The tone of a confused and troubled clerk broke him out of his reverie.

The disciple speaking with him was relatively new, having worked in the treasury for only a year. He passed a carrier request that was unlike the other ones they handled today. It was one of the treasury’s magical receipts written with Qi-infused ink that required the clerk’s signature before showing the desired list of items. It had already been signed, and it took him only a second to see what the problem was.

“Two high-tier spirit stones?! When did you sign this?”

“This disciple signed it eight minutes ago, brother.”

“Why is it only now that you bring it to me?!?!”

Technically, the guarantee started from the moment that the receipt was signed by one of the clerks which was the reason most of the requests that reached them were of a magical nature, requiring their signature before revealing its contents.

This way, their magical ink could serve as a time stamp, and they would be placed on the clock. The informal, non-magical requests did not require a signature for its contents to be seen. This meant that if there was truly a problem with the order, they could theoretically delay signing it and claim they had not yet received the carrier.

Even though such an action could be considered scummy and deceptive by most, this was business! Attention to detail was important and key to making a good profit. Plus, they could not be too unreasonable with the delay, else the First Elder’s promise would lose credibility.

But the disciple had signed the request eight minutes ago which meant that the time to take action had been halved.

“Disciple did not take it seriously, so I placed it aside until now. Forgive me, brother.” Forehead wrinkles appeared on the clerk disciple’s face, expressing his sincere apology.

Hachiro huffed at him but did not spare the time to scold him. If it had been him, he would have prioritized the other carriers as well.

A single high-tier spirit stone was already an impossibility at thirty billion sect credits, let alone two.

This also was not the first time such a ridiculously absurd request had come in before. The Second Elder had sent a carrier once requesting to borrow a high-tier spirit stone for a prototype tool he was building, but when the matter was brought to the First Elder, he refused without sparing a second thought.

Hachiro gestured for the carrier’s keystone while ordering another clerk who had finished handling his carriers, “Retrieve elder brother’s seal.”

The clerk passed the customer’s keystone to him. It was not the usual obsidian color but a smooth shade of ivory. Hachiro looked at the ignorant clerk and interrogated him, “Why didn’t you bring the stone to me when you saw this?”

The disciple clerk who originally handled this request bowed apologetically. “Disciple was wrong. Disciple thought it was a trick.”

He was still too new and uninformed concerning the inner workings of the tribulation stones. As they gathered enough sect credits, in other words “Yang energy,” their color would progressively brighten.

Normally, the difference would be unnoticeable until a stone had accrued a massive amount of energy on the factor of a million credits, which was probably the reason that the clerk disciple had come back to it after eight minutes instead of waiting till the other carriers had been dealt with. The other keystones flown in today were also not the usual shade of black: some were black as onyx, some ebony black, and a couple were as bright as charcoal.

No matter how inexperienced the newbie was, it did not require him ten minutes to correlate a relationship between the stone’s color and the amount of credits it carried. That was when he asked himself, “How many credits would a stone need to become whiter than sand?!” He quickly passed his remaining carriers to another clerk and brought the problem directly to Hachiro.

“Bring me the big one from inside,” he commanded two clerks closest to the back hallway. Knowing immediately what he was referring to, they disappeared and reappeared within a few seconds carrying a large TD with a nine-digit counter on it.

The sect only had two of these demarcators, and barring the sect’s annual orientation, they were usually used in the back to privately consolidate the exact number of sect credits in their inventory.

Of course, nine digits could not display anything more than 999,999,999 credits, but what Hachiro wanted was the one billion credits transaction button that only these TDs carried.

It was no secret that the Second Elder was a bit eccentric, often adding extra features to his creations that were superfluous and unnecessary. At least this time, the never-before-used button was finally going to see a little action. Actually, if Hachiro’s fears came true, the button was about to see a lot of action.

After setting up the exchange, to everyone’s horror, the nine-digit counter reflected an amount they had never seen in one stone—999999999. He placed one of the temp keystones belonging to the treasury on the other plate and pressed the dusty exchange button with the following sloppy inscription on it:

‘1000000000

→’

Only this button had been crudely crafted by the Second Elder. The other buttons and dials for TDs were made by his assistant Aracha and other disciples she had commissioned.

Instead of the near-instant swap of credits taking place, the machine vibrated heavily for a whole second before stopping suddenly. A quick glance at the counter revealed no change in the number, but the temp keystone had suddenly changed from black to bone white.

Hachiro tossed the temp keystone to a clerk and placed a second empty one on the plate before pressing the button again. He repeated this process every second.

The clerks knew what they had to do without being told. They took the keystones they were handed and used the spare TDs to separate the billion credits into smaller and more easily measured amounts spread across hundreds of temp keystones.

Around the twentieth press of the button, Hachiro ordered two clerks he trusted more than the rest, “You, go report to First Elder and Elder Brother what has happened here! And be quick! You, go find a Vice Elder and bring him here.”

Hideaki Akiyoshi had given Hachiro a way to immediately contact the vice elders, but it was meant for literal emergencies or a call for help. The whole sect would be alerted, and many vice elders would rush here. Considering the fact that nothing had actually gone wrong and that he sect was already in a high alert status, he wanted to avoid stirring up the pot.

