Seph felt extremely excited by all the new information he read in this chapter, but he was getting extremely tired and really needed sleep if he was ever going to make it to the courtyard in the morning.
He ended up falling asleep with the book on his chest; Sun came over and removed the book and put it back on the shelf for him and went to sleep as well.
Seph’s dreams that night were unusual; when he woke up, he didn’t remember any of them, but he felt the dreams were different somehow, like they had some meaning, or something different about them.
He didn’t overthink it though, as everything was so hazy in his mind.
He got up and stretched a bit before he and Sun left the cultivation tomb.
Outside he saw a passing disciple, who he asked, “Where is the courtyard for the morning training, please?”
The disciple raised an eyebrow and answered, “The morning training is long done. It’s very late now; sunset will be in an hour.”
Seph was really surprised by how much he slept. “Fuck! I overslept too much. Thank you so much.” He said as he ran towards the treasure pavilion to finish his Eye of the Appraiser quest at least, and he totally forgot to check on Lilith because of how late he was.
This was the first time the duo hadn’t been together since they first met.
As Seph made a sharp turn towards the treasure pavilion, he bumped into another inner sect disciple.
Sun fell from his master’s shoulder, and Seph hurt his shoulder from the clash, before he could gather himself, he heard the inner disciple say, “Watch it, moron, you almost knocked me down.”
The hostility surprised Seph, but he said, “Chill, I am sorry, I was just in a hurry and didn’t see where I was going.”
The disciple scoffed and said, “You want me to chill? Why don’t you chill and walk slower to not hit everybody in your way like an idiot?”
Seph got annoyed by the language again and warned him, “Be careful, I already let you call me names once, and now twice; one more time and you will eat your words.”
A couple of outer sect disciples watched from a far and Seph heard them say, “Oh, look, it’s Big Mouth Crouse fighting one of the new disciples.”
Big Mouth Crouse said angrily, “You make me eat my words? What about I eat your heart out instead, you piece of shit?”
He then lunged towards Seph as he opened his mouth very wide, uncannily wide, and he literally tried to eat Seph’s heart out with his uncanny mouth power.
Seph stepped to the side at the last second and then hit the disciple with a palm strike to the back of his neck.
Which knocked him out, Seph looked down at his opponent as he thought, What a scary power; his mouth opened three times wider than any human I ever saw before. Fuck it anyway, at least now I can go about my business; he can no longer bother me.
Seph left his opponent behind without even checking on him and continued his way to the treasure pavilion, where he met Silver Chan again.
Seph raised his hand to greet the shopkeeper and his helper, and then asked, “Did you prepare the room for me? I am very sorry I am so late; I overslept.”
Silver Chan raised an eyebrow as he said, “That’s unusual; yin cultivators rarely sleep that long. Anyway, we prepared the room for you.”
Seph bowed down as he said, “Thanks so much, so can I start now?”
Silver Chan nodded slightly and said, “Yes, you can, after paying the fee of course: 1750 spirit stones.”
Seph forked over the spirit stones out of his spatial ring. “Any tips?”
Silver Chan laughed and said, “No, like I told you yesterday, any information I provide you could make the quest not count when you find the items. I can tell you one thing though; the room is completely safe. Good luck, Seph, and you too, Sun, you will be a great help for your friend.”
Sun was happy at hearing that and screeched happily in approval.
The helper led them to the back; that was the first time Seph had seen the storage area. There were many sacks of different ores and slaughtered pigs and rabbits and an entire cow hanging from hooks in the ceiling.
There were even many unique doors leading to different storage areas that Seph had no clue what they contained. This shop really had anything they could ever dream of buying.
The helper led him to an ornate brown door; it looked clean compared to the entire storage area, and it had a big keyhole on the side, with a big golden doorknob in the middle, but the doorknob looked like it was fake gold compared to the door studs of the building where they kept the Sacred Beast.
The helper got out a big key that looked to be made of genuine gold and opened the door with it.
He stepped to the side and gestured for Seph to enter.
Seph bowed to him slightly and entered with Sun on his shoulder.
Once Seph was inside, the helper closed the door behind him, and from a secret compartment on the wall, he flipped a switch.
Inside the room, smoke came out of the ground and the ceiling. Seph was alarmed; he thought he was getting double-crossed or something, and someone would come out to attack him after the smoke had blinded him.
He didn’t know where to go though; the room didn’t have a different door, but once the smoke got to his nose, he noticed it didn’t harm him at all.
It made it impossible for him to see anything in his immediate vicinity, though, but that was the extent of its effect.
He remembered the shopkeeper’s words — the room is completely safe.
So, he relaxed and thought of where to find those secrets; maybe the smoke system was to make the room harder to convince the Eye of the appraiser more and more that these secrets were legit and worthy of being counted toward the quest.
