When Grandma Yuan finally left the shop instance, Jin took a breather and composed himself before looking at the large stacks of metal boxes. Yun was already walking towards the boxes, not particularly caring what Grandma Yuan said previously about her. Her only concern now was Jin’s growth and that was all it matters.
Yun did not feel the urge to explore her past after finding out the truth from Grandma Yuan though she did feel a little troubled. Regardless, Yun did not feel so conflicted that she felt that something must be done to rectify the problem. Perhaps when the System recreated her, it made her be that way so that she would not be burden by the past, else she could not explain otherwise. Or was she always that heartless when she was alive?
In any case, she scanned the boxes and realised that there were progressive grades attached to the sealing charms on the metal boxes of various sizes. She also noticed that the seal was purposely made for her particular version of Griffin style; not any Griffin style cultivator would be able to open the box. Upon closer examination, Yun roughly figured Grandma Yuan motive of putting the seals. She made it so that the unboxing procedure could only be done when Jin reached a certain Grade. That was when Yun would also be pegged to that grade to unveil the contents of the box too.
Hence, with Jin’s increase in grade, Grandma Yuan believed that would allow Yun to reveal the contents of the sealed metal boxes proportionate to his growth since she knew how the System worked. However, Grandma Yuan did not take account that Yun’s affliction was more towards the System then her being Jin’s ‘servant’. So, Grandma Yuan’s intention to give the entire batch of metal boxes to Jin could be circumvented by Yun if she wanted to open everything.
After pondering whether to either open all the boxes using the System’s powers or release the boxes to Jin whenever she felt the time was right, she finally decided to just follow Grandma Yuan’s way of doing things. Yun mumbled a few words before placing her hand at the Grade 1 metal box and the sealing charm burnt into a crisp in an instant. Jin helped himself to opening the chest and found that the large metal box was brimming with…books.
Cultivation Manuals of various animals were in that box and all of which seem to be unique to their own. Jin estimated there would be at least a hundred of these manuals in there. “To be exact, there are currently 1028 manuals in the metal box. All of which are the common types of cultivation which most modern cultivators used. There were no duplicate copies in the box at all.” The System stated.
When Yun opened the subsequent boxes, the contents were similar. It was all books, books and more books so she decided to stop at the metal box with the Grade 6 sealing charm since the box’s size does not seem to look like it would contain books.
The System noted that the cultivation manuals that the first five metal boxes contained, covered almost 80% of the cultivators seen in the shop. Despite the variations in certain styles, the System had already begun analysing those manuals and putting them in its database.
“Don’t you have your set of own cultivation manuals in your database? I mean you did kind of gave Qiu Yue and Lynn their own special manuals.” Jin asked wondering if all these manuals were really necessary or was it just Ming’s old collection.
“The cultivation manuals that the System stored in its database were from the period of the Jade Emperor era. The Panda Clan had a monopoly in the education sector and it managed to control the sales of cultivation manuals really well. The System would like to note that due to the rebellion against the Banned Emperor, the Panda Clan estimated to have obtained at least 90% of the cultivation manual in that particular era with the efforts of the previous houses before they became the subjects of the Jade Emperor.” The System reported.
“With this set of collection in hand, the System is able to update its database, correlate it to the old cultivation manual and deduce the possible divergences of various old cultivation manual that lead to the creation of the modern cultivation manual. In addition, the collection of data from the cultivators in the dungeon instances had presented the shortfalls as well as the advantages of the particular style they were using. The System will take its time to compile all of the data and use it to create better manuals. In short, the System believes that it could finally open up the teaching instance User had desired Peppers to do so. User may do it in conjunction with the zoo instance that former Sub System User Yuan had suggested.” The System stated and Jin could feel that it was very satisfied with the collection of the cultivation manuals despite the fact that it despised the person who painstakingly collected them.
“I had totally forgotten about that part of asking Peppers to do it.” Jin casually opened one of the manuals to take a look. Some of the older manuals had hundreds of pages while others were tattered and torn but Jin realised many of the newer looking ones were thinner and more concise. He wondered if Ming had gone through all these manual to create the Nineteen Lazy Astral Pandas cultivation manual.
“He did. Well, not all entirely all of them but a number of them, yes.” Kraft appeared and took one manual from the Grade 3 box. He then showed Jin a particular page of the Henotic Hedgehog Cultivation Style. Jin picked it up to have a closer look…then he realised the technique on that page was similar to his Panda Rolling technique but the steps were much simpler.
“He was still a cultivator after the System abandoned him. When Ming was not working, he would take the time to create the particular cultivation manual you had been using.” Kraft tossed the book back into the metal box which made a portal open right in front of him.
