Chapter 31: Skittering Problems.

I placed my feet on the sword and it easily carried my weight without it dipping back into the ground. At first, I stayed standing on top of the sword-like an idiot for a few moments. Mainly because I had no idea how this thing would even move.

Yet, the moment I thought about the tree a few hundred meters in front of me, the sword shot forward, threatening to fly from under my feet and loge itself into the tree, yet there was something in play that kept my legs glued in place, and the sword made sure not to crash into the tree.

The moment the sword stopped I felt like if I had been doing a light jug. It seems that the sword was pervasive as it took poison Qi from my body without my consent. Still, those few hundred meters on would have been far more exhausting than using this sword.

I nodded to myself, "With this, my travels were going to be far easier."

The sword was big enough that I could find space to sit in the lotus position while it flew, so I did that and rotate my energy while giving the sword one simple command. Fly north. The imperial capital is in that general direction.

The sword easily tore through the wind while creating a small barrier around it so I wouldn't feel affected by the powerful winds. It was pretty useful as I had my cravings and lit up my pipe, smoking some of the Joyful Weed that I enjoyed occasionally with elder Yun.

The disappearance of the whole sect is no simple matter, there was a conspiracy in play. The whole Purple Cloud Sect was a low-grade sect, unworthy of any of the upper sect's attention, nor was it enough to become a threat to them. There was something that I wasn't seeing in this picture, a missing piece that could make the picture clear and why was the Purple Cloud sect destroyed.

As I flew over trees and foliage, I continued thinking, trying to deduce any new clues on what happened, but sadly there was nothing that came to mind. I put the thoughts to rest and focused on my next mission. The emperor, or anyone of the imperial court, would have a good idea of who destroyed the purple cloud sect.

Days of flying went by, and I only sustained myself with leaves from the Braided Mourning Petal, and the occasional whiffs of the Joyful Weed, the two substances left my body in complete numbness after every use, but I was beginning to feel signs of resistance. Once I'm fully capable of resisting the side effects of the Joyful Weed and the Braided Mourning Petal, I'll be fully immune to their effects and would be able to apply their effects into my poison spells. Which would be amazing.

A little bit in the distance and far off the direction I was taking, I saw a group of people gathered up in front of what seemed to be a cave entrance.

I gave my sword the order to move towards the cave and it did, I made sure however to keep my distance from all the 'spectators' as I didn't want any troubles.

Some of these spectators were all mortals, and a rare few were cultivators as I now could easily recognize one from the other. These cultivators however were at best, foundation establishment, as I didn't see anyone beyond it and couldn't feel the threat of a Core Formation from amongst them.

One of the mortals looked at me and his face turned white as a paper sheet, "An immortal has descended upon us!" he said and began kowtowing like crazy.

"Shut up," a cultivator said as he kicked the kowtowing man, and said, "He's weaker than me, don't bow to those lesser than I, fool." The man said and looked up at me, he spat in my direction and said, " Who gave you the right to rise above me, come down this instant!"

'Seems like the edgy manners of all of those steppingstone extra characters in those stories were not made up after all,'

I ignored the brat, even if he was stronger than me, that was only by cultivation level, he was a foundation establishment of the middle tier, quite a few layers above me, but nothing that a single poison breath can't take care of. I looked at the cave's entrance and willed the sword to go towards it.

Fully leaving the man in contempt of his peers as I didn't even deem him worth my time or my answer.

"You!!" said the man as he pointed his hand on my disappearing back.

I was inside the cave and called the flying sword back into the Poison God's book, sadly there was no light. So, I used my finger to light the way, mimicking elder Yun's Finger Flame.

The green flame was powerful enough to reveal the path in front of me and what lays beyond the dark entrance of the cave.

I continued walking down the cave until I reached a fork. I didn't know which path to take, so I approached the candle to the ground and noticed a footstep of one of the cultivators on the dirt on the ground.

So, the group of cultivators outside the cave weren't the only one, perhaps they were a group that was guarding the exit, this would mean that there is a stronger group inside no wonder that guy was acting all haughty I fear that they might have a Core Formation cultivator.

As for the mortals there, could they be the ones to have discovered this cave? Or probably they're mules to carry objects? No, that doesn't make much sense, the powerful cultivators could have holding bags. Sacrificial offering, or way makers to ensure no cultivator would find themselves in between the jaws of a trap. No matter I have a more urgent matter at hands, the fork.

Seems that all the footsteps are headed this way, but the other way…

I mumbled as I looked at the other side, there was no clear indication on why they didn't split up, but the fact that none or probably no more than one person took this way meant that it was dangerous, and whenever there is danger, there is opportunity.

I took the other path and continued forward, I slowly made my way into the leftmost path, without encountering anything that seemed life-threatening. Yet at the end of the pathway, I finally understood why they didn't pick this road.

The path I walked on ended on a perched platform that looked over a gigantic hall that extended all the way to the unknown depths. However, there was a small constraint, everything was moving, not the walls, but the critters all over it, the hundreds of thousands of them, maybe even millions of them, walked the walls, all in ununified, chaotic and totally shiver worthy manner. Spiders. Small red spiders walked all over the place.

"A flame thrower would be pretty handy right here now wouldn't it."

*****