'What would Pef do?' the Eternium Knight asked itself, as the situation rapidly devoled into an ugly mess.

Then again, prospecting for relics in the backyard of the Phoenix High House was bound to create trouble anyway. Even though this mountain range was outside the actual House grounds, a lone cultivator wearing expensive armor was certain to attract looters. Incompetent looters, but even so.

"You dare assault a member of my High House?" the annoying Overgod shouted in angry Words, making nearby birds and beasts flee at best speed, clearing the mountain range before the inevitable damage destroyed not only their habitat, but also their precious lives.

The Eternium Knight glanced down, where its Eternium boot was pressing onto the chest of the latest agressor, himself some important scion of a High House, who tried to steal the priceless armor. 'To push or not to push?' the glove hummed inward, while calculating a million future scenarios. "That is the wrong question, Mister. Are you willing to pay me something to recover this thief, or not?" the glove asked curious.

"Courting death! In a minute, my Burning Phoenix House will deploy an enforcement team and save the young master." the Tier 10 elder claimed in a righteous voice.

"I see. Then we will wait." the Eternium Knight concluded in a light tone. Testing the armor in combat would be useful anyway.

Barely restraining himself from attacking, the Noble Elder began flicking Formation flags around in a hexagrammic pattern, likely to restrain the metal-armored person before he ran away. Not that the glove would run away without obtaining some value from this plot.

'Pef wouldn't just wait though...' the glove decided as it emulated Pef's thought patterns with near-certitude. Pivoting in place, the Eternium Knight intercepted a few Formation flags and captured them before they became active, while incidentally crushing the hostage under foot.

'And expanding the Formation arsenal isn't that bad either.' the glove realized as it began to analyze the flags in its armored hand. 'Artificial Laws are quite interesting, even if the deployment method is rather outdated.'

One by one, the flags revealed their secrets, and provided the mechanism for their function via brute-force analysis. Void Laws, and in particular teleportation and void-shifting locks, far better than those used by the Dragons to protect their eggs, for example.

'Dimensional bridging would be highly difficult, especially without a saved waypoint for the other end, something like an expensive Transport Formation or some similar device. And from the method of this defense array, infering the attack method is also quite clear.'

"We'll see how flippant you will be when my people arrive...here they come!" the Overgod Elder exulted in an expectant victorious voice.

'Shrugging now, right?' the glove wondered as its armored shoulders moved in a careless shrug.

"Poorly done, your restriction array. Stand back!" the leader of the Phoenix group said while gesturing the elder to stand back.

"What kind of gifts did you bring to show your sincerity?" the Eternium Knight asked in a perfectly sincere voice.

"...Gifts?" the enforcement leader asked in amazement, turning his head toward the previously ignored House Elder.

"Ah, yes. This person demanded we give him something of value, to release the young master." the man explained in an outraged tone.

"Or else, I can always chop him up for organs and blood and sell those to interested parties. Phoenix bloodlines are not found everywhere..." the Eternium Knight continued in a very merchanting tone.

With a visible frown, the group leader took stock of the situation, and especially the inconvenient position of the Phoenix scion, crushed under boot and quite unlikely to be rescued without placing him in mortal danger. "Here!" he offered, throwing over a storage ring filled with immortal crystals and other irrelevant goods.

Catching the ring, the Eternium Knight examined the contents, over 1 million crystals and some other less valuable items like weapons or pills.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Excellent start, for opening the negotiations. I'd say these things are worth at least one finger." the Eternium Knight declared in a calculating voice, while using one the weapons to chop off a finger from the hostage and flicked it back to the group leader.

The Phoenix scion under foot had the gall to struggle a little, before being crushed back in place. Cutting fingers wasn't even that painful.

"So, you are saying that 20 times that will purchase the young master's release?" the group leader asked in a cold, vengeful voice.

"Will purchase 20 fingers and toes, at least. As for his Phoenix Heart..." the glove said in a teasing tone, while tapping his boot over the said heart.

The group leader grunted in displeasure, then took out a communication jade tablet and spoke into it silently. "The Patriarch asks what exactly you want from our House. Name your price, and no more haggling." he replied after getting some kind of reply from the other end.

'Now, let's see if a Phoenix young master is actually worth what I want.' the glove mused inward, sounding a bit giddy.

"Well then. I heard that your House has a Heart Mirror just laying unused a vault somewhere. A heart for a heart seems a fair trade for me." the Eternium Knight proposed in a shameless tone.

"...What!" someone in the group yelled.

"Preposterous"

"Courting death!"

"Unreasonable!"

"Foolish!"

"Crazy...the Patriarch will surely not accept such a deal" the group leader declared with a sad headshake.

"I named my price just like he asked. And no more haggling." the Eternium Knight proclaimed in a final tone.

The communication jade tablet appeared once more, and a longer conversation took place. "The Patriarch will bring that mirror soon. You better say your last prayers!" the group leader announced in a triumphant voice, raising morale for his party.

Our brave Eternium Knight shrugged once more. Testing the armor with a Tier 11 opponent was even better.

In a minute, the sky turned to fire and a powerful divinity descended as flame tornado, right beside the first Overgod who failed to protect his son. "You have served my House for thousands of Chaos Cycles, Elder Sun Moon, so this failure will not cost you your life. But the Phoenix will withdraw the blessing." the Patriarch declared with an overwhelming voice, holding out a hand and drawing the shape of a flaming bird from the elder's chest.

"This sinner is unworthy!" the elder yelled in obvious pain, as his cultivation realm fell to Tier 9 once the Phoenix spirit was withdrawn.

"Nice! Do you also sell those Phoenix souls?" the Eternium Knight blurted in a careless tone. It was quite a Pef thing to say, after all.

"Who are you, this person stepping on my face?" the Patriarch asked in a dangerous tone.

"I am called the Eternium Knight. Have you brought the price?" the glove asked in an easy tone.

The Patriarch spread his hands apart, forming a small storage dimension with a round mirror inside. Perhaps he wanted to impress or trick his opponent, but the glove had already planned for this opportunity. Inside the Eternium glove rested a certain pill bottle, more than capable of extracting the prize, even from a secure dimension, once the location was discovered.

"See...that is the Heart Mirror you sought to obtain from my Phoenix House. Only now that I am here, all you will find is death!" the Patriarch declared in a cruel tone, while using his powerful cultivation realm to suppress the silly armored knight with burning flames and recover his son.

While the elemental flames had no purchase onto the armor itself, millions of tiny dimensional claws also manifested inside the Phoenix flames, and thus denying the glove an easy escape via dimensional shift.

"I see. Trickery pays double though." the Eternium Knight observed out loud, then it crossed into the Sword River for a second, and emerged far away with two valuable hearts in store.

The Law Formations laid on the Eternium armor had been almost completely vaporized by a second of exposure to Phoenix fire, but it was so worth it.

Not only a Heart Mirror but also a Phoenix Heart, still alive and full of Phoenix blood. All that remained was to integrate them into its body and become a real girl.