Chapter 63: Before Returning to the Painting World
The Star Orb storage dimension was as barren as ever, with limitless rocky grounds and a scorching sun illuminating the entire place. But all this didn't concern Tang Mu as he was preparing to enter the painting world again.
His focus was on his clone, which had once again stabilized after it regained the connection with his reconstructed original body.
Everything about the clone had returned to normal, and he could easily commune with his secondary consciousness, which was its mind. But his only concern was that the clone's powers were still only at the peak of rank one, and as such, he couldn't take it adventuring in the painting world. He feared that it would be unnecessary baggage that would slow him down.
"You can feed the clone more psionic crystals," Little Green advised from her floating position in the air. "It will level up quickly and catch up to your rank three level within days."
Tang Mu nodded but felt a heartache. He always disliked spending his riches. But for power, he suppressed his core nature and decided to do the needful. He gathered a third of the psionic crystals he had been collecting from the painting world over the past six weeks and placed them in front of his clone.
"Will these be enough?" He asked Little Green.
"Those are just about 120 low-grade psionic crystals," Little Green said with a shake of her head. "Double the amount if you wish to be sure of the result."
Tang Mu nodded again. Without saying anything else, he gathered another third from the pile of psionic crystals in the Star Orb storage dimension before pushing them toward his clone, which had already started munching on one of the shiny crystals.
"Let's hope you achieve the peak stage of rank three in a few days."
He turned his gaze away from the clone and looked at another pile of treasures that had always been collecting dust in the Star Orb storage dimension. These included the red-tier origin essence crystals he had been obtaining from the beasts he hunted from the painting world and the few prizes acquired after he slayed the two men who had tried to kidnap Ning'er and some other teenagers over six weeks ago.
Tang Mu stepped toward the pile and picked up an eye-catching long pistol. It was an old model runic weapon that he had obtained from the slayed Red Stalker's body. It operated under the same principle as his Death's Whisper long bow, which included relying on electromagnetic runes to accelerate bullets to hypersonic speeds beyond Mach 5.
However, the old model runic pistol had one drawback, which forced Tang Mu to throw it into the Star Orb storage dimension without ever thinking of utilizing it.
The firing process, which included the cocking procedure and the input of psionic energy into the pistol's electromagnetic runes, required about three to five seconds to complete, depending on the potency of one's powers. Such a time window was long enough for even a rank one psionic to react and dodge the bullet, and that was the only reason why Tang Mu had been able to escape unscathed when Red Stalker fired at him with such a powerful weapon.
It's unsuitable for me. I'll have to sell it off for cash or some psionic crystals when I get an opportunity.
Tang Mu put the runic pistol aside before picking up another treasure. It was the strange cloak he had obtained from the slayed Mystic Snake's body. It was both flexible and durable. And from what Tang Mu had learned over the past six weeks, it was also impervious to bullets and many other psionic attacks.
Tang Mu turned to Little Green again and held out the strange cloak. "Do you know what kind of treasure this is?"
Little Green narrowed her eyes and said, "It should be some cloth armor processed from the hide of a rank-four extraterrestrial creature of the darkness attribute. The artisan who created it wasn't so skilled and thus couldn't bring out a hundred percent of the raw material's powers. As such, the armor's level is only at rank three, but it can still enhance your stealth abilities and protect you from an attack below rank four."
"That means that I would have gotten a chance to escape from Elder Weeping Ghost's attack if I had been wearing this," Tang Mu lamented with a shake of his head.
He had amassed a few treasures. But he hadn't utilized them to improve his strength. He had lacked the urgency to gain power, and before he knew it, he had almost met his maker after facing a single lethal attack from Elder Weeping Ghost.
"That should be a lesson to you," Little Green said with an audible sigh. "Treasures are not for keeping and hoarding. Instead, acting swiftly and converting them into your strength as quickly as possible is the way to go."
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
"I understand," Tang Mu said and donned the cloak. It was a bit heavy. By his estimate, it was about ten kilograms.
But this weight was nothing to him, especially since he was already a rank three psionic. He felt like it was just right. It was also comfy and neither too warm nor too cold. There wasn't any reason for him not to use it as his primary armor until he found something better.
He returned his focus to the pile of treasures before picking up two other objects. They were a gigantic black machete and a slender 8-inch dagger. They were also runic weapons he had obtained from the van after he killed Red Stalker and Mystic Snake over six weeks ago. But he had left them collecting dust in the Star Orb storage dimension since he preferred bows and arrows.
