CH15: Vault III

Thanks to the ancient Far family artifact, the Schneesturm-Anker, every morning was cold and crisp. Its metallic blue sheen, crisp runic script, and sleek curved design denoted a sexual desire that the ancient ancestor had to fuck Far Bolin’s ancient matriarch. Frost steamed off the anchor in long streams as it forced the heat out of the ground and up into the air. The Schneesturm-Anker was a powerful land-controlling tool fit for a ship of conquest. It made no apologies and declared war without a single word. All they had to do was drop it, and the terrain soon altered to their benefit.

Far Bolin stood from his musing on the Schneesturm-Anker and turned his attention back to the project at hand—the vault of the Thunder Eagle’s founder, where fools are welcomed to go to die. He found himself unwilling to enter the trap house, where even armies of severing realm experts would fear to tread.

It was rumored that there were curses on most treasures that were undetectable to any but half a step immortals. Those were the true rulers of the world, clinging on with a single mortal chain and numerous sage arts preparing to enter the next world. Only someone like the Far family patriarch took their ancestor's name, Far Conrad after their ancestor. A thousand years ago, it was controversial when the patriarch dropped his given name, Chen, for the name from the ancestor’s language.

George was like his ancestor, a foreigner from a realm below their own, a genuinely mortal realm with no way of gaining immortality. Only that was no longer true. When the ancestor died, he sent a message to the family. He had been reborn back into his world far into the future from when he died.  Slowly, he was working to raise the abundance of heaven and earth and ascend the realm itself.

He turned his attention to a sudden appearance in the kill zone. Hungry ghosts had emerged from a treasure one after another for some time. They were only slightly stronger than typical hungry ghosts and completely mad. Something else emerged that felt unlike anything he had sensed before.

The cube that birthed the hungry ghosts exploded into fragments, and hungry ghosts emerged from portals with varying powers across the sky. Two hungry ghosts, a dragon with red scales and long curved horns, took up a protective position on the being’s left side. It looked roughed up but ready for battle. It was only the core realm if at the very peak of the realm, so it was weak despite its appearance.

On the being’s right was a beautiful woman with massive breasts exposed, beautiful eye-catching dark nipples, and a curved figure to put any mortal woman to shame. Her eyes were yellow and slit like a cat, and her hair was a messy mix of red with a purple stripe down the middle. She had a smile on her face like this was the happiest moment of her life. Maybe it was this way. Far Bolin could imagine the artifact was a prison, and the shadow figure might have freed them. He looked up, expecting an attack, but the hungry ghosts instead shot to the four winds dispersing except for a few who he imagined enjoyed the ice and snow of the Frozen Wolf sect’s Schneesturm-Anker.

When Far Bolin focused on the shadow, the creature changed before his eyes. It at first held the appearance of a man. Its piercing blue eyes glowed bright, George's round eyes gained a thicker eyebrow ridge, and his long black hair stood on end before falling to his shoulders. Arms like twigs expanded into those more akin to the arms of the great mountain apes that roamed the frosted heavens of the Ice Wyvern mountain range, where poisonous mist drifted down and slew travelers. Ice Wyvern Dragon venom could be bought by the barrel for a low-grade spirit stone there. The creature’s body expanded, growing taller and filling out until he stood 24 hands tall and nine hands wide.

Its abdomen was bulky, with bones like bands from armor lining the chest down through the stomach. Interlocking plates of bone appeared, stretching skin that thickened before his eyes. Clearly, this creature was getting ready to fight him. It was admirable that the creature would choose to fight a power far beyond it instead of fleeing.

Far Bolin chuckled. “You would be better off running. After all, I’m supposed to guard this spot. If you flee fast enough, I won’t give chase.”

“It seems we are at odds because I am here to claim a scroll from that vault and kill two traitors.” The creature said.

“You are of the Thunder Eagle Sect.”

The hair on the creature’s head vanished and spread around its body thin, but there was the work of fragments built into it. The chi was only foundation even lower than the others, but there was so much of it. Fragments well synergized were at work assisting this creature into potentially hitting above its weight class. Small rings appeared in the air behind the beast, and formations were squeezed into them.

Power from around the new frozen basin flowed into the rings, quickly climbing their potency through the ranks until they reached the core and continued climbing. This was impressive and clearly explained why this creature had two core realm hungry ghosts as subordinates.

“How would you like to join the Frozen Wolf sect?”

The creature raised a hairy eyebrow.

I wasn’t opposed to working with them, which was good. Recruiting expendable units to journey into the vault and set off traps so they could send the real team in later would help them map out the vault. The fewer members of their branch sect fell into the traps, the higher their morale would be. The people's knowing that he valued their lives was a bonus.

“Are you willing to let me claim everything we find in the vault if we join?”

“My name is Far Bolin of the Frozen Wolf Sect. We are happy to have you. You can even have that treasure on the ground as a bonus.” Far Bolin said.

“We only want the skull.”  

The most cursed part of the treasure from what Far Bolin could tell with his Sever realm senses. A portal to the creature’s soul space opened, and the skull fell in. That was incredibly foolish from what Far Bolin knew. The soul space was only so ample, and the skull would take up a lot of room. Only the creature didn’t suddenly burst into a pile of spirit stones, and the skull lay atop the pile like some of his greedier men. No, he looked perfectly fine.

“It seems you can be trusted to keep your word after all. We’ll enter the vault and take a look.”

“Wait, take a few of your fellow members with you.” He nodded to two nascent soul realm elders who hesitantly approached the soul-devouring monsters Far Bolin had just invited to join them. He had no doubt that he knew of at least one of the creatures these creatures wanted revenge on. The patriarch relied on them to form a good relationship with Camio Yu. Well, it was unlikely they would survive long in the vault. He sent his orders to the elders’ jade slips. “You can relax. We have no plans to attack members of our sect.” Far Bolin said.

