Chapter 23 Ironthorn Fruit: Part Two
Chen Yu frowned at the 'Young Master' title - he didn't like it.
Back home, it was a symbol of the familial expectations he often found to be suffocating at times. At least when his brothers called him 'Little Emperor' there was a touch of endearment to that name. Here, in the sect, it was usually said by Yin Tiang to needle Chen Yu as it was said ironically. Chen Yu had specifically asked everyone he knew not to call him by that title - Yin Tiang still did so as a joke of course, but no one said called him that with any seriousness.
However, Chen Yu didn't express his discontent - he knew this farmer was just doing his job and trying to give him the due respect he thought Chen Yu deserved.
"Yes, I'm ready," Chen Yu said.
He was not that far from the sect division where he usually lived - so close that he could, if he wanted to, go back within three hours. He didn't and stayed in place near here just because that much traveling would be exhausting, but it just went to show how far they had gone out of their way to screw Tang Ze over.
These fields were specially owned by the sect and grew Ironthorn Fruit. It was very useful for nearly all kinds of alchemical recipes depending on how ripe they were - but they were extremely difficult to grow and even more difficult to harvest.
The fruit was tiny, so small that one of them could easily be balanced on the pulp of one of Chen Yu's fingers.
The fruit was so called because it grew along a vine. The vines could be as thick as Chen Yu's body in places, though most of the time they were only as thick as a limb. They were covered entirely with barbs that were incredibly sharp, hence the vine's name. The fruit was hidden within the vine, and naturally, to get to it one needed to dig through the thorns.
Despite multiple millennia of trying, people had not been able to breed a variation of the Ironthorn Vine that would grow fruit superficially in large numbers. Instead, the vine had a tendency to grow in layers, with most of the fruit only nestled at the very bottom.
It was very hard to harvest for this reason - there were not that many ways that one could get to the fruit while bypassing the thorns while also not damaging the fruit, which was incredibly fragile.
The fruit also grew in very little proportion to the vine, to the point where a field as big as a room might only have a handful of the fruit.
But, harvesting it was only difficult if one did not have someone like Chen Yu with them. Thanks to his talent, he had a technique that allowed him to be able to reach for the fruit with little difficulty without risking damaging them, and so this was why he had not been surprised when the sect assigned him to this role once again. He was a natural at doing this.
His technique was called [Steelskin]. Even most Qi Refinement cultivators did not have a special technique like this given that they usually did not have full control over their Qi at that level, but this was the benefit of being born with one of the Five Attributes!
There was a weaker version of [Steelskin] known as [Ironhide] which some Golden Core cultivators could use, but it had drawbacks that [Steelskin] did not, not to mention [Steelskin] was something that Chen Yu could use even at his low level of cultivation.
It was thanks to this technique that he was confident of fighting any Qi Condensation cultivator in a one-on-one fight in the sect and coming out ahead - and even most Qi Refinement cultivators as well.
Well, perhaps Tang Ze could find a way to break through this defensive skill using the powers he got from his odd 'cosplaying' skill, but he was quite the outlier.
Chen Yu had not yet mastered the technique to the point where he could make his entire body as hard as steel, but he was able to use it on a part of himself. The hands and the arms were the easiest parts.
And so, Chen Yu's hands suddenly turned gray and were more well-protected than if he were wearing several layers of inch-thick plate armor over his arms.
Despite how heavy his hands looked, it did not affect his mobility in any way whatsoever. They were still as flexible as they always were, which is where the lethality of such a technique lay - to be able to strike through bone and skin without sacrificing flexibility or agility!
Not only that, if Chen Yu were able to use this technique to its fullest, he could cover up his body completely, leaving no weak spot. Normally areas like the groin, neck, and eyes would be especially vulnerable to attacks, but [Steelskin] could completely negate this weakness.
If Chen Yu practiced further using his attribute, he could branch out into other abilities like [Soul of Iron] which defended from soul-based attacks as well.
Even the sect acknowledged his innate talent and was willing to invest more in him so that he could continue to build upon it, though right now, he was still at Qi Condensation and couldn't do much more with it other than using it to cover parts of his body for short periods of time.
It would only be at Qi Refinement when more avenues would open up for him to use his attribute to its fullest!
For now, he used his hands to weave through the Ironthorn Vine. The vines were stacked on top of each other and were so crowded it was nearly impossible to find a way through them without cutting them, but this risked damaging the fruit and also injury to whosoever did such.
Not to mention it would be very time-consuming.
For Chen Yu however, it was child's play. The thorns could do nothing to him as he went elbow-deep into the vine, easily finding the bottom, and able to easily remove several pieces of fruit without damaging them or hurting himself.
The fruit was tiny, almost like a raspberry, and the light color of saffron. It did not look that remarkable when one glanced at it - and someone, if they didn't know what it was and left it out on a counter, might even eat it, not realizing that what they had eaten could fetch a price that could feed an ordinary mortal family for nearly a month.
Normally, there would also be some slight damage to them no matter how careful one was while retrieving them, but by now, Chen Yu was a seasoned hand at this kind of work and was able to extract them with minimal loss.
The amount he managed to get out was worth more than its weight in gold.
"Amazing!"
"So this is the power of one of the Five Attributes!"
"Young Master Chen Yu truly is superb! To be able to work so fast - he can harvest more than twenty of us put together!"
Chen Yu was used to such praise - as it was, it was coming from mortal farmers so he didn't put too much stock into it, but it was quite satisfying to see the talent he was born with actually be useful in some way other than in trying to fight.
Who knows how far it might take him in the future?
Normally, it was said that the sect spent more on Initiates than they contributed back to the sect, at least in terms of financial resources.
This could not be extended to Chen Yu, however.
The amount of Ironthorn Fruit that he harvested not only made up for what the sect spent on him, but his entire squad as well.
If he continued to improve on his ability to use his attribute, he could easily rise up in the sect at an astonishing rate!
As it was right now though, there was little else for him to do.
He could only use his ability so often in a day, and now that he couldn't anymore after extracting a few more fistfuls of fruit, he had the rest of the time off.
The sect did not mind this, given how fruitful his labor otherwise was, so he was now left to cultivate.
He found it all to be quite ironic in the sense that he was considered valuable to the sect right now because he could harvest a kind of fruit very easily - which would be work that his family would otherwise scoff at and believe was quite beneath them.
Not that that mattered when he was in the sect. It was actually quite relaxing in a way, to be unburdened by his identity while he was within the sect for the most part. Chen Yu was basically given the same tasks as nearly everyone else, though sometimes, such as in this situation, he was given what could be seen as preferential treatment with an easy solo task to complete - though on the other hand, it was something he was being rewarded for being skillful at it.