He spoke to Sun who was as alarmed as he was, “Sun, don’t worry I think the room is safe, nevertheless, we should find those secrets, we should split like we did back in the legacy trial puzzle room and try to find something.”
Seph walked to the closest wall, and started walking alongside it while his hands were feeling the wall in different spots, after he walked a quarter of the room, his hand hit a stone in the wall that immediately got pushed inside after he pressed it.
A tube of some sort of suction device came out of the ceiling and sucked some of the smoke in the room. The visibility improved, but after checking his quest; he noticed that this didn’t count as a secret.
He continued walking close to the wall until he touched another stone that felt like it would also give way, and he pushed it.
Another suction tube came out of the ceiling, and the smoke became much less, improving the visibility considerably.
Meanwhile, Sun had found a shaky stone on the ground, and he screeched for Seph to come over.
At that point, Seph could finally see his monkey friend, and he went over. Sun pointed the stone to him, and Seph grabbed it with his enhanced strength; he plucked it out easily, and under it he found an ornate box.
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He opened the box and found a double-edged magic sword inside; he used the Eye on it.
Appraising…
Name: Double-edged Magic Sword
Type: Homing Weapon
Quality: Uncommon
Speed: 28 miles per hour
Description: These small swords are made from start to finish by skilled enchanters, they are usually made from different enchanted metals or jade or even bones. These weapons, after you throw them, will actively seek your opponent. They have intent enchantment, so they know exactly who you want to kill even if thrown among 100 cultivators. The one in your hands is of pretty humble quality of enchanted silver, but it is a deadly weapon against low-level cultivators.
Seph nodded in approval and then checked his quest, and it counted as a new secret revealed.
He was happy the room was working and petted Sun on the head for his discovery and continued searching the walls of the room for the other suction tubes to make all the smoke go away.
As he walked towards the wall in the right corner of the room, he stepped on a pressure plate. He looked around him alarmed, but nothing happened.
Incidentally, Sun had also walked to the opposite left corner of the room, and he stepped on a pressure plate too.
Seph and Sun looked around to see if anything was revealed, but nothing like that happened.
Seph got an idea he told Sun to stay where he was, and got out a body of a pig beast, and threw it with all his strength to the corner on his side of the wall, once the body dropped an ornate box rose on a platform in the middle of the way between both the top and bottom right corners of the room.
Seph thought, Hmmm, that’s weird. I thought I would need to throw another beast body in the other direction too! You know what; I think I should do that anyway.
He got out another pig-beast body and threw it on the bottom left corner, and once it hit the ground, two ornate boxes rose from the ground.
One in the middle of the way between the bottom and top left corners, and the other in the middle of the room.
Seph shouted, “Nice! Great job, Sun, you can move now, screech if you find anything!”
Sun gave him a thumbs up with his patented, white-toothed grin plastered all over his face.
Seph went to all three boxes and found a double-edged magic sword in one, and two green swords that were thicker and a little longer. He used the Eye on one of the new swords.
Appraising…
Name: Poisonous Magic Sword
Type: Homing Weapon
Quality: Uncommon
Speed: 24 miles per hour
Description: These small swords are made from start to finish by skilled enchanters, they are usually made from different enchanted metals or jade or even bones. These weapons, after you throw them, will actively seek your opponent. They have intent enchantment, so they know exactly who you want to kill even if thrown among 100 cultivators. The one in your hands is a poisonous, enhanced lead sword; it is a little slow, but it’s a deadly weapon even against opponents one stage higher than you.
Seph leaned his head back away from the sword and immediately put it in his spatial ring; he didn’t want to be poisoned by that thing.
He then opened his quest so he could check on his progress.
Quest
Eye of the Appraise Level 3
*Sell items worth 10000 spirit stones. *Find 10 secret locations
Progress: 10000/10000 Progress: 7/10
Seph pumped his fist in the air and got back to looking for the elusive stones that would clear the room of the rest of the smoke. It was just a minor inconvenience by then, but he thought maybe it would also count as a secret.
After a while he found the third stone and he pressed it; another suction tube came out and the smoke was almost gone; it only hovered over the ground at that point.
He then searched the rest of the wall but found nothing, he looked over at Sun and asked, not expecting a response, “I searched all the walls, and there seems to be one more left, do you have any ideas, buddy?”
Sun put his hand under his little face as he looked at the ceiling in thought and then raised a finger in the air to point he got an idea. He then pointed towards the lowest part of the wall. He noticed that Seph never checked the parts that were out of his eye of sight.
Seph nodded in approval and said, “That’s a very smart idea; I would be lost without you, Sun!”
Sun just laughed happily at that.
Seph then remembered where he found each stone, and thought that there was only one wall that didn’t have such a stone, so he went to it and started kicking the bottom part of the wall, until soon enough he hit a stone that immediately got pushed into the wall.
