On the way home, Lin Yang often called up his status screen. It always showed the same thing, the only thing he was interested in tracking at the time.

This piece of stone contains part of an inheritance from an ancient immortal civilization. It is fragmented now. 

Number of uses: 1/1

There are traces of lower life forms attempting to learn the inheritance, but their spiritual power was insufficient. Host has sufficient spiritual power, but the inheritance is fragmented. Learn anyway? Y/N?(1 ripple point required)

He needed to see how long the notification would last, or how far. As much as he knew, the tablet should not have shattered by now. He smiled as he considered his little scam.

The young master wouldn't know that Lin Yang only needed a touch to learn the skill. And he probably didn't know that his treasured fragment would shatter after Lin Yang was done. Only Lin Yang's father should know that.

The further Lin Yang was from the academy when he finally triggered the system, the better. It would be hard to suspect him if he wasn't even there, wouldn't it? It would be easier to suspect the spies. Who Lin Yang thought did truly exist. 

All these people Wang Wei had defeated must have had spies close to them, but that didn't matter. Lin Yang was surrounded by guards he'd vetted using the ripple system.

He might find it hard to read people, but even the best actors could slip and reveal their strongest emotions from time to time. There was a guard who entirely loathed him, and currently said guard was in charge of watching lady Ji Ruoxue’s cell.

He had volunteered for it vehemently. Lin Yang had smiled at the man like he didn't suspect a thing. Probably Wang Wei was getting hourly updates on his lover's life.

It took two days to return home. All in all, Lin Yang had been in this Longtian world for more than ten days. He made sure his return was loud and ostentatious.

The notification was still the same. Now that he was back home, there was no reason to keep pushing it. He had an alibi, and hopefully his coconspirator wouldn't know about it until long after Lin Yang was back to his world.

You have learned the skill eyes of the world. Your spiritual power will transform.

Eyes of the world(lvl. 0 - upgradable) 

Current effect - You have insights into people's souls. 

Luckily, Lin Yang was inside a closed off carriage, otherwise anyone who saw him writhing the way he was would have questioned his sanity. He didn't know how long it took, but it was over before he reached the manor.

His spiritual power had undergone some sort of transformation, but other than that Lin Yang felt nothing. Apparently he could gain insight into other people's souls, according to the skill description.

It sounded useless to him. He tried it either way. Looking at one of the guards next to him with the skill focused in his eyes, Lin Yang could see… nothing. There was nothing different about the man. Lin Yang wrinkled his nose in annoyance.

The fragment for this skill was larger than the one he got from his father, but apparently useless. 

He walked towards his father's rooms as he thought it through. His father hadn't received his help for over five days. Was the old man living in discomfort by now?

But he needn't have worried. Because the old man was sitting in a lotus position in front of an incense burner when Lin Yang arrived.

“What the actual hell are you doing, father?”

“You're back, son?” the man said nonchalantly, not even looking back. “Over the days you haven't been here, I had to find ways to cope with the ever worsening pain of my meridians. Isn't it a good time to start praying to the gods?”

Lin Yang felt his face fold in on itself. He had no idea what to say for a while. “So you only talk to the gods when you're in trouble?”

“When are you going to talk to the god of the hunt except before a hunt? When are you going to talk to the god of the sick except when you are sick? And when are you going to talk to the god of the underworld —”

“You aren't going to die yet, old man,” Lin Yang declared. 

‘At least not until Wang Wei is dealt with and I rob all his secrets’.

He calmed his father's body down and lulled the old man to sleep. 

Next he had to deal with the new skill he'd learned. As far as he knew, this was a skill that had fragmented. It was strange to think of. The first fragment gave him a palm based almost healing skill. The second fragment gave him a pupil based soul skill. Was the original skill this diverse?

Or had the tablet's fragmenting changed the skill? Was it better or worse than before?

Lin Yang probably wouldn't find out until after he'd collected all the fragments.

The skill fragments can only be merged when at the same level. Upgrade skill, eyes of the world, before attempting to merge.

He had to bring the eyes of the world skill to level two as well before he attempted merging it with the palm skill. Maybe it was lucky he couldn't get the palm skill to level three before. He couldn't imagine all those wasted ripple points. But then he thought of something.

“System, the skill had fragmented. I'm just guessing, but this can't be how it functioned before, can it? So is it better this way, or was the original skill better?”

Unknown. There may be merits and demerits. Unable to conclude until all skill fragments are found. However, one thing is certain, this was not how the ancient civilization envisioned their inheritance being used.

It was something to think about at least.

At least until the merchant's of the city finally agreed to his coercion. He wanted to ask them why they dallied before. 

He already had fifty ripple points, and fractions more were coming in every hour of the day. 

Ripple points: 50.7645

Ripple points obtained (amusement): 0.00001…

And the fractions were getting smaller too. And considering that some of his stories had reached towards the young master of the Immortal sword school, perhaps it wasn't surprising. His rumours were now far beyond the bounds of this small city.

