Chapter 390: Protective Charms
Looking at the mountain of treasure in front of him, Hui Yue found that some of them were jade bottles full of pills. These were pills he had never seen before, not even from what he had obtained within the grave. From this, one could tell that the pills he had gained earlier were ordinary. The ones he had now were the pills that actually mattered to the deceased expert.
“Circlet of the Deep Abyss. A black circlet which allows the user to create a dimensional space which can suck in any opponent. It is impossible to leave the dimensional space unless the circlet is broken.”
“Locket of the Nine Heavens. When activated the locket makes it possible to withstand the attack of a God for one breath of time.”
“Scroll of the Vengeful Yama. Summons a Hell-demon. Any attack you suffer will be moved to the Hell-demon instead. The Hell-demon will battle by your side for as long as it takes an incense stick to burn.”
“All three of these are one-time use charms. Although they are strong, they can only be used once, but I guess saving your life once is better than nothing. I guess there is a reason why he had more than one protective charm.”
Looking over the many treasures, Hui Yue was shocked as he picked up one item after another. One skill created a shield with incredible defense, and another skill he found sealed up one’s enemies inside a dimensional space. A unique skill he found transferred damage inflicted upon the user’s body to a doll they would carry with them. The pills he found had many incredible abilities, and one could tell that a master alchemist concocted them. One of the pills increased one’s strength during battle, or even some which said that when eaten, even if one died then, within a certain amount of time, the person would be resurrected again. Some of the pills could recreate his body from a mere drop of blood, and some could, if crushed, create a poison that anyone who breathed it in would die within moments. Naturally, the jade vial containing the poison pills also contained the antidote.
‘I need to give some of these to my friends,’ Hui Yue decided quickly. The Circlet of the Deep Abyss, the Locket of the Nine Heavens, and the Scroll of the Vengeful Yama were all packed into a storage stone; a stone which he planned to gift Wang Ju Long the following day.
For Lao, he picked out three items as well. The first was a scroll known as the Scroll of the Summer Sea. This scroll would let Lao become one with Water. No matter how he was being attacked, it would be like attacking a flowing river. Any attack would just pass through him without effect.
The second item he took out was a bracelet known as the Bracelet of Summer Rain’s Dance. It came paired with the scroll of the Summer Sea. The bracelet of the Summer Rain’s Dance did not help him become one with Water like one might expect, but instead, it created a rain shower around him. The rain would block any attack which came near him.
The last item he found suitable for Lao was the Disk of the Lonely Dreamer. It was an item which, much like the Circlet of the Deep Abyss, had a mini-dimension inside it and when used it would devour any expert below Saint rank into the mini-dimension. Much like the circlet, it was impossible to leave the dimension unless the disk was broken or one was let out.
Hui Yue found three peerless treasure to give to all his friends, and while looking at the storage stone he was going to give Sha Yun when she returned home, he thought out loud. “I hope nothing has happened to her.” He mumbled to himself before he stored all the stones in the Universe Box.
He was currently wearing the locket of the Blazing Firefly. It worked much like Lao’s Scroll of the Summer Sea, however, instead of making his body one with Water, his body became one with Fire for the time it took one instance stick to burn. He only wore one life-saving treasure and the others were stored away safely. If he needed them then in the short moment that he used the locket to protect his life, he would have enough time to take out the next charm.
‘Well, there is nothing to be done before tomorrow. Hui Yue decided and moved in front of the window where he sat down and started to cultivate. Although he had multiple Yin energy pills, he also understood that it was not healthy for his cultivation base if he solely relied on medicinal pills to increase his strength.
The night passed as the sun rose. Just like the previous day, Hui Yue went to the dining hall where he waited for his friends to arrive. In the storage stone for Wang Ju Long, Hui Yue placed a Wu Wei martial arts. It was not just a random martial art but one known as the Thousand-spiked Staff Formation.
This Thousand-spiked Staff Formation was a staff technique that required at least four staves. These four staves would be able to attack together to create a domineering force, or the user could choose to use two staves to attack while the other two were used for defense. When perfected this formation was also capable of creating thousand of staff illusions, hence the name. This was a very rare Wu Wei martial art as it required a staff to work. One could not just create a Wu Wei staff and hope to use it. This was the reason why Hui Yue picked out this skill for Wang Ju Long because she was the only one focusing on the path of the staff.
Hui Yue was taking his time eating breakfast, and his eyes glistened as he saw Cai Jie enter the room. “Come here, come here!” He called out, and Cai Jie instantly moved towards him. Although Cai Jie was slightly arrogant, and had the power to be, he showed no arrogance in front of Hui Yue, but great respect one would show a true friend.
“I got my hands on some interesting things.” He started while tossing a storage stone to Cai Jie who caught it. Upon sending his energy into the stone and seeing what it was, he could not help but raise an eyebrow in surprise.