Another suction tube came out, and the air was finally fully clear.
Once the tube returned to its place in the ceiling, a bigger tube came out of the middle of the ceiling, and it let out a lot of little wrapped items.
Seph caught one of them and unwrapped it to find that it was natural chewing gum; he ate it and found that it was even sweet.
He then caught another and found that it was boiled sugar sweets with different flavors. He looked at Sun and said, “Sun, I think these are not for me; these are sweets for you!”
Sun didn’t need to hear anymore, as he screeched happily and ran around to collect the candies, there was even a few Caramel apples wrapped that also dropped from the ceiling some of them hitting Sun on the head which made him screech at the ceiling angrily as he waved his little fist in warning.
As Sun collected his candy, Seph sat down on the ground, relaxed; seeing Sun happy really relaxed him. He looked around the room only to find that there seemed to be a secret compartment in the door.
He went over and opened it and found two bottles of purple elixir inside; he used the Eye on them.
Appraising…
Name: Anti-acid Wash Elixir
Type: Potion
Quality: Uncommon
Description: While poison have minor effect on yin cultivators, acid has a wondrous effect against them. This elixir interacts with the acid eating at your skin and renders the acid useless.
Effect: Cleanse Acid in ten seconds or fewer.
He liked the new elixir and thought it was good of the shopkeeper to add this as a prize since he didn’t buy it.
He had his back to the room as he was checking the elixirs, and he suddenly felt Sun tap his back, he looked behind him and found that Sun carried something long that was wrapped in cardboard.
He opened it and immediately recognized it; it was the blue flying sword he had scanned in the shop the prior day.
Seph asked Sun, “Where did you get this?” Sun looked towards the big tube in the ceiling that dropped all the snacks and pointed at it.
Seph thought, That will count as a secret then, since this sword must be expensive. Too bad I can’t use it in the Body Dismantling realm though.
He looked around confused, as one more secret remained. He looked at the ground all around, maybe he had missed something, and noticed a pattern on the ground now that the ground was clear of the smoke.
He walked over to the pattern on the stones, and stepped only on those stones one after the other as they were close enough to each other, and once he stepped on the last stone the door opened, and outside was a box waiting for him.
He opened it and found four blue charms inside; he checked them with the Eye.
Appraising…
Name: Defensive Charm
Type: Charm
Quality: Uncommon
Description: An Artificer excelled at making this charm, but even though it’s very well made, it’s still a very humble charm for starting cultivators. Even using these requires a lot of skill for them to actually be useful in a fight.
Effect: Blocks a single hit or part of a hit if it’s way too strong.
Price Estimation: 50 spirit stones
Seeing the new price estimation made Seph sure that he finished the quest, but he checked his Eye of the Appraiser quest anyway.
Quest
Eye of the Appraiser level 5: Upgrade one growth weapon.
Progress: 0/1
Seph noticed he got 2 levels of the Eye of the Appraiser done at once.
He thought, Well, now I feel better about the double objectives, which made the quest take longer; even though I got lucky with this room of secrets, which made me finish the second objective a day later. The new quest doesn’t feel like it will be too tough either, but I don’t know; so far, I hadn’t even found any evolution materials.
He then got out of the room and met with Silver Chan, and thanked him. “Thank you so much for preparing this for me. I finished the quest successfully.”
Silver Chan laughed heartily and said, “I took a loss this time for you. Those items valued over 1750, but you deserve it; you bring excellent business to me.”
Seph said, “Yes, I was surprised by the flying sword too. It must have been expensive than the other items.”
“It was, but I thought you might use it in the future even if you can’t use it now in death dismantling. After you used your skill on it yesterday, I thought you wanted it or something.”
Seph furrowed his eyebrows as he said, “Damn it, I should have scanned a more expensive item.”
Silver Chan and his helper laughed together, and Silver said, “Good luck with that. I wouldn’t have given you any expensive items at all. I am known for being stingy after all.”
Seph laughed too and replied, “Well, I guess I didn’t screw up then. Again, thank you so much; I look forward to doing more business with you.”
Silver Chan smiled and said, “I do too, Seph; take care of yourself.”
Seph left the shop, and thought it was good that he hadn’t shared with the shopkeeper that he had an estimation of prices now, to surprise him next time if he tried to screw him out of a large sum of spirit stones again.
He checked his stats with the Eye of the Veteran as he left, to make sure he had gotten points of perception for leveling up the Eye of the Appraiser twice, and he noticed the ten points increase in perception.
Name: Seph ???
Class: Undead Buddhist lvl6
Cultivation Stage: Body Dismantling (IV)
Lifespan: 18/45 years
Strength: 57
Dexterity: 28
Intelligence: 35
Wisdom: 20
Constitution: 33
Perception: 45
Luck: 15
