Pendulum of fate part.., p.42
Pendulum of Fate - Part 1, page 42
part #14 of Painting the Mists Series
Soon enough, they were both sitting in front of a frost-blue fire. It let off a gentle heat that chased away the jungle’s excess humidity. “Good wood,” Cha Ming said.
“Burns clean,” Petros agreed, poking at one of the logs. “Each piece lasts a week if you economize, so you don’t have to carry too much of it. The smoke is also a good insect repellant. Not that it’s needed with your formation.”
“Even so, I’ll have to look into it,” Cha Ming said. “What’s it called?”
“Hunter’s oak,” Petros said. “You can find it at any Hunters Guild. They sell it to nonmembers, but for twice the price, so I’m not sure if it’s worth it.” He pulled out a small table from his storage ring, then began placing pieces of jewelry on top of it. Cha Ming realized these were the storage rings they’d recovered. He did the same with his own.
It took a half hour to sort of the pile of miscellaneous equipment. Cha Ming had no frame of reference for this sort of bloody business. He wasn’t used to looting, since he generally avoided fighting unless necessary.
Petros looked disappointed. “Damn infernalists. They’re all so poor.” He flicked a pile of books. “See these books? They’re initial-gold-ranked artifacts. Great, right?”
“Right?”
“Wrong!” Petros said. “In theory, they’d be worth at least two thousand high-grade inkwell jades apiece.”
Cha Ming picked one up and nearly dropped it in surprise. The book felt filthy. Unclean. It wasn’t difficult to see why, because even a cursory inspection revealed a faint yellow glow. “They’re sin artifacts?”
“That’s right,” Petros said. “These treasures are made from human and demon flesh and written in blood. Using them, or even selling them would be wrong. We can get about tenth of their value if we turn them in to the Hunters Guild or one of Jezeriah’s main churches for destruction. Alternatively… we can destroy them ourselves.”
Cha Ming frowned. “I take it there’s a benefit?”
“You’ve never destroyed a sin artifact?” Petros said with surprise. “Wherever did you get so much merit?”
Cha Ming shrugged. “Circumstances dictated that I act.”
“Fair enough,” Petros said. “Suffice to say that by destroying them, we would be able to convert the sin in the artifacts to merit. It’s not an efficient conversion, by any means, maybe ten or twenty to one. Here, let me show you.”
He placed one of the books on the ground and took out a golden dagger, which he plunged deep into its cover. The book began to bleed putrid black blood, which was immediately incinerated by golden flames. The ochre aura surrounding the book began to burn away, letting off jade smoke in the process, which poured into a pair of translucent jade wings on Petros’s back.
“Might as well,” Cha Ming muttered. He kicked his own book on the floor to minimize contact and shot a blast of iridescent gray flames at it. The process played out like before, but being on the receiving end, Cha Ming felt a soothing sensation when the jade mist poured into his wings. He felt his soul visibly strengthen, even without a breakthrough, and even felt the light damage his soul had suffered during their battle alleviate.
“So, what’s your call?” Petros asked.
“Destroying them sounds fine,” Cha Ming said. “Ten percent doesn’t sound like a good bargain, and you never know what kind of crooked deals happen in the background.”
“You have no idea,” Petros said.
They divided the sin artifacts into two equal portions and systematically destroyed them. Each artifact destroyed brought Cha Ming a sense of relief; this was especially so for the artifacts with trapped souls.
“Not bad,” Petros said approvingly. “You’ve hunted your fair share of devils. You’ve already got a third wing phantom.” Sure enough, he had the transparent outline of a third pair of angelic wings. Only by accruing enough merit would the phantom solidify. The requirements increased drastically between each pair.
“Your wing phantom is much clearer,” Cha Ming said. “And it’s like not like I went out of my way to hunt them down either. Most of the fighting I did was down in the mortal realms, actually.”
“Ah, so you’re an ascendent as well,” Petros said. “What about this junk? Half and half?”
“As agreed,” Cha Ming said. He flicked his sleeve and divided them into roughly equal portions.
