15-18

Chapter 15 Bothering An Old Man Until He Spits Out A Quest

After the realization that they came from different worlds, Li Rencai felt he should leave the kid to his rest. He also felt a bit sorry for how he interrogated the kid. Especially so when the kid was so kind-hearted that the thought of abandoning people in need never even crossed his mind.

Will let go of his hold on his tiredness. It fell back into his mind like a brick, now even heavier than before. Looking at the bed, it looked like heaven. It was a fancy bed.

Hopping into it, it felt like heaven too. Actually, since his twelve year old half had come here after dying, wasn't this whole place kind of heaven? After some half-asleep ruminating, he concluded that heaven was a specific place, not just wherever you woke up after dying.

Then he fell asleep.

—

Will woke up… at night. He'd gone to bed in the morning, so it was kind of expected. He got out of bed and just decided to wander the house aimlessly.

Which meant running with Wind Dance at full speed. He'd had enough walking. It really hadn't taken him long to end up finding this speed normal, huh? He felt it was a mix of his lack of experience with a normal walking speed and his impatience.

Thinking about it, it was kind of weird to make a map of the inside of someone else's home, wasn't it? He was doing that currently, he'd made a habit of always updating his map, and it wasn't like he would stop, but he at least recognized that it would likely be frowned upon.

He noticed that there seemed to still be maids around. Well, some of them were threatened, so it was probably better to just fix any vulnerabilities for threats instead of just firing everyone. That's what Will would do, at least, if only because rehiring sounded like a hassle.

It didn't take long for him to run into someone. It was Duodibunu Lili. She appeared to be in a great mood, walking down the hallway to somewhere else. Probably another hallway, since he couldn't see anything much to walk to in this hallway other than that. He doubted she'd look so excited over a broom closet. He greeted her.

"Hi."

She was a bit startled at first, clearly not having noticed Will's arrival.

"Oh, hello."

"Why is your name like that?"

She looked confused at the sudden question.

"Like what?"

"Weird."

She understood now.

"It's the name the founder of my family picked after fighting off a beast horde."

Ah, that made a bit of sense. It was still a really dumb name, but it at least made sense why it was this dumb name and not a different one.

"Alright. Bye."

He ran off. Lili watched for a moment before continuing her journey.

Will didn't run into anyone else. He decided to leave. He let one of the maids know, so Li Rencai didn't assume he'd disappeared dramatically after fulfilling his role as a hero. As cool as that would be, the bed here was nice, and he was a bit homeless and penniless. Though only a bit. He had a bunch of corpses and stolen knickknacks, and there was no shortage of inns around. He wouldn't budge on his assessment. He was a bit homeless and penniless, not completely, but a bit.

Exiting the gate, he was now in a city. There would definitely be something to do here. There had better be. It was a whole city, right? There was surely something to do.

There wasn't much. There were bars, but, well, he doubted they'd serve him anything even if he wanted them to. And he didn't want them to. In the end, he didn't want it and couldn't get it, so it didn't matter.

The main issue was the time. It was currently night, so most places were closed. Maybe the alleys would be open. For getting robbed. He was actually desperate enough to get robbed for fun. The plan was more fighting a bunch of robbers, but that felt worse. He didn't even like fighting. Why would he do that?

The answer was boredom. And he was doing it. He waltzed to an alleyway, attempting to embody the mannerisms of a naive rich kid. It didn't work. Looking at his clothes it wasn't surprising.

He hadn't changed since he rose from the dead, so his outfit was… Well, it definitely wasn't expensive looking. He hadn't actually been hit by anything that did any damage, so it was in good condition in that sense, but it was pretty dirty. Mostly just from the ground. It was also peasant wear. It was a washed out tan brown color, and had a pretty simple design.

Overall, he looked less like a target to steal from and more like the one who'd be doing the stealing. As a pickpocket. Maybe he could walk around until someone yells at him for skipping on his non-existent pickpocket job?

After wandering around some more, the answer was no. The alleys were pretty empty here. Probably related to that thing Xu Lanhua had said about Li Rencai not letting crime fester or whatever.

He'd just about hit his limit for walking like a person, so he went back to using his footwork. He decided to use both Wind Dance and Cloud Steps this time. It seemed like going a bit faster could be possible by switching between them at the right times. He was bad, so it ended up being slightly slower than just regular Wind Dance, but it was practice, so whatever.

He continued moving through the alleys for a bit. It wasn't eventful at all. He looked at his map. Nothing unusual there, he hadn't run into some wacky formation yet. It was just regular euclidean geometry. He went back through to get a few small spots he missed. He'd just happened to miss them, no formation or secrets to be found.

He decided to try and fill his map out of the place. Maybe the secret would be in the unexplored parts.

Eventually he stumbled upon something. Not a secret but a weird little shop. He went inside, the door creaking loudly as he opened it. Across the room was an old man behind a counter. His hair was long and unkempt, with a long scraggly beard. He chuckled lightly when he saw Will.

"You best run along, kid. This is no place for a brat to be hanging around."

Will didn't care about the melodramatic warning. He was bored. He pointed at the man.

"Give me a quest."

The man stared at him, eyebrows raised slightly. Will spoke again.

"Quest."

The man remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"Quest? What's that supposed to mean?"

Will realized something. He hadn't said 'quest' in English, of course, but the equivalent of quest in this language didn't have all the connotations and implied meaning the word 'quest' itself did. He doubted there was a big RPG market here. He rephrased his demand.

"I'm bowed. Give me a thing to do."

The man looked at the child inquisitively.

"For free? Why?"

"Because I'm bowed!"

The man thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"I don't have anything for a brat to do."

"I'm a cultivatow."

"Don't have anything for a cultivator brat to do, either. Now run along back to your parents."

Will executed a perfect counter.

"I'm an orphan."

"Don't have anything for an orphaned cultivator brat to do, either."

Will was getting annoyed now.

"Do you have anything fow anyone to do?"

"Course I do."

"Like what?"

"If I tell you, you'll just try and do it."

Will pivoted topics.

"What do you even do hewe?"

"Sell things."

"To who?"

"People who aren't brats."

Will decided to throw him a curveball. He pulled out the ingot he'd used to kill a man that one time.

"I killed a man with this ingot."

"Huh?"

"Threw it weally hard. He was a bandit, though, so it's fine."

"Sure…"

"What do you think of it?"

"It's an ingot."

"Yeah. And?"

"It looks like iron?"

"That's cool. I didn't know that."

"Isn't it your ingot?"

"I stowe it. From the Demonic Wightning Sick Fweak."

"You mean the Demonic Lightning Sovereign? The notorious demonic cultivator?"

"Was that the third word? Soveweign? Sick Fweak fits better, honestwy."

"You're saying you stole from him?"

"Yeah… Well, it was mowe wansacking than steawing."

He remembered Sarah. He held her up to show the man.

"Except this. He called her the Demonic Wightning Dagger because he's stupid. She's actuawwy a sword."

"Wait, you stole the signature weapon of a nascent soul cultivator?"

"I guess so. But she asked me to, so it's mowe like wescue than steawing."

"Who asked you to?"

"The sword."

The man sighed.

"Well, that's great. Have fun with that. Somewhere else. Shoo."

He didn't feel like humoring the brat's antics anymore. He waved Will away.

Will ignored his words and gestures.

"Give me a thing to do."

The man decided to just give in and give the kid some ridiculous task so the damn brat would leave him alone. He decided on a task related to the guy the brat claimed to have stolen from.

"Fine then. Get me the manual for the Demonic Lightning Arts."

"Do you have a book?"

"Just any book?"

"One you don't need."

The man nodded, a bit confused, and rooted around in a chest to his right until he found a book, holding it out to the brat. Will copied the contents as soon as he touched it.

"Here. That good?"

Will nodded. Then he exported the manual for the Demonic Lightning Arts, using the book as a medium. It was pretty cheap, especially with his current point total. Sarah sighed in exasperation as she witnessed the book instantly turn into a copy of the Demonic Lightning Arts, red cover and all.

"Of course it's not limited to arrays. Just turn a book into a different book. Sure, why not?"

Will ignored her grumbling and passed the book back to the man.

"Huh?"

Looking at the title, it read 'Demonic Lightning Arts'. He flipped through the pages. It was a lot of torture.

"What's with all the torture?"

"He's a Sick Fweak."

"Is this real?"

