Pathway To Eternity 24 Back To Lorra

"You flatters me, Senior Hypatios."

"A full premier, that means you've undergone your heavenly tribulations. You now have the silver aura though too bright. Not bad for a childling."

"Yes Senior Hypatios, i did two days ago but was a bit difficult."

"Of course it was. I can see you as clear as water. Look at the size of your dantian and the make of your soul orb. A soul orb of liquid light, don't you know that the stronger the power of your soul, the stronger your tribulations will be."

"Oh, i see. I didn't know that before senior Hypatios."

"Well, now you know. Anyways, tribulations for Zhuji level wouldn't tend to kill you, unless you have seriously bad karmic deeds. At least, you can prepare properly for future one if you are still alive till then."

"Senior Hypatios, the planet you had mistakenly sent me to, the Charat's planet, it's a very wonderful world. I'm very grateful."

"Mistakenly indeed. You really have no idea, do you, childling? Alright, since you are grateful, do you plan on going to another world?"

"No senior, thanks for asking but my home world will be fine for now. My home will be just fine."

"Farewell then."

Before he could answer, he was already in his room in the Last-Sword sect. He looked back to where the door was but no more door was there only the crystal paG.o.da. He quietly turned his attention towards the room and moved slowly around the room checking everything including the wall.

He heaved a big sigh of relief after he was satisfied in going through the place. He was finally home.

The past three days had been exhilaratingly nervy for him. It made him understood more about life and had wider perception of the universe in his own minor ways. He knew quite well that there were worlds out there, different types of worlds but he never knew he would experience going to them at all talkless of being on one so soon in his life. How could he anyway? The people that went to another world were extremely powerful people that could use powerful teleportation items or the transportation portals. To come by a powerful teleportation item was very rare and the cost of transportation portals were enormous.

He could only have dreamt of all these happening yet he had gone to another world and lived in another world. What would his family, especially his mother, say when they heard about it? How would grandma react when she found out the paG.o.da was really a gateway?

Yes, this was fortunately more than he deserved. Opprtunities and priviledges that he didn't deserved more than others but fortunate to have.

He remembered his granfather's words, "the circ.u.mstances sorrounding cultivator's birth was not as important as the opprtunity to live the life the cultivator could only dream of". Senior Hypatios had also told him before that powerful cultivators would kill to have opprtunities that he was having.

Yes, these were oppirtunity he wouldn't let slip from his grasps.

"Thanks to the heavens, thank you grandma, grandpa and mother."

A little thank you to his father even though he never met him and to everybody he had met. He would also have to say a thank you to senior Hypatios when they meet next time.

His mind felt a bit more peaceful. He sat down in a lotus position, closed his eyes and started to meditate. Before he would endeavor in anything, he would first free his mind completely through meditation using the soul serenity technique. A completely cleared mind would approach things in a more meaningful way.

An hour later, his mind was completely refreshed. He took out some dried turtle meat and started to chomp on it. He was delibrating on going to the library when he remembered the senior alchemist and resolved to take a walk to the sect market to see him. Maybe he would have some information for him.

Reaching the market place, he realized that there were more disciples and merchants at the place than the last time he was there. The area attracting more cultivators was the alchemist section. He managed to navigate and wriggled his way through to the senior alchemist stall quietly without drawing much attention to himself. Once inside, he stayed to the side as the alchemist attended to the sect disciples in front of him. When he caught sight of Jufeng, he hurriedly finished attending to them and closed the door after the last one left. He turned to Jufeng wth big smile on his face.

"h.e.l.lo young one."

"I greet you, senior alchemist."

"You are well on time. Come follow me."

He led Jufeng to the back of the alchemist shop. At the back, was a small door leading to another inner room. He opened it and entered followed by Jufeng. Once inside, he closed the small door and bring out the blue crystal.

"You can simply call me alchemist master Luo Peng, young one."

"Uhm, my apologies senior alchemist master Luo Peng, my name is Jufeng."

"Okay Jufeng. I did as we talked about the last time. I went into the nearby cities to find out if any one of them would be hosting an auction soon and i found one. The city of Rifethra. It will be holding an auction tomorrow. Here's the thing, you know there are many spirit stones out there and of different quality grades. So, when an alchemist want an item auctioned, he would have to submit it for quality testing despite the alchemist's words for it. Now, the interesting part. After i submitted your crystal stone for testing of which many tests were performed, the appraisers determined the crystal to be around eight hundred million years."

He regarded Jufeng with a curiously amused look before continuing.

"It's a total grade crystal stone. In reference to their words, the likes of this stone don't exist anywhere in this world. This brought some bewildered looks from them. These are dangerous roads that must be walked cautiously. According to the appraisers, the equivalent of this crystal spirit stone to normal crystal spirit stones is one to one hundred of pure grades, one to one thousand of high grades, one to ten thousand of medium grades and one to hundred thousand of low grades."

He shook his head with a bit of slumped shoulders.

"The price could have been more. Although, the concentration of the condensed spiritual energy in the stone is higher than the thousand pure grades combined, the face value is equivalent. Because, the spirit crystals contained traces of water element, a.s.suming it was neutral it would have cost much more. I think it must have been created where there was too much water and the likes. But, it is still quite a fortune, it's good enough to cover any loss of value."

"One to hundred pure grades? It would have been better to be higher but that's still fine by me, senior alchemist Luo Peng. We can go ahead and the proceedings will be shared equally as discussed."

