Tevial leads the servants back to where Anton is currently preparing some meat to be smoked.

"Master! We've got some people from the caravan coming over!" He cried out, taking Anton's attention from his work.

"Great job, Tevial" Anton praised. "I'll take over from here."

Anton fished out a couple of qi stones from his belt bag before giving them to Tevial. "Here's some qi stones for your trouble. Explore the merchant stalls and buy yourself something good"

"Many thanks, master!" Tevial said in a giddy tone before running off.

"That kid" Anton muttered while shaking his head. Tevial may show intellect above ordinary people, but he shouldn't forget that he was still a kid at heart.

"Now, to get back to business," Anton said as he faced the servants.

---

Tevial didn't immediately go back to where the caravan had set up. He first needed to confirm something with the stone-shaped egg he had bought.

So he went back straight to his bamboo house before anything else.

Taking the stone-shaped egg from his sack. Tevial took a meditating pose on the ground and pricked a small wound on his finger.

Taking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused his vital energy on the tip of his wounded finger before pressing it into the stone egg.

Before his eyes, the rock turned a shade darker before coming back to normal. “I was right hehe…”

A malicious glint appeared in his eyes as he laughed. Normally a mortal doesn’t have any use for an artifact given that they need qi to be activated but Tevial was anything but a normal mortal.

In his memories of the future, around a hundred years from now, a couple of demonic qi masters innovated a way to refine fresh mortal bodies into blood qi containers. This allowed them to power artifacts and techniques with qi without using their own, allowing them to fight enduringly long battles as long as they have fresh mortal bodies to use.

It became a controversial topic at that time, enough that the orthodox path had joined together to annihilate the cultivators responsible for its existence. Knowing about the danger to their lives, the perpetrators disseminated the technique out of spite. Tevial, as one of the members of a righteous sect at that time, had come into contact with the technique and had strived to alter and improve it in secret.

He had naively thought that it could be used to do good and improve mortals' lives, to allow them a way to create qi to power useful artifacts that could help mortal towns and villages. Unfortunately, his research has been deemed heretical and unorthodox after being found out. In the end, he had been exiled and hunted down for dabbling in the demonic path.

But that doesn’t matter to him anymore, that future had already ceased to exist.

With the Silent Darkstone Egg at his hands, Tevial altered his plans for the future. Although it is only a rank 4 artifact, its use could make his future a lot more smooth sailing than he had initially expected.

Now, all he’s lacking are some materials. Pulling himself up, Tevial walked as he let his eyes wander around his house. He had to hide the artifact, although it has an innate ability to hide from the senses of cultivators. It was better to be safe than sorry.

He couldn’t even use it now without proper qi, trying to activate it fully with just his vital energy would end up draining him whole and turning him into a dry husk.

Turning over some patches of wood from the floor, Tevial dug deep into the mud below before placing a small sack containing the egg-shaped artifact into the hole, covering it up with dirt a while after.

The act didn’t leave him presentable, with mud caking his robe and dirt stuffing his fingernails. Not a dignified sight he could present while mingling with the caravaneers. Someone might think he’s a street rat up to no good to lounge about in that place.

Tevial changed his robes and washed his hands. It was a little bit later in the afternoon at the moment and he’s got some qi stones to spend so went straight back after his little bit of cleanup.

Looking over the merchant stalls, Tevial found himself walking towards a particularly large carriage that emanated an overpowering smell of herbs as he got closer.

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Beside the carriage, there are two particularly mean-looking beasts that looked like a love child between a tree and a horse tied to a post, nipping at each other's leaves that were growing on the crowns of their head instead of hair.

On the carriage, a crest of a tree shaped as a shield was drawn above its opening and a surly-looking old man with deep wrinkles and a pointy nose sat bored by the counter.

"Hello, elder!" Tevial shouted, staring up into the carriage's window where the old man was slouching.

The old man didn't react to his words for a moment or two before the old man's eyes slowly darted down to look at Tevial's s form.

"What do you want brat?"

Tevial frowned, "Sorry for taking a bit of your important time elder but my master had tasked me to buy some herbs for him." He said as he lowly bowed his head.

"At least you have manners." He muttered before asking, "Do you have a list of what your master needs?"

"No elder, but i have had it memorized!" Tevial answered, puffing his chess as though proud of his achievement.

"Go on then, I've more important matters to attend to." The old man waved off before adding. "And make it fast, I'll beat you with a stick if you waste my time."

Not a second after, Tevial iterated over 15 different herbs at the merchant before stopping.

