In the Sky Water Sect, an elegant man could be seen walking towards a small pagoda. His physic was full of vigour while his aura was as fierce as a wild beast. However, behind all this splendour and charisma, there was a hidden hint of disheartenment.
Because if there was one thing that he hated the most, were mundane works like these.
He had worked so hard to climb the rankings and was used to a comfortable lifestyle with servants, so why was he forced to do duties that could be easily done by just anyone? Why had it to be specifically him?
He honestly would not have complained this much if he were ordered to embark on some crazy adventure rather than wasting his time with such trivial stuff.
But orders were orders, and had to be followed.
As he neared the door and raised his arm to knock, he detected that the door was already open, instead gently pushing without making the slightest sound.
When he walked inside, he stepped over a red carpet similar to a royal, but was otherwise greeted by the exquisite fragrance of medicinal herbs that lay down on the tables before him.
The disorganised tables were quite ordinary, made of old wood, with multiple burns and scratches engraved over their surfaces.
In one of the corners of the room, standing next to a sizable cauldron and behind a layer of vapour, a young man was holding a batch of medicinal herbs.
When the young man noticed the intruder, he lowered his head slightly and let out a low-pitched snort.
“Shop’s closed.”
Elder Tian smiled wryly, seemingly anticipating such a reaction. Instead, he focused on the man before him, admiring him while he performed his duties.
“Such finesse. No wonder you are considered the number one alchemist of the entire Five Divinities Alliance. Any of these five great sects would go through great lengths to recruit someone as competent as you. No surprise the Patriarch holds you in such high regards.”
“Quit the useless flattering old man.” Dai Jun not only didn’t appreciate the compliment but felt a bit annoyed too.
The corners of Elder Tian lips sunk slightly but didn’t trouble himself to reply. Instead, he took out a scroll which he gently placed over the only unoccupied table.
“This is the invitation from Zhongyang Palace concerning the Yellow Moon Festival—”
“Not interested.” Dai Jun was quick and direct about his feelings regarding the matter.
Elder Tian let out a long sigh. “The Patriarch had personally commanded me to deliver these invitations by hand. If you want to protest his decision, you can always go visit the Patriarch once he is out of secluded meditation.”
Elder Tian then prepared to depart, but when he was at the door’s steps, he seemed to have remembered something.
“Six months ago, was it? That’s when our young man had entered the Azure Realm. Not that I had high hopes, the period is now over and his shadow has yet to return. Ah, I fear that he has already perished.”
These sudden words didn’t seem to cause Dai Jun to react, as one by one he dropped the ingredients in the cauldron while trying to rub his forehead with his elbow to remove an annoying fly.
“Ehh, he is alive alright.”
Elder Tian’s eyes flashed with suspicion. “Alive? Why do you think so?”
“None of your business. And you’re distracting me. If you have nothing more to say, you know where the door is.”
If these hostile words were directed to someone else, they would have already lost patience with this guy. But Elder Tian had long since become accustomed to Dai Jun’s weird temperament.
He smiled wryly while glancing at the list of deliveries, then left with the same pace he had entered.
----
Meanwhile, the situation at the Azure Fiery Realm remained one of tension.
The deeply engrossed Jack was still in the process of gaining enlightenment, as two attentive spiritual gazes locked over him.
One of these gazes was anxious, worried that time was running short, while the other gaze was an excellent mixture of mockery and hatred.
Just when both the Spectre and the Shred of Will had acknowledged that Jack was facing the inevitable fate of being expelled without breaking through, the last thing they were expecting actually happened.
Jack’s arms suddenly turned alive, slowly penetrating and tearing through the vines that had grown around him. Afterwards, he took his time to free himself and climb up from the pile of mud, then stared emotionless at the statue before him.
Seeing this new development, the two spectators regained their focus as they scanned Jack’s body multiple times in a span of a breath. Even though both of them hadn’t real eyes, their gazes were as sharp as one thousand eagles.
Both of them knew that even the weakest of essences would trigger a slight elemental reaction when it formed, but no matter how much they inspected, they could not identify such an occurrence.
Thus, they both had reached the same conclusion; Jack had failed to sever his first essence. There was literally no way such a reaction could have escaped from their senses.
“Hehe, that fool. He wasted all this time trying to gain enlightenment from the relict left by our original ancestor. He really doesn’t know the difference between the heavens and earth! How could an arrogant being such as him even grasp a tiny bit of that mystery?!”
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The Spectre celebrated with mad laughter. Even though he didn’t have any involvement whatsoever in this matter, he naturally appeared delighted that Jack had failed with his attempt of enlightenment.
On the other hand, the Shred of Will expressed some disappointment as its voice greeted Jack once again. “Congratulations. You’ve made it to the 3rd Qi Seeking Realm and unlocked the ability of spiritual flight. Unfortunately, you have failed to severe your first essence.”
The mentally recovering Jack was brought back to his senses by the Flames consolatory words.
He could clearly feel that his spiritual energy had increased once again. However, unlike his previous breakthroughs, he had the strange sensation that there was something else that had changed inside him.
He took a long deep breath, then guiding himself by his newly awakened instinct, he channelled the swirling spiritual energy under his legs, and slowly and with great difficulty, he levitated himself for a couple of metres. After holding his position for a span of few breaths, he slowly returned to rest on the ground.
It was a small, simple action. But for Jack, it was everything.
Tears leaked from his eyes as mixed emotions accumulated inside his heart. Agitation, excitement, joy... they were all inadequate to describe Jack’s current state of feeling.
Six months ago, he was a powerless mortal with no future, but now he was a spiritual man who could actually float in the air.
