First Ruin
Thanks to his efforts in controlling the bandit population, when the time came to storm their camp, the only tangible problem was their bandit leader, who–Unlike his goons–Actually had some skill and a genuine cultivation technique, having once been a cultivator from a foreign sect that fell to ruin.
Ai took care of the rest of the remaining bandits, cutting them down like tall grass, whilst Xiao faced the ‘boss’ of the area, as he would refer to him. For some reason, the story had featured a bit of lore about the bandit leader, he had never been given a proper name at all, as it had instead focused on his peculiar spear technique.
This suited Xiao just fine, as it allowed him to fight an enemy whose tricks he was already familiar with.
‘Blessed be my good memory!’
By spinning his spear, the bandit leader could summon different kinds of gusts and other wind-related attacks. Each wind attack he could perform was tied to where he spun his spear... Either above his head, to his right, to his left, behind him, or in front of him.
This made for a total of five different wind-based moves he could perform.
The original Xiao had had a bit of a struggle due to not knowing this. The bandit leader would use his longer reach to force the protagonist to move backwards to evade the attacks, but the moment that happened, he would jump back as well, beginning to chain the wind attacks one after another.
Of course, since the current Xiao was aware of it all, he didn’t allow the bandit leader to create some distance. Besides, although the crimson-eyed disciple might be lacking the sword artefact, he may actually be stronger than the original protagonist at this point in the story.
He had basically done everything the same–Save for the fact that he had encountered great challenges that the true hero of this story had not. Namely, Edrick Lucien Anoteros during the first meeting and during the sect tournament.
Having already been struck and wounded pretty badly, he did not fear the spear that much.
The bandit was too used to being able to use the same strategy every encounter, so when Xiao demonstrated no fright whatsoever, charging past the spear, and stomping down on it with a rapid turn… The criminal leader was taken aback.
Before he could process what was happening, Xiao struck with his sword, severing both of his arms, totally nullifying anything else his opponent might have tried at this point. The pain was not allowed to settle in his adversary... Xiao moved again, slashing the man’s neck and sending his head rolling to the ground.
The protagonist then did something he had wished for the fictional Xiao to do on multiple occasions, which was to pick up the fallen enemy’s weapon.
The spear wasn’t a mundane one. The bandit leader had either kept it from his former sect or stolen it from a good place. Its blade allowed for slashing on top of the expected stabbing, and it was actually much lighter than it looked–Not because it was actually light, but because the wielder benefited from a quirk of the weapon.
Indeed, this spear hadn’t just been created by a blacksmith. It had gone through the hands of a refiner, and to it, qualities of the wind element had been added, rendering it easy to wield whilst retaining all of its murderous capabilities.
Xiao had trained with other weapons specifically for this purpose.
But although he felt very excited about this, the main attraction was not the enemy loot.
“That bandit leader looked quite strong. I didn’t expect you to take him out so easily” Ai walked over, unscathed. The dozens or so of remaining bandits hadn’t stood a chance against her at all.
“I just got lucky. I got into close quarters because he was wielding a spear, but I didn’t think that he would be so helpless then…” he chuckled.
After the two lovers exchanged a few more words, they progressed forward. Thanks to a small trinket they had both received from Elder Gang, they were able to walk right through the illusory barrier formed by the array.
This allowed them to quickly set their sight upon a jungle overcrowded by vines, and most importantly, an old temple built from stone. Xiao couldn’t find any easy terms to describe the architecture. It was truly unique to this world and didn’t share anything with what he knew. If one were to dumb it down to its most simple shape, then it somewhat resembled a pyramid.
Ancient statues depicting beasts were scattered around, some of which had either become completely green due to the growth of moss and vines, or had fallen into disrepair and were no longer recognisable.
The two inner disciples progressed forward carefully. This place screamed that it was full of traps, and indeed, barely had they stepped in that poisoned darts were already being fired at them by old–Yet still functioning–Mechanisms.
Thankfully, whatever civilisation had built this place did not seem to have been using any way of power that would have allowed them to place more dangerous traps, such as magic circles or formations. Every trap was somewhat mundane, and were only really a threat because they were still cultivators of a low level.
Elder Gang could probably walk through here and activate every trap without having to worry about a thing.
However, as the first ruin on the protagonist’s to-do list, it was naturally quite easy. The danger and difficulty would be ramping up as they moved from one place to another. Still, while the reward at the end of it all was simple, it remained valuable.
A single flower.
An Aura Bloom, also called a ‘Cultivator’s Delight’.
It was a rare flower that was hard to cultivate, and the conditions for it to grow were mysterious.
But its purpose was as simple as it was desired.
An Aura Bloom could be activated by a simple touch, and around itself, a field would be created. Within that field, all ambient energies would become docile, making it as simple as willing it for someone to absorb the energy as their own.
There was no need to purify or overpower the foreign energy in this case. It would also pull in ambient energy into the field for its entire duration. This created a place perfect to cultivate and meditate in, as they could continuously absorb ambient energy without any worry to supplement their own inner flow.
Although incredible, higher-tier cultivators were so powerful that they would exhaust the Aura Bloom in less than a second, making it not worth it for them. Still, for lower-tier cultivators, it was an incredible boon.
And thus, both Xiao and Ai enjoyed the fruit of their harvest.
Something Xiao had not thought about, though, was that at this point, if he had followed the script down to a tee, there would be three people sharing the Aura Bloom. After all, he was supposed to have two harem members by this point, namely Fanqia and Yin.
But since he only had Ai, the effects of the Aura Bloom were even greater, as there were only two of them.
‘Another win for monogamy’
“The upsides of having a harem far outweigh what an Aura Bloom can provide” grumbled the emerald ghost back at him.
The first ruin exploration was a great success.