3 Preparations

Boss Loh hesitated for a moment, but he didn't express his approval or rejection. Instead, he turned towards the man who had saved Ace's life to ask for an opinion.

With a slight curve of his lip, the man asked Ace, "How confident are you that the profit of his inn will increase by a significant amount worth the shares you requested?"

"I'm absolutely confident that the results will show in just one month's time." Ace answered confidently, his palms overlapped behind his back.

"Boss Loh, I'll allow the two of you to discuss the details first. Young boy, I'll be waiting for you on the third floor." Ultric told Ace as he walked up the flight of stairs made of wood.

"But there's no third floor," Ace asked subconsciously before processing his thoughts as he berated himself for being reckless. Since young, he would always accept his mistakes and learn from them, that was another reason behind his rapid growth.

"You'll see it soon enough." The man answered with a smile before ascending the steps towards the mysterious floor he mentioned.

The steps had appeared out of thin air, made of delicate thin ice that was strong enough to support the man's weight.

Ace wasn't able to identify the materials used to create the stairs, but if he knew that the stairs were made of pure spirit energy alone, he would only respect this man even more.

Ace chuckled at the fact that he was trying to understand the methods of an expert when he had just embarked on the path of cultivation. Shaking his head, he decided that it would be better to take things one step at a time and focus on the task at hand.

"Boss Lou, do you know anything about the third floor which he mentioned?" Ace asked as he took a seat on a long bench that was at a secluded corner of the inn.

"Young boy, I'm just the owner of a small inn, there are many things that I myself don't understand either." Shawn sighed and explained as he took a seat opposite to Ace.

Ash nodded his head in response as he stated his purpose.

"Boss Lou, I'll cut straight to the chase here. But I need as many spirit stones as possible and that's the only reason why I'm working with you." Ace knew that Shawn has a difficult time managing the inn as a mortal, which was why he would attempt to solve this problem as well.

Shawn had the brains and brawns to operate the inn over these years as a mortal, which was proof of his capability.

"From what I know now, your inn has two floors, the first floor is for dining while the second floor is for rooms, am I right about that?" Ace deduced from the observations he made.

"That's right, my inn has always been running at a full house with all 32 rooms occupied and seats constantly occupied. Even so, the profit caps out around 40 spirit stones monthly." Shawn explained using the statistics of his inn over the past years.

"Have you ever thought of expansion?" Ace suggested as a question, the inn belonged to Shawn after all and it wasn't appropriate for him to take matters into his own hand.

"That's not possible, the shops around me would never close down willingly. Based on profits alone, they probably net in more spirit stones than me monthly since they have ties with cultivators." This idea had come across Shawn's mind multiple times, but it wasn't possible for him to execute this plan without room for expansion,

Have you ever thought of starting a revolution? You should remove the rooms and start selling equipment and elixirs, only by getting involved with cultivators will your store profit.

"I have the network, but that will only put my business in danger when the nearby stores attempt to get me out of business. They're starving wolves that would never be satisfied with their current profit, not to mention a drop in profit that would be a disaster to them."

"Give me three days time and I'll get back to you." Ending the conversation abruptly, Ace returned to his room while leaving behind a message for Shawn.

"If you want to maximise profits, close your inn for the next few days and begin the renovation process. Also, you might want to improve your lifestyle quality and rename this place. As for the name, don't decide on one yet."

Should I take the risk? He's related to Ultric and if things take a turn for the worse, I'm sure that Ultric will intervene with the matter. I don't want an end to this simple life of mine just yet. Not for now at least.

Whatever, I'll just take the risk anyway. Haha, riches! Here I come!

Ignoring Shawn who was already contacting people to start the renovation, Ace stopped on the second floor.

Swoosh

Brought about by the snowy wind, a cold gust of air formed a majestic flight of stairs that spiralled upwards, it was a seemingly endless mirage even though it was just a few steps in reality.

This place is cold...Ace thought to himself as he rubbed his palms together, when he exhaled, visible mist could be seen.

"You're finally here."

Before Ace even arrived on the third floor, the man had detected his arrival the moment Ace stepped onto the magical stairs of his. Whenever Ace took one step up, the step behind him would vanish magically, it was enchantingly beautiful.

"Yes." Ace responded as he stepped onto the third floor, and stood before Ultric, who was currently resting on his chair. Hot steam was rising from the warm cup of tea placed on Ultric's table that seemed to fog this palace in a magical way.

The whole floor was a palace made of ice, including the chairs and tables designed exquisitely. The cup, even though made of ice, was able to preserve the heat of the tea.

"Beautiful isn't it? People always say that flames are capable of melting ice, but that's only up a certain degree. What if the ice itself was more than just cold?"

"Sir, what do you mean by this?" Ace curiosity overwhelmed his fear as he asked, giving in to his desire for knowledge.

"That would be for another time, I'm sure you're curious as to why I would bother to save your life."

"I saw potential in you, child, especially in that battle before you fainted. The courage you possessed even though your hands were pure, you were ready to enter the cultivation world before becoming a cultivator. Also, that frost energy within your body, belongs to the same lineage as mine. Do you know how you received it?" Ultric explained his intention right from the start, the constant smile on his face usually was familiar to Ace despite the unfamiliarity now.

