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84.16% Learning To Live As A Cultivator / Chapter 271: Chapter Seventy One - We find treasure!

Chapter 271: Chapter Seventy One - We find treasure!

Leon couldn't help but remain nervous as he watched Caelus hurry off to find their team mates. He'd never been the sort to think that he was some sort of hero, a protagonist of his own book, he didn't even think he was someone to add colour to it. In his last life, he'd been one of the many salmon in the school, trying to make their way up the river rapids for a secure future, but he'd not made it very far, though that was no fault of his own. His self esteem was not low, but not high, his confidence tended to fluctuate depending on circumstance. Right now, it was definitely at a low point; he had no confidence about heading into this dark tunnel that may or may not have traps and succeeding to plunder its potential treasures.

Look what happened last time he went exploring alone in dark, underground spaces!! The corners of his lips curled upward slightly and his heart beat calmed to skip to a different rhythm. Ah, his man really didn't leave the best first impressions. He understood more now; Jin Li had awoken battered and beaten in a strange place with no memory of how he'd arrived there, his confidence and ego that had been tempered over seventeen years and allowed to swell due to his excellent innate abilities had taken a hit. The secure future path set out before him on which he'd been guided by his parents (occasionally in brutal ways, or at least brutal in the eyes of outsiders, they would have considered it lessons in reality, which unfortunately was also true) had vanished from sight and he lashed out at the first person he saw once he woke. Plus, his temper was always sharper on an empty stomach.

That said, if Jin Li had had the chance to calm down, say if Leon had not been there when he awakened, he'd likely have figured things out and not latched onto him like a chick imprinting on the first thing it sees. In theory. His heart ached for a moment as he thought of not having that chance meeting and of not meeting Jin Li. Thinking back, such really only happened due to the bully Caprian, beating him to the point where his body experienced spiritual deviation in which memories he should have had were lost and memories of a past life were awoken, setting him on his current path. Like fate. Him and Jin Li could be considered fated.

The smile upon his face was like first rain in the desert after a relentless heatwave, very beautiful and welcoming. It was this that his team mates witnessed as they all broke through the array together.

Actually, things for Caelus and the team had proven quite smooth. As the mage had stated, he'd hurried back to meet with Velana and they'd sent Volune on to pull back the team, not knowing how deep into the array they'd travelled. But despite how long the road forward was, the road back was always short so they'd appeared after not much time had passed.

What would prove a little more troublesome was breaking the array, not as they now had no clue to how to do so, but closing ones eyes for a couple of seconds wasn't enough. One had to step forward (or fall, in Caelus' case) a few paces with their eyes shut for at least six seconds. But through some trial and error, they made it through.

"What I want to know is why Roman never slipped through," Troy voiced his question as they recollected themselves a few minutes later and began to explore that which had been revealed.

Pike's arm was currently draped around Leon's shoulders, thinking the youth had been very glad to see them, having been stuck alone and uncertain for sometime and wanting to reassure him. He'd taken a liking to the youth from the moment he'd seen him late in the spring, this cute little brother with a clean face. Those little brothers who'd shared even part of his blood really hadn't been cute at all. Now he did not call them brothers, but instead had friends who he considered his true family along with his Master.

"It probably had something to do with the timing," Pike suggested in response and Roman close by nodded.

"It's natural to glance ahead every so often, make sure that you aren't going to lose your footing on the steps," he added, thinking he'd done just that as he'd sidled along the walls looking for clues in vain. The trap of the array was so simple, yet so ingenious. Very few would close their eyes for more than it took to blink while stepping down even shallow stairs. And six seconds might seem short but without sight could seem quite long.

Their hearts had raced as they'd blinded themselves taking tentative steps forward down the steps, willing themselves not to fall and of course cheating by opening their eyes a squint would not help nor would looking at their feet. Not moving forward also was no good. It was by luck that Caelus had fallen far enough that he'd slipped out of the array and Leon had been too drowsy to think about accidentally falling as his eyes had closed while continuing on forward, automatically trusting his feet.

