Chapter 288: A Flower of Fire and Ice (1/2)

“How would some backwater elders catch up to the great Lord of Cycles?” Yrial laughed from his recliner by the pond. “What about it, is your master not amazing? I played those two sects like a fiddle. And that was in the real world where one could actually die.”

The next moment Zac was once again grabbed by an unseen force and placed on a mat not far from the pond.

“I wasn’t actually at risk for dying?” Zac said through grit teeth. “I ran my ass off to avoid getting my soul torn to shreds.”

“Well, there was still danger. If you died inside your soul would be hurt and you would have to trade some of your credits for soul-healing pills,” Yrial said with a smile. “Those things are pretty expensive.”

That quickly calmed Zac down, and he thanked the gods that he hadn’t taken anything for granted in the dreamscape. Clearly, the trial was mostly a veiled attempt to show off his own feats, but it looked like the old ghost was finally about to hold up his end of the bargain.

“What’s credits?” Zac asked, holding back any complaints or comments that might derail Yrial from handing over the inheritance treasures.

“When I needed to create this inheritance I simply threw a bunch of stuff that would be valuable for young cultivators and attached a price according to its value. For passing the first trial you get between 1000 and 10000 credits, depending on how I feel. For also becoming my disciple you get double,” Yrial explained. “What you choose to use those points for is up to you.”

The next moment he fished out a crystal from his sleeve and threw it over to Zac who caught it. Zac knew it was an information crystal from a first look, and he guessed that the stored items were listed inside.

“So how many points do I get?” Zac asked with anticipation

“Well, since you’re my terminal disciple I guess you’ll start at maximum credits, ten thousand,” Yrial said, but he continued before Zac could get excited. “However, I’ll have to detract a thousand points for your face. Being a barbarian is no excuse for skipping proper skincare. I’ll also deduct a thousand for the way you defeated the construct. So eight thousand times two.”

Zac was already starting to become immune to Yrial’s comments about his looks, and he felt that the deduction for how he finished the first trial was fair enough. It still left him with 16 000 credits to spend, and he eagerly infused some Cosmic Energy into the information crystal.

A long list of items lit up in front of him, and he was surprised to see that Yrial had stashed over two hundred items that were exchangeable after finishing the first trial. Most of the items were priced between one to two thousand credits, meaning one would usually walk away with five items or so. However, there were a few items that were much more expensive.

[Ultimate treasure – Lock of hair: 10 000 Credits]

“Lock of hair?” Zac read out loud and looked up at Yrial with confusion. “What’s that?”

“You are my disciple after all! Impeccable taste. That item is a true lock of hair from my real body. Now that I’m dead its value is truly priceless,” Yrial said with a sagely nod.

“Your hair?” Zac exclaimed, not being able to hide his disgust. “What would I do with that?”

Yrial's face immediately scrunched up in anger, and the air around him seemed to freeze for a second before he took a deep breath to calm himself.

“What you would do with that? Gaze upon it in awe and wonder of course. Hair from my head is an item of unlimited artistic beauty, the physical manifestation of perfection. How about it? You would still have a lot of points over if you bought it,” Yrial said with anticipation.

Zac only snorted and kept looking, drawing another glare from Yrial. In reality, the item might not actually be as useless as Yrial described. Yrial was a high or peak C-Grade hegemon when he cut that lock of hair, and Zac suspected its strength would be extraordinary. If he used the hair for crafting he would likely be able to make an extremely sturdy item.

However, he wasn’t keen on wearing an armor made out of human hair, and he had no one who could craft using such high-grade materials. He instead looked for items that could give immediate boosts to his power, or at least assist in the coming battle with the Dominators.

The lock of hair wasn’t the only suspicious item in the list. In fact, almost a quarter of the treasures were vanity items that related to the Lord of Cycles. There was everything from paintings to collections of his poetry. One item was just called ‘My 5th favorite scarf’. But there were a lot of good things inside as well, almost to the point it was shocking.

He did find the soul-mending panacea, costing a whopping 1500 points, more than any of the attribute fruits or even most of the Dao Treasures. However, Zac wasn't surprised since he knew just how troubling soul wounds were. If the wound passed a certain degree the soul would just keep disintegrating, and almost nothing could help. That's why he was so careful about overtaxing his Dao.

There were also over a dozen Spirit Tools, each of them seeming to be of extremely high quality. When he focused on those entries he could see them, and they all emitted a far greater aura compared to the tools he brought back from the Eastern Trigram Sect.

Part of it could be explained with superior craftsmanship, but the biggest reason was the grade of the tools. Zac was shocked to see that all of the Spirit Tools were E-Grade except for a few, making them better than almost any weapon currently on earth. And they weren’t even that expensive.

All of the tools cost around two thousand, apart from the two robes that both cost 3750 credits. One was a robe in the same vein as the robes he received from the system long ago, with the difference of it being a Spirit Tool. It was mostly white though, with details in red and blue.

It was likely something Yrial used until he switched to something better, or perhaps simply something he kept because he liked the colors. It seemed perfect for Zac, but he held back on an impulse buy so that he could go through everything. The other robe was a more gender-neutral robe, that might almost be considered a dress on Earth, so it wasn’t as tempting for Zac.

There was also a Spiritual Ship that seemed far supreme compared to the disk he gained from the Eastern Trigram Sect, but Zac knew he couldn’t afford it at the moment. It was a luxury item that he couldn’t prioritize as things stood.

“I’m your terminal disciple, why don’t you simply give me all of this stuff?” Zac ventured.

“I only made a deduction for your face, but I could also make a deduction for your attitude,” Yrial snorted as he once again ran his fingers through the lake. ”Don't be greedy.”

“Brazla set some ground rules. I needed to put in enough treasures for at least 25 inheritors at F-Grade, 10 at E-Grade, 3 at D-grade, and one C-Grade inheritance. But if you pass the final trial everything is yours,” the ghost added after a brief pause.