Wilderness near an Immortal spirit stone mine

Glen Island realm

Myriad Heavens chaosverse

Feng considered the quickest way to return to the Sect while pretending he couldn’t sense that traitor Chu beginning to be devoured from the feet up elsewhere in the forest. Those spiders were just getting started, and he’d be long gone before they even got past a toe or two.

The absolutely quickest way to return to the Sect would be to finish the teleportation formation and use it to teleport to the closest city and then use their public long-range teleportation formation to return to the Sect. Still, he did not want to do that. So while it is true that there may be an existential threat to the continued survival of the Sect, that was all the more reason to keep this mine a secret as long as possible.

Feng glanced at the almost finished formation and was glad it wasn’t quite finished. He could still modify it to turn it into a fixed teleportation formation. While you usually do need two teleportation end-points, that is only if you want your formation to be capable of teleporting to multiple locations. Feng could adjust the outgoing teleportation function of this formation with a fixed destination which was simply a vector in three dimensions from the centre of the formation and a distance.

Feng took out a piece of scrap paper from a spatial device and began some calculations. First, he used trigonometry to determine the relative position between his current location and the closest city, given its public teleportation coordinates. He then offset the angle by a fraction of an arcsecond to one side, which at this distance provided a distance of over two hundred li between the city and the new point. 

Feng clicked his tongue. That was good enough. From his rough maps, this teleportation fix would send him to a wilderness area near the city that was, like the one he was in now, full of spiritual beasts and was often used as a tempering location for the low-level cultivators of the city.

This way, Feng could arrive at the city on foot and then use their teleportation formation to return to the Sect without giving up exactly where he was coming from. Although this might seem like a lot of trouble to protect information that was clearly already compromised, Feng didn’t think so -- the only ones who knew this location was, likely, the three competing Sects, and they would not tell anyone who they hadn’t roped in either.

Given the nature of the conflict Feng felt was likely coming or already at his Sect, he felt the enemies would be even less likely to divulge than they were. So if they won, they really wouldn’t want anybody to know, and if they lost, it might be the only leverage they had to keep the Pure Life Spiritual Sect from pulling them up root and branch.

Besides, conflict among Sects was ordinary in the Glen Island realm. The current situation wasn’t even the hundredth time he thought there was a good chance the Pure Life Spiritual Sect would be destroyed; such events tended to happen every thousand years or so, actually. And frankly, he and the Sect Leader had been expecting these three Sects to pool their resources for a while. But even enemy Sects would join hands to keep the Imperial family or the secular governments from profiting too much; it was a kind of gentleman’s agreement.

Feng double-checked his calculations one last time, paying particular attention that this angle wouldn’t teleport him underground or in the side of a mountain. While this would not be a fatal mistake, it would still ruin his day. Thankfully the difference between the height above sea level between these two points was nominal.

Feng went back to the spatial formation and continued carving runes, now moving with a purpose. It did not take him long to finish.

Although he was in a hurry, he did not hurry to get inside the teleportation formation -- he was not an idiot after all. Using an untested spatial formation or artefact was something idiots or main characters in dramas did, and he was neither.

Feng first tested the ancillary formations. He let Qi fill the edges of the spatial formation and watched the timing formation rotate with regular clicking noises. This part ensured an even level of Qi was provided to the more delicate parts of the formation, even if a lot was dumped in the formation in a very short period of time. It worked kind of like a dam which allowed a set amount of water from the reservoir through to the river beyond. If this didn’t work, the formation would have exploded if he attempted to use it.

Feng next checked the internal spatial dimensions. These were the defined area that would be teleported. Most formation Masters used half-sphere shapes with teleportation formations as the mathematics was more manageable. Still, Feng tended to use a cylinder shape because he thought it was more elegant, and you did not have to caution tall people to be wary of standing too close to the edge of the formation. Plus, who knew when you would need to teleport a really tall object?

However, regardless of what shape you used, it was a good idea to test it and make sure the dimensions were correct. Feng felt that it would be very ironic if he accidentally decapitated himself with a teleportation formation after he intentionally decapitated those three earlier with a spatial technique.

Feng would run a few other tests if he weren’t in a hurry, but he decided to finish it with a test-run of the entire formation. He powered it up entirely, and there was a soft pop as air from around the formation rushed in to fill the void after the successful operation. He had just teleported the air that was in the teleportation formation. This was good because if the end-point happened to be, say, in the middle of a tree or two, this test run would demolish those trees very thoroughly. 

When you folded space to make two points congruent, the ending was never that great for matter on the arriving side if it intersected. The first step of teleportation was the expansion of a point outwards at the destination, forcefully pushing everything away. In effect, every teleportation created a temporary vacuum at the destination before the teleportation could take effect -- this was an essential safety feature as it was discovered that anything biological would suddenly die if their heart and organs were combined with even the air around the destination. Before this discovery, it was thought that only powerful cultivators could survive teleportation, and as such, it wasn’t as common as it was today. Now, even rich non-cultivators could make use of teleportation as a public utility in most third-tier realms.

