Even before Cade started searching for the ring, he had already begun funneling all his ignited qi into his face and hands, speeding up the process of regrowing his skin. For this reason, he chose not to push the Arrow to its full speed, but instead travelled casually.

  He used the additional time to inspect his spoils. After all, he had just come out of a life-and-death battle with a powerful cultivator, who no doubt had plenty of good things in his personal storage space.

  Cade traced the black band, viewing its now ownerless contents in his realm of consciousness.

  The first thing that struck him was the apparent lack of spirit crystals. He assumed Darkheart would be wealthy—but at first glance, that didn’t seem to be the case. He estimated there were less than 50,000 crystals in the ring, after checking multiple bags and seeing they all contained only 1,000 crystals each.

  That can’t be right. Why would he be so poor? I must be missing something.

  He checked all the other containers inside the ring, completely baffled. There were no crystals to be found anywhere.

  Unwilling to give up, Cade carefully checked each bag and noticed one of them was marked with a small red cross on the side. When he opened it, a purple-blue glow spread out into his realm of consciousness, pushing against the soft crimson light released by the red mist below his feet.

  Inside were five crystals he had never seen before. They were uniformly shaped, closely resembling ordinary spirit crystals—which were thin, octagonal prisms roughly the length of a pinky finger. Cade brought one out from the ring, turning it in his hand. Despite it being almost midday, the crystal radiated a fairly intense blue light with a hint of purple. It looked like a royal cousin to an ordinary crystal, which was mostly transparent and cast a barely perceptible glow, not really visible in daylight.

  Since I’ve never heard of this type of crystal before, it’s probably rare. And rare means expensive!

  Intrigued, he sent the crystal back into the ring and focused on other items.

  There were a lot of objects inside Darkheart’s obsidian band; it must have taken him decades to accumulate such a collection. Sadly, most of these items weren’t of any direct use to the Asura. Pills, several manuals for spiritual techniques, spirit beast parts, a number of spiritual artifacts—the list went on. They could all be turned into wealth, which meant more quality blood for his cultivation.

  I’ll have to visit Sun Trading Company and use their appraisal services.

  After searching through all the contents, he put two items to the side. The first one was a small memory crystal, almost identical to the one he had received from Grandmaster Erendriel and very similar to the one in Castien’s ring.

  “This is the Dark Heart cultivation art!” Cade exclaimed after viewing its contents. He knew enough to recognize the language of the dark elves, and the diagrams told him it was definitely a cultivation technique. Most importantly, it appeared complete—it wasn’t just a battle art; there were multiple qi circulation diagrams and many different stages, each more complicated than the one before it. After the third stage, it was impossible to read anything, which meant the crystal’s content was cultivation-locked.

  What a score! I bet it’s worth a fortune. I wonder if dark elves would be willing to buy it back, since I’m pretty sure it shouldn't have been in Darkheart's possession.

  Cade grinned after sending the memory crystal into his own ring and excitedly rubbed his hands.

  The second object he selected was truly weird, and he took it out to examine it in the daylight.

  It was a large scale in the color of the midnight sky, nearly two feet in width. Its shape was somewhere between rectangular and oblong, and one side was covered with soot. Cade’s nose picked up a strong smell of smoke, roast meat and… potatoes?

  It was hard to estimate its age; it could have been taken off some corpse only a few months back or harvested thousands of years ago. Whatever its origin, one thing was certain: the spirit beast it was obtained from must have been enormous, considering the size of the scale. In addition, it was either resistant to fire, or just tough as hell in general.

  He knocked on it, producing a flat, metallic clank. This surprised him because the scale definitely didn’t feel like it was made of metal. It almost felt soft to the touch, though this was just an illusion due to its texture.

  Apparently Darkheart used it for cooking.

  However, after Cade examined the scale in more detail, he discovered there was another scent there. An extremely faint one, on the edge of his sensitive perception.

  It was blood. The one scent that he could recognize in the tiniest amounts. Cade brought the scale directly under his nose, inhaling deeply.

