'd worried it might be something sealing me in, but that wasn't the case. Walking through left nothing on my skin, caused no effect whatsoever. I decided to ignore it and press on.
Sunlight and wind for the first time in a hundred years. The varied green fragrance nature had brewed kept lifting my mood, again and again. I felt good enough that I hardly needed Yoseonbang at all.
I walked on and on, savoring my first taste of freedom in a century—and then—
"Hmm... that's the smell of people."
I knew it purely by instinct. Humans. More than one of them. Other scents were woven in, but this was the smell of a group—and iron and a host of other things threaded through it, none of them exactly pleasant.
Concealment—the Concealment Talisman! I started, reaching for it before my hand instead tapped the spirit pouch at my side. Five talisman-winged insects streamed out and clung to my body, and I channeled demonic power into the ones bearing the Concealment and Qi-Suppression talismans.
The talisman script on their wings flushed crimson, and the effects soon took hold. In an instant my figure dimmed faintly at the edges, and my presence and my scent alike vanished.
These are the insects that devoured the Concealment and Qi-Suppression talismans I once made. Nothing to fear. Stay calm.
They were only first- and second-tier, but from all the talismans they had devoured, their concealment and qi-suppression effects rivaled the third tier. Enough to blind the eyes of most low-rank cultivators, at least.
With my divine sense blocked, gauging the situation won't be easy.
Thank goodness for a demon beast's nose. If my sense of smell hadn't been sharp enough to pick out each individual human by scent, I'd have walked straight into them without ever knowing they were there.
I crouched low, toying with the blade at my waist as I watched and waited. The insects' Concealment and Qi-Suppression talismans were holding firm; they would likely last about one shichen—two hours.
Staying hidden where I was wasn't a bad option, and simply turning back to hole up in the East Quarter was fine too. But this was my first outing in a hundred years. I didn't want to go slinking home just like that. I had my reasons.
Sounds like they're arguing.
A flood dragon's smell and hearing left the human range lightly behind—and my body, risen to the realm of a third-tier demon core, multiplied that several times over. This was, after all, a body that had even reached the first star of Violet Mist Divine Thunder, an art of dual cultivation of law and body. From human voices that seemed quite distant, I picked out the shape of a quarrel.
I can't make out the words, but... They were roughly a hundred jang off—some three hundred meters. With nothing but wind for ambient noise, their voices carried all the better. Closing my eyes and pouring everything into nose and ears, the wellspring of those sounds and scents slowly took on an outline.
They're not moving. It didn't seem to be the argument alone holding them in place. I couldn't have said why, exactly. It was just the sense I got.
Shall I edge a little closer? Their divine sense was sealed behind the glassy curtain; they had no means at all of gauging me. It felt safe enough to close the distance somewhat. They were busy at each other's throats, plainly oblivious to my existence—now was the moment. I chose to trust the talisman-winged insects a little further.
Before long I had crept within ten jang—thirty meters. The voices and scents sharpened into clarity.
"The Silver Gauze Veil is a restriction that wounds spiritual qi and true essence at the barest touch! And yet you mean to pass through this place?!"
"Calm yourself, Lord Dou. Is that not precisely why I chased this demon beast wench here? The Silver Gauze Veil is no restriction without a path. Even amid the fluttering silver gauze, the road of the Dao lies open."
"You truly mean to tell me this measly demon beast can lead us through a Silver Gauze Veil that even Nascent Soul cultivators fear?"
Fourteen, all told. A Silver Gauze Veil that even Nascent Soul cultivators feared—that, presumably, referred to this fluttering membrane of glass.
Feared? Why? It doesn't do a thing when I touch it.
A restriction that wounded spiritual qi and true essence at a touch. Yet my body had suffered nothing whatsoever.
Is this restriction for my sake, too? The odds favored it. Nothing else would explain its doing me no harm at all. Perhaps it was simply because I had walked out from inside the East Quarter. Or else...
It might be the transmission tablet. This jade tablet bore the engraving of a dragon, and no matter how I studied it, its mysteries defied my fathoming. Perhaps it served doubly as a transmission tablet and as an entry tablet granting passage through this restriction.
I drew the tablet from my robes and pressed it to the Silver Gauze Veil—and a strange ripple answered. There it is. The transmission tablet was my entry pass.
A chill crawled up my spine. Had I stepped out without this tablet, the mere touch of the Silver Gauze Veil might have gravely wounded my true essence—or killed me where I stood. Knowing now what a monstrously dangerous thing I'd been brushing against, the shattering sunlight that had seemed only beautiful took on a strangely grotesque cast.
