Back at the survivors' camp, the news of the death of all those who had fled was soon shared directly by the leader of the shadow soldiers—that is, Aotian—without further explanation.
It did not take long for this information to turn into fear and apprehension among all the cultivators, especially those who had considered leaving with the others before but, for one reason or another, had ended up staying behind, which saved their lives from a certain tragic fate.
However, the grim and nervous looks that later appeared on their faces were not about relief at having escaped tragedy.
They were about distrust toward the shadow soldiers, for many imagined that it was not that there were no survivors, but rather that those beings who claimed to be their protectors had gone to eliminate those who rebelled and fled from their grasp.
This idea seemed very plausible and, because of it, many cultivators began to look at them with fear, even making plans about what they would do when an opportunity arose to leave that small world.
Although the Shadow King had promised to defend them until they departed, who could say what the true thoughts of that mysterious being were?
Being their savior did not disqualify him from also becoming their new executioner.
In the same way, their choice to stay did not mean they were brave and loyal.
The tense and strange atmosphere of distrust that formed seemed to be slowly destroying the joy of the hard-won victory.
Fortunately, with the arrival of the cultivator who returned with a sorrowful state of mind and still bearing the bloodstains of his beloved on his body after burying her, and with his explanation, the dispute was finally put to rest—at least superficially.
The young man was an eyewitness that it was not the shadow soldiers who carried out the massacre of the survivors who fled, and that when they arrived at the location, everyone had already fallen. Although he was not certain what they would have done had they found survivors, for some reason, after the conversation he had with that shadow soldier, he believed they would not have harmed them.
But his opinion was not enough to shake the existing prejudices.
Aotian observed all of this calmly, his many eyes spread throughout the camp allowing him to easily judge everyone's mentality.
He never prevented the idea that the shadows were untrustworthy from spreading. On the contrary, his simple explanation, combined with the natural distrust that a being of unknown purpose inspired, led those cultivators to think that way—or rather, merely revealed the thoughts they already carried deep down.
When he marched to search for survivors among those who fled, Aotian's initial plan was to bring back any living ones he found, but upon arriving, there were none left. Perhaps some had managed to escape, but searching for them would demand time and manpower—an ungrateful task to look for someone who had betrayed the camp.
But he had a backup plan to avoid returning without survivors, which was to have an eyewitness, and the cultivator who followed him served that purpose. However, even after seeing that the shadow soldiers were not responsible for the death of his beloved and the others, Aotian saw that that cultivator still felt fear and panic when facing the shadow leader and his men.
It was at that point that Aotian finally understood that no matter how much he protected them, even if he demanded little in return, they would never truly trust him in his shadow form. Therefore, it made no sense to try to earn such loyalty.
A little fear was enough to keep them from attempting any foolishness against him, and when an opportunity arose to send them away safely from that small world, he would do so. Direct and simple.
But if they fled like the others at some point, thinking themselves clever, and died at the hands of beasts or something else, Aotian would not feel much either. He wanted to protect them, but he was not their babysitter.
With this resolution in mind, he summoned Wang Mei and Kong Huang to tally the losses.
The two arrived quickly and reported everything to the new Shadow King.
At no point did they realize that the king they knew had perished and that what they now saw was the body of one of the cultivators who had fled the camp, corrupted by impurities before being killed a second time and transformed. Shadows were slightly malleable, and assuming the exact appearance of the former Shadow King was not a problem.
Thus, the camp was once again put in order, and the soldiers were once more sent out to explore the world, collect resources, and rescue people.
…
Aotian, who was lying on the grass with his main body, slowly opened his eyes as he gazed at the blue skies and felt the warmth of the sun on his skin.
'Formations really are something incredible…'
He reflected as he observed the sky of the immortal mansion's small world, which looked real—so real, just like the sky of the main world.
But the truth was that that sky was merely an imitation. For example, the sun there did not have the size of the real sun, nor its temperature, and even the distance at which it appeared was not real; in fact, it did not even exist—it was just an image.
The entire sky there, so to speak, was not real.
It was merely an illusion that imitated the outside sky, and the life-giving warmth that struck him was entirely the work of formations.
Shaking his head, he sat up and stretched his arms above his head, stretching after the arduous battle he had faced against the Rhinoceros King.
Although his main body had not participated, Aotian's mind was still tired, since the battle had not been easy at all.
'I still need to improve a lot. My power and experience in realms like the Golden Core and below are more than exceptional, reaching a level of invincibility. Perhaps not even an immortal, if reduced to the Golden Core, could be my opponent…'
He reflected, as a clear "but" emerged.
'But that only applies to those lower realms. In higher realms, I still do not have that invincibility, since my disciples—the greatest source of my knowledge and experience—have not yet reached such levels. Even so, I am not bad at all, because the foundation I possess helps me, combined with the constant experiments I conduct, my many minds, and the abilities my avatars have, which places me on a tier of my own.'
