Swish!

An intricate and detailed leather map was unfurled on the stone table in the courtyard.

Lin Xun picked up a rune brush and drew a red circle around Haze City before beginning to carefully inspect the rest of the map.

He had bought the map at a bookshop after leaving the Rune Master Association. On it was the detailed topography of the empire’s thirty-four provinces.

Xue Jin walked over and took a glance. He took the rune brush from Lin Xun and casually traced three routes on the map. Each marked a different path from Haze City to the Forbidden City in the north.

“These are the three roads that are connected to Haze City. The west route passes through thirty-seven cities and over a hundred mountains of varying sizes with plenty of danger zones amongst them. If you choose this route, your journey will be filled with unpredictable variables.

Xue Jin spoke in a confident and experienced voice, “The east route passes through the Spirit Burial Sea. If it was another time, this would be the safest route. However,...