4 The Perfect Deal?

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A lone figure stood proudly on top of high golden walls, behind him there was a city while on the other side there were Demon Beasts trying everything they could to destroy or climb the walls. The figure lifted his hand as a crimson light descended from the sky and the thousand of demon beasts were flung away but he didn't stop there, grabbing the air the space in front of him cracked as a giant black halberd came out of it.

The Demon Beast were just standing up again getting ready to attack the walls but stopped as they all felt a oppressive pressure on them, looking at the figure they could see a small golden glow on his body and as he swung downward his halberd the wind hissed as the Demon Beast could only look in horror as the wind pressure shredded to piece the Demon beast in the front quickly moving forward killing more and more of them.

Just as the wind pressure was about to kill all Demon Beasts a purple line appeared offsetting the figure's attack, high in the sky there stood another figure with purple feathered wings seemingly made light, this new figure seemed to say something before four orbs of light appeared behind it.

The first figure lifted his halberd as one lone orb of light appeared behind him, contrary to the other four this orb was crimson in color and was a lot bigger than the purple four but the winged figure only snorted as he launched his palm toward the figure.

The earth trembled and the winds cried as the palm materialized itself crashing down on the first figure like an heavenly tribulation but that same proud figure didn't back down instead he pointed his halberd toward the palm as the orb behind him started to spin, accumulating more and more soul energy in it.

The palm eventually reached the figure and as the two energies clashed myriads stream of light were created as they ravaged the space around them, even the once golden walls weren't able to resit the force as they crumbled turning into dust, the city behind barely holding for a few second under the protection of an inscription array before even that failed.

As the figure finally overcame the power of the palm he fell on his knees glaring at the flying figure.

The flying figure only looked with disdain from above before he lifted his hand, the four orbs of light spinning and accumulating soul energy behind him as they materialized a giant flood dragon made completely of energy, the dragon roared at the sky before flying down on the figure as the whole plane was covered in a purple light.

Opening his eyes, Shin looked around in a panic as he held tightly the sheet of his bed, feeling the robe he was wearing stick closely to his body as he was covered in sweat.

'Was that a dream? No, it was far too real for it to be a simple dream…'

Thinking back on what he saw he still vividly remembered the two figures clashing as they demonstrated power far above the Legend rank.

After the book transformed into that orb of light Shin used one of his transmission inscriptions to call over Taishiro so that he could check what it actually was but even after thoroughly checking it over they couldn't find anything about what it was or what it does.

Closing his eyes once again Shin sent his divine sense to his soul realm, the orb of light didn't seem to have changed while except for the seventh ring getting a little bigger and clearer, the lake didn't change even after he used a little of its soul energy.

'It seems to keep replenishing itself from the orb in the sky….'

Just as he was about to exit his soul realm he noticed a black light coming from the bottom of the lake, curious he decided to dive inside and as he entered the lake he saw a big throne seemingly made of stone or a similar material, the throne was completely black but instead of making it hard to see it emitted a black light making it almost impossible to not see.

Reaching the end of the lake where the throne was put in Shin lifted his right hand to touch it but as his finger made contact with the throne he noted the hard material it was made from along with a smooth texture, sitting down on it he rested his arms on the armrest on the right and left of the throne.

He felt the soul energy around him tremble as a pressure came down on him blocking his movement, the same dream repeated in his mind but this time he could feel every single sensation the first figure felt from the smell of the Demon Beast to the feeling of the wind as if he was the one standing on top of those golden walls.

The dream continued as Shin received more and more knowledge about the figure and what was happening and as it ended Shin opened his eyes, the knowledge almost slipping away like the memory of a distant dream but most of that still remained.

'These are the cultivation techniques he practiced?'

Of that knowledge what remained were a couple of cultivation techniques and special techniques. Unfortunately almost nothing remained about that person's life or even that person's name but Shin at that moment couldn't care less about that.

'Seizing Moon Cultivation technique, Prime Titan Body Technique and SkyWin-...SkyWind? I think I lost it...'

Closing his eyes he tried to remember what the name of the last one was but he could barely make sense of what he remembered, the special technique that appeared in his mind was blurry and even the name was incomplete and no matter how much he tried he wasn't able to make sense of that technique anymore.

Sighing he got off the bed before walking to his desk and starting to write everything he still remembered along with the first two techniques as they were still quite vivid in his mind.

Seizing Moon Cultivation Technique, was a special cultivation technique that would let the user cultivate and grow their own soul realm, instead of a normal cultivation technique it didn't help in cultivation and it didn't help in increase the amount of soul point instead it helped to refine the soul realm and to produce purer and more soul force than a normal cultivator.

'Actually isn't this what is happening with that star?'