Will nodded.

"Yeah."

"How did you get this?"

Will thought about it for a moment.

"The book itsewf, you just gave me. The Demonic Wightning Arts, I copied from the Sick Fweak."

"That wasn't just nonsense from a brat?"

"It was twue."

"So you're just giving this to me?"

"Didn't you litewally just ask fow it?"

"Didn't expect you to actually have the damn thing. I was just hopin' you'd run off somewhere and leave me alone."

"Then do you have a thing for me to do now?"

"Yeah. Take this book back, run for your life, and hope the bastard you stole it from doesn't catch you."

"It's fine. He pwobably thinks I'm related to the Beast King, so he'd go bother him if he wanted to get wevenge."

"Why would he think that?"

"Because I destroyed his twials and fought him off with a bunch of monstwous beasts."

"How did you do that if you're not related to the Beast King?"

"Beasts in the fowest he lived in have weird instincts."

Will noticed he'd strayed from the important part.

"So, do you have something fow me to do, now?"

"Sorry. Don't have anything for an orphaned cultivator brat on a madman's shitlist to do, either."

"Do you even do anything? Is this whowe place just an excuse for you to sit awound and do nothing all day?"

The man sighed.

"Why do you even want me to give you work?"

"I'm bowed, and you're wunning a stowe hidden past a bunch of awweyways. Normal stowes don't do that. Only intewesting ones do. And I'm bowed."

"It's really just boredom? If it's just boredom, then you should just go to bed. It's late. I can even offer you a bed for the night if you need one."

Will sighed.

"I just woke up. And I awready have a bed at Li Rencai's place."

The man was surprised this brat was close enough with Li Rencai to just sleep at his home, but it was less shocking than somehow turning a shitty novel he had lying around into the manual for a powerful demonic cultivator's arts.

"A brat like you shouldn't have a sleep schedule like that."

He didn't really do it on purpose. It was mostly because a bunch of kidnappers tried to kidnap his roommates.

"I know."

The man sighed.

"Can we be done here? I really don't have anything you can do. I wasn't lying. Nothing I need can be done by a brat. So go off and do brat things."

Will finally decided to leave. After one last question.

"Befowe I go, teww me what it is you actually do hewe."

The man groaned in annoyance.

"Nothing a brat needs to know about. I can promise you it's nothing your little buddy Li would take issue with, alright? Now go!"

Then he remembered the book and added some words as he held it out to the kid.

"And take this book with you! You should deliver it to the Dragon Flame Clan."

He realized they probably wouldn't just let some random brat in. He grumbled for a moment at having to deal with all this, before he began speaking.

"Hold on. Don't go just yet."

He reached into the chest again and pulled out a badge-looking thing, a scrap of paper, and what looked like a pretty modern pencil. Will felt it was probably the work of Li Rencai, since he was a transmigrator and all.

The man put the scrap of paper on the desk, holding it steady with one hand so it wouldn't crumple up when he tried to write on it. He placed the pencil to the paper, realized some of his beard scraggles were in the way, used the hand holding the pencil to move his beard until his view was clear, put the pencil back on the paper, and started writing. His writing speed was incredibly fast, so he finished writing in only a couple seconds. Once he was done, he looked at Will, glad to see the brat hadn't run off somewhere. He passed the scrap of paper to the kid. Will copied it as soon as he touched it.

"This is a list of places other than the Dragon Flame Clan you can turn that book in at, along with any others you 'copied'. The Dragon Flame Clan is closest, but if you're on bad terms with them or can't get there for whatever reason, anything on this list'll work too."

Then, the man picked up the badge. He stopped for a second, looking at it. Will got the feeling he was doing something to it. After the second passed, he held it out so the kid could grab it.

"This is my badge. I've already got it set up so it doesn't look like you stole it. Without this, you won't even make it through the door, so don't lose it."

He let go of the badge as Will grabbed it.

"When you get there, just show them the badge and tell 'em you have info on the Demonic Lightning…"

He trailed off in thought for a moment before he continued.

"Y'know what? Call him the Demonic Lightning Sick Freak. It fits the damn bastard. They'll know who you're talking about as long as you add the Demonic Lightning part, anyway."

Will finally realized something. His bugging a random old man for a quest had ended up with him getting an actual quest. He really didn't expect to get, like, a real full-on quest. Even before he'd had the revelation about the word he was using, he had been expecting a simple fetch quest at most. The whole quest thing was mostly just to give him an in to whatever weird stuff a store hidden past a bunch of alleyways would have going on. He hadn't expected something like this to happen! It was his first attempt, too! His first time trying it and he'd already stumbled onto something that felt like a main storyline quest. He smiled brightly at the old man.

"I accept your quest. You can keep the book though."

He picked the book up from where the man had dropped it to search through his chest earlier, then reverted it back to the novel it was before. Then he set off. He had a quest!

It was the first time he'd actually been given a task since the resurrection. Sure, there was the stuff with the Li family, but that wasn't the same. He didn't really have a task or even much of a goal for that. It was just him responding to issues that arose.

But this? This was a real quest. And it would probably have some kind of follow-up quest too. He doubted they'd just let go of someone talented enough to rob a nascent soul at the age of two.

He skipped back to Li Rencai's house. The guards opened up the gate for him and he headed inside. He didn't try to find Li Rencai. He'd probably be busy. He just told a maid what was going on.

"I got a quest. I'ww be gone sometime between a few days and a month."

The maid honestly didn't know why the kid bothered giving an estimate of it was going to be that wide, but it wasn't her business, so she didn't pry.

With the information given to a suitable recipient, Will set off on his quest. He reached the snake much quicker this time since he wasn't held back by a bunch of mortals. It was really fun to call people that, honestly.

Hopping onto the snake, he pointed towards Dragon Flame City.

"~You're going back?~"

"~I have an exciting fun task.~"

The words with meanings similar to 'quest' in the snake's language were even farther from it than in the other one. So he made do. It sounded just as awkward in the snake's language as it did translated into English. Though that was only for someone who knew the language. It would just sound like hissing to anyone who didn't.

"~Alright then.~"

Will and the snake set off.

But Will was impatient.

"~Can you go faster?~"

"~It would probably be dangerous, but yeah.~"

"~Then you can start speeding up and I'll tell you when to stop.~"

"~Alright.~"

The snake started slowly speeding up. Will didn't notice any real difference on his end. Over the course of an hour, he still didn't notice anything other than everything around them moving really fast.

"~This is as fast as I can go. Ten times speed.~"

"~Why would this be dangerous?~"

"~From all the lightning zapping you.~"

Was that what the tingly feeling was? Lightning? Huh. It seemed Will had built up a tolerance somehow. Probably because he cultivated with demonic lightning spiritual energy for so long.

"~It's not really hurting me.~"

The snake seemed pleasantly surprised as it continued moving. They reached their destination after another hour. It was much faster. Will hopped off and left the snake in the same forest as last time.

As Will waltzed up to the cultivator entrance, he saw the same woman as last time. She smiled at him and waved him through.

Will smiled to himself as he walked through the gate. He had a quest to complete.

Chapter 16 Epic Quest Where You Go Talk To A Guy And That's It

Will headed towards… Actually, he didn't know where he headed towards. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't even know what the place would look like. Other than that it was big. It wasn't like he'd heard or been told anything about the size, but he knew. Because it was obvious.

He headed back out and asked the receptionist lady for directions, copying them as she spoke. It almost felt like he traveled back in time if not for Li Yingran and Xu Lanhua not being here.

Following the directions, he quickly arrived at the building. It was big. Obviously. He wasn't even surprised at how big. He already knew how big it'd be. Annoyingly big.

He headed to the gate and talked to the guards.

"I have impowtant infowmation. I need to come in."

"No."

That was blunt. Whatever, he'd hoped to be all dramatic and pull out the badge while they were being mean to him, but it seemed they didn't plan to do that. He pulled out the badge and showed it to the guards.

"Go in then."

The guard who spoke was the same one that told him no.

He walked through the gate, and to the front door. The front door guard spoke.

"State your business."

Will held out the badge to show the guard. If it wasn't for the fact that he had to hold his arm up at a 45° angle, he'd almost feel like he was a secret agent or something.

"Infowmation on the Demonic Wightning Sick Fweak."

