-Dragon Vault-

Deep in the underground of a world that spanned the distance of countless suns, lay a vast expansive cave network. This cave network stretched out and crisscrossed through the entire planet. It had caves as big as the entire planet of Ascension.

In a shallow part of this cave system, far and distant from any other underground caves, was a relatively tiny cavern. This cave spanned only a few hundred kilometres and was carved entirely from a shiny black rock.

In the centre of the cave was a grand temple that filled only a few kilometres in height, length and width. In a room of this temple was a wall that had a great big red pool filled with swirling red water that defied gravity.

The room, and the entire temple, were shrouded in the pitch black darkness of the underground. However, strangely, torches mounted on walls, both inside and outside the temple, started to magically light up and bathed the temple in flickering light.

Moments after, a body was launched out of the red pool and slid half way across the room using its face as its breaks. When it finally came to a stop, the person stood up and started dusting his clothes off and wiped the blood rushing from his nose and lip.

This person was naturally James, who had been launched through the gateway by a firm kick in the bum from Artimus.

Once he’d assessed himself and his surroundings, James released his scrying field. Moments later, a strange expression crossed his face as he started mumbling. “humph! That devious old goat! No wonder he had no problems with sending us here. Something in this place is blocking my scrying field.”

After a few more attempts to release his scrying field, only to have it fizzle out the moment it touched one of the pitch black walls, James flicked his hand. Naturally, James had made a primitive storage ring after the others had made a trip to the black lands.

With simply an instant of targeting his scrying field on it, he pulled out 10 little metal balls which magically appeared in his hand. These balls were about the size of a ping pong ball, and their surfaces were filled with intricate array carvings.

Jasmine immediately took control of these little machines, and they all began to lightly glow and hover up into the air letting off a little hum as they started buzzing around the room and releasing a bright light.

They then released a little ‘ping’ sound and flew off out of the room to begin exploring the temple.

Meanwhile, James focused on his spirit realm. Standing in an empty space was Jasmine, who was walking around waving her arms at the blank white space that was the ground of the spirit realm. With every wave of her arm, the shape of the room they were in began to take shape. Not only that, but refined spirit energies were used to create an accurate depiction of areas that had strange or high readings of spirit energy.

For example, apart from the doorway that leads to the hallway, which the little balls had buzzed out of, there was a door shape made from fire energy on a blank wall. This was thanks to the use of San’s Eye crystals in the little drones that allowed them to see spirit particles.

Not only could these little drones see spirit energy particles, but they could also map things out with a little ultrasonic sound wave. This was very similar to how a submarine would ping things in the water, instead it was refined to an absurd degree of accuracy and used by Jasmine to map out a 3D image of the world around the little drones.

Slowly, more and more of the temple was mapped out. They found a huge library filled with books and spirit jades. A room stockpiled with ancient spirit artefacts and weapons. A courtyard with an old cherry blossom tree and all sorts of other oddities.

After a few hours of this, Jasmine had eventually mapped out the entire temple, and her little drones had buzzed off into the huge expanse of the world outside the temple. Unfortunately, these things weren’t designed to be fast, and it would take them days to travel the hundreds of kilometres to reach the edges of this bizarre black cavern.

As James stood up to begin exploring, he noticed that the spirit energy of this temple was very thick. However, instead of primal spirit energy, the energy of the temple was almost entirely metal based free energy.

After a brief inspection using his scrying field limited to only a few meters, James discovered that the primal energy in the area was all being drawn toward the walls and very quickly was refined and released as metal free energy.

The only way this was possible was if the walls were made entirely from ore essence. That’s the only natural forming materials that could refine primal energy so quickly, and it was also the only material that could release such a thick amount of free energy into the atmosphere.

James’ breathing grew heavy and laboured at the thought of how much ore essence must have been used to construct such a huge temple. As he thought about this, he decided that he wasn’t going to follow the Emperor’s command to not take anything from the vault.

No matter what, he was going to be leaving this realm with his storage ring filled to the brim.

However, after remembering that there is supposed to be a guardian, James chose to hold back for the moment and he would ... appropriate some resources before he left. This in mind, James strolled out of the room he was in and began making his way towards the library room, which was conveniently rather close to the portal room.

As he walked in, he stared in awe at the towering shelves that spanned hundreds of metres all around him. Curiously, the library wasn’t empty. There were dozens of aged old scholarly types mulling around reading ancient scrolls and quietly muttering to each other.

The moment he noticed these people, they too noticed him. Instantly everything froze as the two parties eyed one another curiously. Before any misunderstandings could be made, an ancient old man in blue robes walked out from a row of shelves while distractedly muttering to himself and reading. Following this old man was an adorable little lizard about the size of a small dog.

Noticing the strange atmosphere, the old man glanced over and saw James. Then, as if suddenly struck by thunder, he seemed to jerk violently, and understanding washed the confusion from his eyes. “Ah! Oh! Errr ... You’re here already? I thought you weren’t meant to be here until next year.”

James was now rather confused. In his spirit realm, he was berating Jasmine for failing to inform him that there were people here. She just brushed it aside and said; “Well it would be natural for people to be here wouldn’t it?”

Meanwhile, out in the real world, James gave a salute to the ancient old man. “This Junior is James of the Dark Brotherhood. Greetings to senior.” For a rare change, James showed some respect to a senior cultivator. He didn’t bow, as was normal decorum, but he spoke formally, which was rare for him.

This was because the ancient old man in front of him was invisible to him cultivation wise. That meant one of two things. Either he was a scryer and could hide himself from other people, or his cultivation was so high that James’ attempts to read his power level were just brushed off like dust on the man’s sleeve. That could only mean that this man, whoever he was, had to be one of those ancient Core realm existences that the Emperor had told him about.

The old man just waved his hand and strode over towards James. “I am Gertrude Dragonheart, the lead researcher and I suppose ex-Emperor. I don’t know what that little brat has been doing to my Ancestors Empire out there, and I don’t care what he’s promised you. You go back out there and tell him that only people with the blood of the dragon can come into my temple!”

With that, the old man made a motion to grab at James. Suddenly, and to his great surprise, Gertrude’s hand was met with a huge force that even made him exert his full force to counteract it. As if trying to push his hand through an immovable substance, Gertrude’s hand froze only inches away from James.

James was frozen solid in place. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t move even a millimetre. Gertrude’s pressure had locked him in place, despite his ring deflecting most of it. This stalemate only lasted for a second or two until a ‘chink’ sound rang out, and the amulet on his neck cracked like an old plate.

At the same time, James’s spirit energy and spirit pressure both rushed into the ring, and his body suddenly blurred from its position creating a phantom image. A split second later, Gertrude’s body also vanished, and suddenly reappeared in the doorway to the library in the same instant as James.

This time, without the amulet creating a spirit pressure to hold him back, Gertrude’s hand reached out and grabbed onto James’ shoulder like a vice. James felt cold sweat pouring down his back, however, just as quickly as that vice like grip came, it was gone. Gertrude’s unnaturally powerful spirit pressure also dissipated and James felt free movement return.