His body had undergone a complete metamorphosis!
“Human, have you decided regarding the matter of my inheritance? There is less than one hour left before you are expelled from this dimension.” The Flame urgently prompted.
Jack appeared surprised by this reminder. Less than one hour? He couldn’t believe he had spent all this time meditating, and without being interrupted from boredom!
Regarding the matter of inheritance, he was still unclear if he should accept it or not. Should he revisit the Flame? Or should he stay here awaiting his imminent expulsion?
Jack just couldn’t make a decision at this point. But time was running out. Making no decision any time soon would mean that he decided to refuse the offer.
Crack~ Crack~
Soft cracking sounds reached Jack’s ears as he peeked at the unexpected source.
Much to his surprise, small cracks had appeared on the statue’s belly, slowly spreading like spider webs towards its entire figurine. The three different flames lost their colours, and in a span of few breaths, they were extinguished.
The entire statue then trembled and exploded without warning!
Luckily for Jack, he had already reached the 3rd Qi seeking realm. Otherwise, if he were still in the 2nd realm, he would have been seriously injured by the sudden explosion. However, even in his current state, he had sustained a couple of injuries.
Fortunately for him, his reaction was quite fast and managed to protect his vital parts.
“What’s going on?” This wasn’t a question asked only by Jack, but even the Spectre and the Flame were dumbfounded at this sudden development.
However, an even more state of shock was expressed when they noticed a hidden stairway had been revealed at the statue’s previous location.
The Spectre’s eyes bulged out, and its tiny body couldn’t stop shaking. “A hidden passage?!”
He immediately extended his spiritual vision. However, he quickly realised that the unique tunnel had some sort of protective spiritual barrier that blocked his senses.
“^@%#,” the Spectre panicked. “A treasure room! Must be a freaking treasure room!!”
Countless anxious thoughts raced through the spectre’s mind. A secret room hidden below the relict of the first Patriarch could only mean one thing; this room must contain treasures and martial dao left behind by the original ancestor!
However, he still had around three more days left before he could finish his technique and notify his real self!
The idea of Jack inheriting some sort of treasure from this room was already tearing his conscious apart, and was about to drive him crazy!
“Oh? That bastard actually left some kind of underground chamber?” The flame uttered to Jack. “Human, my senses are being obstructed by some sort of barrier. I cannot indicate if there are any traps or hostilities inside. However, I can ascertain that nobody has ever stepped inside this chamber for the last two thousand years. Enter at your own peril.”
Jack nodded gratefully. If he had already risked this much already, why not go through it till the end? It wouldn’t be his character if he didn’t end his little adventure with style.
What drove Jack was actually more of a feeling of curiosity rather than treasure hunting. However, he also wasn’t stupid, and he soon understood that a two-thousand-year-old room must contain some secrets from the past. Whether he was able to comprehend these secrets or not, that was another matter.
He activated his energies, then cautiously descended the pathway.
The staircase was very long and deep, yet for some reason, the lights never dimmed. Jack couldn’t think of a rational explanation for this phenomenon. However, after all his experiences, he now understood that most happenings in this realm couldn’t be explained with rational thoughts.
When he reached the bottom, his eyes widened.
He was expecting treasures, or gold, or maybe some heaven-defying weapon. Or perhaps some work of art, or the least some unique and antique object.
But no. What welcomed Jack was desolation.
The single room seemed empty, covered with a layer of dark dust that was thicker on the edges. There were no doors and no windows, no altars and no other visible object. Just a sea of dust.
The disappointed Jack casually used his foot to push the dust around while he searched for anything valuable, but it was evident that whatever was stored inside this room had long turned to powder.
The passage of time was indeed the most vicious enemy of every existence.
But Jack didn’t give up. In fact, after several minutes, his efforts seemed to have paid off as he came across a hard object.
His eyes shone with excitement as he took hold of what appeared to be a hilt of a heavy sword. However, he soon expressed displeasure when he noticed that it was just the hilt. Whatever blade it held, it had long degraded into nothingness.
Jack sighed, but he still decided to bring it along with him. Even if it seemed useless to him, it was undoubtedly the remains of some unordinary object. With his limited knowledge, he couldn’t disregard anything at this stage.
It only took Jack a couple more steps before losing his balance and slamming against the dust.
“Ugh…,” Jack coughed out dust as he turned around to notice the surface of a strange cube.
After he regained his posture, he approached the cube vigilantly. He gently cleared the dust surrounding it, first making sure that there were no hidden dangers whatsoever.
The mysterious black cube didn’t seem damaged in the slightest. Actually, it still appeared in perfect condition. It had six different surfaces, and on each surface, there were depicted different symbols. However, there didn’t seem to be anything special or abnormal about this cube.
Only after he inspected a couple of times that he decided to loot it. However, he never expected that this damn thing would be so heavy.
Its weight was just ridiculous!
He forced himself to circulate his Qi to the maximum level, but it was only after a lot of effort that he managed to lift the cube from the ground.
With great difficulty, he held it tight against his chest.
What he didn’t realise was that a stream of blood from one of his wounds had already come into contact with the cube. The blood boiled for a moment before being entirely absorbed by the cube.
The cube immediately burned red hot, forcing the off-guard Jack to let go of it.
It landed with a powerful impact on the dust, then began rolling with decent speed around the room.
The stupefied Jack could only watch dumbfounded.
It was such a heavy cube; it should have at most rolled twice or thrice with its heavy weight. However, it seemed like there was no ending to its rolls!
It was only after rolling for around fifty times that the cube finally seemed to halt its movement.
Almost immediately, powerful QI energies exploded outwards, producing electrical waves that danced around the surface of the cube.