Eyes of the world upgraded to level 1 for 1 ripple points…

Eyes of the world upgraded to level 2 for 4 ripple points. (Cannot be upgraded further as this is a fragmented skill)

Current effect: Have insights into spiritual anomalies. Your spiritual power has transformed. Now you are resistant to spiritual attacks, but not immune.

Up till the end, Lin Yang couldn't see what was great about this skill fragment. Sure, it now protected him from spiritual attacks, according to the description, but how the hell was that going to helping him in the present?

Do you want to merge the skill fragments? Y/N?

He was a little reluctant, given one skill was a little helpful and the other was absolute garbage, but in the end he'd have to combine them anyway.

You have combined the skill fragments eyes of the world and palm of relaxation. You have learned the skill soul cleansing eyes (lvl. 2)(cannot be upgraded further as this is a fragmented skill)

Current effect: Can see anomalies in spirits and meridians, and can use a special kind of spiritual energy to relax them if injured.

“So now I can also relax spiritual pain?” Lin Yang mused. 

A day later, Lin Yang stood over a chest of spirit stones, rubbing his hands together with an anticipatory chuckle.

Ripple points obtained: 0.2.

“This…what the hell?!” 

After spending over one thousand spirit stones, he only managed that many ripple points. Calculating it a bit more consciously, these hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones would only net him about twenty ripple points in the end. It was such a small return.

It would be a waste to use the spirit stones this way. Rather he'd just leave most of them for the Lin family at the end of the month. But he still needed to experiment. 

He used a few thousand spirit stones to buy him two spirit swords over the next two days. They were low grade, but at least they were spirit weapons. Unfortunately Lin Yang couldn't use them yet. Besides, that was not his purpose for buying them anyway. He needed to find out more about the wealth exchange for ripple points system.

Ripple points obtained: 0.0007.

Lin Yang blinked at the tiny, almost negligible amount of ripple points. Wasn't that sword worth more than two thousand spirit stones? And in the end he could only get a fraction of what he would have gained otherwise.

“Maybe it's because this is a low grade world, and therefore the system values their crafts less?”

This seemed like a method of gaining ripple points that was more wasteful than not, given the current circumstances. Maybe he would give up on it for the time being.

Luckily, it was only a day later when an important message arrived. From the young master of the immortal sword school. Presumably the man didn't know he'd been robbed yet.

‘Three of my sword bearers escaped a few hours back. Currently trying to trace them, but unable to.’

Lin Yang smiled as his plans started to come together.

Next, he held a stone fragment in his hand, played around with it, as he went to visit his former wife and father-in-law. 

He didn't even have a lot to say to them. He just needed to expose what he had. To them and to the guard watching their cells. 

“Honey, Ruoxue, are you still not going to tell me what Wang Wei sent you here for?”

“I told you, I came here to care for my father-in-law,” Ruoxue continued to persist.

“Hmph, so you refuse a toast? Don't blame this young master for forcing you to drink a forefeit!”

Then he turned around and swished out of the room with his little stone tab exposed. “Guards, I want Ruoxue in my chamber. And tell the story everywhere. Tell them this young master has conquered that wench's body! Prepare the bath for me. I'll have to be clean before…”

As he turned the corner, he heard the guard in charge of watching Ruoxue’s cell yell at anyone who came close. He said he would do it himself, and that the others needn't concern themselves over it.

Lin Yang changed clothes, and left his old clothes lying in front of the bath screen. He watched from another room as the suspicious walked in and pretended to move forward to report something.

The guard looked around the room furtively, then he bent forward and stole the fake stone tablet. 

Lin Yang looked at the young man he was watching the whole episode with. The representative from the information guild. 

“Follow him,” Lin Yang instructed. “And keep all my allies informed. And the young master the immortal sword school as well.”

Lin Yang didn't want to go to the site too early. Ideally, he'd arrive there after a surrounded Wang Wei was already killed. 

Hours after the last notification, Lin Yang finally entered a tiny sedan with his father and headed towards the appointed spot.

He expected to see a somewhat devastated land of red, but all he saw was a small hut in the wild. Someone sneaked up from behind him, and Lin Yang regretted not having martial arts skills, but it was just the information guild representative.

“What's happening?” Lin Yang asked.

“Wang Wei has yet to show up,” the spy said. 

Meaning this place, quiet as it seemed, was surrounded by tens of experts just then. 

For some reason, Wang Wei chose to appear just then. He came riding a donkey, of all things.

“Let me see the tablet, Ruoxue,” he said tepidly, disappointing the excited woman.

“It's a fake."

 

A/N: A slower chapter today to prepare to end this first mini-arc. Hopefully by the end of the year we are preparing for the second minor realm. A merry Christmas to you all!