“Does it Sister Miren?”

“Yeah, back when I first joined the sect, I didn’t have many contribution points. I wasn’t that strong and decided to work as an appraiser. Someone came up to me with a key that looked somewhat similar to the one you just gave me. Unfortunately at the time I had no idea of it’s value so I just declined to buy it from him and gave it back.”

“Do you remember who the person was, or what he looked like”

“Hmm, it was quite a long time ago, but I remember they had black hair, a goofy look face, and a lewd smile constantly hung on their face, like they were thinking about something dirty…”

“...”

Cain felt like he just got scammed, that was a perfect description of Papin. However, what were the odds that two people in the same sect found similar things, it made sense when he thought about it. He felt disappointed, but he pushed these feelings to the back of his mind. He decided it would be best if he went to the Snail Realm Desert by himself, with his sight realm attainment in time, he wouldn’t have to be worried about being swept into a time storm. He could see the time energy start acting up and act before anything to severe happened.

“Did I help Brother Cain”

Miren looked up at him with a sweet smile, and he suddenly felt like he didn’t have the strength to say anything bad, so he simply nodded while forcing a smile onto his face.

“That’s good Brother Cain. I can’t help much when it comes to fighting, but if you ever need research done on genes, you can come to me”

Miren puffed out her chest and had a look of pride on her face. Cain didn’t want to ruin her mood, so he simply took her out for lunch before bringing her back to the sect. The trip to Meerik Planet was a week away, and Cain was never a fan of wasting his time, he headed straight to the Snail Realm Desert the moment he dropped of Miren. It didn’t take long before Cain arrived once again, now that he was looking at the Snail Realm Desert from an aerial view, he noticed the time energy around it was like a bubble. The time energy within this bubble was crazy and hyperactive, but the energy outside moved as usual.

Cain jumped down and headed into the desert himself. He walked through the areas where the time was the most peaceful, avoiding the dangerous zones. It didn’t take long before he was at the same place he was when he came here with Oldman Belmon in the past. Ahead of him was the stone he cultivated on before, it wasn’t that tall, but very wide and was a perfect place to sit down on. He rubbed his hand over the top of the stone, but it was extremely smooth, like it was a pristine jade and not a regular stone.

He then moved his hands and started to feel the side of the stone, as his palm slid across the rough sides of the stone, he felt somewhat of an inconsistency. This spot felt a little different from the rest of the rock. Cain started rubbing at the spot with his fingers and the sand that was practically fused with the stone started shedding. More and more sand fell off and finally a small hole was revealed from behind. Cain didn’t even need to think before knowing that this was a keyhole, problem was he only had one part of the key, and not the whole thing.

Before he could do any more investigations, he saw that the time energy was getting a little erratic. He wasted no time before exiting the area, just like he would go in and out of the Snail Realm Desert, searching when it was safe, and running out when it got dangerous. 4 days passed as his search continued, but his luck didn’t seem that great and he found nothing at all. Eventually his endless pursuit paid off, as his hand skid through the sand below, he felt something odd.

He pulled it out, and quickly grabbed the other piece of the key he had. He put the two together, and they fit like pieces of a puzzle, but this was an incomplete puzzle. The key was only 2/6th’s complete at this point, so there was still plenty of work left to do. He spent the next 3 days doing the same thing, but he got nothing out of it. Unfortunately he was already out of time and needed to head back to the sect, but he would come back here in the future. Cain mounted back onto the Flying Magma Bear and they took off. He soon arrived back at his house, but something seemed off. He walked into the home and saw a man lounging back on the sofa, watching the hologram TV and eating chips. He kept laughing as his dirty socks slammed down on the coffee table. Cain felt like killing Papin right now, but he managed to hold back his temper.

“Oh, Brother Cain, you’re finally back. I was getting worried for a bit, you still haven't transferred me the contribution points so if you don’t mind I’ll take them now”

“Yeah okay, let me add up the expenses from your visit first. Watching my TV, 10,000 contribution points. Eating my food, 20,000 contribution points. Trekking your dirty feed inside of my house, 100,000 contribution points. Seems like you owe me now”

Papin nearly flew out of his socks hearing this, but being as shameless as he was, he was willing to bend a little to get his way. He fell onto his knees and starting begging Cain for forgiveness

“Please Brother Cain, I’ll never ruin your pristine house with my filthy existence ever again. If I don’t go on this trip, I won’t be able to see Senior Sister Mira again in a long time, and if I don’t see her soon enough, I’ll get withdrawal symptoms and might die!”

“You’re acting like she’s a drug…”

“She is a drug. She's my love drug!”