In the later stages of this cultivation technique one would be able to form something called a 'Moon' inside the soul realm and that moon would be an orb of condensed soul force that could be used during a battle to surprise an enemy or to enhance an attack.

'But it's said that the first Moon would appear nord of the soul realm, not in the middle… Actually no Moon should appear in the middle of the soul realm as they are eight in total and each takes a direction…'

Shaking his head he decided to leave that matter and think about it at a later date since he would solve nothing by thinking about it at this moment.

'As for the Prime Titan Body Technique… This is even more amazing!'

The second technique was a body refining technique, just like it's name it was used mostly by Fighter to refine their body and strength to reach the same level of strength of a Demon Spiritualist something that was lost a long time ago and while he wasn't completely sure if even Glory city had still some Body Refining Technique he was sure that none would compare to this.

'There are also a couple of pill recipes that are useful to advance on stage.'

While a Demon spiritualist would train their soul to increase their strength, a Fighter other than training would normally take pills that could help in cleaning the body from impurities and such.

'The only drawback is that one can train in these only from the White rank as it would be impossible to train in the Seizing Moon Technique after reaching the bronze rank while it would be almost impossible to train in the Body Technique after reaching the higher ranks.'

A Demon Spiritualist, that didn't train in a body refining technique, would accumulate a lot of impurities during their life so it would become increasingly harder to start later on but it was possible to at least reach the lower levels.

As for the Seizing Moon Technique, it was impossible to train in it if one had already reached the 1-Star of the Bronze rank unless one decided to completely destroy their cultivation and return to a White rank.

'But in doing so one would also have to spend a lot of pills and time to recover..'

Closing the second books he put them inside the spatial ring that was on his finger, after he took a quick bath and changed clothes before exiting his own room.

'Now with this I have even more work…'

Shin now could understand why his father hated his office so much.

"Kuro Raijin Greet the Patriarch!"

Wincing a little from the loud voice he turned his head as he saw a Kuro standing upright with his long spear in his hand with the point toward the sky.

"Kuro… I already told you to not be so serious unless we are in front of an outsider… Good morning, has anything happen?"

Relaxing his body a little, Kuro thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"There were no intruders tonight!"

'Have they calmed down yet?'

Since when they arrived they have received visits from small thieves during the night, fortunately everything valuable was in spatial rings so nothing was stolen but the constant attack from this unknown group was starting to grow in the people's nerves especially since they were always able to escape one way or another.

'Even Yoru wasn't able to catch them or well the one she did catch killed himself right after.'

The Dark Guild, a name he heard a lot of time from Ye Mo, only knew he truly understood how troublesome they were. While he didn't have proof that it was indeed them, no normal thief would kill themself after being caught.

Leaving Kuro to his duties Shin walked directly toward his office as he found Naoki talking with Yoru.

"Ah Young Master, perfect timing! The alchemy association send someone here, they are waiting in the main hall~"

Shin looked at Yoru who seemed in a strangely good mood as she delivered this news, he suddenly remembered his word father 'Whenever you see Yoru happy be prepared for war.'

"... Let's go see him then, what about Eiko?"

"I already sent someone to call for him."

Shin nodded at Naoki before turning and walking directly to the main hall with the other following him.

Reaching the hall he glanced inside as he saw Eiko seated on the couch while the other party was seated in a similar couch in front of Eiko, the person sent by the Alchemy Association was a old man with grey hair and a big belly, with one glance Shin already could tell that his cultivation of 5-Star Silver was simply for show as even him may be able to fight him.

The person looked at the group that arrived as he quickly studied the three, his eyes stopping for a few seconds on Yoru.

"Ho ho It's a pleasure to meet you young lord, my name is Shen Feng, I'm an Alchemy Master of the Alchemy Association along with the president of the northern hall."

As he introduced himself he only looked toward Naoki clearly mistaking him to be the person in charge, seeing that Shin didn't wait to introduce himself.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Shin Akagawa and I'm the current Patriarch of the Akagawa Clan."

As Shin sat down near Eiko he could see the confusion on Shen Feng's face before he coughed in his hand and continued like nothing happened.

'There's no need to antagonize him…'

"Oh! I didn't know the Young Lord was so young, indeed new heroes come from the new generations."

At that moment a maid arrived carrying a set of tea cups for Shen Feng, Eiko and Shin and as the maid served the tea for the three Shin could see the lustful gaze on Shen Feng eyes.

"*Ahem* I'll go straight to the point if you don't mind. As you already know we because of our… Origins, we also developed differently in alchemy as we use different herbs and different recipes, because of that we also want to share these recipes to Glory city but we also are no fools that would just give them for free. What we want is a deal with the Association so that both parties can gain from this."