Very confused with this situation, James glanced back and saw Gertrude and a few tower realm old men all investigating two items that had suddenly appeared on the table in the middle of the library. One of them was James’ ring, which, although cracked, was still operational. The other item was the 3 parts of the cracked amulet that James had been wearing.

James glanced at his hand and touched his neck. Realising he’d just been robbed, James felt indignation rising in his chest. Before he had the chance to escape and plan his revenge however, Gertrude distractedly reached out a hand towards James and grabbed at the air.

James then felt the old man’s spirit pressure solidify around him like a giant hand and grasp him. Moments later, he shot through the air and appeared suspended like a puppet next to the table.

To say James was a little confused and fearful of the direction this trip was heading would be an understatement. His face had long since assumed the blank empty expression he made when he was unsure of a situation, and his mind had fired up to its maximum as it began trying to plan his escape.

Gertrude looked at the amulet and then glanced over at James. “Boy, what is this artefact? To freeze me for an entire 3 seconds, it must be some kind of ancient life-saving device of a powerful sect. Tell me boy, who are you really?”

James made a gulp when he saw a strange, fanatical light appear in the man’s eyes. He then considered carefully and decided that in this situation, he probably wouldn’t get away with telling lies. “My guild created it! It’s design and manufacture is hardly a few months old.”

Gertrude blinked his eyes, and then his face became gloomy. “What nonsense! Tell me the truth boy, or I’ll just rip your soul out and absorb your memories!”

James’ eyebrow twitched at this old man’s refusal to believe him. After some thought, a grim smile appeared on his face. “I can prove it! If you have the resources available, I will make another one.”

Gertrude seemed surprised at this declaration. To be able to make such a powerful artefact at such a young age would be unbelievable for even the oldest of men still walking around on this continent. Gertrude himself had tried his hand at forging many times and knew it to be an intense and difficult process.

The youngest successful forge masters he’d ever met were rarely less than one or two hundred years old. Even the oldest and most practised foragemasters he’d met wouldn’t claim to be able to make such a device that could influence the spirit pressure of the heavens.

It goes without saying that the array patterns the Brotherhood had scrounged up which created spirit pressure weren’t rare, rather they were just forgotten and incredibly difficult to properly utilise. In this, the guild got incredibly lucky to have such a mastermind of engineering like Skay.

After a brief moment of consideration, Gertrude released his pressure and let James fall to the ground. Either way, whether the boy could manufacture another amulet didn’t matter. If he could, then the boy would be locked away here by him until everything he knew of forging had been rung out of him. If he couldn’t, they would just kill him.

Either way, Gertrude didn’t feel the boy could possibly be a threat to them, after all, the 16 residents of the temple were all ancient and had cultivation levels in the tower realm. He himself had a cultivation of Core Realm. This was actually a very closely guarded secret, and even Emperor Artimus was only aware that a few old people from past generations lived here to spend their lives studying ancient texts.

With a wave of the hand, an old man walked over and escorted James out of the library. Less than a minute later, as Gertrude was examining the amulet and ring, a loud ‘boom!’ echoed throughout the temple. Even this temple made of refined ore essence was forced to rumble and shake under the onslaught of this power.

Gertrude immediately had a horrifying premonition and raced out of the library towards the Gateway. When he reached the Gateway room, he glimpsed an extended hand giving him the finger, slowly disappearing into the rippling pond. Just as the hand disappeared, a strange cube was launched out from the other side of the gateway.

Gertrude immediately turned and ran with full speed from the room. After only a few steps he felt a huge pressure descend onto him. Even at the Core Realm of power, he found it difficult to escape the suction of the gravity bomb James had left behind as a gift.

The walls of the temple began to rumble and quake and slowly began to be sucked in towards the epicentre of the detonation. Seeing even the usually indestructible temple walls being warped by the magnitude of this implosion, Gertrude gave a loud roar, and his body shook as his spirit pressure and spirit energy circulated through his meridians, and he shot out of the portal room.

As he passed through the doorway of the room, the little lizard that had been following him around raced into the room. With an earth-shaking roar, the little dragon jumped directly towards the spirit bomb. It then forced open its mouth filled with razor shape teeth and swallowed the cube whole.

After a few more minutes of rolling around on the ground roaring and twitching, it finally calmed down. If James had seen this, he’d probably have spat blood from the shock of it. For any living creature to be able to survive in the pressure of the bomb at less than a meter from its point of detonation was defying everything he understood of this world. Not to even mention a creature being able to swallow a detonating gravity bomb and somehow survive.

What he wouldn’t be able to understand was that the detonation of the spirit bomb had created a huge suction that drew in immeasurable amounts of the free metal energy that permeated the temple. This created something like a pill that had incalculable amounts of metal energy all sucked into a single point.

For a baby iron dragon like the Guardian of the temple, this would be irresistible. Hell, even an adult iron dragon wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from trying to devour such a thing. Fortunately for the baby Iron Dragon, the bomb only had a short lifespan and had ended its implosive detonation before the dragon’s insides had been turned into mush.

Unfortunately for the dragon and the residents of the temple, the sheer amount of energy it now had surging through its body meant that it would have to go into hibernation in order to properly refine it all. It also meant that the temple would be unprotected for the next few years that the Iron Dragon slept.

Making things worse for Gertrude, was that the detonation had caused the red water of the pool to be sucked dry. It very slowly was starting to regenerate, but it meant that he would be trapped here for a while until the portal was ready again.

With a load roar of dissatisfaction, he turned and slammed a closed fist into a solid metal wall. A clang rang out, and the temple buzzed like a bell that was just struck. Gertrude’s eyes were shot with blood and filled with killing intent. With a dissatisfied grunt, he spun with a flick of the sleeves of his robe, and strode off into the dark halls of the temple.

-Yori Empire- Beneath the Capital -

James watched with a grim smile as the once full and excitably rippling pool suddenly began to shrink down to only a puddle at the very bottom. His brief visit to the Vault had only been a few hours, and he didn’t take away quite as much as he’d hoped to.

But he did manage to take away a great deal more than he expected. For starters, although his scrying couldn’t touch the walls of the temple, he could scry freely inside the room he was in. That meant that the moment he walked into the library, Jasmine had been busily scrying everything. Every book, Spirit Jade and parchment were recorded by her.

In the first few minutes they’d been in the room, Jasmine had already recorded everything. The problem was that a great deal of it was fragmented from the rapid speed she had been recording information. That meant that she would probably need months or even years to fully defragment and repair almost half of the recorded material.

Not just this, but he also had left behind all his little drones that were connected via Q-energy. This gave him the ability to continue exploring the world of the dragon vault and also allowed him to keep an eye on the temple, and its crotchety old residents.

James spun on his heel and walked out of the hall with a gloomy face as he began to arrange his own thoughts. ‘That old bastard! Just you wait, the moment this gateway is ready to open again, I’ll be waiting for you. Then I won’t just be visiting to see your library, I’ll be visiting to take all what you got!’

