Chapter 49: Inconvenience

Chapter 49: Inconvenience

At every circle of Keyishin, there were dedicated areas for teleportation platforms. These were usually where the overwhelming majority of people arrived when they teleported to the capital.

However, for the peak sects, these portal zones were nothing but the commoner alternative.

Every major sect within the capital's center had its dedicated teleportation platforms. Many sects also had them outside the capital, but that was a different story.

Teleportation platforms weren’t allowed to be placed too close to one another. If too many were too close, the spacial constructs could be disrupted, and teleportation could fail.

Building private platforms that wouldn’t cause issues required costly materials. Even that was chump change to those who lived at the true peak of society within the Yixine empire.

On one such platform, in the courtyard of the Kurlore sect, a cloaked man appeared. He was welcomed by a heavily armored elder of the Kurlore sect.

The elder removed his helmet, revealing a relatively young face beneath, and nodded to the cloaked figure.

They set off toward the main building of the Kurlore sect. It was unbelievably overdecorated. Motifs of shields and armored statues littered every inch of the shiny white building.

Peak sects within the capital had a reputation to maintain, and this went doubly so for the great four sects.

The Kurlore sect prided themselves on their exceptional defensive arts. Although they did serve as defenders of the people, they weren’t a strictly righteous sect.

Publicly, the Kurlore sect was utilitarian.

The two men walked over to a secret underground chamber. The elder opened the door, revealing a portal—an entrance to a hidden mystical realm.

The two men entered, encountering the dark, dry, and desolate environment within.

Not too far from the entrance, demons sat and stared at the two men.

Kurlore was publicly a utilitarian sect. Privately, however, it was an entirely different story.

The cloaked man removed his hood, revealing his pristine golden hair and sharp green eyes.

“Greetings, servants of the silent one. I am Ilkivir, the third disciple, and I come bearing news from your master.”

The demons perked up.

“We have a mission of the highest priority.”

***

“Falken?” Harel asked Marven.

“I used whatever when I was put on the spot, but I quite like it. That was my family name from back when I was a mortal.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

Harel was surprised to hear that.

“You mean Zearthorn wasn’t your actual family name?”

“You know, I even contemplated changing my first name as well. Marven’s are stereotyped as hicks and peasants. But I decided against it as I learned that the name wasn’t nearly as well known outside of where I grew up.”

Marven, Harel, and Gabrias were busy constructing their new sect premises. At first, Marven worked in awkward silence as Gabrias gave vague pointers, and Harel stood at the side, uncertain how to help.

But as time went on, the tension eased. Engaging in cooperative manual labor was a great way to build a team. Harel was delegated to simple errands, Gabrias actively designed and planned the building as they worked, and Marven did most of the heavy lifting.

Marven wasn’t surprised to discover just how competent Gabrias was. It wasn’t shocking, given that he worked in a high-end construction company. Still, in Marven’s opinion, Gabrias was easily skilled enough to do serious work even in the capital.

According to Gabrias, the reason why was that the Bentheta sect had invested a large amount of money and resources into building their company for the sake of having a high-value spy group.

This resulted in a lot of resources and tutelage being provided to Gabrias.

He was frustrated at how ‘slowly’ he was learning alchemy. It wasn’t slow by any conceivable measure except his subjective opinion.

Neave was severely addicted to gaining more power. This much was evident. He personally thought that was entirely fine since it served his purposes.

As he sifted through his knowledge, he faced the frustrating world of contradictory information yet again.

Not even the most absurdly overpriced library in the entire realm was immune to scholarly disagreements. Neave quickly sifted through the useless knowledge and picked the more optimal choices.

Not even within two hours of starting, he had created a somewhat respectable qi restoration potion.

Out of all the spirit powers he had, it was his perception that played the most significant role in his rapid improvement. There were numerous different elements in interplay when putting the ingredients together.

The different types of qi and remnant spirit contained within the ingredients clashed aggressively and chaotically. As far as Neave could tell, the recipe for the basic potion was little more than just a relatively reliable sequence of steps that were likely to produce a consistent result.

That wasn’t good enough for him.

Now that he could create this potion the usual way, it was time to find a way to improve it.

Neave threw right about everything he could think of at the process and hoped something would stick. He tried putting liquid spirit into the mixture. All that seemed to do was dilute the remnant spirit within the ingredients.

Adding life force, qi, liquid spirit, and flooding it with ethereal spirit all had little success for various reasons.

The biggest one was quite simple. Any of these additions resulted in a fundamental shift to the process. This meant that the qi techniques he usually had to use at the different steps were no longer worth jack shit.

Neave could improve the quality of individual ingredients by imbuing them with life force or loading them with liquid spirit. However, when he had to use these ingredients, the same rules and standard procedures didn’t apply anymore.

There was something of a makeshift ‘solution’ that Neave could employ here. Simply put, if he learned every alchemy qi technique, he could theoretically mix and match different techniques to compensate for the changes to the process.

Fuck that shit.

Even if that was theoretically possible, it was such a daunting task that Neave had no confidence he could achieve that within a year of work.

Neave thought of something.

Undoubtedly, it could take him as long as a year of work to do that.

Now, if only he had some convenient way to get as much time as needed.

Neave grinned.

***

Hunter was starting to get desperate. No, he was already hopeless. Now he was slowly entering the insane idea territory.

If I impregnated the daughter of someone important, would I be forced to take responsibility?

A genuinely idiotic idea indeed. Even he knew there was no way in hell that was a viable plan on any of the theoretical steps. But at this rate, he couldn’t think of anything besides leaving the capital and looking for a sect outside.

He would have to either cough up a lot of money for that or set off onto the bandit and monster-infested roads.

Hunter wasn’t hungry yet, given that he had some money on him. Unfortunately for him, the capital was brutally expensive, even in the outer circle. His petty pocket change won’t last him long.

He needed to find a solution fast, or he would be forced into taking desperate measures.

As he strolled around the outer edges of the capital, an unusual sight caught his eye. A bald construction worker was constructing a building single-handedly at jaw-dropping speed.

Hunter couldn’t help but wonder who this man was. As he looked around the premises of this building in construction, his mind froze.

Right next to this building was a young girl carrying construction materials from a large pile.

A young girl he immediately recognized.