In the end, I received no answer to my question. All that my guide said was a single sentence.
"It's not yet the time."
Ever since that time, we continued to push further and further through the path.
To my right, there was a massive forest, the scale of which was something that no forest on earth could compare. Yet, contrary to what I saw when we walked through the area barrier's borderlands, there were plains to the left.
An actual, open plain filled with grass, animals, and sun. A lovely sight. One that made me want to take a break and just gaze into the sky.
Sadly, my guide didn't stop even for a second. And while he made it clear that he didn't care if I would follow him or not, the haste behind his movements, the relentless desire to push even further, made me think that taking a break right now might not be the smartest thing to do.
We made our first stop only when the sun was about to completely disappear behind the horizon. Once its last rays started to color the air in dark red, my guide finally raised its hand, ordering me to stop.
"This is where we will set up our camp for tonight," he said. A nice improvement after his nearly complete silence back in the land of the barrier itself.
"Do you need my help?" I asked, puzzled by his words.
Set up a camp? But where did he have his tent? Where did he have any supplies necessary to set up any kind of camp in the first place?
'I guess asking about my tent would be simply audacious at this point,' I thought, tightening my hands into fists. 'I guess I can only get used to the idea of sleeping on the ground,' I lamented internally.
But my doubts were quickly answered by the sight that I didn't expect to see at all.
No, that's not right. It was something that I expected to, sooner or later, see in this world, ever since the moment I realized it was a cultivation-oriented place.
A storage ring.
The guide rubbed his thumb against the crystal mounted at the head of an otherwise plain-looking ring. And just like that, a huge bag materialized right before him.
"Help me open it up," the man ordered, not even batting an eye to check whether or not I would follow his words.
I released a deep sigh. In this place, following this man's words was my best chance at learning something more about my situation, about my destination, or literally anything that I was puzzled about.
I kneeled down by the bag and started to undo its buttons.
"Right now, you are to become a contractor disciple for the Tuxi sect," the man said out of nowhere, just as he was unveiling a huge piece of thick cloth, likely the cover that would serve us as a tent.
"A contractor? What does that mean?" I was quick to dig deeper. After all, what was the use of knowing that I was to become a contractor if I knew not what it meant?
No matter what, I had high doubts whether I would receive an employment contract and stark working day-night, twelve hours shift from now on!
"They really didn't tell you anything…" the man muttered, raising his eyes at me. They were widened in surprise.
"More like, I had no chance to learn about anything in the first place," I corrected the man's words. "The last thing that I remember is my teacher knocking me out when I attempted to take my revenge on him," I revealed without even a second of hesitation.
No matter where I was going and what awaited me once I got to my destination, nothing would change what I had already done. As such, I held nothing back when talking about them.
"You really went through a lot," the man said, a small smirk appearing on his lips. "Anyway, if you want to understand anything, we should start from the beginning, not from the end," he said, standing up from the bag even though he didn't achieve nothing with the things he held there.
"First thing first, I am a pathfinder," the man said. "This is not a name, merely the job that I'm serving. As you can guess," he chuckled, "the name is derived from what I do. I lead people through paths," the man laughed out openly.
"What's the point of this kind of job?" I asked, startled by the information. "Can't people just… I don't know, follow the path themselves?"
The man stopped laughing. His open amusement was replaced by a sad, knowing smile.
"The paths through the barrier… They are not something that your average person can go through. Trust me, even though it would mean the end of my job," he raised his eyes and looked at my face, "I never wanted anything more but for my job to become obsolete," he said.
I stepped on some kind of landmine. Ever since he gave me that feeling-infused announcement, the man turned silent.
Right now, I could only bite down on my lips with frustration and get back to setting up the tent. If the man didn't want to talk, I didn't have the power to make him. My best shot was to just obediently wait for him to speak out again.
"The reason why I didn't talk almost at all back in the barrier is simple," the pathfinder finally picked up the conversation. "As someone on edge between mortal and enlighted stage, I had to focus my entire attention just at stopping my mana from seeping out to the outside," he explained. "The moment even the slightest amount of it would leak, the devils of the barrier would pounce at us, even if we kept to the path."
Simple information, simple explanation. Yet, for how simple it is, it still managed to make my body shiver in fear.
Devils? Not monsters? Was it a common name or just a name that this man created for his own use? And even if that was the case… What made him call those monsters… devils?
"Anyway, that's enough talking for today," the pathfinder smiled as he pulled a smaller bag out of the massive one that he had in his storage ring before. "Since you don't look like someone from the richer clans, I believe you didn't cultivate with the amplification array yet, am I right?" he asked.
"Amplification array?" I asked, giving the answer to his question in my own way.
"It would take too long to explain," the man shook his head.. "Just watch."
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