Chapter 399 Awakening Of The Second Spirit Path



Yu's Jade Pipa

Grade: Mythril

Description: The musical instrument that can control all the basic elements present in nature.

"It's only a Mythril grade, huh?" Mark was slightly disappointed by its skill set and grade. If he didn't have the divine throne and the exo suit, he would have probably kept it, but at the moment, it felt like he was keeping a useless item. "System, proceed with the trade." 

*Ding! You traded Yu's Jade Pipa to the system. 30 million credits have been added to the account.

"Next, it is…"

Ring of Doom

Status: Cursed

Grade: Celestial

Description: The ring of Yan Wang gives power over all types of undead beings. One would be immortal just by wearing it. However, at the moment, it is cursed. As a result, one would be sealed in the form of a skeleton upon wearing it.

*Ding! Do you wish to lift the curse with purification stones (superior grade)? Nothing will change in the skills or the offer.

"Nah, a superior grade one will only cost me another 1 million credits. It's not like I'm interested in this object."

After making his decision, he spoke, "System, I would like to trade this too."

*Ding! You traded Ring of Doom. 47 million credits have been added to the account.

"Now, I have enough credits for the upgrade. Should I proceed or not?"

Mark opened the inventory and clicked on the defense system. With new earnings, he had a strong urge to upgrade it but when his eyes fell on the cost for the upgrade in 9 figures in gold coins, he hesitated to spend such an amount as he was worried that it will force him to spend the remaining to get the lamp of wishes.

"Nah, even after this upgrade, the next one will likely cost over 600 million credits. I will have to loot several worlds to collect 3 billion gold coins. Let's not give it to temptations and use the money to develop my island.

Anyways, let's check out the last one too…" 

Closing the window that showed the details of the defense system, he clicked on the aircraft with a unique design.

B-2 Spirit bomber

Grade: N/A

Crew: 2

Length: 69 ft (21.0 m)

Wingspan: 172 ft (52.4 m)

Height: 17 ft (5.18 m)

Wing area: 5,140 ft² (478 m²)

Empty weight: 71,700 kg

Loaded weight: 152,200 kg

Max takeoff weight: 170,600 kg

Fuel Capacity: 75,750 kilograms

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 0.95 (1,010 km/h) 

Cruise speed: Mach 0.85 (900 km/h) at 40,000 ft altitude

Range:  11,100 km

Service ceiling: 15,200 m

Armament:

80× 227kg class bombs (Mk-82) mounted on Bomb Rack Assembly (BRA)

36× 340kg CBU class bombs on BRA

16× 907kg class weapons (Mk-84, JDAM-84, JDAM-102) mounted on Rotary Launcher Assembly (RLA)

16× B61 or B83 nuclear weapons on RLA

Standoff weapons: AGM-154 JSOW missile or AGM-158 JASSM

Description: An aircraft bomber that has the capability to destroy an army of legendary realm experts with ease. It's a marvel of stealth engineering and deserved to be praised.

Cost: 400,000 credits/2,000,000 gold coins

***

"2 million? Ugh… the prices are rising at an exponential rate every time. The cost of those bombs will be even more. No one with a right mind in this world would buy it. Only crazy people like me would spend hundreds of millions of gold coins just on upgrading as if they don't matter.

eαglesnᴏνel Nah, even if they were crazy enough to squander their wealth, I will not sell these babies at any cost even after I unlock them in the gallery either way. They are exclusive to my army. So, I guess I don't need to worry about its sales. I just need to manage my spending on the bombs. Perhaps, when I create anti-matter bombs in the future, my spending will be cut off further.

Anyways, I'm done checking with all the rewards and changes in the system. All that's left is to wait for Chang Bo to return and absorb his luck points for the lottery wheel."

***

Seven days passed away in a blink of an eye;

During these seven days, a lot happened that is directly or indirectly related to Mark's life. 

First, the crown prince was put on house arrest with the Emperor strongly suspecting that he is behind Shang Wei's abduction. A large-scale investigation started.

Second, the Emperor invited Mark and his family for lunch. However, Mark postponed it by a week because of Allen's upgrade.

Third, Mark received a letter from the Western Moon kingdom about the official engagement ceremony. 

Fourth, Mark acquired an upgrade crystal of superior grade from the lottery. He used it on Allen once again as soon as the upgrade is over. He wanted Allen to go toe to toe even against a supreme realm expert.

Fifth, Western Moon secretly went into a secret alliance with Prince Feng Wu. According to their agreement, the kingdom will officially recognize the Western Yan as an independent kingdom once the kunyu bandits overthrow the Ji clan. 

