245 Left Alone

Jen left the Ninth Amentiferous Manias, Qiqi was still tagging her along.

\"You can go on your way back,\" Jen reminded her that she should head back to her master.

\"Since you are alone I thought it wouldn't be bad if we travel together,\" Qiqi answered sheepishly, in her fit of fury she asked to travel this far to get Yellowstone but to go back alone was a terrific just from thinking about it.

She always traveled with her master who was strong and could protect her.

Jen heard him say, she was indeed alone.

\"But I can't guarantee to protect you because I myself am not sure what unseen is awaiting in the void,\" she cannot promise anything.

\"Where do you live?\" Jen asked.

\"Nettle Manias, it is famous for Crafting and So it was better to remain at safe distance, one could only feel safe while walking in a city governed by city Archons. are many craft masters who are hired often for their services,\" Qiqi introduced her home Manias, this was the reason that she wanted to become craft master.

Though the name was little off.

Nettle Manias got it's name because it was the only human colony near the Penumbra valleys.

These valleys were bigger source for the material needed for Crafting.

\"That is not far from here,\" Jen has bought a map for the whole eastern part of the Celestial Sphere, this was far off place from where she started her journey and she needed a map for further travel.

This eastern part consist of twenty six Manias and endless number of voids that surrounds these Manias.

Few of them were small in population, \"We need to follow this line of the map and probably we'll reach maximum in ten days with brisk walk and on the condition if you don't ask for rest often,\" Jen spread the map and pointed at the directions they needed to remember during journey.

Since Jen was looking a place where she could find a Mender or some expert with ability to break the crystal bead, it seemed Nettle Manias can't provide with such expert, according to Qiqi.

\"I will not disturb this senior,\" Qiqi promised and they set for the journey.

\"This place is better than I witness in the North,\" Jen admired this place much.

The natural beauty of the place was something she never seen before.

She was thinking to not search some expert for the crystal bead and after sending off Qiqi, find a place between these cliffs for her next level breakthrough.

After walking whole day, they finally decided to rest.

Qiqi thanked for this decision.

\"This place is rumored to have the most beautiful swan lake,\" Qiqi has some knowledge about the surrounding parts of her Manias.

\"Rumored?\" Jen asked.

\"Yes, rumored because no one truthfully saw this lake personally and the elders usually told stories about this lake,\" Qiqi shrugged.

Jen opened the map again to confirm but map did not indicate such place.

\"What is exactly swan lake related to?\" Jen was curious to know, just from the name it was intriguing and picked her interest.

\"Elder told that swan lake is the reason for the lack of higher level experts in this region, because it is said that some hidden powers live here and usually those experts use some kind of essence absorption technique which causes short of essence existence for other low level Cultivators,\" Qiqi told what she has heard from her master.

Swan lake was not just a lake, it was hidden region, these powers were afraid that Xuan Rong might come looking for them that's why they built hidden region far far away from the Defender Hacienda.

Exeperts usually keep a distance from the mainstream and they rarely appear in normal events.

\"But I can feel a perfect flow of the essence,\" Jen absorbed essence energy and she could feel fresh flow along with the unique purity.

\"This I don't know,\" Qiqi was clueless, she tried to absorb but she felt the essence was sparse, she looked at Jen who was enchanted by the beauty of flowers.

She was puzzled how this senior could absorb essence with ease while it was sparse?

'Is she faking that essence energy was not rare and she is able to absorb it?' she blinked, during her journey, she did not face any of her bad etiquette or falsifying attitude.

She attached it to the mystery of the swan lake and nodded.

Jen spread her dominion and reached to the flower wines hanging on top, these were the most refresh and sending off a certain energy in the surrounding.

She plucked few of the flowers and kept them in the storage.

A man saw her plucking the specific flowers, he was displeased at her dare.

He was inside the hidden region, and taking a look out for farming this type of few more flowers but this girl took them all with her.

The flowers hold their seeds inside and there was only these few.

\"Let's move now,\" Jen wanted to study the nature of these specific, she could see the seeds inside and she was sure that it was among treasure herbs.

Both girls brisk walk until they reached the Nettle Manias, the master was shocked as well as happy, his disciple returned without getting harmed.

It was more surprising that the girl who brought her back was young genius, he welcomed Jen for a stay of few days.

Jen accepted at the promise that craft master would tell her as much as he knew about Swan lake.

\"Haha, Swan lake is the core of Penumbra Valleys, just like every Acmes Pair has a core of Node Tine,\" it seemed craft master liked to describe things in a more fascinating way.

\"We Craft masters dig out material for Crafting from the Penumbra Valley, and the Swan lake is taking responsibility to fill up the sources for long use, ah it seemed a philosophy, isn't it?\" he himself explained this way and now he felt derailed from the subject.

The whole Celestial Sphere was vast and thousands over Cultivators reach Legend Realm and they needed strong armors for practice battles and real competition, they were hundred over schools of Cultivation those ordered for armor dresses.

Before need could reach a threatening level and materials get sparse, the hidden region took this not so easy work on their shoulders.

So it was like this, Celestial Sphere was not simple sphere, there were strong powers those were holding it's core and securing under their order.

Why these powers and experts don't appear in the mainframe because they knew few weapons should be kept hidden for emergency purpose, if the upper sphere happened to know all the secrets of the Celestial Sphere, would not they come looking for a war to destroy this sphere or take hold on it's territory.

It was not that Xuan Rong was not aware but he intentionally let many hidden experts and powers live under the core and make it strong.

The day he let his granddaughter wander in the Celestial Sphere, he knew one day she will meet these hidden experts and it would increase her knowledge and experience about this sphere an it would help in her growth as expert.

But who would have known, as soon as she crossed path the region, she would offend the living expert.

She felt a lingering aura.

But it was not coming from surrounding, it's origin was her storage bracelet.

\"You are not eating,\" the craft master saw her absentmindedness and gestured.

\"I ate my fill,\" she stood up to leave, before exiting the fiber barrier, she wore her armor dress, it seemed someone wanted to settle some grudge with her.

She kept her guard up while randomly walking without setting any destination, she wanted her enemy to appear and face.

But in the end, no one appeared and the aura still kept lingering, now it was in her surrounding too.

Her caution and random walk resulted that she lost track of her path, she tried to hear with her enhanced senses but could not hear anything other than the water falling from top and some birds chirping.

She ascended to check her direction but it proved futile since each direction looked same, the expert saw her baffled and slight smile appeared, \"Now you look better with worrying face,\"

Jen rarely show worry expressions because she has learned and practiced how to remain calm and serene in unexpected and worrisome occasions.

The aura origin became uncertain and Jen could not find certain direction, still she was not worried but since senior wanted to see her worry, he thought to play around her heart which was surprisingly locked, his original plan was to make her more worried but since he cannot approach her heart, he come up with this plan to confuse her vision.

He was master Heart Cultivator but little self centered and egomaniac.