“The loot on these kinds of missions is rather poor,” Petros said. “Bounties are where you make your money with creatures like these. Classes like infernalists are what I call shortcut classes. They’re not proper rankers who’ve earned their ranks through hard work. But I guess karma catches up to them, doesn’t it? They paid the price for their actions.”
Cha Ming swept his portion of inkwell jades and assorted artifacts into the Clear Sky World. As for the storage rings, he placed them inside a pouch at his belt. Storage artifacts typically couldn’t accommodate other storage artifacts, and he didn’t like advertising that this rule didn’t apply to the Clear Sky World. “So I take it you do this often?”
“For the most part,” Petros said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t exclusively do bounties. I do standard adventuring and mercenary gigs as well.”
“You’re pretty young for your rank,” Cha Ming noted. By his estimate, Petros was no older than fifty, roughly a quarter of his potential lifespan as a silver ranker.
Petros chuckled. “Actually, I’m a special case. My class is special. My lifespan is closer to a Daoist’s, and my advancement rate is similar. I’m actually over a hundred years old.”
“That’s still quite fast,” Cha Ming said. “Would you like some?”
“I’m more of a coffee person, but I won’t pass up Crimson Lotus tea,” Petros said.
Cha Ming nodded and pulled out a package of red tea leaves, a spicy variant to the Frozen Lotus Sect’s blue tea. He took out a tea set and took his time brewing. It took a few minutes, which, to a cultivator who could start a fire in with a flick of a hand, was quite long. He lost himself in the process. When was the last time he’d really bothered? Was it on the Ling Nan Plane?
“My apologies, but I find it enjoyable not to rush the process,” Cha Ming said, serving them both a cup. “A friend gifted me this box. It’s got a bit of bite to it, quite unlike the bitter stuff you have in Mendin.”
They were relatively new acquaintances, but Petros didn’t hesitate to drink it down. “Good tea!” he said.
Cha Ming refilled it, and before long, they fell into a sort of rhythm.
“You mentioned I was also an ascendant,” Cha Ming said. “That means you ascended from a lower realm as well? And with the ranker system?”
“There were a few tens of lower planes that feed into this one,” Petros said. “I noticed the strange flame. Alchemist?”
“Partly,” Cha Ming said. “You’re good at spotting clues. You’re not just a regular hunter, are you?””
“I’m a detective, actually,” Petros said. “Self-styled. I like to track down difficult cases, but mostly I like to read novels and see if I can guess where it’s going.”
Cha Ming was intrigued. “A detective. Then you must be good at evaluating people. What’s your read on me?”
Petros chuckled. “Didn’t we already do this last time?”
“Just in passing,” Cha Ming said. “Let’s see… I already know about your soul-bound bow and set items. I take it your bow has the ability to enchant any arrows you shoot.”
“Correct,” Petros said.
“The few shots you did take confirmed my initial guess that you’re an absurdly powerful ranker,” Cha Ming continued. “Despite your silver rank, you didn’t need to use a soul-burn ability to one-shot initial-gold rankers with your peak-silver rank. Your arrows are extremely fast, which tells me you have abnormal physical strength for an archer-type ranker.” He sighed. “I’m a little envious.”
Petros chuckled. “What’s to envy? My evaluation for you is rather high. Even without you using a soul-burn ability, I’ve got you pegged at half-law-stitching strength. You’re a Dao God that cultivates creation and destruction with a five-element basis. Your true cultivation is only middle muscle empowering, but your physical abilities are a rank higher. According to my analysis of the last battle, you have many divine abilities for a demigod and have refined four of them. To add frosting to the cake, you’ve got interchangeable domains with rather unique properties. That’s not even mentioning a high-level demon pact.”
“It seems I underestimated you,” Cha Ming said. “You got all that from that fight? You haven’t been spying on me, have you?”
“Not at all,” Petros said. “I just happen to be able to make good guesses with limited information.”
“You must admit, it’s a bit of a coincidence that we both ended up here of all places, and on the same day at that. Titanvale isn’t exactly close to this place.”
