Chapter 174: The Vault of Providence

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Translator: TheBrokenPen

Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys

Lu Ye’s journey into achieving the Fifth-Order of the Spirit Creek Realm did not come without all the many battles which he had survived with the help of his saber. It was such a modal of fighting that, not only had he grown accustomed to, but also defined the path that he had decided upon a long time ago.

“Combat Cultivators are a broad breed,” Li Baxian nodded, “Chief among them practice the sword. It is widely regarded that swords are the most versatile of all weapons and Swordsmen Cultivators are especially deadly even among Combat Cultivators. Are you interested in being one?”

“I think I’ll be more comfortable with the saber, Brother Baxian.”

“I know. But I’ve seen your saber before; it resembles the sword a lot in some ways. If you have any inclinations towards becoming a swordsman, I believe I can be of help. That would save you a lot of trouble.”

Lu Ye thought about it. At length, he shook his head, “I’ll still stick to the saber. I’ve tried using a sword before, but it never felt right.”

“Well, things like this take time,” Li Baxian persuaded, “I’m sure that given enough time, you’ll feel used to the sword.”

“Thank you, Brother Baxian, but no thank you,” insisted Lu Ye, “The saber is still my favored weapon.”

The corner of Li Baxian’s eyes throbbed. [How could I have failed to convert him?!] he nearly screamed out loud. But he sighed and relented. “Very well then. Go find yourself a suitable weapon. I’ll teach you a thing or two starting tomorrow. Things that I’m sure you’ll find very useful and illuminating,”

Lu Ye noticed his lips curling and that did not look good at all.

In the meantime, he needed a new weapon. The one he had been using had been damaged beyond repair back at the Battle of Goldentip. Fortunately enough, it was only just a cheap weapon and Lu Ye wasn’t too perturbed about losing it.

But it won’t be easy replacing that saber. He had been collecting the spoils of the opponents he had defeated during the Battle of Goldentip. Most of them he had collected himself, much to the reluctance of the Thousand Demon Ridge side.

But when he got too tired, it was Wei Yang who took over collecting the spoils for him, and antagonizing her was the last thing anyone in the enemy faction wanted to do.

These were all handed to him just a few days ago by Shui Yuan. The magic that sealed them all had been undone, but Lu Ye wasn’t amused at all to find that most of the Storage Bags formerly belonging to his now-deceased opponents contained Spirit Stones and Spirit Pills and nothing else.

Guessing Lu Ye’s predicament, Li Baxian pointed out, “Go have a look at the contents of the jade slip I gave you, then you’ll know what to do.”

“Oh, okay.”

Lu Ye went back to his chamber and took out the jade slip. He gleaned through its contents and found it immensely instructive—especially for one who barely knew enough about the Spirit Creek Battlefield. Li Baxian must have expected that he would like to know more about the Divine Opportunity Column and the forces that be which governed it, therefore he had the jade slip specially prepared for Lu Ye.

Despite spending almost six months in the Battlefield, Lu Ye’s understanding of the Battlefield barely scraped the tip of the iceberg.

It took two hours for him to soak up all that information and even more time to digest what he had just learned.

After quite some time, he finally got up. He went to the Sanctum of Providence and entered the Battlefield again using the Divine Opportunity Column there.

He found himself back inside the outpost’s Sanctum of Providence.

He patched to the Divine Opportunity Column there using his Battlefield Imprint, then he recited what Li Baxian taught him, “Low-grade Spirit Artifacts!”

A vortex opened right before him just like when he requested the Bonding Pact. Only this time, the vortex emitted such a powerful force that before Lu Ye could even react, his entire self was sucked into it.

When his senses finally returned to him, he was already standing right in the center of a very spacious and cavernous hall filled with rows and rows of racks each laden with weapons that stretched so far into the distance that he could not even see their. Each of the weapons now presented right before his eyes were really Spirit Artifacts.

This was the first time Lu Ye had seen something like this. Feeling amazed, he examined himself. His body was still inside the Sanctum of Providence in the outpost, it was only his consciousness that was transported here.

This must be the Vault of Providence that Li Baxian had told him about.

Any Cultivator in the Spirit Creek Battlefield with enough Contribution Points could conduct trade with Heavens, just like how Li Baxian had purchased a Sacred Pact and like how he had purchased Amber’s Bonding Pact.

Almost anything could be purchased from the Heavens with the utmost convenience. If there was any downside, it would be that all transactions with the Heavens were conducted with Contribution Points and nothing else.

Trading with the Divine Trade Association just required the use of Spirit Stones, which was easy enough.? But one could not deny that conducting transactions with the Heavens was fast. With enough Contribution Points, one could procure almost anything from the Heavens.

If Lu Ye wished to replace his shattered saber, the Vault of Providence would be his best shot at getting a suitable one.

No one knew how or from where the Vault of Providence came to be. Like the mystery of the Battlefield’s real location, it remained an unsolvable enigma that had boggled the minds of those curious enough to try to divine its secrets.

But inhabitants of the Battlefield did know this: the Divine Trade Association must have relations or links of some sort with the Vault of Providence. There have been people who discovered that the Trade Association had been selling items that came from the Vault and items sold to the Trade Association had appeared in the Vault before.

But at the moment, Lu Ye had zero interest in solving mysteries. He came to find a saber and he needed one fast.