As James strolled up from the underground Gateway room, he was spotted by some guards. In a matter of minutes, Artimus had appeared to escort James out of the palace. As he caught up to James’ brisk pace, his face become complicated when he saw James’ gloomy expression.

“James, I see you’re back rather early. If it was because my father kicked you out, please allow me to apologise. I had no idea he would be so stingy. Normally if someone is visiting the vault, he and his guests all disappear somewhere else.”

James suddenly stopped in mid stride. His gloomy face then began to morph into the overly smiling face he’d had when he followed the Emperor down here. His smile crossed from ear to ear and his eyes formed into squinted slits as he looked directly at the Emperor. Seeing this smile again, like being eyed by a dangerous predator about to play with its food, Artimus had a sudden chill run up his spine.

“Old Arty, don’t worry about it. I got most of what I wanted anyway. However, some things happened, and your gateway seems to be broken for a while. When it’s regained its energy, why don’t you say hi to your old man for me.”

With that, James flicked his sleeve and strode off through the hallways and out of the palace. Artimus clenched his teeth and his face slowly developed into a scowl. ‘Damned old bastard! Do you have any idea what you’ve done! This boy is a monster parading in the skin of a man. If I don’t find some way to quell his ire, our Yori Empire is going to become a dust bowl!’

Artimus then began to take long steps back into the palace with a heavy frown marring his old face and a shadow hanging over him.

-Yansho City- Nexus -

James met up with his companions at the huge Mayan looking temple that sat at the base of the Palace Hill. This nexus was actually a focal point for more than 30 different Gateways all leading to other worlds. Some were only small and could only pass people through one at a time, while others were almost as big as the Gateway to the dragon vault.

As James and his comrades explored the temple, they all stopped when the discovered a rather new looking room with ‘Water World’ written across the top of it. They didn’t stop because of the name, but rather because of the short description next to it.

“Water world is a world with little to no spirit energy. Creatures of this world have no spirit energy, and the entire surface of the world is marred in huge craters and endless invisible fires. This is the newest addition to the Nexus and was a gateway only recently discovered near Gau City.”

Inside the room were a number of pedestals all showing strange artefacts that had been discovered by visitors to this realm. A toaster, a traffic light and even some literature.

James and Jessy were shocked at this discovery. This was clearly the Gateway to Earth. Not only that, but people had been visiting it. Upon further thought, James realised that the invisible fire was probably radiation from the nuclear holocaust. The reason it was called water world was probably because the ice caps had most likely melted by now and the entire planet would be covered by oceans, leaving only a few areas of dry land that would be covered in radiation and old crap that survived the war.

James decided that for now, he would avoid returning to earth. Firstly, he wasn’t sure how powerful he would need to be to avoid radiation sickness, and secondly there wasn’t too much left there that he wanted to explore. Nonetheless, thanks to Jessy’s endless pleading, James had Jasmine send in some drones to begin some exploration and perhaps find any survivors.

After completing the tour of the temple, everyone split up again and went to explore the city. Meanwhile, James started wandering around to all the clans and guilds in the city that focused on alchemy and forging. He wanted to gain as much knowledge on this as he could.

After a few visits where he gained hardly anything, James came to a tiny little alchemy guild. This guild was simply called Alchemy Guild 15, and had only 15 members. They were a group of old palace realm cultivators that had travelled the continent and devoted their lives to alchemy.

In the end, they eventually settled down in Yansho City because it was close to the Jetsu Mountain range, which was filled with an abundance of rare herbs and plants greatly desired for alchemy concoctions. When James appeared at the door of their little shop in the city and expressed an interest in learning alchemy, the youngest of the 15 flatly rejected him.

James stood at the counter with a wry smile and pondered on what he should do to earn their favour and get a chance to go over their notes. At the moment, James had little to no actual alchemy training or experience. In fact, apart from Norman, who remained locked away and forgotten in the depths of the Tech City lab, almost no one in the guild had experience with alchemy.

As such, James could only seek some help from other alchemists to try and gain some understanding. Now that he stood at the door to a tiny, little, forgotten shop in the capital and was still flatly rejected, James was forced to rack his brains.

He had long since thrown away the idea of simply paying someone to teach him. Firstly, because any alchemist worth his salt wasn’t about to teach some young nobody his trade just because he was rich and influential enough to have his own ‘free city’.

Secondly, if James wanted to learn the ins and outs of the trade, he didn’t want it to be from someone who was only interested in money.

Finally, James gave up on this guild as well. As he walked out of the shop, an old man dressed like a filthy beggar and smelling of shit strode in through the door. James was almost dry reaching just from passing by the man.

The man acting as the store clerk today also had a disgusted expression on his face as the beggar like man walked up to the counter while scratching his ass through the dirty hessian sack he was using as clothing. Curious to see just what this man expected to achieve, James stopped at the doorway. Then after second thought, he stepped out into the street and observed with his scrying. At least this way he didn’t have to smell the old bastard.

The beggar stopped at the counter and then reached up under his hessian clothes as if trying to scratch at his balls. Moments later he produced a sack filled with coppers and silvers which he unceremoniously dropped on the counter.

“This is the payment for the water lily base I asked you to prepare. Where is it?”

As the beggar spoke, he started scratching around in his dirty grey beard and pulled out a wriggling bug, which then very quickly disappeared into his mouth. As if struck by realisation, the man at the counter suddenly widened his eyes and then very quickly shot out from behind the counter and bowed to the beggar.

“Master Alchemist Sully. It was my grave mistake for not having recognised you be...”

Sully quickly interrupted this grovelling with a loud fart, that based on the smell and sound it made, James was certain was actually a shart, then flicked his hand through the air. “Shut up! Who cares?! Go and get my fucking potion base!”

With that, the man bowed again and ran off through a door leading downstairs. After the man had disappeared, James decided the show was over and went to start walking off. As he strode down the street, the beggar that had been busily scratching at his ass again, swivelled his head and stared after him.

James quickly forgot about the whole incident he’d witnessed in the alchemy shop and then continued onwards to try and find another place to start learning alchemy. As he wandered through the city, he would now and then smell the stench of shit nearby. Although he didn’t pay much attention to it, especially because this was a city with technology from the middle ages where they just shat in buckets and through it in the gutter, James couldn’t wave the feeling of being watched.

After the smell of shit had followed him to 4 other alchemy shops, James finally grew too suspicious to leave it alone. He released his scrying field to full radius and strength as he began searching for anything suspicious. Very soon, he noticed the old beggar man squatting near a gutter eating bugs out of a puddle of dirty old water.

At first, he ignored him, but after he visited a few more shops and noticed the man nearby pissing on something, eating something questionable, or being chased away by city guards, James finally gave up pretending not to notice him.

After turning into an alley, James stopped and turned around staring at the entrance of the alleyway. Moments later, the beggar disappeared from his scrying field of vision. Before James had the opportunity to investigate what was going on, he heard a sickly sounding cough behind him.

“Little boy. How would you like to become my apprentice?”

