Chapter 89: Spoils

The fatty’s thick fingers found the second box. It opened with no resistance.

Nothing unexpected happened. Nine slim books lay inside, each bound in gold thread. Their covers gleamed like polished brass.

Kian made the fatty lift one.

The title was sharp and clear, written in a script he could read.

[Valiant King Technique].

"What’s this?"

He flipped a page and read its contents briefly.

It had something about heavenly technique and whatnot written in it. For now, Kian did not go onto read it.

He had the fatty set the book down and take the next.

[The Divine Farmer]. Then [Golden Warrior]. [Silent Swimmer]. [Ninefold Star Body].

There were a total of five techniques.

Kian withdrew his senses partly and turned to Feimei.

"What is a Heavenly Technique?"

Feimei’s face went pale.

She grabbed his arm, her red eyes wide. "You found Heavenly Techniques?"

"Yeah what are those?"

"Kian, those are arts that only one person in the entire world can learn. If someone trains in one, it vanishes for everyone else, forever. And a cultivator can only ever train one Heavenly Technique in their life."

Kian stared back toward the hut. The golden books waited. They were that good?

Interesting.

Kian sent a crisp command down the puppet-bond: pack everything and get out.

The fatty gathered the five gold-bound books and the box of letters, turned, and walked back through the swaying grass.

It reached them before the sun’s last light left the cliff, arms flexing under the weight.

Kian took the stack from its hands, each book smooth and warm.

Feimei reached out but stopped before touching. "We should leave first," she whispered, glancing toward the hut. "Just in case."

Kian nodded, tucked the books under one arm, and pulled her close with the other.

He shut his eyes, found the thought of the room, and pulled, dragging Feimei and the fatty along the same tether.

The world folded.

Cold air, the smell of old paper and osmanthus wine, and the soft scrape of the map dragging across the low table as they landed back in Feimei’s room.

The fatty stood motionless beside them, its flat eyes fixed on the wall. Kian set the nine books on the bed, then dropped the box of letters in Feimei’s hand.

"Read what you can. I’ll count our new funds."

Kian untied the leather pouch and upended it onto the bed. Stones clicked and rolled, splitting into two uneven piles by size. He counted in silence, separating the low-grade from the mid-grade.

Feimei picked up the first letter, her red eyes tracking the jagged script. She read one page, then another, her breathing slow and even. The room quieted until nothing moved but the rustle of paper and the soft clack of stones.

Twenty-three thousand four hundred.

Kian swept the last stone into the pile and sat back. He watched as Feimei’s expression shifted from confusion to something dangerously close to wonder.

"Did you find something?"

"Kian," she said, lowering the pages. "This place is not some dangerous thing, no wonder Hua Shulong wanted to steal my bloodline eyes to get in here"

"What is it?"

"It’s a land inheritance, something already linked to my eyes. Only a person with my eyes can control that island."

"Control it?"

"Yeah. It is a home for a descendant of my bloodline." She touched her eyes. "The letters say the island is peaceful where it is right now. No enemies, no wild beasts, no traps inside. And only a person with my eyes can even read this letter. The island was put there for me to live without worry. For a blood demon with my eyes, to be precise."

"Wow. Wait, put there? What do you mean put there?"

"There’s an enchantment in the island. If I inherit the island by absorbing this map into me with blood, it can become a flying island, and I can fly it around. We could travel the whole world with it, basically."

"Dang, so someone left a flying plain for you to inherit?"

"Eh?"

"Yeah, that’s it. What else is inside?"

She took a steadying breath. "And inside the hut, there is a blood pool. If a descendant bathes in it, it can completely change their bloodline intensity. It can make them a true blood demon, like an ancient one."

"Dang, that’s crazy."

She nodded, truly impressed.

Kian exhaled, low and slow, glad about this sudden windfall.

"So we have a flying island, a blood pool that can turn you into a greater beauty, and five legendary techniques sitting on my bed. Not a bad afternoon."

Feimei pressed a hand to her chest. "It sounds like a fairy tale. I keep waiting for something to go wrong."

"It will. It always does." Kian crossed to the bed and ran his fingers over the gold-threaded spines. "But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the good part first."