'Even so, I still need to explore more and improve further. If I could use the Soul Formation realm as well as I use the Golden Core, I wouldn't have been so powerless against the rhinoceros king, nor would I have needed to resort to so many tactics, or fight that battle for hours.'
'Although it is still admirable to use only bodies in the Soul Formation realm to fight against a Void Refining beast, and in truth something even stronger, since Shadow Beasts have a strength advantage compared to normal spiritual beasts, I am still not satisfied.'
Aotian pondered, his eyes narrowing with determination. From that moment on, he would strive even harder, determined to master all of his abilities and knowledge.
Although he himself was not satisfied with his power, the feat he had accomplished was, in fact, monumental.
What he had done was something even more difficult than taking an army of Golden Core cultivators and below to fight and kill a beast at the perfection of Soul Formation, or, to be precise, at the perfection of the fifth level.
It was a tremendous and spectacular feat. The higher one ascended in cultivation, the more difficult it became, but the rewards were proportional, and the higher the realm, the greater the difference in power compared to the previous one.
That was the level of absurdity of Aotian's current dissatisfaction.
Shaking his head and sighing at the long road he still had to walk, he stopped losing himself in thought and approached the disciples, who were still staring at those stones with spells inscribed on them.
His gaze passed over all of them until it fell upon his beloved wife, whose beautiful golden hair shimmered under the sunlight.
Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at the stone slabs, and her perfectly seated posture, with her back straight, gave her an additional charm.
He approached and sat beside her with a slight smile.
"How are you doing with the spells on the stone slabs?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not bad, I've basically mastered all of the first twenty… as for the Formation-Tier ones, they're still a bit far off for me," she explained, shifting her eyes away from slabs twenty-one to thirty with a sigh, but without taking it too seriously.
Despite having many expectations of herself, Rihai did not reach Aotian's almost perverted level of self-demand, where he found it unacceptable not to face enemies a hundred cultivation realms ahead without even breaking a sweat.
In her view, it was natural for someone who had only entered the Nascent Soul realm a few months ago to still have no real understanding of the Soul Formation realm. And she was right.
And seeing his wife, the sole bearer of a divine physique in the world, chosen by the heavens, which basically defined her as a protagonist, being so content with her gains, Aotian could not help but feel a little embarrassed and wonder if he was not demanding too much of himself.
'Ugh… I guess reading about so many overpowered protagonists in my past life is affecting my perception of how difficult and valuable it is for each person to attain power. I can work hard, but that doesn't mean others don't work hard as well. The difference is that I have a golden finger, which gives me a huge advantage.'
He reflected, calming down a little in his frantic desire to perfect everything, as he observed Rihai's tranquil state, her easy acceptance of not being able to master those advanced spells.
"And what about the others?" he asked softly after shaking off his daze, looking at the twenty-five disciples who were still studying the slabs with great concentration.
"I'm not sure." Rihai hesitated before shrugging. "But I imagine everyone must have mastered the first twenty, since none of them are far from advancing to Nascent Soul. With the foundations of the sect's techniques and spells, along with the Dao preachings that the elders of the Heritage Pavilion give every three months, everyone has very powerful foundations in both theoretical and practical cultivation knowledge."
"The difference is in the level of mastery each one has, but it shouldn't be bad."
Hearing her answer, he nodded thoughtfully.
Aotian then gently kissed her cheek, making her smile at him, and stood up.
Without stopping, he walked straight to the front of the stones, then turned around to face everyone.
His actions immediately drew the disciples' attention, and they came out of meditation and focused their eyes on him.
"Everyone, the elders have just sent me a message. Soon, the barrier of this mountain will recede, and then we will be able to go out. But outside there are beasts protected by formations that can only be defeated by the spells on these stone slabs, so be prepared. When the barrier falls, we will explore and try to find a way to complete our objective."
Aotian informed everyone, deeply surprising them.
Fortunately, as their leader on this mission and the sect's strongest disciple, his word was still extremely trustworthy, and indeed he was not lying.
Although he seemed to be merely lying on the grass, over the past five days, in addition to cultivating, he had been focused on infiltrating the formations of the small world, both from the inside and the outside, and because of that he had managed to extract many small pieces of information from them.
Faced with the new information, the disciples quickly thanked him and then began to talk among themselves, before making use of what little time they had left to try to improve those newly learned spells as much as possible.
Only Lei Yun had a slightly different reaction, as if he had also seen some clues. After all, aside from Aotian, he was the one who had mastered the spells the fastest, and he had also been exploring the formations of that place since then.
As an ex-Mahayana, from whom Aotian had inherited his knowledge, even limited to his current cultivation realm, he could still detect some things.
Meanwhile, hidden somewhere, observing the disciples' interaction, the mysterious figure was once again frightened and panicked, almost tearing out its own hair in confusion.
'H-How the hell does he know this?! And who are these elders he's talking about?! How do they know this?! And how can they communicate with him without me noticing?!'