Feng replaced the spirit stones that powered the formation and stepped inside. Triggering the formation to activate with his divinity field, he found himself instantly in a new place. He fell a foot or so to the ground, which upset himself a bit intellectually that his calculations were off. Feng used a quick earth technique to cause the ground to rise slightly to avoid falling when people teleported next time. 

Wait, would there ever be a next time someone used that formation? Not if Feng had anything to say about it, he would rebuild it at his earliest opportunity. But, just in case he died, he would make sure the next person didn’t trip if they used his product. He had pride in everything he built, after all.

It turns out the destination did have trees in it if the destruction and splinters everywhere were any clue. Feng didn’t even bother clearing the area anymore, though. Instead, he glanced up and used his spatial techniques to teleport himself by line of sight thirty or forty li straight in the air. Then, while free-falling, Feng glanced around and identified the city. It was significant for a city out in the middle of the boonies, he supposed. 

Feng performed a couple more blinks in the direction of the city before he was close enough that he could glide through the air and land right before the nearest entrance to the walled city. This way, it would appear as though he was flying, which was a common way cultivators travelled. Feng tried to avoid demonstrating to the world his attainment in the Dao of Spacetime primarily because it was a relatively rare Dao. Also, if someone knew he could teleport then, they could anticipate not only being attacked spatially directly but ways Feng might utilize blinking to attack them in other ways.

Although the three men he killed earlier were not very strong, if they were even slightly more intelligent than your average cabbage, they would have been able to utilize any number of techniques that prevented Feng from simply disposing of them the way he did. Unfortunately, spatial techniques aren’t actually that offensively practical unless a person is underestimated, so Feng liked very much to remain underestimated.

A relatively long line of people waiting to get through the gate indicated to him that the city took security (or more likely tariff enforcement) somewhat seriously. He completely ignored the line, as he wasn’t going to wait in it. Instead, he let the aura of his full cultivation leak out of his body and appeared before a guard. 

This area was a pretty safe area of the realm, and this gate guard was barely in the Foundation establishment realm. Feng was pretty sure he scared him silly, so Feng decided to be polite, “Sir Guard, I need to be admitted into the city, and I need to use your city’s public teleportation formations.”

The guard, to his credit, didn’t quite pee himself, but he did sputter a bit and called for his supervisor, who arrived quite quickly. This man was still establishing his Foundation also but was at its peak, and it wouldn’t be long before he stepped into the Consolidation realm that preceded establishing your golden core.

Getting into the city was easy but avoiding the red carpet and invitations to the City Lord’s mansion was harder. It was fortunate that he was the strongest cultivator in the entire city because he could demure the invitation to a later time without the other party losing face. 

Appreciating that the guard supervisor didn’t push things, Feng reached into one of his spatial artefacts and covertly tossed him a jade bottle containing twenty or thirty helpful pills for those in the Consolidated realm, mostly Spiritual Consolidation Pills but also one very valuable (for a Consolidated cultivator, anyway) Core Forming Pill that he could use to make breaking through to the Golden Core realm much easier. 

Feng had hundreds, if not thousands, of similar gift-bag type objects in one of his spatial objects for different cultivation levels, primarily the lower ones, that he handed out like candy when people pleased him. He even had mini-inheritance gift bags that he would give to children that seemed to him to have grit that would contain several suitable cultivation methods that he was free to impart and some Qi Gathering pills and a few other things. 

Some cultivators liked to get compliance through fear and respect, and Feng would be a liar if he didn’t say he was also, at one time, like that himself. But now, he found bribery was much more fun to him. It wasn’t like any of this stuff was worth anything to him. Ten thousand years ago, he descended into the nearest first-tier realm and just tossed pills, cultivation techniques, spiritual weapons and artefacts from the air all-around a major city: some Imperial capital or some such thing. Okay, perhaps the bloodshed that ensued made that seem like a bad idea in retrospect. But those who survived seemed to view him as a patron deity of luck!

“Lend me one of your soldiers to show me the way to the public teleportation formations, and you can have that with my thanks, Sir Guard Captain,” Feng said.

The guard captain snapped to attention, “Of course, Honored Immortal! Legionnaire Zhang, escort the Immortal to the teleportation formation!”

Feng glanced at the first guard he spoke to. Privately he felt that calling a city guard a Legion was a bit aspirational. That term was generally limited to actual military forces in the Glen Island Realm, but he wouldn’t mention it. Although their cultivation level was close to suitable for that type of military force -- most individual soldiers in this realm in professional militaries were in the Foundation establishment realm, so perhaps it is just that this city has an imposing guard?