The guard's eyes widened a little bit. Then he pulled out a piece of paper that burned when he looked at it. It sounded weird as hell when described like that, but it was just a talisman. Will remembered them from a comic he read in the hospital.

The guard turned back to Will as he spoke.

"I've let them know. A servant should be arriving shortly to guide you."

The guard wasn't lying about the 'shortly' part. Less than a minute later, the door was opened by a young man who Will assumed was the servant who would guide him.

The young man confirmed his guess.

"Please follow me. I'll bring you to meet the patriarch."

Will nodded, and followed the servant through the halls. There wasn't anything that Will was surprised about during the journey. If he'd made a fake map of the building made to look like it was made with the Copy function before even going in, just through guessing what it would look like, cut out the real section of map he'd made through the Copy function as he went, and put them side by side, he felt like he'd actually be unsure of which one was the fake. It was incredibly predictable.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination. The servant opened the door for him, and he entered the room.

It seemed to be a tea room of sorts. Or not, Will wasn't up to date on his room naming skills. Three comfortable-looking couches sat around a rectangular table in the middle of the room, one on each side except the long side closest to the door, with the width of each couch corresponding to the length of the side. On the table was a tea set, tea included, which meant the room was kind of a tea room even if it wasn't actually a tea room. The walls of the room were decorated pretty predictably, with some paintings of flowers and landscapes and whatnot on them. There was some furniture as well, none of it particularly notable.

On the shorter couch on the left side was a middle-aged-looking man. His hair was red with streaks of orange throughout, done up in a bun. He had sharp features, his face framed by a short red beard, but he didn't give off an overly serious feeling. His attire seemed expensive, but wasn't overly ostentatious. Though he didn't look muscular, he appeared to be in good shape for his age. It was clear to Will that this man was the patriarch of the Dragon Flame Clan. His head has been turned towards Will ever since the door had first opened.

Once Will was fully inside, the man turned his gaze away from him to the servant behind him. He gave a small nod to the servant to signal that he was free to go. Will heard the door close behind him as the servant left. Will couldn't hear the servant's footsteps even with his enhanced hearing, so there was probably a noise cancelling array of some sort.

Once the door was closed, the man turned towards Will and started speaking.

"I see that old dog finally found himself a good disciple. Sure took him long enough."

Will was a bit confused but he felt like he understood the misunderstanding here.

"I'm not his disciple or anything wike that. I only met him once."

The man looked perplexed and a bit doubtful. The kid sure as hell looked like the old man's disciple. The man waved it off for the moment.

"Feel free to have a seat wherever you'd like."

He seemed to remember something.

Will took him up on his offer, climbing onto the couch opposite the man. Once he was comfortably seated the man spoke again.

"So, if you're not the old man's disciple, who might you be?"

"I'm Will."

The man tried saying Will's name a few times to himself, trying to get the pronunciation right. After a few tries, he felt like he had it.

"Will? Is that right?"

Will smiled and nodded.

"Yep! Will!"

"Alright then, Will. You claim not to be the old man's disciple. In that case, why would he send you to deliver the information he obtained?"

Will shook his head.

"He didn't. The infowmation is mine. He just towd me I should bring it to you. Or one of these."

He took the paper scrap from the ring he put it in and placed it on the table so the man could see it.

The man only glanced at the paper. He already knew what would be on it considering the context. Instead, he stared at Will inquisitively.

"You mean to say you gathered this information on the Demonic Lightning Sovereign yourself? Elaborate."

"Would you wike the full stowy?"

The man nodded.

"Go ahead."

"When my pawents were on the wun, they ended up being chased into the wightning fowest near Wising Dragon Viwwage. They ended up finding a hut, whewe they stayed until we ran out of food and they went out to get mowe and pwobably died."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Will shook his head.

"It's fine. I didn't like them."

"Fair enough."

"After a whiwe, I stumbled upon a door weading into a basement. In the basement was a chest… wait, befowe I continue, I need some paper and ink."

The man waved his hand and a stack of paper and an ink jar with a quill in it appeared on the table in front of Will from out of the man's storage ring. Will exported the note from the chest into the paper. Since he had all the materials, it didn't cost anything. The man's eyes showed surprise as he saw the paper change.

"What did you just do?"

"Exported the note fwom the chest."

Will passed the note over to where the man could reach. The man scoffed as he read through it.

"Do you know anything about the 'first test' it refers to?"

Will nodded.

"When I opened the chest, it shot out a wed wightning bowt, but I opened it fwom the side so it missed me."

The man chuckled. When he thought of the Demonic Lightning Sovereign's plans being foiled like that, he couldn't help but take joy in it.

"Smart move, kid. Do you have the other stuff it mentioned?"

Will nodded, pulling out the pillowcase bag from his storage ring.

"Hewe."

The man didn't comment on the bag. Instead he stood up and pulled out the things inside. He placed the compass down and quickly flipped through the book. Will could actually watch his revulsion grow in real time. He put the book down and turned to the kid.

"Did you end up going to where this compass leads?"

Will nodded, then added context.

"Befowe I continue, you should know that beasts in that fowest act strangely in response to spiwitual energy gathewing arrays."

He brought out his cultivation doors.

"Wike the ones I made on these."

The man was impressed. Even as untrained in arrays as he was, he could tell that the array pattern wasn't very good, but to be able to come up with it alone at such a young age was impressive. Will continued.

"When I weft the hut, a bunch of beasts stawted following me. None attacked. The compass led me to a mountain. A tacky mountain. The twip took twelve hours because I didn't have enough hands to howd the compass and I kept passing it because of the fowmations."

The man felt like something was off with what the kid said. Then he got what it was. They said they couldn't hold the compass, but they still got there. Shouldn't that be impossible? How would they have gotten past the formations without relying on the compass?

"You mean to say you got through what are supposedly immortal-level formations without using the compass?"

"Ah. Yeah. I just had to keep checking I was going in a straight line."

The man laughed boisterously. When he calmed down, he motioned for Will to continue. Will did so.

"Inside the mountain were thwee twials. Since the beasts always stayed behind me, I tried turning awound so they'd bweak the twials when they twied to get behind me. It ended up working and I was abwe to skip them."

The man laughed even louder than the last time. Will continued after he calmed down. He exported all the books that were on the shelves at the Sick Freak's house. It cost points this time since he didn't have book binding materials.

"These wewe on the bookshewves inside his house. Thewe were mowe too but they were too disgusting to wead."

The man looked at the stack of books that had just appeared in shock. How did the kid even do that? He also noticed that the stack was slightly embedded in the table. Will had ended up using the wood of the table in place of paper by mistake at the end.

But more importantly, did he just hear the word 'house'? Shouldn't it be 'inheritance site'?

"What do you mean house? I thought it was an inheritance site?"

Will shrugged.

"Oh, can I get some mowe paper?"

"Sure."

The man took the stack of books into his storage ring and left a stack of papers in their place. Will exported the Demonic Lightning Arts manual. Then he asked Sarah a question.

<Should I tell him about you?>

"Go ahead."

<Actually, can you talk to him?>

"Oh. Yeah. I can do that."

Now that he had Sarah's permission, he continued speaking.

"Along with the manual was this. The "Demonic Wightning Dagger"."

He undid the clasps on the sheath and pulled it off.

"Except it's not a daggew."

<Your turn.>

"I'm a sword."

The man looked surprised. The Demonic Lightning Dagger was a sentient sword? How could that be possible? Sentient swords don't exactly grow on trees.

"Which sword are you?"

A sentient sword wasn't the kind of thing that just went under the radar. Even if its status as a sentient sword isn't known publicly, it would still be well-known as a powerful sword. At least, it was unlikely for it not to be. Sarah responded to his question.

"Do you know about the cursed sword that kills anyone who contracts it? The one that provokes any men who see it to try to contract it at all costs?"

"You mean the one that caused the death of fifty immortals before it was sealed?"

He really didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah, that's me."

The man noticed a few things. Things that became incredibly terrifying when that context was added. The sword certainly was not in the sealed state. He knew what the Demonic Lightning Dagger looked like, and this looked quite different. And if it was unsealed, any man who saw it would be tricked into contracting it. The only time that wasn't the case was when it was already contracted to someone. When it was already blasting them with storm qi that could kill an immortal after enough time. And the one holding it was this little kid who looked to not even be three years old?

A monster! This kid was a monster!

Will and Sarah watched as the man turned pale with fear, looking at Will like he was a monster. Will was a bit worried about him. Sarah was laughing.