…

They knew the skull was cursed. I could tell because they didn’t stop me from taking it. A few of the men looked relieved. That was good because as the crystal Psyren skull settled in my soul space, I felt unique fragments within as the vast chi within the space tore into the object.

Fragments were the building blocks of power, the lever to the force of chi. Some were like sticks, while others were as sophisticated as guns. The fragments within the skull were related to spirit deals, exchanges, and interests. They were meant to be together, but the person combining them could determine their final form.

“Are we going in there?” Li Mei asked.

My favorite arm candy distracted me from my thoughts on the slowly dissolving free fragments of ultimate wealth. Li Mei was naked like she had been in the cube, but for some reason, I felt like covering her up when others looked at her.

“You are right. The stronger we get, the more we act like we think we should.” She gave me a questioning look. We’re going to the vault. There are some fools who need to die. And I have a feeling there are treasures that we are uniquely qualified to snatch,” I said.

“About that,” One of the elders said.

I stepped into the vault over the treasures. “Follow me, and don’t stray, or the traps here will kill you,” I said.

De Zimo took his humanoid dragon form and stepped in behind me. Li Mei, being Li Mei, jumped on my back and climbed up to sandwich my head between her legs.

“Let’s go,” Li Me said.

I rolled my eyes and stepped forward, following Elder Yu's path, guided by the small traces of chi he had left behind. My invisible hairs spread all around us, adding another layer of detection.

“While I said you could have anything you find, you can exchange treasures with the sect for contribution points. Ask the elders for a list. We have some good stuff, and not everything in the vault will be useful to just you.” Far Bolin said.

I waved at him and continued deeper into the vault.

“My name is Elder Gou. How much do you know about the vault?”

“Less than I would like but more than you, I imagine. What do you want to know?” I asked.

We walked through a pile of late spirit stones that I cleared away with my soul space and tore them apart in my soul space.

“Aren’t you afraid of the curses?”

Currents of chi ripped the treasures apart, taking what I wanted as I compressed the curses into small balls. I dropped one on the floor. The elder edged away as a tiny snake rose out of black mud.

“I’m fairly good at separating the curse from objects if I don’t care about keeping the object intact,” I said.

“A useful ability here. How large is your soul space?”

I thought about it. Did I want to tell these guys how ample my soul space was? The obvious answer was no, but they needed something believable. If they became allies or better clients in the future, then I wanted them to have a little healthy respect for me. So, I needed a believable number for what I was doing.

A Li was the standard measurement here, around five and a half football fields, so what was big but not impossible. My actual soul space expanded at its current rate by a Li every minute but tripled after those royals and absorbed their spirit energy. I spent about 20 days in the cube, so I had about a space of 30,000 Li diameter in a sphere. So, I needed to downplay.

“About a 100 Li sphere, give or take a few hands, of course,” I said.

Elder Gou pulled a flask from his robe and drank heavily from it. Then he held it out to the other Elder, who took it and drained it before handing it back.

“You aren’t in the nascent soul realm, so how is your soul space so large.”

“I think these questions are too familiar for elders we’ve just met.” Li Mei said.

“Excuse my rudeness.” The elder looked around at the vanishing spirit stones as we walked through them. Well, it's not like we could have used them except as traps for enemies, and even then, there are better ways.”

“Are there no curse breakers?” I asked.

“Talk about familiar questions. No, we left for distant territory in the unclaimed lands when the disaster hit. We didn’t take any curse breakers with us because we didn’t think they would be useful. Mistress Far Ling sent a request for some, but it is a rare profession always in high demand. We hesitate to call upon more attention lest our rivals enter the fray before we have a strong foothold.”

“Thank you for sharing the sect’s position. From what I understand, even if I spent months attempting to claim every spirit stone, I wouldn’t make a dent in this place's sheer amount of spirit stones. Think of my actions as clearing a curse-free path for the next group.” I said.

We took a turn with Elder Yu’s chi signature and stood before an elevator. I carefully removed the seal on the elevator and took a close look at the formation script that made up its inner workings. My pressured mind helped me move through tasks more rapidly than my former meat brain. Still, I took the information in packets, clearing one at a time until I had an idea.

I moved to another seal and took a look. “Are you a formation expert?” Elder Gou asked.

“No, I only learned enough to do my job as a landscaper,” I said.

“I’ve never heard of a mere landscaper needing a background in formations.” Elder Gou said.

“Yea, you seem very good at formations. Would you mind sharing with the rest of us?” Li Mei asked.

“You must have noticed the number of hidden worlds around here. I know they are mostly still up in the air where the mountains had been. They should stand out to your senses. It was by design, so no one accidentally walked into the wrong one. I made those pocket dimensions into hidden realms.” I said.

“That makes no sense. Hidden realms are natural occurrences. They can’t be created.”

“I was in high demand, and it was a shame it didn’t pay well. The sect elders claimed it was my job as an outer sect disciple to make them for our dao seedlings.”

Elder Gou took another long drink from his flask. “You were ripped off. I’m not going to try and pull a trick like that here. You should have been swimming in resources enough to reach the severing realm. What insanity happened here?”

I smirked at the Elder, saying I liked him. “Elder Yu of the Camio wanted to turn me into a pill so the girl who pretended to like me could use my soul to protect herself from the lightning tribulation he summoned. It was all so he could enter the vault.”

“The founder of the Golden Eagle Sect slain the Camio clan, and many of the Camio clan artifacts and treasures were sealed here. The founder of this sect also traveled the world, slaying demonic sects and claiming their treasures,” Elder Gou said.

“Well, that’s interesting to know,” I said.