Moments after this sharp grating voice sounded, James smelt the odour of crap and spun back to see the old beggar standing behind him in the alley. Seeing the man standing there but not even giving off the slightest reading in his scrying field, James was stunned.

He then suddenly realised what had been making him feel so uncomfortable these past few hours when he felt the full force of the old man’s scrying field scanning him. Making James even more uncomfortable with the situation was that even with the combined efforts of Goldy, Jasmine and himself, the man’s scrying continued on, only being slightly inhibited.

A curious look passed over the man’s face when he’d scanned James from such a close distance. Firstly was the level of concentration and effort he’d had to use to scan James. This showed that James’ scrying field was almost as powerful as his own, which was a huge difference in power considering James was only True Spirit, and he himself was Tower Realm.

The second shock he received was from when he witnessed the ‘Hands of Time’ breathing technique operating inside James’ body. It boggled his mind to witness someone simply creating spirit energy randomly in their body and then having it just as easily disappear. Where was this boy’s dantian?

Finally, his mind almost collapsed in on itself when he realised that James was operating his breathing technique with 6 different types of energy! He almost wanted to kill James right on the spot to assuage his envy and hatred of the boy’s abnormal amount of good fortune.

‘The heavens are truly unjust!’ Sully grumbled in his mind. However, he then considered the potential of such a fortuitous youth. When he reaffirmed his decision to take this boy on as an apprentice, he looked up only to see that James had vanished.

Sully rapidly spread out his scrying field and began to hunt for James. Meanwhile, James was rapidly speeding away from that part of the city with absolute haste. He didn’t care if this dirty beggar was the fucking god of alchemy, he wasn’t about to get sucked into a strange relationship with the filthy man.

To his chagrin however, he’d only made it to the end of the street before a shadow fell from the roof of a nearby building. James was shocked when he witnessed the figure of Sully emerging from the blinding rays of the suns above him. He very quickly felt sick to his stomach when the unfortunate angle of the old man’s decent placed him in the perfect position for James to see everything hidden under his hessian sack clothes.

Before James had time to once again escape, Sully fell onto him and started trying to pin his hands. He was going to make James his apprentice even if he had to force it. James then began to violently resist while screaming “rape!” at the top of his lungs.

The hundreds of passer-by’s gave the pair strange looks and diverted their travel path to avoid approaching these weird perverts. A little girl tugged on her mother’s hand while pointing at the strange scene. “Mommy, mommy! They’re doing that thing just like what you and daddy do!”

The mother glanced over to see a filthy beggar manhandling a young noble looking man from behind. To say the position the two were in was incrementing wouldn’t be an understatement. James was trying to push up from the ground on all fours while Sully was kneeling behind him trying to grab his arms and hair.

Making this situation worse was Sully screaming things like; “Stop resisting boy! It won’t hurt a bit!” and James screaming “rape!” into the streets while trying to escape.

Seeing the situation devolving into such strange rumours, Sully finally had enough and simply reached out and slapped James on the neck. He then let out a long sigh of relief once James was unconscious and then stood up with him over his shoulder. As if nothing untoward had just happened, Sully leapt up to the roof of a nearby building flashing all the poor wretches on the streets with everything hidden under his hessian sack.

Without further ado, Sully sped off across the rooftops of the city carrying the unconscious form of James.

-Alchemy Lab of Sully the Tramp-

James awoke to a strange stone ceiling in a strange stone room. After a brief moment of probing, he discovered that this was, in fact, a little stone tower only a few floors high, secluded away in the middle of a forest.

This stone tower was the epitome of evil wizard towers. It was crooked and narrow, snaking up into the air and made of black glossy stones. All the vegetation for hundreds of meters around was dead or dying, and the forest in this area would be more appropriately termed a swampy dead marsh.

Interestingly, despite the horrid condition of the vegetation in this area, there were swarms of little furry rodents bustling about in the marshes. Even more shocking was the cultivation of these creatures. Almost all of them were True Spirit Realm Rats!

After this brief look at his surroundings, James rose from the crappy little straw bed he’d been laid on. With quiet steps, and by using his wind energy and spirit pressure to quieten them into soundless, James snuck out of the mouldy wooden door and began to make his way to the ground floor and hopefully escape.

As he travelled, his mind reeled with everything he saw. Before long, his footsteps had slowed to a crawl because he was too busy inspecting strange phials of living liquid and floating pills. Not only that, but huge glass spheres trapping various spirit animals and spirit beasts were separated throughout the tower every now and then.

Before long, James was motionless and busily inspecting a cage that had a little forest hopper trapped inside.

This forest hopper was nothing like Little Blue. For starters, it was still a spirit animal and hadn’t formed a core yet, despite the level of primal energy coming off it being close to the palace realm. James couldn’t stop himself from pointing a finger into the cage and releasing a huge arc of lightning onto the cute little critter.

He then noticed some very caustic looking liquids nearby and was unable to prevent himself from grabbing them and pouring them onto the forest hopper while madly laughing. So entranced was he with playing mad scientist, James completely forgot about escaping.

Almost half an hour later he finally remembered what he was supposed to be doing and moved to leave. With every step he took, he glanced back regretfully at the little forest hopper three times.

With a long sigh, James continued on down the stairs to the next level, leaving behind a very frightened, twitching and exhausted forest hopper. Moments after he left the room, the figure of Sully emerged from the dark shadows and curiously eyed the forest hopper.

Much to his surprise, the creature showed signs of forming a lightning core. Sully had been painstakingly trying to forge this creature into a potential spirit puppet, but now that thought was gone. He didn’t mind giving up the chance to create a puppet from the forest hopper, because James’ experiments showed that it was possible to artificially assist a spirit beast to cultivate into a beast with an unusual spirit energy.

Sully, now slightly cleaner and dressed in a purple robe, smiled evilly and dissipated into the shadows like smoke.

On the 4th floor of the tower, James encountered an experiment that had metal rods connected to a little rodent by cables. The metal rods sat in a little pot filled with bubbling liquid. The moment James noticed this, he immediately began to think ‘battery’.

Once again stopping in his travel down the tower, he moved closer to investigate. After a brief look at the project, James let out a dissatisfied ‘tsk’ and then without any warning took the pot and poured its contents out a nearby window. While he did this, he suddenly realised why this area had become a disgusting marshland.

Meanwhile, hidden away in the darkness of a corner like a Nigga’s Shadow, Sully nearly spat blood. This little project had been years of painstaking research in the making. Not to mention the mixture James just poured out of the window took him months to finish brewing.

James ignored such possibilities and then began to look around. Thanks to Jasmine and the keen use of their scrying field, James found a multitude of phials filled with all sorts of liquids. Although this wasn’t exactly what he expected to make a homemade battery with, James was pleasantly surprised with Jasmine’s estimation of its effectiveness.

In only a few moment, using a handful of liquids from very expensive looking phials, James had created a new alchemic brew. Then after considering for a moment, he split it among some other pots and set the system up in parallel. James assumed Sully had been trying to electrocute this rodent because that’s what he planned to do, and so set everything up to create more current than voltage. This way, instead of flash flying the creature he could instantly stop its heart.

