Aimless Ascension

Shi Fan laughed dryly. If there were any fault in the warding, then someone else would have appeared here already and stolen all the stuff. You can't really use Pure crystal without protocol. The precious thing radiates a specific spirituality all the time.

A gold ranker could recognise the radiation from afar, though there were hardly any gold rankers in this unremarkable valley. Still, it was a recipe for disaster, as wild beasts tend to get attracted to this special radiation.

"Senior, how did you suppress my Qi?" After being relieved about his stuff, he seemed genuinely curious about the matter.

"Like this." Gale flicked his finger.

"Was it really that easy?"

"Boyo, I don't know if your master had told you, but your control is terrible."

"I'll work extra hard." Despite saying that, the youth looked hurt at the blunt criticism.

"Of course you would," Gale breathed in. "But first, take care of that pure crystal and your stuff and recompense the young lady for what she deserves. Also, please be a little extra careful, if not for your own sake, but for others."

Gale hurried on the way out along with Vale, leaving those words.

"Thank you, Senior," Shi Fan said, bowing deeply like before, but it felt more genuine than before. "I'll be careful."

***

Gale found Xiaolin or Uncle Feng nowhere near the house. They moved to the carriage, which rested near the road a couple of hundred metres away. I guess the toxicity of Pure crystal scared her more than I realised.

Well, if the house wasn't warded to ground all the spiritual radiation, her fear would be accounted for. Even though pure crystals were filled with the purest essence nature could produce, they were still toxic to anyone under the Iron Rank. Only the transformed Iron body could protect against such radiation.

As for the benefit the crystals could produce, it was astronomical. Especially for iron and silver rankers. It could even make the transition to gold a lot easier. What it does is activate all the cells of the body to synthesise worldly energy, which in term increases the cycling process, efficiency rate, and recovery rate.

Meaning, an iron ranker would almost certainly have the efficiency of a Gold Ranker in sucking worldly energy and synthesising them into spirit Qi in that hyperactive cellular state. With that pure crystal boulder, one could simply buy this entire valley with extra marks to spare.

"Senior," Xiaolin called, "is everything alright?"

Gale shook his head. "Do you want to talk in private?"

Xiaolin frowned and gazed at Uncle Feng. She expressed a few words of reassurance and crept along with Gale further away.

"The case is like this--" Gale collected his thoughts and expressed in the fewest words it was possible and still be comprehensible. "--Shi Fan lost his master recently and probably took everything of his master's legacy with him here in fear of others taking advantage of him. The total wealth was astronomical enough for many in this valley and outside to move against him."

Xiaolin was bewildered and lost for words. She swallowed a breath, giving her house a look. "Senior, why are you telling me all this? I'm but a mortal. This case seems too great for me to even be aware of it."

"Well, because this is your land. You never know, if words get out and Shi Fan remained to stay here, you might get swayed along."

Xiaolin's expression bristled with anxiety hearing him out. Evidently, all this trouble was too much for a mortal girl to shoulder. "Senior, what should I do?"

"Well, if all remained in secrecy, then nothing would go wrong and you can get a high lodging fee from him, though I don't think he'll remain here for long. After all, too many people are aware of it to let it remain a secret."

"It would be best if he doesn't remain here," Xiaolin said, nodding.

After a few minutes, Shi Fan got out of the house a pouch in hand, looking rather pensive. He handed the pouch to Xiaolin as it made a little chime on transferring hands.

"There are two hundred iron marks inside for all the inconvenience," he said. "Sister, I will be glad if you keep the matter of all this to yourself."

"Two hundred marks," Xiaolin muttered, holding the pouch in uncertainty. "That's too much."

"Take it," Shi Fan said. "I know the marks are too little to change fate, but I'm sure they would help."

"So, when are you going to leave?"

Shi Fan took a deep breath. "Soon," he said, though he seemed relatively uncertain about his choices. Setting up the ward again in a new place would take time, a couple of days to a week, according to the mastery of scripts. Then there was the annoyance and danger of moving treasures. "A spatial storage device would make things a lot easier."

As he said that, his eyes turned to Gale. He saw Gale bringing water out of thin air, which was only possible with a spatial device.

"Senior, if you have one to spare, can you sell it to me? Even lending it for a time would be great."

"I don't have one that I can spare." Gale shook his head and drew his sleeve to show a black-hole mark. His Void-lock mark. "It's not a device, but a Fate-lock, linked to only me."

Shi Fan sighed pessimistically. In the end, spatial devices are one of the rarest creations of civilization. The safest way of constructing such devices was lost through the passage of time, rendering all the available ones astronomically expensive and rare to get a hand on. Despite having the wealth to buy one, Shi Fan would have to wait a long time to get a stable one as people don't tend to sell such devices a lot.

Well, why will they? A spatial device gave a definite advantage in carrying out heavy and questionable stuff from one place to another with no trouble. Just pour stuff in once, and forget about it until you need them.

That reminds me, my void lock is almost full. There's too much useless stuff inside. I need to re-examine all of them soon.

"It looks like I have to do it the hard way again." Shi Fan bowed one last time and left.

How did he even manage to get all this stuff without notice? That question crept into his mind, but Shi Fan was already in the house to get an answer. He probably had help.

"Alright, Xiaolin, it seems our tour is ending if you have nothing else to show me."

______

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