"Uh... anyway. It's a restriction even Nascent Soul cultivators fear, so they can't get in. That's what this is."
So much for the me of moments ago, holding her breath. Sayonara! Once again, the fearless Gyo Ran makes her grand entrance!
"The Silver Gauze Veil is a restriction woven from layer upon layer of glassy cloth. It billows even in the wind, so even those who know the path couldn't slip in easily."
Of course, the situation itself was far from good. It was proof, after all, that human cultivators outside were coveting my home.
Thud!
A dull impact, faint but unmistakable. When I focused again, the fighting had stopped—now it was the sound of someone being browbeaten.
"Shall I carve your flesh open myself? If you'd rather not, then spill your own blood and open the road. You wenches know perfectly well what must be done."
I had caught the scent of some two demon beasts among them—apparently, these were they.
Looks like they've been captured by a pack of human cultivators and are being threatened. A grim predicament, that.
Of course, my sympathy ended there. I was neither kind enough to offer help to demon beasts whose faces I'd never seen, nor pure enough to call it a duty.
Besides—where were we, if not a xianxia world where sinister schemes crouched in every shadow? And I was to walk alone into a gathering of human cultivators and take them all on? Nonsense. There was no call to shoulder that risk.
It reeks of paranoia, I know—but this, too, could be a staged performance to flush me out. Doubt everything. That's how you survive in the world of cultivation.
Even so, I resolved to keep watching for now. That said, I didn't much relish the idea of them sailing through the Silver Gauze Veil unimpeded, either. Once past it, my East Quarter lay straight ahead. True, the stretch of veil I had crossed alone spanned dozens of jang, and finding their way might take days—or months. But the possibility that they might, in the end, arrive—that I did not like one bit.
The way they invoke Nascent Soul cultivators says they're below that realm themselves. The realms of human cultivators ran thus: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Spirit Binding, Nascent Soul. And last of all, Incarnation. These ones stood below Nascent Soul—very likely cultivators of Spirit Binding, the fourth tier, or lower.
"Their scents differ, and yet they're alike. Does that mean they've all reached the same realm?"
I hadn't known a scent alone could measure a cultivator's realm. But there were those among them whose smells were strangely similar—low-rank cultivators, most likely. Grouping them together: of the fourteen, two were demon beasts. Twelve human cultivators—six at Qi Refining, four at Foundation Establishment, and two at Golden Core.
Or above Golden Core—fourth-tier Spirit Binding cultivators, perhaps. Judging realms by scent alone still felt shaky. With nothing confirmed, there was no need to convince myself of anything. Of course, it was also a question I could settle by asking the ones who'd give me certainty.
I waited a while.
Empty-calorie replies, the lot of them—but buried within was something genuinely useful. So it wasn't just me: demon beasts with keen noses really could read the grain of a realm within a scent. With that, conviction settled into my nose.
Not that I plan to do anything with it yet. I still lack information. If these people ever meant to breach this place, I would need to know them. In the end, if they circled around the restriction to reach the East Quarter, a fight would be unavoidable.
I lent my ears to the scene once more.
"Spare me your tricks. Pull one more stunt, and I'll shove your little sister straight into the restriction."
"Please—I'll do anything you ask, only spare my sister...!"
"Big sis!"
"What extraordinary fortune. To think those demon beasts, of all creatures, were bearers of Heavenly Blood."
"Which must be why they came here as well—following what they believe in."
The smell of blood reached me. Demon beast blood.
"...Is that the smell of a rat?"
Rat blood. Demon beasts spilling their blood to find a road. Heavenly Blood. And a secret realm—the Golden Ring Immortal Realm. The longer I listened, the more the pieces gathered.
So it was a secret realm after all. I had never imagined such places were common. I had been born inside a secret realm named the Golden Ring Immortal Realm—which meant the Golden Ring Immortal Realm was my homeland. Precious information. Even were I to lose the jade tablet, I could now find my way back to my own front door.
Useful intel. Let's hear more. I had time to burn, after all. The longer I listened, the more information fell into place—there was no reason not to. Within the Silver Gauze Veil's restriction, I was safer than anywhere else in creation.
A fair stretch of time slipped by. Then I rose from where I sat and drew my blade.
"The secret realm's law is stern: the Golden Ring Immortal Realm operates under a rule that bars any being of the third tier or above from setting foot inside. And in any case, the fortunes within could never involve beings beyond that!"
"Precisely! Nothing to fear, then. Strip away the restriction, and fortune reaching to the very heavens awaits beyond! Hahahaha!"
There was no reason left to wait—no need at all. It was time to cut down the robbers.