As soon as they were through the gate, Feng said, “What parts of the city are the public formations in?”

The legionnaire replied, “Uh, sir, they are in the administrative district directly across from the primary Legion headquarters!”

That made sense. Publicly available teleportation formations were somewhat of a security risk; a small force could use them to attack or raid the city. So putting them next to a lot of your more potent fighters made sense. Plus, higher-level cultivators usually travelled, at least partly, that way. Feng guessed that the guard captain in charge of the teleportation formations was a lot stronger than a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Feng casually touched the soldier’s back with his hand and then triggered a series of rapid line of sight teleports, taking the man with him. This guard didn’t have the cultivation or insight to realize precisely how he travelled, so Feng didn’t bother trying to hide it from him. They ended up near the centre of the city, “Is this the area?”

The legionnaire started to curse and then stopped himself, realizing it might offend Feng, which made Feng smile, “Fu---uhhh yes, yes sir it is! That large building is Legion HQ and across the courtyard is the teleportation annexe.”

Feng produced another jade bottle full of pills, this time mostly those applicable at the Foundation establishment and tossed them to the soldier. “Thank you, Legionnaire. You should return to your duty; I have no further need for you.”

Feng made his way to the teleportation annexe on foot; although he was moving so quickly, it wasn’t that different from teleportation to his guide’s vision. Feng arrived in front of a receptionist in the form of an attractive and busty young woman who was in the middle of the Consolidation realm. Feng suspected that she was either the daughter of one of the important people of the city or some sort of officer candidate for the city guard or both, “Madam, I need priority access to one of your long-range teleportation formations as soon as possible… and by that I mean immediately.”

Most cultivators of his rank wouldn’t be as polite to a young brat in the Consolidation realm as Feng was, but a hundred and fifty thousand years ago, he lost a bet, and for a hundred years, he had to refer to everyone he met that he didn’t know respectfully, regardless of their cultivation. After the hundred years passed, Feng decided he kind of liked the results and more or less kept doing it, even now. Most people who knew him considered it an eccentricity, and most people who didn’t know him either considered it that too or considered him weak, which Feng privately approved of also.

He had surprised her, but she was clearly used to dealing with higher levelled cultivators, he noticed, so she didn’t meep or curse, merely widened her eyes a little, “Honored Immortal! Certainly, uhh… we only have just the one long-range teleportation formation, but it is currently available. So please, follow me.”

She brought Feng into a large room the size of a small auditorium. If the room were set up to do concerts, it probably would have held several thousand people comfortable. Feng took the time to examine the teleportation formation carved and painted on the floor and walls with his eyes and divine sense. She took Feng to a small desk where a woman was seated, “This is Elder Calm Lake. She is currently on duty and can assist you.”

Feng reached into his spatial artefact and pulled out a spiritual artefact in the form of an exquisite woman’s fan. He had noticed that the receptionist girl had a strong Yin aspected Qi; it was almost ghostly or ethereal. The fan was a Nascent Soul level artefact that strongly increased a cultivator’s strength with illusion and spiritual arts. 

This artefact was two whole realms above where this girl was and was a bit much as a tip, but Feng had been carrying it for a very long time, and the thing almost jumped out of his pocket, figuratively, when he saw her. So it must be fate that the thing suited her so much, “Here, I have been carrying this a long time, and it seems like it wants to belong to you.”

The expression on her face was amusing to Feng. This is one of the main reasons he liked giving people things! The fight between wanting to politely refuse the gift and greed was very funny to him! Feng decided to help her along, “If you don’t take it, I will be offended.” That made up her mind for her. She thanked Feng several times before fleeing. 

Feng was still a man, so he watched her go appreciatively. If she was earnest and treated that fan more than just a thing, there was a good chance she would gain the trust of the artefact spirit, and if she did that, the spirit would impart a precious soul cultivation method to her.

When Feng acquired the object, he threatened the spirit, and it gave up the cultivation method to him, but sadly, like all soul cultivation methods, Feng failed spectacularly trying to use it. Feng had absolutely zero talent in the Soul Dao. Actually, he probably had negative talent. Anything beyond transferring memory or knowledge with his divinity field, and it was just impossible. Soul cultivation techniques changed the shape, density and size of one’s divinity field, which was the aura that surrounded a person’s soul and truesoul. Feng’s divinity field was just a marshmallow around his soul, and it was actually really embarrassing.

Feng shook his head and glanced at this woman with the Dao name Calm Lake. She was a scholarly looking woman at the beginning of the Nascent Soul realm. So far at the beginning, Feng started with, “Congratulations on your breakthrough, Daoist Calm Lake.”

The woman smiled genuinely, “Thank you, Honored Immortal of the Pure Life Spiritual Sect. Are you returning home?”

Feng nodded, “Yes, please.”