Peppers suddenly came out of the portal like a person who had not seen food in his life for a very long time. “I SMELL BOOKS!” Peppers shouted as she ran to the Grade 5 metal box of books and stared at them for a while. “Oh wow. I did not expect your inheritance to be like this at all! I thought it would just be some old armour and lots of money. But look at this! These crates are filled with so much sweat and blood of the cultivation masters!!! Their life’s work all summarised into pages of papers! Master, I will not be courteous!!” She cast a magic spell that levitated the five metal boxes and with a snap, they all disappear.
“Don’t go overboard reading that you will not be able to complete the preparations of Operation Pompeii in time!!” Jin shouted at her but before Peppers could even reply, she disappeared into thin air. “System…please do remind her…” Jin said as he knew there was not much time left to the Red Moon Night.
“Do you wish to look into the contents of the last two boxes or you want me to do it another day?” Yun asked since she saw him preoccupied but Jin nodded his head. Judging from the rectangular size of the metal box, he did not expect the contents to be any much different. Perhaps, it was some ancient scroll that contained the knowledge or some picture painting that would teleport them into another dimension but when Jin looked at it closely, he was surprised.
Two unique looking swords with their pommels carved with a griffin head. The crossguard was ornated with wings and the grip was layered with silver for one and gold for the other. The langet of the sword had claws grabbing on the fuller part of the blade. The scabbard’s locket and chape matched with the colours of the hilt with a simple black finishing. There was a note at the side and Jin can recognise that it was Ming’s handwriting.
“Grandma Yuan might not like it but pass it to your supposed mother. It belonged to her and will forever be hers.” Ming wrote. Yun picked it up and remove the silver griffin sword out of its scabbard. Somehow, the sword glowed when Yun raised it up to have a closer look.
“The sword seems to remember me…even when I have no recollection about it.” Yun said as she put it back into the scabbard and took the other out of the metal box. As she peered at the golden sword, water involuntarily accumulated into a droplet and suddenly escape out of her tear ducts. Yun did not understand why even when she had no memories of the golden sword, her tears kept flowing out as if it was pent up for a very long time. There was an indiscernible bond that was exposed from the depths of her heart when she held on to the golden sword.
Jin saw the scene and kept quiet for a while. He figured that was the sword his father used based on what Grandma Yuan said and Jin could also feel that his heart been tugged by the sword too.
“Why…why…why I cannot remember anything about you and yet you made me feel this way!” Yun cried out loud as if she could see an apparition of the loved one she lost. At that moment, her true cultivation style appeared and silver griffins silhouettes hovered over her as if to try and comfort her.
Kraft was the only one who dared to walk towards her and place a hand on her shoulders and the griffins silhouettes disappeared immediately. “Keep that sword close to your heart. It proved that you were truly alive once before the System recreated the new you. No matter what, look forward to the growth of your ‘son’ and hope that when we ever get close to those Banned Emperor bastards, use that sword to cut them down.” Kraft comforted her in his own way before he walked away.
“Do not worry. I will cut them down if I have to lose this life again.” Yun kept that thought to herself as she wiped her tears away and took out a belt that appeared to have a placeholder for her swords. Yun then excused herself for a moment and asked Jin to open the last box himself since she already released the seal.
Jin nodded his head and did not say much, leaving her to her own devices. Lynn who was at the side lines came towards Jin and asked if he was okay. “I did lose my mom before so I might have an inkling how you might feel. If you need anything, do not hesitate to come to me.” Lynn said before she left for the kitchen service instance, leaving Jin alone with the last unsealed box among the many sealed ones.
The box looked similar to the first five but the lid of the box was heavier than the others. Jin managed to open it but instead of books or weapons, there was actually nothing inside other than a metal crest in it. A Panda head shaped crest. Jin believed it was something special so he slowly picked it up. Yet, there was no sign of it being activated, and no matter how Jin looked at it, the crest felt and resembled a simple normal accessory to him.
Jin tried to insert some chi inside but nothing happened too so he decided to ask the System about it which the System had no affirmative response to it. The System had no idea what the metal crest was supposed to do too and Jin guessed perhaps only time will tell. However, as he put the Panda head crest into his storage watch, the Panda’s dull looking eyes somehow blinked once before it was teleported into the storage area. (which Jin did not notice at all.)
Jin then called out his zombies to carry the rest of the sealed boxes into the basement of his terrace house since there was sufficient space to put it. After which, he entered the Dungeon Maker and prepared to oversee the rest of the preparations for Operation Pompeii and the situation in the North and Western region of Gob Gob Kingdom.