"My mother left it within my body." Ace told Ultric honestly, to him, this wasn't something that he had to hide.

Could it be that he's Crystal's child...Ultric wandered to himself and heaved a sigh of relief, if that was the case, then Ace would be the child of his disciple.

"Is your mother's name Crystal?"

He had four disciples and among those four, one had died on the battlefield, one had died in training whereas the other one was crippled by his enemy. Crystal was his fourth and only disciple that was still alive even though she left his side fifteen years ago after getting married.

"Yes." At the mere mention of his mother, Ace didn't know whether he should be feeling any emotions towards her, he just felt an overwhelming sense of grief trying to consume him over a close stranger.

"I see...I see...in the end, she still decided to go against my orders just so she can leave behind the seed of frost within you."

Ace knew that he was bound to receive the inheritance of frost which was most likely linked to ice and snow, but Ace was doubtful as to whether this would be the best choice he could make. The system he had was named Nirvana and it was linked to flames. Was he going to sacrifice one or was he going to create history by merging conflicting elemental enemies together? Was it even possible to bring together the angel and the devil?

"From now on, you'll be my disciple as well. Take note that I only have two years worth of time before I have to leave. If there's nothing else, you can return here three days later."

Ace was about to get onto his knees, but Ultric stopped him with a swing of his robe. Mother, this will be my first step to revenge...wait no, I can't allow myself to be corrupted by revenge!

"Drop the formalities. Is there anything you need for the promised deal with Shawn?"

"Master, if possible, I would like to request for some herbs and forging materials. Please lend me a pen and paper, I'll compile a list of some needed herbs, forging materials and the necessary tools." Ace dropped the formalities and requested from his master, Ultric.

"Oh, you're planning to sell them for some money first?" Ultric asked so that he could understand Ace's intentions though it wouldn't really affect him and his plans for Ace.

"No, they're for my own practice."

Foundation grade alchemist knowledge: 50 system coins

Foundation grade blacksmith knowledge: 50 system coins

Even though he wanted to save the system coins for those Body Tempering pills, his current objective would be to become a 1st-grade alchemist and blacksmith first.

Without any hesitation, he purchased the items even though his heart was bleeding in pain for spending the insignificant amount of system coins that he possessed almost immediately after he saved them up.

My first pot of system coins was used up this quickly...

"50 system coins have been deducted, foundation grade alchemist knowledge has been imparted!"

"50 system coins have been deducted, foundation grade blacksmith knowledge has been imparted!"

"No, I have the confidence to become a 1st-grade alchemist and blacksmith within three days time."

Ace explained as he quickly wrote down everything he would possibly need on the paper swiftly.

The words that were written by this child, were ferocious and searching for freedom. That was the only description Ultric could find to describe the names of herbs being written down by Ace.

This boy...just how much weight is he carrying on his shoulders…

Ultric leaned back on his chair and pondered on how he should formulate a unique plan for Ace's cultivation. After all, he was the person who created the forbidden frost seed art and he knew the benefits and consequences of it better than anyone else.

Yet before he could even begin his thought process, Ace was already done.

"Master, here is the list of materials I need."

Ultric took it over and realised that all the common materials in the list were within his main spatial ring, he took out a spatial ring and transferred everything that Ace could possibly need and five spirit stones in case the need for them arose.

"You can use this room, for now, I need to leave for some time. Three days later, I expect you to be ready to commence cultivation, you would already be five days behind the two months by then."

"Yes, master!" Ace cupped his fists and said as Ultric vanished from the third floor, leaving Ace all alone by himself with a flight of stairs that was left behind for him.

"Side mission has been issued!"

Details: Become an official 1st-grade alchemist and blacksmith three days time

Rewards: low-grade essence flame of Nirvana, capable of evolution

Penalty: Permanently unable to become an alchemist or blacksmith.

Ace took out the alchemy furnace and realised that it was of superior quality. It eluded a cold aura and was the colour of sapphire, it was made of enchanted ice which was capable of containing flames while improving the quality of the final product slightly.

"Thank you again, master," Ash mumbled with a smile.

Ace took out the herbs he needed and placed them onto the table and began his preparations.

Firstly, Ace arranged the herbs in order and purified them the traditional way since he wasn't capable of using spirit energy yet. This was also the reason why an alchemist below the age of fifteen was unheard of even though there were potential blacksmiths at just the age of thirteen.

Ace took out a small bowl to pummel the dew lotus into a liquid state as he poured it into the alchemy furnace. Since his method was unique, he would have to do things his own way. After that, he crushed some herbs into powder, mixed some of them together and even changed the order of the herbs.

The reason was simple, Ace methods have caused a change in the reaction the herbs would have created in order to succeed, he had to believe in the knowledge of the information in his mind and most importantly, follow his own instincts.

Of course, what he doesn't know is that the foundation knowledge from the system was comparable to the average 3rd-grade alchemists and blacksmiths in the modern cultivation world if he fully grasped the concepts one day.

"Merge!"