Pathway

"Well, here you are childling. Safe and sound. Much more better than before if you ask me."

"You flatters me, Senior Hypatios."

"A full premier, that means you've undergone your heavenly tribulations. You now have the silver aura though too bright. Not bad for a childling."

"Yes Senior Hypatios, I did two days ago, but was a bit difficult."

"Of course it was. I can see you as clear as water. Look at the size of your dantian and the make of your soul orb. A soul orb of liquid light? Don't you know that the stronger the power of your soul, the stronger your tribulations will be."

"Oh, I see. I didn't know that before senior Hypatios."

"Well, now you know. Anyways, tribulations for Zhuji level wouldn't tend to kill you, unless you have seriously bad karmic deeds. At least, you can prepare properly for future one if you are still alive till then."

"Senior Hypatios, the planet you had, mistakenly, sent me to, is really great. I mean the Charat's planet. It's a very wonderful world. I'm very grateful."

"Mistakenly indeed. You really have no idea, do you, childling? Alright, since you are grateful, do you plan on going to another world?"

"No senior, thanks for asking but my home world will be fine for now. My home will be just fine."

"Farewell then."

Before he could answer, he was already in his room in the Last-Sword sect. He looked back to where the door was but no more door was there only the crystal pagoda. He quietly turned his attention towards the room and moved slowly around the room checking everything including the wall.

He heaved a big sigh of relief after he was satisfied in going through the place. He was finally home.

The past three days had been exhilaratingly nervy for him. It made him understood more about life and had wider perception of the universe in his own minor ways. He knew quite well that there were worlds out there, different types of worlds but he never knew he would experience going to them at all talk-less of being on one so soon in his life. How could he anyway? The people that went to another world were extremely powerful people that could use powerful teleportation items or the transportation portals. To come by a powerful teleportation item was very rare and the cost of transportation portals were enormous.

He could only have dreamt of all these happening yet he had gone to another world and lived in another world. What would his family, especially his mother, say when they heard about it? How would his grandmother react when she found out the pagoda was really a gateway?

Yes, this was fortunately more than he deserved. Opportunities and privileges that he didn't deserved more than others but fortunate to have. He remembered his grandfather's words, "the circumstances surrounding cultivator's birth was not as important as the opportunity to live the life the cultivator could only dream of". Senior Hypatios had also told him before that powerful cultivators would kill to have opportunities that he was having.

Yes, those were opportunity he wouldn't let slip from his grasps.

"Thanks to the heavens, thank you grandma, grandpa and mother."

A little thank you to his father even though he never met him and to everybody he had met. He would also have to say a thank you to senior Hypatios when they meet next time.

His mind felt a bit more peaceful. He sat down in a lotus position, closed his eyes and started to meditate. Before he would endeavour in anything, he would first free his mind completely through meditation using the soul serenity technique. A completely cleared mind would approach things in a more meaningful way.

An hour later, his mind was completely refreshed. He took out some dried turtle meat and started to chomp on it. He was deliberating on going to the library when he remembered the senior alchemist and resolved to take a walk to the sect market to see him. Maybe he would have some information for him.

Reaching the market place, he realized that there were more disciples and merchants at the place than the last time he was there. The area attracting more cultivators was the alchemist section. He managed to navigate and wriggled his way through to the senior alchemist stall quietly without drawing much attention to himself. Once inside, he stayed to the side as the alchemist attended to the sect disciples in front of him. When he caught sight of Ju Feng, he hurriedly finished attending to them and closed the door after the last one left. He turned to Ju Feng with big smile on his face.

"Hello young one."

"I greet you, senior alchemist."

"You are well on time. Come follow me."

He led Ju Feng to the back of the alchemist shop. At the back, was a small door leading to another inner room. He opened it and entered followed by Ju Feng. Once inside, he closed the small door and bring out the blue crystal.

"You can simply call me alchemist master Luo Peng, young one."

"Uhm, my apologies senior alchemist master Luo Peng, my name is Ju Feng."

"Okay Ju Feng. I did as we talked about the last time. I went into the nearby cities to find out if any one of them would be hosting an auction soon and I found one. The city of Goujin. It will be holding an auction tomorrow. Here's the thing, you know there are many spirit stones out there and of different quality grades. So, when an alchemist want an item auctioned, he would have to submit it for quality testing despite the alchemist's words for it. Now, the interesting part. After I submitted your crystal stone for testing of which many tests were performed, the appraisers determined the crystal to be around eight hundred million years."

He regarded Ju Feng with a curiously amused look before continuing.

"It's a total grade crystal stone. In reference to their words, the likes of this stone don't exist anywhere in this world. This brought some bewildered looks from them. These are dangerous roads that must be walked cautiously. According to the appraisers, the equivalent of this crystal spirit stone to normal crystal spirit stones is one to one hundred of pure grades, one to one thousand of high grades, one to ten thousand of medium grades and one to hundred thousand of low grades."

He shook his head with a bit of slumped shoulders.