In the heart of the Red Dew Barony, amidst its mystical landscapes, Luotuo found himself grappling with a new challenge—one greater than any he had encountered before, whether as a human or a beast. This formidable adversary went by the name of... a map.
"Well, I may be exaggerating slightly," he chuckled to himself, glancing once more at the perplexing piece of paper he had painstakingly copied from the archives. "Surely, the writer could have made things more clear?"
Nevertheless, as he attempted once again to locate the site of his transformative llama-to-human experience, the map, depicting the diverse terrains of the region, seemed determined to keep its secrets hidden.
"The elusive spot where I turned from a four-legged friend into a two-legged enigma!" Luotuo mused, recalling the words of an elder who had also requested him to remember its location. Peering at the map's intricate depiction of the Ancient Devil Forest, he pondered, "I distinctly remember seeing some kind of tall grass, or maybe a sentient twig, after eating the fruit. So that's got to be the forest, right? Though it might just have been the tea glade. They really should label these things more clearly."
As he continued scrutinizing the map, Luotuo's attempts at pinpointing his location became a whimsical dance of misinterpretations. "And then there were the Wood Lion Pagoda Ruins!" he exclaimed, marking a random spot on the map far away from its actual location. "I think it was guarded by a squirrel with aspirations of greatness, or was it a tiger made of living wood? Details!"
His gaze shifted to the Red Dew Mountain. "Ah, the big red mountain! I remember taking a right at a majestic boulder," he declared confidently, marking an open field on the map. "Or was it left? Regardless, not diagonal—definitely not diagonal!"
In his quest to find the exact spot, Luotuo's navigation skills seemed as tangled as the Ancient Devil Forest itself. "Grey River, Hinterlands, Lake Tawei—wait, is that Orange Mountain?" he wondered aloud, his pen marking spot after spot he felt he had remembered through the fog of his existence before the transformation. "It's like a surprise guest on an already confusing journey!"
Despite his earnest attempts, Luotuo's adventure in cartography led him down a path of delightful confusion. With a chuckle, he folded the map, resigned to the fact that unraveling the mysteries of his transformation might require more than just navigating paper and ink.
As he finished marking his perceived locations, he confidently approached an inner disciple, eager to pass on the information to the Elder of Flowers. Handing over the map, he explained the significance of each spot, only to watch as the disciple furrowed their brows. The interconnected points on the map formed a gibberish route that made no sense whatsoever and terminated inside of the sect mess hall. With a kind smile, the inner disciple gently informed Luotuo that the locations marked were obviously wrong, some even absurdly placed inside the sect itself. Luotuo's attempt to convey the tree's location resulted in a friendly correction, leaving him with a humbling realization that the Dao of Direction might indeed be a cultivation technique yet to be mastered.