When everything was ready, he took the two wires at the ends and poured in lightning energy to fill the battery. When he was done, he touched them to the rodent. The little rat then began to spasm and shake, only to suddenly freeze solid and collapse. James, being the sadistic bastard he was, simply left the little wires attached to the rodent and began to creep away once more.

As he left this floor of the tower, Sully emerged from the shadows again and inspected the completed battery. Although this wasn’t what he’d set out to achieve with this project initially, it was a glorious discovery that created hundreds of potential future projects and created countless questions that needed answering.

On the third floor, James encountered a small storeroom of very valuable and rare looking herbs. Thanks to the great deal of knowledge that had recently been crammed into his head by Jasmine, he could pick out every last one of them and tell their effects and methods of brewing or concocting with them.

Seeing so many useful things all stored away in one place, James saluted thin air. “Many thanks to the old beggar for this gift.” Then without pause, his hand swished through the air, and everything was sucked into his storage ring.

This time Sully couldn’t hold back entirely and watch this little brat stealing everything he owned while then thanking him for it, blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth like he’d received a fatal blow.

Thankfully, he maintained enough control to remain hidden, and James continued on down the tower.

On the second level, James only saw a door that was locked. After considering for a moment, he turned around and walked back up to the now empty third floor. He then looked around a few times and finally pulled out a little paper package.

When he opened it, the package simply looked like it was clay. James kneaded it in his hands for a moment then sniffed it. After that, he walked up the wall of the room and began creating a circle on the wall. Seeing this strange behaviour, Sully wasn’t quite sure what to think.

It was only moments later that he realised what was going on, when James flicked a spark onto the putty, and it burnt a huge hole in the wall of his tower. The fact that James had something without any spiritual energy in it and could silently burn so hot that it went through a foot of black rock shocked Sully silly.

By the time he’d reclaimed full control of his faculties, James was 300 meters away and setting a mean pace towards the edge of the forest. Sully almost couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed. He then suddenly snapped back to reality when he remembered that James had just made off with the storehouse he’d been slowly collecting and building up for over 400 years.

James had long since suspected the old beggar was hiding nearby. He couldn’t sense him, but he knew no one would leave a stranger alone in their lab. Thus, James had come up with a little scheme. He had a little play in the weirdo’s tower while he waited for Jasmine’s satellite to locate them via GPS.

When he finally heard Exsue urgently hailing him on his coms, he returned to the third floor. Seeing as this beggar could utilise scrying, James needed to use something that wouldn’t be suspicious to him. Luckily, Skay had long since foreseen similar problems and went to the trouble of making some things from earth.

In this case, he created a putty utilising some different chemicals that could burn as hot as the surface of the sun. The beauty of this stuff was that it burnt rapidly and silently. With everything set in place, James made a daring escape. The moment the stuff had burnt a hole big enough for him to escape through, he slapped his lightning boots and shot off into the forests.

Unfortunately, not everything was going to go according to plan. Just when he thought he was far enough to activate a talisman that could launch him into the sky and safely onto the Velocity gunship up above, a little rodent leapt onto his leg and held on.

Quickly following this trend, all the hundreds of rodents mulling about turned towards him with a ‘swish’. With a speed that put cheetahs to shame, the rodents were swarming all over James and preventing him from activating his talisman.

He released lightning energy from his body and stunned or shocked them off, only for a hundred more to suddenly appear from holes and burrows and launch onto him.

Sully rapidly shot out from his tower and appeared only a few metres from James where he suddenly stopped. With a sharp ear piercing whistle, the rodents all started grabbing their fellow dead brothers and dragged them into their burrows for food.

This resulted in an eerie silence as James and Sully stood staring at one another. Sully almost looked unrecognisable with his clean purple robes and no longer smelling of shit. After giving James a strange look, and his face going through all sorts of interesting expressions, he finally let out a long sigh.

“Boy, stop resisting. I am seeking an apprentice. In my entire life, I have never taken an apprentice, and now I’ve finally found one that meets my stringent requirements.”

James straightened up his ruffled robes and then stood looking at Sully with a straight back. “Denied.”

Sully smiled and made to turn back to his tower as he spoke. “Excellent, you’ve shown remarkable talent so far. With me as your master, you will ... Heuk!”

As he spoke, he suddenly realised that James had flatly rejected his offer. He spun back with a vicious look. “Boy! Do you not know who I am?! I am the almighty tower realm alchemist Sully Buck! In the entire continent, no one stands as my equal in pill refining and potion mastery!”

James remained unperturbed. “I’m sorry old beggar. I do seek to learn alchemy, but I can’t take a master. I plan to travel to Nahtiro and apprentice under Master Alchemist Tantsu.”

Hearing this, Sully looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon. “Tantsu that dusty old fuck! What could he possibly teach you about alchemy? I’ll tell you a secret boy! Tantsu and I were both apprenticed under the same master and he never once out did me in any subject. Theory, Practice, Cultivation. Everything! Tantsu isn’t a fart in the wind compared to me!”

James cupped his chin in thought. As he pondered to himself, a loud roar shook the forests and echoed across the valley of Sully’s tower. Sully gaped wide-eyed as the Velocity Gunship descended into the clearing around the tower and then without pause, all six cannons swivelled around to aim directly at him.

Before he could react, the voice of Exsue loudly roared from the ship. “You filthy old bastard! How dare you steal away my beloved! You seek death, you filthy commoner!”

Following this declaration, the cannons aimed towards Sully’s tower and released a volley of MK III Arc Cannon fire. Sully’s gaping mouth only widened further when he witnessed his home of over 400 years suddenly disintegrate into dust and debris.

Before his shock wore off, James waved a hand behind him towards the gunship. “Exsue! That’s enough! Stop creating trouble!”

As if subdued by this simple command, the ship flared once and slowly landed in the marshy swamps with its cannons still focused in on Sully.

Sully dropped onto his knees as he stared back at his tower. He looked like he was on the verge of tears. James remained impassive to the man’s plight and continued to mumble and ponder. After a while, just as Sully was transitioning into rage-induced madness, James nodded his head.

“Very well, I will become your apprentice. However, I have a condition. You must be able to teach me how to create spirit jade.”

Hearing this, Sully shot to his feet and glared at James. “Boy, have you no shame? You come and destroy a man’s home of 400 years and without even blinking you...”

“You walk around the city in a hessian bag eating bugs from the gutter and kidnapping young men off the street. Don’t talk to me about shame!”

Seeing James rebound his complaints instantly, Sully could only hold his indignation in. Besides, he once swore to the heavens that he would only ever take one apprentice in his life, and if he was going to take one, then this boy was the best candidate.

Not only did he fulfil the requirements Sully had for an apprentice, but he also blew them out of the water. In addition, the boy was just as shameless and tactless as he was.

If all it cost him to gain James as an apprentice was his little tower of 400 years, then that was nothing. To a man who’d lived well beyond 1500 and planned to live into the tens of thousands, a 400 year home was nothing. Besides, James had already looted the valuable herbs and plants he’d stashed away here.

