Making a deal

I slept outside the city in the wilderness for the night. When the next day came, I immediately traveled to the Inscription Association.

Right now, my strength was sufficient for my plans, what I needed to do currently was to improve my inscription skills. And for that, I required inscription materials.

There was one place in Sky Fortune City that sold the most inscription materials. It wasn't the Hundred Treasure Hall nor was it any auction house. It was Sky Fortune City's Inscription Association.

There were many rare and precious materials that couldn't be bought anywhere else, and the price was also a bit cheaper than the market price. The downside is, I needed to be an official inscription master while having enough contribution points to purchase the items.

The Inscription Association was a loose organization. Many inscription masters were old men who were only interested in learning and knowledge. They were usually recluses who did not have much contact with the outside and lived sheltered lives. If they had not set up a contribution points system, then the Inscription Association's existence would be very inconsequential, and probably not have many inscription masters that would have joined. Even if they did join, very few would come to the trade market.

…

After I arrived at the Inscription Association, I walked up to an elder sister there to ask about becoming an inscription master.

"If you would have a look at the rules of the Inscription Association you can see them. If your master intends to join the Inscription Association, he is welcome to." said the elder sister who managed the reception desk, as she thought that I was here to inquire about the procedure for my master.

I shook my head and said, "I'm the inscription master."

"…." The elder sister took a step back and sized me up from head to toe. She slowly opened her mouth and asked, "Could I… ask… what your age is?"

"18." I guessed out the age of my previous life.

"18 years old…?" The receptionist heard this and was left speechless. She probably guessed that I was under the tutelage of some mighty inscription master and had a certain level of talent, and probably also many achievements. But an 18 year old inscription master was just a bit too exaggerated. In these 80 years of the Sky Fortune Kingdom's records, the youngest had only been 18 years old.

The only ones who had any hope of matching this record were Qin Xingxuan of the Martial Quarters and Wang Yuhan of the Inscription Association.

"This little brother, if you want to participate in the examination to be an inscription master, you need to prepare the treasure and materials." The receptionist had only good intentions as she kindly reminded me. Only after creating the inscription symbol could one see its quality and effects. Generally speaking, a newbie inscription symbols would have a very poor effect, and placing it on a rare treasure would be an utter waste of resources. The Inscription Association was wealthy, but they could not afford such a wanton waste of resources and materials. Therefore, the examination required that all examinees bring their own treasures and materials, as they did not want some random half-baked inscription apprentice to come and test his luck. After all, materials for inscription symbols were very pricey.

I shook my head yet again, "Does the Inscription Association have a soul talent test service?"

"Yes?" The woman asked puzzledly.

"My master once said, as long as I show the association my soul talent, I will be accepted immediately." I held up a ball of soul force to try and demonstrate, but it seemed the receptionist couldn't detect it.

Currently, my soul talent should be able to dwarf my martial talent. First of all, the saiyan race has a scary level of perception which leads to the ability to master a technique quickly. Secondly, unlike Lin Ming, I failed to defend my spirit mark from the elder's memories, turning the memories into a full fledged soul. This caused the foundation of my very soul to change after I absorbed it.

She looked at me and saw that I wasn't treating this as some joke. The receptionist said, "Since you insist, please come along with me."

I followed the elder woman and entered the interior of the Inscription Association. As we passed through the halls, I saw all kinds of glowing and complex symbols and runes along the walls; I was thrilled as I recognised some of them from the elder's memories.

'Let's see, that one is 'Inferior Crystallization array'. That one kinda looks like 'Thirteen Shields Symbol'. Ho, I don't know what that symbol is, but they must have used fourth grade vicious beast blood for that one.'

The decoration of the Inscription Association was not luxurious, but it had a very spacious atmosphere. There were no murals or ornaments on the walls. Instead, there were just the complex and unique runes dotted around everywhere. Each rune was a metal sculpture that was full of texture and seemed as if it had come to life; it gave off a very ancient and mystical feeling.

"We're here." The receptionist opened the door and waved me in.

"Mmm, thank you elder sister."

