Xia Xuefeng Interlude 6: The Vault

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Tian Feifei blinked in shock at Xia Xuefeng's words. When she had heard that the girl had rejected the guidance of Karmic Merit and refused to join the Son of Heaven society, she had been utterly confused. Now, she could understand somewhat. The look of furious resentment in her eyes... It reminded her of herself when younger.

"You resent us for doing nothing about the Shadow Pit? I can't blame you... The Son of Heaven Society has long stood against the Port's dangerous and misguided policy of festering such evil below their own soil. We have, however, always lacked the power or influence to force the Sect to make such a drastic change. If what you say is true, I would thank you on behalf of all the mortals consigned to that hellscape."

"That only proves my point. You can't go on and on about how I have to join the Son of Heaven society to help people if I've already been more effective than you without even joining it!"

"No, in fact, precisely the opposite. It took a Commodore to make the change you wanted, right? Of course, because in this world, only power matters. Those with power may oppress the downtrodden, slaughter mortals and more. Only by acquiring our own power to counteract evil does Good have a chance to succeed." Feifei's voice rose with zeal.

"Few cultivators spend any of their time doing the almost thankless task of protecting mortals. Of all such cultivators, Ji Longyi is by far the most talented in countless generations. He represents an opportunity for a real change to the status quo. True extermination of the unorthodox. Anyone who cares about saving mortals from Demonic cultivators should be fully on board with aiding his rise in any way they can, regardless of personal grudges. He's our only chance. Are you really going to put a petty grudge over aiding the most talented karmic merit cultivators in generations?"

Xia Xuefeng raised an eyebrow skeptically, scoffing. Petty grudge? It was a lot more than that! And the reverence for Ji Longyi was just bizarre. With the way the pretty girl described him, you'd forget he was a man and not a god.

"Only chance?"

"You feel the Karmic Merit in the air around this place, right? It was once home to a Pavilion of the Heaven-Rejecting Conference. They used mortal women with Yin affinities as cultivation cauldrons. Once they had forcefully extracted every drop of Yin energy they could, the few women unlucky enough to survive were used to... repopulate the reserves. Often by their own fathers. The organization that preceded the Son of Heaven Society was called the Anti-Demonic League. They knew about this location but did nothing because the amount of mortals killed was 'not worth' the loss of assaulting such a well-defended position." Feifei's voice was flat and dead as she spoke.

Xia Xuefeng shivered in disgust, feeling the urge to vomit. She remembered Bing Meilu's strange insistence that Demonic cultivators shouldn't count as humans. At first, she had thought the idea was absurd. Biologically, they were human, and it wasn't like there weren't evil orthodox cultivators... But every time she interacted with them, first in the Shadow Pit, and now, the more she became convinced that it was a fully warranted assessment.

"For generations, it continued. Daughter after daughter. Until, one day, Ji Longyi himself found out about it. Despite having just ascended to Core Formation with a barely stabilized foundation, he charged the Pavillion by himself and cleansed it, killing three Nascent Souls demonic cultivators singlehandedly! Praise be to him!"

The reverence in Feifei's voice would make even the most devout Buddhist nun seem like a wicked whore in comparison. In a sense, it wasn't unwarranted, at least to Feifei. After all, Nascent Soul cultivators were more walking phenomena than men. They could erase cities as easily as breathing, teleport, and unleash esoteric abilities that targeted the soul rather than the body. For an early Core Formation to kill one, let alone three, was almost unfathomable. Only a genius like Ji Longyi could accomplish such a thing, who had been beloved by the Dao of Heaven since his birth.

"You sound like you're worshipping him." Xia Xuefeng said, uncomfortably.

"If a God is righteous and powerful, then Ji Longyi is more than worthy to be my God!" Feifei stated eyes widening manically. "And one day, hopefully, the whole world's!"

Behind her, Xia Xuefeng could see Ji Longyi walk back into the hallway, an awkward look on his face as he met the young girl's questioning eyes with a sheepish gaze.

"Come one, Miss Xia. I'll show you to the treasury. Junior Sister Feifei, why don't you go have dinner with the others..."

Feifei perked up at the words of her self-chosen deity, smiling sweetly at him before walking away. Xia Xuefeng raised an eyebrow, staring at Ji Longyi, who coughed uncomfortably. He bowed apolitically.

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"Please don't mind her. Feifei had a difficult past. This is... just how she copes."

'She can cope somewhere else, dammit!'

Xia Xuefeng hesitantly nodded, watching as Ji Longyi sighed in relief. He led her out of the hallway into another room, which held a huge, opened vault door. She took a moment to look over the man, pondering Feifei's words. Was this, unassuming-looking pretty boy really so powerful? He reminded her more of a pampered nobleman than a veteran warrior.

"Please, feel free to take anything that catches your eye," Ji Longyi smiled. "You can store it in this spatial ring."

He tossed her a small golden ring. Drawing on her Qi, she could see a large, empty room within the magical treasure.

'I wonder how much I can get away with taking?'

Xia Xuefeng would have to hit the perfect sweet spot. She wanted to fleece every drop of value she could out of the man who had tossed her to the Shadow Pit. But it wasn't like she could just directly take literally everything in the vault. She couldn't afford to go too far and offend the Core Formation Chosen.