The only problem was ... he had no idea how to create spirit jade with alchemy. In fact, he wasn’t even sure where to start. Finally, he realised why the boy wanted to be apprenticed to Tantsu.

Gripping his hand into a fist, Sully’s face became dark and unreadable as he growled in a low voice. “Tantsu you little piece of shit! How did you get your hands on Master’s research? It should all be buried beyond the Gateway. Don’t tell me the Gateway has already reformed?”

Sully then turned and looked off into the far distance with a shadow hanging over his head. “That can’t be right. The Gateway should still be reforming for another hundred years.”

Finally, after walking around in a circle a few times while grumbling and muttering, he looked at James with a frightening glare.

“Boy, how badly do you wish to attain the formula for Spirit Jade? I can tell you now that I can’t make it yet. In saying that, I can also promise you that piece of shit Tantsu can’t teach it to you either. Our Master once attained a realm of alchemy far beyond anything this world has ever seen. However, due to some circumstances and a disaster, our master died in battle, but not before exiling Tantsu and I to this world.

“If Tantsu has the recipe for spirit Jade, I doubt he is skilled enough to understand it, let alone create it. If you take me as your master, I will teach you everything I know, and give you the means to take that recipe from Tantsu.”

James cupped his chin and stared hard at the ground as he pondered. “What do you want out of this deal?”

Sully grinned savagely when he saw James considering. “I want you to kill him!”

To Sully’s surprise, James didn’t even blink. “Fine. Let us form a contract then. I will become your disciple. You will teach me alchemy to the best of your ability and give me the means to infiltrate Tantsu’s inner circle. I will kill him and receive the recipe for spirit jade. You will get to see your rival die, and as a side bonus, I will occasionally tell people that you were my master of alchemy.”

After a brief nod and agreement by both parties, Heavenly Law descended onto them and sealed their oath.

The moment heavenly law had descended, Sully pointed a bony finger at James. “Hahaha! Foolish brat! Now that you’re my apprentice, your first task is to rebuild my house and replace all the spirit herbs you stole!”

James froze for a moment then grinned like the devil. “Old fart, don’t play it up too much. This is a business contract, and I’m not obligated in any way to complete any tasks you set forward. You, on the other hand, are bound by oath to teach me alchemy to the ‘best of your ability’.”

Hearing James’ proclamation, Sully’s face contorted and twisted until it looked like his unwillingness to accept the situation was going to trigger the backlash of the heaven’s oath. Seeing his brand new alchemy master about to flip out already, James just chuckled and started walking back to the velocity.

Sully found this situation unbearable. He’d been tricked! This shitty little brat never mentioned anything regarding his duties as an apprentice. Simply calling him an apprentice of Sully, or referring to him as an apprentice was enough for him to validate that part of the contract.

‘Blasted little brat! Just you wait! Even if I can’t order you around, it doesn’t mean I can’t make you suffer for your indiscretions. I’ll make your training so hard and difficult that you’ll wish you could die. If I’m to train you to the best of my ability, it would require nothing less than the most dangerous and violent of routes. Hahaha!’

As James was walking back, he couldn’t help but stop for a moment and look back. “Mind you, I can’t have my alchemy master slumming it in the streets like some beggar. You’ll come back to Tech City and we’ll use my lab for the time being.”

Sully stepped forwards and appeared next to James in a blink. He then clasped his hands behind his back like a wise teacher and looked over at James. “Tech City? What’s that? Some place in the union? Or on the east side of Atsunari?”

James continued to walk towards the ship as he gave Sully a strange look. “Where have you been for the past 12 months? You’ve never heard of my city? What about the Dark Brotherhood? You’ve heard of that right?”

Sully waved his hand dismissively as he gazed up into the sky. “Some city? Some Brotherhood? Pfff ... why would someone of my stature bother to pay attention to such tiny things? Furthermore, I’ve been locked away in my tower doing research for the past 12 years, I’ve had no time for these lesser matters.”

James just made a curious; “oh?” and smiled slyly as he kept walking. When they reached the ship, everyone was standing on the ramp looking as if they were ready for a battle. Exsue seemed the most ready to kill something out of everyone, even Harvy, who had a perpetual aura of death surrounding him didn’t look as eager.

Without giving them a chance to question him, James strolled past onto the ship, leaving only a few sentences behind. “Take me back to Tech City. I’ll be going into training, our road trip is cancelled. Oh! Also, everyone get ready, I’ll be assigning you all new missions when we get back.”

-Tech City-

For a rare instance, James invited someone into the laboratory that he didn’t have absolute control over. Even more rare than that, he actually went down to the 3rd floor, which was primarily the alchemy lab set up by Skay.

James had spent some time visiting here now and then before they left on their trip. He came down here to consolidate some of the knowledge he’d absorbed from all of Jasmine’s constant implants. He’d even started a few little extra projects.

The chemistry laboratory was filled with strange ancient looking urns and old cracked cauldrons. Tables lined the laboratory covered in a multitude of glass test equipment and open flames. Liquids of every colour under the rainbow and the perpetual strong smell of herbs filled the entire floor.

Sully followed James onto his flying artefact and didn’t truly expect much from his fresh new disciples ‘city’. However, he was endlessly shocked by the technology the brotherhood displayed. The speed of the flying artefact notwithstanding, just the city and its walls were enough for his heart to clench.

His heart only continued to tighten as he witnessed the monopolisation of the endless forest, which he knew was filled to the brim with rare and interesting plants. When he first entered the laboratory, just the first level was enough for his heart to feel like it was actually bleeding from envy!

Once he walked into the alchemy lab on the third floor, his ancient thousand-year-old heart finally couldn’t take all the stimulus and felt like it was on the verge of bursting. His knees grew weak, and his skin grew pale and clammy. Sweat poured from his forehead, and he felt like he was moments away from his heart failing.

If he hadn’t already made the oath with this little devil, he’d have killed him at this very moment and claimed everything here for his own! Luckily, reason concluded that this would essentially become his new workshop and he would be able to take advantage of this huge amount of technology and resources to further his own research.

Nonetheless, he stood in the centre of the alchemy lab shaking like a leaf and his knees on the verge of collapsing as he stared in awe. James, seeing the condition of his so-called mentor, frowned slightly. He walked over to the delirious Sully and grabbed his collar.

Moments later, James’ hand flashed and began slapping his dazed Master across the face as he started coaxing him from his stupor in a bored voice. “Oi oi oi. Old man, stop day dreaming.”

Sully, who was getting his face vigorously worked over by James, very quickly came to his senses. He flicked his arm out, breaking James’ hold on the collar of his robes, then jumped back a few paces readying himself to attack.

Before the chance to retaliate came, drones began falling out of the roof and popping in from little side doors and hidey holes all over the lab. They focused in on poor old Sully with mini guns starting to whirl and hum and Tesla cannons charging up huge stores of electricity.

