NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20 - Sage Tears
Hu Jun finally sat down. It took her a few moments of readjusting, closing her eyes, meditating for a second and a few other meaningless things before finally settling down and focusing back onto Yin Hu. He wasn't sure why she made it so hard.
Sit. Fold legs. Stare. That was all it really took. It shouldn't have taken three minutes of his time.
Yin Hu placed the murky, gray orb in front of her. It stayed still. Not rolling left or right even when the floor was clearly slightly tilted away from the door. Unnaturally keeping its position. There were just too many things like this he had chosen to ignore. Paranormal and cultivator bullshit.
Jun stared at it and back at him. Confused, but didn't say anything.
"Do you know what this is?" Yin Hu said.
The system immediately gave him a notification to analyze it.
Orb of Dao and Telling | Spiritual Root Edition - Spiritual Root Status and Potential Detector! Made to figure out whether your disciples are worth the time it took to train and cultivate them!
She shook her head negative. He could see her throat bulge as she gulped.
Yin Hu tapped his chin. Channeling every ounce of mysterious and powerful ancestor he could. Acting like he knew every word he said. "This is an Orb of Dao and Telling."
Jun's eyes widened and eyebrows rose. Mouth opened slightly. She looked down at the item with a new gaze. Yin Hu thanked Heaven she knew what it was without him having to explain anything at all. He wouldn't be able to give her more than the system notification because he wasn't sure exactly how to use it. Or how it did whatever it was doing.
"Well?" He said. He thought telling her the name was enough prompting to get her to use it.
"I-I don't—"
Yin Hu frowned. "Jun."
She would do it whether she liked it or not. This was a vital part in his plan. He needed to understand where she ranked and what she was good at so he could prepare her to get better. There was a book he intended to use as the main source of his developmental process.
One he was banking a lot of hope and dreams on. From the title and what little he had seen, it was going to be better than his expectations. Or so he hoped. The title was impressive enough by itself to convince him, add onto it that the cover of the book was stunning.
Judging books by their covers has always worked for me!
It had a magical aura.
Hu Jun nodded. She took a very deep breath to help the trembling in her hands. Schooled her face And scrunched her eyebrows. A mask of utter seriousness and concentration. He could feel her channel Qi so close to her within her body and core.
It wasn't a detailed understanding of her energy and cultivation, only that Qi existed and it moved under her command.
She wiped her sweaty palm on her robes and then reached out and touched the orb. Placing her palm on its sleek and cold surface. Her eyes scrunched shut as she concentrated with every fiber of her being. Qi entering the orb and mixing a bright, forest green into the murky, cloud gray.
Yin Hu understood, somehow, that all it required was the tiniest bit of Qi to break through that initial barrier. Then the Orb would do the rest. Testing, working, and detecting in excruciating detail her potential for development and cultivation manual safety levels.
Where he himself could get a speck in there was another matter entirely. He wasn't sure he was ready yet to test it again yet. Maybe some time later once he was ready to accept failure or not go crazy with a successful attempt. Readjust his mentalscape before attempting to become a nuke as well.
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Then again, DragonsWrath alone probably made him stronger than most fledgling cultivators. He just needed to get close to them to cut them in half.
Jun snapped her hand back. She let out an exhausted breath, heaving up and down like she had run ten sets of sprints the length of a field. Body shaking. Teeth chattering. He could see a sheen of sweat on her skin now that he looked properly. Slowly soaking her clothes wet.
Said orb started to glow bright. Enough to make her shy away from it. It didn't bother Yin Hu as much to look directly into it. Watching as foreign symbols he couldn't understand flashed then disappeared just as quickly on its surface. He could not wrap his head around them.
The same foreign language eventually stabilized in the orb. Sticking and staying on the surface. It wavered and began to swim before Yin Hu started to understand what the words were saying. Its meaning filled his head. Translating in a way that should have been impossible.