"Do you have any weapons or magical items suitable for blood Qi?" she asked.

Ji Longyi looked around, before walking off. In the meantime, Xia Xuefeng ran around, sucking into her ring piles of various medicine, pills, elixirs and salves. She saw a few plants that looked valuable and grabbed those alongside a pile of blue crystal throwing daggers and a dress made of golden feathers. Ji Longyi returned, holding a pile of items.

"Some of this stuff might be suitable," he said.

There was a red crystal Jian with a groove and black symbols carved into it. Picking it up, she could see it would channel her blood Qi effectively to the blade of the polearm. Besides it was a large jug. It would suck in and store large quantities of blood for later use. There was a ring that would increase her rate of blood production when worn. If she ever had to use her own blood in a fight, it would help her restore it faster.

Lastly was a large, dark crimson, almost black, blob of what looked like slime or jelly. Xia Xuefeng raised an eyebrow and placed her hand on it. She could feel a refined blood Qi that connected to her own. Responding to her will, the blob changed shape into various weapons. Compared to just a raw manipulation of blood-Qi, it would be a far more durable and lethal weapon. However, a grimace grew on the girl's face. There was the recognizable yin chill of demonic Qi within it.

"This item- Was refined from mortals?" she looked up at Ji Longyi questioningly.

"The suffering required to make the item has already passed. The least we can do is use it to fight against evil rather than throw it out and make their suffering have been for nothing."

It was a logical pragmatic argument, but it infuriated her completely in a way she could not describe. She stared down at the blob, biting her lip hesitantly.

'Something like this shouldn't be allowed to exist!'

"Are you worried that someone might mistake you for a demonic cultivator again? Don't worry, so long as you have karmic merit, no one could make such a mistake."

Forcing herself over her discomfort, she stored all four magical treasures into her spatial ring. She didn't know if she'd ever use it, but better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

"Do you have any defensive treasures suitable for Foundation Establishment and Core Formation?"

Xia Xuefeng knew she would be able to step into the Second Realm as soon as she had time to cultivate and consolidate her gains from the shadow pit. Items intended for Qi Condensation would be pretty useless to her, besides to sell.

"Yes, there's a gold-feathered dress over-" Ji Longyi blinked as he noticed the item was missing.

"Where are your talisman stores?" the girl quickly pressed forward, changing the subject awkwardly.

Ji Longyi began to lead her to another section of the vault. Along the way, she grabbed anything that took her fancy, including a magical-looking painting, an automaton made up of steel armour, and a flock of several dozen winged swords.

She went to grab a large rainbow crystal when Ji Longyi hesitated, stopping her with a hand. It must be something supremely valuable. Xia Xuefeng paused, looking over at Ji Longyi questioningly.

"Can I not have this? Is it something too valuable for my compensation?"

He had promised she could take anything she wanted, so she was curious to see if he would intervene. Which would win out, the face to prove his words a lie, or the value of the item?

"Well, it's just that... I mean, I did say you could anything you wanted but..." Ji Longyi smiled shakily, before blinking in confusion. "You know what, never mind. Feel free."

At the same time, she could feel a wave of happiness, from the Karmic Merit inside her. She frowned, quickly putting two and two together. If her own energy was encouraging her, then Ji Longyi's own Karmic Merit must have interceded, telling him to let her take the crystal.

But why? Did the will of Heaven think it could buy her gratitude? It wasn't like she would stop hating him just because he proved himself to be generous, honest, upright--

'Hey, stop that, you shitty fucking energy! Have some shame!'

With how unsubtle the manipulation attempts were, they felt more frustrating than actually threatening. But after seeing Feifei's manic worship, she had only strengthened her resolve to avoid indebting herself to the energy any more than was already necessary. It was possible the girl's scary, completely devoted attitude towards Ji Longyi was natural, but Xia Xuefeng would rather be safe than sorry. If it wasn't a life-saving trump card, she would have expelled it all already.

With another hour spent in the vault, Xia Xuefeng filled up her spatial ring with pills, talismans and magical treasures of all kinds. Ji Longyi furthermore gave her a jade slip containing information on everything she had taken.

"Let's head to register you as a new disciple. Once we've done that, I'll send you a sum of contribution points as well."

Just as they were about to leave the treasury, Xia Xuefeng felt the Blood-Moon Spectral God's Sealing Mark shiver. She audibly gasped, clutching her stomach as the mark vibrated. It seemed to be pulling her towards something. She turned, heading back towards the innards of the vault. Ji Longyi didn't stop her or even seem to notice, as she walked. She arrived by the area where the talismans were held.

There was an eye-catching black pedestal, carved from a pure ebony bone-like material, and studded with rubies and ornate carvings of skeletons alongside an ancient language she didn't recognize. Atop the pedestal sat a single key. The handle was of a black skull with rubies for eyes. The actual key itself was a simple cylinder, with no visible details.

'Given how conspicuous this is, how the hell didn't I notice it on my first stop through the vault?'

She could already guess the answer. Hesitantly, she took the key into her spatial ring. The Sealing Mark seemed to stop resonating for a moment. The whole situation was completely eerie. Xia Xuefeng once more made her way back to the vault's exit, where Ji Longyi was still waiting in a daze. He blinked in confusion as she returned, before smiling.

"Let's head to the sect now!"