  There’s definitely blood inside it! It’s at best one or two drops, but it smells surprisingly fresh. His mouth watered instantly. What kind of blood could still stay fresh despite being roasted in flames? This has to be a treasure!

  Even before he sensed the blood, he already had a feeling the scale was far from a common object, even though in Darkheart’s hands it did appear to serve a fairly mundane purpose. Now he was absolutely convinced the scale was hiding something of real worth to an Asura.

  All giddy, he sent it into his ring, then briefly checked the contents of the storage rings he took from the Brightheart brothers. A big smile immediately stretched across his face—they had around 300,000 spirit crystals between the two of them. Sadly, the rest of their possessions were disappointingly average.

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  He curiously examined Roland’s Judgement. While the sword was decent, it couldn’t hold a candle to Legion. It could, however, be worth a lot to the Sword Sacrament Sect.

  Satisfied with his gains, Cade looked ahead at the huge silhouette of the Sword Dao mountain in the distance, dominating the desert landscape like a dark, jagged spearblade thrust into the ground by the hand of an ancient god. He brought out a small metal mirror to check his face. His qi-channeling efforts had paid off: the skin and lips had been fully regrown, and his hair had mostly returned to its original length. His hands and forearms also appeared normal once again. There were still the usual minor details to fix—like the skin color and nails—and he quickly took care of those. Wincing from having his newly rebuilt nerve endings rub against rough fabric, Cade put on trousers and boots, before once again pulling a loose dark cloak over his half-recovered upper body.

  He had to admit that Arrow Nine was a lot more comfortable than his old Six. The seats were broad, soft, and could recline, turning them into a decent alternative to a bed.

  Cade pushed his speeder to maximum speed, shooting forward with an overwhelming noise of sustained sonic booms, and arrived at the protective formation over the courtyard in two breaths. Once he took out his monastery token, the barrier allowed him to pass.

  He landed in the designated spot, carefully picking up Jade and sending the Arrow into his ring. Since it was the middle of the day, aside from a few lone, gray-robed figures, the courtyard was mostly empty, as the majority of outer disciples were at their posts.

  Carrying the princess’s small form cradled in one arm, he headed straight for the entrance, his cloak billowing in the wind. He flashed his inner court token to the guards. The bored outer disciples briefly perked up seeing him in the distance—a visitor meant a small break from their mind-numbing task—but after seeing his black token they offered him short nods, their listless expressions immediately returning.

  Cade headed straight for the infirmary, which occupied a quarter of a level in the lower-middle section of the Sword Dao citadel.

  “What happened to her?” asked a tall, young woman wearing a dark green robe. She had long brown hair pinned into a bun, and her brow creased with concern. Looking at her three-starred insignia, he realized he had accidentally stumbled upon the shift leader. Her status was roughly comparable to an inner disciple.

  Perfect!

  “The girl was attacked outside the monastery and lost some blood qi, though her body seems to be recovering. I’ve got the bloodstones to replenish it. I’m more concerned with her mind. She’s been unconscious since last evening, and I can’t understand why she hasn’t awakened yet,” Cade explained, his tone laced with concern. He wasn’t willing to go into too much detail about what exactly had happened without speaking to Grandmaster Erendriel first.

  “You know I need to report this?” the woman asked, giving him a skeptical glance.

  “Sure. I’m heading straight to Saint Erendriel anyway,” he nodded, unbothered by the unspoken accusation.

  “Oh. Alright. Please place her over there, I’ll see what I can do,” the woman’s tone instantly changed to a more respectful one, and she pointed at a chamber with a large, white bed visible through the doorway.

  After making sure Jade got the necessary help, Cade returned to the transportation formation. A brief flash of light later he saw the hunched figure of a female clerk he had already met on a couple of occasions. Judging from her blank stare, she was examining the contents of a crystal slip.

  “Sister Joana, I hope you’ve been well,” he greeted the young woman. Joana raised her head, and gave him a welcoming smile.