Being the golden child had come with downsides, after all. His parents hadn't strictly forbidden him from having friends, but they had disapproved of nearly everyone that Chen Yu had become friends with as they thought that they would lead him astray and would distract him from progressing. He also couldn't do some things that his brothers could - such as playing games with the other children outside. His parents had been overprotective to the point that they didn't want him to accidentally get a fracture or the like, and at the time he didn't have the [Steelskin] ability.
Not to mention, now that Chen Yu was older and got to reflect on some of his earlier behavior, he realized with embarrassment at how much of a spoilt child he had been. When his older brothers told him stories about the antics he used to pull back during the times he was so young that he couldn't remember them, he had trouble believing they were true until his parents would usually confirm that that had been the case at the time..
Here though, he was just another member of the sect - slightly more talented and with a greater future potential than many others, but still for the most part another sect member. He was also unburdened by many of the usual restrictions placed on him by his family, and was able to grow past the 'spoilt child' phase he had been in before.
He did not usually like to be reminded of his heritage while in the sect, a fact that Yin Tiang knew, and often needled him over as he knew that it annoyed Chen Yu.
But, after some time, Chen Yu had learned to ignore such things and even counter Yin Tiang's taunts with his own.
Chen Yu watched from a distance as the farmers gathered the Ironthorn Fruit he had managed to pick up and put it carefully into boxes which were loaded upon carts before he went to focus on cultivating inside his lodgings. The place where he stayed was far more luxurious than the cottage where Tang Ze was staying; since it was so close to the sect, supplying it was not so much of an issue.
Chen Yu sat down on a mat and began breathing in and out until his breathing and heartbeat were steady, and he began to condense the Qi in the air, driving it into his lower dantian. He continued to repeat this process over and over, gathering as much Qi in there as possible, before driving it towards his meridians. Once one such cycle was completed, he repeated the entire process again.
Chapter 24 The Alchemy Lab: Part One
Once the Ironthorn Fruit was harvested and loaded, a Qi Refinement cultivator would lead the cart with it back to the sect.
They were still very close to sect territory, so a high level of security was not really required.
The fields that Chen Yu was working on were directly managed by the sect as they were very close to the sect division and direct oversight over them was feasible - rather than the usual system of having a village chief who would pay taxes to the sect yearly, as was true in other parts of the territory the Rising Phoenix sect controlled.
Some of the harvested Ironthorn Fruit would be sent to other branches of the sect, while some of it would be sold on the open market.
A portion of it was kept by the sect for internal activities of course - meaning that it would be used by the alchemists of the sect to make various products.
Yin Tiang inspected some of this latest shipment of Ironthorn Fruit as it arrived. "Hmm… not damaged, and almost all of it is intact." This was a very good batch of Ironthorn Fruit, and Yin Tiang felt that whoever had harvested this batch had done a phenomenal job.
While it was true that the Ironthorn Fruit could still be used even if it wasn't intact as its juices had various alchemical properties, it was still the most useful as a whole fruit.
Yin Tiang's solo mission involved working in the sect's alchemical division - this was rather expected given the fact that this was the area he not only wished to specialize in, but also the area where he was most talented in.
Not to mention that the alchemical division generated a huge portion of the sect's revenue and they could always use a few extra hands, so anyone who was even moderately good at handling things in it would be assigned to it for virtually every solo mission.
There was a reason that Yin Tiang was rather adept at alchemy. Although Yin Tiang was the oldest of his squad, he was the one who lagged behind the most when it came to cultivation - that was before Tang Ze showed up though and really brought their group's average level of cultivation down.
This was not of much concern to him - he lagged behind because he chose to focus on alchemy, and it wasn't like he was too far behind. He was just slightly below average for where one would expect him to be at this point in time.
Conversely, though he might lag behind slightly when it came to cultivation, he more than made up for it by greatly excelling at alchemy.
Most Initiates couldn't get into advanced alchemy classes like he could, and didn't have his skill either.
Then again, most of them didn't share the kind of heritage that Yin Tiang had either.
His grandfather had married a wood nymph - and a part of that blood flowed through him.
Wood nymphs were known to be quite close to nature, animals, and plants as well.
Yin Tiang had basically been born with a green thumb kudos to this, and was excellent at naming and identifying plants even when he had only been five years old.
Of course, this was only one part of alchemy. It was one thing to be able to identify and nourish rare plants - and another to know how to use them well. Still, being able to identify plants was the first step to becoming a good alchemist, and he was extremely gifted at this step. This was also the part of alchemy that most beginners struggled with the most, though Yin Tiang soared over this obstacle with ease, allowing him to focus on more advanced aspects.
He never really appreciated how useful this inherent talent of his was until he saw how much his squad members struggled to remember the names of plants. That notwithstanding, he had to say that Tang Ze was nearly hopeless when it came to such things to a point that it shocked Yin Tiang - Tang Ze was not even being able to tell Moon Lilies and Silver Lotuses apart, something that was childishly simple.
When it came to using the plants properly, Yin Tiang had another advantage which gave him yet another leg up compared to his peers.
His father was an alchemist as well, and so Yin Tiang had gotten a head start and access to some alchemical manuals the other Initiates wouldn't have from a very young age.
So it was only natural he was asked to work in this division - his solo mission involved not even having to go out of the sect building itself.
He felt a pang of pity for Tang Ze - who knew how he was holding up right now?
In addition to being worried about Tang Ze's issues with this current mission, Yin Tiang really wished he could think up of something that might be able to help Tang Ze break through the Zeroth Realm.
After that, Tang Ze would actually be able to use some of the resources that the sect provided.
As of now, all that Tang Ze could do was sell them to other people. If he kept them for later use, they might expire by them. And the closer they were to their expiry date, the lower the amount they would fetch on the market.
He ended up giving some of his monthly resources to the other members of his squad because of this - at least between the four of them, he could be relatively assured that they might pay him back later at some point.
Yin Tiang had reached out to not only his teachers, but also to his father to ask if they had any ideas that might aide Tang Ze.
Sadly, nothing had turned up that might be able to solve his issue.
It wasn't like it was a hard problem in terms of Qi. The amount of Qi needed to reach Qi Condensation from the Zeroth Realm was minimal, the issue was making it in a form that Tang Ze could take. After all, you would not use a flamethrower to try to light a candle.
But - everywhere that Yin Tiang looked, he got the same answer.
One could not build where there was no foundation.
You could not give a newborn baby steroids and expect it to be able to lift weights suddenly, now then could you?
The only option that Tang Ze had was to let his dantian and meridians open slowly on their own as nature would allow - that was the conclusion that Yin Tiang had reached after searching for so long.