The Soul Talent measuring room was about 50 feet long and wide. There was a large stone tablet in the middle of the room. This stone tablet was similar to the one used to measure martial talent but with one small change, the color was different. The stone tablet to measure martial talent was a light crystal blue, but this stone tablet to measure soul force was actually red, a deep crimson red that was somewhat like fresh blood. Other than that, this stone tablet had seven dots engraved instead of five.

Soul talent was mainly related to occupations that needed soul force, such as inscription masters, refiners, apothecaries, alchemists, and so forth. Generally speaking, only an outstanding soul talent, such as a superior fourth grade or fifth grade would be worthy of having massive amounts of money spent by the family to raise into an inscription master, apothecary, or other niche occupations. A mediocre soul talent and below would be completely neglected.

It could be said that soul talent was completely useless in the Physical Transformation Stage for martial artists. It would only gradually become more useful after one reached Xiantian and began to cultivate their soul and perception.

"The cost of this soul talent test is 550 gold taels, please put down the money and we'll begin."

As the receptionist said this, she placed a small true essence stone in the center of the stone tablet. Although it looked somewhat ordinary, the cost of this small stone was high. This small true essence stone was priced at around 500 gold taels.

After I had paid the fee, I placed my hand on the stone tablet and felt the array activate with a flash. In the vast ocean of my consciousness, I suddenly saw countless phantasmal images, a kaleidoscope of world images. The feeling was very similar to the martial talent test, except the tingling sensation wasn't all over my body this time, instead, it was in my innermost soul. The only unusual thing was some annoying muffled shouting coming from beside me, trying to bring me out of this state of existence. This sort of feeling continued for several hundred breaths of time until…

*BOOM*

My mind shot up back into my body, allowing me to see the sight I just created. Crimson red chucks of stone smashed into walls. Many arrays and symbols in the room were ruined by the explosion.

"This!...." The receptionist looked horrified.

Naturally, this sort of commotion hadn't gone unnoticed by the people in the building. The first person to rush into the room was an old man, following him was a petite 15 year old girl.

Seeing the old man, the receptionist respectfully bowed over and said, "A-association President."

This old man was the President of the Inscription Association, Wang Xuanji, and the girl was his granddaughter, the Inscription Association's most talented inscription genius, Wang Yuhan.

"You? What happened?"

The receptionist hesitated before she turned to me and said, "This… young man t-took the Soul Talent Test and t-the stone tablet….over flowed.."

"Mm?!" Wang Xuanji looked at me.

"This….what a strong soul force." He could feel the gargantuan amount of soul force flowing all over my body.

"What's your name? How old are you?" Wang Xuanji asked.

I truthfully said, "Peng Tian, 18 years old."

Hearing 18 years of age, Wang Yuhan's eyes widened as she looked over me up and down several times.

"This soul force, and to overflow the stone tablet… I'm afraid this young man might be a seventh-grade talent." Wang Xuanji said in shock.

"Young friend, are you here to join the Inscription Association?"

I nodded, "That was indeed my purpose in coming here. But more importantly, the Inscription Association can keep the members' identities confidential right?"

Noticing what I'm getting at, Wang Xuanji quickly said to the receptionist, "Go announce it was just an array malfunction, go!"

"Y-yes!"

He then circulated his soul force, and an invisible bubble surrounded the entire room.

"Now, let's talk."

…

…

…

"Incredible, so, your master is a secluded master is he?" Wang Xuanji let out a breath.

The three of us were sitting on the wreckage. Wang Yuhan in particular was listening to the conversation with a complicated look on her face.

"Mm. To tell Association President honestly, I joined the Inscription Association to earn contribution points to buy materials."

Wang Xuanji thought about this for a long time, and with a bit of hesitation said, "If you join the Inscription Association, I can loan you 5000 contribution points to purchase materials, in exchange, I need a sample of your work to study."

The Association President wasn't about to give away his resources for nothing either, unlike the Seven Profound Martial House, the association wasn't a branch organization to anyone, meaning they weren't able to send a talent like me up the hierarchy in exchange for a reward. Considering that fact, there wasn't much point in sponsoring me as I won't be staying here for long. At best, they can only hope I will return the favor in the future.

"Thank you very much, Association President, I'll give you a sample by next week."

"There is no need to be polite. If one day your master comes to Sky Fortune City, please welcome him to our Inscription Association as an honored guest."