Chapter 73 (1/2)

Grandpa Vremya glanced at the large sack Azalea was handing him. He picked it up, and it disappeared into his necklace. “Thanks.”

“You better thank me,” Azalea said and snorted. “Do you know how many spirit stones my father spends on buying your wine every year? It’s almost a third of the yearly budget.”

Grandpa Vremya nodded. “It’s good wine. If I had access to better ingredients, I could probably make him spend another third of the budget.”

Azalea’s expression darkened. Was Grandpa Vremya trying to run her dad out of business? In the first place, her dad wasn’t running a business; he was running an empire! Empires weren’t allowed to go out of business and especially not because of wine. Azalea shook her head. It had been ten years since Grandpa Vremya had gone to the Frostwind Empire and won the wine-brewing contest. In those ten years, he must’ve made what her empire made in three years. It was quite impressive to see a single person own so much wealth, but for some reason, Azalea didn’t think Grandpa Vremya was that rich. She suspected he used all of the spirit stones for cultivation.

“Was there anything else?” Grandpa Vremya asked.

Azalea cleared her throat. “Yes.” Her brow furrowed. “According to the sect rules, you have to accept a mission every ten years are a core disciple. Do you know what mission you’re going to take?”

“I’m going to manage a mine,” Grandpa Vremya said. Managing a mine was the easiest way to earn spirit stones as a core disciple, but at the same time, it was also the easiest way to lose money. The disciple who chose to manage the mine was making a gamble. If the mine produced more spirit stones than the year before because of the disciple’s leadership, then they kept the profit. If the mine produced less spirit stones than the year before, then they had to pay the difference. Other than that, the disciple was given the sect’s mission-completion reward which gave them contribution points they could spend elsewhere.

Azalea’s eyes lit up. “That means you have to bring along three helpers,” she said. “Other than me, who else are you taking?” She cleared her throat. “That is, I assume you’re taking me, right?”

“Of course, I’ll take you,” Grandpa Vremya said. Did she even have to ask? She was so darn useful that he’d be stupid not to take her. Thanks to her efforts, he had probably gained a few years of time for cultivation because he didn’t have to do any miscellaneous things. “As for the other two….” Grandpa Vremya paused. Even though he had been in the sect for over a century now, he still didn’t know anyone else’s name. “You can decide.”

“Great!” Azalea beamed. “Then I’ll use your token and set everything up for you.” She skipped towards the exit of Grandpa Vremya’s abode, but when she stepped outside, she switched back to walking.

Grandpa Vremya nodded to himself. That was what he was talking about. With her around, he didn’t have to focus on anything else other than cultivation. After ten years had passed, he had surprisingly created another foundational pillar. Since his pillars were so large, they required an enormous amount of spiritual energy, but thanks to his first foundational pillar, the one he had used to defeat Ruby with, spiritual energy entered him quite quickly. The ability of his first pillar was to attract things within a certain radius, and while it sat in his dantian, it naturally drew in spiritual energy. As for the second ability he had created his next foundational pillar with, it was a combative ability but could also be used in everyday life.