It had been his initial hypothesis as well, but he had hoped for Tang Ze's sake that he would be proven wrong.
Alas, it was not so.
Yin Tiang was sure that there was an answer somewhere - it was just that such an answer was not profitable enough to develop a solution for.
After all, Tang Ze's situation was rather unique. If he had regressed to the Zeroth Realm due to injuries to his meridians, as did happen to some people, there were medicines to help cure them.
What there wasn't was something that could cause them to open faster. No one would really think to do so - at least, no one before someone like Tang Ze had showed up.
However, Yin Tiang, even if he was precocious when it came to alchemical ability, was still just a novice.
He had not reached a stage where he could really develop new recipes or modify existing ones on his own - which was something that even seasoned veterans had trouble with.
And any mistake could potentially endanger Tang Ze's life - and Yin Tiang doubted that Tang Ze would agree to become a guinea pig for his experiments.
Even if there were no huge benefits to anyone from solving Tang Ze's problem - it was an interesting enough question that it might be worth trying to solve merely as it would deepen people's understanding of alchemy.
Yin Tiang didn't quite grasp how it was that Tang Ze had landed in this situation in the first place.
The only thing that he could think of was that he had grown up in some environment entirely without Qi - though he didn't know how that was possible.
Even in the regions of this world where Qi was the weakest, by the time one was twelve years old at the latest they would have advanced beyond the Zeroth Realm.
Only if they had somehow been born and brought up in an environment where someone had artificially siphoned off the Qi in the air could such a thing happen - though Yin Tiang couldn't think of a reason as to why someone would do such a thing. It was possible to do something like that, but why go through that kind of trouble? What would the point be?
If Tang Ze had a good family backing - say, were he an actual noble (and not a pseudo-noble like Chen Yu) it might've been worthwhile for someone to find a way to get him to leap across through the Zeroth Realm into the first minor realm of Qi Condensation.
Putting that aside, if Yin Tiang had been a bit more experienced and his cultivation more advanced, say, at the Golden Core realm - he could likely embark on solving the problem himself.
It was much like solving a curious thought experiment - though it might not have any direct benefits, it could improve one's understanding and building upon that, be useful sometime in the future.
By its very nature, one couldn't know how valuable an unknown piece of knowledge was until one had obtained it.
But, Yin Tiang did not have any sort of backing.
He was still a novice alchemist, and it was unlikely that anyone who was higher up would take a harebrained idea like his seriously. There might even be some flaws to the ideas that Yin Tiang might come up with that he simply couldn't recognize because of his lack of knowledge - that possibility could not be ruled out either.
Resigning himself to the fact that a solution to said problem was not going to appear anytime soon, Yin Tiang set out to do his actual work.
The alchemical lab in this division of the sect was located underground and was built so that the floor was the earth of the mountain itself. This was so that any spills could easily seep into the ground rather than onto a floor which would get damaged anyway.
The room was large - one of the biggest in the entire sect, and was filled with beakers and cauldrons.
There was a fume hood at nearly every table, to carry the noxious vapors often generated during alchemical processes safely outside, and most people chose to wear masks inside the place.
Noises permeated throughout the lab, whether they were from the results of experiments or just things like beakers rattling as they were heated - and it was full of activity, though no one was dumb enough to do something like run around the place.
It was busy, sure, but not chaotic. Many of the things being made in this place were dangerous and so no one was going to risk a spill.
If there was such an immature person who didn't know what they were doing, they would be kicked out at once!
All of the rest of his coworkers, those who were actual alchemists and not assistants or the like - were at the Qi Refinement stage at the least.
However, thanks to his bloodline in part and because of his early education as well, Yin Tiang was able to keep up with them when it came to many things!
Much like with Chen Yu, Yin Tiang contributed enough to the sect through these kinds of missions that he actually fully repaid the amount the sect spent on him and then some; making him yet another outlier when it came to considering a net profit/loss ratio among the Initiates.
Chapter 25 The Alchemy Lab: Part Two
Coming to alchemy, there were various theories on how it worked, though the most mainstream and widely accepted of these was based on the principle that it was a form of external cultivation.
Cultivation was a way of strengthening the mind and soul to get closer to immortality. But while man might think of himself as the center of the universe, the universe is vast and broad. The Dao existed not just for humans, but for everything from the beetles crawling through the grass to even non-living things such as minerals.
The Dao was everything - and as such, conversely, there was nothing that was without the Dao.
In truth, the earliest ideas and theories of cultivating came as an adaptation of alchemy, not the other way around.
In alchemy, one usually took ingredients from outside and then merged them with the help of fire. This was a gross oversimplification of course, but it fell in line with what most people could understand.
There was a deeper meaning to this that fewer people knew about - in that alchemists intended to mimic the way in which the universe was said to have been created from a primordial flame (what might in modern day terms if one were living on Earth be called 'The Big Bang') and replicate it through their experiments.
Much like that, humans were said to contain a 'fire' within them. It was said that the creation of the universe itself involved the usage of a sacred flame, into which the components of the universe merged to create something greater than the mere sum of the components - in other words, just like an alchemist making pills.
Life essence was compared to fire, and as alchemists would add ingredients to a flask, cultivators would add 'ingredients' - thoughts, will, and life experience to their life essence to temper their own bodies.
Essentially, alchemy could be considered to be 'external cultivation' while cultivation could also be thought of as 'internal alchemy.'
That was why people could also technically be turned into cauldrons and pills - though obviously, such things were demonic in nature and not done by any of the righteous sects of the Raswatian Empire.
At least, not openly. There were always rumors that either some of the sects or the Imperial Family themselves held underground 'dark laboratories' where such forbidden research took place.
Such stories would always pop up from time to time - whether or not they had even the slightest bit of truth to them or not. There were conspiracy theorists in this world just like back on Earth, and this was a popular conspiracy theory to believe in - because many people felt that it was plausible. After all, cultivators were oftentimes people willing to do anything for power. Was it so hard to believe that powerful people like the Imperial Family or the sects would take advantage of weaker people if it would make them stronger? No!
Just because it was easy to believe didn't make it true, however.
Of course, regarding whether or not there were demonic cultivators who engaged in such practices - that was almost always going to be true at any point in time no matter where or when you were. That was what made them demonic in the first place, after all- a willingness to disregard life for their own personal gain.
Tang Ze had even told Yin Tiang about an alchemist from his old memories who had fused his daughter with a dog as a part of an abnormal experiment - Yin Tiang had heard of more horrifying and disturbing stories than that though.
Yin Tiang picked up one of the Ironthorn Fruits.
His task today was to work on an aphrodisiac.