This part of the tunnel was not as long as first glance. Caelus poured his spiritual energy into a few of the ancient mage globes, shattering a couple of the more fragile ones accidentally, lighting up the corridor to ease the oppressive darkness. The tunnel curved making what seemed long actually not so. There were no traps, just a locked door, but even the thickest, hardiest wood could not stand for an inordinate amount of time and it crumbled to the touch making the enchanted lock useless.

Inside was a single chamber and a second locked door. Along the sides of the chamber were fragments of wood and dust, tiny pieces of cloth parchment that had become nothing due to time. There were also pieces of shaped porcelain, not unlike the shape of Leon's jade bottles, hinting what they may have once held. But while the jade might have survived, the porcelain proved much more fragile. There was no sign of their previous contents. Also, on the opposite wall were remnants of rusty bolts, hinting that they might once have supported something and what that was could have something to do with the oxidised mess beneath them.

The table at the centre was made of the same hard stone that had first caught Roman's eyes. There was a thin fracture along one side of the table top, but otherwise it remained mostly intact. A pity it was too heavy and large otherwise Roman might have wanted to take it with him; the carved piece was quite stunning and unique of flavour.

Upon the table was a chest.  The wood was similar in quality to the door which had held for so long, but it didn't collapse when fingers gingerly touched it, hinting that it was enchanted along with its lock.  But the spells were too weak to hold up against the force of Pike jimmying it open and the chest's lid fell backwards and off of its hinges to reveal its contents.  The men and woman clustered around it.  It was mostly filled with blackened coins, the denominations of which were not familiar, but Roman declared them as silver.  There was the odd gemstone, ruby and sapphires for the most part, the largest the size of a thumbnail.  As wealth in itself, this was quite the find and was worth some points if not as much as rarities.

Hidden amongst them, however, were three rings.  Two were made of gold, which had tarnished only a little, protected as it had been for the many millennia by the mage spells upon this chest and likely once this room.  The third was made of silver.  Of the gold ones, one held a large emerald and two tiny diamonds, all framed by scrolling patterns not unlike those on the table and on the coins.  It was the least valuable ring.  The second gold ring was more simple and inset was a piece of mutton fat jade, which was circled by tiny mage crystals.  Caelus felt a hint of a faded array on it, but chose not to activate it in case it was a curse or a trap.  The last ring, the unassuming silver ring, was black from age and held a dark grey shard that had not been cut to a stylised shape.  The shard was only small, split slightly into a v formation and in that hid a little mage crystal.  Roman drew in breath, sharply as he picked up the unattractive piece from its hiding place in the coins.

"This..." he murmured, slightly in awe of the find.

"What is it?" Troy asked, brimming with curiosity.

His expression was without jest when he declared; "I may be wrong, but I think that this is an interspatial ring!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Ebonsolaris Ebonsolaris

Author's note; sorry for the delay, I wasn't feeling up to writing much yesterday, so didn't end up posting anything.  Now in a happy mood and if I had the time, I'd carry on writing!  But I'm at work, so I can't x

Chapter 272: Chapter Seventy Two - Our time here comes to an end

Whether the ring was or wasn't would have to wait for a proper evaluation with their other treasures.

The chest had just these things.  While only a certain amount of it was of value to Cultivators, likely this was a fortune back when the realm was whole and times here were different, otherwise it was unlikely for it to have been stored in this room.  Probably it was not the only treasure, but that time had seen that much of the other treasures were lost.  They searched from top to bottom anyway, rummaging around in the piles of splinter fragments, rust and dirt. 

They managed to find shattered pieces of what appeared to be jade scrolls, some lengths had survived the long burial in amongst the rubble, other pieces had shattered in two.  Whether these pieces of jade made up a whole scroll or two, they did not know, they could only gather them and try fix them once they'd returned to the Institute.  And amazingly, the blade of a knife was found as well; it was made of a midnight blue stone and its sides were still sharp to the touch.  These things were placed into the interdimensional bag with the chest of coins, gems and rings.

On finishing their explorations, they opened the other door to find the entrance filled with rubble.  Roman theorised that it was likely an escape route for the nobles or mages that owned this place.  Unfortunately, it was no longer fit for purpose.

The Team returned to the surface, closing the trapdoor on the tunnel and array and that part of this adventure.  While it might have been more exciting if there had been traps and guardians, their gains were good and their losses were zero.  They had no complaints.

