Chapter 512: Looting the Grand Vault

When Kai got the grand vault open, he'd of course intended to contact Zae Zin Nim to learn more, but he'd expected to enter quickly. Just standing near the opened door he could feel the intense qi radiating from within, so he needed to stand guard just in case any cultivators got too greedy. Instead, the timeline stretched out further as Omilaena entered first to test for poisons or other traps.

That wasn't entirely a bad thing, however: Inafay and the Clanless caught up with them, bearing their own resources from the lesser vault. Once Kai had checked in with Zae Zin Nim, he flew up to meet with the others.

"We had a bit of a problem ourselves," Inafay told him, "though I guess since we didn't blow up half a city, it's tame by comparison."

"Why, what happened?" he asked.

"We saw another clan or sect or whatever make a move on Brightwind lands. As near as we could tell, it was just an opportunistic attack on the open vaults. Anyway, we helped out the allied Earth Souls and shut the attack down, which I hope was the right decision."

"They probably didn't give us much choice." Kai folded his arms as he considered the politics. "Even though we're looting the vault, Zin Nim seems to be wanting to leave the Brightwind Sect with some defenses. Rumors of strange foreigners probably won't hurt."

"Huh." Inafay shifted to the edge of the ship and peered down over the side. "What all is in there?"

"You want to see? She invited you to join us."

Inafay grinned and ran off to get Orotaisin, along with the others. Kai hadn't explicitly invited Cragrila, but when she showed up he returned her nod. Soon they all leapt over the side of the Clanless, plummeting toward the vault. The guards, all on edge due to the vault being opened, watched them in astonishment, an emotion Kai was starting to view as mere background here. They'd be astonished by a dumpling if a young master made it.

They met up with Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena at the vault entrance, the two of them standing together as if waiting. As soon as they entered, Zae Zin Nim flicked her fingers toward the guards, who retreated to a further distance. Once they were alone, she spoke to the group.

"You assisted me in my battle, so I wish to repay you by assisting with your own. Myself and my spouses will take the greatest treasures in this vault, but those were not likely to be useful to you anyway. Anything you desire, you may take."

"There are no more traps or poisons," Omilaena added, "but be careful anyway. Some of these things were sealed due to greed, but a lot of them were locked away because they could blow an average cultivator apart."

With that dubious invitation, they headed into the vault. It had a few piles of gold, silk, and jade, but only comparable to many other vaults he'd seen on Cloudspire. Basically just decoration for the real treasures: raw power.

The central chamber of the vault was filled with qi, largely in pills but also in glowing medicinal herbs, powders, creams, and even some potions. Their first task, shared as a group, was sorting through all of these. There was no real conflict there: the others from Deadwaste took the weaker qi sources and then began judging which of those might be used by Krysali, while Kai and his wives found the sources that were exceptional even in this hallowed vault.

A great deal of qi was pure, specifically formulated for the Brightwind Sect, and only Zae Zin Nim had a chance of using it. Omilaena gleefully swiped a few pills that she said had ice-aspected qi, to absorb into her tattoo, as well as some of the medicinal plants that had chakra-compatible essence. For his part, Kai took qi pills that were powerful but unrefined, containing a ferocity that made them unsuitable for anyone other than a "monstrous cultivator" such as himself.

Could Zae Zin Nim actually approach another ascension with all of this? These would be more intense than any previous source of qi she'd found, but cultivation always took time, and that was the treasure they most lacked...

"Ooh, look at this." Inafay hopped back and forth beside a wall covered in various crowns, bangles, and rings, all charged with qi. "This is basically an armory. Think any of this is compatible?"

"Much of it won't be," Orotaisin said, "but the Irunians might be able to use some. We should test them carefully."

Omilaena went to join them, both for theorizing and to grab some metals she wanted to absorb into her chakra arts. They seemed to have that under control, so Kai moved on, trying to sniff out any monster cores that might be in the vault. The place was surprisingly free of monstrous essence, or perhaps not so surprisingly given the Cloudspire attitudes on the subject.

His search took him to a hallway that seemed to be filled with qi oddities, including various plants that immediately struck him as wrong or disordered. He sniffed a few, even stuck one in his mouth, but their unbalance didn't seem to match his. Maybe this hall was for items that were too powerful to throw away and too strange to actually use.