This aphrodisiac was not intended for human use - such a thing, much like making human pills or cauldrons, was forbidden for obvious reasons.
Moreover, humans are intelligent creatures and there is a limit to how much such things would really work on them in the first place.
Certainly nothing as low-level as what Yin Tiang could make could greatly move a person's heart.
Some of Yin Tiang's fellow Initiates had asked him in roundabout manners for 'human aphrodisiacs', and he had angrily told them all to get lost whenever they approached him.
Some people did sell 'human aphrodisiacs' on the market, though up till now, Yin Tiang had found that all of them were just scammers.
The aphrodisiacs he was making were for a certain species of animal - pandas!
Much like back on Earth, pandas as a species had several aspects to them which could be considered to be evolutionary flaws such as feeding on food that was not nutritionally optimal, and also that they did not breed very willingly or frequently.
In order to assist with their breeding - that was what this aphrodisiac was actually for!
In other words, to bring up the panda population, which teetered on the brink of extinction even in this world.
Making alchemical pills and elixirs was far more difficult than making medicine back on Earth.
There were various things that one would not even notice while making medicine back on Earth, since they didn't matter to the final product.
And yet, several minute details that one would normally not even think of as carrying importance; well, they could not be ignored when it came to alchemy.
As a famous example - an alchemist had been working on a certain elixir over and over again, and had failed nearly ten thousand times.
And yet, one day, while going through very similar motions as before, he managed to succeed!
Unfortunately, despite trying to make this recipe again and again another ten thousand times, he was unable to recreate the single stroke of success he had managed to achieve.
What was it that had led to him being able to make it one time and failing all of the others?
He went through all the things he had done differently that day - whether it had been what he had eaten for breakfast, the phase of the moon in the lunar cycle, the temperature and weather outside, as well as if there had been any impurities in the ingredients used that day.
He could not come to a solution despite racking his brains thoroughly and trying to recreate all the conditions as much as possible. Until one day, it came to him.
That day when he had been successful, he had visited a friend's house beforehand. And that friend had a doorknob that was rusty, so that some of the metal had stuck to his hand.
And it was this tiny detail that had allowed the elixir's recipe to be finalized! The small traces of metal, although they were so small he could not see them, mixed in with the ingredients of the elixir and allowed it to be made successfully.
That was how meticulous one had to be while doing alchemy.
First, Yin Tiang had to crush the Ironthorn Fruit - it was imperative he do it with his hands and not with an instrument. The crushing part was actually quite important, which is why intact fruit was better than simply using its juices.
He then had to keep the juice in a silver bowl.
He then added some Dragonroot Powder, and then mixed the two with a copper spoon until they made a thick paste.
Now, this would be put aside for an hour while he worked on the other half of the recipe.
He took out a bath of copper sulfate and then soaked several pieces of deerskin within it.
Once the deerskin was done drying, he lit up a flame, and then dipped the deerskin in the same.
Instantly fumes began to emerge from the deerskin, which is why this step had to be done under a fume hood.
Many alchemists had accidentally poisoned themselves through their experiments, even those who were experienced veterans. Occasionally they had to work with substances regarding which even an accidental whiff was fatal, though they did not try to make such things here. If one wanted to work with really noxious ingredients, they would have to go to a larger division of the sect where there were special rooms prepared for the same.
While nothing was being used in this laboratory that could kill you by inhaling a single whiff of it, there were still a thousand and one ways to kill yourself if you were not careful.
Once the deerskin had been burnt to a crisp, the flame took on a gentle green color.
Yin Tiang let out a sigh of relief - that meant that this step had been successful.
The next step, however, was where his skill would truly be tested. The thick paste he had just made was then put atop this flame.
All alchemical processes had one step in common - they needed a burst of energy in order to trigger the whole process. This was usually fire, though it could more rarely also be lightning, light, or even spiritual energy from the alchemist.
While it was widely assumed that the universe had been created in much the same way - a large number of ingredients coming together with a sudden burst of energy fusing them and creating something greater than the sum of the ingredients used, resulting in the myriad number of lifeforms, galaxies, and planets that were seen today. It was unclear, however, as to who had carried this process out.
Whether it had been a case of 'natural alchemy' - as in, ingredients coming together in nature by themselves to make something (which was seen occasionally) or the action of some greater being was a topic that many alchemists and non-alchemists debated till this day. Also, the ingredients used would've needed to come from somewhere, resulting in a strange circular problem with no true end the more one contemplated this.
There was a reason why many Bodhisattvas said that it was an exercise in futility to try to contemplate the origin of the universe.
This paste, as it was heated, was not meant to be stirred. Instead, Yin Tiang took out an identical bowl to the first one, and began gently tapping the second one while keeping it close to the first.
It was through this - resonance - that the mixture would be stirred, indirectly.
The skill was in keeping the frequency of taps at a level that would resonate with the other bowl.
Sweat began to coat Yin Tiang's brow, but the paste finally turned the light blue color that he had been expecting. That signified that it was finished. He let out a sigh of relief - although he was successful ninety percent of the time when making this, the ten percent of the time that he failed always felt soul-crushing.
He put the finished aphrodisiac into a vial, capped said vial, and handed it over for it to be sold. The sect itself had no use for it, but it would fetch a high price on the open market. Many people bred pandas as they were popular, and this was somewhat encouraged as their numbers were low.
As Yin Tiang washed his hands, he hoped that the pandas in question, once they'd had their fun, would appreciate his effort. More likely than not though, being animals, they wouldn't.
As his work was quite profitable, he didn't need to stay in the lab for long before his daily quota was met.
Once he was done with his daily quota, he could do whatever he wanted - though Yin Tiang preferred to remain in the laboratory looking at what else was going on even after he was done with his work. There was quite a lot that you could learn by observing the more senior workers. Nearly everyone in the lab knew Yin Tiang so no one really minded letting him watch, or giving him a few pointers to help him improve.
It wasn't like the rest of his squad was there for them to do anything together once he got back to their shared room anyway. He could go back to his room to try to cultivate, but he would rather stay here and study alchemy.
Speaking of the rest of his squad, hopefully, Yin Tiang thought, they were also having an easy time like he was.
Chapter 26 Zhang Long Returns Home: Part One
It could be argued that Zhang Long had gotten the easiest and nicest task for his solo mission.
He had been asked to collect taxes from a village - which just so coincidentally happened to be his own village.
This could be said to be less of a job and more of a reward.
Zhang Long was the best among the current batch of Initiates in his division when it came to cultivating speed. Despite being younger than many of them, he was already at the sixth minor realm of Qi Condensation, and it looked like he would be one of the few who would graduate from Initiate without having to wait the full thirty years of service to do so.