However, before Jin could do anything major, there was a beep in the control console and it was apparently a call from Ripcaller who was with the team of assassins with Dagger General Igni. He said that they had finally found a desolate village where past goblins had stayed before. They were going to set the leyline configuration in that village so it would operate as the initial waypoint to the Orc’s kingdom for other monsters, goblins or even cultivators to come in if needed. Ripcaller also asked Jin if he wanted to watch the leyline configuration so he might use it for his own purposes.
On the contrary, Jin declined but offered them to enter a room created by the Dungeon Maker when they were done creating the leyline portal settings. He had prepared the System to create technique cubes, those small metal looking Rubik cubes which Zeru once gave Jin to acquire knowledge almost instantly. Jin wished to do the same to the goblins with regards to certain modern assassination methods for the goblins.
That way, the assassination team would have better chance of performing the mission. Jin initially wanted to do the same for those goblin marksmen or those operating the heavy war guns but he felt that if he let Hou Fei teach, maybe he could save on those resources and perhaps Hou Fei can teach them a personal trick or two. (Which he was so successful in imparting those skills or perhaps the goblins learn things fast.)
Ripcaller acknowledged his master’s instructions and ended the call while Dagger General Igni prepared the ingredients for the ritual in the basement of the broken tavern building. “Son, I need you to keep guard with the other goblin assassins. When I start this ritual, there are certain things to take note.”
“Monsters that usually kept to themselves might appear so you have to guard me against them. I must not be interrupted or else the leyline connection would not only break but cause an earthquake in this region too. However, if I am not wrong, there should not be any significantly dangerous monsters here that would pose a threat to this team. My men reported none living in the current vicinity from a quick sweep. Perhaps the Orc scouts or cavalry might appear but I believe the men and you can handle them.”
“Who cares about an earthquake in the Orc region? If Father’s life is in mortal danger, I will not hesitate to break you out of this trance.” Ripcaller replied but Igni should his head.
“It’s not just an earthquake. The leyline provides magic to every being mother nature had created. What I am trying to do is to open a path within the leyline so we can move along the leyline like blood flowing from the heart to another organ. If I mess up, this leyline opening will cause magic to flow out like a broken water pipe and it will have a disastrous effect on the surroundings. When we have the time, I might teach you how to do it, for now just keep guard.” General Igni said and he dismissed him as he prepared himself for the ritual.
Ripcaller sometimes would like his father to take less risk especially with rituals like this. They could have asked a Tavern Master to accompany them since they could do the same ritual as him but Ripcaller’s father felt that the smaller the team, the faster one could move. It already took them more than two weeks to reach the Orc mainland but managed to be left undetected by patrolling orcs.
Ripcaller learnt a lot from his father in terms of tracking, survival training and sneaking but he too showed his capabilities whenever possible. His father, Igni, was not a man that dished out praises easily but Ripcaller did manage to perceive certain actions throughout the expedition which showed that he was proud of Ripcaller.
Previously, General Igni used to not let Ripcaller perform a lot of tasks, asserting that he was incompetent or too young for it. But seeing how Ripcaller fought against the orcs and fighting against Red Hurricane, the Avatar of Garuda, made him realised that Ripcaller was no longer a kid. That was also why Igni had permitted him to come for this major assassination mission and that gesture alone had proved that Igni trusted his son more than usual. Or perhaps, he just wanted to spend a bit more time with his long lost son.
Ripcaller closed the somewhat broken door of the Tavern’s basement and climbed up the stairs to the first floor with the assassin goblins resting for a moment. He passed down his father’s orders to his current comrades and they nodded their heads except for Assassin Savant leaning on the entrance door of the broken down tavern.
“Savant, did you get the message?” Ripcaller not knowing his true name, called him Savant instead since he was the only one there at the moment.
Suddenly, the Assassin Savant who usually the most composed of all of them, lowered his centre of gravity and had his hand at his waist, readied to wield his weapon out to strike. The other assassin goblins who saw that immediately picked their gear up and went to cover almost immediately. They trust the guts of the Assassin Savant who had helped them to detect quite a number of possible incursions. Without Savant, they might have clashed with orcs and lose a few goblins unnecessarily.
However, instead of something or someone charging into the broken tavern there was a clap. “My King said he sensed rats entering our country and sent me out to this deserted place. Why don’t you just come out and play with me. Chop chop, let’s hurry. I have something more important to do than to be a pest exterminator.” A fog of black smoke began to spread throughout the deserted village in a controlled manner and with a snap of finger, the smoke was ignited into a burst of green flames.
Everything was burning except for the tavern and the empty grounds outside it. Green Fire, the Avatar of Ifrit did that to flush those pesky goblins out of their hiding hole.