Feng placed on the desk about five times as many spirit stones as it would take to power this teleportation formation all the way back to the Sect, as well as a bottle of Spirit Calming pills designed to stabilize a cultivator who had recently broken through to the Nascent Soul realm, “You can keep the remainder as my thanks to you, Daoist Calm Lake.”

That was a lot of money, so the lady looked quite appreciative. She beckoned him onto the formation and began entering the coordinates for one of the Sect’s public teleportation end-points. Feng casually made sure she entered the correct data with his divine sense. She started to power up the formation, but nothing happened. Finally, she blinked, “Uhh, Honored Immortal… we were not able to establish a connection.”

Feng knew that. He followed the entire process of the teleportation formation. The coordinates were correct, and it started to fold space, but it stopped when it could not establish a connection and handshake with the destination. That wasn’t good. It wasn’t a good sign at all.

Feng waved his hand and cast a privacy technique to prevent eavesdropping on this room, “Daoist Calm Lake, I’m not sure of a polite way to ask this, but I would like to bribe you to keep silent about whatever happened and is happening here today.”

The woman seemed a little offended, “Honored Immortal, we have the utmost discretion about all of our customers’ business.”

Feng smiled, “I’m sure your organization does, as much as it is possible anyway. That’s whom I’m bribing you to keep quiet from, though. It would help if you did not tell anyone about problems with my Sect’s formations, including your employer. At least not for two weeks.”

Calm Lake looked conflicted, “Two weeks is the same as forever because the consequences would be the same if I falsified the daily log. And I just got this job; it is not easy for an aspiring formation Mistress to thrive when she is a loose cultivator and has no Sect backing her up. Not just anyone will trust you to work with amazing formations like this every day.”

Feng grinned, “Oh? You’re interested in formations, huh? I happened to achieve my current realm of cultivation, partly following the path of formations. I tell you plainly that this formation you call amazing is borderline trash. There are so many errors in the capacitance ring that the efficiency is barely 20%... you know what that means? Most of the energy used in this formation is completely wasted! The spatial ring is barely functional, too.”

Feng fished around in his spatial artefact again and pulled out a small jade token in the form of a pendant. He used his divinity field to impress a fair bit of knowledge into it and tossed it to the woman, “On that jade is everything I know about creating spatial formations. If you master the knowledge, you could make a better formation than this even at your current low cultivation. So, deal?”

While everything Feng said was true, the truth is that this formation was only trash relative to him and large Sects. It was above average for municipal formations. In any case, Daoist Calm Lake nodded fiercely, “Yes! As far as I am concerned, you were never here!”

Feng smirked, “You don’t need to go that far. Just note that the first teleportation succeeded, and I returned to the Pure Life Spiritual Sect. Now, queue up another teleportation to this private address. I will add the cryptographic plate when you give the word.” 

He returned to the centre of the formation, where on the floor there was an indentation where one could place a cryptographic formation plate. This lets you teleport to private addresses without compromising the encryption key since the formation plate would also teleport with you. He continued, “Also, that jade pendant is the key to one of many inheritance sites I tend to scatter around the realms when I am bored. This pertains to my attainment in the Dao of Spacetime, which is the primary path I travel. If you go near the Imperial capital, the pendant will wake up and lead you there. But if you don’t master the knowledge of spatial formations first, you’ll probably either not be able to get in or die.”

The woman looked at the pendant like it was her newborn baby. It wasn’t every day that a cultivator of any rank got the key to an inheritance site of an Immortal realm cultivator. Feng wasn’t sure she was completely compatible with the Dao of Spacetime, but any Mistress of Formations could fake it well enough to get in the site. Feng had zero talent in cultivating the soul but could still make a formation that cast powerful illusions over one’s soul if he followed directions anyway. He couldn’t make novel formations of that type unless they were very similar to existing ones, though. That was the main reason any time he utilized illusion formations that he used them as individual sub-formations, which were activated by his primary formation.

Even if she didn’t have fate with the Dao of Spacetime, it wasn’t like that was all he left in such sites. General cultivation methods, general techniques, formation knowledge and treasures. Feng hoped she didn’t accidentally kill herself trying to get in.

Daoist Calm Lake entered a new set of coordinates. This one was a private teleportation formation he set up without telling anyone inside the Sect. It was actually inside the basement of the building the Library used to be until Feng changed the Library into its own private pocket dimension. The formation started powering up, and Calm Lake said over the hum, “It is ready, Shifu!”

Feng rolled his eyes. Although giving a person your inheritance site might imply a student-teacher relationship, that was clearly not what he meant. She hadn’t even kowtowed three times. Still, he didn’t care. He dropped the cryptographic plate into position and was immediately in a new place.

Feng glanced around the basement and used his divine sense and connection to the Sect formation to find out what was happening. It wasn’t hard to figure out. 

It was chaos.