Then again, he was kind of getting ahead of himself by already thinking of the Qi Refinement realm.
While it was true that after a breakthrough, usually cultivators would also find their potentials also expanded, being able to progress faster, he was still a good ways away from the tenth and final minor realm of Qi Condensation.
Not to mention that breaking through a major realm to Qi Refinement would be the real test of his cultivation talent, in that it was going to be much harder than ascending a minor realm.
It wasn't like the difference of a few minor realms meant that much at Qi Condensation anyway.
But, Zhang Long had a feeling that he wasn't necessarily being rewarded for his ability to cultivate, but for other softer skills such as when it came to managing his team.
Although Zhang Long had not been given a mission near the sect division and had to travel a bit of a way, in a sense being posted the second furthest away right behind Tang Ze, he had basically been given an extended vacation to go back home during this time.
He was welcomed with great fanfare back in his village.
Tax season was not a happy time for any village, but they were joyful in that the collector was someone they knew.
Unlike in modern times, there was no easy way for the Raswatian Empire to keep track of most people's incomes and tax them through a central authority.
The Imperial Family couldn't do so, and neither could any of the sects.
As such, tax collectors had a bit of leeway in their assessments of how well villages were doing.
Given this, bribery and corruption were usually rampant, not to mention the fact that tax collectors had a habit of skimming a bit off the top from what they collected for their own ends.
As such, people ended up paying far more in taxes than were collected - or so was usually the case.
There was no need to try to sweet-talk or bribe Zhang Long, after all.
He was the son of their village chief, and could be relied upon to overlook many things regarding the village and to overexaggerate some of the hardships they had faced.
While Zhang Long was loyal to his sect, he was more than fine with slightly fudging the numbers to help these people who he'd known ever since he was a child. After all, it wasn't lying, just embellishing things ever so slightly.
Life in the villages was not easy.
While things could go smoothly for several years at a time, there was the risk of monster attacks, calamities, demonic cultivators, and raids from other sects as well. This was in addition to the normal hazards like crop failure due to droughts, floods, or pests.
Given this, he thought that his village more than deserved a break.
Not to mention his 'work' was done in less than three days, leaving him to relax for the rest of his term there.
It was clear that the difference in his treatment and that of Tang Ze was the difference between heaven and earth!
Zhang Long had noted that Tang Ze's placement was rather odd, and as such, had offered to escalate the matter further to Elder He Xuan himself if need be since the prefects seemed to be of little help, though Tang Ze himself had requested that he not do so.
Elder He Xuan wouldn't have cared for the complaint even if they did. He wanted Tang Ze in the sect, yes, but he would likely also view this as a chance for Tang Ze to prove himself and potentially get stronger.
He also couldn't show Tang Ze blatant favoritism, and the prefects were technically not breaking any rules, so in such a situation, why would he intervene?
"Whatever- it's only for a short break of time, how bad can it be?" Tang Ze had said at the that time. "And I don't want to gain a reputation as someone who complains about work like that and then goes bothering the higher-ups about something so simple."
Tang Ze had said that at the time - though right now, he was currently realizing just how bad the job was.
Zhang Long though, was oblivious to what was going on with Tang Ze right now - he only knew that Tang Ze was likely facing some trouble with it, he just didn't know how bad it was.
Tang Ze was someone who deserved a break, Zhang Long felt, given how much he had done until now.
Tang Ze had helped Zhang Long jump up a minor realm, after all, though he himself was still stuck at the Zeroth Realm and was unable to move forward.
There was seemingly nothing that anyone could do for him on that matter.
Zhang Long, when he wasn't cultivating, tried to see if he could find something to help Tang Ze out, though didn't come across anything.
"Young Missy Jin Zhen is here to see Young Master Zhang Long," one of the servants called out as Jin Zhen walked into their house one day.
Zhang Long was sitting in his bedroom on the upper floor, but had heard those words loud and clear. There house wasn't that big, after all.
He did his best not to scoff- so he was 'Young Master' now that he could cultivate? Ah, whatever, it didn't bother him too much.
"Welcome, Jin Zhen, how have you been?" Zhang Long's mother asked.
"I've been well, how have you been?"
"My son's finally home for a while, so I couldn't be better! You're here to see him, aren't you?"
"Yes," Jin Zhen said.
"He's upstairs in his bedroom," his mother continued. "Feel free to go up to visit him - but, while you're there, remember to leave the door open."
Jin Zhen blushed lightly as Zhang Long called out from upstairs, "Mother! I'm not a child anymore! You don't need to impose those kinds of rules!"
His mother rolled her eyes. "I know the two of you aren't children anymore - that's why I'm asking you to keep the door open, after all. It wouldn't be a problem if the two of you were still kids." She sighed. "Ah, it feels like just yesterday when the two of you were this tall," she said, motioning to her knee, "and playing husband and wife together! Ah, how swiftly does time pass. Before it feels like I can even blink, the two of you have grown up and are going to get married for real!"
"Well, I'm just here to talk to Zhang Long," Jin Zhen said. "That's all - I just want to talk to him. You don't need to worry."
"I know that might be the only thing that you want," his mother replied. "But men have a way of… shall we say, escalating things? About nine months before Zhang Long was born, all I wanted one night was a back massage from his father but then-"
By this point Zhang Long had run downstairs, face bright red, and yelled out, "MOTHER! What kind of things are you saying to our guests?"
"Oh? Since when is Jin Zhen a guest?" his mother asked, lightly laughing. "She's always dropped by here whenever she wanted. Almost like she's the daughter we never had - and now she's about to become part of the family, isn't she?"
"So then why are you sharing that with her then?" Zhang Long asked through gritted teeth.
Jin Zhen lightly giggled as she made her way upstairs. Zhang Long followed her, and just to spite his mother closed the door.
"How have you been doing?" Zhang Long asked her. He couldn't imagine things were going easy for her after what those Diamond Dust idiots did. In the letters she sent him, she had said she was doing fine, but it was another thing to ask in person.
"I'm fine," Jin Zhen said reassuringly, catching onto what he was trying to ask. However, there seemed to be more to her visit than just catching up.
Their families were hoping to plan an official wedding sometime soon, though the official engagement would have to take place first.
Zhang Long would've hoped to have waited a bit longer - until he was past the rank of Initiate at the very least, though as his father reminded him, that could very well take several years.
"And she can't wait forever for you, remember that," he had told Zhang Long.
Zhang Long had hoped that he could delay things - not because he didn't want to get married, but because he felt he would be more stable if he could become a regular member of the sect rather than an Initiate.
Regular members had, well, more regular working hours and weren't sent outside the sect as much. They also got certain privileges he thought were quite relevant.