At this moment, he only wanted a vice elder to come by and take control of the situation so that he would not be blamed if something untoward happened.

The clerks did not pause to bow in compliance as they understood that time was of the essence. They took out their flying swords and dashed out of the treasury.

Hachiro continued extracting credits from the ivory keystone one billion at a time. By the time he had reached the thirtieth button press, he had become numb to his surroundings.

It was not until around the forty-fifth button press that a young lady entered the treasury and headed to one of the clerks who was busy dividing up one of the temp keystones. Although she wore inner sect robes, she was only at the Qi Flourishing stage. Many of the clerks working inside the treasury were inner sect disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage, so they did not feel guilty ignoring her until the current matter had been resolved.

After all, it was proper protocol to deal with the all carriers first.

She stood there patiently, curiously scanning the treasury filled with quiet liveliness and the numerous pressings of buttons.

By the time Hachiro had pressed the button for the sixtieth and final time, his soul felt empty, and his body drained of energy.

The stone really held sixty billion credits…

Even if all the Yang within the sect was gathered in one place for a whole decade, the amount should not reach half a billion credits.

The various clerks twitched their eyes when they saw the TD counter still displayed all nines.

It still held at least another billion credits on it!

Hachiro briefly circulated some Qi to regain his energy. He brought the keystone and carrier to the center of the treasury where the high-tier spirit stones were on display. After deactivating the security enchantments by waving the First Elder’s seal within their vicinity, he opened the case.

The room was immediately filled with an extremely dense and abundant amount of Qi. The refreshing air was so calming and relaxing that the tension in the room dissipated and many of the now-idle clerks sat on the floor to meditate. Hachiro forced himself to pick up one of the high-tier spirit stones and reluctantly stuff it into the carrier’s bag. He could feel the immense Qi resonating within the stone which caused him to linger on the second stone for a second longer.

Most cultivators go their whole lives without seeing a high-tier spirit stone. Hachiro was certain he would never have the chance to touch one again, but he did not delay. There was not much time remaining.

He glanced outside the treasury and saw no sign of elder brother or a vice elder. It was unlikely one of them would show up within the time limit, but he held some hope he would be wrong.

He exhaled an exasperated sigh.

He could not wait any longer.

After preparing the carrier to return from whence it came, he turned to the disciple clerk who had the highest cultivation amongst them.

Like the rest of them, he was in the Foundation Establishment, but he had fortified and sculpted his foundation the most, becoming the closest to crystallizing his core.

“Follow it and make sure it reaches its destination. Make sure to watch over the one who receives it until we contact you. Do not lose sight of them!”

The clerk disciple nodded to show that he understood

With this, Hachiro had taken every precaution he could come up with in this short time span.

He sent the carrier on its way and the designated disciple followed it on a flying sword.

Shortly after he passed the corner of the treasury, the disciple in pursuit saw the carrier’s storage bag blink.

No, wait…

Was he the one who blinked? But he did not remember blinking just now…

Once Hachiro closed the display case and sent out the final carrier, the Qi inside the treasury hall settled back down.

He and the clerk disciples sighed in unison. The ordeal was over…for now.

The silence was broken by two people arguing with one another.

“How can elder brother assist junior sister?”

“I was helping junior sister first! You are unneeded brother.”

“It is your turn to rest inside, brother. My shift has just started.”

Two clerks fought over who got to help the female Qi Flourishing customer that had been waiting quietly for the past few minutes.

Now that Hachiro was no longer focused on the carriers, he could assess the female disciple more deeply.

Long, silky black hair with straight ends that swayed gently with her head, broad and reliable shoulders capable of carrying the world, a tall and straight back that could only be admired from behind, she wore a single tacky seashell on one ear and a sword in a blood-red sheath on her waist. There was a mysterious, yet dangerous charm about her that caused his heart to race like never before.

How did he not notice her before?

He had given her a preliminary glance while he was in the middle of transferring the sixty billion credits, but he neither recognized her nor had she caught his eye at the time, appearing much more mundane than this.

“You all, go inside and take inventory. I want a report ready for elder brother before he returns,” he commanded the two bickering clerk disciples as well as the others.

Most of them who had already gotten closer to examine the enchanting female disciple gave Hachiro a look of resentment before they clicked their tongues and left, many of them rolling their eyes. Three quick-witted disciples dashed to the other tables and acted like they were working on something productive.

Hachiro ignored them and walked to the back of the vacated table while popping a Qi Accelerant pill into his mouth. He used it to reinvigorate himself and his appearance. As a bonus, the pill was usually mixed with the leaves of a Qi-fed Mint Plant that would give the cultivator’s breath and skin a pleasant odor. “How may I help junior sister?”

Kenja had entered the treasury for three reasons.

The first reason was that he was concerned over why the last carrier was taking so long to be sent. He underestimated the length of time it would take for them to confirm the amount of credits, and he was worried that his credits were wrongfully seized.