While this escapade went on, a deep male voice began to sound out from every corner of the lab. “Cease and desist! Cease and desist! Guests are not to make any overt offensive moves within the confines of the Laboratory!”

Sully’s face started making a series of changes as he watched all the drones preparing to fire on him. He wasn’t entirely sure what these drones were, but being a Scryer himself, he could tell that they each had enormous amounts of energy stored inside of them. If not as much as a palace realm cultivator then surely a peak True Spirit cultivator’s.

Even worse than that, they clearly had no soul. Although that was good in a way, because it made it easier to influence them with his pressure, it was also bad because it meant he couldn’t sense killing intent and worse still because it limited him from using his most powerful trump card.

What he didn’t realise was that even if he unleashed his pressure, the drones would be completely unaffected thanks to similar arrays to what James had in his Pressure Diverting ring.

James waved a hand through the air as if shooing flies and then continued walking through the lab. Sully watched vigilantly as all the drones powered down their weapons and tucked themselves back into their little hidey holes.

Once they were all gone, and Sully had managed to release a tense breath, he caught up to James just in time to meet a young man in a white lab coat rushing around a huge experiment table. The experiment he was working on was filled to the brim with a long series of tubes, boilers, decanters, bubbling cauldrons and half refined spirit ingredients.

It all looked very complex and indecipherable, not to mention Sully couldn’t even fathom what half of this equipment was. He couldn’t even guess what the equipment he did recognise was actually being used for.

James came to a stop a few feet from the table and watched with a strange glint in his eyes as Norman, the long forgotten Lackey 12, that according to Skay had a prodigious talent in chemistry, rushed about twisting things and flicking stuff.

Sully seemed baffled as he watched this scene and looked at James next to him to ask; “What exactly is this Junior doing? Does he even understand the first thing about alchemy?”

The side of James’ mouth curved into a smile and his eyes grew brighter as he watched. Instead of answering the question, James asked a question of his own. “Have you ever wondered about the state of drunkenness in this world?”

Sully’s face twisted in confusion and he glared at James for asking him such stupid questions. “What? You’ve never got drunk before?”

James’ grin developed into a smile. “Oh, I have. The real question is, have you ever been drunk before?”

Before Sully could interrupt, James continued on. “I’ve noticed something rather odd about alcohol in this world. It’s very much alcohol in every sense. Just like alcohol from my home world. The only difference is that here, on Ascension Star, I can get as drunk as I want, but I still don’t truly become drunk! Although my body is drunk, my spirit remains sober. How do you explain that? It’s like having two different states of mind at the same time. Making this worse, no matter how drunk I am, I can instantly alleviate this state by cycling my spirit energy through my body.”

Sully was getting impatient as James rambled on, but before he could interrupt, a sickly sweet aroma wafted out from the experiment table. It was so rich and powerful that he could taste it. Not only that, he started to feel slightly giddy and intoxicated just from the smell. Making it even more confusing, was that in his Spirit Tower within his dantian, his true spirit shook and began to feel the effects as well.

James’ eyes closed and he smiled even more as his body and aura began to change into that of a calm bliss. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he savoured the sweet, tangy smell, and a rosy flush spread across his face.

This blissful moment was quickly shattered by the sound of glass shattering and violent cursing. “Heavens why do you hate me so! Piece of crap! Damnable fucking spirit wine! Fucking disgusting devils piss!”

James opened his eyes, but his calm smile remained on his face as he finally approached Norman. “Norman, how goes it?”

Having someone suddenly appear down here in the chemistry lab, which was normally forgotten by the rest of the guild, Norman turned in shock. Seeing James, his face slowly congealed into a solemn gloomy frown as he made a bow with his fist clasped in hand as a salute.

“Greetings, Guild Master.” His body then slumped into a nearby wheelie chair while giving off a gloomy demoralised feeling and his face pouted like a child sulking.

“I’m so close Guild Master. I can feel it! Unfortunately, nothing I’ve produced is good enough. At best, the Heavenly Six Rice Wine and the Golden Grain Whiskey have just barely reached the passing grade you set.” As he said this, he spun in his wheelie chair and grabbed two little bottles from a nearby bench, then wheeled over and handed them to James.

James popped the cork from one of them, and a spicy tart smell permeated the room. In much the same manner as before, James took a long deep breath and savoured the smell. He then tipped the bottle back and took a swig.

Very quickly, his face flushed red, and his whole body seemed to release all the tensions and burdens it had been holding onto. His face took on a goofy grin, and he burped. “Not bad. Certainly, nothing to write home about, but I suppose it will suffice as saleable to other factions and the commoners. Not the strongest piss I ever had, though.”

Finished his assessment, he handed the opened bottle to Sully.

Having been suddenly given a bottle of something he was now guessing must be alcohol, Sully made a strange face. He then copied James’ actions and took a deep breath of the aroma from the bottle. After the initial breath, Sully felt his soul shaking again, and his body suddenly felt a little more relaxed.

Looking oddly at the bottle, Sully tipped his head back and took a swig. This first swig felt like having taken the first sip of water into his parched throat after crossing an endless dry desert. As it travelled into his stomach, he felt an indescribable release of all his tensions and worries. Everything that once mattered no longer had significance.

His body become comfortably warm, and his soul entered a calm and peaceful state. His eyes suddenly shot open as he inspected his own soul. He felt his secret soul developing arts suddenly increase with proficiency and felt that his aged soul, which had long since stopped experiencing any form of dramatic growth, suddenly propel forwards what would have once taken him a decade to achieve. All the things that had troubled his soul and blocked his development suddenly became clear in his mind.

His whole body shook as he thought over the repercussions of something like this. He then took another swig and felt his body warming even more, this time though, he started to grow a little tipsy, and his mind and soul grew slightly cloudy.

He felt somewhat sullen with the fact that it’s monumental assistance only happened on the first sip, but after some thinking, he quickly realised that most likely this would only help a person clear their built up blockages and allow them to increase their cultivation. It was only so dramatic for him because he was ancient in comparison to these Juniors and he had built up a great deal of limiting factors that had slowed down his soul cultivation over his many years.

Nonetheless, even in the tipsy state, his soul developing arts were still at least 50% faster than before. The only odd thing was that no matter how hard he tried, whether it was circulating his spirit energy in his body or using his soul pressure in his spirit realm, he couldn’t eliminate the intoxicating effects of the alcohol. When he came to this realisation, Sully looked strangely over at James who was busy smelling and enjoying the scent of the other liquor.

‘These brats don’t even realise what they’ve achieved here! They’re clearly just trying to make wine that can make a person drunk in both body and soul. They’re just a couple of fucking drunkards!’

Coming to this conclusion, Sully suddenly felt greatly alarmed. He then looked over at Norman, who was busily discussing his recent changes to the formula.

‘This little Junior hadn’t even formally begun to learn anything about alchemy, and yet he was already creating wine that could affect the state and growth of someone’s soul. Monster! What a truly monstrous talent in the art of alchemy!’ thought Sully as he took another appreciating look at Norman, who he believed was the mastermind of this experiment.