Children of regular sect members, once they became of age, could automatically join the sect without having to take the entrance test and without paying said fee.
It was too early to plan for children, despite what his mother was insinuating, but it would've put his mind slightly at ease if he moved up from Initiate before the wedding.
Still, even he couldn't deny the fact that at the speed he was going at, it might very well be another decade before he could ascend to Qi Refinement.
However, Jin Zhen wasn't here to talk about anything like that today.
"I was wondering - when would you and the other members of your squad be free?" Jin Zhen asked.
"I don't know - might be a while until we can get together again, why?" Zhang Long asked.
Jin Zhen's next words, though they sounded innocent enough, made Zhang Long sweat bullets in response to hearing them.
"I was thinking of cooking something for all of them as thanks! Especially for Tang Ze! So when do you think would be a good time?" Jin Zhen asked.
These words pierced Zhang Long's heart as if each of them were an arrow.
"Never!" Zhang Long yelled out suddenly, shocking Jin Zhen.
"Eh? What do you mean by 'never?'"
Zhang Long calmed down somewhat and racked his brains to find a way to say what he wanted to say without crushing Jin Zhen's heart.
He also needed to keep his voice down - who knows what kind of conclusions his mother would be jumping to downstairs if he kept on shouting?
"I mean… I would never allow it!" He put on a weak smile that he hoped would be convincing enough. "Your cooking is just so good - I can't possibly share it with anyone else! Isn't that something special only for me?"
Jin Zhen pouted. "Come on now - you're behaving like a spoilt child! Of course I'll cook for you everyday but-"
Zhang Long felt a chill crawl down his spine as she said those words. It was as if Death itself had decided to take up residence in his stomach in anticipation for what was to come.
"-but I want to do something for them too!" Jin Zhen said.
"Ah, well, it's hard to find a moment when we'll be free, and the sect doesn't usually allow women to enter that area so…" Zhang Long tried to think of any excuse possible to spare his friends the tribulation that might befall them if he couldn't.
"I'm sure you'll find a solution," Jin Zhen said. "And I saw the sect rules! I can come so long as it's daytime!"
Jin Zhen hadn't joined the Rising Phoenix Sect yet as her family couldn't really scrounge up the fee needed for the entrance test, not to mention her cultivation wasn't high enough yet to get through the test anyway. However, once Zhang Long made his way up and became a regular member, it would be much easier for her to join him - she might even be able to skip the entrance test altogether if he became a prefect.
But that would have to wait for later.
He had a bigger issue to solve here.
The fate of the world - well, no, it wasn't quite that dramatic - but the fate of his friends (who, to Zhang Long, were his whole world) was at stake here!
"Alright," Zhang Long said, not seeing a plausible reason as of now to deny her request. He would just have to make sure that the others were conveniently absent whenever she happened to drop by.
Chapter 27 Zhang Long Returns Home: Part Two
Before Zhang Long could even try thinking of a last minute excuse, his mother slowly opened the door.
"What's going on? I heard shouting," his mother said. "And, oh - when I heard Zhang Long shouting 'Never!'. I assumed that maybe you, Jin Zhen, had told him that he needed to wait until marriage before doing 'those things' together with you, but then he yelled out 'Never!' and was harassing you."
"That is all sorts of not what's going on right now!" Zhang Long said. "Also, when all you heard was the word 'Never!' why was that the conclusion you jumped to?! Do you have so little faith in me!?"
"Why did you keep the door closed when I asked you to keep it open then if you weren't up to something naughty?"
Long story short, Zhang Long did not manage to find a reason to at least stall Jin Zhen in any way.
He kept on thinking of ways of avoiding or at least delaying this incoming calamity as he took a stroll around the village later that day, only to find himself on a path he usually didn't frequent.
"Hmm?" he wondered. He suddenly felt a sudden fluctuation in the Qi in the environment, and found that it was coming from the base of a tree. He went to go inspect it, and brushed his hand against the trunk, only for the scenery around him to change.
"This is…"
Zhang Long had discovered a secret realm!
If the world could be thought of as a huge bubble, there were smaller bubbles inside of it that were called secret realms.
They were worlds within worlds, and could sometimes follow the same rules as that of the regular world, or entirely different ones. Sometimes time worked differently in them, or certain laws of physics or cultivation didn't work the same inside them.
There were occasional stories of normal people happening upon such secret realms and then gaining access to powerful treasures - though in reality, secret realms were actually not that uncommon. Most of them were just tiny areas with nothing of significance inside.
Zhang Long found it strange that no one in the village knew about this one though - if they did, he'd have heard of it.
There were a couple of reasons that this could've been the case.
One, the entrance was usually hidden. The rules under which such secret realms would open up varied. Some would only open up at certain times of day, or would only open up for a specific kind of person, or for a specific rank of cultivator, or if someone was a mortal, etc.
However, all secret realms had to open up sooner or later, otherwise they would collapse in on themselves. The reason for this was that they had no way of generating Qi within themselves, and so, had to open themselves to the outside world to absorb Qi in order to maintain their structural integrity.
If they did not do so, they would eventually run out of Qi and disintegrate. So while it was possible to create a secret realm that would only open for a specific person or under special circumstances, if someone like that didn't visit, you might risk the secret realm collapsing in on itself.
It was possible that Zhang Long had been the first one to discover this secret realm if it had opened up to him because he met some kind of certain condition now that he hadn't earlier when he had passed by this place. Perhaps it was because his cultivation was higher?
Secondly, it could be that this secret realm had only been recently created.
High level cultivators and mages could make artificial secret realms if they knew the required techniques, though someone like Zhang Long could only dream of having that kind of ability one day.
However, they also appeared naturally, though what caused them to appear naturally was anyone's guess.
The possibility of this was discounted immediately though, as Zhang Long 'heard' a voice in his head.
"Welcome, stranger, you have chanced upon the realm in which I have left my inheritance. Clear the obstacles and get to the other end of this realm, and you will find the treasure I have left behind for you."
This meant that this secret realm was either man-made to serve as an inheritance, or someone had found it and then chose to leave their inheritance here by modifying the secret realm somewhat.
It was easier to modify an existing secret realm than to create an entirely new one by yourself, so cultivators who lacked the required cultivation level or skill might opt for the former.
At the thought of treasure, Zhang Long couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement.
Was this one of those rare opportunities where there was something worth finding inside a secret realm?
Granted, there was still the third possibility - that someone already knew of this inheritance, had taken the treasure, and so there would be nothing at the end for Zhang Long to find.
With that said, as the saying goes 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and he decided to step forward to see what kind of trials awaited him.
