Preparation For Exodus- II

Inside Lu Clan's head office four elders gathered to further discuss the feasible and better action plan that they should carry out. They were not able to think any differently from what they have already been agreed upon. Therefore the private meeting was called off.

Then they went inside the clan hall. The clan members were already gathered inside. Altogether there were around 140 members inside...32 members among them were 1st generation of the clan, simply known as senior elders, including the Clan chief and 3 ranked Elders. They were all in the rank of Alleviation Realm with differences in the stages of the cultivation.

And another 86 members belonged to the second generation popularly called instructors. This group of people were in the Initiation Realm in differentiating stages.

The rest of them were the senior prodigies of the younger generation who were led by their parents to experience the proceedings of the clan meetings.

After calling out 10 Pinnacle Stage Initiation Realm cultivators among instructors by their names. Lu Taio, the new Clan chief said, "As we have discussed before, we shall send these 10 instructors to Blooming Lily Town tomorrow to gather information about the current situation of the town.'

He instructed them directly, "Each one of you shall go to the respective areas of 10 powers of Blooming Lily and study the power distribution in each area and also the occupation of various clans residing in that area. Analyse the market opportunities too. Look for the safest area for settlement, ask for prices of the land, taxes and the cost of living. I am giving you a month and a half to complete this job. Do not forget, you are going only to gather intel so try not to provoke anyone. Lu Bao, you shall lead them in this mission and remember to bring them back safely."

"Yes, Father, I will not let you down," Lu Bao replied.

"Any questions?" Asked Lu Taio.

No one answered back.

"Good, now you may leave." Lu Taio ordered.

"Wait," Lu Donghai voiced.

"Old Hai, what now?" Lu Taio remarked, with a little irritation. He knew that the clan members still treat Lu Donghai, who is now demoted to 3rd chief elder with the same respect as the clan head, which he didn't take it well.

"Calm down Chief Taio, it is only a minor issue," Donghai replied and turned to the Instructors standing in a group.

"Instructors, I have a personal request to make, I ask all of you to bring me back the list of all the medicine available in the market, their costs and the quantity of the stock available," Donghai requested.

"It is no big deal, we shall look into it," they responded.

Fully irritated, Lu Taio ordered, "All of you are dismissed."

That same evening Lu Donghai and Lu Yehan came by Lu Xiang's home for dinner, uninvited of course. Every one of them was present.

Lu Donghai urged, "Xiang, my son when you go to town tomorrow make sure to accomplish my request that I made in the meeting, try to convince others too."

"It's not your first time going there but you be careful and come back safely," He added and dabbed his son lightly on his back.

"Don't worry father, I shall fulfil your request."

The puzzled Lu Yehan asked, "What up with this medicine thing Old Hai? What are you up to, you won't be bringing me here for nothing, is it?"

"I'll tell you after dinner. Yehan, tell your son to look after my request too, that silly Lu Taio gets irritated too quickly. He may tell his son to ignore my request, I fear that Lu Bao would listen to his father and try to meddle with my request," said Donghai and chuckled mysteriously.

Later at dinner Arthur, who was sleeping in the next room woke up, hearing his grandpa and grandpa Yehan's voices he asked, "Grandpa Hai, did you call the elders to introduce me?"

"I brought your Grandpa Yehan only. For now, we will just keep it to Yehan. We will tell Lu Taio and Lu Fang later. If you can come up with a feasible solution for this crisis then we will tell them. They won't harm our clan members but the fewer people who know about you the better, " Donghai answered.

"Now, just be a baby and go to sleep, don't disturb your grandpa while he is eating a chicken leg," teased Donghai. Arthur was speechless.

After dinner when Lu Yehan took out his pipe to smoke and signalled Donghai to share his secret Donghai advised, "Don't smoke, come with me, and don't overreact when I tell you my secret."

Arthur rolled his eyes, his grandpa was being too overdramatic. He sent a mental message to his grandpa, "Hmpff! Show-off."

His grandpa laughed weirdly adding more confusion to Lu Yehan.