Wood - Immortal Peak Rank Four
Purity - 53%
Jun gave a weak laugh. It was filled with relief. A smile stayed plastered on her face even when she had finished. Clearly satisfied with whatever was said on it.
Yin Hu, on the other hand, had no clue what the hell it was supposed to mean. Was it good? Or was it pretty average? Immortal Peak sounded impressive considering it was the peak of a rank. But on the flip side, it would be nothing noteworthy at all. Just an inflated sense of naming things.
Which to be fair was very common.
How many times had he been duped by an amazingly named weapon, Dao, or scroll only to be left sorely disappointed? How many times had he tried to test a new ultimate technique only to figure out it couldn't harm a kitten? There had been too many instances where punching casually like a boxer was far stronger than the flowery, unnecessary movements he had learned.
She looked back up at him. Expectant eyes bright and focused directly on his face. Waiting for a reaction or some praise.
What the hell am I supposed to say? Good? But what if it isn't any good? I need to stay neutral. Lean heavily into my persona again.
He nodded at her with a straight face. "Decent."
Jun reeled back. Her face instantly hardened and making all emotions she displayed disappear. Sitting rigidly like a plank or board. But she couldn't hide her tapping fingers. Or the subconscious trembling of her lip. She didn't even notice it happening.
Fuck! I messed up!
There had to be a way to fix this. But he needed to buy time to think. Anything to get the situation resolved for the matter.
Say something! Don't break her heart and crush her dreams! Say something damnit!
"Jun," he said. "Go get Shui."
No! That's not—
Hu Jun shot up to her feet. Bowed before him and ran off to grab the little rascal that was sleeping under the stack of blankets. Snoring without a care in the world. He watched her back mind going over drive to think of something, but fell short. He wasn't good with interpersonal relationships considering he hadn't had a single person to talk to in what could have been a million years.
Yin Hu resolved himself to say something or give her a compliment of some sort when she sat back down with Shui. Figure out how to ease her massive disappointment. But for now, he needed to prepare.
The rice bag sat in his lap. He reached into it and pulled the book he had judged by its cover and name. The system instantly gave him a notification.
Compendium of Empire's Children and Spawn | Volume LXXXIII
'How the Elite and Emperors develop children - Spiritual Roots'
It was one book in a whole library of books that had the same overall title. Each one with a cover that was equally as impressive as this one. He judged them all. A serial book cover judger.
He looked back into his spacial bag. Reaching for another item he would need based on the initial guidance of the Compendium. There was a level of purity that was required as a base. Anyone with below ninety-three percent was stuffed with a generous helping of pills and other items until they either explode or reach the base level.
Yin Hu opened the book and began reading. In the meantime, he pulled out a Spiritual-Root Purification Pill. They would require it soon.
Again, the system notification popped up.
Heavenly Spiritual-Root Purification Pill - One of the highest tiers of Spiritual Root Purification Pills. A miraculous drug with no Side Effects or Qi Waste.
It was good to be rich. Filthy rich. Making nukes without having to worry about gathering any resources or anyone fighting him for them. No one would know anything until he was or they were too strong. A force to be reckoned with. By then, even if they tried to take what belonged to him, he could just point and his nukes would immediately help them to cease existing.
There were even more amazing items inside his bag. Items he was too afraid to use because they had such high requirements. The thought of blowing up Jun was clear in his mind. Any mistake would be like that. Especially for things that directly involved her Qi.
One such item was a Sage's Tear. He had seven of them.
Reading the notification had left him salivating at one day using it, but even he had to calm down. The threat was real. Consequences beyond a simple save scumming or restarting a new game.
Sage Tear - Spiritual Roots ripped out from the body of a True Sage. In a last bid to prevent defeat, catastrophe was called forth. The Defeated True Sage lit their vast cultivation on fire and blew the entire world into pieces. Teleporting the ripped out Spiritual Roots a vast distance into space.
Requirements - Great Dao Stage