'Illusions or mental deception needs a trigger. At first level, my pupil technique can deal with all kinds of illusions triggered with vision but only in the second level will it defend against all kinds of mental plays,' Ja Sun already understood that the problem didn't emerge from the view of the forest, but the rest of it. The sound, and the scent made Ja Sun lose his path more than once. It was as if the forest itself was alive.
"Let's consider the methods we can take to leave the forest," Ah Yin stopped once they found a large rock and she bluntly sat over it. Ja Sun jumped onto a low hanging and branch and settled.
"The easiest was, objectively, will be destroying the forest. This forest is surrounded by facilities of the academy so we pick a direction and continue to cut any and every tree in our way without deviating at all," Ja Sun stated.
"That's reasonable. But we do have until tomorrow. So, instead of such a show of force, I was thinking of first trying and marking the trees for direction, but this seems hardly feasible since we keep losing our path every time."
"Instead of finding a solution..." Ja Sun frowned, "Why not find the cause of the situation? It's as you said, we have until tomorrow. All this time, we have been trying to leave. Let's try finding the root cause of the puzzle. Maybe we'll get a good surprise," Ja Sun jumped down and stated, "I propose that we count our steps and with each step forward, we look back."
"Let's give it a try," Ah Yin nodded.
Since they would always lose their paths, it was a matter of time before they found that the area behind them would magically change after every 256th step. After trying this three more times, both of them were confident in this rule of the forest.
In this period, they came across two more rogues like them but all the parties only kept to themselves without interacting much. Especially one of the youths who remembered Ja Sun and was robbed by him.
Next, Ja Sun and Ah Yin would each leave an individual mark on the tree at their 256th step. They didn't have any expectations. They continued to walk in the same direction. At every 256th step, they would mark the tree. Although the duo got hungry in the process, they didn't eat anything in fear that they will have to give this mystery up due to running to the toilet.
This process lasted 16 times before Ah Yin and Ja Sun encountered a tree they had left their marks on.
Both of their expressions brightened and they added another mark on the tree before following the same direction and once again, they found another tree. This one did not have the new mark.
Now, Ja Sun and Ah Yin didn't need to walk further to discover that after 16 sets of 256 steps, they will start to truly move in the circles.
"This means that we pick a direction, mark it for 16 times and if we manage to leave the forest by then, well and good. If not, we'll pick another direction and try again," Ah Yin smiled.
"This wasn't the result I was hoping for," Ja Sun sighed. As Ah Yin moved forward after picking a direction randomly, Ja Sun followed behind calmly.
"Set Mission." He mumbled under his breath. This was one of the restrictions of his trait. Without voice activation, it wouldn't work.
[Set Parameters.]
"Leave this forest and find an enclosed spot without anyone else nearby.
Additional Objectives:
1) Leave this forest within 10 hours.
2) Leave this forest within 8 hours.
3) Leave this forest within 5 hours.
4) Leave this forest within 3 hours.
5) Leave this forest within an hour."
[Objective: Leave the Array Forest and find a secure, enclosed space.
Optional Objectives:
1) Exit within 10 hours.
2) Exit within 8 hours.
3) Exit within 5 hours.
4) Exit within 3 hours.
5) Exit within 1 hour.
Mission Rank: F-F-F-F-F-F
Mission Rewards: Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment.
Time Limit: 17/10/8/5/3/1 hours.]
Instead of accepting it, Ja Sun suddenly stopped.
"What happened?" Ah Yin looked back.
"Give me a moment," Ja Sun replied with a distracted expression and sat down next to a tree.
In his heart, Ja Sun felt that he had struck gold.
By now, Ja Sun had created and completed many S-ranked objectives. These accomplishments were more dependent on Luck and skills than anything else. The opposite can be said true for the lowest-ranked mission.
This indicated that this world is far more dangerous than his previous world since an S-ranked mission can be encountered easily.
When the mission rank is set, the trait will only calculate the personal comprehensive abilities. This means that to achieve an S-ranked mission, Ja Sun can always try and get external support. This was relevant when he used armies to break his opponents.
Currently, the simplest method to leave the forest is flying out of it. The trait knows that Ja Sun is perfectly capable of flight so the restriction of time to increase the difficulty of the mission wouldn't work. Instead, adding constraints like— leaving the forest without flight/deforestation, may increase the difficulty substantially.
If it was a year ago, Ja Sun would have easily increased the difficulty of the mission and would have strived for the greater goal. That is his path as a mission junkie. But right now, when he observed the mission, he suddenly had a sense of insight. As if he discovered something new.
