Chapter 1,378 – Explorer’s Guild

“An Explorers Guild introductory signet?” Zac muttered. “It makes sense. We’d already figured doppelgangers would try to infiltrate through one of the student groups, and the Explorers Guild is a good option. But how do you know she was an invader? She could’ve just been someone who’d been invited to the guild.”

“She has a few items that emit traces of corruption. They’ve been scrubbed, and the environment would eventually do the rest, but for now, they carry a hint of the other side,” Esmeralda explained while fiddling with the ring. “Secondly, the ring itself is a clue. It’s genuine and from the main timeline, but there’s something off about it. My sixth sense is telling me it’s been modified somehow.”

The toad handed it over in frustration a few minutes later. Zac initially couldn’t find anything unusual. He couldn’t even spot the “wrongness” that Esmeralda referred to. There were only two simple arrays inside. One worked much like his Outer Sect Token, pointing in the direction of a fated location. The other was a security array meant to protect against forgeries.

Neither warranted Esmeralda’s reaction, but Zac would be a fool if he discounted her vast experience with treasures. Zac kept looking, even putting some pressure on the arrays with Void Energy to see how they’d react. Still nothing. Just as Zac was about to give up, an errant streak of the Lost Plane’s corruption drifted past their boat.

“What do you think?” Zac asked, nodding at the corrupted energy. “It would make sense if it’s modified by the doppelgangers.”

“Give it a try, but don’t go breaking the arrays,” Esmeralda said. “Getting another one is a pain.”

Zac nodded and took out the [Peregrine Almond] from [Purity of the Void]. He’d expelled all the Lost Plane’s corrupted energy from his Purification Space upon discovering the almond, and he wasn’t about to expose it now that it was secured. Instead, he stowed the treasure in a Jade Box and handed it to Esmeralda.

“I’ll help you nourish its spirituality until we find a matching Treasure Array,” Esmeralda promised.

Zac nodded and drove the small boat back toward Monkey Island. It was the only source of corruption nearby, which was why they’d come to investigate in the first place. The energy density wasn’t anything to write home about, and it took an hour to accumulate enough for the experiment and some spare enlightenment in case of emergency.

The lack of communication and the steady stream of Miasma and heavy Death provided by his other half indicated that the situation in Saṃghāta remained stable. It also meant that they hadn’t found what they were looking for. Zac didn’t mind spending another week waiting. It was a great training spot and decidedly more comfortable than Poised Meadow’s constant mental harassment.

Progress was slow but smooth on the other end. They’d reached Kabaton without any further surprises. There was one powerful local of Poised Meadow who’d been rattled by the upheavals and launched an attack. Killing the massive island proved impossible, so Zac and Ogras teamed up in a protracted battle until reaching the memory domain.

It was as though Tavza had expected a sea of Holy Life to sweep through the sealed realm. She’d timed her own spirit’s awakening perfectly and used the tsunami to quench its spirit in Imperial Faith. Her award actually ended up being slightly above Ogras’s, which was already quite generous.

They spent three days in Kabaton, though not out of their own volition. Like in Transformation Docks, there was a challenge followed by a worship ceremony. The event was greatly scaled back compared to Transformation Docks, and there was no sudden invasion of doppelgangers. The Theomore Dynasty’s representative to the Hollow Court wasn’t even present. Apparently, the court had instead prepared a special event one year into the future for those who managed to reach the outer court in time.

Tavza was challenged by a Lightbringer of Ultom who must have been blind. It resulted in a crushing defeat and a sizeable boost to the An’Azol descendant’s Imperial Merit. After leaving through a realmgate, they reappeared in the Hollow Chasm. Apart from the four days it took to find the hidden passages to the next gateway, they’d stayed in the Third Hell since.

Saṃghāta was also called the Crushing Hell, where the deaths caused by one’s hands were transformed into a crushing pressure. That realm should normally be kryptonite to someone like Zac, whose victims were too many to count. However, the sealed section of the Third Hell had clearly seen some modifications, and the Imperial Fate he had accumulated acted as a counterweight to the pressure.