Grabbing the tea cup he let his request sink in as he looked at Shen Feng's reaction.

"... And what do you offer?"

After a moment of thinking Shen Feng asked that question directly looking in Shin eyes no longer taking this lightly.

"I think there was a misunderstanding, we can easily sell our pill without the Association's help. I Invited you today to ask you how you plan to proceed, so I'll have to ask you. What do you guys have to give us?"

Putting the tea cup back on the table Shin continued to look at Shen Feng for any reaction.

'We have to risk it here, while we can sell some of our pills it would still take time to find good gardens where to grow herbs, moreover our monopoly would end the moment someone gets their hands on the herbs and pill recipes.'

The only things that the Association could give them was legal protection on the pill recipe and on the herbs, since the Association would be the only other party in the city with enough resources to compare with them so Shin hoped to make a deal with them so that there would be less problems in the future but even then he could not show even a little bit of weakness to them as that would be the same as jumping in the mouth of a tiger.

"Mh… You know that I can't really make a deal unless I at least have some proof that you indeed have some pills."

Saying that he took out a cloth to wipe off the sweat that already accumulated on his forehead while Eiko took out a small box from his spatial ring.

The box was nicely decorated and as Shin opened it a nice fragrance could be smelt coming from the bottles containing the various Elixirs and pills that were inside.

"This…"

Shen Feng wasn't able to school his expression as Shin barely hid a smirk.

"*Ahem* They are definitely worthy enough to make a deal with…"

As he said that he lifted one of his hands and slowly went to take one of the pills only for Eiko to abruptly close the box.

"Now that you've seen them, are you ready to make a deal?"

As Shin smiled lightly as Shen Feng felt some mild irritation rising inside him.

"The Sacred Family would gladly take you under our own banner if you want, don't worry if you accept we'll even give you a good deal."

At the sudden mention of the Sacred Family Shen Feng showed a proud expression as if expecting them to jump on the deal without a second thought.

"Director, I thought I was making a deal with the Association here…"

"Don't worry about the small things, a little advice from this old me. You should be able to be more flexible in the future."

Shin could sense the irritation on the people at his side but ignoring them he continued.

"If you don't plan to talk for the Association then we don't have much to talk about."

Sensing a small amount of Soul force rising from Shen Feng, Shin lifted his brow as he wanted to see what he was about to do without feeling any sort of danger.

'Is he really planning on doing something? Here with three Black Gold ranks at my side?'

"... Can I count that as a refusal then?"

"It can't be a refusal if it was never counted as a possibility."

The two gazed at each other as the silence reigned in the room, the guards positioned at the side wanting nothing more than to leave.

"Then I'm afraid but our conversation ends here."

Saying so, Shen Feng stood up before starting to walk towards the door, the guards gave a glance toward Shin before going to open the door as Shin gave them a nod.

After he left Shin remained seated thinking about what just happened. He wasn't worried about not making a deal with the Association and while it may slow down their plan it wasn't much of a problem.

"Eiko, how are the gardens of this place?"

"We are working on increasing their defense as they had none to begin with but in a week or so we should be able to at least use one of the five fields."

In the whole territory that was given to them there were five fields in total, each field bigger or as big as the one they had in Fire Lotus City the only difference was the total lack of defense as Glory city didn't feel the need to protect them other than putting some Demon Spiritualist to guard them.

Out of the five two were near the middle of the clan compound as the other three were more toward the borders of it with one right at the southern border.

"As expected we will have to give up on planting any important plant in the southern field but the two in the middle can be used for them."

While the main plants used in the various pill recipes were different from the one in Glory city there still were a couple of similar if not the same herbs for some minors medicine but those medicines were either really rare or were the more common and weak that only White rank would have so there wasn't much value in them.

"Try to concentrate the work on a single field for the moment and divide the various herbs based on value. We will try to make a contract with some of the smaller clans in the northern walls and have them cultivate the lower value and easiest to grow herbs for us so we can concentrate on the more valuable ones."

After dealing with Shen Feng, Shin wasn't sure what to expect but knew he shouldn't generalize a whole city only from meeting a single person,

"Also go get all the information we can about the Sacred Family."

He didn't fear a single family but he had this feeling that this would not be the last time he would clash with members from that same family.

'But first we have to complete at least a contract with the other smaller families.'

"Naoki, Yoru follow me. We are going to personally speak with the noble families."

He was definitely not running away from the paperwork that he would have about the contract right now.

"Eiko I'll leave the rest to you, just finish the inscription array on one field and then prepare some other smaller arrays that we will put on the outer fields!"

Saying that he quickly got out of the room before hearing any answer from Eiko.

'Yes, it's important to do this thing personally I'm not running away…'