9 - Hidden treasure

As Xu Xin left the girl behind, she was completely shocked. She expected him to try to turn her down, but she didn't expect that he would claim that her master was trying to pave his path for him.

His meaning was obvious: he didn't want anyone thinking that they can control him or set him on a certain path, and if he was to get help from someone like her master, that would obviously happen.

However, after a moment of shock, the girl recovered and remembered what her master had told her to say if Xu Xin turned her down.

"Can we at least know your name?" Her voice this time was sincere, and she truly respected her master, and this was all that she could request to help please her master.

Xu Xin suddenly stopped in his tracks, then, after a few moments, without turning around, he spoke quietly. "My name is Xu Xin." After that, he continued to walk away, quickly speeding up into a run as he sprinted towards the city.

He left behind the girl, who knew of no genius of this name who had fallen recently.

He didn't say his birth name because he no longer wanted anything to do with that name, and not only did he hate it, but it also would bring danger to him. Obviously, there was no reason to use it, so he used Xu Xin, the name he would call himself anyways.

Leaving her behind, he went back into the city, selling the items that he found and going back to the place he had rented to prepare to break through to the martial arts path realm.

After all, he had run out of money just before he was about to break through, hence he was completely ready to break through to the martial arts path realm.

His dantian had already completely recovered, just as he expected, though it wasn't nearly as big as it once was. However, he didn't really care since size wasn't everything (hehe).

In fact, he had an instinctual feeling that it was even better for him to have this smaller dantian compared to his previous big one.

During the process of breaking through, one would absorb the energy of heaven and earth into their dantian, filling it with Qi in order to strengthen their body and allow them to have certain powers.

During the martial arts path realm, one would have inner energy, which was much lower quality than inner breath, but it was the standard of cultivation since inner breath was only possible to have at the spirit realm.

When one broke through to the martial arts path, unlike breaking through stages in the body rank, it was a permanent change.

The body rank only used stages to quantify people's physical strength in order to tell how close they were to the martial arts path, whereas there was a very big and permanent difference between stages in the martial arts path.

Each stage changed the cultivator's body and improved every aspect of them permanently, though it wouldn't be permanent if the cultivator's dantian was broken like Xu Xin's had been.

The inner energy of the martial arts path allowed them to increase their strength, speed, and senses far beyond what the human body could naturally accomplish.

As Xu Xin started the process of breaking through, he sensed the energy between heaven and earth, qi, and started to summon it.

As he summoned it, golden specks started to appear in the air, and they floated towards his body.

He was surprised to find that once the qi entered his dantian, it seemed to change instantly, changing directly into inner energy, which was weird. Normally, it would take a little while to convert, at the very least a couple seconds, but his converted instantly.

As he filled his dantian up with inner energy, he quickly felt that it was weird. It seemed to be far faster than he anticipated.

However, about five minutes later, it was completely filled with qi, and the energy within suddenly burst out of his dantian and filled his body, going to every single cell within it. He instantly felt refreshed as his body seemed to be purified by this power and strengthened.

He felt that it was extremely weird, because he had broken through far faster than he expected to, and he didn't know why.

But he didn't really care since it only made things easier for him.

After breaking through, he quickly filled his dantian back up with qi, and it had all completely converted to inner energy.

He then wondered about what element he should make his inner energy, because he obviously couldn't go with the golden flames, because that would be too easily recognized not only because of the way that it looked, but because it was a technique of the Xiao royal family, and he would be killed if seen with it whether or not it was discovered that he was Xiao Xin.

As such, he proceeded to comb through the techniques in his mind, but he quickly realized that he didn't really have any techniques other than the royal techniques, meaning that he had no starting place.

He now regretted not spending some money to get techniques other than the royal ones.

But there was no cure for regret in this world, so all he could do was go out of his room and go to a market to look for some techniques that he could buy.

As he went into the market, he heard the sound of a bustling crowd and people yelling out deals on the street, trying to bring in any customers that they could.

As he went through, he felt a grand sense of chaos that felt perfect for him.

He loved it when markets were crazy, because the people selling would be doing anything to get the most customers, hence he could slip around unseen and find what he needed to find without being singled out in the crowd.

As such, he went around, looking at every technique he could to see if there was one that he liked.

He looked through one store at a time, going through every single technique book they had in order to find the best one that suited him, and he was utterly disappointed by what they had.

However, the reason that he was disappointed was because he was used to the royal techniques, of which even the lowest leveled ones were higher ranked than these.

After finding no techniques that met his standards, he simply looked around for some cultivation manuals for specific elements, looking for anything other than the metallic golden flames of the Xiao royal family.

Eventually, he came upon a shop that had nobody in it. He found it quite odd that nobody was here, considering how packed the market was.

As he went inside, he instantly saw why there was nobody here.

The inside looked completely abandoned, with dust and cobwebs everywhere. There wasn't even anyone at the counter to sell things.

