beddedO
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Chapter 305 - Secrets of the Lake (II)
🕑 Added 2025-11-13 21:32:40 +0000 UTCThe word must have spread as, from what I could pick up from the kids, nobody bothered them since Xi Zhao demonstrated his blade. Not necessarily because he truly was that strong, but because everyone just sort of assumed that only some super-duper ancient power could properly rear someone so young to be so strong.
... would their brains fry if they knew it really was just me? Well, it was the system, but they don't know about that.
Regardless, even with the free reign, they stopped going to the lake by the time a week had passed since the 'festival' started--there really were just some random knickknacks in there, and not much else. Though to me they all mattered as I kept selling them for the Spirit Stones, the kids were, well, kids. They didn't really particularly care about the value of anything, just that it got boring to do.
As such, they all locked themselves up in their rooms and started cultivating, preparing for the competition.
In the meantime, my 'being haunted meter' is sort of shooting off the charts; yesterday, I kept slipping on a piece of seaweed that kept following me around. Rational thought was that it wasn't seaweed, that it wasn't the exact same piece, and that it wasn't following me around--but I'd tossed out rational thought about seven hauntings ago.
Then there was the chair incident--I was just minding my own business, happily nibbling away at some fruit, when my chair squirmed. As though alive.
But as I yelped and shot up, and others came in with worried expressions, I couldn't really outright say that I felt my chair move--so I just made up a lie that I was testing their reaction times.
... not that they bought it, of course, but they at least pretended. Which was good enough for me.
Which brings me to now; there's a plant on the bedside desk that wasn't there yesterday. It's reminiscent of a sunflower, and I'm pretty sure it's looking at me.
Will I acknowledge it? Only in my most paranoid depths.
Who knows? Maybe I am going nuts, for better or worse, and this is just the first step of it.
Aah.
On the ninth day, there was a succession of breakthroughs--Xi Zhao reached late Foundation Establishment, after which Dai Xiu reached the Peak of late Foundation Establishment, and lastly Xing Feng who reached the Eight Stage of Qi Condensation.
I got nothing for any of them, once again, but the kids beamed with pride so I tried digging around for something in the spatial rings to reward them with. Truthfully, there wasn't much; just random pills and pastes and some herbs and ores, but nothing that they would value all that much.
The only thing left was creating Arts for them, or one for them all, but I'm kind of stumped at the moment, and not sure what to create.
I don't think I can afford to create one for each of them individually, as even with over 3,000 points that I have at the moment, I really can't afford to ever go back to 0 as that was miserable.
--hey, the Quests! I'd completely forgotten about them! Maybe there's something there?
As it turns out, there actually is--most of them were kind of garbage, in that they were either monstrously difficult (have 1 Disciple reach Demigod Realm within 3 months), or just outright made no sense as they would require me to travel tens of thousands of miles just to get to them.
Two, however, were appropriately located and weren't too difficult, but as both cost 1,500 points to purchase, I could only 'afford' one, so I settled on the more difficult one.
[Secrets of the Lake]
[Difficulty: ???]
[Context: powers behind the city have spent centuries trying to locate the ever-mythical Guardian of the lake, never making any true progress. They have long since ascertained the Guardian exists, as its effects are clearly visible, but even after scouring every inch of the lakebed, they've never found a single trace of it. The quest can be completed in two ways; one, locate the Guardian yourself and confirm its identity or, two, interfere with their attempts and ensure that the Guardian's identity and location remain a secret]
[Cost: 1,500 CP]
[Rewards]
[Reward 1: 6,000 CP]
[Reward 2: A Favor (Depends on your choice)]
[Hint: Purchase the quest to reveal the hint]
[--Quest Purchased]
[Hint: You have already met it]
... no.
No, no, no, no, no.
No.
Just no.
System, go fuck yourself.
You, you want me to go against something that costs a literal billion points to identify?! Oh wow! Evil, pure, unbridled evil!
There's no way in hell I'm even remotely considering locating it or helping the Sage prick. I mean, I was already leaning in that direction, 'cause the idea of fucking with him sounds kind of appealing, but, honestly, does any of it matter? That thing can likely sneeze and obliterate this entire continent.
It's also time, I think, for me to acknowledge something: if I am being haunted by anything, and it's not all in my head, it's most likely that thing. I'm pretty sure it realized I saw it, and that was something that nobody else did because, well, who the hell would take a second look at some random piece of whatever lying around? And now that he's found me, he's curious.
Sort of like Long Tao.
It's a bit of a realization for me, too--the strong, no, the truly strong, have a mindset completely different to the rest. When they encounter something they can't explain, rather than becoming defensive and aggressive, they just become... curious.
And, well, possessive. I'm pretty sure Long Tao would sooner kill me than let me 'fall' into another person's arms. Is this any better? Of course! It's the reason I'm still alive.
Alas, my hope is that this little ghost haunting me isn't overtly mean, and is doing all this just because it's curious.
"Ah, Feng'er," I saw the young boy leave the room for a moment and called him over.
"Yes, Master?" he quickly bolted next to me, looking up with rather wide eyes.
"Could you call for your Brothers and Sisters? I have something to tell them."
"Yes! At once!" as though super happy to have received a task, he ran over to the hall where the rooms were and... well.
"Senior Brother Tao, Senior Sister Xiu, Senior Brother Zhao..." he started calling them out, one by one, in the 'order of seniority'. And when I say 'calling', I mean shouting. He was like a little private at a military camp doing a rollout call or something.
Kind of funny.
As they all came out, they looked at the boy rather oddly before shuffling over to the central table, appearing quite curious. I don't have the habit of calling for them all, so I suppose it makes sense.
"Thank you all for gathering so quickly," a few stifled laughs rang out. "Master has a rather important task for you."
"Oh? What kind of a task, Master?" Dai Xiu asked.
"The kind that will ruin a bad man's day. Nay, will ruin his week, even. Nay, will ruin his life--khm. An important task, indeed."
---
Sorry, just one chapter today; I'd actually planned on publishing two, but I really didn't like the direction of the story in the second one and couldn't figure out a way to rewrite it, so I decided to scrap it completely instead. Hope you've enjoyed the one, at least :(
Comments
beddedO
Just his paranoia for the most part :D With how many 'once-in-a-generation' things he's constantly seeing, he's expecting every other person to be the next Long Tao; it's also a bit of a change from earlier on where he was firmly in the 'ignorance is bliss' camp ^^
Akkido
"Could you call for your Brothers and Sisters? I have something to tell me->them/you all." TFTC
NameGame
"I really can't afford to ever go back to 0 as that was miserable. " I don't understand why he keeps blowing points on just looking at people. Makes no sense to me at all, and he keeps doing it over and over and over again. It adds up to a LOT of points wasted for literally nothing. It's not cheap, either, it's quite substantial every time. Minimum of 100+ points blown just to look at people. Might as well just be a delete button on his points and he keeps pressing it whenever he gets bored, often multiple times per day. He's easily gone through enough points to create something substantial. I could understand if he was sizing up a potential disciple, but...he's not. Just random people, or whoever catches his fancy at the moment. For no apparent reason. I'd be homeless and starving if I spent my paycheck the way he spends his points. Good chapter. Looking forward to seeing what you're cooking up in the next one. Thanks!
