Because of De Danw, I knew pretty much everything there was to know about that thing, and I was not happy. Spirit Rejuvenation Pill was a special kind of medicine that was capable of extending lifespan by a few decades while reinforcing the Talent of anyone who consumes it. That meant anyone! Even a Mortal.
It was such a precious pill, a peak Spirit Realm would go mad if he found it, and somehow this guy had it. I lacked the memory of his acquisition as his Soul wasn’t exactly in a pristine condition when I ate it. Or maybe he purposely wiped his own memory to hide the fact that he had one.
According to what I now knew, the pill was most potent when a Cultivator was already in decline, showing its power when a decaying Soul was rejuvenated, with boosted Talent.
It only boosted it by 1-2%, but that alone was huge! Treasures that could do such a thing were extremely rare and considered priceless and good fortune from the Heavens for those who found them.
And since it was so closely connected with the workings of a Soul, locking it into a timeless prison would kill the miraculous effects. The pill was somehow considered alive and had to be kept that way until consumption. That was the reason for the isolated stasis chamber.
As for the reason why De Danw hadn’t consumed it, it was exactly because it would be a waste to do so while he still had centuries of lifespan. He would gain a few measly years, and as his talent sat solidly at around 50%, that 1 - 2 % still wouldn’t be enough to push him over to the Spirit Talent mark at 55%.
He was so close, but at the same time so extremely far.
And anyway, eating that pill was like eating… What was an extremely expensive item? Diamonds and gold didn’t even come close. Precious metals were also trash in comparison. Anyway, it wasn’t quite as expensive as a small sect, but tens of thousands of Spirit Stones certainly wasn’t out of the question.
And see, that posed a real problem for me. Eating it would be worthless for me as I still had all my life ahead of me, and my Talent was already ridiculously high. If there even was a limit. I don’t know.
And selling it to a willing person would bring me wealth beyond measure. Unfortunately that much wealth on a lonely Golden Core Cultivator attracted too much trouble. It was good that the Ferrite coffer was Spirit Sense proof, but…
[Ah, fuck it. At worst I’ll just give it away if anyone too strong tries to get their hands on it. Not like anyone will know I have it anyway.]
I put the small metal box into the pocket inside my sleeves and decided not to think about it too much. I still had plenty more stuff to grab, and time was precious.
In the treasury, I also found a small pouch of Qi pills. It was an interesting thing, those pills. You could fill them with your Qi, and then eat them mid-combat to replenish your energy. You couldn’t do that with Spirit Stones. Well, you could, but once again, foreign energy would do all kinds do shenanigans. Better not risk it.
I took them, if nothing else they were a cute gimmick. The energy they could store wasn’t all that much, maybe 5% of what I had. But if I filled a few dozen of them, they could come in handy in a fight.
And so, the treasury was cleared out. Before leaving I gave it one last look and then decided to finish the job like I should. I took the shelves and the thick Ferrite door as well, leaving only bare stone walls.
I had no intention of ever coming back, so might as well take everything that was worth a penny.
Heck, I even took his bed and furniture. Anything that wasn’t nailed down went into the ring. And the things that were nailed down also went into the ring, only a few minutes later, after I broke them free.
The armory was significantly smaller but more loaded with things. I found five Spirit Swords inside, adding them to the collection. De Danw had a few named blades himself, one of them being his main longsword named Tempest Edge, and the other one Arcane Thunderblade. Both of which were useful for Lightning and harsh storm attacks, which he used. The other two swords previously floating behind him were generic Spirit Swords, which were also added to the collection of trophies.
In total, I had 23 Spirit Swords, 4 of which were named, and 11 shortswords or daggers.
A good haul, all things considered.
But that wasn’t all! Inside the armory, I found ten crystal balls with pictures of beasts on them. I recognized them as one-time-use beast summons. You would throw them and they would break, summoning a beastly Avatar that would wreck everything in its path until it ran out of energy and died.
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It was an expensive relic, one I was more than happy to take.
Together with it were also various warding talismans. The two could also be combined to make an exceedingly strong Spirit Beast to crush your enemies. There were 14 of them in total.
On the shelf I found a quiver of arrows and a meter-long shortbow made from gray wood and decorated with golden carvings in the form of a serpent, coiling around it. It had a comfortable grip wrapped in red leather.
As I took hold of it and squeezed, the weapon did not react at all.
[Soulreaper bow, and Ghostbane arrows...]
It was the weapon Elder De Danw wanted to use to kill me. It worked similarly to the Soul Breaker blade in that it could damage the Soul directly, and apparently the arrows could do a one-shot kill.
