Chapter 233: Returning Home

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Ren was in a good mood.

There were a lot of reasons why: he was the undisputed champion of the City vs. City Tournament, the city he represents earned a total of six blessings that will last for the next decade because of him, he successfully proved that his awakened talent wasn’t enough to conclude his finish line, and many other things during that whole tournament...

But the main reason was because of Lily.

He’s been working hard and taking his time to get her. He initially thought that he’d need to wait a little longer, but to his surprise, he got her the moment they saw each other’s real faces for the first time.

Even now, Ren was still savoring her flowery scent, which still clung to him, reminding him of last night and this morning.

For the first time since his transmigration, Ren didn’t want to get up from the bed. He just wanted to lay there with her and make love to her all day.

He knew that women could be fatal to even the strongest men, but damn, does it feel good...especially one so gentle, soft, caring, and absolutely smitten with him.

Alas, as much as he wanted to be lazy and stay in bed with her, he can’t. He had responsibilities to take care of, and she has some too.

After escorting Lily to the teleportation hub, with both of them wearing disguises, Ren returned to the clan.

Upon his return, his uncle and the elders congratulated him and praised him for a job well done. They told him that he had given the clan a lot of face and that he’s a star now.

This had nearly cemented the clan’s reputation as a true ancient martial clan. Mikel told him that the whole city was practically showering them with gifts because of what Ren achieved and more so because the rewards he drew from the Wheel of Fortune were already taking place.

The Blessing of Blessed Vitality, Martial Talent, Resource Prosperity, Blessed Environment, and Enlightened Mind.

Six blessings, all feeding each other for a cycle of improvement that will last for the next ten years. The citizens of Central City were already feeling its effects, and this was just the start.

Originally, the Elders wanted to throw a banquet or a little celebration for Ren, but he told them that it wasn’t necessary. He had enough celebrating for the rest of the year. He tells them that if they really wanted to, they can do so in his name, and he will try to show up for a bit for appearance’s sake, but his main priority is to return to his training.

After telling them that, Ren returned to his home—which had been improved into a large villa by now—and relaxed for a bit.

He sent a message to his girlfriend, telling her that he’s home. He even sent her a picture of him chilling on his sofa. She sent a reply, and they chatted for a bit before Ren decided to finally stop delaying.

**

"World System, I’m taking one of my personal rewards from the tournament."

"Show me the available list for treasure artifacts first."

A few seconds later, a virtual golden scroll unfolded before him. It’s a virtual list of available treasure artifacts that’s available for picking. Ren could choose one for free as his reward.

The choice list was abundant. There were tens of thousands in here to choose from. Even though they’re separated by category and there are filters that could be used, the number of options is still staggering.

Others would’ve been overwhelmed by this. Some would need days or weeks to properly comb through the options to choose the best one for themselves.

Ren doesn’t need to.

He already knew what he wanted.

A treasure weapon was, obviously, out. This was one of the rare times where his aberrant martial physique helped him instead of limiting him. With the weapons tab exempted, he eliminated nearly 50% of the available options here.

Armor was tempting. But Ren could still rely on the Black Adamantium Technique for a long time. He’d outgrow the armor picks here before the technique becomes inane, so this option was out, too.

Ren’s eyes gravitated to the ’Custom Artifact Creation’ tab, instead. Because what he was searching for and wanted wasn’t available in this list.

He wanted a bike.

More specifically, an all-terrain motorcycle that accepts all forms of energy as fuel and could be used even inside dungeons.

He wants a motorcycle that could use gas, chakra, or any form of energy as its fuel source. And when he says that he wanted an all-terrain bike, he means that seriously; dirt, paved roads, rocky terrains, mud, wet surfaces, snow, mountain trails...hell, this bike should also be able to run underwater or on solid air of his own making to ride across the skies.

This is what Ren wants.

He doesn’t need it to have weapons. He doesn’t need it to shoot bullets, flame, rockets, or anything. He won’t use it to ram through walls or any visible obstructions. Heck, he doesn’t even need to be indestructible, although that would be nice.

Ren just wants a decent ride, that’s all.

Transportation was a genuine problem in dungeons. Sure, Ren could be fast, but sometimes, he would rather ride or drive something instead of running to where he’s needed to be.

And especially where he’s off to, once he ties up all loose ends in this world? This bike will be much more of a need than a want.

Luckily for him, the world system accepted his wish. It would need time before the bike were made, but once it’s done, it’ll be sent straight to his inventory.

"Great!" Ren smiled at this.

With this out of the way, Ren proceeded to get his [High-Grade Martial Technique] reward.

Once again, the number of options here was staggering. This time there were hundreds of thousands of martial techniques here, which would take days or weeks to sift through.

This was an incredible temptation for Ren, especially because of the Unparalleled Comprehension cheat. If he could just take his time to properly read through every single technique available here, he’d be the most knowledgeable martial artist humanity will have in a century, or a millennium, even.

Alas, that’s not how this works.

Each technique here only had a summarized description with a short clip demostrating what it would look like in practice.

Sure, Ren could watch every single one of these and let his cheat puzzle out the missing pieces, but that would take him months, if not years, to do. And that’s under the assumption that he’s dedicated to it.

He can’t just commit that much time and effort for this. That’s why he’s going to have to use the many filters available here to aid him in picking what he needs.

Here’s the thing, though: Ren wasn’t lacking in techniques for offense, defense, and movement. He’s got all of that covered, and frankly? Should he need an improvement, Ren could just improve what he already has, which already suits him perfectly.

What he needed from this list was very specific, which saved him a lot of time. It’s a technique that will solve his glaring weakness, which hasn’t been exposed due to his incredibly dominant performance publicly.

Soul/spiritual-based martial technique.

To say that this category of martial arts was rare would be an understatement. Ren had been privy to many choices of martial arts before; he even perused many theories or martial arts creations himself, but even with these, martial arts that tackle the soul and spirit were incredibly rare.

Which is understandable. Not even the Sky Archons played around with these attributes.

Ren had seen expensive soul/spiritual-based martial arts from the world system store, ones that cost millions of merit points to buy. The concepts behind them were too complicated for him to begin, and more importantly, they’re too expensive, which is why he hasn’t bought a single one.

With this list, though, he had a handful of options. All are in a level he can comprehend and study and grow from there.

His choice was the [Nurturing Spirit Technique]—not an offensive technique, or even a defensive one technically. What it does is in its name—it nurtures the spirit, allowing it to grow, mature, and become stronger.

A stronger spirit was tougher and harder to injure and quicker to heal if it were ever injured.

This technique did say that the growth will be slow, which is within his predictions, and compared to other soul/spirit-based techniques, it wasn’t special at all.

But for him, this was perfect and exactly what he needed. He could use this as a base for him to eventually create his own, one that’s perfectly suitable for him.

Ren didn’t waste time. His mind was made up, and he has made his choice. He picked the [Nurturing Spirit Technique], and soon, the book appeared in his hand.

As tempted as he was to read it now, he resisted and placed it in his inventory for later since he still had other rewards to receive.