Some Small Moves

After bidding Daoist Wanzhi farewell, Wang Ping skirted the pavilion, crossed a narrow mountain-stream path, and returned to the broad jade road. Looking up, he saw not a single Six Hearts Sect disciple on the road. Even Tong Jing, who had guided him earlier, had vanished without a trace.

Wang Ping let out a breath, which formed a wisp of white mist in the winter wind. He then raised his head to gaze at the soft, feeble winter sunlight, recalling every word he had exchanged with Daoist Wanzhi.

"I thought this quota was some tangible object like the True Sun Sect's Fire Spirit. I never expected it to be nothing more than authorization from above." Yulian communicated with Wang Ping in the Spirit Sea. "How do they control these quotas? Without their permission, would they eliminate someone even if that person successfully advanced?"

Wang Ping withdrew his gaze from the sky and walked back along the original route toward the Six Hearts Sect's main gate. He replied within the Spirit Sea, "Wood Spirits are born within cultivators and nurtured by the Huai Tree Soul. They are not absorbed and fused like the True Sun Sect's Fire Spirits."

"So the Wood Spirits they nurture are limited in number, or perhaps, like Fire Spirits, they are individual entities divided from a single whole. It is just that they exist differently from Fire Spirits, right?"

"All of this is only speculation. Do not let preconceived notions take hold!"

Wang Ping gave Yulian a very serious reminder.

Whether Fire Spirits or the Wood Spirits Wang Ping currently cultivated, all their conjectures were merely conclusions drawn from exchanging experiences. They did not yet possess the strength to verify those conclusions.

Yulian was silent for a long while before replying, "To those True Lords, we are