Chapter 10: The White-Haired Youth

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Seeing the abnormal scene and feeling the enormous presence that was coming from within the gap in the sky, Elder Gan’s originally angered mind cleared as he realized the hidden danger. And upon hearing the speaker talk about ‘taboo arts’, Elder Gan’s face became pale as he glared at the sky.

Adjusting his attitude, Elder Gan gave a bow and cupped his hands towards the sky as he said:

“This little one apologizes for I had offended senior! I was too rash in my actions, and I hope a great senior like you would spare a minor character like me. As for taboo arts, senior is correct. I am practicing this, but can you blame me for wanting more strength to last in this cruel world? I am sure this senior can relate. If great senior could kindly overlook this matter, as an elder of the Eternal Sword Spirit Palace, I will be forever be indebted to you!”

Elder Gan said the last line with greater emphasis, as he understood the deterrence strength of being in one of the Three Absolute Grand Sects. Even experts who were much stronger than him would not so much as dare touch a single hair on his body once they found out that he was from the Eternal Sword Spirit Palace! In front of the mammoth-like power behind him, even peerless geniuses would have to tone themselves down before him!

Seeing that there was no further response from the other senior, Elder Gan quickly went forward and took out a cyan bag from his sleeve. The bag looked rather expensive,with several symbols drawn on it. This was known as a Cosmic bag, a dimensional tool used to store a plethora of items. They were often categorized into colors, differentiating the amount of space they had.

Brown had 1 cubic meters of space, silver had 10 cubic meters, blue had 50 cubic meters, cyan had 100 cubic meters, and gold had 300 cubic meters of space!

There were even ring versions of this artifact, and other variations to it. These cosmic bags were collectively considered Common-grade treasures due to it being widely distributed. After all, cultivators were always carrying large amount of items with them on their dangerous journeys, therefore they naturally require something that could store equally large amount of items to conveniently carry with them.

Pulling out a long sword from his cosmic bag, Elder Gan held the sword flatly using both of his hands as he raised it above his head in an offering stance.

“If wise senior is willingly to look the other way this one time, this one is willingly to gift this King-grade Sky Destruction Sword to you,” Elder Gan felt his heart ache as he said this.

Even for a sect elder like him, the King-grade weapon could already be considered his entire fortune and heirloom. He had kept this artifact a secret from others, as the allure of such treasure was quite large. Even in the Three Absolute Grand Sects, a King-grade item was still considered an extremely decent treasure!

But there was no other choice. Faced with a possible mean to breakthrough and to keep his secrets, Elder Gan decided to give up this secret on his own. While he could not retrieve his sword back on his own, if he were to curry a few favors from some of the stronger elders or even a Great Elder of his Sect and manipulate some information around then…

As Elder Gan’s thoughts trailed off in this direction, he felt much better as he smiled darkly with his head lowered. He had both an extreme confidence and fear toward the upper echelon of the Eternal Sword Spirit Palace, knowing that their power was unfathomable. He believed those elders would definitely be comparable to the mysterious senior before him, thus Elder Gan trusted he could definitely retrieve what was originally his one day…

However, his thought stopped there when suddenly, a golden light shot out from the rift in the sky and streaked straight towards him! With no time to avoid, the light landed on the Sky Destruction Sword that Elder Gan used to defend himself with...and easily shattered apart the sword after a brief moment of friction!

*Poof!*

Elder Gan spat out a mouthful of blood as his body flew backward from the impact. Although the Sky Destruction Sword absorbed most of the attack and shattered as a result, it would not completely block the power behind it. The remaining energy in the attack was still enough to heavily injure Elder Gan.

Landing on the ground, his hair disheveled and his face pale, Elder Gan flipped to his side and coughed up another mouthful of blood. He could feel that several bones inside his body had already been fractured by that initial attack. A cold feeling began to creep up Elder Gan’s back as slowly turned to look at the gap in the sky.

Rather than getting angry, Elder Gan could only feel endless fear as he watched someone emerge from within the rift. From that last attack, Elder Gan knew his opponent this time was simply of another league. To be able to effortlessly break a tough King-grade weapon and still severely injure him like this...even in his Eternal Sword Spirit Palace, perhaps only the Sect Master could wield such might!

Before Elder Gan watched in trepidation as a white-haired youth stepped out from within the rift. Wearing a silky black robe with faint golden dragon outlines on it, the youth stood silently in the sky as the dimensional gap closed behind him. The youth had an exceptionally attractive facial appearance, with thick eyebrows, straight nose, and sharp clear eyes; his long snow-white hair flowed in the air, weightless.

The white-haired young man looked down at Elder Gan in disdain as he spoke, his tone sounding youthful yet imbued with a sort of unspoken charisma:

“Gan Long, to dare act unlawfully in front of me, you are simply seeking your death! With this, there is truly no more reasons to spare you anymore. Breaking laws and killing young juniors, I will personally send you on your way soon!”

‘Elder Gan’, or to be more precisely named, Gan Long, felt his heart go cold at the black-robed youth’s words. This person had actually recognized him...it seems that the other party had no intention to let him off!

Gan Long slowly gathered the Dao of Light towards his body as he attempted to heal himself. At the same time, he was revolved the energy from the Wind Dao in his legs. Upon reaching a certain realm, cultivators would start to assimilate into the energy of Dao --to not only absorb and mimic the elements, but to be able to control them.