With Zac’s extraordinary collection of Fate, the world’s weight had been transformed into a bearable pressure that quickly helped him stabilize his upgraded Void Vajra Constitution. Saṃghāta’s unique Miasma was also the energy most effective at advancing the Eoz bloodline that Zac had found in a while. Of course, it still had to go through the refinement of [Void Heart] or his personal Void before it could be absorbed—and preferably out of Tavza’s sight so as not to raise any further questions.

Therefore, Zac was on a constant lookout for body-tempering Natural Treasures while they searched for the exit and whatever hidden quest would help reintegrate the Third Hell into the Left Imperial Expanse. So far, the former goal had proven more fruitful, though Tavza had caught onto clues of a vast, ancient array manipulating the Crushing Hell.

Since everything was in order on the other side, Zac focused on his own matters. He swept through his body with his Daos a few times to cleanse the remaining foreign energies before extracting a streak of yet-refined corrupted energy from [Purity of the Void]. Ignoring its unhinged whispers, he controlled it with [Void Forge]’s spiritual threads, infusing a small amount into the Explorer’s Ring.

The tracking formation showed signs of corruption damage when Zac tried infusing the energy, and he quickly switched to the authenticity array. That worked much better. It smoothly absorbed a sliver of the Lost Plane’s energy.

“That settles it,” Esmeralda said.

“Can you tell what it’s doing?”

“It’s a hidden, secondary authenticity pattern,” Esmeralda said. “The normal arrays at the Explorer’s Guild won’t notice the difference while invaders will be able to use these rings to find compatriots.”

“If they need these kinds of methods, they probably won’t know the identity of the other invaders. We might be able to infiltrate their inner circle,” Zac said, though not very hopeful. He was painfully aware that such missions weren’t his strong suit. “What do you think? Should we head back to Westharbor and gather information or follow the trace?”

“We should head to the Guild Headquarters directly,” Esmeralda said. “The Natural Formations spanning the Peregrine Isles were hundreds of times more complex back then. If we visit Westharbor, we’d never reach the headquarters in one round. We’d have to exit again, wasting precious time. Besides, we know enough about the guild already. What we don’t understand can be explained by being new arrivals.”

“You’re right, let’s go,” Zac agreed, adjusting the boat’s course.

Saying that the Peregrine Isles were a hundred times easier to traverse in the present wasn’t far from the truth. The freshwater archipelago they saw inside the memories was a boundless, confusing water world filled with natural disasters and unpredictable phenomena.

There were whirlpools that would either grind you to dust or send you a million miles and two dimensions away. Only experienced travelers had a chance to know which was which ahead of time. Some islands were illusions, others hidden in spatial folds that required precise positioning. Just as many were transformed by powerful Temporal Energies, requiring precise timing to visit.

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There was no fixed map of the archipelago in the four harbors surrounding it, only incomplete routes that couldn’t be completely trusted. Naturally, there were many hidden routes kept private, and the methods to visit the more valuable islands were tightly guarded secrets. Most disciples had no choice but to leave things up to fate, hoping they’d encounter opportunity rather than calamity on the high seas.

The Peregrine Isles had lost much of their mystique since the Mercurial Court fell. The archipelago didn’t appear to be connected to the true Peregrine Ocean, and it completely lacked the ocean’s deadly aura of spatial decay. It was isolated like the corner of Poised Meadows, and eons of being cut off from its source had led to significant spiritual decay.

Most of the Natural Formations had collapsed entirely, exposing the islands they hid. Countless spatial layers and illusory realms had been streamlined into at most a dozen, making it both easier and safer to explore. The only added danger was the rifts leaking corruption. The Peregrine Ocean’s unique properties clearly made the connection between dimensions and timelines easier, so the number of rifts was more numerous than what they’d seen from the rest of the Mercurial Courts.

This led to an excessive prevalence of Qriz’Ul, but there were thankfully not many C-grade monstrosities around. Thus, following the ring’s signal was much easier than originally intended. The experience was a lot like flying above a punishing mountain range instead of crossing its winding trails. They only had to make the occasional detour when sensing dangerous Qriz’Ul, and they had ample time to go over what they knew and plan their next step.

The Explorer’s Guild was one of the most famous local factions, and they knew the basic information without specifically having to research the matter. With the Mercurial Court’s off-hand, bordering on lazy, approach, there were students who decided to organize things themselves. There were plenty of groups spread across Citadel.