He picked up the Valiant King Technique and turned it over. The cover was warm, almost alive under his palm. No title on the back. No author. Just that same polished brass sheen.

[Ding]

[A heavenly technique discovered. Do you want to learn it?]

Kian blinked.

’What does it do?’

[With this technique, the more land you conquer, the stronger your cultivation becomes.]

He took another technique.

[Divine farmer.]

[The better plants and farms you build, the more your cultivation benefits.]

"You shouldn’t open that carelessly," Feimei said. "Heavenly Techniques choose their master. If it rejects you, you might lose the chance forever."

’I don’t think that’s a problem for me with the system.’

Kian didn’t wait for permission. He reached for Golden Warrior next, and the system chimed before his fingers fully closed around the spine.

[Golden Warrior — The more warriors you kill who are stronger than you, the stronger your cultivation becomes.]

He let out a short breath.

"Not bad either."

Feimei leaned over his arm, reading the title upside down. "What does it say?"

"That one is for a killer of men. Every enemy you crush feeds your cultivation."

Her lips parted. Then she simply said, "Of course it does, my Blood Demon ancestors were truly no kind sort."

He set it aside and lifted Silent Swimmer.

[Silent Swimmer — The more rivers, lakes, seas, and hidden waters you conquer as your domain, the stronger your cultivation grows.]

Kian stared at the words for a beat.

Water conquest?

That was oddly specific. What did it mean his domain?

Then he grabbed Ninefold Star Body.

[Ninefold Star Body — The more star essence and celestial paths you absorb, the stronger your body and cultivation become.]

He didn’t even know what that meant.

Five arts, with extra volumes for advanced stages and annotations. It was all for his choosing.

Kian let the last book thump against the bed and looked over the gold-threaded set.

Land. Agriculture. Battle. Water. Stars. Each one fed on a different kind of conquest. A different kind of life.

What he chooses could very well determine his future.

Feimei touched the cover of the Divine Farmer with one careful finger. "What will you do, husband of my daughters?"

"I feel like doing you, but I am kind of focused on this right now."

Even Feimei blushed at the words.

Kian didn’t answer right away. He tapped the Valiant King Technique and watched the system prompt pulse, waiting. Conquering was filled with battle, battle was filled with conquer.

Kian liked a peaceful life with some fights, not a fight-ful life with some peace.

Kian tapped his fingers once against the bed and let out a long breath.

He needed some time. The Divine Farmer called to him, but not loudly, and he wasn’t about to rush a choice that could shape the rest of his life over a quiet afternoon.

Later. Later.

He set the books down in a loose stack, gold threading catching the low light.

"I’ll choose later."

He ran a hand through the nine books, feeling some eagerness.

Before Feimei could answer, the system chimed again, cold and bright behind his eyes.

A small blue panel unfolded between them.

[Would you like to claim these Heavenly Techniques? Claimed techniques can be stored, trained yourself (limited to one), or granted to others at any time.]

Hm?

He can choose to give them away to anyone he likes or train it himself later.

Kian raised an eyebrow. So the books didn’t have to sit in the open, waiting for some thief to stumble through. That was giood.

He nodded once, curious.

[Ding]

The five golden books lifted off the mattress. They hung for half a heartbeat, pages ruffling in a breeze that didn’t exist. Then they folded into thin rivers of gold light and disappeared into his chest.

No impact, no rawness in his chest. Just a soft, spreading warmth near his dantian, like he’d swallowed a mouthful of sunlight.

A new prompt shimmered into place.

[Heavenly Archive unlocked. Five Heavenly Techniques stored. You may bestow one technique per person. A cultivator may hold only one Heavenly Technique in their life.]

Kian pressed a palm to his ribs, then let it fall. "That’s nice."

Feimei blinked at him. "Is that a storage technique?"

"Yeah, but it only works for very few things. This happened to work, so that’s lucky."

"You are full of surprises."

"Forget about that, do you want to train in one of these?"

"I’d rather not. I got the blood pool in the hut, so you can give the techniques to your wives."

"Okay."

Kian was fine by that.

He looked up and met Feimei’s wide red eyes.