Donghai said, " Yehan, do you still remember the incident that happened with Sansan?"

"How can I forget it, the whole village knows about it too." Lu Yehan replied.

Donghai sincerely conveyed, "Of course. Of course. When we killed that old monster it left a spiritual energy source for Sansan nurturing Sansan's soul constantly, therefore, maturing it faster than the growth of his body. In other words, his soul has reached the soul size of a child of 6-7 years. So, he can use mental power to communicate."

Disbelieved Lu Yehan retorted, "Impossible! Stop playing with me old Hai, to use mental force to send a message one should be at least at the rank of Skilled Practioner."

"Hehehe! Sansan, your grandpa Yehan doesn't believe you," Donghai said loudly.

"Show-off!"

"Grandpa Yehan, this is me Sansan," said Arthur. (Bomb dropped)

After an entire episode of shock and drama when finally Lu Yehan cooled down and started to digest the things that happened before him Lu Donghai said, "I was about to tell all of you but Lu Taio annoyed me so I called you only."

Lu Yehan, who was still in hysteria mumbled, "Sansan will never face a bottleneck in cultivation till Skilled Practioner. By the time he reaches the Skilled Practioner Rank if his soul grows more, he will face no bottleneck after that also. He is absolutely a genius born once in thousand years. Our clan will rise again, we should make sure he survives this crisis."

Then he recalled what Donghai said and muttered, "Old Hai, don't tell about Sansan to those two fellows for now. When trouble comes people changes, they have the same sentiment we share for the clan but they were the first to blame Sansan when that incident happened. Let's watch their actions and see if they deserve to know about our secret." Lu Donghai nodded in agreement.

After waiting patiently for the drama of two old fellows to end. Arthur said, "Let's discuss our next course of action."

Lu Donghai then updated Lu Yehan about the vague conversation that he discussed with Arthur regarding how Arthur might find a way to avert the danger enshrouding the clan.

"Sansan, we are sending ten people tomorrow to town for inquiry and I have told your father to bring the medicine list from town. Now, tell us your plan Sansan," told Lu Donghai.

Arthur thought for some time and respond, "We should send some people to crooked rock fields, Clouded-snake grooves and Sticky milk swamp to study topography. He hesitated for a moment and continued if we can trap and kill Bull-blood Bear in the Snow-capped mountain ranges that will be the best place to live."

Both the grandpas retorted fearfully, " Sansan, that is a place where no one goes."

"Exactly!" Arthur exclaimed. But, they understood it oppositely.

They tried to clarify saying it was a very dangerous place and if they go to such places then they will die, particularly the younger generations.

Arthur said, "Listen to me first. Yes, it is because of the danger that no one goes there so if we manage to survive in that place no one will know about our existence. We cannot move too deep inside the Jinzhi forest. Not only it would be far from human civilisation... and we need to trade with others too. But it will be very dangerous, we do not know about the monsters living there. If we settle in the outer safer region of the forest, many hunters will cross our path exposing our existence, and the Liu, Bai and other clans of the surrounding village will certainly attack us. Why didn't we ever think of going to another village then, instead of looking for a town where our strength is at the bottom. You guys already know it better, one or two families migrating will be welcomed but the whole clan like ours will not be tolerated by any other village. One fat clan living alone in an isolated area will always be a good target for robbing and we will be easily crushed. See, we have enemies everywhere, whether we like it or not."

Both Donghai and Yehan we're completely amazed by Arthur's farsightedness. They were wise too but they looked through a tactical lens only. 'The clan is in peril so we should escape' that was the only thing filling their minds and even though they planned about settling in town but most of it was left to hopes of encountering good fortune. Arthur was different from then, in his previous life he rose from ashes to billionaire, and he travelled between continents either doing the smuggling business or signing deals. His mind was already in a different category.