Petros shrugged. “It happens all the time with karmic anomalies. We get wrapped up in each other’s pull.” He sipped at his tea thoughtfully. “I have this acquaintance, Oster.”
“Oster Fireblight?” Cha Ming asked in surprise.
“See?” Petros said. “Coincidences. I know Oster, you know Oster. We happen to meet up all the time. Whenever I take up mercenary gigs, he happens to be the enemy general. You can imagine how that goes.”
“If I were him, I wouldn’t dare leave my tent,” Cha Ming said.
“Exactly!” Petros with a chuckle. “And even then, he sleeps on pins and needles. Likewise, he tends to shift cannon fodder my way, so I almost always end up losing money on those missions. I guess that’s his way of getting revenge.” He drank the rest of his tea and put down his cup. “I think that’s enough winding down. As I said, I invited you here to talk business.”
“I’m listening,” Cha Ming said.
“It’s a little embarrassing, really,” Petros said. “I came here for other reasons but accepted the task of hunting down all the infernalists from Verdane’s mayor. Unfortunately, they’re proving to be annoyingly strong, and I hate backing out before the contract is finished.
“I was hoping we could cooperate. I understand you’re probably here for different reasons, but the bounty might make the detour worth your time. Well? Interested?”
“I came here to harvest ingredients,” Cha Ming said. “Rare ones. I’m not really sure where to find them, but I have my guesses.”
“Do you mind telling me what kind?” Petros said. “I come here relatively often, and I have access to better maps than most. I might be able to help you out.”
Cha Ming had relatively little information on what he was looking for, so he didn’t hide it. “Void-piercing blast fruit.”
Petros whistled. “Dangerous things. You’d better be careful when you pick them. But you’re in luck! I happen know where to find some. There’s a grove of them near Shimmering Gorge. Not much else grows there, for obvious reasons.”
Cha Ming was surprised by the straightforward tip. “Thanks.”
Petros shrugged it off. “Hunters should help each other out when they can.
“I’m not a hunter,” Cha Ming said.
“You know what I mean,” Petros said. “Regardless of whether you want to collaborate, feel free to go there directly.”
“I might as well hear you out,” Cha Ming said. “If we team up, that will involve splitting the bounty. There must be a good reason for you to want to recruit me.”
“It’s a very obvious reason,” Petros said. “Originally, I thought there would be less of them, which would allow me to kite them. Unfortunately, that plan went out the window when I saw their numbers. The location of their base doesn’t make it any better. As it stands, I can’t do much more than peg off a few minions before escaping. But if I had the help of a strong Dao God…”
Cha Ming considered this. It was true that their collaboration had gone quite well. “I’d need to know what we’re up against, as well as a general idea of your abilities.”
“Not a problem,” Petros said. He quickly explained the enemy composition before going over a few of his own abilities. “Most of my fighting style revolves around my soul-bound treasure, the Bow of Aeons. It’s currently a gold-ranked artifact with the ability to manifest enchanted arrows, assuming I provide the base materials. Armor-piercing arrows. Mage-slaying arrows. Explosive arrows. Elemental arrows, you name it. If my target has a weakness, I can target it, assuming I’m willing to spend the five seconds it takes to shift between arrow types.”
Cha Ming now realized the true reason for Petros involving him. “With so many opponents, you don’t have time to switch arrow types.”
“Exactly,” Petros said. “Their summons are quick and numerous, and if I’m running, I can’t change arrow types. If I use mage-slaying arrows, they swarm me with minions, and if I try taking care of their summons, they start blasting me.”
Cha Ming considered this. “I’m not against this. What is your proposal.”
“A fifty-fifty split on the bounty,” Petros said. “Shimmering Gorge is on the way, so I’ll show you exactly where those void-piercing blast fruits are and help you pick them in advance. Truth be told, it’s a dangerous location. I’ll be able to save you a lot of trouble.”