  “Senior Brother Cade, it’s been a while! Congratulations on advancing to the inner court!” She sprang up, cupping her fist. “And thank you, I’ve been doing well recently,” she added, a shy smile playing on her lips.

  “That’s very good to hear. Please dispense with all these salutes, I’m just an ordinary disciple,” Cade said with slight embarrassment. “I came here a few days ago, after the match with Tiarsus, but I don’t think it was your shift at the time.”

  “There are three of us working here, so it’s not surprising,” she confirmed quickly. “I… I have to at least address you as Senior Brother,” Joana played with her fingers, blushing lightly and avoiding direct eye contact.

  “Fine, I can live with that,” Cade chuckled. “Can you please let Grandmaster Erendriel know I’m here? It’s an important matter,” he added in a serious tone.

  “I’ll let him know straight away,” Joana nodded, promptly opening the drawer with various comms gems.

  A few minutes later, Cade was walking along the stone path on the Saint level, his eyes set on the white house in the middle.

  A young male servant he’d never seen before opened the door for him, and after respectfully greeting Cade, the youth took him straight to where the Grandmaster was relaxing. It was the same large chamber of precious white stone veined with gold, supported by several adorned pillars, with sparse, elegant furniture.

  Cade bowed at the waist, performing the customary salute. Erendriel, who sat at the table, smiled upon seeing his in-name disciple and waved him over.

  “Come, sit.” He pointed at a chair opposite his own. “What has my disciple been up to? Joana mentioned it’s important.”

  Cade nodded solemnly, then took a deep breath and explained what had happened with Castien. Naturally, he skipped the Darkheart encounter, as well as what happened to the Brightheart brothers.

  The Grandmaster listened with his natural, calm composure, seemingly not surprised by the revelations.

  “Castien, huh? What a bold move,” he mumbled with a slight frown, tapping the table with a long, manicured fingernail.

  “Grandmaster was aware of Death Dao’s spying practices?” Cade asked with curiosity.

  “How could I not be aware? I’m old, not senile. Where’s your faith in me?” He chuckled, but his expression quickly grew serious again. “We’ve been aware of two of their spies for some time, and we fed them a lot of bogus information, making sure they didn’t hurt anyone. We looked into Castien a year back, as his rapid growth and Ladder dominance were suspicious to say the least, but we failed to find anything of substance. It would've been much easier if the Matriarch were available, alas... Never mind. It's probably the main reason why he dared to steal blood qi from fellow disciples right under our noses,” the Grandmaster sighed. “I have no idea how Death Dao found out our Matriarch wasn't currently around. A bold move indeed,” Erendriel repeated in a thoughtful tone. “You’ve mentioned he’s still alive?”

  Cade nodded. “After painfully experiencing the manner of his rescue, I’m convinced there is a powerful expert behind him. I don’t think they’d let Castien die. He seems important.”

  “Well, the fact that you’re here and alive is a miracle in itself, though I had little doubt regarding your ability to face him and prevail,” Erendriel stated, scratching his chin. “That being said, this wasn’t Castien’s doing. You were struck by someone in the late Soul Avatar realm, possibly at the great circle, considering the manner of his rescue. Although it was a wide-area attack, you still shouldn’t have survived. Your toughness is remarkable,” Erendriel nodded with appreciation.

  “Thank you, Grandmaster,” a relieved Cade swiftly cupped his fist. “I was just lucky to be blessed with a tough body.”

  “Yes, yes, it’s always just luck, isn’t it?” the elf waved dismissively with a meaningful smile. “Now, since you’re already here, I have a matter to discuss. Do you think you’ll be out of seclusion in around two months?”

  The Asura hesitated for a moment. “I should be, but two months is just a rough estimate.”

  “Do whatever you can to come out as quickly as possible. I mentioned it before, but there will soon be a brilliant opportunity you shouldn’t lose out on,” the Saint stated.

  “Might I ask what sort of opportunity Grandmaster has in mind?”

  Erendriel leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table, his voice barely a whisper.

  “The opening of the Life and Death Divine Realm.”