A figure appeared over a certain location and slowly descended down to the ground. “Come out. I know you are there.”

“Tch… Since when do birds have such a good sense of smell?” Delia suddenly appeared and stood there looking at the woman in front of her.

“Do you think I would let my precious disciples, who I look at as my own daughters, walk around without having a means of finding them? Anyway, I have no time to bicker with you. In fact, I have come to ask a favor from you.” Elder Nishikawa hated that she had to do this, but she had no choice.

 Delia frowned, but she did not dare chase Elder Nishikawa away. She did not want Yuki to get mad at her. Plus, this woman had been very good to her Yuki. “Ask. Whether or not I can help will depend on what you ask.”

“It’s like this. Someone is helping the Roaring Thunder Sect deal with our disciples who were on missions. While this would normally not be a problem since our disciples should be stronger than the enemy, our disciples are losing badly. Over fifty are dead, and more injured or crippled. If things go on like this, we will end up having to close our doors. Our disciples will slowly leave due to inactivity and our ability to supply them with resources.

 “The Heavenly Cloud Sect will turn into  a shell and will be swallowed up by the very enemy we wish to defeat.” Elder Nishikawa did not like the thought of this. She owed a lot to the sect master and the sect, so she did not wish to see it destroyed.

“I see. And you wish for me to try to find out who is behind all of this. What you said does sound fishy. I have been to the Roaring Thunder Sect, and I know their people are very weak. But to be able to deal such a heavy blow in a short time seems impossible. I will help. I can send out some shadows and have them look into things. Come back in two days.” Delia did not like the Roaring Thunder Sect to begin with. This was why she put a hole through it.

“Thanks. Don’t let the girls know I was here. I do not want to disturb their cultivation.” Elder Nishikawa did not wait for Delia’s reply before flying off. Delia stood there and pursed her lips before saying: “All of you come out.” 

Her shadow grew bigger and bigger until hundreds of black figures appeared while kneeling on the ground. “Go find out who is supporting the Roaring Thunder Sect.”

The shadows did not respond. They just shot off in different directions. Delia’s shadow returned to normal as a sinister smile slowly crept up on her lips. “People dare to cause trouble in my domain? Who do they think they are? Anyone who dares to disturb my Yuki’s progression must die.”

Inside the underground room. Yuki was slowly forming her second rune. It was taking a lot of effort due to how intricate a rune was. Each line had to be perfect, or it would destabilize the entire rune.

“Almost there….” Yuki bit her lip. Sweat dripped from her forehead. She never thought this would be such a daunting task. It was not easy drawing even a single line. When she saw Delia do it, she thought it wouldn’t be so hard, but sadly, seeing and doing were two different things. Delia had spent hundreds of years learning how to do this, but she had only spent a few days.

“Gah! It broke!” Yuki looked at the rune that had shattered into blue balls of light and pouted. She was actually sitting away from the group because she had been a little too loud and was disturbing them. She couldn’t help it. When she was engrossed in learning something, she would either be very quiet or loud, depending on the situation.

But one thing about Yuki was that she hated giving up. So, even if she was unable to do it right away, she would continue to push forward until she had perfected the art. It took her two days to draw the run for fire and have it stable. Now, she was drawing the rune, which would control how much qi would be used when creating her fireball. There were only seven runes in this magic circle. But each rune took a lot of work to create. Until she could write them all so that they would not flicker or disperse, she could not create a fireball and actually use magi qi. 

She was determined to grow stronger outside the box. She was sure that down the road, she could refine this new skill and hopefully create spells that would destroy the knowledge of all cultivators. Her goals were in stages. First, an elemental ball of each type. Second, she wanted to work on defensive-type spells. Third, she wanted to create a few city-destroying spells. And lastly, she wanted to create a single world-destroying spell. Yuki did not realize her thoughts were a bit ambitious but with her mentality that one day she would indeed create a spell that could destroy an entire realm. But that is a story far off in the future.