Pathway

Zhang Xiu Ying sat in a lotus position with her eyes closed, deep in meditation. She was inside an abandoned immortal cave, some miles away from the JinJin village. Her awareness through her divine sense was covering the whole area including JinJin village. As a golden core demigod, her conscious had expanded greatly since returning from the valley of the gods.

She didn't want to be monitoring her son all the time, but as a mother, she was still concerned about Ju Feng leaving their home for the sect. But in as long as her son was inside the sect boundaries, it was alright with her. However, to be certain of Ju Feng's safety, she had spread her divine sense around, outside the sect's premises, to know of anytime her son would be outside the Last Sages' premises.

Earlier that morning, she had been notified of Ju Feng's presence through her divine sense. Immediately she sensed her son, she had used her divine evasion to arrive at a safer distance from Ju Feng's position. She would determine the situation of things before acting. After close examination with her divine sight, she had come to the conclusion of her son being in a group of something resembling, adventurers.

Adventures?  What was Ju Feng thinking? He was just a child, and also were the other two kids. Yes, the nether demons might not come back in the time being, there were still many other sources of danger out here. 

Although she wanted to keep a keen eye on the situations, she didn't want to appear as an obtrusive element to the adventurers union. Things with being young cultivators. She could have been more relaxed is she had been aware of their sect elder who was secretly following them. She had overlooked the possibility of that, probably due to her not sensing any form of danger in the vast area her divine sense was covering. It was during the recent attack she knew of the elder's presence. 

Now that the sect elder was with them, their group was reasonably covered. She would wait for a bit more time before returning home. Or She could just continued watching them to be certain of their true safety. Nonetheless, the elder's presence was a huge relief. She relaxed her mind and continued to meditate.

***

Their journey had no disturbances since the event with the crystals. The presence of elder Wang Xiu gave them great confidence but also brought reservations too. An elder was in no way a disciple. What they would discuss among themselves, would be difficult to talk about in the presence of the elder. They had only planned on finding the forsaken palace on their own, as friends. But now, they had an elder's eyes on their back. Although, elder Cao Wang Xiu tried to mingle and be more friendlier, they could still feel the intimidating discomfort of her presence. After all, she was an elder of the Last Sages sect.

But left for Jufeng, he was extremely happy for elder Cao Wang Xiu joining them. At least, anything seeking their death again, would have to pass through her first. If not for her at the clearing, they would've fell prey to the black demon spider. There was no doubt in his mind what could have happened back then. And now, his mind felt much more peaceful and relaxed. Lately, his mind had been trying to know why death was seeking him. Or him seeking death? Snapping out of his thoughts, he followed others as they continued using the flash-steps. 

Led by the group of the other kids, they came to an open area and stopped. From there, they could see the outskirt of the village of JinJin in the far distance.

"Is that JinJin?"

Lin Da Xia asked, pointing in the direction of the village.

"Yes, that's JinJin. We'll stop here as agreed."

Replied Shi Xiang before turning her attention to her own group.

"We leave now. We've got arrangements to make."

They had only promised to take their group half-way towards the village, which they had done anyway. They thanked elder Cao Wang Xiu for saving their lives. They offered her the extra Eddaros crystal which she rejected, saying she had no need for it since she was already at the late stage of the silver core. They also thanked Jufeng and others for their help before disappearing into the distance.

After the kids had gone, the group gathered themselves and happily intensified their steps knowing their journey was on course. As they got closer to the village, it became obvious that it was a farming village, mainly in rice. Several farms of rice could be seen some kilometers away from the road leading to the village.

As they were approaching, elder Wang Xiu noticed a Steller eagle flying in their direction. She signalled the others, making them reduced their speed too. The eagle was making a muffled sound while locking eyes with the elder. Steller eagles were magical birds with no awareness or reasoning, therefore, it couldn't be making an intelligent connection on its own. And Chi cultivators wouldn't use magical beasts, intricately, like that. For a Chi cultivator, magical beasts were only good as pets. 

There were two types of beasts in existence. The primordial beasts of chaos and the cosmic beasts of the universe. The cosmic beasts of the universe are divided into four groups. The divine, sacred, demonic and magical beasts.

The divine beasts were powerful creatures born with golden cores. And they had divine bloodline which could take them to immortality. But they couldn't attain mortal transformation or cultivation. They would forever remained in their animal forms.

Whereas, the sacred beasts were created with copper cores as the basis of their soul ecistence. However, they could cultivate like mortals and achieve mortal transformation at a certain stage. But unlike the divine beasts, they didn't have any bloodline traits. They had to use cosmic energy to cultivate to reach immortality. That was their fate.