<Is he okay?>

"He just figured out that you contracted a sword that killed even immortals when they tried to contract it."

<We didn't even tell him yet.>

"The context clues make it pretty obvious if you think about it a bit."

<Then, what do I now?>

"Well, you can abuse your new status as a terrifying monster to extort him for stuff, or you can just give him the info about the Sick Freak moving out of the mountain and then leave."

Will was faced with a tough decision. On one hand, this guy was pretty chill, and he had nothing against him. On the other hand, he liked having things. He decided on the middle ground. He would just ask for a reasonable reward for the information he provided.

"Well, um, the Sick Fweak ended up moving out when I wast checked. Oh! And he also thinks I'm welated to the Beast King."

The man tried to compose himself. If he didn't compose himself, he might die. His whole clan might die. Maybe even the whole city. He made full use of his acting skills and pretended like everything was normal. Maybe the kid didn't even realize how scary they were. Yeah, that was probably what it was.

"I'm sure you're expecting a reward, right? I'll let someone know and have it brought over, okay?"

Will smiled. Then he thought of something.

"Oh, uh, you don't have to empty out your entire treasury or anything."

The man went pale again. The kid knew. That wasn't something someone would say if they didn't know they were a terrifying monster. But at least he didn't have to choose between being broke and risking death, anymore.

Will realized something else. Wouldn't it be really bad if this spread? Sure, it was cool to have a bigshot following your every order, but it would get really boring after a while. It was fine if people thought he was monstrously talented, that just meant opportunities and praise and being cool and stuff. But monster (talented) isn't the same as monster (dangerous), and he was currently being perceived by the man before him as the latter.

"Hey, um, could you keep the sword thing a secwet? I don't wanna scawe everyone."

The man thought about Will's request. The answer was pretty clearly yes. Even if he spread it, what would it matter? It's not like anyone would be able to do anything about it. And it's not like he really had a choice either. If he refused, the kid could just make the whole city go away.

"Of course I can."

"Thanks."

He remembered the reward he still owed.

"On the matter of rewards, do you have any in mind that you'd prefer?"

Will thought about it. He needed a bigger space ring. He had too many of them and it would be a lot better to cut that number down to two or three. He also wanted knowledge. He was mostly looking for arrays and a better guide to making them than the one he had. But after that, who could say?

Wait. He could say. Because he had an excellent idea. And that idea was getting a bunch of garbage too dangerous to the user for any sane person to even think of making use of them.

"I actuawwy have a few."

"Alright. What might they be?"

"First is a better stowage wing."

The man could see why when he looked at the kid's hands.

"Consider it done. Next?"

"I want a few books on awways."

From the doors the kid had brought out, he could tell the kid was probably a big fan of arrays.

"I'm guessing you'd like both premade arrays and guides on designing them?"

Will nodded. Then he froze. He didn't actually need to take the books for them.

"If you can just let me wead them once, you can keep the books themsewves."

The man didn't question it. With the book making trick the kid had, he had a feeling the kid could make as many physical copies as needed.

"Alright. Anything else?"

Will nodded, then asked a question.

"What do you do with things that are too dangewous to use?"

The man felt like he understood the intention. The kid had already managed to handle the sword, so they were probably planning on taking the powerful treasures he had and trying their hand at using them. Sadly, powerful items were hard to come by, regardless of how hard to use they were.

"I'm sorry. I don't have any dangerous treasures like your sword in my treasury. Powerful treasures are hard to find, even dangerous ones."

Will noticed that the man had completely missed his meaning.

"No, you misunderstood. I'm not talking about powerful tweasures. What do you do with garbage?"

The man paused. He felt like he understood now. He didn't get why the kid would want them, but he understood what the kid wanted. And he happened to have them. A good few of them, actually.

The cultivators of the Dragon Flame Clan would often go out to explore the wider world. They'd also often bring back treasures when they returned. If they didn't have need of the treasure themselves for whatever reason, be it incompatibility, already having a better one, or any other reason, they could turn the treasure in to the clan in return for spirit stones. Those treasures would then be given out as rewards, used in crafting, sold, or used in a number of ways.

But this also meant that clan members would collect any treasure they could, even if it was awful garbage. It wasn't like the bad treasures sold for much, sometimes even less than a single spirit stone each, but if a clan member had room in their storage ring, there was no reason not to pick them up for a quick buck. They could always be tossed out later to make room if needed.

Most of these garbage treasures ended up being used in crafting. But some simply weren't suitable for crafting anything other than different useless garbage. And why would anyone make useless garbage out of useless garbage? Especially when oftentimes the useless garbage product would need garbage that could be used to make something not garbage. So, over time, the amount of truly useless garbage piled up.

The treasury was organized based on how useful or powerful a treasure was, with different rooms for each tier, organized all nice and tidy for whenever they were needed. The low, middle, high, and special tiers needed special reason to enter, the garbage was open to anyone to take. Of course, records were kept on what was taken to prevent people from just reselling them repeatedly for free spirit stones.

The arrays and formations and whatnot set up in the treasury rooms organized everything automatically, with the tiers other than junk (the official name for it) being organized based on function, each item in its own spot, stored in a way appropriate for it, with a description written on a pedestal in front of it. In the junk tier, though everything was still stored the same way, because it was all useless garbage that couldn't be organized by function because it was useless garbage, it was just ordered by when it got there, with older items being farther back. Whenever something was taken, the items in front of it would slide backwards to fill in the gap, with the room's length increasing or decreasing when needed. The way everything slid backwards meant that treasures that went unused for a long time ended up in the back.

The man answered Will's question.

"I think what you're looking for would be in the junk tier of the treasury. Would you like to have a look?"

Chapter 17 Bothering A Middle-Aged Man Until He Spits Out Garbage

Will followed behind the Dragon Flame Clan Patriarch as he led him to the junk tier of the treasury. He'd been told that a servant with his new storage ring would be meeting them there.

It wasn't a long walk, only two minutes or so. He saw the servant in charge of bringing the ring. The man had it placed on a cushion he was holding. Will Wind Danced over and grabbed it.

He pulled the two rings he had on his index finger off, putting the new ring on in their place. He put the ring with the poisonous stuff back on, and put the other on his right hand. Looking inside the new ring, he saw the books he'd asked for. He also saw a few pills. He embedded the alchemy book he had to see if he could recognize them.

He couldn't. He turned to the patriarch and asked him.

"What piwws are these?"

"Ah, the green ones are healing pills, and the blue ones are qi replenishing pills."

Will appreciated it. Though the qi replenishing pills were quite literally useless for him since the only qi he had was storm qi which he couldn't replenish because it wasn't his and was constantly streaming into him anyway, and the qi he stole from a mouse. Oh, and the qi from all those beasts that he'd put on his spiritual roots. He didn't know how to use qi either. Now that he thought about it, depending on the definition, he wasn't even really a cultivator. He was more of an inhaler.

But it was the thought that counted. He also would probably be able to make use of them, somehow.

He turned towards the patriarch as the servant left.

"Thanks!"

The man nodded, then spoke while gesturing towards the junk room.

"Feel free to take whatever you'd like. It's ordered by date of arrival, so the items at the back are ones that have been left unused for many years."

Will nodded and started looking around.

The junk room didn't have a door. Just an arch that was slightly smaller than the width of the room. The room itself seemed to be a long corridor, with items in rows of two, one long line of items on each side of the room.

He looked at the first item on the right. It was a toothpick. Looking in front of it, there was a pedestal with a description of it.

'Spiritual Willow Toothpick

Toothpick made of wood from a Spiritual Willow Tree.'

That was certainly uninteresting. He walked down the hallway, seeing many similarly useless items. Scraps of metal, little twigs, a board here and there, spiritual herbs with effects weaker than regular aloe vera, the occasional little household object with a spiritual ability that has an effect completely unrelated to its regular usage, a few swords with drawbacks to using them that didn't even have decent positives to go with them, botched pills that caused about ninety times more poisoning than they did anything positive, botched poison pills that caused effects like sore knees and stomach aches. It was a whole lot of junk. Unsurprisingly.

It was only now that it hit Will that mapping right now was something that a robber would do. He didn't stop.