[Are there ghosts in this world?] I wondered out loud. Ghostbane arrows implied that people knew what ghosts were, but I had no knowledge of them. Maybe it was a rare natural phenomenon?
Anyway, I pulled back the string and was surprised at how difficult it was. I had no way to measure my strength anymore, and considering I could knead a piece of iron like soft dough, the bow had to be incredibly strong! If my strength wasn’t enough to crush the wooden weapon, that was beyond impressive.
I sent some of my Qi inside and immediately felt a change. The grain of the wood began to release a dim glow, and I felt my grip slipping from the string. I had to release it to get a better grip and tried again. I couldn’t pull it half as much as before.
[What the hell?]
I buffed myself with Qi, but then the bow began to glow even more. Exerting all my strength I wasn’t able to pull back the string at all. The more Qi I used to empower myself, the stronger the bow glowed, and at a certain point, I felt stupid holding the glowing blue and gold stick.
As soon as I released it though, the light disappeared and it returned to its original dim look. Without any Qi circulating through my body, the bow became easier to pull back once more.
[So, wait… This bow gets stronger the more Qi it receives, and then pure physical strength is required to pull the string back?]
My intuition told me my guess was right. Also, the muddled memories in my mind said I was on the right track. The Soulreaper bow was an amazing relic! I wasn’t an archer, but if I was, I would kill to get this thing.
Obviously, it was made for a Spirit Realm Cultivator, though if I focused on training strength instead of defense, I should probably be able to use it earlier than that.
[...Nah. Defense is where it’s at! I get massively stronger passively anyway. I’ll get there, eventually.]
A pair of axes and clawed metallic gauntlets were there on the shelves as well, but my eyes fell on the massive armor stand in the back.
A 3-meter-high gray metal with golden and silver trim stood there like some ancient warrior. The empty helmet stared back, its thick Ferrite armor plates just asking for a battle.
[Wooo~] I watched the beauty in the light of the bright orange braziers on both sides, giving it a majestic vibe.
[That’s awesome…] I silently sighed. Too bad it was too big for me. I considered growing my body by 25% just so I could fit inside. I took one of the large gauntlets and compared it to my hand. It was huge! With all the metal it was more than twice as large.
I curiously put it on to test it, when the glyphs on it suddenly came alive and began to glow blue. The metal then released an ear-piercing screech and shrunk down, encasing my palm completely.
[Holy shit! It can adapt?!] I was genuinely surprised. I had no idea it could do that! I didn’t know many things, now that I think about it.
Somehow I was missing so many things, I wondered where all those memories went. Maybe I was losing more details than I realized, with every absorption of a Soul.
I knew the metal beast was called Arcane Ferrite Wardplate and that it was a powerful anti-magic armor, but that was about it. I was tempted to put it on, but I still had more things to steal. I mean S.T.E.A.L.
Strategically Transfer Equipment to an Alternate Location. Yup, that’s what I was doing. Totally legal and not at all a home burglary after killing the owner. I was a good guy!
All jokes aside, I took a pickaxe and went to town on the place. Any piece of rock, furniture, chains, Formation, or whatever, I broke and took with me, completely filling the storage ring to the brim.
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At the end of the day, my storage ring was filled with stuff. I took literally everything there was to take. In hindsight, maybe I was a bit too greedy.
I needed some space in my ring for the extra loot I was sure to find on my way back to the Sect, wherever that was, and some of the bulky things weren’t the most valuable.
I scratched my short beard, yes, I finally grew one, and then considered what to do. There really wasn’t much to consider. I either threw away some of the cheaper bulky things, or I would have problems later on.
[Ah… Screw it!]
I extended my hand and began barfing out all the things I collected, even what was in the ring originally. Heck, I emptied my pouches as well and took the opportunity to organize my stuff. Everything important would go into the ring, and everything small and not worth much would stay in the pouches. There were only so many small things I needed that could fit in the pouches.
I took a scroll and began writing down everything I had and then slowly crossed out everything that was unnecessary.
The furniture, lamps, braziers, shelves… All such things I had to leave behind. Even most of the rock I decided to abandon because it simply wasn’t worth it. I kept the bed though. It was too nice to leave behind. It was made of some quality wood that didn’t even creak under my weight, and that was when I didn’t wear the ring. It was too good to abandon in a dark cave.
I absorbed the pile of stuff into the storage ring and left the pile of trash in the ruined underground bunker base. The Formations keeping it hidden had already dispersed as I extracted any precious metals and Spirit Stones keeping it going. For all I cared, the place could collapse.
It was time to go.