"One more thing Jufeng, there's a request in advance for four total grade spirit stones, four of any kind in total. The potential buyer will also give some extras on the deal. There are people who want to buy it, if you have more we could easily dispose it off. You just need to let me know, okay?"

"Okay senior alchemist Luo Peng. I will inform you if i have more. For now, these are the remaining three crystals."

He gave alchemist master Luo Peng three more blue crystals and left the marketplace. He knew that Senior Luo Peng would do his best to be honest due to the fact that he didn't know how much crystals he, Jufeng, had. He didn't even know who was giving Jufeng, maybe it was an hegemon. Who would risk anything like that?

Since the day was still a long way from dusk, he made a resolve to go for a little practice. He still needed to master the second stage of the swift spine technique and he only knew the first phase of the Skylight Technique, the Sundering Heavens. He simply had to keep practicing.

And just as he was getting to the Zhanshi training area.

"Jufeng?"

Chenric who was at the other side of the training area, quickly moved to where Jufeng was.

"Jufeng, we have been looking for you. Where were you? Meditating?"

Meditating in seclusion? Jufeng's mind suddenly went to the past events on Charat's planet and to the Savants of the Flying Stars sect who wanted to put him in solitary solitude. Solitary Solitude they called it, for him to reflect on his wrongdoings and seek redemption of his heart. Or was it his soul? Yes, they found him in a restricted area but they gave him three wrongdoings he didn't committed in the first place. How could he have proved otherwise since he was caught in the place? Well, fair enough.

"Hey Chenric, uhm, about that, let's say i was in solitary solitude. You know, secluded meditation and stuff like that."

"Yes we know, but at least you could have informed us about it beforehand instead of us looking for you everywhere." Said Da Xia who had caught up to them, in a little displeased tone.

"Sorry about that, it only escaped my mind. Next time, i promise to tell you." Jufeng with a bit of remorse in his voice, looked at the two siblings.

"We want to show you something, come with us."

They took him to a quiet area, away from the eyes of others and after looking around for some time concluded it was a good place. Then, Chenric took out a small wooden box painted in red. Inside the box were a journal, a map and a big red Jasper ring.

"I must say, it's a beautiful ring."

"It's not the ring you needed to see, it's the journal." Da Xia rolled her eyes and slightly shook her head.

"Yes, the journal. What about it?"

"The journal belonged to our grandfather, grandpa Ye Tian. We have red it and it was about a place our grandfather came across. He wrote that it was a place he found by chance when he was looking for the Heavenly Jade spirit fruit."

Chenric removed the journal from the box and offered it Jufeng.

"Read it and you will see whst i'm talking about."

"Maybe you can quickly go through it, we'll wait while you do." Da Xia added.

Jufeng quickly opened it and started to read.

"....... I left JinJin village and entered the plain of Ivory Yonder. I was looking for the Jade Dragon spirit fruit when i came across the place. The Jade Dragon spirit fruit was the only thing in existence that could totally amend a cracked soul if three was eaten. One Jade Dragon could add ten million years to that of any cultivator, with cracked soul or not .......

I had on my finger, the red ring i had bought by chance from an antique dealer with most of my fortune. The ring the dealer had told me would locate the place where the spirit fruit was. Nearing the place, the ring i had on me started to glow bright red, it resonated with the gates of the place which appeared right in front of me. This gate, i didn't notice there before, it wasn't there.

There was no problem in me entering the yard where i saw a statue of what looked like a ruler. Upon checking closely, i realized i must have found the recreational forsaken palace of the ancient Jade Emperor, Wan Bao. It was the secret palace of Jade emperor Wan Bao, the place where he would sometime relax and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere.

The huge outer garden was filled with fruits and plants. My soul was overjoyed beyond words with this disvovery. I patiently checked the garden to see if i could find the Jade Dragon spirit fruit, but i couldn't. I found many other spirit fruits, some i didn't even know about but later found out.

I took many but my aim was the Jade Dragon spirit fruit. It could only be inside the closed palace, i tried but couldn't enter the palace at that time. I left the place and marked the spot down for future references. I will be going back later when i become much stronger than i was.

My evanesce core had been damaged when i was attacked by Headman Deng Bai, of the Wonsong village due to a dispute between me and his brother He Bai.

Without the spirit fruit, i will surely die if i face the heavenly tribulations.....

.......I'm going back inside the palace yard now to see if i can enter the palace or not. Until then..."

Jufeng was captivated after reading the journal and curious at the same time. It was a true journal of a true cultivator who wanted to survive and lived. He could only give his respect right then. But how did they come by something like this?

"Heaven's tears, how did you get hold of this precious box? I know it belonged to your grandfather but i guess he wouldn't just give this to you."

"Yes you are right. He didn't give it to us, i found it in the place he was hiding it. There was a day i was hiding behind the tree when i saw him hiding something in a place close to it by chance but couldn't check what it was. For the trouble it would have brought me. But after he died, i checked the place and found this box."

Chenric looked at his sister who nodded in acknowledgement.

"Anyway, we have already located the Ivory Yonder and the plain is not too far from here. We are planning on finding the palace next week during the sect's luminary week and we are thinking maybe you will like to join us. So, what do you think?"

"Of course, i'm in. How can i let you enjoy the adventure without me?"

"Perfect. And we've already informed Yingjie. He is coming too."

"Good. Shall we, then. There's so much i need to learn."

Jufeng with a smile gestured towards the training ground as he used his flash step to move towards an empty section of the area followed by Chenric and Da Xia.