Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

Yep, there it is.

The world around him slowed to a halt, stopping fully as the seconds ticked down for him to make his choice.

Uhtred scanned the choices quickly. Without a second thought, he selected the third option immediately: Examine the maps.

That was what he was going to do from the start anyway.

Even though he was ninety percent certain he was being watched, he couldn’t be bothered to waste time trying to locate the watcher. This was simply too good of an opportunity, and he didn’t know when a window like this would open up again.

It was far better to get his hands on the maps now and deal with any questioning later. At least then he would have scanned through the regional geography and formed a clear mental image of the surrounding lands.

The moment he confirmed his choice, time snapped back into motion, and his legs carried him forward naturally.

He moved with purpose until he reached the restricted shelf, reaching out for the first leather scroll he had been eyeing. He unrolled it right where he stood, using his perception to take a mental snapshot of the layout.

He scanned the scroll broadly, raising a brow in mild disappointment.

This one only shows the An clan and its immediate surrounding territories.

As a member of the righteous faction, the An clan was surrounded by several neighboring righteous sects. The territory controlled by the An clan was fairly large, but compared to some of the other major sects outlined on the parchment, it was clear they weren’t as massive a player in the region as he had originally assumed.

If I leave the clan, which direction should I head?

There were a few names on the map that even Jor-than — a lowly warrior who knew practically nothing — had heard rumors about: the Wudang Sect, the Righteous Sword Sect, and the Righteous Fist Sect.

The fact that a random outer-sect warrior like Jor-than had heard of those three factions meant they were either on exceptionally good terms with the An clan or maintained constant diplomatic and trade contact with them.

Those are complete no-go zones then. Uhtred mentally struck those three names off his list of potential escape destinations.

Still, he quickly plotted general routes toward those three factions just in case the situation turned chaotic and he needed a fallback direction. He located the shortest paths, identified winding mountain trails, and used his high mental attributes to lock every detail into memory.

I need a larger map... one that shows the entire world, most preferably...

Uhtred looked up, rolling the first map back into its original binding and returning it to the shelf. No hidden guards had stepped out to confront him yet, but he was certain that every scroll he touched would be thoroughly inspected after he left.

He scanned the higher rows of the shelf until he spotted a heavy, dust-covered leather cylinder tucked deep inside an upper rack. Reaching up, he pulled it down and wiped off the thick layer of dust coating its surface.

He unrolled it without wasting a single second.

Fuck yes!

Laid out before him was a sprawling map that showed an extremely large area. It wasn’t a world map like he wanted, but it was a map of an entire continent.

He spotted the An clan immediately, situated at a tiny corner just on the equator to the north. He also located the three righteous sects from the previous map, along with dozens of other major factions he had never heard of before.

He could clearly see all of them together, named on the map broadly as: "The Righteous Sects Alliance."

Their domain dominated the northern half of the continent, spanning major trade routes, fertile valleys, and sprawling coastal regions where maritime trade flourished.

There were countless bustling cities and territories up there where an escaped warrior could easily blend into the crowd and vanish forever.

None of those northern regions appealed to Uhtred, however.

Instead of looking north, his eyes drifted down toward the equatorial border where the An clan was situated. He scanned further south, where a vast, dark region was simply labeled: "The Demonic Cult Domain."

By all logical reasoning, this was the last place anyone would expect him to go.

Aside from being the domain of the mortal enemies of the An clan and the entire Righteous Alliance, from the way it was drawn and written on the map, it seemed like some sort of no-go, lawless wasteland.

Which was precisely why Uhtred wanted to go there.

To an inhabitant of this world — especially someone raised inside a righteous clan — heading south was unthinkable. Jor-than, the previous body owner, had literally died on a battlefield fighting against warriors from that very cult.

Jor-than had literally died fighting against people of the demonic cult. Even if he were to plan an escape, he would never run to the land of such vicious people.

But Uhtred was not Jor-than.

He studied the map carefully, planning a route that would take him in a direction as though he were heading to the territories with greater population not far from the An clan. He could then follow a different path into the lands of the demonic cult in the south.

He analyzed several routes quickly, noticing every major point along the way so he could remember.

He spent a little over a minute examining the large scroll, keeping strict track of the passing seconds in his head. He didn’t want to raise too much suspicion and break his cover.

Right now, what he was doing could still be written off as the excitement of seeing a map that showed the entire continent. However, studying the map for several minutes was going to be too suspicious.

With quiet reluctance, he rolled the map back up and set it back on the rack.

To cover his tracks, he picked up three more random maps and two historical books detailing basic summaries of nearby outer clans. He needed to dilute his trail so that anyone checking the shelves afterward wouldn’t immediately deduce his intended direction.

He continued this routine for nearly fifteen minutes, casually flipping through books on regional faction structures, noble clan lineages, and basic geographical overviews.

He gained a solid baseline understanding of how the surrounding sects operated, even if the written records inside an outer library were slightly outdated.

He didn’t find a single record detailing the inner workings of the Demonic Cult, which was a shame, but he accepted it as a blessing in disguise. It meant there was no direct paper trail linking his reading choices to the southern territory.

When fifteen minutes passed, no guards had appeared and no alarms had been raised. Satisfied that he had extracted every useful bit of intelligence from the room, Uhtred calmly set the final book down and walked out of the library.

He had gotten what he wanted already. The next thing was to make his exit.

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