Chapter 513: The Depths of the Brightwind Vault

(Cognosticon here. For the first time ever, Patreon is withholding all funds. For now I'm going to assume it's a random hang-up, but I hope it doesn't persist another week.)

As they delved into the deeper vaults, the three of them remained together, less because they needed security than because it was fun to explore together. Zae Zin Nim had stories about the materials and Omilaena never missed an opportunity to needle Cloudspire when she thought a name was ridiculous. For his part, Kai was just enjoying the company.

Of course they spread out at times as well. Omilaena wandered among a set of metals and Kai went with Zae Zin Nim as they explored a cabinet of heavily locked pills. Most of them were just of high intensity, but they found something labeled a Jade Key Pill that allegedly unlocked higher forms of cultivation. That sounded like every other pill to Kai, but it seemed to intrigue her, so he left Zae Zin Nim to figure it out.

The most valuable thing he found on his own was actually a teleportation talisman, lumped in with a pile of jade. It had qi like so many other items, but the fundamental teleportation was based on mana, so he had noticed it first. As far as he could tell, one part was a teleport anchor like he knew from home, but the other was a talisman designed to be broken.

Meanwhile, Omilaena was coming back with an armful of junk.

"What have you found?" he asked her.

"Oh, plenty of things." She tucked away the majority of what she was carrying and held up a sort of cauldron, covered in ornate carvings of dragons and phoenixes. "I stole all the poisons I found in the alchemy section, of course, but this is the real find."

"Is that a pot? Like for soup?"

"It is a pill furnace," Zae Zin Nim said stiffly from the side. "They can be used by alchemists to strengthen their pills or other concoctions. It is not for soup."

"You could probably make powerful soup in it, though," Omilaena said. "Mainly I want to figure out how it works. Maybe melt the thing down to absorb, maybe not. I've seen a few of these, but they were all relatively weak. This is the first one that impresses me."

The three of them headed deeper into the main chamber, searching for anything that had been missed. There was still a final hallway at the far end of the vault, but they seemed to be avoiding it by unspoken agreement. Meanwhile, they looked for treasures that would be useful on Deadwaste - Zae Zin Nim picked out a few technique scrolls, Omilaena took a golden sword, and Kai found a potion that allegedly "awakened inner talent" that might work on Goralian Classes.

Before they reached the final hall, they were interrupted by Inafay flying in from another of the side halls. "I found something great!" she said cheerfully. "Help me get it out!"

They weren't all necessary, but they followed her together anyway. At the end of a weapons hall, a contained tornado sped around what appeared to be a bright green folding fan. Kai could feel a formidable power within, not insane but more potent than the other weapons.

"Ah..." Zae Zin Nim nodded as she stepped closer. "I know of this. The Fan of the Bright Eastern Wind is a weapon that enhances wind techniques, even containing some of its own. My father offered it to me, before it became clear my talents lay more in martial arts. A potent weapon, for the right wielder."

"Then is it alright if I try it?" Inafay asked. "I don't want to step on your toes if this is a family thing..."

"No, better you than someone from the sect." Zae Zin Nim not only disabled the wind barrier, she actually smiled at Inafay as she handed it over. They'd gotten closer than Kai had expected while he wasn't looking.

While Inafay began testing out the fan, blowing herself off her feet half the time, the three of them ventured to the final part of the hall. There wasn't much there, each item placed on a solid jade pedestal. There were a few qi pills, each with a grand name, but Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena snapped all of those up before he had time to look at them.

Beyond that, they reached a stranger treasure: it looked like a coil of bright blue string, yet it thrummed with a power that resonated in his bones. This one was labeled, and the words immediately connected with something he had seen in Zae Clen Ban's soul: Brightwind Meridian Perfection.

"This is the most unique treasure of our sect," Zae Zin Nim explained. "Perhaps not the most powerful, but the only one that is unique to us. A secret passed down from the very first ancestor of the sect, it is said."

"How does this work?" Omilaena poked at the coil, then pulled her finger back, shaking it. "Not pleasant. Feels like it's connected to Physique, but this is one thing I don't want to stick in my body."

"I am unsure. It was said that only a pristine cultivator, such as my father, could survive their integration. It is... possible that I will no longer be compatible. There are secrets that I do not know, and those secrets may have died with my father."

"Bah, I'm pretty sure I can figure it out eventually. Even if it doesn't work for you, we can definitely get something out of a secret like this."

They gingerly sealed up the coils for Omilaena to inspect later, then continued on. Kai remained alert for any sign of monster cores, but he was beginning to think he was out of luck. Everything was all polished jade here... so the ugly spiked pill he spotted next stuck out like a sore thumb. He bent forward to read the label: the Twisted Immortal Carnal Seed.

"Sounds like a good time," Omilaena said. "Hope it's not a suppository."

"Curious..." Zae Zin Nim pulled a scroll from her sleeve and pored over it for a time before finding what she wanted and nodding. "There is a record of this, and it connects with stories I recall. An ancient alchemist of our sect was attempting to produce a path to immortality through cultivating the fleshly body. What he produced was powerful, but so dangerous that it killed all who attempted to consume it."

"Definitely Physique-aspected, and a nasty bit of work." Omilaena picked the pill up to examine with her goggles, wincing all the while. "It feels like a fucked-up cousin to what you did with the Blackblood Physique, so I don't think it would be compatible with you. I'd like to say I could unravel the thing for resources, but it feels pretty lethal. So..."

She tossed it to Kai and he caught it instinctively. It burned in his hand, but the pain wasn't much, so he merely inspected the spiked pill and/or seed. Definite element of chakra, and he could feel some of what Omilaena had said, including the Physique aspect... and the lethal part.

"If you can survive that," she said, "it would definitely give you a Physique boost. You might be the only one who can, so it's a good find."

Kai placed it into his spatial ring to work on later and they continued inward. But there wasn't much space left: at the end of the hall lay something that looked like a golden marble until Kai realized that it was a glass sphere that contained incredibly intense qi. Except it wasn't qi alone, there was mana and chakra burning within it. The pedestal didn't have any label, which didn't seem to matter to Zae Zin Nim.

"This is qi for Heavenly Cultivation." She spoke in a soft voice, respectful for the first time. "It is said that only a Sky Soul can dream of harnessing such power, and even my father had only been able to cultivate a small amount of it."

"But you killed him, so I bet you can do better," Omilaena said, then nudged Zae Zin Nim with her hip. "Go on, take it."

"I will, for all three of us." Zae Zin Nim enclosed the sphere in her hands and then let out a breath. "We must all walk our own paths of cultivation, but I won't be happy until all three of us have attained those heights."

She hadn't meant it as a romantic line, but Kai still moved inward and put an arm around her shoulders. Omilaena immediately slipped in as well and Zae Zin Nim didn't resist, only smiling at them. These treasures were the end goal of many cultivators, the sum of lifetimes of conquest, but for the three of them this was only another stepping stone.

"Not that I'm objecting," Omilaena said eventually, "but are we going to grab everything and leave the Brightwind Sect to figure out the rest?"

Zae Zin Nim nodded. "I have no qualms about doing so if necessary."

"Actually," Kai said, "I had an idea about that..."