However, despite wanting to leave, Xu Xin's instincts suddenly kicked in, preventing him from leaving. After all, they had never been wrong before.

As he looked around, he quickly realized that there weren't even any books here that had techniques, so he was wondering why his instincts were acting up.

As such, he went up to the counter, and yelled out, "Hello? Is there anybody in here?"

At first, there was no response, but a few seconds later, he heard the sound of a door creaking open at the back of the shop, and an old woman walked out.

She then slowly hobbled over to the counter, muttering crankily along the way.

"What do you want?" She asked with a cranky tone, as if Xu Xin had woken her up from a nap.

Xu Xin didn't pay any mind to her tone as he responded quickly, "I need a cultivation technique of an element other than metal or fire."

"We don't have any. If you don't need anything else, get out." She was annoyed.

However, Xu Xin felt that she was lying. He was even sure that she had a good technique but just wasn't willing to give them to him.

As such, he did what he always did: be bold.

"Give me whatever technique you're hiding, and I'll pay you back ten times over in the future. After all, a crippled spirit realm cultivator is bound to have something good."

That's right, she was a spirit realm cultivator at her peak, though she had been crippled just like Xu Xin had, though not by poison. Xu Xin could tell because of not only a very faint residual aura left behind by a crippled spirit realm, but also because of her demeanor and personality.

He noticed that she had been crippled when he saw her, but he was possibly the only person who could tell that she was a crippled spirit realm, because he was one of the only people to meet someone who had been a crippled spirit realm.

The woman then suppressed her shock and looked at him differently.

Anyone who could tell this was definitely not simple, whether it be in the ability to find out her past or the ability to sense she was a crippled spirit realm.

Either way, he was certainly not somebody to be ignored.

As she looked at him, she noticed his aquamarine eyes and hair, and she felt that he was extremely odd.

Xu Xin also realized that the reason his instincts kicked in was because, whether or not he noticed it, there was a remnant aura of a crippled spirit realm in here on everything, which is why he unconsciously felt that there was something good here.

That remnant aura would stay behind on the crippled person forever unless the person or thing who crippled them put in extra effort to erase all traces of their previous cultivation, meaning that this old lady had likely been crippled by someone or something merely breaking her dantian, not shattering it like Xu Xin's had been.

As she looked at Xu Xin, she noticed that he was perfectly calm in saying such a thing, as if it was completely normal.

"What do you want, boy?" She spoke in a slightly more solemn and respectful tone. After all, no matter how he found out that she had been at the spirit realm, it meant that he couldn't be ignored so easily.

"Like I said earlier, I need any cultivation manual of any element other than metal or fire. Give me one, and I will pay you back for it ten times over in the future." He restated what he wanted calmly.

After a few seconds of thinking it through, the woman said, "Follow me." Before leading him back into the room she had come from.

Her instincts had also kicked in, telling her that this boy was extremely dangerous despite him not seeming so in the slightest. Also, her instincts told her that he was not someone that should be easily ignored.

As he followed her, he quickly realized that she was likely someone stronger than he anticipated, because he instantly felt strong surges of qi coming from the room they were entering even though there weren't even any resources in here.

As he looked around, he realized that there was a whole separate area, and although it was small, any random item here surpassed the value of everything in the outside shop combined.

Some of the stuff here, Xu Xin guessed, surpassed the value of some of the Xiao royal techniques. Though none of them came close to the golden flames in value, that was to be expected since that was the very best royal technique of them all.

Even this kingdom's top royal technique didn't come close to the golden flames. This was because the golden flames were a technique that Xu Xin's grandfather had found in an inheritance long ago. It was an ancient technique, as old as the kingdom itself, if not much older.

At this moment, the woman seemed to make a hard decision before finally sighing as she made a decision.

"You can select one technique free of charge. The only requirements are that you can't distribute it at all and can't tell anyone where you got it. I need to get rid of these things anyway."

She seemed to be filled with sadness as she said this, and Xu Xin got some idea of what had happened to her.

He had already realized that she was likely someone on the level of just below the king of the kingdom for her to have techniques of this level, but for her to be crippled, he wondered just what had happened to her.

The only person he could think of was the Blood Order patriarch.

"Regardless of what you say, I will keep my promise and pay you back ten times over in the future. Thank you for this opportunity." He hid his shock that she was willing to give him one for free, but he figured that there must be a reason she had done so, so he didn't ask.

In reality, she had done this since these techniques were of no use to her since she already memorized all of them and she couldn't use them anyways.

She might as well earn the good will of this boy, who was extremely odd in her eyes, in exchange for something useless to her.

If it was anyone else who had just broken through to the martial arts path, she absolutely wouldn't have let them back here, let alone give them something for free, but there was something different about this boy.

There was something in his eyes; an uncontained confidence and calmness, like he was absolutely sure of every decision he made. It wasn't something that could be faked, and it wasn't just arrogance or ignorance.

She was sure that she wouldn't regret this decision, though she wasn't quite sure why.