4 An Offer

"It's wonderful to meet you all, senior brothers and sisters," Long Wei said.

"Don't worry about it. My time here is not wasted meeting so many talents of our generation here. Your addition Young Master Wei makes it even more delightful. Thank you," the young miss of the Neon Conglomerate, Daisy, spoke. Her voice was vibrant and lively, reminding him of the various spirit flowers growing in his garden.

The girl had a perfectly round face, bright pink pupils and long furry ears that drooped below her chin. A lovely pink dress squeezed against her body, forcing her curvy shape into view. Golden hair cascaded down her back, as the Eternal Waterfall found in the North Water God's inheritance realm. She passed a black cube over to Young Lord Lu.

The young lord received the cube gracefully and continued toying with it. Bright pulses of blue essence wrapped around the cube and squeezed. Creases formed atop the young lord's temple as he exerted strenuous effort. The shattering metal sound he so expected, never graced his ears. And that left him disappointed. He snatched the cube out of the air and placed it on his palm and gazed at it with his piercing blue eyes.

"I thought squeezing it with my essence would be easy. Seems I was mistaken, and it's a pleasure to meet you Young Master Wei, where did you get this cube, Lady Daisy?" Young Lord Lu said the fat rolls around his chin danced to every word, "It's so fucking hard. At first glance I thought it was made from spiritium, at closer inspection I thought it was vorium but it's too fucking hard to be either of those. A small block of spiritium or vorium can't withstand immortal level essence of any grade. Yet here it is. Still in perfect fucking shape. Maybe you can crush it, Lady Jasmine? I hear you have the densest essence in our generation?"

Young Lord Lu tossed the cube to Jasmine who caught it with a pulse of deep purplish light, the colour signature of her essence. Immediately she forced her mind into. A bloom of pink spread across her pale cheeks as she exerted more and more force. Yet the cube remained exactly the same, catching her off guard. Guided by her essence, the cube floated to her palm. A hiss escaped her lips the moment its black body pressed into her palm. The cube was cold. Colder than any metal she touched before. Young Lord Lu'a casual handling of the cube made her think it was no different to other metals. It must have been his chubby fingers. Else she couldn't find a logical explanation for his lack of reaction to the cold.

"It's unlike any metal I've seen before. It's too dense. Is it a divine metal? " Jasmine studied the cube.

Qian Jian busied himself with the liquor, pouring cup after cup. And his junior brother wasn't far behind him. Every few minutes a new bottle of immortal wine was opened and then finished within the next few minutes.

"Can I have a look?" Long Wei asked.

"Sure."

Jasmine tossed the black cube towards Long Wei. Olive-coloured fingers swiped the air, catching the cube. Long Wei focused his gaze on it. Faint pulses of bluish light flashed beyond the black colour, fooling anyone who didn't pay enough attention. The pulses of blue were faint, if it weren't for his pair of Heaven Shrouding Eyes, he would have missed it. He didn't bother testing its resistance with his qi. If even those that broke through the mortal barrier and became immortals couldn't crush it with their essence then what could he, a mere mortal that still used spirit qi do?

"It's an interesting metal alright. And clearly it isn't a divine or transcendent metal. If it were none of us would be able to carry it around like junk, " Long Wei said.

"And You are right. At least partially. That is a transitional metal. Somewhere between immortal and divine metal," Zhong Wenqian's powerful voice resounded.

Zhong Wenqian was the perfect specimen of the human race. Beige skin with a sapphire undertone, complete with a pair of silver eyes and short white hair that cupped his oval-shaped face. He brought the cup of wine to his rusty pink lips and sipped. The white robes he wore suit him so well, Long Wei was somewhat envious.

"We found it in an abandoned ruin in the Bloom Burst Starfield. Based on what we gathered, I and Qian Jian are over here. This type of metal should be one of the main building materials from four to five chaos cycles ago. It's only that one piece at the moment. But that wasn't the main reason we gathered you all today. We'll it kind of is, but not exactly," Zhong Wenqian dropped his cup on the wooden stool beside his chair, "I'll leave Qian Jian to explain."