Little did he know, that this experiment and its entire process, was actually a brainchild of James’. Norman had only recently taken over this project in James’ absence from the guild and had achieved little to no results apart from making the Heavens Six Rice Wine and Golden Grain whisky smell better and a little stronger.

James finally finished appreciating the second bottle and momentarily stared off into space as he remembered his apprentice days when he brewed strong homebrew rum in a rickety still behind his parent’s house.

He soon snapped out of it and put a stopper on the little palm-sized bottle as he slipped it into his sleeve. He then turned to Sully who was still staring at the bottle in his hands with an odd look. “Well then Master, I should probably introduce you to our one and only alchemist. Though at present, he is still only half decent and trained in chemistry, he is the closest thing to an alchemist one can get. This is Norman.”

James then looked at Norman, who was standing and giving a bow after he heard James referring to Sully as his master. “Greetings Senior, this little one is Norman. My skills in alchemy are shameful and not worth mentioning.”

Having said as much, he suddenly raised his head and stared at Sully like a ferocious beast gazing into the eyes of its lunch. “However, I dare say that my desire to learn and master this ancient path are unmatched by anyone. Although I won’t be so presumptuous to beg for you to take me as a disciple, I beg that you at least allow me to remain in this laboratory and learn from you as another practitioner on the same path.”

Seeing the fanatical need and desire for knowledge on the boy’s face, Sully almost started to feel regret at having prematurely picked James as his disciple. Although James had many qualities that made him an ideal disciple, it was clear to Sully that James didn’t have the same all-encompassing desire for the craft as this young man. Furthermore, although Norman may not have similar talents, such as scrying, he clearly had a great deal of talent for alchemy.

Sully could only make a wry smile and let out a long sigh. He then looked at the young man with a breaking heart. “I’m sorry little Junior. I once made an impetuous oath to the heavens that I truly regret. I can only take one disciple in this lifetime. If I hadn’t made this oath, I would most definitely take you as my disciple now that I’ve seen your talent for alchemy.”

James realised Sully had mistakenly thought that Norman was the creator of the Heaven Six Rice Wine and Golden Grain Whiskey. He quickly gave Norman, who was about to deny credibility for the creation, a warning look to shut up.

His face then wreathed in smiles as he sidled up to Sully’s side, like the devil about to whisper sweet nothings. “Mn, yes it’s most regrettable Master. Young Norman’s talents in alchemy are truly awe inspiring. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he is a natural born prodigy. You haven’t seen them yet, but I brought with me many of the interpretations and recordings of my entire home world in regards to the heavenly law of chemistry. It is equivalent to the teachings of a thousand master’s from thousands of years, and young Norman here consumed this knowledge like a dry sponge.”

James then consolingly looked at Sully with some pity. “I had originally intended to find a revered master that could help teach him, but unfortunately the best I could find was you. It seems that Norman will be forced to seek out another master that can help to teach him. Perhaps even Tantsu would be a good choice. After all, I don’t have to kill him immediately, and he is revered as the greatest alchemist on the entire continent!”

Sully’s eyes bulged from his sockets as he spun to James and growled out through gritted teeth. “Fuck Tantsu that piece of shit! If it weren’t going to cost me a lifetime of cultivation, I’d take this Junior as my apprentice right now!”

James grinned evilly on the inside. Meanwhile, he continued to fuel Sully’s rage. “I know Master. It’s truly regrettable. You can’t imagine what you’re missing out on! This Junior Norman is truly an unequal talent in the craft. You should see some of his creations!”

Saying as much, James started to show off some of Norman’s potions and pills. All the while, Sully grew slightly paler with every example, and his innards turned cold and grew green from regret.

Then James started to hum and haw for a little bit and put on a face as if making a truly difficult decision. Finally, after Sully had realised James seemed to be having an internal battle over something, James seemed to come to some resolution and looked at Sully with what seemed like determination.

“Master, I have a confession to make. In truth, I have a way to annul your oath and allow you to take as many apprentices as you want. Unfortunately, it requires quite a bit of rare materials which have to be sacrificed to the spirit of the monolith.”

Sully’s body froze, and his face became devoid of all emotion. Finally, after trying to process this in a number of ways, he realised he hadn’t misheard. He looked at James with a face filled with fervour and excitement. “Little Junior, don’t jest with me now. Do you truly have a method to annul a personal oath?”

James made a nod, looking all the while the picture of an innocent little apprentice helping out his master. Meanwhile, in his spirit realm, he and Gold James were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.

“I do Master! It’s true. But like I said ... it’s very difficult. To achieve this goal ... you will need to sacrifice some truly rare treasures to the monolith for it to consider lifting your oath. Even then it can often times be fickle.”

Sully looked so excited that he seemed to be ageing backwards. He started walking around the lab with his hand behind his back and muttering to himself in a daze. “What could possibly entice a monoliths spirit? I’ll need something grand. I have hundreds of rare herbs and cultivating resources hidden across the continent, but I still can’t be sure that would be enough. Perhaps I’ll need to steal something for me to be able to...”

Hearing Sully about to disregard all his saved up fortunes, James quickly jumped in to persuade him. “Master I’m sure you’ve collected plenty of rare spirit materials. You don’t have to resort to angering some large faction. Perhaps you should bring together your amassed wealth and see if it can tempt the monolith. If that doesn’t work, then we can consider more options.”

Sully nodded in agreement and then made to leave the lab as he began planning out a short journey across the continent to all his hidden stashes. He left behind only a few words as he stepped into the elevator with a solemn expression. “I’ll be back in a few weeks. Then we will start your training after you’ve helped me get rid of this accursed oath.”

The moment the doors closed and the elevator started moving, Norman moved to start questioning James only to suddenly be silenced by James intense soul pressure. After a few more minutes and once Jasmine had confirmed Sully had left the city, James finally relaxed and let out a breath as he smiled like a sinner.

He then turned to Norman. “Sorry ‘bout that Norman, Sully has a powerful scrying field and I couldn’t be sure if he were observing us as he left.”

Hearing this Norman suddenly perked up. “Does that mean you can’t really annul his oath and you’re just tricking him Guild Master?”

James chuckled as he proceeded towards the elevator. “No, I can really annul his oath. Only truth be told, I could do it for free. However, the man’s an ancient Tower Realm existence. He surely has endless supplies of rare materials stored away around the continent. I won’t do it for free, and he’d be likely to rather avoid sacrificing them for you if he knew that they’d all just be going back into my hands anyway. He’d probably give up on the idea completely just to spite me for blowing up his little tower in the moat.”

Norman could only give a wry smile when he realised his chance to be apprenticed by a rare and powerful alchemist wasn’t half as important to James as said alchemist’s stashed goodies. However, the fact that he still went about it in a way that gave Norman a chance to get such an apprenticeship slightly warmed his heart.

He bowed to James who was walking into the elevator. “Guild Master, thank you for organising this opportunity. I won’t forget it!”

James just waved his hand nonchalantly as he pushed the button and the elevator shot off towards the top floor.