My eyes locked onto Dao Xuan's new halo, and I was instantly pulled into the prophetic dream of her future chance!
The more 'petite' of the four big-titty jade beauty sisters lived well beyond this adventure, and after going back to the Five Elements Sword Mountain Sect, she realized she was still the weakest out of her siblings.
But one thing I noticed very fucking quickly, weirdly, was that even with how I saved her right now... According to her Halo of Destiny, her other sisters, besides Dao Xu, were still supposed to die.
For stupid as fuck reasons as well! Dao Mengdi in this new timeline is supposed to die because one of her seal's she got from her mother. Whom her mother got from Cai Xun, Zhu Yuan's own master, was apparently very old from having been in sitting around since she herself was at the Foundation stage.
So she literally died because the beast blood ink in the talisman fucking faded away with age in certain spots.
And that protective talisman she was so confident in. Utterly failed to activate entirely. She was hit directly by the Void Mantis's arm blades which tore her in half from shoulder to waist.
Dao Tuobi likewise still died in a couple of rooms at the true swampy floor room. Where a massive Blood King Leech dragged her underwater and into a deeper area where we couldn't find her.
And in those cases, the 'me' in this display of events was somehow utterly blind as to what would happen. And it told me something very important.
That to the 'fates' of this world. I was a sort of blind spot as it just seemed in the predestined fates of others. I was just a passerby who would have little effect on their fates unless their fates were completely broken, like with what I had done with Dao Xuan here.
But besides these other deaths, I believed I could prevent. I continued to watch as Dao Xuan, depressed about Dao Mengdi and Dao Toubi's death in the future, would come back to Shanghai to reminisce about her lost sisters, apparently.
And from there, she would roam around Shanghai before entering a public market and having her chance... Which was the cliche nonsense, as she came across a large vase, she thought her mother who was also depressed, would appreciate.
As the vase itself was part of a series made by a semi-famous artist who was long past, her eldest sister, Mengdi, also used to collect. And within that millennium-old vase that was stolen from a true immortal millennia ago and lost for countless years.
Was an ancient cultivation art. The Crimson Tides Yin–Yang Scripture a 'Low' heaven-ranked Cultivation Manual that could literally take you into the ranks of immortals without any muss or fuss.
[Disclaimer- The Crimson Tides Yin–Yang Scripture only works if the practitioner has both a high-ranked fire and water spirit root that is equal to themselves. Or the fire being the stronger. Otherwise, any attempt to cultivate this cultivation manual will result in the user dying horribly- Screaming and drowning all the same as their lungs and liver filled with boiling spiritual water.]
And with that immortal cultivation art, she shared it with her older sister Dao Xu and me for how I saved her life in order to repay the life debt. With that immortal-ranked cultivation art, she shattered her ceiling of talent!
She defeated her rival sister in the Water Sword Mountain range with a punch. She brought honor to her mother and even kicked her mother's own rival in the lower level elder at the peak of Golden Core.
But then...
She died because Dao Xu was a fucking dumbass, and with her own growth in power, and the Calamity Gu that, for some reason, I gave to her. To simp for her for some dumbass reason that made zero sense.
She got entangled with a peak Nascent Soul demon who soul searched Dao Xu to get that immortal cultivation manual, and learned the original was on Dao Xuan. The demon killed her after camping and waiting outside the Sect to wait for her to leave and be alone for a perfect strike for thirty years.
After seeing the beautiful form of Dao Xuan's shattered corpse that had been smashed almost entirely into paste via the demons 'Hell Refining Cauldron'. I could only hold in a gag at the mental image.
And with that, I couldn't help but think. 'This Dao family really just seems to be courting death with how they dared to take the name of 'Dao' to begin with... Why do none of them die in a remotely normal way?'
Still I shook my head as I muttered inwardly. 'And this cheat this girl found... It barely even worked for her because she didn't have enough time to evolve a proper Fire spirit root to match her primary water spirit root.'
In order to cultivate this manual, you needed an extremely strong fire spirit root which, when burning, would constantly purify the water spiritual qi your water spirit root puts out, this purifying of fire, boiling away the water qi would in turn give the user extremely pure spiritual qi.
This could allow the user to abuse even lower-quality pills with ease!
I refocused as things still weren't over with in this room, as Dao Toubi cut a Sword Whisperer out of the air with a flourish of her sword that was akin to a wave's strike.
I took back control over the Wood Fire Cannons beneath our feet, and with loud thumping noises. More balls of Beast Fire was shot into the surrounding burning trees as I aimed for the Sword Whispers that were trying to hide in the burning willow branches.
And with Dao Xu, Dao Xuan, and Dao Mengdi with their ice and water spells. We were able to easily keep the lethal lashing oversized stickbugs away from us, so they just died in the forest fire I made.
But after the fight, I cleared my throat and said calmly as I stepped forward away from the girls. "Dao Xuan, you need to adjust your clothes."
As when I saved her life and saved her from being utterly disembowled, she still got the front of her robes cut open.
Which exposed a deep view into her cleavage and snow white chest that in a glance, turned apple red as she squeaked and covered herself before leaving my sight as I walked forward.
And while Dao Xu and Dao Mingdi helped her quickly fix her robes or even put on a new one. I woudn't know as it's not like I peaked as Dao Toubi approached me as I was collecting the burnt and ruined corpses of the Sword Whispers.