But the hall stretched so far that he could hardly see its end, and rows of racks filled with weapons were dizzying and confusing enough. Too many items and certainly too many to pick

He opened his mouth and called out, “Saber!”

His surroundings warped and distorted into a blur and when everything went back to normal, the Vault had changed: it looked considerably shorter now—still breathtakingly big, but at least he could see where it ended now.

And the Spirit Artifacts presented on the racks were, as per his request, sabers.

Many even resembled the one that he had been using before.

He took one up and channeled his power into it. To his dismay, it felt no better than the one he had used. He returned it to its position on the rack and picked another one, it was also the same.

He paused to think again, then he said, “Nine Glyphs, plus a reinforced blade!”

A Spirit Artifact’s quality is contingent on the materials used and the number of enchantments layered on it. A nine-Glyph enchantment was the maximum for all Low-grade Spirit Artifacts. Anything with more than that number of enchantments would at least be a Middle-grade Spirit Artifact—this was also included in the information Li Baxian supplied to Lu Ye.

And judt because a Spirit Artifact was good did not mean that it would be suitable for everyone; it depended on the wielder. The more Glyphs were enchanted upon the weapon, the more Spiritual Power one needed to use to wield it. Therefore, a low-tiered Cultivator could never be able to use a High-grade Spirit Artifact, even if it really belonged to him.

As a Fifth-Order Cultivator, a Low-grade saber with a nine-Glyph enchantment would be ideal for Lu Ye, one that would be useful for quite a long time.

As for the reinforced blade, Lu Ye did not require a sharp weapon. All he needed was for it to be sturdy and strong enough. Glyph: Sharp Edge was enough to fulfill his needs for how deadly the weapon should be.

The Vault transformed again; this time, only a little more than a dozen rows were left lined up for him.

Lu Ye walked down the aisles of weapon racks and scoured for something that he liked.

He quickly found one that looked almost the same as the one he used before, although it felt heavier. But the weight was what made it more comfortable for he was now stronger than when he got his first saber.

He examined it and noted that the nine Glyphs were merged in a very intricate manner. Seven of the Glyphs were to reinforce the blade while the remaining two were to increase its damage, the latter two being quite similar to his Glyph: Sharp Edge.

[So Glyphs could also be merged in such ways, eh?] he mused.

After all, much of his understanding of Glyphs was limited to only what he knew about his Tree of Glyphs and the three Glyphs that he unlocked. Everything else was news to him.

He resisted the notion of finding out more about Glyphs; at the moment, he was immensely satisfied with his new weapon.

The saber might be less than useful to other Cultivators, but not Lu Ye. With Glyph: Sharp Edge, he could cut down almost anything.

The cost of the saber was tagged just on the blade in the form of numerals glowing in soft light.

A hundred and thirty-eight Points!

That would mean that if Lu Ye wished to take the saber out from the Vault, he would need to pay a hundred and thirty-eight Contribution Points.

Whether the price was high or low, Lu Ye did not know. But if compared to the cost of getting a Bonding Pact, then this would seem like a real splurge.

He did not want to look through the rest. The rest of the Low-grade sabers wouldn’t be much different and he was quite satisfied with this one. But as soon as he made up his mind, everything whirled into a blur once again.

When he finally came to, he was already back in the Sanctum of Providence.

Next came a? sensation of fatigue.

Lu Ye was already informed about this. Another cost of using the Vault of Providence was the exhaustion of his vigor. The longer one spent inside the Vault, the more tired he or she would become.

He was initially thinking of going back inside for something else, but that would have to wait.

He looked at the saber in his grasp. The one-hundred-and-thirty-eight-Contribution-Point saber he had just bought. He slid the weapon out of its sheath. It did not look sharp or dangerous at all, but it certainly felt weighty and massive.

Then he saw it. Inscribed on the hilt were runes that, upon closer inspection, said “Inviolable”.

This was a saber that had a name. Who forged this weapon, Lu Ye wondered.

He swung it around to get a proper feel of it. It yielded the same feeling to when he tested it in the Vault. In fact, being able to swing and get a sense of its balance now made it more comfortable.

He returned the saber into its sheath and stepped out of the Sanctum. There was somewhere else inside this outpost that he needed to go to, according to the instructions given to him by Li Baxian.

Not long after Lu Ye had left, a young Cultivator came rushing here. He tidied himself just outside the entrance of the Sanctum of Providence as if to make himself more presentable before stepping inside. Lu Ye was nowhere to be seen. He looked back at another Cultivator who came with him, frowning, “I thought you said Lu Ye is here?”

“He was,” explained the other Cultivator.

“Gods, did he just go back again?” lamented the young Cultivator. He had hurried here as soon as he heard about Lu Ye being around only to find that he was just one step behind.

He took a second to think and gave his next instruction, “Wait here. When he gets back, see to it that I am informed first thing. Ask him to please wait for me, if needs be.”

The other Cultivator acknowledged the order.

In the meantime, Lu Ye reached another part of the outpost; a cluster of tiny little cottage-like structures. These were the training chambers for acolytes of the Crimson Blood Sect. Anyone who wished to spend some solitary time training and meditating could use one of these chambers. All outposts had training chambers of their own, similarly constructed in the quieter parts of the grounds.

But for years, the Crimson Blood Sect outpost had been left in a state of neglect and disrepair and the many weeds and wild grass that infested the whole compound were proof of that.