Chapter 601: Fun
Theron chuckled as though waiting to see a good show. He was pretty sure that Elder Lyrah didn’t expect this either. She, too, didn’t want to target the Nightingale Sect too directly. Otherwise, she would too obviously expose her own scheming.
Now that there wasn’t a legitimate reason to target the Sect, things had become more complicated for everyone involved.
“I guess that means that congratulations are in order,” Kempe said, with a lot of his edge smoothed away. “I guess I will just have to turn this visit into a welcome party and make a major matter a small one, now won’t I?”
Theron’s gaze flickered. It seemed this mercenary wasn’t as boisterous as he seemed. His gaze shifted over toward the members of the other Sects. The show they had been waiting to watch was clearly over—much to their disappointment.
“Let’s go,” Theron said, pulling Lyra’s hand.
“Hey!” she hissed. “Where are you going?!”
“What do you mean, where I’m going? To relax, of course. We’ve been in that stuffy ship all this time. Before we head out again, we should have some fun.”
Lyra felt like she wanted to find a hole to crawl into. Even if Theron wanted to do this, shouldn’t he at least wait until more of the tension in the air was gone? Because of him, too many eyes were on them now!
…
Much to her chagrin, fun was exactly what Theron had. They went around eating, watching a few attractions, and all around joking and laughing.
By the end of the first half hour, Lyra had already forgotten a lot of what she had been worried about. And a full three hours later, she had forgotten that they were headed into quite a dangerous situation.
Theron, though, certainly hadn’t forgotten, and the moment he was waiting for came not long after.
**
“What’s this?” Theron asked.
“You’ve never seen something like this before? It’s a martial pillar. You see that hovering mark of red Mana around it and the etched formation it’s in the middle of? Essentially, it’s a test of control. The hovering mark randomly changes after every attempt—sometimes by a large measure, sometimes by a small one. If you hit it dead on, you get a prize.”
“Is that so?” Theron watched an older man with a big belly be practically dragged up to the platform by his daughter. It seemed she really wanted whatever the prize was, but he didn’t see anything obvious on display. “What’s the prize?” Theron asked.
“Hm… I don’t know. That changes too. But it might be pretty good this time around since all the Sects are here. A lot of people are on their way to watch the results of the gathering as well, so traffic here is much higher than usual. Let me go and ask.”
It wasn’t long before Lyra returned. It seemed that they had announced it earlier when the crowd was already quite substantial.
“It’s apparently a flower that lets you freeze your aging for ten years.”
Theron raised an eyebrow. “You mean the obvious signs of aging, right?”
Lyra stuck her tongue out. She knew it was an important distinction, so she didn’t refute.
If it was as she had said, no one would use it as a prize for something like this. It would be as good as ten years of extra life, which was a shocking thing. Something like the Centennial Lotus didn’t just appear anyway.
Instead, it was a beauty product. When you took it, you continued to age normally, but the wear and tear of your face would be frozen in time, so you would always look ten years younger than you were.
Of course, Theron also knew that it wasn’t that good either.
At most, you’d look ten years younger than you actually were for a few decades. But when you started really leaving your prime, it would all hit you at once.
Even so, it wasn’t a surprise that the man’s teenage daughter would really want it.
That said, the price for trying was also much steeper now as well. While it wasn’t as valuable as a certain lotus, it was still a highly sought-after item.
Entry cost 100,000 gold coins—a steep entry, to be sure. However, a Mana Herb capable of such things would probably go for at least a few dozen Mana Crystals.
It had to be remembered: just one Mana Crystal would go for millions of gold coins, so the entry cost made perfect sense when you looked at it from that lens.
That also made it make quite a bit of sense that the man was so reluctant. But after being dragged out before his daughter in front of so many people, for the sake of his face, he had no choice but to.
Knowing it would be difficult, he immediately tossed out a Mana Crystal toward the attendant, gritting his teeth. This should give him at least a dozen attempts.
Taking a breath, the man decided to use the first attempt to gauge how much power equated to what level of rise in the pillar.
He punched out casually.
BANG.
A resonant sound echoed, the strength of a Cloud Realm expert on full display.
But his expression became especially ugly when he only made it halfway to the mark. He had used 30% of his strength just now, and the mark itself was only about halfway up the pillar. He didn’t expect this game of control to also require so much power.
If he, a Cloud Realm expert, had to try so hard, what chance did people beneath the Cloud Realm stand? If you were going all out, how could you perfectly control your power?
The mark began to fluctuate, and it appeared at the 70% mark for the second attempt.
Dammit, the man cursed. To reach that mark, he would need to use around 84% of his power—that was already pushing it.
Taking a breath, he punched out again, trying to nail around the 80% mark of his own strength. But to his surprise…
The mark rose up and then deflated before even reaching halfway.
The boisterous laughter of a young man filled the square, a heat following his arrival.