Arthur continued, "Let me first talk about clouded-snake grooves and sticky milk swamp. The name of the place comes partially from clouded snakes and the groove is surrounded by groves so I don't know how the latter half of the name originated. Clouded-snake groove has many layers of thickets encircling the whole groove, the map shows that the groove is an elongated valley with freshwater streams flowing in it. If we get rid of the clouded snakes the groove can be a paradise. The clouded snakes only attain the cultivation level equal to the human Intermediate Stage Alleviation Realm before they die so it is not stronger than you guys. But they are too numerous and they hide in thickets, those trees are too dense and penetrating them is not easy. To kill them we have to lure them out from time to time but if we want to kill them entirely we need at least 10 to 20 years with the interval of every year luring them out. For that, we need to make traps and then obtain enchanting-aureate-lotus to lure, I think we can get them from the market without difficulty. Another solution is to acquire 'desolate-rain-flower' and its seeds...it is not costly however, it might not be available in our region. It grows in desert soil near magma, only in those places, it can sprout. But, it can be planted in many places. Planting it in the valley can ward off the snakes and if we carry the seed in our body no clouded snakes below expert stage alleviation realm cultivation can come near us. Once we get desolate-rain-flower, killing them won't not necessary, they will help us to keep away the intruders and act as our line of defence."

"Did you read the Codex of 10000 plants and Radiant tomes on beast by Emperor Jia?" Donghai questioned.

"Yes, Aah! I have finished learning radiant tomes on beasts but my mother got bored and read-only half of the codex on plants to me. If I.."

Before Arthur could finish his sentence Yehan interjected, "Did you decipher radiant tomes, how did you decipher? What, you have already memorised half of the plant codex?"

"What's there to decipher it is only like a jumbled-up book you just have to interlink the notes to the right codes and see through it. I didn't memorise, I remembered it when mother read to me." Now, he was taking revenge on his grandfather for showing off and annoying him, this was the real show-off, sneered Arthur satisfactorily.

He then said, "Please don't interrupt, let me continue...Sticky milk swamp is more troublesome, milk poison frogs, metal hide crocodiles, sticky devil mosquitoes live there, we can solve the above problems by simply using plants and herbs available in our village except for crocodiles but they not much in numbers, we can kill them and they are weaker than our instructors. The main problem is the swamp, we have to build many strong and resilient boats to travel. And for houses to live we need to construct either wood scaffoldings or a huge platform made of stones and dirt. The pests living there will annoy the explorers to keep away. It won't be very difficult but the environment is not good for healthy growth."

"Bull blood bear generally lives alone and its highest level of cultivation falls below the tribulation realm. If it is a male, it's fine but if it happens to be a female and has a cub, a male bear also should be in the vicinity. In that case, it will be a huge problem for us. If there is only one bear and we kill it then we can live in its territory. The territory is pretty safe within the confinement of three snow-capped mountain peaks with a river as its opening. There are two possible chances for a bear to live in that area, either the bear comes for hibernation only or a mother bear residing here to safeguard her cubs. For food, we can fish in the river, for meat and wood we need to cross the river. Although there should be a narrow passage in the east area it will be covered with snow for half a year. The territory is far from human civilisation so we can be safe from invasions. For transportation, we have to build riverboats, the river doesn't get frozen because of hot springs upstream so we can use boats throughout the year. There is no mention of river monsters so we need to survey it first. This is possibly the best place in my opinion."

"Lastly, the crooked rock fields. It is almost barren and hardly anyone goes there. There are no dangers from the environment also. On the north side, there is a small stream flowing, we can reside nearby. The only problem is that river dries up in the winter and we will need to go four Li (2 kilometres) to fetch water from the nearby river. For food, we go more than six Li (3km) to hunt in the forbidden forest so it is not an issue. The main reason why this is my last resort is that it is too open, there is no natural defence, we can be spotted from far too. Chances are low but some hunters might go there to spend the night in refuge if injured or fallen sick while hunting, then we may get discovered and once we are found we will be finished."

Arthur said, "These are the places which I chose according to the terrain and natural defences. This analysis is only speculations derived from the book and maps, from discussions with my mother and father so without proper surveys of these places I cannot guarantee completely. Do send people to examine them."