Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 10: Chamber Robbing
This origin array being driven by this kinetic tower was exceptionally bright. There were beams of origin power surging up like waves and rushing torrentially toward the cultivation room at the center.
A disciple in charge of odd-jobs ran out from the windowless stone room at the corner and shouted loudly, “Quick! The black crystals have been used up again! Inform the warehouse quickly and withdraw another batch!”
Within the stone room, the disciple in charge of replacing fuel was pale and drenched in sweat. Presently, the black crystals would be drained of energy and turn white as soon as he put them in.
An entire crate of black crystals had been used up in a short period of time. This disciple was sweating—the fuel used in sky-grade cultivation chambers weren’t ordinary goods. Such high-purity energy grade black crystals cost many times more than the ordinary ones.
The head steward on duty rushed over and, after seeing the rate of consumption, felt his facial muscles twitching. According to the current rate of consumption, this cultivation chamber would likely surpass the sum of the other six.
“Have you checked the energy condensation array?” The elder was well experienced and immediately got to the important point.
The disciple replied hurriedly, “I’ve already checked and found no problems. We all feel that such an abnormality… almost… almost…”
The elder had long since lost his patience with the stammering boy, “Speak!”
The disciple was shocked out of his wits and said quickly, “It almost seems as if the person in the cultivation chamber is absorbing origin power at an excessive speed and the energy condensation array can’t keep up the replenishment. Hence, the present situation.”
The elder glared angrily and said, “Nonsense! How advanced is a sky-grade array? Such a situation won’t occur even if it was an elder cultivating inside. Do you think I’m muddled due to my age? You lot must’ve damaged the origin array in your carelessness and refuse to admit!”
The disciple said with a bitter expression, “How would we dare speak irresponsibly regarding such an important matter? Take a look, sir, and you’ll know what I mean!”
The elder personally inspected the stone room, wherein lay the core of the array, inside out and top to bottom. His expression immediately became quite odd as he said, “This… could it really be a replenishment insufficiency? Who’s inside? I didn’t hear anything about any revered elders coming over.”
Someone nearby replied, “It’s the seventh young master’s…”
“Zining?” The elder felt even more baffled. Not to mention a single seventh young master, even ten of him wouldn’t drain so much origin power while cultivating.
The disciple continued speaking, “… Guest warrior.”
He flipped through the record book in his hand and said, “This person is called An Renyi. He’s 24 years old and a rank-eight fighter of unclear origin power attribute.”
“Rank-eight?!” The elder’s eyeballs almost fell out of his sockets. Absorbing origin power like this at rank-eight, does this person not want to live anymore? Such vast amounts of origin power would likely cause even ten of such rank-eight warriors to explode! But warriors participating in the examination likely wouldn’t fake their rank because there was no way they could slip through.
Additionally, the abnormal situation in this cultivation chamber had been going on for some time. If it really was a rank-eight warrior inside, there was no way he could withstand even a quarter of an hour—how could he have withstood until now? Just what kind of secret art was that person practicing to have brought about such an astonishing rate of consumption?
The disciple saw the elder’s bewildered expression and said cautiously, “Shall we call him out and check? Perhaps there’s a leak in the origin array inside the room?” His words were spoken without much confidence because they had already checked since the beginning and found nothing out of the ordinary in the courtyard. There weren’t any signs of a leakage at all.
The elder’s expression fluctuated wildly before asking, “Is the person inside alright?”
As if in response, the energy condensation array began to circulate wildly yet again. The disciple nearby who was in charge of replenishing black crystals rapidly switched out two rows of greyed out crystal residues. Apparently, the person inside was not only fine but had also begun a new cycle of cultivation.
The elder clenched his teeth and said, “Go and withdraw more black crystals from the warehouse and set the energy condensation array to overdrive. Never let it be said that our Song clan can’t keep up with the consumption of a mere rank-eight fellow. And a guest warrior no less! Won’t we lose all our face if this matter spreads out?
The disciples nearby dispersed to perform their duties after receiving the instructions. Moments later, the radiance on the energy condensation array grew even brighter. Crates of black crystals were shipped out from the warehouse and poured into the array like flowing water.
Fortunately, the energy condensation array calmed down after it was cranked up, making everyone sigh in relief.
Qianye, who was in the cultivation chamber, had no clue about the turmoil outside. There were already a dozen-odd drops of daybreak origin power liquid within the nodes in his sea of qi. Presently, they had combined with the previously purified daybreak origin power to form an expanse of milky white.
Under the impact of such a vast amount of origin power, his ninth origin node began to blossom with a soft light and its barrier was on the verge of collapse. Qianye felt that he could light up the final node after a couple of cycles.
The benefits brought about by the sky-grade cultivation chamber had far surpassed his imagination, but he was already beginning to feel a vague sense of weariness. This was a sign of him approaching the limits of his cultivation session. Even a constitution as strong as his wouldn’t be able to endure if he kept going and accumulated too much energy within a short period. Additionally, his daybreak origin power had finally surpassed his blood energy, so it was best not to over-cultivate for the moment.
Qianye looked up to glance at the origin clock and unexpectedly found that time had passed much slower than he had imagined. If he stopped cultivating at this point, he could leave Song Zining with two days of cultivation time. He assessed his physical condition and decided to stop after completing the last two cycles. As such, he devoured all the origin power within the chamber and began refining in silence once again.
At this moment, the sunlight outside was sprinkling down all over the plains—it was already noon on the second day. A group of people walked into the cultivation grounds.
The leader was a tall and gloomy looking youth who seemed to be in his twenties. He was already a champion and his every movement was accompanied by an extraordinary temperament.