The secret realm did not seem to be very large, as there was an area on the horizon where it seemed to 'end' and all that lay beyond was a white void. It was quite disorienting to see a place like this - it was Zhang Long's first time in a secret realm, so it took his brain a moment to process the strange imagery he was seeing. .
What he could also see were areas of tropical jungle all around, and a path paved with stone that went forward, presumably to the 'other end' that the voice in his head had been talking about.
The sky above was bright, but there was no sun or clouds - he had heard that most secret realms were like that as they did not have a true sky or a proper day and night cycle either. But again, it was disorienting to actually see such a thing with his own eyes.
Before he took a step forward, he took a moment to consider the risks.
He didn't know what was living in the jungle - he couldn't see any wild beast groups, and there could be other non-living dangers lurking in this place like traps.
He could not sense any Qi signatures in the jungle, though that could just be because they were too far away, or so far above his current level of cultivation that he couldn't sense them. Being a Qi Condensation cultivator, he could only sense Qi from Qi Refinement level cultivators and below. Anyone at the Golden Core or higher would be basically indistinguishable from a mortal to him.
Also, there was always a chance that this whole thing could be a trap.
Should he turn around? He had only taken a few steps from the entrance, and leaving a secret realm was usually easy.
Then again, if there was treasure here, it could be some kind of lost knowledge that could greatly help with his cultivation.
Ultimately, he settled on forging ahead for now.
He would need to be cautious at every turn though, and if he found anything suspicious, he would immediately turn around and run.
As it was, he was left wondering who it was that had left this supposed inheritance. He hadn't heard of any famous cultivator or alchemist who had lived in the area in recent memory, unless this was something that had been set up several thousands of years ago. That was a possibility, in which case whatever was inside would definitely be quite valuable, such as a technique or recipe lost to time.
People in this world hoarded knowledge - that which could benefit a cultivator greatly would not be easily shared. As such, it was easy for such knowledge to be lost. Sometimes, when cultivators realized that their final days were upon them, they would create such an inheritance to ensure that a bit of their legacy still continued to exist in the world.
Zhang Long took a few steps ahead, finding that nothing happened in response, and so he quickened his pace a little, though remaining ever vigilant throughout.
The path led up to a raised circular dais, atop which there was a small table with a single chair.
As Zhang Long approached it, the voice echoed in his head again.
"There is a puzzle atop the desk, solve it to move forward, and then the correct path will be revealed to you."
The path beyond the dais branched into seven different paths, and it was highly likely that the six 'wrong' paths either led to somewhere dangerous, or would lead him outside the secret realm, after which he would not be allowed to enter again. The 'correct' one would take him forward.
Either that, or all of them were considered 'wrong' until he solved the puzzle, after which all of them would be considered 'correct.'
There were multiple ways that one could set up an inheritance, but Zhang Long had the benefit of hearing many stories of them and how they were set up.
Humans might be very creative, but their decisions often end up falling into similar patterns.
If this inheritance was made in a hurry, it would be especially so - the creator might not have had time to get too fancy and relied on tried-and-tested ways of setting it up.
That was why Zhang Long could quite reliably theorize on how the paths worked.
So, the only thing to do was to solve the puzzle right in front of him.
He approached the table, and saw there were wooden pieces scattered over it, with markings on them.
It looked like he needed to rearrange these pieces to make a whole - though the issue with that was that he had no idea what they were supposed to look like when they were finished.
There were sixteen pieces in total, with each of them being identical in shape and size, though some of them had a dark green border on some edges.
If the dark green borders were supposed to be the borders of the puzzle, that meant that he could find the outer layer of what the finished project should look like.
Those that had two green edges were corner pieces, and those with only one green edge were those at the edge.
From this he had a rough idea as to how the puzzle pieces were supposed to be arranged - there were sixteen of them in total, and each side added up to four, meaning they were to be arranged into a larger square of four by four puzzles.
He knew where the four corner pieces would be, though he wasn't sure which corner was which or how they should be arranged in respect to one another.
Then there were eight edge pieces. These could be arranged in three different ways depending on which side they belonged to, and could belong to one of two places on a side.
The four middle pieces had no edges, but could be arranged in any of four directions in the four spots in the center.
Zhang Long played around with the pieces for around five minutes before frowning.
He was definitely missing something, wasn't he?
Why did people make inheritances?
It was either because they were going to die, and had not found someone worth bestowing their treasures to while they still breathed, or they no longer had use for them, and similarly wanted to find someone worthy of getting their hands on such treasures.
What was 'worthy' varied from person to person, and it was usually to check this worthiness that trials like these were made in the first place. Trials could test various things - knowledge, virtue, courage, or even lack of morals.
Given that, what was the point of seeing if he could solve this puzzle? It had to be the same point as with solving any puzzle, in other words, it was a test of intelligence.
So that meant that it was highly unlikely that Zhang Long was meant to just sit there rearranging the pieces randomly until they fit together.
More likely than not, he was supposed to have seen something until now that would give him a hint as to what the puzzle was supposed to represent.
But, no matter how hard he tried to think, he couldn't recall anything on his way to the dais that might be able to help. There was no image, or picture, that he could think of that he was supposed to be making. The fragments of a greater image inscribed on each puzzle piece also didn't seem to jog his memory in any way.
It was as he kept fiddling around with the pieces that inspiration suddenly struck him like a bolt of lightning.
The lines on the puzzle pieces did seem to be forming some kind of shape.
It was just a picture he had not imagined he'd be seeing here, which is why it hadn't occurred to him before.
"No… how can this be…?" Zhang Long muttered to himself as he hastily began arranging more of the pieces, to find out that, to his shock, they actually fit together.
Chapter 28 Zhang Long Returns Home: Part Three
In less than a minute the puzzle was now complete, but Zhang Long could not find an ounce of joy in him at this victory.
Instead, he sat there, dumbstruck as the puzzle formed the face of Jin Zhen!
"How in the world…?"
How did an inheritance that had supposedly been made at least decades, if not centuries, ago have a puzzle that formed the face of his fiancé on it?
Imagine, if you will, that you had decided to go on vacation to a different country. A country neither you nor any of your family had been to before, and a country you had no relation to beforehand. During your vacation there, your rental car suddenly broke down in the middle of the road, but thankfully, a kind stranger whom you had never met before who was passing by offered to give you a lift. You got into their car, only to find, as they were driving along, that they had a photo of your father on their dashboard.
Or to go a step further- imagine that you had chosen to become an astronaut and became part of the first manned mission to Mars. As you got off on the Red Planet, you noticed something lying in a crater on the planet's surface - and you approached it to find that it was your favorite childhood toy that you had lost twenty years ago, lying there, just like the day you had lost it.