Qian Jian slammed the wine cup onto the counter, drawing everyone's attention. The young lady from the Frost Sect stopped playing the piano to listen. An action that displeased Long Wei. He enjoyed the archaic style she chose and mixed with the subtle benefits of listening to her artistry, he would have loved it if she played it for eternity.

"Six months from now the Little Cosmos Domain will open up for the first time in this Era. And I want nothing more than to gain maximum benefits from that excursion. That's why I called you here. The Little Cosmos Domain is divided into two separate spaces. Each of them is as large as a galaxy. One of the spaces is restricted to those below the immortal realm and the other is for those below the Golden Immortal Realm, " Qian Jian began explaining.

"I don't see how we will be of any help. Little Cosmos Domain is an every cultivator for themself space. Working together is meaningless. Everyone will be their trying to grab one of the six keys in order to unlock the fabled vault at the core of the trial space," the core disciple of Frost Sect broke her vow of silence, " This is a waste of time. "

"Let me finish first Yue'er," Qian Jain pleaded.

"But Lady Yue is correct Senior Brother, " Wei Jie, Qian Jian's junior brother spoke, battling through his drunken stupor. "As far as history goes. Little Cosmos Domain has always been a race against to gather three keys through whatever means necessary to unlock the core vault at the center of the space. "

"I'm not denying that Junior Brother. But Little Cosmos Domain is more than what meets the eye. Think about it for a few seconds. What was the treasures found in the core vault for the last few Eras? "

"Alchemical products, mainly spirit pills and pastes. Each pill brought out of that place shakes the foundations of the Imperial Expanse. Especially the Samsara pill that appeared last Era. It was capable of letting a mortal transcend samsara and become a full fledged Golden Immortal in one step. It had its flaws. But the pill practically allowed anyone to manufacture Golden Immortals. Thank God most of the materials no longer exist," Young Lord Lu rushed to answer the question.

"And that's the point. Why would a space created by a battle crazed demon only contain alchemical products? Don't you find that suspicious at all? A man that single handedly ushered the end of the last Chaos Cycle created a trial space just so that people can gain pills and pellets? That doesn't make sense at all now does it, " Qian Jain said.

His words left them all in a daze. Maybe they were thinking things through with the wrong perspective? Qian Jian's words held some truth to them. Maybe he was overthinking? Logically, impossible that no one from the previous Era thought of it from Qian Jian's angle. In fact, they probably did but found nothing in return for their experimentation.

"I understand the logic. Senior Brother Jian, but thinking in that manner won't change the results. What else are you supposed to do with the keys if it isn't to open the vaults? Notes from the previous eras describe in detail how the two spaces have been scoured from one end to the next, no other vaults were found besides those at the core," Zhong Li said, "Someone even tried bringing the keys out once but they returned to little cosmos after a few days. "

"I had the exact same thoughts as you. But my world was turned upside down when I discovered something in Lu Sheng's spatial ring. It's this scroll. Read it."

A scroll materialized within Qian Jian's hand. Just as he passes it on to his junior brother, a powerful voice spoke, amplified by essence.

"The Recruitment Cerempny is about to begin, please brace yourselves. Elder Bohai has volunteered to perform a large scale Teleportation to save time. We should be arriving in the testing grounds within the next two seconds. Do not channel your essence or qi for a smooth Teleportation, " Elder Jiao announced.

"We'll finish this later, " Qian Jian returned the scroll to his spatial ring and closed his eyes.

Everyone else in the room followed after him and began stabilizing their essence except for Long We. Essence was something those who transcended the mortal barrier possessed. He still had one more realm in the mortal stage of cultivation to go before he transformed his spirit qi into essence.

The last sound they heard was a dull thud. They didn't hear the sound physically, but rather through their spirit as massive amounts of essence wrapped their bodies in blinding black light. Not more than a second passed and everyone within the main hall disappeared.