While Gan Long’s mind raced with several ideas to escape this tribulation, the white-haired youth turned and slowly floated down, landing in front of Qiao Sui who was still in shock on the ground.

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Qiao Sui looked at the handsome youth in front of her as she felt her heart tremble. The young man simply seemed unreal, as if he was from a painting...a painting of Celestials. She could not take her eyes off of him.

“Little girl,are you alright?” The white-haired youth smiled and asked. He had caught a brief excerpt of the scene where Qiao Sui had bravely struggled against her overwhelming opponent. For people like that, regardless male or female, young or old, strong or weak --they are worthy of his attention and respect! The girl had given him a positive impression.

Hearing the youth’s question, Qiao Sui quickly snapped out of her dazed thoughts as she replied hastily:

“Eh? Uh, I, I am fine! It’s n-nothing…” Qiao Sui’s voice start to fade as she felt a burning sensation welling up in her cheeks. Having the white-haired youth look directly at her, Qiao Sui could not help but lower her head in embarrassment.

“Just what is wrong with me…” Qiao Sui thought as she felt her heart beating in eccentric rhythms. This has never happened before. To think she’ll act like this even after narrowly escaping death…

The white-haired youth did not seem to mind as he said in a gentle voice: “Be at ease. You are safe now.”

Safe….

Qiao Sui began to recall her past struggles and near-death experiences as a sort of mixed emotions floated up in her heart. No one has ever told her that she is ‘safe’ now. No one had the confidence to say so in this kind of world anymore.

“Take this. You should escape far away from here as soon as possible. If you have family then you must quickly return to get them.” The white-haired youth said.

“I...I don’t have any family members. I’m only an o-orphan..” Qiao Sui felt her face burn even more when she said this. She knew how orphans were often looked down upon by the general masses, but she felt a strangely compelled to tell this youth in front of her…

“Mmn. If that is so, then you should leave now, then. Unfortunately, I will be unable to accompany you, as I have...some things to take care of.” The white-haired youth said calmly, without a change in his expression. Seeing that the other youth did not seem to mind her status, Qiao Sui felt a small burst of happiness out of nowhere.

“Here, take this Million Miles Teleportation Talisman. Place it on your forehead and think of location name. It will then teleport you to that place if it’s within a million miles of distance. Use this to travel far away from the Yuan Empire and start a new life. Even if you’re an orphan, the world’s laws are mysterious. You may never know if one day you’ll end up at a height you could not have imagined. You just need to dream and continue to train hard.” The white-haired youth continued in a soothing voice, while he handed Qiao Sui a yellow, rectangular shaped paper decorated with red symbol markings and a light blue cosmic bag.

A Million Miles Talisman was exceedingly precious, and very few would be able to procure such item. Out of all the normal teleportation talismans, the Million Miles Talismans were ranked within the very top due to its vast outreach and convenience!

“I...I…” Qiao Sui wanted to tell the other youth that she wanted to go with him. However, when she made eye contact with him, she recognized the determined glow in the white-haired youth’s eyes. The other party really did not want her to stay.

In the end, Qiao Sui could only keep the words to herself and obediently place the talisman to her head. But she found that she could not think of a place outside of the Yuan Empire. All of her life was spent living in a small province in the Empire, and being an orphan meant she did not possess the proper education about the world as other children her age.

As Qiao Sui struggled to think of something, the white-haired youth seemed to realize this as he made a suggestion: “How about you go to SunFlower City for the time being? It’s located in the Chu Province of the Zhao Country. The power there is pretty stable, so it should be relatively safe to live there without much trouble. Inside the bag I’ve given you, there should around a million Qi Stones. With that much, you do not have to worry about resources or living somewhere for quite some time. Even going to a Sect for study should be possible as well; with your Divine Lotus Constitution, I’m sure many factions would be more than happy to take you in.”

Qi Stones are materials that were not only used as the standard currency for trade in this world, but also as a source of training resource for cultivators. Especially when one reaches the Jie Hai realm, where absorbing the Earthly Qi around oneself becomes a crucial method of strength enhancement.

A single Qi Stone contained a densely clustered volume of a different kind of energy, called Natural Qi. This was a universal energy that could help with one’s cultivation, regardless what type of energy they cultivated, as long as one was below the Immortal Sovereign Realm!

Moreover, absorbing Natural Qi from the air was possible. However, the process was much slower compared to if a cultivator was to focus on absorbing the type of required energy for their realm, such as how a Jie Hai practitioner would need to take in Earthly QI to level up. The reason was due to the extra stress of having to pinpoint this subtle type of universal energy in the air, which causes the cultivators to continuously drain their own Qi reserve while ending up with little benefits.

But having Qi Stones that naturally gathered the Natural Qi inside it, and that could easily be mined from the veins of the earth while at the same time serve as a currency --the benefits would obviously be greater!

The average annual,12 months, income for normal households were 63,000 Qi Stones, or 5,250 Qi stones per lunar month.

And now, Qiao Sui had actually received a sum that was several times that of others' earning! After being numbed for a while, Qiao Sui quickly snapped back to reality as she thought of something.

“What...is this Divine Lotus Constitution exactly?” Qiao Sui suddenly asked with curiosity.

She had heard Elder Gan mention it previously, but while she knew it was something rare, she did not possess enough knowledge to understand what exactly it was.