Setting her from his mind, Chen Tian wandered beside one of the fields and considered his next steps while waiting for them to move. There might not be any more immediate emergencies, but he needed to gain power as quickly as possible. He had to become a cultivator to accomplish any of his other goals, plus there was always the threat that Immortal Wei or a powerful demon would come for him after all.
Though no more people emerged, when he focused, he could still see faint lines of nothingness in the air, flickering as the realm repaired itself. On the other side lay oblivion, countless demons, and every other realm.
He just needed to survive long enough to see them all.
Eventually everyone had collected themselves and the few minor injuries had been healed. Several local villages offered wagons and the Earth Guards formed them into a caravan. The youngest and oldest rode, but the others walked. Local farmers frequently called greetings, and many spoke amongst themselves, but Chen Tian simply followed and continued gathering his thoughts.
When he first came to the Nine Sacred Realms, he had been obsessed with becoming a cultivator, but now he knew better. The transition was relatively simple, but meaningless. Without any cultivation base at all, the new spiritual energy had nowhere to go, so it was the only advancement with no immediate impact, nothing but an invitation.
So more important than becoming a cultivator was finding the spiritual materials that could properly build his foundation. He could use anything from the Peaceful Earth Realm for the basic structure, but he needed something special to establish his essential core. The rest could be modified later, but the foundation and core were critical. His inexperience before had limited him at higher levels, so he had spent considerable time avoiding the same problems.
Once he had a proper foundation and materials, he could easily enter his inner realm and construct several spiritual chambers. Simple rooms to increase his strength, durability, and speed, just enough to make him less vulnerable. That would suffice to find better materials and truly cultivate himself.
This time, he intended his primary chambers to focus on defense. If he cultivated enough defensive techniques, he would be able to survive combat against opponents a full realm above him instead of being incinerated by their spiritual pressure. In his previous life, he had focused mostly on speed, but that hadn't served him well against superior opponents. It was too easy to cultivate speed techniques and he had been too vulnerable to surprise attacks.
Chen Tian walked along with the main caravan, thinking through the exact design of his cultivation base. He had spent decades considering what Bai Yuehua had recommended, and though he had refined and developed the idea, the immensely complex core of her blueprint remained. This time, he would become a cultivator of the Soul Formation stage and beyond.
Thinking of Bai Yuehua eroded his plans with familiar pain. Though he wanted to believe she had somehow survived, he knew it was essentially hopeless. She had sacrificed herself for him and he owed it to her to make that sacrifice worthwhile.
But too many questions remained. In all the years he had contemplated his experiences, the only thing he was certain of anymore was that he had been deceived, then betrayed. He was familiar with many aspects of the Nine Sacred Realms, but he needed to discard what he knew about Immortal Wei and the demons. Something deeper was unfolding and he had only been a pawn in someone else's game. That fact would burn in his mind until he finally achieved his revenge.
Since the caravan moved so slowly, Chen Tian was able to advance ahead and investigate the surrounding landscape. It was mostly the same endless farms and dirt roads, but he spotted a grove of trees with leaves that flickered like flames. Exactly what he needed. As soon as he could slip away, Chen Tian ducked into the nearest field and rushed along it toward the trees.
No one was really watching him, and the villagers would undoubtedly have given him whatever he requested. Not that it would have changed what he intended to do. He didn't know how long he had, so he needed to obtain spiritual materials by any means necessary.
Reaching the grove unseen, Chen Tian began searching through the fiery leaves. He saw a few unripe pieces of fruit, but those would never do. Eventually he found what he needed in the upper boughs of one of the central trees. The leaves brushed against him, uncomfortably warm, and he retrieved several of the burning spheres.
Flame Spirit Fruits were among the best spiritual materials available in the Peaceful Earth Realm for young cultivators. Chen Tian stared down at the fruit in his hands, marveling at the light burning from within and the tongues of flame licking over the peel. Yet despite their exotic appearance, he felt nothing from them except slightly warm fruit. For a moment he doubted himself, even though he knew it was only because he lacked a cultivator's senses. These were what he needed.
Each fruit, when consumed by a cultivator, would enter their inner cultivation space and serve as strengthening material. He couldn't build a cultivation base from them, but they would be helpful for generating spiritual qi. Though Chen Tian only needed a few, he took as many as he could carry, since they might be traded to other cultivators. Soon he had stripped the trees bare of all ripe Flame Spirit Fruits.
He worried that someone would catch him in the act, the old Earth Guard or one of the other travelers, but Chen Tian managed to return to the caravan without anyone noticing. Unable to find a proper pack, he dumped the Flame Spirit Fruits into an empty bag he found on one of the wagons. That was something else he would need to acquire, but it was a trivial detail compared to proper spiritual materials.