Despite all of the changes, nothing was really any different. He just had a name for some of the things that had already happened to him. His arm was that of a Blood Fiend, his ability to Devour was part of a bloodline most likely associated with the Blood Fiend race, and the reason he could remain a half-human, half-demon was because he had something weird going on with his soul and or body.

He showed Claire and Sophia all of the notifications, but they meant little to them. Besides the whole thing that souls exist, it was a largely unimportant affair, especially since they were in the process of looting some kind of office. Most of the items were not very useful while others were greater than any modern convenience.

It started with piles of books. They were made of a variety of different materials and penned in several different coloured inks, but none of them were written in English. It wasn’t that surprising since they were physical books, just a shame that whatever knowledge they held would be locked away for a while yet. He checked them with True Sight but nothing of note came up.

Claire then brought out some jewellery. There were three identical rings, each one threaded with a white cord to turn them into necklaces. The ring itself was a thin band of silver with a small, black gem set into the metal. Leon used True Sight on it, the information nearly making him jump for joy.

[Interspatial Ring (Epic)]

A ring connected to a small pocket dimension, allowing for the storage of non-living personal effects. Made of petrified silver, this ring is extremely stable and cannot be damaged by mortals. The dimension is locked in place with a celestial constellation gem, allowing for multiple rings to be connected to the same space.

Current number of rings connected to one pocket dimension: 3.

Leon smiled, glad that he no longer had to carry his stuff by hand. Despite the pot being incredibly useful, hiking across humid forests with it on his back was not very fun, especially when it got caught on a branch. Reading over the description again, Leon got curious and grabbed the ring. Holding it up to the light coming through the hole in the roof, he put it against his eye and saw a starry night sky contained within the crystal.

He showed it to Sophia.

“Incredible!” She said, dropping Pete as she held it up to the light. He crawled into her lap and tried to hide by pushing his face into her stomach. “I wonder if the connected storage unit is in outer space. Or maybe the dimension is inside the ring, the darkness merely obstructing our view of the container within?”

Forgetting to feel guilty about her pet almost killing him, they began to experiment with the rings. Sophia hung it around her neck and drew a cracked helmet into the space. She had to be in contact with the ring and the item for the storage to work, the item vanishing the moment she willed it to. The helmet instantly appeared in the back of Leon’s mind. He could ignore the contents of the ring or bring it to the forefront of his mind at will, meaning it was basically invisible.

Leon focused on the helmet and pulled it out, the grey bowl appearing in his hands the moment he desired it to. He was very impressed. As for Sophia, she was practically jumping up and down. Pete was too scared to be alone so he jumped into Leon’s arms the second he landed on the ground.

“This is life-changing! In a post-apocalyptic society, this storage ring would allow for the instantaneous supply of materials, food, or other aid to separate groups. If we get creative, we could even use it for infinite energy. There have to be restrictions on its use, but for a tiny group of people such as ourselves, we could use it to do things that a normal society wouldn’t even dream of!”

Leon hadn’t thought that far. It was certainly useful, but he doubted the thing could be used forever without breaking. That was too busted even for a reality-defying cultivation tool. Still, they would eventually discover every one of its limits and figure out how to exploit them to their full effect.

After coming out with a few more stacks of useless books, Claire arrived with an eye-catching vial. It had an hourglass shape and the dreamy purple liquid within refracted through the glass, creating a shifting purple haze that seemed to change shape. The glass itself reminded him of the crystal cups he wasn’t allowed to use at his grandmother’s house.

Leon used True Sight.

[Memory of a Tainted Dream (High) - 76%]

This mortal elixir is capable of corrupting a person’s Qi. Typically used to recover from spiritual injuries, it holds the ability to gradually alter the nature of a person’s Qi. A mortal who consumes this elixir will have their Qi gradually become aligned with the aspect of dreams.

Speed of acclimation will depend upon the environment and the user’s natural affinity to the aspect.

The previous owner most likely saved that elixir for an emergency. While he hoped they never needed it, Leon felt that he was not close to the truth. The previous owner most likely passed away before they could return home and use it. Or they, judging by the state of the place, had died instantly from whatever had shattered all of those ruins they had come across.

Sighing, Leon set the elixir aside for Sophia. It would be perfect for her since she was the most talented at using her mind. She had tried to change her Qi using the manuals in the crystal. They showed her how to visualise and cycle her Qi in several ways, not withholding a way to draw in dream aura and merge it into her spirit.

The only problem was that she couldn’t use any of them in the Foundation Forging realm. She had to advance first, reaching the next realm for some reason. There was likely a reasonable explanation for it, but having a book of knowledge she couldn’t use was frustrating. It was almost like giving a child a sword they were too small to wield.

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Claire then tossed a metal disk at him. Leon caught it with ease, but he wasn’t that impressed with Claire’s lack of care. It was covered in strange runes and had a glass orb in the middle, reminding him of a little flying saucer. Leon used True Sight on it and discovered that it was a recording device that needed Qi for power.

He filled it with Qi until a form suddenly manifested above it from the crystal orb.

