Wu Huang snapped his eyes open; he was back in his physical room. Looking toward the window, he realized it was already the dead of night.
"Has that much time passed?" he wondered, rubbing his eyes. Although passing from day to night was no big deal for a cultivator, it was still a bit surprising considering he had only been reading within his sea of consciousness.
"Whatever," he muttered as he got out of bed. His mind was a bit "burnt out" from assimilating the profound secrets of alchemy all day, and he had no intention of continuing to force himself for the rest of the night.
"I will have to buy an alchemy cauldron now; I should have acquired one earlier," he lamented. He had obtained his alchemical fire by a stroke of luck in the past, but a quality alchemy furnace was something he absolutely had to acquire to put his new knowledge into practice. Although the cost was not excessively high for a basic model, it was not something he had intended to buy in the short term before the current crisis.
The problem was that he would have to wait until dawn to go to the sect's market. Although cultivators did not need as much sleep as mortals, it did not mean they would be outside all day; at this hour of the night, there would only be a small group of people patrolling or walking along the sect's paths.
"I might as well take a walk to clear my mind," he murmured as he stretched to relieve the stiffness. He took his few essential belongings and left the servants' residence.
"It's been a while since I've gone out alone; it's relaxing not to have to worry about taking care of anyone," he said to himself, enjoying the cool night air. Although the sect's landscape had not changed at all, the feeling was different coming alone compared to when he was accompanied. Especially considering that the other party was a Daughter of Destiny.
Although nothing disastrous directly related to her had occurred yet, he preferred to stay as far away as possible from her aura of calamity.
"I wonder how she is doing now, come to think of it. She is probably angry, considering that I left everything behind and fled the family clan as soon as I learned of her true nature," he murmured with a nostalgic smile as he remembered his home in the Wu clan. His time in the Wu family, although not as long as the time he spent with his family in his original world, was not short either. The moments and memories of that place were simply too abundant to forget, even in a hundred years.
"If she had been a male-type Son of Destiny, maybe I would have stayed to be his strategist. Though, considering my spiritual root talent was quite mediocre compared to my sister's, reaching the Golden Core stage before the age of twenty would have been difficult even with all the family's resources."
While thinking about those things from the past, he walked calmly along the paths illuminated by spirit stones.
"…?" He was surprised to see two figures suddenly stop in front of him, aggressively blocking his path. Looking at their uniforms, he noticed they were outer disciples; therefore, they were his hierarchical superiors.
"Do the Seniors need something?" he asked humbly, lowering his head so as not to seek trouble.
The two disciples looked at each other for a moment before making a silent signal.
"Come with us. Don't ask questions."
Wu Huang frowned internally. It was clear that something was very wrong, so he instinctively took a step back.
"Uh, this disciple has urgent tasks to do for the head of servants that cannot be delayed; I hope the two Seniors will leave this humble servant in peace."
The air turned ice-cold immediately. Wu Huang felt the combined spiritual pressure of the two outer disciples expand, forcing his body to stay rooted to the spot, unable to move at all. They were not high-level experts and it was clear they had not even reached the Peak of Qi Refining yet, but his own current cultivation did not even reach half of that stage, so resisting their joint pressure was nearly impossible.
Did I make someone powerful angry recently? No, I doubt it, he thought frantically. The number of people he interacted with daily was tiny. He didn't have bad blood with anyone in the outer sect either, so there was only one plausible option left: they were thieves, or this was related, in some indirect way, to a Son of Destiny.
He did not expect this to happen the first time he went out alone at night to relax. He cursed his terrible luck just as the two disciples quickly approached and delivered a sharp, precise blow to the back of his neck. Total darkness enveloped him and he lost consciousness.
An indeterminate amount of time later, he woke up with a throbbing headache in the middle of a dense, primordial forest.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked, confused and disoriented. He checked his hand by instinct: his Spatial Ring was completely gone.
"Shit, all my materials, herbs, and spirit stones were in there," he could not help but curse aloud. Even his disciple identification token had vanished; contacting the head of servants or using any of the sect's emergency formations would be impossible now.
"Heavenly Book, do you know exactly where we are?"
[You were dragged to the outskirts of the territory controlled by the sect; you are deep inside the wild territory of the Magical Beasts.]
Wu Huang's face turned pale as wax immediately.
"How the hell could a simple group of outer disciples get me out of the protective barrier without being detected?" was the first thing he asked with suspicion, but he quickly shook his head to focus on surviving. Using his survival knowledge from his past and present lives, he tore off his bloodied servant uniform and set it aside, leaving him in linen undergarments so as not to stand out.
"Do you know the way back to the sect?"
[Approximately, based on archived star maps, but reaching it on foot in one or two days will be extremely complicated and dangerous.]
"I know, don't worry," he replied. He had a rough mental map of the region's geography, so it wouldn't be hard to get his bearings in general. The real problem was the extremely high density of hostile Magical Beasts in the surroundings.
"The head of servants should report my disappearance if he doesn't find me at my duties in a few days. Unfortunately, only inner disciples and above possess a Soul Lamp, which allows the sect to locate them and know instantly whether they are alive or dead. They are normally used to identify the killer and prevent disciples of great sects from killing each other over resources, but for a simple servant like me, no one will launch an official, high-level search."
"What should I do now so I don't die?" he wondered, alone and resourceless in a mortally unfamiliar territory. The kidnapping was so sudden that no one would know where to look for him, and even if they investigated the trail, it would take too much time.
"I need to find a safe cave and build a small, hidden shelter with basic formations if possible," he murmured while planning his next survival move. It was not the first time he was alone in a wild forest, but considering that the monsters here easily had the power of the Peak of Qi Refining, or even the dreaded Foundation Establishment Realm, this place was infinitely more dangerous than when he wandered aimlessly before joining the sect.
"There's no use complaining about luck," he murmured as, using his limited Spiritual Sense, he cautiously checked that there were no nearby predators. He began to look for a suitable place to hide from the sight of heaven and earth. He also checked the ground and the trees to find edible spiritual herbs and fruits; now that he had nothing after losing his storage ring, he needed to gather some basic plants to prepare the essentials to survive.
At the same time, elsewhere in the sect, someone of high profile learned of what had happened through her own information networks.
"Was Brother Wu Huang kidnapped overnight?" Mu Qinlian asked, her beautiful eyes widening with a clear expression of surprise and concern.