“Protective treasures? So many of them?” He was quite shocked when he looked at Hui Yue. Even he had problems getting his hands on protective treasures. The ones he had were mostly self-created, and there they were far from the level of these protective charms Hui Yue had tossed to him.
“I acquired quite a lot of treasures in the grave,” Hui Yue said with a shrug. “It is only fair I share. In the end having you alive is worth more than these treasures. If you end up using some of them, come to me to get more.” He laughed. The words were so carefree that Cai Jie understood that although these items were important to him, to Hui Yue they were nothing much.
“Tell me, why do you have a grudge against An He?” Hui Yue suddenly asked finding even himself surprised that he was asking such a question out of nowhere, but after asking he found that he really wanted to know.
Looking at Hui Yue for some time Cai Jie sighed. “He killed my older martial brother and severely injured me causing my cultivation base to drop significantly. It was a massive fight, and I would have won had it not been for his friends who appeared out of nowhere ambushing us. We managed to kill two of his companions before my older brother died. I, on the other hand, managed to escape to this plane while deeply wounded. Suddenly I found myself in a plane I had never been and very vulnerable.”
A fierce look was visible within Cai Jie’s eyes. The usually calm man was trembling with anger and Hui Yue was surprised. He was not surprised that Cai Jie let go of his emotions, what he was surprised about was what Cai Jie had just implied.
He had traveled the realms together with his older martial brother which meant that he had to have been a God ranked expert. But even though Cai Jie had been with his older martial brother, both of them still suffered terribly. It seemed that An He truly had some powerful followers.
Understanding this, Hui Yue could not help but grit his teeth in annoyance. Hearing Cai Jie’s words made him realize just how weak he was.
“How strong is An He?” Hui Yue finally asked with a sigh. He needed to know. This man was his goal. To kill An He, Hui Yue would have to be incredibly strong, but so far he never met anyone who had fought against him directly. This was a chance he could not let go.
Looking at Hui Yue with a sidelong glance, Cai Jie once more had his emotions under control. “Compared to you, he is thousands of times stronger. When I fought him four hundred years ago, he had already reached the rank of Crowned Sovereign. His followers, however, were nothing more than Primordial Immortal.”
Hearing these words both Lan Feng and Hui Yue frowned as they did not understand. “What do you mean? A Crowned Sovereign? Primordial Immortal? What is all this?” Hui Yue finally asked curiously confused. He thought that Gods were the final rank, but now it seemed as though he had been ignorant.
Seeing the eagerness on Hui Yue’s face, Cai Jie could not help but laugh. “Mortals or mortal cultivators do not know about the ranks after reaching the God level. Usually, you will find out when you reach the God rank yourself, though, a few places you will know about this when you reach the Saint rank.”
“I guess it does not matter too much, so I’ll tell you. When you reach the God rank, the first rank is Primordial Immortal, and the cultivators ranked a step higher are know as Immortals of Creation. An Immortal of Creation has the strength to create a world on their own, and when they manage to create their own world, they will ascend to become Sovereigns. Crowned Sovereigns are Gods who have managed to create worlds which are ranked amongst the ten thousand worlds ranking.”
“There are millions upon millions of planes in our vast universe. Some of them don’t even cultivate, and naturally, these are ranked as the lowest of them all. Then you have worlds where they cultivate but there might not be enough essence of the heavens and the earth to sustain a high level cultivation base and, sadly, they are unable to cultivate to the peak. These worlds are almost as bad as the ones where you cannot cultivate. Then there are worlds where you can cultivate. These all have various ranks based on their density of the essence of the heavens and the earth, but all of them create strong experts. Every world is ranked by how many experts they have, and a cultivator is only considered an expert when they have reached the rank of a God. Somehow this world is ranked amongst the top ten thousand worlds and An He has gained the benefits of owning one of the best worlds in this vast universe.”
“You say that An He is the owner of this world, but it was not him who created it. How can it be his world then?”
“Becoming a Sovereign means you have to own a world. Every world has an owner, but if you were to beat the owner in an official duel, then you will become the new owner of that world. It is impossible to decline an official duel, but it is very hard to defeat a Sovereign of the Ten Thousand Worlds.”
Listening to Cai Jie, Hui Yue’s mind was reeling. So much new information flooded his mind. Lan Feng was as shocked as Hui Yue when he heard what was said. It seemed that their world was not as simple as they had expected. The path that Hui Yue thought he would take to defeat An He now seemed much longer than ever before.
“There is no reason for you to think about this just yet,” Cai Jie said smilingly. Until you are a Saint it has nothing to do with you; however when we do become Saints, then we are going to be in a terrible position. The owner of the world is expected to greet and inform all Saints about what I just told you. So if he notices even the slightest thing wrong, then we will be crushed like ants in front of him.”
“Is there a way we can escape this initiation? Perhaps somehow not inform him that we have advanced to the Saint rank?” Hui Yue asked hopeful, but Cai Jie shook his head. “We have no other option than to go visit him in the Center Palace. If we don’t, then it will definitely cause many more problems for ourselves.”