Several minutes later…
Zakiya looked at the treasures floating in front of her with a headache, her eyes mostly stayed at the seemly normal platinum ring on Rex's finger then at the golden juicy fruit in her hands.
Her disciple was troublesome.
"You sure? Enlightenment Bodhi Fruit contains the essence of rules in nature and can result in enlightenment, it's a treasure whose value increases with the cultivation base of the user.
Cultivators at a higher stage often encounter serious bottlenecks, not just in the cultivation base but also in their professions, and fail to advance for a long time, sometimes even until their death. That's why they would love to have this fruit that can give them enlightenment which can clear their doubt and help them in breaking through," Zakiya explained.
If it was someone else she would have taken it without much question, if Crimson Sun Emperor had let her hold it by mistake then he wouldn't even bother asking to give it back because there was simply no hope.
It won't be a surprise if she had directly thrown it into her mouth for fear of the other party changing their mind but she didn't want to trick her disciple.
Rex waved his hand without delay and said.
"Just a mere Enlightenment Bodhi Fruit, what does it worth? Only a three days enlightenment chance booster, some meditation is all it takes to gain enlightenment. Teacher, if you don't like it just say it, I'm also curious about its taste so I was thinking if we should use it as a salad at the dinner table or maybe we should make juice or wine out of it, I wonder how a wine from 7 Star fruit would taste like," Rex said with a thoughtful look on his face.
Zakiya's lips twitched, for a second there she had the urge to throw the fruit at his face and shout 'Take This Fruit And Shut Your Damn Mouth' but she couldn't do that.
A wine from 7 Star fruit? You want to go to the heavens or something? If Crimson Sun Emperor was here to witness it then what would pass on his mind? Won't he just have a mental breakdown?
She was pretty sure that even those revered Immortal Chefs won't dare have this thought. But what made it worse was because of her Truth Seeker she was sure that Rex was genuinely saying it and wasn't lying.
Today was the day Zakiya finally witnessed the cruelty of the heavens, the cruelty of different people having different aptitudes.
From now on, if someone asks her if the talent has another name, she would say Rex Andrews without a second thought.
She sighed and put the Enlightenment Bodhi Fruit in her storage ring, unlike Rex it had great value to her even if she didn't use it she could sell it at a very high price, exchange it for a favor or for a precious artifact.
Rex also knew about these but he couldn't do that in a short period, strength is the foundation for such big deals, it was better to give it to her as she had helped him a lot and will continue to do so in the future.
{Teacher about that contract... Do you have a way to break it?} Rex sent a message and secretly asked about it.
{I don't, but we have quite some time, I will try to find a way,} Zakiya said in a hesitant tone, her tone didn't give much confidence in it.
Rex already expected it so he wasn't much disappointed.
Seeing him like that, Zakiya almost burst into laughter.
'I indeed don't have way, but who said father doesn't? Hehe... I can still make a few requests if the need arrives but if I told him right now then his overconfidence will just result in him jumping into another tomb, this time it was Leech who knows what would happen next time.
He isn't ready to explore a tomb yet, doing a tomb solo might result in his fall if he doesn't care about the consequences,' Zakiya thought.
Rose didn't figure out her lying because Zakiya didn't actually lie, moreover after seeing many people lie and act in front of her for years she had also gained some experience.
"Teacher now that we are done, I had some doubt about Shadow Law," Rex asked a few doubts about the comprehension of the Shadow Laws she was teaching him before.
After about two hours, Rex got up from his chair and decided to leave.
"Wait for a second, I won't take advantage of a brat like you, I will lend you this for now," Zakiya said as she took out a book with a bronze cover and gave it to him.
Rex held the book with slightly trembling hands, he looked at the Ancient Inscriptions on the cover and instantly knew what it was.
These were the same life records of that Ancient Array Expert Powerhouse for which her enemy decided to take action and poison her. When she talked about them for the first time, Rex wanted it but she refused, the reason was simple she didn't want to involve him in such dangerous matters, or people might even try to soul search him to figure out the secrets of the book.
But now she came to know so many things about Rex, she felt like it would be a shame if she traded the book with another powerhouse without letting him have a look, just because she didn't understand most content like others doesn't mean he too couldn't. If Rex could understand something from it then she didn't mind canceling the trade.
Rex was overly excited as he looked at the book, it was a treasure!
He quickly thanked her then got slammed into the wall because of leaping at her in excitement. Rex hit the wall with a wide smile on his face which gave Zakiya shivers down her spine.
He then quickly bid farewell to her and went out of the room with Luna.
Zakiya looked at the fading back of Rex and had complex emotions inside her.
'Getting poisoned wasn't that of a bad thing,' She thought.
If the people who planned for years and even went as far as to use an Ancient Poison on her knew her thoughts then it was hard to guess what expression they would make.
She not only not died because of the poison but also gained a lot of benefits like her main cultivation technique has now reached competition, her body had now been strengthened by a big margin, she developed immunity to various kinds of poisons, her bloodline got further purified, she received several insights, her experience of living in solitude for years had further refined her temperament into that of a powerhouse and now she also had a disciple that seemed to have the blood of some God flowing through his veins.
After he arrived at the transmission array, he gave a few orders to Luna about reforming the tomb, on which, Luna vigorously nodded her head.
"I have decided, in the future, we will make an underground stronghold and put the tomb there to not meet others' eyes. Luna, what is the highest grade of growing herbs and plants here?" Rex asked.
