"Has no one ever told you that trying to stay clear of suspicion makes you the most suspicious person?" the old man asked while examining Fang Yu with interest.
Fang Yu's eyes narrowed calculatively. The thin layer of luminous light around the man's body was all he needed to know that he was a divine practitioner and that his jet acid spray contraption would be useless against him. The same went for the other two 'trump card' inventions in Fang Yu's Taotie Sack; although lethal against mortals like himself, they posed little danger to cultivators as the disparity in strength was too great.
Fang Yu's 'weapon' was actually a product of his grand stock of knowledge; he was a transmigator from planet Earth who had been a factory line manager until he died in a tragic accident at the age of thirty. By some sorcery unknown to him, he found himself on a new planet afterwards in the body of a youngster. But it wasn't an unwelcome development at all; apart from the desirable physical changes like not having a receding hairline anymore and even possessing a young, energetic body to boot, there was the opportunity to pursue cultivation– the practice of harnessing the power of rules, laws, and the essence of the universe to refine one's body, soul and or spirit.
Unlike Earth, the rules of the Eternal Purgatory World supported cultivation. One could advance as a divine practitioner through the realms of cultivation by consuming spiritual materials and refining them with divine arts. Fang Yu was only a mortal with access to neither of the two so he had to utilize technological knowledge from his previous life to make contraptions like a jet acid spray as protection safeguards for the four years he had been on the planet.
"Divine Master, please spare me. I was only passing by and saw nothing," Fang Yu's expression turned fearful. Overall, he looked very pitiful.
"Divine Master?" The old man repeated, clearly amused. "Also, drop the scared act. I can tell from your heartbeat that you're faking it."
Fang Yu's facial expression remained frozen in place. As if on cue, his heart rate suddenly accelerated.
'Hhm, a natural born schemer. He reminds me of myself,' the old man sighed and said aloud, "Tell you what, run me through how you got rid of these men on the ground and I'll let you leave."
Fang Yu hesitated, secretly regretting not running away faster earlier. He had anticipated this situation happening; he knew it was simply impossible for the Godshard comet to go unnoticed or escape the attention of divine practitioners all over the planet. Thus, Fang Yu dared not hold any greedy thoughts of claiming the Godshard for himself and had initially planned to leave before any divine practitioner got to the scene and developed thoughts of silencing the witness in plain sight, himself.
"I made use of this weapon I invented myself," Fang Yu shook off his stray thoughts and hurriedly burst into speech to 'market' himself. As if on cue, the invisible telekinetic hand around his body loosened and allowed him reach into his Taotie Sack to retrieve the jet acid spray.
Fang Yu continued, "It has three separate chambers on the interior designed in such a way that specific materials can be placed into two of the three compartments beforehand to be synthesized and combined instantaneously in the third chamber and ejected as a spray."
The Cultivator gingerly collected the jet spray contraption from Fang Yu's hands and examined it curiously, "Hhm, isn't this a mixture of vinegar and wood ash water?"
'More accurately, concentrated vinegar and lye. When combined, they produce a caustic liquid with a heat-releasing effect, dangerous enough when used in conjunction with the jet spray's propulsion ejection mechanism,' Fang Yu burst into a tirade of the technical details in his mind. Aloud, he simply said, 'Yes. And with the jet spray, I can effect lethal damage, especially when vital points are targeted. At the very least, it is enough to render my opponents immobile while I finish them off myself."
"Who came up with the concoction recipe for the mixture?" Gao Weiguang asked. In his opinion, the caustic liquid that possessed such a high damage potential despite containing almost zero spiritual energy was the most brilliant aspect of the invention. "I'd like to meet the person."
"The person is my humble self, Senior," Fang Yu bowed. "I invented this after studying and analyzing the properties of many materials over the past couple of years."
Fang Yu was telling the truth. While he found the jet spray contraption itself easy to make thanks to his technical dexterity, he actually had to carefully research and experiment with many mortal plants and herbs before coming up with the perfect formula to use in biochemical warfare combination. This was after trying in vain to get his hands on divine arts to get him started on the path of cultivation.
"My name is Gao Weiguang, Divine Saint Son of the Immortal Xuan Sect," the old man finally introduced himself. "I'm ranked ninth on the Thousand Heroes List and fourth on the Legacy Pathfinder Record."
Fang Yu blinked in obvious confusion at these words. Gao Weiguang was slightly surprised by his reaction at first before he realized something.
"I forgot this is a mortal territory with very little access to information about the cultivation world. Nevermind that, you'll understand the significance of my titles in the future," Gao Weiguang said grandly with a wave of hand. "So, what are you waiting for?"
"Uhn?" Fang Yu's face became increasingly puzzled.
"You strike me as a pretty smart kid, are you intentionally playing dumb now?" Gao Weiguang's face darkened. "Won't you ask me to take you in as your master?"
Fang Yu was frozen for all of one second, after which he immediately fell to his knees and kowtowed three times.
"Disciple Fang Yu pays his respect to Master."
"Err....." Gao Weiguang was at a loss. He had actually expected Fang Yu to beg to be taken in as a disciple first, but the former just directly performed the discipleship rites outside expectation.
"You may stand," Gao Weiguang did not pursue it and straightened his face. His skill in face changing was even better than Fang Yu's; he was clearly a man of many thoughts.
"You'll be my fourth and probably my last disciple," he said. "I don't think I'll be able to take in another after this."
Fang Yu sensed a peculiar tone in his voice and almost asked what he meant, but he kept quiet as the man walked over to the Godshard and picked it up. In his hand, it flickered less stably.
"The others will find here soon," Gao Weiguang glanced at Fang Yu and asked him, 'Do you have any mortal commitments to settle before we leave?'
Fang Yu was extremely excited and cared less about the first half of the last sentence. The news that he was finally going to leave this mortal territory was akin to heavenly music in his ears.
"I'm an orphan," he expressed in these simple words that he had no such inhibitions. Gao Weiguang nodded, thinking to himself that it made sense now why he was out hunting at such a young age.
"Swallow this," Gao Weiguang shoved a pill down Fang Yu's throat before waving his sleeves.
In front of him, a row of shimmering runes suddenly appeared, looking like a scene straight out of a fiction movie. Gao Weiguang made rapid hand seals and soon constructed a complicated-looking teleportation portal in front of them.
"Let's go!" With these words, Gao Weiguang grabbed Fang Yu's hands firmly and vanished into the passage with him.
Behind them, the portal closed almost immediately and the runes dissipated into thin air.