“It shouldn’t take longer than an hour, sir,” said the Rock Master, a skinny elderly man with short, gray hair and thick spectacles, who single-handedly ran his small rock-opening venture. His voice was weighed down by age, his posture permanently hunched. He was a cultivator in Qi Saturation, though only at the fifth stage. It was obvious from his stringy muscles that his days of training were long gone.

  The dim room was barely large enough to fit his small workshop—a large table built of thick planks, a big, reinforced chest, and a couple of precise, stationary saws. There was also a single old chair for customers to wait in. Cade had chosen this place because the man seemed very experienced and had made a good impression by getting straight to the point.

  “I’m not accustomed to this form of time measurement. How many incense sticks is that?” the young Asura asked curiously. He had seen hourglasses, which only the rich could afford and were used mostly in alchemy, but there didn’t seem to be anything of that sort inside the small shop.

  “That's understandable, sir. Please allow me to explain. An hour is roughly equal to twelve incense sticks’ worth of time. You see, our city possesses a proper goldscale clock,” the man said with no small amount of pride. “It divides each day into twenty-four equal segments called hours, and hours are further divided into smaller segments called minutes. You can even purchase a timekeeper, a gemmed wristband that can tell the time as long as you’re within a couple dozen miles of one of the clocks. Unfortunately, the bands are very expensive, and you have to be a cultivator to use them,” he elaborated, sighing toward the end.

  “Thank you. In that case, I’ll wait here,” Cade responded, his eyes flickering with interest. Such a precise way of measuring time would have made everyday life so much easier. Those clocks must cost an outrageous amount of crystals; otherwise, I’m sure Kettle would have had one installed long ago.

  “I’ll work as quickly as I can, sir,” the Rock Master said as he pulled a glowing sunstone from a shelf outside the door, hanging it up over his desk. The small room immediately lit up with warm radiance.

  “There’s no rush. I need whatever’s inside in perfect condition, regardless of whether it’s a bloodstone or not. I’ll pay well, so take your time,” Cade reiterated, carefully sitting in the rickety chair, which creaked dangerously as it bore his full weight.

  “Yes sir, I will do my best,” the man replied as he rummaged through the large chest in the corner, finally pulling out a handy steel hammer and a short chisel, both tools marked by time and frequent use. Sitting down on a small, worn-out stool, the gray-haired man began his work. His hammer struck rhythmically, each motion measured and practiced thousands of times.

  The young Asura watched with fascination as the elderly man carefully chipped away at the black stone, gradually reducing its size bit by bit, often swapping both chisel and hammer for their smaller variants. The more rock was removed, the more intense the sensation of his blood heating up became, and Cade eventually had to go sit outside, resorting to taking a peek at the progress every now and then. The old man didn't seem affected by the strange emanations.

  As more and more stone chips were flaked away, a round, reflective shape began to emerge. “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s as far as I am confident to go without damaging the surface,” the man said in an apologetic tone, wanting to hand over a silvery orb the size of a large alchemical pill, roughly an inch in diameter, sparsely covered with specks of dark rock. The areas where the rock had been removed were incredibly smooth, reflecting the surroundings like a small ball of steel polished to perfection.

  However, Cade, who stood outside the entrance some twenty feet away, felt as if he were frozen in place. Beads of sweat trickled down his back, and when his magnified sight saw his reflection in the orb flickering with a multitude of colors, his eyes ached as if needles were being stabbed into his pupils, and he quickly turned away.

  Just the thought of touching the globule made him both terrified and incredibly excited. His veins felt like they were going to tear apart, and that was nothing next to his voracious heart, which appeared to be on the verge of exploding, beating so fast that its thumping sound turned into a low-pitched hum. It was a sensation of his body being pushed to its physical limits. What was even more extraordinary, he felt that just by looking at this small, shining orb, the barrier separating him from Flesh Fortification was loosening. On the other hand, the Rock Master still appeared completely unaffected by the small sphere, seemingly unable to notice its prismatic nature. He looked at his stunned customer with puzzlement and slight trepidation, the silver orb sitting on his outstretched hand.

  Cade swallowed nervously, then gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk forward. Each step was worse than the one before. The pressure released by the little orb was so immense that Cade could feel himself accumulating internal injuries. His heart thumped, pumping blood qi and helping with the healing. With bloodshot eyes and covered in sweat as if he had just finished a long run, Cade quickly swiped his hand over the reflective bead, sending it into his ring’s storage. He then sagged into his chair, which by some miracle didn't break, taking a deep breath like a drowning man who had finally managed to push his head above the surface.

  What the hell is this thing?!

  “Sir, is everything all right?” the elderly man asked, his tone uncertain and spiked with nervousness.

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  Cade broke out of his daze and glanced at the Rock Master, quickly giving him a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, thank you,” he said. Just as he was about to stand up, something occurred to him. “Tell me, Rock Master, have you ever seen anything like this orb before?”

  The elderly man hesitated for a moment before nodding. “I have, decades ago. Back then, my customer was a young elf—but then all of them appear young, don’t they? It must feel good to stay young for hundreds of years…” The elderly man’s words hung in the air, his faint smile touched with sadness. Cade didn't rush him. He imagined that in that short moment the Rock Master was reflecting on the years spent in this dim little room.

