Chapter 170: Fractured Shadows - Wood Qi Crystal.
"Now then Young Master, what do you need? I should tell you first though, I can assist you as much as I want personally but I can't just give you anything from the pagoda for free" Li Liling warned him as she saw him with his hand on his chin pondering his next actions.
Shu He smiled wryly "I thought as much, I'm guessing that's because the sect owns this place and the items within?".
"Correct, the items stored within are recorded and marked by the grand formation, unless a correct number of points are paid into it they cannot be released by anyone but the sect master or the current maintainer of the formation" She explained in turn.
'So that would probably be Da Ru, the Formations Division elder… I wonder if Old Yu could do it as well? But he isn't here so that doesn't really matter…' Shu He shook his head slightly "That's fine, I intended to make some purchases and sell some items anyway".
"Right! Then, what is it you wanted to sell?"
Shu He pulled out a couple pouches from his robe, in it were the fangs and claws of the Razor Wolf that he had taken, he had left a couple of each at his house so this were the rest, he placed them out on the table "I want to know how much these would go for".
"Oh! Are these from a spirit beast? Seems you had an eventful outing…" She flicked her bright orange hair behind her ear as she took out a monocle that flickered with Qi before picking up one of the fangs and inspecting it up and down, it took a minute before she placed it down and them picked up another, Shu He sat in silence watching the process that seemed delicate and precise and after 10 minutes she put down the last fang and nodded lightly.
"From the Qi saturation and density of the bone it seems to have been from a Satiated rank beast?" She asked, a hint of worry in her tone.
"It did seem that way" Shu He lightly nodded.
"And you came out unscathed? Normally you would need someone at Elemental Infusion to take one on otherwise your techniques would be barely effective against it…"
"I got lucky, that's all, If I had fought it head-to-head I wouldn't be here" Shu He sighed lightly, that innate technique had scared him half to death when he saw it the first time.
"You should be more careful in the future… if you encounter something above the mission requirements you should just return and report it so someone suitable can deal with it, nothing will come from pushing yourself other than death".
"…I'll remember that" Shu He replied, it was true that what he did was risky, he may be getting a bit cocky.
"Make sure you do" Li Liling slotted the monocle back into her robes "From what I can see each fang is worth about 60… no 65 points, and each claw 120, with two claws and 6 fangs that makes a total of 630 points… with a special offer I can round that up to 650!" she smiled slightly as she spoke.
"I thought you said you couldn't mess with the formation…".
"I'm not, I'm just calculating the item value with a little extra bonus, it's not a problem as long as its within reason" she said as she crossed her arms beneath her bust proudly.
"Right… well that price is fine with me, that's just over a month of hard work doing menial tasks within the sect…" Shu He sighed lightly as he remembered running about as an errand boy and doing tasks that no inner disciple or above wanted to do.
"Then, present your token" she held out a small device, likely a portable version of what they use normally; He held out his token as he watched it flash with rainbow lights like normal as he watched the point value on it increase.
"Hm?" While Shu He was holding it out, something caught Li Liling's eyes as she suddenly grabbed his wrist "Young Master, you've already been promoted to an inner disciple?!" she stared between the mark on his token, and Shu He's face with utter shock.
"Can we not with the Young Master stuff…?" Shu He asked as he yanked his hand away, feeling uncomfortable, being called that by someone who was clearly far higher in cultivation and likely age felt weird to him.
"Absolutely not, the rules of clan etiquette are rock solid." She refused on the spot "Enough about that, tell me how you were promoted so quickly!" she asked with a clear glint of interest in her eyes.
He sighed. 'Again I want to ask, why are all cultivators so weird?' he thought before he narrated a few events starting from his duel with Jin Bao and upwards, since he was already in deep with Li Liling and Old Yu he didn't leave out too many details.
His two core flames and his reincarnation were kept in the dark though, no one else was allowed to learn about those anymore.
"So the Sect Master made you an offer… it seems we aren't the only ones to get their claws in you" she muttered to herself.
Shu He heard her mention 'we' and decided to ask "Oh yeah, you mentioned there were other members right? Other than you and Old Yu, where are they?".
"Oh, those lot? They're spread around the country, I'm only here because I'm the master's prime disciple" she dismissed the question simply with a not-so-subtle brag.
"Around the country? What are they doing?" Shu He was curious, were they doing some sort of special training? Why would they be spread out if doing so?
"Information gathering of course, that's our job…" She spoke as if it was obvious, but then realised she hadn't told Shu He the most important bit of information "Oh heavens! I haven't told you what we do yet, have I?!"
"Uh no, I thought that was restricted information or something" Shu He jumped slightly at her outburst, he had honestly thought he couldn't learn about that today, so he ignored it.
Li Liling stood up and held her hand in the shape of a symbol "The Zan clan has a very specific speciality" she whispered as her body seemed to disappear, merging with the surroundings "Information Gathering, Espionage-" as soon as she was completely gone, her last words echoed with a chill in the room.
"-Assassination".
Shu He leaped up on his feet "Is this <<Shadow's Sublimination>>?!.. Wait, no… this is what Old Yu used that one time!" he had activated his <<Divine Territory>> and managed to make out Li Liling's shape with its senses, but without that he would be completely blind as to where she was.
