Finally having time to talk to Mei Lin alone, I decided the best place for us to go was close to the carriages near the end of the line.

One of the things I didn’t really notice, because of everything that was happening, was just how many carriages there are. What seems strange is that every time I see more people arrive, there seems to be another carriage to accommodate them. The only thing I could come up with was that it was a Qi treasure of some sort.

My thoughts are confirmed with my scan, as it shows it is an rare middle tier treasure.

My scan shows that Qi Treasures are structured on both tier and rarity. For example, you can have a common item, but that was made to a transcendent quality.

However, at a certain point, it is too difficult to determine the value or effectiveness of an item at higher rarities. The average strays farther and farther away from the listed price, the higher it goes.

The tiers of treasures are:

Inferior 1/100x Value + Effectiveness (has potentially negative effects)

Subpar 1/10x Value + Effectiveness

Low 1x Value + Effectiveness

Middle 10x Value + Effectiveness

High 100x Value + Effectiveness

Superior 1,000x Value + Effectiveness

Heavenly 100,000x Value + Effectiveness

Transcendent – Value above Heavenly

The rarity of treasures are:

Common 1x Value, can be found or made almost anywhere

Uncommon 10x Value, can be found or made with some difficulty

Rare 100x Value, difficult to find or make

Epic 10,000x Value, requires a dedicated expert to find or make

Legendary 1,000,000x Value

Mythic – Value above Legendary

Exotic

Transcendent

I’ve significantly lowered my scan to only get the basics with flashes that I can figure out with my increased intuition, so that I can not have my brain meltdown. Nonetheless, I’m still definitely a lot more sluggish, with a huge headache.

I’m learning to alternate the strength of my scan to be more reactive. While it’s a lot riskier, especially in terms of surprise attacks, my awareness is doing a large amount to prep me for anything that’s happening.

If they’re using a treasure like this, for a city of this size, it makes me wonder how powerful this sect really is.

They’re using an uncommon middle tier treasure on sending in new recruits. Ones that actually may not even be qualified to enter the sect.

The strangest thing is, I’m not getting the intuition from my scan that this is a posturing effort. They really have so many middle tier treasures, that they can afford to use this on every group. If that doesn’t shout wealth, I don’t know what does in this world.

What is even scarier is that I know for a fact that this isn’t the strongest sect in this country. In fact, it’s more along the average, if barely above average. The world is large and the spaces that each sect controls are huge. Countless number of people lives within these lands.

a cough by the young girl in front of me takes me out of my thoughts, and my scan.

… right.

I should deal with the conundrum in front of me before trying to tackle what exactly is going on with this system.

One step at a time, James. One step at a time.

Before she can say anything, I whisper to her to be careful in what she says, for there are other ears listening right now.

She nods and motions for us to climb into the carriage together.

Well, now is as good a time as any to get ready to go.

As I climb into the carriage alongside her, I realize I didn’t see that handsome man anywhere near the main group.

My scan reveals through a pulse that he appears to be walking dejectedly to one of the front carriages. He seems to have been keeping an eye out for me. The old alchemist me, at least.

I too will have to keep an eye out for him. It looks like he has some intentions placed upon me. He clearly knows about my alchemist job. My guess, though, is that he’s not affiliated with The Alchemist Guild.

Otherwise, he would have likely known where I’ve gone and would not be looking for me.

He could be someone who needs help for someone he knows.

I’m only relatively sure of that.

Taking my mind off of him, I focus back in on the young girl in front of me. Again.

“So…”

Now she’s the one that stops me, placing a finger to her lips, motioning me to be silent.

I can feel my brow furrow in confusion, as she reaches in her bag, to pull out a notebook of some sort.

My scan automatically identified it as an uncommon subpar treasure, one that allows people to speak to each other without anyone listening or being able to read their lips.

In fact, the way it works, is for each of us to write onto the paper. From then, anything that we would say out loud is written into the paper instead.

Our mouths don’t move, but our intent is what actually goes into the paper. Surprisingly, we can hear each other as if we were speaking out loud.

Anyone trying to read the paper other than us, will be unable to. Unless they were low foundation establishment cultivators. And, even they would need to work to decrypt what it’s saying, as it would be in encoded.

What appears to make this subpar is that a limited amount of people use it and it can only be used for an hour, with a 3 hour cool-down.

In my opinion, it’s not too bad of a drawback. What actually does get me though, is why she would have this.

For merchant family of their size, this would be an essential and treasured item. Something that would take a group of their size a decade to purchase.

I guess that shows how important it is for their family to be able to have her become a cultivator.

She attempts to explain to me using her hands that it’s safe to use, But I wave her away and place my hand on it. Writing a ‘hello’ inside.

She seems a bit surprised at my willingness to write inside of it and for the briefest moment, I can catch her squinting at me in suspension. Her face soon relaxes, though, and she writes a hello back.

From this point on we should be able to hear each other normally as we talk.

She starts off first.

“So, why did you come out of that alleyway, looking completely different?”

UHHHHHHHH…