He had the common elements covered after exploiting the Heavenly Dao's lack of consciousness.

The energy of heaven and earth could substitute for the five elements. Even the wild ones, such as thunder, wind, and ice.

Light and dark, yin and yang, life and death were another matter. They were not usually thick in the air.

His Paradoxical Devouring Art could compensate by taking what he needed from others.

The hardest were the causal power, luck. Harder still were the star borne ones, space, time, void, and stellar, the kind that did not belong to any simple mountain valley.

The hardest were the causal powers of luck. Harder still were the star-borne ones, space, time, void, and stellar, the kind only belonged in the sea of stars.

As Radeon wracked his brain for answers, he wanted above all a place where he could cover most of his cultivation needs without heavily relying on purchases of elemental stones or special herbs.

Radeon called Fay over. He knew how strangely lucky she was, the way fate seemed to loosen around her hands. He took her hand and began to divine.

His sight slid forward, past structures and roads, past camps and rising towns.

His crystal mind mapped it all at once, millions of threads intertwining through Goldkeep Crownmarkets, until something snagged his attention.

A bundle of thorny threads, tight and suppressing, wrapped around a glow of gold beneath.

Then the vision cut off. Radeon looked down at his own arm and felt a chill run up his spine.

No one chose that mountain peak, no matter how prime it was. There was a reason, and Radeon was sure it was an ugly one.

He shared only the image of the place with Fay. Not the threads. Just the location. Fay frowned.

"It... seems somewhat lacking."

"Fay." Radeon met her eyes. "This time, it's just us. Again."

"Master, would it not be better to cultivate a little longer?"

"It would," Radeon said. "But we'll be better off cultivating there."

Fay did not fully understand what he saw. She did not pretend she did.

She was learning fast, and more importantly, she was learning to think for herself.

Radeon encouraged it. If they could move together for different reasons while chasing the same goal, it would be more efficient.

He handed her a small notebook.

"Burn it after you read it," he said.

Fay opened it and saw the nature of it. A technique for communicating with ghostly things.

She had seen skeletons and flesh golems in the Ossuary Necropolis Court. Those had not frightened her.

Radeon shook his head at her confidence. He did not correct it.

Better she meet the truth with her own eyes than carry his stories like borrowed fear.

They walked toward the nearest town to the mountain they had marked, and as they neared the gates Radeon tuned his hearing to the street talk, to the rumors that clung to fear like flies.

"Any luck driving out the evil in the Voulgrim Evershades?"

"Nay. Nascent Embryo went in and came out bloody for it. One of 'em left an arm behind."

"Aye... Dirty job I tell ya. Still. Those sect folk, they've stones and cures to spare these days, don't they?"

Radeon turned to Fay after hearing the street talk.

"The espionage manual," he said. "What does it say?"

"Listen to the old townsfolk," Fay answered, sending the words through soundless qi.

They walked on without breaking stride, trading quick questions and cleaner answers in silence.

By the time they reached the site, the noise of the market had thinned into wary murmurs.

The tomb's mouth yawned five meters high and three wide, cut into the rock like a wound that refused to close.

Talismans layered the entrance, in different colors, with different wards, each marking a different sect.

Some were bright with recent ink, most dulled by years and dust.

Radeon touched the edge of one The oldest was only a few decades in. Its paper had worn down, and the last of its spirituality was gone. So many had tried, and none had finished.

Before they entered, Radeon dragged a length of cloth from his robe and tied it to Fay's robe. The knot rivalled a ship's knot, and it would not slip.

Then he thickened a thread from the spools at his belt and wrapped it around both their wrists, binding them with a line that could not be lost in the dark.

"Fay. When you're inside, don't call for me. If someone calls you and it isn't me. Don't answer."

Radeon had his suspicions about what kind of ghosts they were, but he warned her all the same.

"Whatever you see in there. Don't fear it. Don't touch anything deliberately. If you trust me, trust me on this. And if I tell you to run... Don't."

Fay's throat worked once. Then she nodded.

They stepped inside. Radeon rotated his devouring art and drew the malice out of the air in slow pulls.

The tunnel's pressure eased. Fay felt it too, the heaviness thinning. But the darkness began to swallow them. It was something no eyes could adjust to.

"Master," Fay asked, her voice barely above a breath. "Shall I light our path?"

"No." Radeon took her hand again, firm. "Memorize every step."

They walked for minutes that felt longer than they should have. A faint scent of iron, of dried blood, hung in the air.

Then a sound scraped through the dark. Metal on marble. It grated forward in short pulls.

Fay's foot came down and brushed something hairy. Not fur like a wolf. Not cloth.

Something that felt wrong against her sole.

"Master," she sent through soundless qi.

No answer came back.

The tunnel felt wider, emptier, like the walls had stepped away. Her fingers tightened and found only air.

Then she felt a breath at her neck.

Not warm. Not alive. Rot and damp earth.

Fay's legs jolted with the instinct to run. She forced herself to stay still, spine rigid, mouth sealed against a scream.

"Master," she sent again, harder this time.

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