Chapter 273: Refusing an Invitation
Zou Tian had come to a difficult decision. He’d been invited to explore the nearby qi-rich mountain, and he wanted to accept. The opportunity was a great one for many reasons, such as being able to practice Hide Presence against beasts of a higher realm and serving the sect by scouting for the other expedition members. Both activities would give him good, practical experience in areas that he intended to perfect in coming years.
Unfortunately, Zou Tian would have to refuse. He simply had too much to do to get ready for his mission to Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Even though it would be months before he left, the list of things he needed to accomplish was so long that he feared not being able to get to them all.
Over the last week, he’d done a lot of thinking, and he’d had multiple sessions with Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu, though it felt weird to call a Nascent Soul level cultivator Senior Brother. But no other title fit. He wasn’t officially an elder of either sect, and Zou Tian already had a master.
The conclusion the two of them had drawn was that his best chance of fulfilling his mission was to avoid notice. There were a couple of problems, though. One, people in the city knew him and knew he had left with Master.
Two, all cultivators emitted a qi signature that signaled one’s realm to anyone with a spiritual sense. While Zou Tian’s high affinity with his Shadow aspect combined with his hiding technique minimized his qi signature, minimizing was not the same as eliminating. A Foundation Establishment cultivator like Senior Sister did not have a sense strong enough or experienced enough to detect him, but most Golden Cores could if they happened to notice him. And he’d stand out like a sore thumb to any Nascent Soul.
If he couldn’t figure out a way to completely eliminate the telltale signs of him being a cultivator, the mission would be far too dangerous for him, so his first goal was to make it so that not even Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu could detect him.
The other thing the two of them had discussed were his techniques. Zou Tian had both Hide Presence and Foundation Dagger Essentials at Mastery, and Shadow Perception was at Large Success. If he worked hard, there was no reason he couldn’t get that perception technique to Mastery, without even using the Trial Pagoda, before he left to travel to the city. That was goal number two.
Skills for hiding, sensing, and a weapon were a great foundation for what he needed to accomplish, but there was always room for improvement. So the third goal they had come up with was for him to pick up a new technique to aid in the mission. Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu was convinced that Master could provide literally any technique that they could think up, leading them to discuss a lot of options.
The main category of ideas they considered was general knowledge of specific spying abilities, like how to blend in, how sects hid secrets, how to discern the truth of rumors, etc. The problem was that every single one of them sounded like something he absolutely needed, but he only had time to learn one. Barely. He’d probably need to use the pagoda even to get the technique to Large Success.
At his urging, they also discussed the possibility of trying to advance him quickly to Foundation Establishment so that he could pick up really useful techniques. He was at least a year away from making that transition, though, and rushing his cultivation that much might have severe repercussions for the future. Even though he was willing to try it, Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu correctly noted that Master would doubtlessly object.