"Luna says, we have a lot of 5 Star herbs and trees growing in the medicine garden of the tomb, we also have a few 6 Star herbs that are stored in the deepest part of the tomb, Luna can take them out if Master wants them but as Luna said we only have a few of them, they are very useful when it comes to physical body refining and soul-nurturing," Luna said while trying to make a serious face.
"I see, Luna, empty some halls at the upper part of the tomb I want to transfer my labs here and redesign the lower part into a prison, we need some test subject before we even have thoughts about making a physical body at the same level as Divine Beast," Rex said and after making sure that she understood, he left.
One hour later...
The fifth floor of Castle in Frozen Flame City...
Rex was standing beside a whiteboard writing something on it. Jiang Shuang, Altan, and Andusk were sitting on chairs in front of him.
After he finished writing, Rex pointed at the first point and spoke.
"Now see, these are our three main priorities..." Rex said.
Three lines were written on the board.
First, collect a mountain of spirit cores.
Second, complete Project AS: Artificial Satellite.
Third, make a Carrier Sky Ship.
"Spirit cores have great importance for my cultivation method so I need a lot of them to prepare for my breakthrough to being a Sky Body Formation expert, I will leave this task to Brother Jiang. Our name has started to spread in other coordinates it's an opportunity to spread before they forget about us and build a global network range is a must for that, so we can't delay Project AS any further, we also need to modify ID Cards into something new to be able to make them in large quantities, Altan will take care of this matter, most preparations are already completed you just need to connect the pieces to complete the puzzle.
The last is making a Carrier Sky Ship that is capable of both defending and attacking, it is not easy to transport our forces when fighting so we need it not just for fighting but also when moving between continents, I wanted to make a Grand Mother ship but our funds are not enough, Andusk you can use the Green Mantis skyship and use it as a base to modify or recreate the new ship.
As for me, I will focus on making the teleportation portal to bring our comrades from Lower Realm here, I want you people to complete these tasks in around two months at most," Rex said.
"Two months? Chief are you kidding me? We are talking about a satellite, even if the blueprints are ready it needs time for testing the real thing I also need time to calculate the path, atmospheric resistance, gravity, and other factors before even trying to launch it," Altan quickly retorted.
"Brother Rex, he is right, collecting so many spirit cores in such a short amount of time isn't easy although we can get them from Cold Heaven Sect and Black Scorpion Sect is easily but it would take time to negotiate and convince other sects to hand them over at right price," Jiang Shuang said in agreement.
"Modifying the ships need me to first study its inner structure and check the compatibility with new parts and material that can be used then I have to make those new parts than can be added to it and lastly check if it worked for a long period, this all needs at least four months," Andusk said in a flat tone.
Rex nodded while scanning through their faces and spoke.
"I just remembered Aru requesting me to bring him a few new audiences for his singing consort, the old three alone cannot satisfy him," He said in a meaningful tone.
"Come to think of it, if I spent more money, do some overtime, use clones and some dummy satellite to test the water then it isn't impossible to launch one or two satellites in the orbit successfully," Altan hurriedly said.
"Yes, I also realized that if we offer some extra money, sell some spirit tools at a discount and take the help of our two subordinate sects then it is possible," Jiang Shuang came to a realization.
"Modifying the ship in two months is hard but isn't impossible," Andusk followed the suit.
Rex's lips twitched.
'These shameless bastards,' Rex helplessly shook his head.
Several weeks later...
In the last few days, whether it was clones or Jiang Shuang they were overly busy, the only one who had it easy was Rex.
He had long completed the blueprints of the Ancient Teleportation Portal, In the last few days he had only made some changes while making the real thing, it was because of the knowledge he got from the book given by Zakiya.
Right now, he was in his room turning the big heap of spirit cores into powder as the number of status points on his status screen increased non stop.
Rex had a lot of gains during this time, spirit cores were just a small part of the whole thing.
[Rex, the fusion of ‹Desolate Poison Fiend Art›, ‹Aqua Ice Formula›, and the degraded version of ‹Black & White Forbidden Lineage Art› has completed,]
Rex looked at the notification with interest.
‹Desolate Poison Fiend Art› was the cultivation technique he got from the jade slip left by Ria and as for ‹Aqua Ice Formula›, it was one of the many cultivation techniques he got from the dead bodies and storage ring left by the cultivators who died in the tomb.
‹Aqua Ice Formula› was actually from Pure Ice Palace, a big sect famous for cultivating both Ice and Water path. The cultivation technique was of only heaven rank low grade but its ability to switch between ice and water was extraordinary. By using it even the person cultivating Ice Qi can use the Water Qi to some extent or vise versa, although the power would decline but being versatile also had its advantages.
As for the degraded version of ‹Black & White Forbidden Lineage Art›, it was the Yin side version of his own main cultivation technique, the clones were made using his body as a reference so they can also practice it.
Rex of course didn't fuse the cultivation technique for himself but Andusk,
[The resultant is ‹Desolate Frozen Ice Formula›,]
Rex first checked through the details and nodded in satisfaction.
'Let's send it to him,' He urged and the platinum ring appeared on his finger.
Altan who was refining an alloy for making one of the many defense type equipment for the ship felt a bunch of information flooding his head in a very natural way, rather than receiving information it was like he already knew it for a long time but had just forgotten it in the last and he remembered it now.
This was one of the effects of the «Fate Sharing Ring», Rex had figured out.
It can not only help him share information but also the feelings, emotions, and even the experience related to that information. This was the might of an Ancient Artifact!