These can come in handy at certain times. I can use them for close combat in case an enemy sneaks up on me.
It was fortunate that the two weapons had their customized sheaths. Tang Mu fastened the sheathed runic dagger on his belt before passing his neck through the strap of the machete's sheath to carry the long weapon on his back. Then, after ensuring that they wouldn't affect his movements, he bent down again and picked up his Death's Whisper bow and the quiver of his arrows.
"Just a moment, Tang Mu!" Little Green suddenly said. "I have been debating whether to warn you. But I guess I will go ahead and say my peace since this concerns the safety of the Star God Pagoda. There is a tracking rune expertly camouflaged within the runes inscribed on that bow weapon."
"A tracking rune! How could that be?" Tang Mu's eyes narrowed. His brain almost froze and caught ice after considering the fact that he had received the bow in question as a gift from Elder Cong Kai, his old principal. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Little Green said while sporting her signature playful smile. "The tracking rune is disguised well among the other electromagnetic runes on the bow. But it still can't escape my notice."
"Once activated, the person with the sister rune will immediately be able to track your position. All this leads me to believe that the elder who gifted you the bow either has bad intentions or wishes to monitor you at certain times. But both aspects are unfavorable to you since there are many unique points about you, such as your possession of the Star Orb, your Mentifery, and your Crystalline Soul Body."
Tang Mu spaced out after hearing Little Green's warning about the tracking rune.
Something triggered in his mind, and he started recalling a scene from the past. He remembered a specific morning, just weeks before his parents perished — when his late mother had pulled him into one of the empty rooms and whispered in his ear.
"My dear boy, Tang Mu!" She had communicated with tenderness. "All I'm about to say will sound confusing, but you will understand in the future."
"You're about to have a hard life. But do not ever lose hope. Remain relentless in whatever you do and slowly push forward. Stay humble, and above all, do not trust the Federation personnel and other military officials who might approach you with hidden intentions."
"The difficult times will eventually pass, and when the opportunity arises, go to this place, and you will find something essential for your growth." His late mother had then shown him a latitude and longitude coordinate representing a particular place on Mother Earth as a tear rolled down the corner of her eye. Moreover, she had only allowed him to leave the empty room after he had recited the set of numbers dozens of times.
Tang Mu had always found the incident peculiar, especially since he lost his parents during a Vegroid invasion that happened only two weeks after that. But he had committed his mother's instructions to heart and lived a humble life while pursuing his goals relentlessly.
He had also developed an ingrained distrust for all government and military personnel, and that was also the reason why he had always tried to hide his strange powers after becoming an official psionic. And now, this mistrust, this fear instilled in his soul by his late mother's warnings, burgeoned forth like a gushing spring when he learned about the concealed rune on the bow he received as a gift from his old principal.
"Has the tracking rune ever been activated?" He asked Little Green.
"No," she answered. "But considering your circumstances, I'm sure someone has already tried to activate it or will do so soon. If I were in their shoes, I would immediately suspect that the enemy who killed you took the runic longbow. So, I would activate the tracking rune to locate this enemy in question."
"Should I give it up?"
"Just give the bow here. I will solve the problem of the tracking rune for you." She held out her hand to Tang Mu.
Tang Mu swallowed hard and subconsciously handed the runic longbow to her. By some mysterious means, it hovered forward slowly and halted before Little Green's floating figure.
In turn, she went into action immediately. Her tiny fingers tapped a few times on the golden runic patterns adorning the pitch-black surface of the longbow. Then, after giving the weapon one last look, she smiled and pushed it back towards Tang Mu.
"I have dismantled the tracking rune," she declared. "From now on, no one can use it to track the weapon."
"Thank you," Tang Mu replied and received the bow. He gave it a thorough inspection that lasted a few seconds. But even then, he didn't find anything different about the bow. Its golden runic patterns appeared to be the same as they were before.
"You don't have to worry," Little Green said. "It will function just as before. Moreover, its lethality might improve since I dismantled all the unnecessary runes inscribed on the bow."
"Thanks again," Tang Mu said while caressing the surface of the bow. "I'm ready now. Can you send me to the painting world?" He asked while placing his bow and quiver containing his arrows back on the rocky ground of the Star Orb storage dimension. He would only summon them when the need arose.
"Okay," Little Green said and waved her arm.
Tang Mu instantly experienced the familiar and uncomfortable feeling of shuttling through space. His senses blacked out for an instant, and when he regained them, he was already standing in the middle of an expansive savannah grassland with a majestic mountain towering over everything else in the distance.
He was finally back in the painting world.
-----