Training Begins
[The item will now be transferred to the winning bidder's stasis relic — HatesHumans]
[BabyJiaolong has no registered stasis relic.]
[330 top-grade spirit stones have been registered to Yogyeonggak.]
TOP! GRADE! SPIRIT! STONES! 330 of them!!
Jackpot! Jackpot! JACKPOOOOT!!
You probably have no idea how enormous this is. These weren't just any spirit stones — they were top-grade spirit stones!
Spirit stones were crystals imbued with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, and in the cultivation world they passed from hand to hand as a form of currency. The reality was that even a hundred ordinary stones were more than a mere commoner would ever get the chance to lay eyes on. A hundred of those precious things equaled a single mid-grade stone, and a thousand mid-grade stones equaled a single top-grade one. And I had traded one spirit fruit for 330 top-grade stones — if that wasn't a jackpot, what was?!
"Though I did wonder whether demon beasts might use demon stones or something of the sort as currency instead. Apparently not. Eh, no matter."
With 330 top-grade spirit stones, the things I could do were all but endless.
They were already in an uproar, howling for me to sell more Purpleheart Fruit.
"Absolutely not selling. If you wanted it that badly, you should have won the auction...!"
Apparently a fair number of them had bid half-heartedly, suspecting the whole thing might be a scam.
I ignored the demon immortals who kept digging up my posts and hammering reply notifications at me, and entered Yogyeonggak, the Demon Sutra Pavilion.
Money earned was money meant to be spent, wasn't it? Money was, after all, precisely the thing that turned to dung the moment you hoarded it.
"Just you wait, Yogyeonggak!"
Straight into Yogyeonggak — and the first thing I searched was stasis relics. The notice had said my payment was parked there for want of one, so naturally that came first, didn't it?
"In the world of xianxia, a stasis relic is a must-have. Yep."
"Ooh."
I gave everything on offer a look, but the bracelet still seemed like the best of the lot. A cord of no great thickness, and woven from jiaolong sinew at that — call it an inexplicable pull, but something about it simply drew me in.
Sure, four top-grade stones for a single stasis relic was steep. But when the thing could turn aside even a Golden Core cultivator's strike, calling it the price of my life made it hardly a waste at all.
Besides, look at the seller: BloodRedDragon. The name alone smelled of kin.
Even among jiaolong, an encounter generally meant a fight, but there was such a thing as an inborn closeness, you know. A feeling-feeling, if you will — like this one would suit me especially well.
Just to be safe, I searched BloodRedDragon, and the demon immortal seemed to carry themselves decently enough, for a forum regular.
"The oldest post, let's see..."
"Hmm... this one's a mad dragon of no ordinary stripe."
Still, a dragon wielding that kind of power wouldn't be running a scam. I combed through the other posts as well and found nothing to suggest they'd ever deceived anyone.
Just a touch of self-aggrandizement, that was all. For a habitual poster, this much was amateur hour. To me, who had watched every species of troll modernity had to offer, it was downright adorable.
Strike while the iron is hot — I purchased the bracelet-type stasis relic from Yogyeonggak on the spot. I was rolling in money anyway, wasn't I?
"Huh? Huhh? AAAHH!!"
I seized my head and tore at it then and there. Come to think of it, with no stasis relic to receive the thing, I couldn't receive it at all!!
"AAAHH!!AAAAAHH!!"
So the Sunlight demon immortal had been planning to raise the Purpleheart Fruit, it seemed. Well, there would be a next time.
Spirit fruits bloomed again if you simply left them be, after all — there was nothing stopping me from selling more.
If I remembered right, they ripened in about a year.
To a demon beast, a year was the blink of an eye. You'd think only a month had passed, check again, and a whole year had gone by.
"Phew. Anyway, setting that aside — this... this I truly cannot abide."
I had earned a fortune, and I could neither receive it nor spend it for lack of an account? Unacceptable. This was a crime more vile than failing to earn money in the first place.
"A stasis relic? Fine, I'll dash to a nearby market and buy one. Quick trip out, quick purchase, done. Oh, right — no money. Eh, whatever, I'll borrow one for a moment and hand it back!!"
Honestly, I was terrified.
But my spirit stones! I had to use them!
"Better to die having spent them than die with them unspent. And honestly, wasn't assuming no one would ever come just because I stayed put a little arrogant? What if someone tracked down this cave abode and came barging in?"
If that truly happened, I would be slaughtered on the spot without a single means of defense.
Whether I cultivated or did anything else, in the end I needed a way to protect this body. And to obtain that means, to grow — I needed a stasis relic.
"Alright. Decision made."
Cave abode, I'm heading out.
I would just step out quickly and come straight back. Would holing up here for eternity really change anything? My training in the demon art had already ground to a halt regardless.
Linger here doing nothing, and I was fated to die beneath heavenly tribulation anyway.
"Okay!"
Slap! I smacked both my cheeks and strode toward the cave abode's entrance. Before long, I stopped short.
"...Wait. How do I open the door?"
The cave abode's door. I had never once opened it.
"Xianxia worlds usually veil places like this behind barriers or formations... it would take the one who built this abode, or someone carrying a related demon art, to open it."
Force it open, and I might suffer several times over the pain of that "Tch, a barrier?" episode.
But I, too, was a demon cultivator now — a demon beast grown to the Demon General rank.
"Let's see... Mm. Right. Like this... so that's how it works."
From what I could tell, the barrier was warded far more strongly against impacts from outside than from within. At this level I could probably just batter it down, but...
"It's not as if I'm never coming back. Smashing it would only hurt me."
Just as I resigned myself to opening Yoseonbang again —
Rrrrumble—
"What is this, an automatic door?"
The cave abode's door had begun to swing open of its own accord the moment my hand drew near.
And beyond it...
"Another cave abode?"
Not the outside world — a second cave abode unfolded before my eyes. Not an identical one, of course. Its purpose looked a little different.
In size it was no different from the chamber where I had been born, but it was divided into distinct zones, almost as if...
"A room that seemed to say, 'I didn't know what you'd want to do, so I prepared everything...'"
Chambers for training in the signature arts of the xianxia world. Room after room lined with tools for practicing alchemy, talisman-crafting, artifact refinement, and the way of formations, along with a training ground for honing both spell arts and body techniques. All of it built roomy enough for me to use in my true form as a jiaolong — a training ground brimming with care, as though someone had planned every inch around my growth.
"All manner of weapons and armor... no wait, this is a sealed demon-insect egg. And this is... a spell? Whoa, amazing. What even is all this? Am I some kind of princess here!? Mama! Papa! Arigato!"
One glance was enough to tell these things were expensive. And to think I'd had my doubts — was I seriously born with a golden spoon in my mouth? The grin would not leave my face.
Because...
"Shall we head in and flex?"
I was already buzzing with excitement over the flex material I would be posting to Yoseonbang.