As soon as the steward in charge of welcoming guests saw him, he ran out with a face full of smiles and welcomed the man with great passion, “It’s the Second Young Master! What can I do for you?”
Song Zian was second in seniority among the younger generation descendants of the Song clan. He was also ranked second as a successor. He had broken through to the champion rank even earlier than the eldest Song Zicheng and was considered number one among the younger generation in terms of combat strength. He had always been Song Zicheng’s most powerful rival.
Song Zian nodded toward the steward and said, “The examination is near at hand. I should also put some effort in. Open up a sky-grade cultivation chamber for me. I should have a fair bit of quota left, right?”
The steward’s expression turned rather unsightly. “This… Second Young Master, I’m truly sorry. All the sky-grade cultivation chambers are full.”
“Full?” Song Zian was quite surprised.
The consumption rate for each activation of a sky-grade cultivation chamber was enormous, and as such, the quotas had never been abundant—even he only had about ten days this year. These chambers were usually empty, but unexpectedly, all of them were full today. It seemed many disciples had gritted their teeth to apply for a sky-grade chamber in preparation for the upcoming examination. It could be considered adding a little advantage.
Song Zian asked with a disappointed expression, “When is the earliest vacancy?”
The steward's eyes darted about and suddenly said, “Second Young Master, even for you, it won't be convenient to have people in the other six chambers give way. But this one is rather interesting. Please take a look.” The steward flipped the register to An Renyi’s page and handed it to Song Zian.
Song Zian’s eyes gleamed as he swept through the data. “Interesting. So it’s little seven’s man inside. Heh, heh, he’s truly generous.”
Song Zian returned to the document to the steward and said indifferently, “Right now, the old ancestor’s birthday is close at hand. Some rules should be bent during such important periods. These cultivation chambers are top-grade resources of the Song clan and should be prioritized for use by Song clan descendants. Have little seven’s man vacate that cultivation chamber.
The steward said immediately, “I’ll handle things immediately! Please wait a while. Speaking of which, he’s already been there for an entire day, it should be enough.”
The steward was just about to leave when Song Zian suddenly reached out to block him. “No need. I want to see how this person, who’s received such a favor from little seven, looks like.”
With that, Song Zian brought his subordinates and headed over to the sky-grade cultivation chamber area.
“This is bad!” the steward secretly cried out in his heart. One had to know that the one in the room was the seventh young master’s guest warrior. There was a good chance the and Song Zian’s men would face off in the examination. If Song Zian took this opportunity to wound or even beat him to death in great numbers, things would become quite big.
Normally, a young master beating a warrior to death could be solved with compensation. But they were currently in the exam period and the names of these guest warriors had already been submitted. Since the old ancestor attached such importance to this examination, who would dare to do such a thing under her eyes? When the time came, Song Zian would likely push the blame onto his underlings, but he, as the steward, would have to take all the blame.
The steward cried out in his heart. The seventh young master’s reputation wasn’t prominent. Even though he was favored by the old ancestor, favor and authority were ultimately different. The steward had just wanted to curry favor with the second young master since he knew the latter and seventh young master didn’t quite get along. But if a major conflict arises, he would’ve brought trouble unto himself while trying to be clever.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to do and almost wanted to spin around on the spot.
The other reception stewards looked at each other and sneered secretly, but only looked on with folded arms. One of them shot a knowing glance at one of the disciples who then slipped out from the side door. He immediately jumped onto a jeep and drove rapidly toward the Song clan direct descendants’ courtyard district.
Song Zian paid no attention to what the group of stewards wanted to do and found his way to the relevant courtyard with his group in tow.
Within the cultivation chamber, Qianye happened to be at a critical point in his refinement process. The drop of milky white fluid had taken form and the ninth origin node was continuously emitting a flame-like brilliance as if it were being immolated. This was an indication of imminent origin node ignition. As soon as he finished refining this mouthful of origin power, the ripples formed as it fell into his sea of qi would be enough to shatter the barrier around the node and allow Qianye to pass through the great threshold of a rank-nine warrior.
It was at this moment that the doors to the cultivation chamber were violently pulled open and a domineering voice said, “That fellow inside, come out. Stop cultivating!”
The abrupt shout startled Qianye and sent the origin power within his body into turmoil. The origin power slowly evolving within him like a vortex was immediately dispersed to all parts of his body, and that half-formed pure origin power was shattered.
The overflowing origin power crashed ruthlessly into his internal organs. If not for the blood energy protecting them, he would’ve lost half his life under this impact. So much that even his origin nodes might have suffered damage and adversely affect his future achievements.
Qianye’s face turned instantly pale. He let out a muffled groan as a strand of fresh blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. He slowly opened his eyes, a cold killing intent filling his obsidian pupils.
The person who had shouted loudly had done this deliberately in order to agitate him during cultivation.
The purple bell used specifically to rouse cultivators without causing damage was just at the door. Additionally, the doors to the cultivation room were made incomparably heavy to prevent people from accidentally opening them. It couldn’t be easily opened unless the person had intentionally released the mechanism.
A young man wearing a Song clan warrior’s outfit stood at the door of the cultivation chamber and sneered, “You seem to be cultivating quite impressively. Come out quickly! What use does a rank-eight fighter have for a sky-grade cultivation chamber?”
Qianye got up slowly. At this moment, his chest was in grave pain and the smell of blood would rush up to his throat even with slight movements. After hearing the perpetrator mocking him, Qianye silently drew the grade-five origin gun he had just withdrawn from the armory.
The man laughed coldly and said, “This small gun looks quite interesting…” He hadn’t even finished his words when he choked up as he made eye-contact with Qianye!
He was being looked upon like a dead object, and the cold killing intent in the latter’s eyes was almost tangible.