Cha Ming weighed his options. It wasn’t a bad deal. He’d seen these infernalists firsthand and had no desire to let them do as they pleased, no matter how polite they were. And while he was still wary of Petros despite their fast friendship, and he suspected the man had ulterior motives, these infernalists were a menace and should probably be eliminated.
“Fine,” Cha Ming said. “Let’s do it.”
“Great!” Petros said. “Now, there are a few options on how to do this, namely a fast way and a slow way. The slow involves nibbling at their heels for the next week. As for the fast way, we could be done by this time tomorrow.”
“Something tells me I’m not going to like the fast way,” Cha Ming said.
“Nonsense, it just involves a bit of trickery to pull it off,” Petros said. “Otherwise, things could get very expensive, and the losses would outstrip the gains.”
“What did you have in mind?” Cha Ming asked.
He immediately regretted asking the question.
Cha Ming darted from shadow to shadow, using a mix of teleportation and quick movement to evade the local wildlife. Claddings of Light was far more purposeful than he’d given it credit for, especially after its refinement. It made him practically invisible to anyone lacking in overall strength compared to him. Not that anyone had to see someone to hit them with a fireball.
Petros was quite fast for a gold ranker and was able to keep up thanks to a pair of golden boots that boosted his speed. The boots also gave him a rare short-ranged teleportation ability, which he could use every few seconds.
They arrived at Shimmering Gorge without any issues. The place was sparsely vegetated, since the hard soil contained a high quantity of voidbane stone.
“You’ll want to be careful,” Petros warned. “There’s a reason nothing else is growing.”
Indeed, the soil had melted and resolidified countless times over the centuries due to the gorge’s predominant plant. If not for the voidbane properties of the soil, the spatial tears in the area would have been ripped apart, thereby destroying the plants and their fruit.
Cha Ming eyed the trees warily. They resembled palm trees with purple fruits the size of his head. Anyone who subjected these fruits to too much pressure would find them oozing out a liquid that would vaporize the instant it left its protective membrane and then explode.
Obtaining the liquid was delicate work. He harvested a few of the fruits in their ripe form and harvested the rest by first encapsulating their juices then pouring them into specially built cylinders. This earned him no small amount of scolding.
“Are you insane?” Petros hissed. “How can you have a problem with my plan but be fine with this?” He was standing several hundred meters away behind large pieces of voidbane stone that could serve as cover.
“My psychiatrist didn’t think so last time we spoke, but I’ll ask again to be sure,” Cha Ming said, not slowing in the slightest. “Relax. I’ve got this. My demon companion is space-aligned, and the voidbane stones are doing a good job at stabilizing space.”
“Just… don’t accidentally detonate the stuff once we’re out of here,” Petros said. “I’m going to wait farther out.”
Cha Ming paid Petros no more mind. He moved from tree to tree, plucking ripe fruits that had aged a hundred standard years, leaving the unripe ones. He kept the liquid but threw the skins into the Clear Sky World, if only because they might make good fertilizer.
He stripped the grove completely clean of ripe blast fruit, therefore incurring a hefty tax bill on his medallion, though the tax wasn’t onerous and only amounted to a quarter of their market value. It was a steal of a deal, so Cha Ming planned to harvest whatever he could find, since he could simply sell any excess materials to counter the tax.
Cha Ming continued to eye the trees filled with unripe fruit. According to his estimates, the soil and environment was extremely rich in this pocket realm, which would accelerate the growth of these fruits even without time acceleration. Alchemical ingredients were evaluated according to standard years, which were approximately 1.2 times longer than a year on the Inkwell Plane. Despite the favorable environment, it would probably take over a decade before he could harvest any more fruits. How was he supposed to keep supplying talismans if he didn’t have the raw ingredients?
What if I took a few trees? He walked up to one of the younger specimens, a tree with three fruits that were several standard decades from maturity.
He did not immediately transplant them into the Clear Sky World. It was questionable whether the environment was suitable. Then again, the time acceleration in the Clear Sky World might just make up for the shortfall in ambient qi; he’d started growing several lesser ingredients a few months back, since restocking them often was a hassle. Why couldn’t he do the same with these?
