Chapter 204 - The Man in the Royal Bed [5]

After a lot of begging and pestering, Sirius finally gave in and went to sleep, but not before creating another avatar to keep talking with Cale in the room. A ray of energy erupted from his forehead, forming another body of his younger self, which looked like a carbon copy of the original one.

’Tsk.. this fuc-... sigh...’

"Seriously... aren’t you just showing off now!"

Sirius sighed. "So, what do you want now?"

Cale thought for a moment. "Protection. For all the auction houses and merchant halls I’m going to open."

"You mean the ones that ;my’ daughter owns, right?"

Cale smiled and nodded. "Indeed. The ones ’I’ asked her to set up."

"Were you in some clan or sect in the previous... that?" Sirius asked.

"Well, not a clan. They’re quite stuck on the ’blood runs thick’ kind of thing. But I was part of a demonic sect..."

Sirius nodded. "I see. That explains quite a lot. Hmm. I’ll give you a technique to create a soul armor that covers your entire body like a knight’s plate. It can only be formed with demonic qi and death qi, which you have plenty of. This armor will even help you create avatar Dharma bodies, and sturdy ones at that."

"Oh, I knew it. You have the best loot!"

Sirius walked ahead, and Cale followed him to another room, one of hundreds of treasuries. Along the way, Sirius told him many interesting things.

"Sword cultivators form a mind sword from their intent at the Emperor Realm, and you, Cale, can absorb it. Have you never tried it?"

Cale sighed. "How can I, when I don’t even know what it is? But now that I know where to aim, it isn’t that difficult."

Sirius nodded. "Good. Next, your technique. It’s good, but awful."

"A-awful?! How?"

"You’ve got the grasp of it, but not the rhythm. You’re missing the beat, if I simplify it."

Cale nodded slowly, thinking. ’Rhythm, huh? I’ve never thought of it like that. Putting full force into every attack and trying to finish a battle the moment it starts was my thing... I see. That’s a good direction to think about.’

As Cale stuffed his bags with dozens of items, Sirius took out a few pages and handed them over.

Seeing them, Cale was a little shocked.

"How do you... no, right. Dragons, huh."

Sirius nodded. "They’re resonating with you. I see you have a lot of them too. Here, take these."

It was a stack of thirty-seven pages from the Book of Endless Refinement.

As Cale read through them, he sighed.

"Talismans and runic techniques... sigh."

"You don’t understand, do you?"

"What don’t I understand?"

"Your concept is ink. Isn’t making talismans and drawing runes supposed to be your best and most natural path? And here you are, getting sad over it."

Cale’s eyes widened again. ’I didn’t think in that direction either. Indeed, in trying to learn the bigger things, you sometimes overlook the smaller ones.’

Grinning, he said, "Uncle, don’t you have any... spiritual stones? High-quality ones would be nice..."

Sirius sighed. With a snap of his fingers, a bag appeared in his hand, and he tossed it over.

"Huh, what’s this?"

Cale opened the spatial pouch, expecting a few precious treasures. Instead, his eyes widened at what lay inside.

Hundreds of thousands of identical jade pendants were stacked neatly within, each carved with an intricate dragon motif and radiating a faint, lustrous sheen. For a moment he simply stared, struggling to grasp the sheer quantity of such finely crafted treasures. Just how wealthy was his uncle, exactly?

"Um, Uncle, although it looks interesting, it isn’t what I—"

Sirius knocked on Cale’s head.

"Idiot kid, those are celestial jade tokens. Seriously, were you that poor in the past, or did you just never trade in that much money? A single celestial jade is worth about ten thousand high-grade spiritual stones."

Cale’s eyes widened in shock, and then in happiness. All of this was going to belong to him now.

He had gone looking for coal and found a diamond!

"Uncle... you’re so rich..."

Sirius laughed. "Hahaha. What do you think I’ve been doing for thousands of years? If I were still poor after all that, my descendants would be spitting lava on me."

"That’s something I definitely would have done."

Sirius turned and walked back out, and Cale followed.

"So, I see you don’t use many artifacts. But to think you’d have a refining body. Interesting. That technique should suit you well..."

"What technique? Is it powerful?"

"It’s something I made myself, so of course it’s powerful. If you master it, killing a few Great Sages as an Emperor would be possible. It’s specialized for assassins, though..."

Cale’s eyes flared with interest. Of course he wanted it. He didn’t have many attack-based techniques to begin with. Then a question came to him.

"Wait, assassin-based, you say? Is that why you took Rexa?"

"Yes, that’s why. The same technique was taught to her too. But well... I never took it to the sixth step."

Cale asked curiously, "What’s the sixth step?"

Sirius answered with a faint grin.

"The technique is called the Path of the Senseless Void. It allows you to sacrifice one or more of your senses temporarily in exchange for a tremendous increase in strength, speed, and killing power. The more senses you give up, the greater the amplification. And if you dare to surrender all five, you enter a state known as Absolute Senselessness, where your entire existence becomes an instrument of assassination. Of course, the greater the power you borrow, the heavier the price you’ll pay. Don’t worry, I only taught her half of it."

"I see. Well, thanks for not teaching something like that to her."

Sirius nodded. "Isn’t it obvious? Seeing how she acts toward you, if you were ever in danger, even briefly, she’d give up all her senses permanently to get you out of it."

Cale found he couldn’t argue with that.