After a few minutes he found something a bit interesting. It was little rectangular block, with what looked almost like a screen on the front. The "screen" showed a flower unwilting when supplied with qi, but the amount it took was weirdly high. He put it in his ring. When he did, the line on the right side (the side it had been on before he took it) moved forward so that the item that was behind it had taken its place.

Will continued on. His map was messed up, but he just moved the old position to a different layer and put the new ones there instead. It was kind of worrying how casually he had just interacted in four dimensions like that. He wasn't sure how to feel about it, honestly. He decided on ignoring it.

After a bit longer he found another interesting object. It looked similar to plastic. It was nostalgic, so he took it. He kept moving as the left line shifted, and the door moved closer to get rid of empty space.

He found a ring that vibrated. It didn't mention how it powered itself, so he took it so he could find out later.

Then he found the kind of thing he'd been hoping for. It was a mirror that aided cultivation. Except it was cracked, so it would lead to qi deviation when used. He took it.

He found a ball that couldn't bounce. He put it in his ring because he found it amusing.

He found a botched calming pill that had a side effect of qi deviation, so he took it.

He found a mask that makes whoever wears it look like themselves. It was funny so he took it.

He found a fire that never went out but didn't affect the temperature or do much of anything at all. It was contained in a glass box. He took it.

As he was walking, Sarah suddenly contacted him.

"Holy shit! Will, go back! You just passed something that could help with the metal physique plan!"

Will turned around. He felt like he knew what it was. A metal apple. He put it in his ring.

Soon after that, he saw something really interesting. It was a little marble looking thing. That wasn't the interesting part, obviously. The interesting part was its effects.

It had a weak effect of sucking spiritual energy towards itself. As soon as it sucked up spiritual energy, it would spit it back out, except the spit out spiritual energy would be chaotic and hard to control. If left alone, the spiritual energy it spit out would eventually calm down, but without any interference, the spiritual energy would run out of outward momentum and get sucked into it again before it fully went back to normal. And when it was spit out again, it would be even more chaotic.

The marble was considered useless because it was hard to stop if left alone for too long, and because it only worked on spiritual energy and not qi. But it seemed great for Will. He'd just need to find a way to get it into his dantian.

He didn't know if it would actually offer any advantages to have his spiritual energy be chaotic and hard to control, but it would be fun to try.

The next thing he saw was… well he couldn't see it. It was covered with a tinted barrier. It was supposedly a large standing stone slab with remnant sword intent left behind by a powerful swordsman on it. But said swordsman was also a madman, and anyone who tried to comprehend it ended up going insane to some degree. It was covered so that no one skilled in the way of the sword started comprehending it unintentionally. Will put it in his ring, barrier included.

The next thing he found was a pen that changed colors as it wrote. Basically, if someone used it to draw a straight line, the line would be a rainbow. It could probably cut down export costs. More importantly, Will liked it, so he took it.

Will didn't find anything else good for a while. It was only when he reached the end of the room that he saw two things that were perfect for him.

The first was a pill. But it was no ordinary pill. This was a pill capable of healing an old man on the brink of death to the point that he could do a backflip without a problem. It was like a perfect heal plus extra. As long as it wasn't death, this pill could fix it.

And that was also why it was back here. The pill had originally been an attempt at a pill able to bring back the dead. That goal failed. Instead of making the dead living, it made the living dead. That is to say, anyone who took the pill would instantly die. All the healing was useful for was leaving a pretty corpse.

It was stored in a jade pill bottle covered in arrays. He placed it in his ring.

Then there was the second one. It was a horrific thing. It took the form of a knife. To use it, one had to stab someone with it. The person who was stabbed would die in a moment, but it would feel like eons of agony as their soul would be painfully torn to shreds. Then, the user has to stab themselves. Once they did, they would gain another dantian.

Of course, there was no reason for anyone to use this. It was rare to ever see someone use more than one dantian, so the idea of anyone wanting extras was preposterous. The cultivation methods that used all three were already exceptionally challenging to use, with failure meaning a certain death in almost every scenario. But even that was secondary. No one would be able to survive the consequences of an extra dantian. They'd be dooming themselves to qi deviation no matter what they did afterwards. It was a knife that was useless beyond useless.

For a normal person, that is. Sarah spoke up, worried.

"Will, I get that you're immune to qi deviation, but do you really plan to obliterate someone's soul? You're immune to qi deviation, not guilt. Do you really think you can live with yourself after that? This is something the Sick Freak would do. Not you, Will. Put the dagger down and let's just go, okay?"

She was scared. She'd just escaped from a person who tortured people for his own gain. She didn't know if she could handle being wielded by someone like that again. She had really started to trust this kid. More than she'd trusted anyone before. She didn't know what she'd do if he turned out to be just another Sick Freak.

Will laughed like she'd just told him a joke, and her heart sank. This was it, huh? Back to the same suffering as always. At least she got a break from it for a few days.

<Did… did you actually think I was planning on sacrificing a person? Who do am?>

Her heart instantly lightened. Haha, of course. The kid was just having ideas. He was probably trying to come up with a way to use the knife without sacrificing anyone. He'd be putting it down any second now. He put it in his ring.

"Will? Why did you take it? Didn't you just say you weren't going to sacrifice someone? Why are you taking it when you just said you wouldn't use it?"

Will chuckled.

<Who said I wouldn't use it?>

"You! Just now! Like, less than five seconds ago!"

<I said I wouldn't sacrifice a person.>

"Yeah! And that's step one of using it! How would you use it without sacrificing someone?"

Will smirked.

<I'm gonna stab myself.>

Sarah really couldn't believe this kid. He'd just said the dumbest shit she'd ever heard while smirking like a smartass. Was this really how it would end? With the one person who could wield her literally stabbing himself to death?

"You… That would just kill you."

<Shouldn't you be worried about the pill I just grabbed too in that case?>

"Wh-you… you're planning on taking that pill!? That's not even vaguely qi deviation related!"

<You'll see.>

"Don't fucking 'you'll see' me, you fucking lunatic! The only thing I'd be seeing is your fucking corpse!"

<Nah, it'll be fine. Look.>

He stabbed himself in the chest with the knife.

"WILL!!!"

<See. I'm fine.>

He wasn't wrong. He was fine. Whether the death felt like eons or not, it was still instant. And he was immune to that. He pulled out the knife. It's not like getting stabbed was instant death, it was the soul obliterating that was, so the knife wound stayed. Will lined up the knife with the already-made hole and put it back in again.

A new dantian grew. Right between the lower and middle. It was honestly a pretty gross process. But once it was done, everything was in order. Though he would probably need to start referring to them with numbers now.

"Why even bother being immune to qi deviation if you were just gonna be immune to dying anyway?"

This kid was fucking exhausting.

<I'm only immune to instant death.>

"That actually makes less sense than being immune to death."

<I guess it does, huh?>

Will quickly pulled the knife out half way and pushed it back in twice before he felt like he needed to stop. The stab wound was starting to actually really hurt. He stored the knife and took out a healing pill. He didn't know how to use it properly, so he just ate it and tried to push all the energy it turned into over to the stab wound. It worked fine. The lifeforce in dantian one was helping heal it, so it would be fine. After another healing pill, there wasn't even a scar left behind.

He realized the state of his attire now. It had a blood-stained hole in the center of his chest. He would have to ask for a change of clothes from the patriarch.

He'd gotten everything he needed now, so he Wind Danced at full speed back to the entrance. Once he was out of the room, he took the books out of the ring in a stack and slid his finger along each from the bottom up, copying as he went.

"You can have these back."

The man ignored the books, staring at the bloodstained hole in Will's shirt.

"What happened?"

"Don't wowwy about it."

And so he didn't.

"I'd like some new cwothes, though.

"Right away."

He burned a talisman and a servant arrived in under a minute with a storage ring, which he passed to Will before leaving. The patriarch spoke.

"Just keep that one as well."

Will took off the poison storage ring and replaced it with the new one. After putting all the clothes in the first ring he'd been given, he put the poisons into it, putting the old poison storage ring on his right hand.

"Thanks."

The man nodded.

"Have you gotten everything that caught your eye?"

Will nodded.

"Yep."

The man really didn't want to see what they'd m taken

"Then I'll guide you out?"

Will nodded.

"Sure."

He didn't really need him to. He knew the way there. But it would be weird to just run around on his own.

Soon enough, Will was out of the city and headed back to the snake. When he reached it, the snake hissed.

