15 Talents

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There was still some dry rations left, but they couldn’t just sit idly by and let their supplies dwindle away. The atmosphere among the fleeing group had become somber. The survival specialist had gone to the escort team almost every day these past few days. Ye Lu often saw the escort team running around in groups, but unfortunately, their efforts yielded little; most of the time, they returned empty-handed.

There were a few occasions when the escort team claimed to have found water, but it was only a thin layer. Sometimes Ye Lu would go over to the escort team as well, but upon seeing the shallow ponds in the small groves they found, he couldn’t help but frown—these pools were too shallow, and the water was extremely murky.

“No, we can’t use this,” Ye Lu shook his head, his gaze fixed on the shallow pond. There was water, yes, but his intuition warned him that it was undrinkable, something not even to be touched.

Helan didn’t hesitate to trust Ye Lu’s judgment. “Alright, we’ll keep moving forward and continue searching,” she said.

The survival specialist remained silent.

After returning, the scholar ghost listened to Ye Lu’s words and fell into a moment of silence before speaking: “Water is running low; it will only last three days at most.”

Ye Lu returned to the wagon. To conserve water, the corners of his lips had become chapped. He leaned back inside the wagon with his eyes closed, resting. Upon hearing the scholar ghost’s words, he opened his eyes and said, “Let’s keep waiting.”

“Perhaps there is another way.”

“Master Dao, your talent…?” Upon hearing this, the scholar ghost propped himself up, looking toward Ye Lu. He knew the master’s talent well: the Son of Mount Tai, whose connection to the earth veins was terrifyingly intimate.

The scholar ghost’s inquisitive gaze lingered.

Ye Lu said nothing.

The scholar ghost understood that even the master himself wasn’t confident. Ye Lu had a habit: if he wasn’t sure about something, he never spoke with certainty.

At this point, asking him would yield no answer.

Sure enough, in the following days, Ye Lu either rested with his eyes closed or cultivated the Qing Mi seed in the wooden box, which visibly diminished. Finally, one day, Ye Lu opened his eyes, stopped cultivating, disembarked, and headed toward the wagon of the escort team’s leader.

The two guards standing beside the leader’s wagon looked surprised to see Ye Lu, who hadn’t emerged for some time, but they made no move to stop him.

Ye Lu found Helan.

“I can go find water,” he said simply and confidently.

“Hm?” Helan was initially puzzled by Ye Lu’s words, but after a moment, she realized that Ye Lu was saying he could now find water.

She immediately suspected that Ye Lu’s talent had finally borne some fruit.

“How have you progressed so quickly?” Helan frowned, sitting inside the wagon, disapprovingly looking at Ye Lu before asking, “Have you overexerted your talent?”

The group was indeed running low on water. Everyone knew it. The mages frowned, the village elders searched and pondered old methods and experiences to find water sources. Helan had never thought of hiding anything, but it wasn’t a matter of life or death yet. She wasn’t prepared to let Ye Lu overextend his talent.

Helan valued the survival specialist’s combat talent, but that didn’t mean she disregarded Ye Lu’s auxiliary talent.

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It was just that Ye Lu’s talent had yet to fully activate. Because she valued it so much, Helan kept Ye Lu restrained, not wishing any harm to come to him.

Helan did not want Ye Lu to exhaust his talent. In her eyes, if one day they could escape this deadly land and settle in a new place away from this drought, Ye Lu would be the one to support the entire village.

Alongside him, there were his two brothers.

Ye Lu was somewhat surprised by Helan’s serious expression and sensed the genuine emotion behind her question. She truly thought this way. He was taken aback but then smiled wryly and said, “Aunt Lan, you’re overthinking. I won’t risk my safety.”

“It’s just that I’ve been cultivating more diligently lately, and my technique has seen some progress.”

Ye Lu’s cultivation had indeed made some small achievements. His strange power slowly recovered, and his instincts as the Son of Mount Tai had improved greatly. Once his talent manifested, the earth naturally transmitted many signals to him. Initially, the earth veins also sent messages, but at that time, he wasn’t strong enough to perceive them.

Now, whenever he sensed them, he responded immediately.

The only problem was that the earth veins here were rather strange, causing Ye Lu slight discomfort. He frowned subtly but showed no sign of it.

“That’s good enough. Do we still have Qing Mi seeds left?” Helan sat back down, her tone much gentler, accepting Ye Lu’s explanation. Then Ye Lu hesitated briefly before asking.