To go even further, imagine if an alien spaceship landed on Earth. As part of the team tasked with exploring it, you went inside and saw heaps of alien technology - and also that one of the rooms was inexplicably an exact replica of your living room.
That was how Zhang Long felt in that instance!
His fiance's face, normally a welcome sight, stared back at him and gave him an uncomfortable feeling of jamais vu while looking at it.
Before, his mind had been somewhat turbulent since coming to this secret realm as he had been unsure of what to do, but he had managed to keep it under control until now. Much like a raft sailing down a turbulent river, he was able to just keep it steady.
Now though, it was like a sudden tidal wave had come out of nowhere, and all control over that vessel had left him, leaving him at the mercy of the river.
For a good minute - his brain felt as if it was being scrambled as he couldn't form a coherent thought.
When he slowly began to feel like the gears in his head were turning again, he went through what this could possibly mean.
Alright, this picture of Jin Zhen was rather recent and it was of her as an adult, so it should've been made in the past few years. This secret realm though, seemed to be far older than that.
Was this some kind of prank? If this had been a secret realm close to the sect, then he would have believed so, but out here - only two potential culprits came to mind.
One was Jin Zhen herself - but Zhang Long had known her since the two were three years old, and he didn't think she would do something like this. She wouldn't be able to, let alone would see a point in doing so. No, he discarded this possibility almost immediately. The idea that she was somehow involved in all of this was ludicrous.
The second was Tang Ze. He was also a cultivator, and had been in the area recently. Not to mention he knew what Jin Zhen looked like, and what she meant to Zhang Long.
However, as far as Zhang Long knew - Tang Ze had no way of doing something like this, unless one of his costumes could give him this kind of power. There was a slight possibility of that - was this just Tang Ze playing a prank on him? He didn't seem like the kind of person who would go to such an extent for a simple practical joke - but if it were Yin Tiang or Chen Yu it would be a different matter. However, those two had never been near his village as per his knowledge, and likely didn't even know its exact location.
So that also seemed highly unlikely.
What then could be the possible reasoning behind all of this?
One was that the person who had made this inheritance had been able to see the future, and knew that it was Zhang Long who would be the one to come here in the future, and so had designed this puzzle with this in mind.
As he took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself down using some mental exercises he had been taught, another answer came to him.
It could be that these puzzle pieces were enchanted, and were made to show the face of someone who that person loved dearly.
In such a case, it was merely this fact that had led to her face being on this puzzle, and there was no weird conspiracy going on behind the scenes.
The only way he could test this though was if he had someone along with him, and asked them what they saw now that the puzzle was complete. If they saw something else other than Jin Zhen's face, that would prove this theory.
However, he had come into this secret realm alone.
Most people would come into such places alone - and perhaps that was the ultimate goal of this test? To unnerve whoever came here before the real trials began?
The other paths had disappeared, leaving only one before him, and one that led back.
Zhang Long was now more apprehensive about this place after what he had just discovered. Should he turn back?
If he did, depending on how this secret realm worked, there was a chance that it would not let him come back afterwards. And given that he had seen something that related to Jin Zhen, he wanted to get to the bottom of it if she was actually involved in all of this in any way - or if the person who made this knew something about her.
As such, there was only one way to go if he wanted those answers - forward.
He kept walking on that stone path, while the jungle around him was eerily silent. That would usually mean that many animals were keeping quiet as there was a very dangerous predator around, though he had strangely enough not seen any kind of wildlife in this secret realm.
Not only that, but there was nothing else in the forest of note other than rows and rows of trees. He saw no large gaps between them, or such features like rivers or ponds. It was an endless formation of tightly-knit trees each of which looked the exact same that seemed to go on forever.
Occasionally, one might find animals or plants within pocket realms that had either gone extinct or did not exist anywhere else. The panda population in the Raswatian Empire, for example, would have nearly gone extinct several time, but for people finding some groups within pocket realms like these. And now, more dedicated efforts were put in place to preserving that species.
Still, it was not unheard of to find pocket realms where there was no living creatures at all.
It was highly unnerving though, and soon enough Zhang Long found himself at another dais.
It was like the one that he had seen before, only this one, instead of having a table, had a pile of gold and silver coins on it.
As he approached the platform, the voice spoke to him again.
"Take only a single copper coin and move ahead."
This was a far more straightforward test than the one before him, to the point that Zhang Long was almost slightly disappointed.
In all of these gold and silver coins, there were only a few copper ones.
In this world, precious metals were used as currency, especially among mortals. Farmers might prefer to trade with produce, though in any place where commerce was more developed coinage was the way to go.
Among cultivators, prices could soar to the point where one might need mountains of coins to make transactions for certain things.
At that point, cultivators would also engage in bartering much like farmers and peasants, usually swapping pills as a standard or other such things among themselves.
At the Qi Condensation and Qi Refinement realms, gold coins were still valuable, and if someone were to stuff their pockets full of all of the gold coins here it would be worth quite a lot. Even someone at Golden Core might be tempted.
But, Zhang Long could see through all of that.
This was a test of honesty - and one that was far more standard than the initial one.
Unlike the one that came before, solving this was simple, and didn't disorient him with its result.
He took a copper coin, and then embarked on one of the six paths that were laid out before him.
The way that these things worked, by taking just a single copper coin, whichever path he embarked on would lead him to the correct destination.
Conversely, if he had gotten greedy and taken more, either he would be ejected out of the secret realm, sent somewhere not so pleasant, or his rewards at the end would be sharply decreased. Which of these happened would depend on the proclivity of the one who had set up this inheritance, as well as their skill in being able to design and influence the world of the secret realm.
Given how the trial had gone up till now, Zhang Long could get some insight as to what kind of person had set this inheritance up. They valued honesty, which meant that they were a righteous person. If they had been demonic, his life would have been in far more danger through these trials, but they had been relatively benign in terms of the dangers he had faced.
Yes, the first trial had been somewhat... strange in its result, and he hadn't as of now figured out what it was about, but it wasn't like his life had been in danger at the time.
Given that, he had a new surge of courage as he stepped forward.
But, he was a bit taken about at how easy this round had been.
Compared to the first, it was quite straightforward - which made him think that he had just been overthinking the result of that puzzle.
Perhaps it really was just meant to form a drawing of someone he knew - though, for what reason?
It was hard to tell how long he had been walking for, as the dais disappeared behind him, and the jungle seemed to be perfectly identical all around.
The lighting did not change whatsoever either, so it was very hard to figure this out. Zhang Long felt that it was well over two hours in total that he had spent in this secret realm, though it could be far shorter or longer than that.
All of a sudden, another platform appeared in front of him.