"Half of those when combined with one another are potent poisons. Who's your master, little brat? I'm not about to sell those herbs to someone who might use them for something so nefarious" the old man squinted, and unsightly expression appeared on his way as he questioned Tevial.

"It's for qi beasts elder! My master hunts boar beasts regularly and wants to create potent boar poison in case he meets something deadlier than a regular boar in the ivory forests" Tevial explained. "Please help me with his request elder. Master Anton is a righteous man and has taken this in this orphan and had changed my life. I would hope not that he met a day that he didn't have boar poison when he needed it, than a day that he did have it and not need it"

Tevial gave the elder a pleading look but the old man only gave him a flat state before picking at his nose.

"You've got a way with words brat" The old man said before flicking his finger. "If i found out that my herbs had been used for something bad, I'll skin your hide and pull out your tendons, you hear me?"

"Yes elder! I understand! Your herbs will only be used to save a life sir!" Tevial replied, bringing out a sack of his qi stones.

Although he had only asked for scraps to Anton when he had started his apprenticeship. As a personal disciple. Anton gave him a weekly stipend of some few stones he had saved up years working as a butcher.

Tevial used all of it for this purchase.

As Tevial walked back to his house, he sighed. "It seems like I'm broke again"

Aspiring for greatness for cultivators truly isn't cheap but it was all worth it if his plans worked. If it didn't, it would set him back a bit but it was no problem to Tevial. He had already planned for failure just in case.

Refining blood qi containers would no doubt be a huge help. He had already balanced out the risk between the rewards and found it a worthy gamble.

Being able to hide from cultivators as a mortal and coupled with his comprehension of the cleaver arts, his killing capacity would rise up a notch.

Killing 2nd to 3rd realm qi masters would not be out of his reach as long as he could sneak in and draw first blood.

A good slice with his cleaver to the unaware would be a devastating strike.

Nodding his head at the thought, Tevial stored his variety of dried herbs inside a couple of clay jars he had at his home.

He had to be thorough in sealing the jars lest their potency dwindles too quickly before he could use them to refine the blood qi containers.

By his estimate, at maximum, he has a month before the herbs would become unusable in their state. He was no expert herb master in his past but he had dabbled a bit in his own time.

Despite his expertise and memories, he was treading on new grounds. If he had qi it would have been much simpler. He would not have needed as many herbs, only the required qi, and some materials to refine a fresh corpse into blood qi containers.

Now he had to substitute a lot of the materials a cultivator could naturally provide and turn it into a natural process for the blood qi containers to appear.

With those in mind, Tevial started to scheme. He knew a couple of people who wouldn't be missed if they suddenly disappeared.

Most of them were lowlifes or dregs in the village contributing little and instead causing a bit more harm than good with their existence.

Tevial had to choose a good target. He couldn't just willy-nilly kill someone from the streets and cause a commotion.

In his current situation, he couldn't risk his position in the village. He was still too weak so he had to plan according to his needs.

As his mind wandered, his hands continued working to seal off the herbs. There were only a couple of them left as his eyes shone with intense light.

"Fuck" He grunted as he crushed the herb he had at hand in pain. His vision swirled and felt a migraine coming in as pins and needles stabbed at his brain.

Breathing roughly, Tevial forced himself to calm down and grit his teeth under the pain. Pushing himself up, he staggered over a basin of water and moved it towards the flickering light of his candled lamp.

Staring at the pool beneath him, a few drops of blood dripped down his face and into the water.

Tevial saw his face in the basin and caught the brief image of the artifact he had used to transmigrate back a thousand years into the past reflected in his eyes.

The infantile face, trapped in an agonized expression.

It was only present for a brief moment before it disappeared along with the pain in his head. It wasn't a clear image but he was sure of what he saw.

The fragment of the old dreams. It was still with him. Or rather, within him.

"This is bad... Shit" Tevial muttered grimly. It was a Rank 8 artifact, a fragment of one or rather, it had been believed to be a part of a destroyed Rank 9 artifact that had formed into a rank 8 under the natural refinement of the world.

The issue with his situation is that it was currently attached to him. An item of unfathomable means was inside his squishy and weak mortal body.

It was a thing of great joy but also of immeasurable dread. It was a surprise to him that he hadn't exploded yet from containing the artifact in his body. Only immortals could wield immortal artifacts.

Tevial surmised that currently, the artifact had little to no energy left after being used by him back then. The issue now is that it's currently recovering its energy slowly as time goes by and with its unique power and his insight when he used the artifact.

He had an idea of what was allowing the recovery of the rank 8 artifact residing in his head.

It was devouring his dreams.