If it was <<Shadow's Sublimination>> even he would have trouble determining the location of the user, so he concluded it wasn't that, that technique merged the user's Qi signature into the surroundings entirely, unlike this one that deeply masked it.
"As expected of someone chosen by the Master, not only could you see through this but also tell the difference" She phased back into existence visually while talking "I told you before that the technique you have is only obtained by those deemed worthy by the scroll, this means that as of right now, only you are able to use the first technique".
She then steadily sat back down and lightly sighed with lament "If the clan relied only on the founder's technique it'd have been destroyed long before it had, we have another set of techniques called <<Fractured Shadows>>, a divergent set of techniques based on the original one".
"Am I allowed to learn those?" Shu He asked, it wouldn't hurt having more techniques under his belt, but unfortunately Li Liling gave him an unsure expression as she said, "I don't think so, I've heard from the Master that it was forbidden to teach a user of the Founder's technique the divergent version".
"Is that so…" Shu He felt slightly disappointed, he had learned the first technique the scroll had, but he had nowhere near mastered it, and he had no idea how many techniques were left, it would take a long time for him to find out.
"Anyway, enough about that for now, it's best to wait for the Master to return since he knows a lot more; What is it you wanted to buy?" She changed the subject after picking up on the dampening mood.
"Oh, right! I wanted to know whether you stocked crystalised Qi of the 5 elements?".
"Qi Crystals? Of course!" She inspected him for a second before clicking her fingers "Right! Are you planning to assail the next stage?".
Shu He paused before he nodded weakly "That is the plan yes, but… well let's just say it may not be so simple for me, so I want to buy the highest quality ones I can find".
"A high-quality Qi crystal huh… it's not good to be greedy you know? You should try a normal quality one first, it's not like the quality affects your cultivation, only the speed, a lot of disciples that buy the high quality one finds out they've wasted points as they only consume half a crystal" she cautioned him, thinking he was overcompensating.
Shu He just laughed lightly and awkwardly "Yes I've heard those stories… but in my case the higher quality the better…" he spoke lightly "One may not be enough after all…." He whispered to himself.
"All right then, the prices vary based on what we have available at the moment, a High rank Metal Crystal would be the cheapest at 750 points while the most expensive would be a Fire Crystal at 1100 points".
Shu He felt his heart clench after hearing the prices, his Pure Yin Crystal cost 400 points so it wasn't a surprise really, but it still hurt, he didn't even have enough for the cheapest one.
"Too expensive?" She flashed him a grin.
"Just a little ahahaha…." He scratched his head in embarrassment before sighing in defeat "I really only need one to test something…" he muttered, but it was picked up by Li Liling.
"Only one? Then give me a second" she said before she left the room leaving him behind, when she returned a couple minutes later she had a small black box in her hands which she placed in front of Shu He.
"This…?" He looked at her confused.
"Open it and take a look" she gestured towards the box.
He did as she told him to and opened the box that was barely bigger than one of his palms, inside was a beautiful verdant green gemstone that hummed with energy, just being near it made him feel like he was resting in a vast forest.
"Isn't this a High-quality Wood Qi Crystal?!" His wide eyes stared up at her "I can't afford this…".
"It's from my personal collection, not the sects storage; I'm giving it to you" She mentioned with a smile.
"But- It's expensive, no?" He felt a bit awkward accepting something when he hadn't done anything for it.
"It's fine, but in return you won't complain about being addressed 'Young Master' in the future, okay?" a very compulsive smile was plastered on her face. Shu He looked between her and the stone before finally relenting "Okay… got it, I won't complain".
He closed the box and put it in his robe, he was happy to walk away with what he needs but he really couldn't tell what he sacrificed.
"Very good!" She clasped her hands together happily before tilting her head "Oh, right! When I was out there someone seemed to be looking for you, I heard them saying your name as I passed the halls…".
"Huh? Who?" It was Shu He's turn to tilt his head, why would they come here when looking for him?
*Bang*
All of a sudden the door shot open causing the two to turn their eyes at the new entry to the room.
It was a man who was in his prime, the alchemy robes he wore wafted with a medicinal scent and his slick black hair shined in the room's lamps.
"Lord He, please don't interrupt a dealing!" One of the clerks belonging to the pavilion chased after him before she saw Li Liling and bowed deeply "I apologize! He kept saying it was urgent and then barged right through".
Li Liling frowned as she looked at the man before realising who he was, signalling the clerk to leave as she did so "What can I do for you today, He Qiao?".
But the 2nd tier alchemist ignored her altogether as his eyes locked on to Shu He as he yelled "Shu He! Come help us get your foolish teacher out of her room!".
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ShiroN3K0
ShiroN3K0 Sorry for the delay, i haven't been feeling too well the past few days so i haven't been able to write, will try get back in the groove now though.
This arc is a bit hard to write honestly, there are too many different things that i want to happen so i'm trying to put them an order that works without feeling too 'episodic' if you know what i mean.
Anyway, thanks for reading as always,.
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