S-rank missions were surely important. But Ja Sun pondered on his current insight.
Suddenly, his eye opened his eyes. Beneath his mask, there was a slightly incredulous look.
"Set Mission."
[Set Objective.]
"Leave this forest and find an enclosed spot without anyone else nearby.
Additional Objectives:
1) Leave this forest within 600 minutes.
2) Leave this forest within 598 minutes.
3) Leave this forest within 596 minutes.
4) Leave this forest within 594 minutes.
6) Leave this forest within 592 minutes."
"What is going on with you? Are you having a stroke?" Ah Yin frowned but Ja Sun waved his hand and continued to mumble. Since the mission is set on voice command, he cannot state anything else or he would have to start over again.
Soon, Ah Yin heard what Ja Sun kept mumbling and her expression turned strange.
After all, as if possessed by a ghost, Ja Sun kept wishing to leave the forest in x minutes!
After mumbling rapidly for 10 minutes straight, Ja Sun looked slightly dazed.
[Objective: Leave the Array Forest and find a secure, enclosed space.
Optional Objectives:
1) Exit within 600 minutes.
2) Exit within 598 minutes.
3) Exit within 594 minutes.
4) Exit within 592 minutes.
...
67) Exit within 466 minutes.
Mission Rank: F-F-F-F-F-F...-F
Mission Rewards: Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment—Leaf of Bewilderment...—Leaf of Bewilderment.
Time Limit: 600/598/596/594.../466 minutes.]
Leaf of Bewilderment is a form of influencing substance used by the 'evil' cultivators to make their targets, usually, ordinary men and women, dazed. Ja Sun didn't spend such a long time because of Leaf of Bewilderment. It brought Ja Sun no substantial benefit even at a high number.
Ja Sun stayed and silently observed before nodding in satisfaction.
In his previous world, a Trait is born with living beings. Most men and women pass their entire lives without knowing the trigger of their traits. Even Ja Sun found his trigger with the help of his Teacher, a renowned Trait Tutor. But, nobody has ever claimed to understand their traits fully. Events like today allow an individual to gain a deeper understanding of one's trait.
For instance, Ja Sun can now place himself in a situation where escaping is easy. If the lowest-ranked reward is something that is barely beneficial and may be a great treasure in a higher number then he can use this method! Ja Sun had found a new form of mission. Though he hadn't created an S-ranked mission, it still brought a great deal of satisfaction to him.
Finally, Ja Sun began to set the real mission.
[Objective: Leave the Array Forest and find a secure, enclosed space.
Optional Objectives:
1) Complete the objective on foot.
2) Complete the objective without the act of damaging the forest.
3) Complete the objective by figuring out the mystery of the forest.
Mission Rank: F-E-E-C
Mission Rewards: Leaf of Bewilderment—Robust Sandals—Forest Nymph's Bark—Blueprint of Qi Strand Array.]
Ja Sun looked at the rewards. Most of them were useless, or looked useless but he accepted it nonetheless.
"I'm not having a stroke," Ja Sun replied to Ah Yin's weird gaze.
"If you believe so. I didn't know you really liked to talk with yourself and set motivational goals this much," Ah Yin rolled her eyes at his eccentric actions.
After all, she was incapable of seeing the visual of his trait. The only hints leading to his traits were the verbal commands and the materialization of his rewards.
Ja Sun stood up and began following Ah Yin.
A part of the mystery of this so-called Array Forest is to understand the length of it— 16 sections of 256 steps each. Now, the other mystery should be the ability to find the correct direction.
With luck and probability, they would eventually leave the forest, but that wouldn't mean understanding the forest itself. Now that he had spent a long time within the forest, he wanted to solve it even more.
'16... 256... All I know is that the exponent of 16 is 256. Maybe the next mystery is related to the number 4? The square root of 16 is 4, after all... Four directions?' Ja Sun continued to pull straws.
Suddenly, Ja Sun stopped again.
"What now?"
Glaring at Ah Yin, Ja Sun hissed, "Think how foolish we both have been..." his words made Ah Yin startle as he continued, "If 16 times 256 steps were really the full length of the forest, wouldn't we have left regardless?"
Understanding flickered in Ah Yin's eyes. It was true. If they had already walked a full length of the forest, then they should have come out of an end of the forest since its area doesn't expand infinitely.
"We were too focused on the strangeness of this forest," Ah Yin realized her mistake. Ja Sun, too, wasn't just focused on the puzzle but also his newfound understanding of his mission.