"~Ready to go?~"

"~Yep.~"

He hopped on, and they set off towards Duodibunu City.

They reached it in about an hour and a half.

It seemed to be four hours past midnight. The guards at the gate recognized him and let him through, and he headed to the alleyway store. As the door creaked, the old man turned to look at him.

"What is it, brat?"

He looked at the evidence of a stab wound on the brat's chest, his expression growing confused.

"How'd you get stabbed so quickly?"

"I dewivered the infowmation and came back."

"That doesn't answer the question about the stab wound."

"I wanted mowe dantians."

The old man sighed.

"Sure. You said you delivered the information? How?"

"A Colossal Wightning Snake bwought me."

"Ah. That'd do it."

He didn't bother questioning it. There was no point.

"If you already delivered the information, then what are you bugging me for?"

He shrugged.

"Then leave."

He remembered something.

"Wanna make me your discipwe?"

The old man looked at him like he was an idiot.

"No."

"Oh."

"Satisfied? I don't care. Go away."

"You're not vewy nice."

"I'm not trying to be. Shoo."

Will couldn't come up with any excuse to bother the man more.

"Bye."

He headed back to Li Rencai's place. The guards opened the gate when he approached. Entering the front door, he saw the maid he'd informed of his departure.

"It was fastew than expected."

Such a wide range an the kid had managed to miss it. She was almost impressed.

Will headed to the guest room he was staying in, closing the door behind him. Now it was pill time.

He started by taking a regular healing pill. He placed the healing energy on his spiritual roots.

Then, he took out the special one. It would all be going to dantian one. He popped open the container, and swallowed the pill. He died instantly. In other words, he was unharmed.

He focused on the energy of the pill. The description said the healing and death were inseparable, but he was able to control the healing because of what he'd done with his spiritual roots. The death energy stuff was still there, it was just doing nothing now.

For all the weirdness that happened with Qi Deviation Immunity, it felt like Instant Death Immunity honestly had even weirder effects on things. The fact that he had energy that kills you instantly sitting in his body doing nothing was evidence of that.

The healing energy of this pill was very different from the healing energy of the regular healing pill. It felt like a more profound version. But it had enough similarities to the regular healing energy that he could control it.

And so he did. He moved it all the way up to dantian one. The leftover death energy he put on his spiritual roots. Seemed like it might be a good thing to be able to control. If it was like the life half of the pill, and had similar weaker variants that weren't instant death, it would be nice to be able to control it and make it go away or something.

He observed his body. The lifeforce and life energy, as he had decided to call it, seemed to mesh well together. It did have that same overhealing effect the lifeforce had, but it wasn't as much, even taking quantity into consideration.

Instead, it seemed to focus its effects on the lifeforce. The lifeforce was right next to it, while his body was on the other side of the wall of his dantian.

It seemed as if it was rejuvenating the lifeforce. And it was also mixing with it at the same time. It felt like it had changed the lifeforce from being from a bunch of various creatures in different conditions. The lifeforce used to share the flaws that living things have. Like age, and improper diet, and lack of proper exercise, and everything else. Now it was free of them. Like every bit was from a version of the thing it came from too perfect and healthy to be realistic. And that seemed to make its effects a lot stronger.

It was like the lifeforce was also giving Will all of those ailments, and some of the healing part of the lifeforce was being used to cancel them out. Now that they were gone he got to experience all of the positive effects.

But the life energy wasn't purifying the lifeforce. It wasn't getting rid of the bad parts. Consider it like a bunch of green with the bad parts being discolored greens, like darker greens and browner greens. Instead of just removing those off colored parts, it made them into the normal green. And at the same time, it made even the normal green more green. Which meant not only was it not canceling out, but the part it was canceling out also became a positive.

But that was only the first part. Once Will saw it finish its healing process, he saw it do something else. It started to fuse with it. As if it was only okay with doing so once it had reached the proper level of perfection.

Lifeforce wasn't something used to heal. Lifeforce was the health itself. When he put it in his dantian, it was like adding health. That was why it was able to make his body's condition better than it was at its best. Because it was giving him a higher max health. Once it had fused with the life energy, it became both. It was life that created life. It was health that healed itself.

It's not like lifeforce couldn't 'heal' itself necessarily. It could obviously be replenished. But it always needed outside influence to do so. Whether through spiritual energy or food or healing pills or whatever else. But now, it was self-replenishing. Usually healing energy would be used up to make more lifeforce. But now the lifeforce was the healing energy.

Will had gotten his first replenishable energy. Just like an actual cultivator could replenish their own qi, he could replenish… whatever this was. Honestly, it felt a bit scary on principle, like a chimera that could replicate itself. He felt like he'd read about something like that in a fantasy manga before. Some chimera with troll DNA that let it regenerate itself. Felt like he might've even seen it more than once, honestly.

But as long as he kept it locked up in his dantian and never let it out, he wouldn't be assimilated into some kind of self-replicating ever-assimilating monster right out of an end-of-the-world scenario. Which kind of made the whole replenishing ability a bit less useful.

It was only replenishing itself, not duplicating, either. Like, for each bit he'd taken from something, it only regenerated it to the same 'perfect form' of that thing level. At least it didn't have some kind of 'tainted vision of perfection' type of thing. It didn't seem to have the creativity for that.

Which was all the more reason to never let it out. Luckily, it wasn't something he needed to worry about, since his Qi Deviation Immunity meant it couldn't break out.

He put the possible world-ending aside for now, and focused on the effects. Since he'd been splitting his lifeforce half and half between spiritual roots and dantian for the first pile of beasts, it seemed to be restoring the missing parts of them. Though it seemed like it would take at least a few hours to be done.

He decided to test the limits on that. He brought out a corpse from his ring, one of the lightning deers, though one in a good enough condition as to not bleed all over the floor and make a mess. That reminded him, he needed to move everything over to the new ring.

The beast corpses hadn't gone bad yet, he could tell that much. Whether that was because spiritual beasts didn't go bad for a long time, or because the rings had helped keep them from going bad, or a bit of both, he wasn't sure. But he was sure that the first ring he'd been given at the Dragon Flame Clan was a lot better. His old rings were the ones the Sick Freak had deemed unimportant enough to leave behind, so they obviously weren't anything special.

And judging from how big the new one was, it was certainly a lot better. He could fit everything he had in his old rings in it and it wouldn't even be a tenth of the way full. And a ring that high quality almost certainly had some kind of preserving ability better than his old ones.

Even the second ring he got probably did. It was a good bit smaller than the first, maybe about a fourth of the size, it was still a lot better than his old rings.

He quickly moved everything out of his old rings into the first of the new rings, then got back to his original task. He looked at the deer in front of him. He inhaled only a hundredth of its lifeforce into his dantian, then observed.

The weird whatever he'd made in his dantian didn't seem to be able to recreate the whole thing from just that. It still healed it, but it didn't make more of it.

He inhaled a bit more until he'd taken a tenth in total. It still didn't start recreating it. He kept adding more. Once he'd added about half, it finally started regenerating it.

Now it was time for the second phase of his testing. He inhaled until just a tenth of the deer's lifeforce was left, then he put the deer back in his ring, separate from the others so he could grab it again later.

He waited while playing on his phone in the mind space until the regenerating was done. Once it was, he brought out the deer again, and inhaled the rest of the lifeforce.

The result was interesting. It seemed like the part that had been recreated was incomplete somehow. When the new lifeforce came, the regenerated part seemed to unmake itself, as the new part replaced it. It was illuminating for Will.

He really wanted to try removing a piece of what the deer's lifeforce turned into, and see if it would regenerate it properly now that it 'knew', but he didn't want the world to end, so he couldn't.

That reminded him of the patriarch guy. He actually had a pretty good reason to fear him now, since his being able to contract Sarah was only because he was immune to qi deviation.

Then he thought of something. Couldn't he have just told the patriarch guy about his Qi Deviation Immunity and he wouldn't have been scared of him anymore?

Chapter 18 The Mystery Of The Vibrating Ring

Will was in his room. Not really *his* room, but it was a room he was staying in, so it was close enough.

He had already used the pill and the knife, so next on the agenda was the books. His hope was that they might help with the marble, though it wasn't very likely in his opinion.

There were four of them in total. Two books of arrays, and two books on making them. Will focused on the two books on making them first.