As these dungeon monsters would be useful to me to say the least. Whether it was for handing it in for a discount on some flying swords. Or just selling them in general for resources like spirit stones and herbs.
Dao Toubi reaching me, then said quietly. "Thank you for saving my sister's life. I owe you a life for saving one of my blood."
I wasn't sure if she was offering me her life in repayment... Or offering to kill someone for me. With sword cultivators who were the default cultivator murderhobo's it was almost certainly the second option.
Then, silently, Dao Toubi stayed close to me. But kept herself busy looting the Sword Whisper corpses.
I didn't say anything about her picking them up. As, even if I was going to carry this damned raid with this silver haired beauties who had seemingly courted death at the crack of dawn to spite fate itself.
I only demanded all the alchemy resources that I would need for the future.
And in that vein I went up to the willow tree's and I realized that just straight up throwing the tree itself into the farming space. Would be very fucking weird to anyone's view.
So I disregarded the willow tree as they didn't seem that valuable either with their mostly mundane nature.
"Uhm, thank you again Jake." Dao Xuan said quietly as she with a new robe but still the same style, approached with a light flush on her face.
And then Dao Mengdi gave a light chuckle before she said. "Wait till mother hears you saved you Xuan'er. You are in for an interesting conversation, I imagine."
With that said, I said helplessly. "Well, we already dealt with this room basically. So let's get going to the next one... Besides the Sword Whisperers themselves, I don't think there is anything else of major value."
Dao Xu hurriedly nodded and said fiercely. "Yes! We need to get out of here as soon as possible! Because I am going to have mother beat that bastard who labeled this mission for early Foundation Establishment cultivators with a hammer!"
I coudn't help it. I asked with a chuckle. "Why with a hammer? Does your mother actually use a hammer as her main weapon."
My face twitched as Dao Mengdi responded with amuesement. "No, she does use a sword as her main weapon... But she is slightly infamous for an incident in which she did beat a couple of people to death with their own forging hammer."
Whelp that was certainly something.
But as for the Dao matriach who apparently beat some dudes with their own forging hammer in particular. She wasn't something I needed to focus on. As after taking a breath, we began making our way towards the next region.
'Alrighty then... This region isn't so bad actually. There is just some oversized lizards with strong venom and the craggy land only has a couple herbs I am interested in as well.' I thought.
And after sharing what the monster's were like on this floor, we kept together as we walked through the craggy badlands style giant room with those giant lizards that were the size of a large dog trying to attack us whenever they sensed us.
But unlike those Sword Whisper's they didn't have a major stealth and suprise factor. So with the rather open terrain for the surroundings. We were able to kill them with our spell casting without letting the poison smog spelling lizards get close to us.
[Desert Octagon Root- Aged fifty years in medicinal energy- Use is in the refinement of Yang/Solar themed elixirs in which this herb has a powerful effect in amplifying pure yang and solar energy.
Should the elixir being formed have any lunar or yin medicinal effects, the decoction will violently explode.]
That was a pretty interesting herb I found a few off at various levels of growth levels. The rest of the herbs and plants weren't anything special on the other hand.
Though I wasn't sure of it's innate value in case I wanted to sell it. But on the offside, that highly toxic yang treasure I got from that yin-yang Mountain Milk pool could be the core ingredient of a powerful pill for one thing.
And as we hit the next room, I realized this was the room in which Dao Toubi was supposed to die in. As in but a couple dozen steps, our feet sunk into the swampy water that then came up to our knees.
In the distance the air was filled with a heavy slow moving fog that covered up the top of the water in the distance. Along with dark almost rotting looking swamp tree's that I knew would be filling the waist high water with grasping roots that would be tripping us up.
"I don't suppose we could jump from tree to tree could we? Or that Dao Mingdi, could you freeze us a pathway or a sort of boat for us to travel in?" I said with a grimace at the thought of traveling through this swamp.
It didn't help as the beautiful Dao Xu actually snorted and said tauntingly. "Aren't you supposed to be some kind of supreme genius Jake? Don't you have a lightness technique to be able to run across water?"
To which I said flatly. "No, sadly I was too busy establishing a Heavenly Foundation to learn how to walk on water in the couple months since I have been cultivating."
My face smack of a reminder that I was a once a normal mortal with no access to any cultivation techniques made the four girls look awkward. No doubt that they had spent at least a decade or more cultivating to their level.
A level in which I was already stronger than.
Dao Mengdi nodded and said calmly. "Besides, as Jake already pointed out. With a boat of ice, we can reinforce it and take our time dealing with the inevitable threat that lies in this room. I am rather worried about giant spider's hiding in the tree's above us actually."
I shook my head and I pointed out towards the fog before I said bluntly. "Nope. This room is filled with alligator type monsters, see."
And to prove my words, I took out a corpse of one of the toxic lizards we killed in the next level and with a heavy of force. I controlled a root I summoned up to throw the dog sized lizard corpse into the fog.
There was a loud splash in the distance and the girls just gave me a weird look before I held up a hand for them to go quiet... And after another thirty seconds there was a hissing roar before a series of loud splashes as one of the probably dozen gator monsters on this floor tore into the bleeding corpse that attracted it.