Leon dropped the disk in shock, stepping back so that he could get a better look at the hologram it was projecting. A man with long black hair and a white robe stared down at him. He obviously didn’t care too much about his appearance, his clothes splattered and stained with a variety of colourful liquids.

His hair was clean though, and it was pulled into a ponytail that ran all the way down his back. At two metres tall, that was a lot of hair. He was obviously a giant of a man, but he also looked quite young, which made his heavy expression seem even more out of place.

“Greetings to whoever is fortunate enough to inherit my possessions,” He said, his voice gentle and clear. “My name is Bai Wei.”

Leon wasn’t sure how he was understanding the foreign words, but it must have been something to do with the delivery method. The information in the crystals was also legible.

“What you see before you is my life’s work. Unfortunately, I am unsure of what that is since I am recording this before making any preparations. I don’t have long to live and would rather make this message now in case I am suddenly wiped out, you see.”

The man sighed, looking weary.

“My mother is the Grand Seer of the Evergard Empire. She has spent three centuries peering into the river of fate, guiding the empire as its first line of defence. But as easily as the Heavens give, they take away with just as much thought. Now she finds herself blocked from reading the fate of our empire and all its people.”

“Perhaps we have overly relied upon Mother’s talent and this is our punishment? Whatever the reason, our empire hangs in the balance. Our enemies broker no resistance, completely blocking my mother from the river of fate. We will fight to the end, but hope is slim. Any enemy capable of wiping away an entire civilisation’s future has to be overwhelmingly powerful, and if nothing changes, we will be doomed to perish to this overwhelming foe.”

Leon swallowed. They had all died so long ago that their empire was now a pile of rubble, but on second thought, that didn’t make much sense. The houses and ruins above were of inferior quality while the basement had been meticulously designed with high-quality wood. Only modern equipment could build places of such high quality, so did that mean the empire had already been replaced by an inferior civilisation, the new society also old enough that it had long since perished and faded to obscurity?

How old was the Evergard empire, then, for another civilisation to rise and fall on their corpse?

“In all of this, what I find most interesting is that of everything in our empire, the fate of the land has not ended. At least in some places. My mother has foreseen that snippets of the capital city will survive into the foreseeable future, the end of which she cannot predict. And so, I leave behind whatever I can. My only wish is that whoever finds these treasures can make use of them. My Path of alchemy may end here, but I can only hope that my life may continue on in another life.”

“To the child whom my mother has seen hints of, I wish you well on your path. I understand that you will only be a mortal, your people also struggling under the heel of a ‘great disaster’, and so I will try to leave fitting gifts behind. The road ahead will be long, and I wish for my help to be greater than a few pills that will save you a week or two of meditation. The years ahead of you will eventually make a few weeks mean nothing, and so I will leave treasures that can aid you the most.”

“Traditionally, a child will complete Foundation Forging and then select a path based on their talents and desires. That path will demand that they transform their dantian so that it produces Qi of a specific aspect. This process can take months without treasures and, for you, may take years. Dream aura is uncommon, potentially becoming a roadblock that will force you to change to a more traditional path. Please retain your temperance. My mother has seen hints of your future and has predicted that you hold a slight possibility of reaching far, but that possibility only exists if you practice a path of dreams.”

He hadn’t been completely certain before, but now Leon could tell that he was talking about Sophia. Was she really so talented that even Bai Wei’s mother had foreseen her rise? Whatever happened in the future, Leon would make extra sure not to get on Sophia’s bad side. For all he knew, the next decade could end up with him crippled or stuck at a bottleneck while she would become one of the most powerful people on earth.

“For your path, I plan on leaving a fortune of pills that cleanse the body, strengthen the mind, and temper your cultivation. I will also attempt to use a rare material I recently found to make something useful, but without a vast amount of research, the odds of success are low. If you find nothing of the sort, I must apologise for my lacking skill.”

“Last of all, I leave my most valuable possessions: Knowledge. Over one hundred textbooks full of information to help a budding world adapt to cultivation. These broach every subject one could think of and include thousands of recipes and blueprints, most of which are related to cultivation and alchemy.”

Leon choked, wondering how the hell he would possibly make use of them. True Sight didn’t work on translating text, and as he tried to think of anything that could, he came up blank.

He glanced at the pile of useless books and wondered how hard it would be for a linguistics expert to translate them. Whatever the cost, Leon would pay. The wealth of knowledge trapped within could propel humanity ahead by a thousand years. Researching a topic was like constructing a building, but if they could cheat and start at the fifth floor, their future would be several times easier. The people of Earth had nothing to work from, making even the most simple children's books valuable treasures.

Sophia obviously agreed, her mouth hanging open as she drooled.

“This Bai Wei must apologise if things are missing. For all I know, you may only find shards of this formation disk. Fate is not a guarantee of the future, but a nest of paths that may lead you there. I wish all who view this a long and prosperous life, and if you become strong enough to figure out what happened to my people, I hope that you will be able to get revenge and help any survivors.”