163 Spoils (1/2)
What Lin Yuelong was unaware of was that Xue Wei was also uncomfortable.
”What is wrong?” Hei Gou asked with a low voice. Xue Wei looked at him before he sighed.
”Mind Infestation is not going to be useful to me for much longer,” he explained. ”We haven't even made it to the center of the continent, yet even people out here have some sort of skill to block against spiritual attacks.”
”This skill is not currently able to withstand my Mind Infestation, but for how long can I reign supreme just relying on my strong soul?” Xue Wei was genuinely worried about this.
”You might not be able to rely on it as much as you do now,” Hei Gou agreed, ”but you should still be able to take some experts by surprise.”
”There is something that puzzles me more,” he continued. Xue Wei looked at his friend with a frown. What could puzzle him?
”To us, it is nothing to kill other humans, but amongst the human race, isn't there a law that states that you are not allowed to kill other humans, that all humans have to band together against the Primordial Beasts?”
”I did not think about it at the start because we have truly killed quite a few humans already, but amongst the many experts here, who has killed another human before?”
”Why does that Wan Qiang individual want to make the humans here kill each other? What is his aim? I cannot help but wonder what exactly is behind the sudden change in the opinions of the upper echelons of humanity. Not to mention why it has to be the geniuses below a certain age.”
Xue Wei was thoughtful for some time. ”You are right.”
Compared to his problem, this was something even more troublesome. They were currently locked inside the Black Iron Fortress, a fort that was covered by very tall walls on all sides, and the only way out was the front gate.
The participants were fighting each other, and they had been permitted to kill another human being for the first time in their lives.
Thinking about this, it made sense that not many had died during the first day of battles. Even if they had the strength to kill others, did they have the mentality to do it?
These experts were all their comrades in the war against the Primordial Beasts, and letting the younger generation freely kill each other off would without a doubt injure the empire in the future. If just a quarter of these experts died, the Skyward Empire would have lost a quarter of their potentially future Primordial Beast Hunters.
”The only ones who will benefit from this are the Primordial Beasts,” Xue Wei said after some time. ”But if the primordial beasts seek to reduce the Skyward Empire's military power, do they not have other methods to do so?”
Hei Gou shrugged his shoulders. ”I do not know,” he said honestly, ”but this is a lot more dangerous than what we had originally expected. I hope that we will be able to raise our strength in time, at least enough to flee this place should things take a turn for the worse!”
”Let us rush back to the inn and look at our spoils,” Xue Wei finally said, sighing. ”The items from the Crimson Sunshine Sect are likely to be our biggest gain this time.We should be able to boost our strength quite a bit with those.”
Xue Wei was tempted to claim the ring as his own on the middle of the street, but he did not know what exactly would happen if he did. Was there some sort of shockwave that would be released when he connected with the ring? Would there be thunder or maybe even lightning from the skies above?
Xue Wei had no clue, so they rushed back to the inn and sat down on the ground. ”Guard the door,” Xue Wei requested of Hei Gou, who instantly nodded his head and went to the door. His eyes glistened darkly as he watched the door.
Xue Wei looked at the ring in his palm, took a deep breath, placed the tip of a finger at his lips and bit a small hole into it to draw blood that he dropped onto the ring.
The moment the first drop of blood touched the ring, it was absorbed. The second drop landed on top of the ring and started sliding down before it fell to the floor.
Xue Wei looked at the ring. Nothing had changed, except for the fact that the first drop had been absorbed. The ring looked the same; there had been no unusual phenomenon, nothing had happened, not even a shockwave of spiritual energy or Qi.
It felt a bit anticlimactic to Xue Wei, but he could now feel a connection between himself and the ring that had not been there before.
He looked at the ring in his hand and instantly knew what was inside of it. It was a small storage ring that could at most carry two cubic meters of stuff, but within these two cubic meters was a large trunk filled with silver, copper, and gold coins. Seeing all that wealth, Xue Wei snickered and finally felt as if his efforts had not been in vain.
The second item he found was a small box. This box had the shape of a rectangle; it was ten centimeters wide and tall, and twenty centimeters long. It was made from wood jade, carved with intricate symbols of flowers and petals.
Xue Wei pulled out the box from inside the ring and sat with it in his hands. He slowly opened the box and found that the heaven and earth essence around him was starting to twist and churn as if it was being roused by whatever was within the box.
When it was fully opened, he found thirty-nine small crystals inside. These crystals were all white in color and seemed to have white mist within them.
Xue Wei was a little confused when he saw these crystals, but their effect was unmistakable when he sensed how agitated his own energy was.
”Could these be essence stones?” Xue Wei muttered to himself. Hei Gou looked over curiously.
”They are definitely essence stones!” Hei Gou suppressed the urge to yell that out and spoke in a hushed way.