“None left,” Ye Lu replied matter-of-factly. He truly didn’t have many Qing Mi seeds left. Only during cultivation did he realize how sincere Uncle Helan’s warnings had been—Qing Mi seeds were indeed useful but consumed quickly.

“Alright, I’ll talk to the village elders about it,” Helan nodded thoughtfully. “I forgot that high-level talents require a lot of strange food for cultivation. The village should help. Aside from the necessary reserves, the rest will be supplied to you as much as possible.”

Helan saw the expression on Ye Lu’s face and understood he was genuinely confident.

The cheerful and strong escort captain took a serious tone and slowly said, “If that’s the case, then lead the way. Let us see.”

Ye Lu naturally agreed.

He rested aside at first, while Helan sent one of the guards to summon the other mage and village elders from another ox cart—namely, Uncle Helan the Third and Qian Ba Cun, plus the driver Helan the Fourth.

When the three arrived, they had already heard the news. Uncle Helan the Third slowly leaned on his cane, thought for a moment, and said, “If Lu wants to try, then let him try.”

The stone mage who came along remained silent, as it was his turn to watch over the Bronze Mirror Lady and the Qing Mi seeds and he couldn’t come over.

“Move forward!” Before anyone could ask, Ye Lu sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and after a moment, spoke slowly.

Helan the Fourth, the driver, had been silent from the start. He was an uncle Ye Lu wasn’t very familiar with—always mature, steady, and taciturn. When Ye Lu spoke, he hesitated briefly before following Ye Lu’s command to continue.

The ox cart moved forward slowly.

Behind the fleeing group, some guards had already caught wind of the news. The escort team at the front cart shouted loudly for everyone to catch up, while the black dogs on the ground stood up and kept pace with the group.

“Keep going, head toward that mountain ahead, but don’t get close to it,” Ye Lu said, unaware of what was happening outside. He closed his eyes, skillfully connecting to his instincts. His talent as the Son of Mount Tai was something he knew intimately; after so long, he could sense every movement of the earth veins.

“Go around it. The mountain is chaotic, dry, and has no water.”

Upon hearing this, the group instinctively lifted the curtain and looked ahead.

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In the visible distance, there was indeed a faint silhouette of a mountain, tinged with a half-yellow, half-green hue. In the past, they would have definitely headed up that mountain or at least sent the escort team to investigate.

But now, with Ye Lu’s warning, the stone mage looked at the mountain and found it increasingly strange—the half-yellow, half-green color didn’t resemble grass or anything natural.

It seemed more like a trap.

Especially given their dire lack of water.

“Don’t stop, there’s still a long way to go,” Ye Lu continued slowly, closing his eyes again.

Because Ye Lu’s words had reminded everyone, Helan the Fourth, who had originally been quite trusting, did not stop. Along the way, Ye Lu kept advising to avoid certain paths. Sometimes, even when there was a wide open space ahead, Ye Lu frowned and insisted they couldn’t pass.

The fleeing group detoured around a large area, bypassing several empty spots in succession. Only then did their hurried pace begin to slow.

“...” Ye Lu moved slightly and finally opened his eyes, meeting the surprised gazes of those around him. He blinked, unfazed—he had often received such looks in his previous life on the Star Network.

He showed no sign of stopping.

Tilting his head as if listening to something, after a moment he looked up and said to Helan the Fourth outside the wagon, “Uncle Four, don’t go straight onto that small mountain. Go around it. Behind that mountain is a small hill with a large forest on top. The village inside that forest is where we should go.”

“There’s water in that village!” Ye Lu’s tone was firm and certain.

Helan the Fourth didn’t hesitate and followed his directions.

Sure enough, the fleeing group bypassed another mountain and eventually saw a hill. Compared to the previous mountain, this hill was smaller, almost delicate. The forest atop the hill looked dim and somewhat bleak, uninviting.

As the group stopped, Ye Lu got out of the ox cart and stepped toward the edge of the forest. He bent down, half-kneeling, placing one hand on the ground and closed his eyes to quietly sense the area.

“That’s right, here it is.”

The group had stopped and followed behind Ye Lu, looking toward the place he indicated.

The forest was deep and very dark; even in this scorching heat, it was not bright.

Within the depths of the woods, a corner of a dilapidated roof peeked out.

Ye Lu stood up and smiled gently. Several of the more experienced cultivators instinctively looked at him.

The tall, slender youth in the teal Daoist robe stood quietly on the land, the forest behind him, his aura natural, almost blending seamlessly with his surroundings.

No—upon closer inspection, there was a subtle profundity within Lu’s aura.