  The old man blinked as his mind snapped back to the present. “I’m sorry, sir, but I no longer remember that elven sir’s face. There is one thing I do recall quite vividly. It was a small, round emblem of a tower pinned to his chest, with five stars surrounding it. I remember this little detail so clearly despite the passage of years because looking at it made me feel like I was gazing upon a massive white structure piercing the clouds. It was beautiful,” the Rock Master's eyes briefly grew distant as he described the fascinating object from his memories.

  “Was the elf… surprised? Like me just now?”

  “No, sir. If anything, he was maybe a little confused. If I can be frank, he didn’t seem to be too bothered by it. He took the orb, examined it briefly, then paid and left without saying a word,” the old Rock Master replied, scratching his nose.

  “Thank you,” Cade smiled gratefully, handing the elder three spirit crystals.

  The old man gasped, his knees weakening. He plopped down onto his stool, taking deep breaths. “Sir, this is too much, I can’t… I can’t accept it. It’s far too generous,” he quickly waved his hands, almost terrified of the amount of wealth in front of him.

  “An honest payment for your honest work. I asked for an undamaged object, and that’s exactly what I’ve received. You are obviously a master of your craft, and you’ve done me a great service today. Please, take it,” Cade said, placing the three transparent crystals on the counter.

  The old man’s eyes glistened, his lower lip trembling with emotion. “Thank you, sir. Thank you so much,” the Rock Master said in a shaking voice, bowing as deeply as his old back would allow.

  “No need for that,” Cade gently straightened the thin elderly man. For some reason, his devotion to his craft had gripped the Asura’s heart. His grandparents on his mother’s side had both passed away when he was two years old, taken by the sweating sickness. His father had never spoken about his family, for reasons Cade never truly understood. The young Asura offered the flabbergasted Rock Master a grateful smile, wishing him a good day.

  It was still before noon, and the streets of Red Jewel City were quite bustling, dominated by the ever-present sound of wooden cart wheels rolling over the sandstone slabs, with various merchants loudly hawking their goods. Cade took a deep breath, enjoying the lively scenery. After walking around for an incense stick’s worth of time, he stumbled upon one of the gem sellers with timekeepers on offer. He bought a couple hundred bloodstones as well as one of those handy wristbands. It was as the Rock Master had said; they were rather expensive, at least by mortal standards. After he made his purchases, Cade strolled around some more, eventually finding an empty, secluded courtyard. A moment later, his speeder took off upwards, disappearing silently behind the clouds.

  He stayed at a high altitude for a long while, extending his life sense to its limits. It was better to be safe than sorry. Cade had no idea how much the orb was worth, but he had a hunch it was an amazingly rare treasure. Once he was sure he wasn’t being followed, he continued flying towards the Desert of a Thousand Lakes while maintaining an efficient speed and deliberating internally on how to approach the matter of the silver orb.

  According to the Rock Master’s words, the previous silver bead had been taken by an elf with a tower emblem on his clothes. Unless there were more of these gigantic elven spires around, it was very likely the elf had come from Tower Oasis. Perhaps the stars around the pin reflected his rank within the Tower’s hierarchy, or perhaps not. Without more information, it was pointless to guess. He now had to choose between trying to use the spherules in his blood to absorb some of the orb’s energies or leaving it for now and focusing on progressing through blood cultivation alone.

  That wasn’t much of a choice at all.

  If he could absorb some of that energy and use it to break through into Flesh Fortification, maybe even feed and grow the number of prismatic spherules in his body… wouldn't that essentially mean doubling the benefits while doing half the work? Although there was still the small matter of him potentially exploding or dying in some other terribly painful way. Master Lao Ren had mentioned that cultivating the First Chapter would be mostly straightforward with his aptitude, which was apparently quite good after his rebirth. And yet, Cade had already faced minor roadblocks, thanks to the mysterious prismatic energy that had somehow found its way into his body. So far, it wasn't anything too bad, but each breakthrough was harder than the previous one, requiring more time, more blood essence, and a higher density of blood qi than the Book of Life suggested was necessary.

  All of this came down to the fact that these spherules made his cultivation harder and would very likely continue to do so as their numbers grew. He might be getting more powerful thanks to their presence, but at the same time, his progression could stall at some point. Trying to absorb the energies from the bead might end up having detrimental effects, and it was hard to predict whether the gains would offset the losses in the long run.

  In the end, his curiosity and desire to grow stronger won. As Master Lao Ren had said many times, the best benefits were most often gained when one placed their life on the line. If his cultivation stalled, he would worry about it when the time came. He just couldn’t pass on this massive opportunity.

  Placing his attention back on the land below, Cade began searching for a mostly deserted area where he could start experimenting with the orb. If he did blow himself up, at least there wouldn’t be any people nearby, which was one of the main reasons he didn’t dare try it while in Red Jewel City. By the time he had found a perfect spot, the sun had already begun to set, bathing the scenery in its warm scarlet radiance. It was a small cave at the top of a sandstone cliff, with only herbivorous animals around, mostly wild goats and packs of deer-like creatures with curly antlers. All of them appeared docile and uninterested in his presence, focused on finding another bush or a tuft of grass to chew on.

  Alright, time to roll the dice.