The days continued to pass.  They hunted and explored the jungle.  Most of the herbs that Leon managed to gather were common, but they were also good for there was a reduction in stocks of them in the Institute due to it being winter there.  The martial artists and beast tamer came across a few interesting beasts, but mostly nothing they could not handle.  They ate many things from snake to bison to wolf, collecting pelts, horns, ivory, skins and teeth.

They lost a fight with a Greater Pterodactyl over a kill, the flying reptile claiming their hunt for its own, but as it's strength far exceeded theirs, the loss of the meat was better than the loss of their lives.

They did not leave this floating isle for the rest of the time they remained in the realm.

On the last day, they were back in the ruins, weary, but the atmosphere was also upbeat.  They'd participated in the challenge for the whole two tendays, which was a celebration in itself and not one to be underestimated.  Pike told them that his first venture here ended after three days and Velana mentioned the time she had an arm covered in burns thanks to a losing battle with a pride of flame civets.  As they ate the last meal Leon was to prepare for them here, they told of these things and other experiences they'd had.

"Two years ago," Pike mentioned, "Only Bowyer had made it to the top twenty, but he had me come along as well.  Although we made it with our team until the end, we came nearly last of all the teams; Bowyer and I were too busy competing against each other to think about what we were gathering to bring back!  Plus, I'm ashamed to say, many of the tokens I claimed from my kills were burned in my rush to claim more victories than Bowyer.  Our respective Masters had us run around the entire Institute five times as punishment for our hot-headed behaviour.  They also had us take five long outstanding missions each, but we had to work together to complete them or we would be forced to complete five more." 

He shook his head as the others chuckled.

After their meal, they headed to a nearby river they'd discovered after leaving the underground tunnel where they washed up a bit, so they wouldn't look too disheveled on returning to the Institute.  Then they checked around their campsite for anything they'd not yet packed.  As they were doing this, Roman tapped Leon on the shoulder and pointed in a direction beyond the edge of the isle.

Leon's breath faltered in awe.

The isle's orbit had brought to a point where the Crystal heart of this realm became visible, the giant source of existence seeming to rise above the ruins into their vision like a sparkling sun.  It's shape was raw, a twin tooth stretching upward from its single root, it's facets numerous, some large, some to small for the eye to see.  The colour was quite indescribable, perhaps a little azure blue or light purple, yet then flashing crimson or a deep burgundy.  It was mesmerising.

"It's so b-beautiful," Leon murmured, his eyes wholly captured by the amazing sight.

Pike came to stand beside him and commented.  "I've managed to see it twice, but not nearly as close.  This has definitely been a fruitful expedition.  Thank you."  He turned and repeated his last words to the other members of the team.

"Thank you for b-believing in m-me," Leon replied, slightly bashful, glancing up at Pike as he did so.

Pike squeezed his shoulder.  "Come on, its time to go."

Leon took one last look at the Crystal Heart before turning his back to it.  It was indeed very beautiful, but he was looking forward to going home.  He wondered if Jin Li had left his Closed Cultivation yet.

The team gathered in a circle and took out the teleportation charms given to them in the beginning.  They shared smiles, united in feelings and actions and went to crush the charms.  Glowing lights surrounded them following breaking them and their images were lost in the brightness of the spell.  It took Leon a couple of attempts to break the charm, he pouted as it finally snapped between his fingers, but soon his body was gathered in the spell and began to shoot to towards the point he entered this realm.

As Leon had had his back to the Crystal, he didn't notice that it suddenly pulsated, a plethora of colours shimming along its sometime opaque, sometimes reflective surfaces.    An invisible wave of energy rippled outward, strong at the source, but slowing as it moved outwards.  If there was an island in its path, the flora upon it would become more lush, beasts would pause and begin to cultivate, flying beasts would land and do the same.  Upon this wave, the tiniest sparkle flickered, riding on the energy, heading directly in one direction.  This was a little gift, only meant for one and it reached its destination just as the receiver turned into light and was teleported away.  Many had looked on at the Crystal in awe and greed and wistfulness.  But it was rare for it to be appreciated in a pure and artless manner.

The recipient of its gift would not discover it for sometime.


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