That led him to something that was more obviously useful: a gemstone burning with qi. It wasn't identical to the Krysali crystals, but he had spent long enough in the mines that he was sure this was compatible. Kai immediately swept up the gemstone and looked around for anything similar, finding only a few crystalline potions.

From the corner of his eyes he saw that Cragrila stood deeper into the room and he was surprised that she hadn't taken the gemstone herself. When he looked up, however, he understood: she was transfixed by the end of the hallway, an alcove covered in a shimmering barrier.

Kai walked up behind her and saw that the alcove contained a single spear, apparently fixed by a block of jade around the central shaft. Even through the barrier, he felt an ominous energy.

"I feel... drawn to this." Cragrila finally pulled her eyes away to look at him. "Is it some sort of trap?"

"I don't think so." Kai bent down to look at the inscribed plate beside the barrier. "Apparently this is the Deathwind Spear, made by a previous patriarch of the sect. Potentially powerful, but it drains qi, even from the wielder, so it's considered unusable."

"You can read that stuff?"

Kai blinked, realizing that wasn't normal, and decided that it was easier not to explain the Alltongue Fruit. "The warning doesn't suggest it will hurt anyone immediately or anything, so I suppose we can try. Step back, let me break this."

The barrier wasn't as hard to shatter as he'd expected, more designed to keep the spear contained than to keep anyone out. He immediately felt a hungry aura leap out, prickling his skin but failing to draw off any qi. Cragrila took a breath and stepped forward, fingers trembling as they approached.

Before she touched the spear, however, crystals began to grow from her body. By the time she gripped the spear's shaft, her hand was entirely encased in crystal, which allowed her to tear the spear free without any apparent harm.

"I... will need some time." Cragrila sat down, placing the spear across her lap alongside the dryad-wood spear she currently carried. It seemed like the hungry aura was dissipating, but not very quickly, so Kai decided to leave her to it.

Back in the vault, he didn't find any monster cores, but he did discover Zae Zin Nim inspecting a hall of magical robes. All had qi infused within them, down to the fabrics and dyes, yet she seemed disapproving and moved past them dismissively. As Kai moved behind her, looking for anything in his size and not expecting to find much, he began to understand.

"These are useless to us," Zae Zin Nim concluded. "Cloudspire may be superior in some areas, but Rosemount is better at investing power into materials."

"Or at least the Primal Loom is," Kai pointed out. "That's not exactly a fair comparison."

"Oh, none of these compare to our treasures, but it doesn't even meet a lower qualification."

"Useless to us, maybe, but if any of these have armoring properties, they could be useful against the incursion."

"Very well, we can take..." Zae Zin Nim trailed off, frowning at his legs. "Just what is it doing?"

Kai followed her gaze and saw that the Beggar King's Rags had extended, reaching to one of the lines of robes. Several had already disappeared, and another was being absorbed into his clothes even as they watched. It began to slow down, as if the Rags knew they were being watched and guiltily attempted to hide by freezing.

"Don't do that," Kai said with a sigh. Being able to mimic those outfits might be useful later, but he doubted the energy would actually boost the power of the Beggar King's Robes.

"It can eat the ones I point out," Zae Zin Nim said with a nod. "We might as well evaluate the whole room."

They set about doing that, though they soon realized they would get diminishing returns. Kai still shoved plenty of the robes into his spatial ring, since they could make a huge difference for weaker fighters on Deadwaste. Before they finished, Omilaena flounced up to join them.

"Ooh, I want that one! Stop your cannibal robes, Kai, let me have a look."

"Those are much too weak for you," Zae Zin Nim said.

"I wasn't planning on using them for combat." Omilaena pulled the gauzy fabric up to her chest and turned on them to model it. "Don't you think this would look good on me?"

"That outfit is not for respectable women."

"Good thing I'm not respectable then, huh?"

Even though Kai would have been happy to see her wearing it, he thought it was probably best to keep his mouth shut about that, at least for now. Instead he stepped between them, interrupting any further bickering.

"I think we've explored the outer halls," he said. "Shall we head further in?"

Omilaena rubbed her hands together. "Time for the good stuff."