The damn snail that was stuck to the side of the entrance switching out the bags as they left lacked any courtesy to inform him of the situation inside, so Kenja felt he had no choice but to see for himself what was going on.

The second reason he entered the treasury was because he had told Hideaki Akiyoshi earlier that he was coming here, so he had to at least make a cameo appearance.

Finally, he did have some things he wanted that were inconvenient to request anonymously.

“I have to trouble elder brother. I wish to purchase everything on this list.”

Kenja pulled out a paper with a dozen items listed on it and handed it to Hachiro.

Hachiro looked over the list expecting some combination of low-tier spirit stones, bronze lecture passes and/or low-end cultivation manuals. He nearly stumbled over in anger when he finished reading the list, but after examining Kenja again, his anger melted away.

“Junior sister is funny, but it isn’t good to joke about this sort of thing here. All this would cost more than a hundred thousand credits. You are lucky that I am the one helping you and not someone else; otherwise, you’d be in trouble,” he reprimanded Kenja while painting himself in a good light.

Kenja raised one eyebrow at him in confusion. “I’m not joking. How long will it take to prepare all of it? Should I come back later?”

Hachiro could not retain his air of professionalism as he decided to play along with Kenja. “As long as you have enough credits, junior sister, I will personally deliver the items to your cave before the hour is up.”

This way, Hachiro could end her jokes without hurting her feelings.

Kenja nodded with an unrestrained smile so mesmerizing that Hachiro and the other clerks found themselves breathless. He passed over his keystone to Hachiro who immediately noticed that it was not the usual color of obsidian, giving him a bad premonition. Without glancing at the cave inscription, he bypassed the table’s equipped TD and went directly to the nine-digit TD that was left standing at the side.

006539257.

More than six million credits…

The other clerks stared slack-jawed at the number.

Hachiro felt his head swell.

He must be dreaming or dead. How else could one explain everything that had happened in the past twenty minutes? Someone must have knocked him unconscious without his notice…

Hachiro took the keystone out and examined its cave number.

He jerked alive the next moment and shot a look at the three clerks still present in the room. “Go get senior sister everything on this list now!”

The clerks were surprised by the sudden change in personality, but they knew better than to question it. They took the sheet of paper and divvied up the list before disappearing into the back.

Kenja was also surprised by the change of address, but he did not find it strange. Once merchants learned that they were dealing with a wealthy customer, they would become courteous and subservient.

Hachiro promptly returned to the table in front of Kenja and extracted the credits before logging the transaction. Then, he handed the keystone and receipt to Kenja.

“Thank you for your business, senior sister. This little one hopes you will forgive his earlier discourtesy.”

Kenja waved his hand to gesture that he had forgotten it already. “What discourtesy?”

Hachiro returned a soft smile to Kenja as he circulated Qi to calm his racing heartbeat. He tried to focus his sight on something else in the room to avoid having his gaze linger on Kenja.

One of the three clerk disciples that had gone to gather the items had returned holding a bag in front of Kenja. Unlike Hachiro, the clerk’s gaze was locked on Kenja’s form.

Hachiro kicked the clerk from behind the table to tell him he was staring too hard.

“You have my thanks,” Kenja nodded to him.

“There is no need for that, senior sister. We should thank you for being so patient,” replied Hachiro.

The treasury did not really do hand deliveries, but he would not have minded making an exception for this enthralling fairy had it not been for what he discovered.

Kenja took the storage bag from the clerk and transferred its contents to his own before bowing and leaving.

Hachiro and the clerk stood next to each other appreciating Kenja’s departing form. Once he had left, the clerk turned to Hachiro and asked him, “Brother, who was she? Why did you change after looking at her keystone?”

Hachiro did not bother replying. He merely pointed to something on the logbook.

5-5

“Eh! Is that…?!”

Hachiro nodded before he could finish forming his question.

“Woooow…she’s even more amazing in person. No wonder you were so respectful!”

Although Hachiro was the current manager of the treasury, it was still temporary. These were not his underlings, but his peers, so when there were no clients, they continued to speak freely with him.

“Yes. Even if we had ten lives, we can’t afford to offend her!”

The clerk nodded vehemently in approval of this statement. He was already regretting how much he ogled Kenja.

“Will we be okay, brother?” He was referring to the high-tier spirit stones that was sent out earlier.

Hachiro sighed again.

While the high-tier spirit stones were approximately equivalent to 300 million low-tier spirit stones, no one was actually dumb enough to trade away a high-tier spirit stone for so many low-tier spirit stones.

The First Elder used his high-tier spirit stones to reinforce the value of sect credits in the eyes of the merchants that were invited to do business inside the sect, making them a credible currency within the boundaries of the Flowing River Sect.

And with the supposed total sum of sect credits existing within the sect being nowhere near a billion, there should have been no way to amass thirty billion credits. Even if a cultivator continually traded spirit stones in exchange for sect credits, there was not enough accumulated Yang energy to reach the price for a high-tier spirit stone.

His plan should have been foolproof!

“We did everything we could. Don’t worry. Even if our safeguards fail, First Elder would definitely have his own contingency plans in place.”

His reassurance did the trick as the anxiety in the clerk’s face disappeared.