The rest of the journey to the pillars was very calm—Xue Yanluo almost forgot the place they were in was dangerous while picking up a couple of skills from members of the Five Eternal Seals Sect.
The problems they ran into on the way to the pillars were drastically fewer, and encounters with wild beasts were minimal. Naturally, the Five Eternal Seals Sect began to take the lead, guiding everyone with great control, avoiding whatever difficulties could be avoided, and even predicting ones that might arise.
Something else Xue Yanluo noticed was how few people they had—not even reaching a thousand, six hundred at best. That led him to ask one of the members the reason for their small numbers, and the answer was that there was no reason; the numbers now were the same as when they entered.
Xue Yanluo approached the person who had received him when he first joined and asked, "What are the three elders who lead the group called? I can't quite remember their names…"
The woman let out a small laugh before answering with a smile. "Don't worry, it's not your fault. My lady—the one with two braids—is the Mistress of Currents; the elder to her right is the Master of the Sun, and to the left, the youngest of the three, is the Lord of Transition."
Xue Yanluo raised an eyebrow as he heard the names, trying to find the reason for such strange ones. Unable to contain his curiosity, he asked, "Where do those names come from?"
The woman only smiled and shook her head, with no intention of saying more. Seeing that Xue Yanluo didn't seem about to push further, she said her goodbyes and headed toward the front.
Xue Yanluo turned away, though he still had more questions, watching where she was going, and learned to hold his doubts in. With such a sure-footed march, Xue Yanluo and the others let go of some of their worries and focused on learning a few spells from the disciples.
He tried the regular spells first, but Xue Yanluo and the other two couldn't perform them as vampires; then they moved to more physical techniques, which also failed to work on them.
At that point the group stopped five kilometers from the pillars. Every second not spent resting was a wasted one, and hundreds of tents went up at great speed, each one driven into the ground to hold itself in place.
Seated in his chair with great ease, Xue Yanluo rested in his tent surrounded by Bao Qingcao and Hua Zhenfeng. The three of them discussed their thoughts and doubts about the reddish energy, which ended up being named blood energy by Bao Qingcao. Everyone accepted it, having nothing better.
Bao Qingcao wiped her lips with a cloth and looked at both of them across the table. "None of the spells I've learned have worked."
Hua Zhenfeng nodded and added, "I even learned the simplest spell they could teach me and still got nothing."
Xue Yanluo had also tried using spells, even learning some from older members of the sect, and although he had grasped the theory after some time, using them was impossible—and hearing the others, his worst suspicions settled in.
Being vampires had already changed their meridians and the energy they used, and that had already given them the idea that they wouldn't be able to use normal techniques, but confirming the hypothesis was more painful than they expected.
"Let's wait until I reach the next level before we close off our possibilities entirely," said Xue Yanluo. The more blood he took in, the more he felt that his body might evolve once it was full.
The feeling his words gave him was like filling a glass slowly, taking great care that it wouldn't crack at any point.
At that moment, Xue Yanluo heard a chime sounding at the tent entrance, produced by the privacy talisman he had placed to block any sound from leaving the tent—and that chime meant someone was knocking.
Hua Zhenfeng stepped out to see who it was and came back immediately, looking at Xue Yanluo with a grave expression. "My lord, it's the Mistress of Currents. She wants to speak with you…"
Xue Yanluo tightened his hand into a fist and sighed. "Let her in—you two wait outside while we talk."
After both had left, the Mistress of Currents entered the tent—her two braids now resting over her shoulder and falling down her chest—and sat in the chair across from Xue Yanluo.
"Have you thought about marrying one of my daughters?"
Xue Yanluo frowned and narrowed his eyes, only looking at her.
The Mistress of Currents laughed and told him, "You shouldn't take things so seriously here. I came about another matter."
After a few seconds without her speaking, Xue Yanluo asked, "What matter?"
"A little longer and I'd think you didn't care to know why I came," she laughed. "Fourth Prince, what do you think of the world?"
Xue Yanluo's eyes opened wide, surprised by the question from the woman in front of him, because her matter was a philosophical question. What was he supposed to answer? As he thought, he suddenly noticed something and knew how to reply. "It's dangerous—you never know when one might die. We're lucky to have allied ourselves with your sect."
The woman's brow creased, though her actions contradicted it as she nodded. After that, she said her goodbyes to Xue Yanluo and left the tent. Just before she did, Xue Yanluo heard her sigh and look up at the sky.
Hua Zhenfeng and Bao Qingcao came back into the tent and quickly went to ask Xue Yanluo the reason for the lady's visit.
"I don't know… I don't know what her reason was, but I'm sure I didn't give her the answer she was looking for."
"What do I think of the world…" Hua Zhenfeng murmured to one side.
"It's hard to know what she was looking for with that question," said Bao Qingcao, taking her seat again.
"Leave it," said Xue Yanluo, lifting his shoulders. "Maybe there's something hidden in the world, and we haven't noticed it yet. Possibly she wants to see if we've discovered any secrets after noticing that we placed a talisman to keep our conversation private"