"What if we have been seeing it all wrong?" Ah Yin proposed, "If we assume that the previous time we walked 16 times 256 steps, all we covered was a large circle... then if we step laterally, we will either get closer to the center, or the perimeter of the forest. Instead of walking straight out of the forest, what if the path itself is circular in nature?"
Ja Sun made a mental map and checked the feasibility of this method.
It was just like Ah Yin stated.
With this method, they will either get closer to the center of the forest or the exit.
If compared to an ordinary solar system, the center would be the sun. What Ah Yin proposed was to jump over the orbits and change their pattern of revolution. Either they will get closer to the sun or exit the solar system entirely.
They acted on this theory. After completing one 'round', they stepped to their left and completed another. But instead of stepping to their left, they turned right, and indeed, the marked trees from the first 'orbit' were right there. Once again, the duo stepped to their left, returning to their regular orbit, and then, they stepped left again.
After completing yet another round, they stepped to their left and they finally saw the clearing through the gaps of the trees again. Glancing at each other, the duo completed this round, too, and naturally, they entered the clearing.
This clearing was the same as before. In fact, there were a few people present but none of them having any noteworthy mark to be remembered by. Ja Sun and Ah Yin glanced at the destruction of the trees. Broken and splintered. But their expressions were strange. Theoretically, they just revolved around this clearing, and yet they didn't find any destruction at all.
"You two... did you find anything?" A scrawny youth walked towards the duo. His expression sharp and somewhat unyielding as Ja Sun and Ah Yin nodded calmly.
"Will you tell us?" The man instantly pulled everyone already present into the conversation. Gazes converged around the duo. Caution was filled when they looked at Ah Yin but everyone still tried to pressurize the duo for information.
"We're going to be classmates, of course, I don't need to hold back," Ja Sun replied with a calm tone, "360 steps mark one section in the same direction. 18 sections mark one rotation. To reach here, we had to complete 6 rotations. If my guess is correct, the numbers should be the same everywhere in the forest."
"Are you telling the truth?" The youth hurriedly inquired.
"Why? Afraid?" Ja Sun sneered but didn't say anymore. In fact, he glanced at the rock with a slightly dazed expression.
"Did you break the rock?" Ja Sun inquired while moving towards it.
"Yes, someone might have taken his frustration out on the rock," a masked individual replied.
There was a faint intuition in Ja Sun's heart that the large rock in the clearing had something to do on the matter. However, unable to find anything strange, the duo left after a few minutes of rest.
---
"Father, you look positively busy." A calm voice distracted Qian Daoliu from his attention on Ja Sun and Ah Yin. His figure was, in fact, over the partially constructed Supreme Pontiff Palace. Even with such a distance, Qian Daoliu could see everything clearly. In comparison, Qian Xunji couldn't see anything at all from this distance.
"Taking the two of them as disciples are based on their talents. Cultivating them will be based on their natures. Of course, I will be busy. These two punks are my only disciples," Qian Daoliu smiled calmly and Xunji sat beside him. In fact, both of them sat on the shoulder of the giant sculpture of a beautiful angel with multiple pairs of wings.
"How is it?" Xunji inquired.
"Why would you have interest in my disciples?" Qian Daoliu replied with another question.
"Of course, I cannot measure them myself even if Dong'er is present there. But I would like to know certain aspects and make appropriate plans."
"If you're talking about Ka-ul's variant martial soul then it does seem incapable of raising the cultivation speed of a third party. If I have to make a guess, then there may be a few changes during his second awakening."
"Oh? Father, you seem sure that Elder Crocodile will share his experience on Second Awakening despite what Ka-ul did to Yu Xiaogang."
"So, you did know Yu Xiaogang's real name," Daoliu chuckled, "Call him by his real name in front of Crocodile from now on."
Seeing that Qian Daoliu wouldn't be clearing his queries, Qian Xunji's gaze glittered momentarily.
"It is certainly gratifying to see father taking interest in worldly affairs."
His words would feel quite simple to an ordinary bystander but Qian Daoliu couldn't help but chuckle uncontrollably.
"Martial and Political never interact well. It is in the benefit of the Spirit Hall that us father and son have different, parallel paths."
Both of them glanced at each other, their gazes revealing an eerie light as Xunji finally gave a smile and flew away. Seeing his back, Daoliu's eyelids twitched before he ultimately shook his head. With greater interest, he gazed in the direction of the forest within the Spirit Academy.
'Hehe... it is impossible to solve it with just figuring out steps and rules. But it is quite gratifying to see that they still hadn't chosen an alternative path.'
***
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