After that, they will give necessary protection for the border. In exchange, Western Yan will cede its disputed territories to Western Moon. As the result, the latter will gain about 6630 sq. km of land. 

As for Princess Shen Ling's plans of annexing the land into its kingdom, it will have to wait until she acquires the throne.

Sixth, Shang Wei successfully awakened the power of the phoenix bloodline through fire seed. The remaining part of the Golem's head was currently being researched by the mages and alchemists of the imperial palace. 

Before making weapons out of them, they wanted to study the head and the happy emperor gave them permission, much to the protest from the crown prince and the generals.

Last but not least, Mark received the results of the investigation from his grand-uncle, Lan Jing regarding his adoptive parents' death. 

The organization behind the incident is named Soul but the Eastern Sun kingdom doesn't have much information on them.

Mark's best subordinate who excelled in the investigation is now dead. He knew that they were just the bullet. The hand which clicked the trigger should be someone else.

And he doesn't want to spook them unnecessarily over the fit of rage, atleast not before he found their identity. That is why he decided to wait until Allen was done with his latest upgrade and give the task to him.

In the meantime, the store was opened and proceeded to run as usual. The advanced orders received by Chang Bo during the past few weeks had net the store a little more than 9,000 gold coins. And throughout the week, the store received 2000 more gold coins as earnings. 

However, the rich owner of the store had nearly 390 million gold coins in his account (if all credits were converted to gold and added to the remaining gold coins), which is more than all the wealth of the entire phoenix empire, and hence, he didn't feel a thing about such massive profits.

While continuing to create weapons in his free time, as usual, Mark waited for the completion of Allen's upgrade. He thought of lying low for just three more days but something changed in Kunyu valley that forced him to make his move in advance.

The so-called grand tutor of Western Yan became too impatient to wait for the delivery of the weapons and went on a killing spree of Ji clan guards, spooking them. 

If he had been successful in assassinating the Ji clan's head, it would have been fine but he failed due to the intervention of an expert from the church of Nuwa coincidentally staying there as a guest. As a result, he was recognized but managed to escape with his life.

The Imperial family was alerted by the sudden change of events at Western Yan and the Emperor deployed an army along with the Northern General to take care of the situation.

Feng Wu cannot scold his greatest asset for his recklessness and hence, can only turn toward Mark for help. 

As a result, Mark was forced to send the zheng to Western Moon three days in advance with a storage ring full of weapons and ammunition as promised.  He also made sure to write a letter with further instructions.

As the zheng reached the city of Lunaris, he directly went to the store and opened it. There was nothing inside except for a robot (the guardian). 

As the zheng is connected to Mark's soul, the robot treated it as a friendly target and allowed inside to explore the tower. However, Lan Ju wasn't interested in that.

The zheng just silently waited at the reception desk on the ground floor until the party arrive and take the ring without giving any money. According to the agreement made between Mark and Feng Wu, they will give him the principal amount after they won the war.

And Mark received the confirmation of the transaction through the notifications he received back at the Imperial city.

A total of 825,600 gold coins were deducted from his account but he was nevertheless happy that the sale went through, not because of the gold.

It is because he almost completed the quest that's been on pending for so long.

"Great, now, only Gripen, Battle Robot-III, Robot Dog, and Battle Robot-V are left. The world isn't ready for these things. Let's just purchase it myself through proxy. But, the system recognizes only individuals that weren't connected to my soul as the customers."

Sometime later;

"That would be 524,000 gold coins," said Mark to Chang Bo, who was wondering why he was given two storage rings, one full of gold coins and the other with weapons, and then asked to proceed with the sale.

Whatever the case, he would do it as he was ordered without any questions. As he received a series of notifications, Mark gave ten gold coins to his subordinate as a reward.

Chang Bo didn't know why he was doing this but he was pretty much happy with his boss' generosity.

Once the job is done, Mark left him to manage the store and returned to his room.

Locking the door, Mark proceeded to open the notification screen.

*Ding! Battle Robot-III has been sold. You received 2000 gold coins (100%) as your share.

*Ding! Battle Robot dog has been sold. You received 2000 gold coins (100%) as your share.

*Ding! Battle Robot-V has been sold. You received 20000 gold coins (100%) as your share.

*Ding! JAS 39D has been sold. You received 500,000 gold coins (100%) as your share.

*Ding! All mass-producible weapons are sold at least once.

*Ding! You fulfilled all the conditions. You completed the mandatory quest, "Awaken the second spirit path"

*Ding! You may choose between Mage and Assassin.

"Well, there's no need to think."