One seemed like a beginner level book, while the other seemed like another beginner level book, but for people who had read the first one. He embedded both and looked at the first array he'd bought. He still didn't recognize all of the symbols, but he understood a few more.

There was a bit of overlap with the original book on arrays he had, but not that much. It was mostly just in the really basic symbols and the principles of making them. The second book had almost no overlap at all. All things considered, he could make a better array than his old heat one, but he wasn't able to make anything amazing.

He turned to the other two books. One seemed to be full of basic arrays, while the other had more advanced ones. He looked at the basic one first.

It had arrays for things like heat, fire, cold, stealth, sound-cancelling, darkness, light, and some other simple things like that. It also talked about how to use them. Apparently they could be made with qi, and used on the go or in battle. Will couldn't use qi, so that didn't help much. But it did give him some insight.

Until now, all his arrays had been pretty much permanent after turning on. As it turned out, it was because he used spiritual energy. Apparently, normal people couldn't just blow spiritual energy onto an array. At least not until a higher cultivation level.

When a regular person inhaled spiritual energy, they did so through a cultivation method. That isn't to say they couldn't bring it in without one, but doing so would give them qi deviation. Though both Will and a cultivator might inhale and bring in spiritual energy, a cultivator would bring in a manageable amount and circulate it according to their method until it was ready to enter their dantian. It was why good spiritual roots mattered, because they allowed fine control over greater amounts of spiritual energy, allowing for a cultivator to circulate bigger amounts at a time. Better cultivation methods would either take less time to circulate, or offer some other powerful effect to make up for it.

In that sense, Will's cultivation method would be a heavenly technique that anyone would consider him a peerless genius for creating. Only, it wasn't, because that would only be the case if his method made qi. Considering more than just circulation time, his method would be not even a technique that anyone would consider him a moron for creating.

Basically, normal people couldn't take in spiritual energy in a way that let them spit it back out. This meant that normally, they'd use qi. And qi didn't last as long in an array.

He moved on to the next book. It had fewer arrays in it than the first, but they were a bit better. There were arrays that worked as traps, arrays that worked as barriers, ones that worked as traps that trapped someone in barriers. There were also ones that affected the mind. They didn't do much, of course. It couldn't mind control anyone, but it could make them more likely to overlook an area, or influence their emotions ever so slightly, or confuse them, or make them disoriented, or other simple stuff like that. They were also all pretty easy to counter, though all to varying extents.

Will embedded both of the array books and moved on, pulling out the marble.

It was currently in a glass box of some sort, just like the fire was, though this one had the effect of blocking spiritual energy. Neither of the boxes seemed to be actual glass, more likely some clear jade kind of thing or spiritual glass or something.

He examined it. How would he get it into his dantian?

<How would I put this in a dantian?>

"I don't know. Doing weird shit like that is your thing. I'm just a genius, not a mad genius."

Will sighed. He couldn't think of any way to do it. Disappointed, he put it back in his ring and took out the vibrating ring he'd grabbed.

He examined the ring. It wasn't vibrating currently, so he put it on the middle finger of his left hand. It started vibrating as soon as the tip of his finger was in. It seemed similar to laser-activated things. As soon as anything was in-between the sides of the circle, it turned on. It seemed to be slowly shrinking to fit his finger as well. He took it off, and it only stopped vibrating once it was fully off his finger. Once it was off, it stopped shrinking and started returning to normal at around twice the speed.

The vibration wasn't very strong. About the same as an electric massager. The ring itself seemed to be made of some purple rubber-like material, though it seemed to have something else as a core, since it kept its shape without bending. The shape was like a regular ring only a little bit thicker.

He put it back on and examined it again. It didn't seem to be using spiritual energy. Not lifeforce either.

He brought it to his ear and listened to it. No meaning, just the buzzing noise of a vibrating thing.

It was confusing. Why was it vibrating? It didn't make any sense. Was it like his martial arts? Was it a profound ring? That didn't make any sense.

He licked it. It tasted like buzzing. He took it off and tried again with it not vibrating. It tasted like nothing. He put it back on.

He closed his eyes and tried to sense it with his heart. He sensed vibrating on his finger. He opened his eyes.

He asked the black gas to look at it. It appreciated that it was doing that without spiritual energy, but didn't know anything.

Maybe the old man would know? He left the mansion and went to the alleyway store. The door creaked open as he entered.

"Why are you back? Can you not just leave me alone, already?"

He walked over and held out the ring for him to see.

"Do you know what this wing is?"

"Which one?"

He took it off his finger and put it on the counter.

"This one."

The old man picked it up and looked at it.

"It's a purple ring."

Will nodded.

"It vibwates."

"Alright."

"Do you know why?"

The man looked at the ring.

"No. Now take it with you and go somewhere else."

Will took the ring, put it on his left middle finger, and left. He headed back to Li Rencai's house. Maybe it was mana? He'd need to ask once he woke up.

He headed to Duodibunu Lili's room. The door was closed. He found a maid and asked them where a needle would be.

"Why do you need one?"

"Wing that vibwates?"

"Huh? What ring?"

He held out his hand.

"The purple one."

The maid looked closely. It seemed to be vibrating.

"How is it doing that?"

"I don't know. Can I have a needwe now?"

The maid remembered the original topic.

"Why would you need a needle for a vibrating ring?"

"Weasons."

It wasn't her business, anyway. The kid was already holding a sword, she doubted he'd be in much danger with just a needle.

"Follow me."

She led Will to a room that seemed to be used for sewing. She grabbed a needle from a drawer and handed it to Will.

"Here."

Will smiled.

"Thanks!"

He ran off back to his room, shutting the door behind him once he entered it.

He took off the ring. It stopped vibrating. Once it returned to normal size, he put the needle in it. It started vibrating and shrinking.

Will watched as it shrank. It shrank until it was as tight around the needle as it was around his finger. He took it off and it started returning to normal.

If it could shrink, could it grow too? He tried to fit three fingers into it. Only the fingertips could fit. Once he fit them in enough of the way that it was tighter around them than it usually was around his finger, it started growing, then when he'd move it even farther it would grow a bit more. It seemed to stay in the same circular shape no matter what. He took it off his finger after confirming it could grow.

He put all of his fingers in it and wore it like a bracelet, then took it off and put it back on his middle finger. He took out a wooden board he'd taken from the Sick Freak.

He used Sarah to cut it. He cut it in a kind of double-sided arrow shape. One side of the arrow was a full triangle, while the other was just the two lines in a v shape, both connected by a thin rectangle.

He laid the shape he'd cut against the side of the bed, with the full triangle side facing up. Then he took off the ring and tried to fit it around the board. He was able to do so without issues. He got it past the triangle, and it started shrinking to fit the rectangle part. Once it was done shrinking, he pulled it against the triangle part again. He wanted to see if it would expand around a right angle like that. It didn't grow when he did so.

He could always just loop his finger inside and pull it away from the wood to make it grow, though. He did that until it could fit around the triangle and took it off.

The ring seemed to gain weight proportional to its size. Will didn't get how that was possible, either. This ring was really weird.

It seemed like the sun had risen now, so he went to go look for Li Rencai.

He walked for a bit before he found a maid to ask.

"Do you know where Li Wencai is?"

The maid thought for a moment.

"He should be having breakfast about now."

"Can you bwing me there?"

"Of course."

The maid led him to an overly fancy dining hall before heading off to do maid things again. Though he'd explored the house a bit, he hadn't made it here yet. Even if he had, he had no way of knowing if this was where the man would have breakfast, or if he may even have some second dining hall just for breakfast. Or if he had a bunch that he rotated between. That was honestly a pretty aggravating thought until he realized he'd just made up a guy to be mad at for no reason.

The whole family seemed to be in the dining hall right now. Li Rencai sat at the head of the table on the far side of the room, his wife and concubine sat on his left and right respectively, and his daughter sat on the left side beside her mother. They all say pretty close together for the size of the table, so there was still about three fourths of it left empty of anything but chairs.

Li Rencai, since he was facing the entrance, was the first to see Will come in.

"Will! Didn't think you'd be up! Come over and have a seat!"

He was mostly yelling because he was far away, but he was also happy to see the kid.

Will headed over to join them. More than the breakfast they were having, eggs, he was interested in the beverages they had. They had orange juice. As for companionship or whatever, it wasn't a factor.

Will was thirsty. He hadn't really realized it, since the lifeforce had been covering it up with its effects, and that didn't change with it turning into the whatever it was. However, now that he had seen orange juice, it settled in how thirsty he was.

He'd seen the tea in the tea room back at the Dragon Flame Clan, of course, but he didn't really drink tea, so it didn't remind him of being thirsty. Orange juice on the other hand, well, he'd had a good bit of that.

A servant was already coming back with a plate and a cup for him by the time he sat down.

Will didn't talk much throughout the meal. He mostly just asked for more juice. Everyone else talked about something, but he didn't really listen much. Once the meal was done (and Will had had enough orange juice), Will asked Li Rencai to follow him to his room. Considering how he'd only talked about the other world stuff in private, he got the feeling he might not want to share it openly.

Once they reached the room and Will closed the door, he took off the ring and showed it to Li Rencai.

"Hey, is this mana?"

Li Rencai looked a bit… Will couldn't describe it, it was a mix of awkward and confused, maybe?

"Why are you showing me something like that?"

Will was confused too now.

"Something like what? It's a ring that vibwates. Does that mean you know what it is?"

The man sighed.

"You really don't know?"

Will was excited. He definitely knew something!

"I don't! Does that mean it's mana, then?"

The man finally registered the full situation. How would that thing be here? And didn't the kid say 'vibrating'? Didn't the vibrating kind usually have a spot for batteries? And again, how would it be in this world?

"Wait, how do you have this? What even is it?"

And there went Will's hope. Most of it anyway, it could be something mana-related that Li Rencai didn't recognize.

"It's a ring that vibwates. It doesn't use spiwitual energy or lifefowce, and it can shwink and gwow itsewf. I picked it fwom the Dwagon Fwame Cwan as a reward."

The man considered it for a moment.

"Hmm. Can I see it?"

Will passed it over. Li Rencai messed with it, putting his fingertip through and taking it out again. He observed it. While he wasn't an awakened before his death, he could feel the mana back in his world. When someone lived their life without it, and it suddenly was added, it was a noticeable thing. He'd also dealt in a few dungeon relics, man-made relics, and mana crystals, so he knew what those felt like as well.

This ring didn't feel like them. He didn't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't like the things from his world. It didn't give off any of the stuff he felt from relics and mana crystals, nor from any other dungeon or mana related things.

"It's not mana. Not anything else from my world either. Sorry, kid. I wish I could be of more help."

Will sighed as he accepted the ring back from Li Rencai. At least he knew another thing it wasn't. That was good at least.

"You've still hewped a bit. I know one mowe thing it's not, now."

"Well, in that case I'm glad I could help. Did you need anything else?"

He eyed the bloodstained hole on Will's shirt as he spoke.

"No. That's aww."

"Alright. Then, I'll see you later."

He left the room, leaving Will on his own again. Alone with a weird ring. He put it on his finger again. He tried talking to it.

"Hey, anyone in there?"

The ring responded. By vibrating. Like it always did.

Yeah, that one was a long shot. It seemed like the least likely ring to have a ring grandpa in it. He doubted an immortal would hide their soul in some rubber purple ring that vibrates. Maybe in a rusty one, or a pretty one, or one with a scary design, but not a purple rubber vibrating one.

He was really stumped by this ring. He couldn't even think of a way to use it right now. He thought of putting it on Sarah to enhance her cutting power, but he doubted it would work. The ring didn't vibrate back and forth, but in all directions, and it didn't vibrate fast or strong enough either. So that idea was out.

The only thing left he could think of was trying to cut it open. He brought out the pan he'd taken from the Sick Freak, and put the ring in the center, then tried to use the tip of Sarah to make a cut on the ring, very lightly pressing down. It didn't work.

He pressed down harder, still nothing, even harder, still nothing. He picked up the sword and swung it down on the same spot as hard as he could.

The floor broke and the pan dented. The ring was fine. What the hell? Maybe this thing had a good use after all. It was strong as hell. Picking it up to examine it, the rubber wasn't even scratched.

Hmm. It seemed to be pretty much immune to physical attacks. What about other things?

He used an array from the new books he got, one that made fire. He exported it onto the floor, then blew on it to turn it on. He placed the ring in and watched. Nothing happened.

Then he realized that he probably shouldn't start a fire on a wooden floor in a very likely flammable house. He scratched out the array immediately before the fire started spreading.

He headed outside to the courtyard of the house. He hadn't been there before, but he had seen it through windows that overlooked it. It was pretty big, and the center of it was stone, so he could make arrays safely here. He was thankful that there wasn't a fountain.

He exported the fire array, blew on it, then copied it. He couldn't make a second one beneath it, as the fire wouldn't be able to escape from underground. He decided to stick with just a single fire array for now.

He tossed the ring into the flame. Then he waited for fifteen minutes, playing on his phone. He scratched out the array and immediately picked up the ring.

It was hot and hurt a fair bit, but he could handle it. The ring seemed to be rapidly cooling. Only once it reached a temperature cool enough to be seen as comfortable while still being hot, it stopped. He put it on his middle finger. He waited for fifteen minutes, playing on his phone again.

The ring seemed to have barely cooled. He took it off, put a finger from both hands in, and pulled outward to make it grow. Feeling it once he had, it felt just as warm. Which made no sense at all, how was the heat spread out through a big ring the same as heat condensed in a small one?

It seemed to be cooling faster, though. Which still didn't make sense. But it was something.

He was really wondering what this ring was running on. It was honestly a bit bewildering that it ended up in the junk room when it had effects like this. Maybe they hadn't tested it enough.

Well, it's not like he'd actually gotten anything useful out of it. The energy it was running on didn't matter if all it could do was vibrate at a comfortable temperature.

That gave him a thought. This ring had to be running on something, right? A weird supernatural mass. Like spiritual energy, like qi, like lifeforce, like the black gas, like the healing energy, and probably like mana too. When he encountered lifeforce he didn't know what it was. He just inhaled it.

So why would he need to know what it was that was powering the ring? There was no need to. He just needed to inhale it. Inhale it and decide how to use it afterwards.

Will put the ring on the middle finger of his left hand. After a bit of thought, he moved the storage rings to his right hand just in case.

Then he inhaled. And the ring stopped vibrating.

He examined the thing he'd inhaled. It was a strange one, for sure. It seemed to be some see-through gelatin-looking thing with a very minimal light grey tint in the shape of a cube with rounded corners. It seemed to not be stuck in that shape, but instead just gravitated towards it. But that was just the appearance. Will was more intrigued by what it was.

It was seemingly related to the concept of space. But in a different way than was usually seen. Space was almost always used externally. From wormholes to space blades, it was all external. Even storage rings made an external pocket dimension that they acted as a doorway for.

But this thing was the opposite. It was all about a form of spatial manipulation done to one's self. Now that he knew, he was able to understand the anomalous effects the ring had had.

The vibrating was it moving itself around through space. It was a very original usage of the concept. Usually, moving using space meant making some kind of wormhole and walking through it, or shortening space and walking through it. The constant was that the movement was done by the self, and the use of space just assisted it. This just moved through space using space.

Then there was the growing. Basically, it was making itself be in multiple places at once and warping its own space. What looked like two different sections of ring could actually be just one section and a spot linked to that section. If he'd had a way to damage the ring, the damage he caused one part would show up identically on others. Each duplicated section also had the same effect on the world as the original, so each one had weight as well. There was also warping, as it altered the curvature of itself to fit all the duplicated ones.

The shrinking was making multiple things be in the same place at once, along with warping the curvature to make it close. It was basically just the growth in reverse.

As for the heat, there were a few things. For the rapid cooling, it was linking the outside to the inside. It made it so that everything hot was exposed directly to the open air. It stopped doing so once it was at a good temperature. From what he could tell, it staying hot for a long time was just a feature of the materials. When the ring was grown, the heat showed up in multiple places at once, and as such was exposed to the air multiple times.

And as for why it couldn't break, that was also just the materials. It could be damaged. Will just wasn't able to.

Will decided on the fate of this self space stuff. Its fate would be dantian two for the time being. And in it went.

Looking at his finger, it seemed like the ring had turned into a bunch of pieces that had fallen off his finger. He picked them up since they were made of strong materials.

He examined himself for any effects from the thing he'd gotten. He didn't feel any different at all. He couldn't do any space manipulation either. Well, either way, he'd solved a mystery, and that was the important part, kind of.

And he still had more goodies to mess with.