Chapter 111: Good Faith (1)

“Can you wait a bit? I need to ask the higher-ups for their opinion,” Night Demon said.

This time, she did not wait until the next day to give an answer like before; instead, she pulled out a silver ring.

The ring had a few buttons on it. Night Demon pressed one of them, then passed on the words that Su Chen had spoken into the ring. An instant later, the ring began to let out a faint red glow.

Night Demon placed the ring next to her ear, listening closely. An instant later, she said to Su Chen, “You want a show of good faith? Then come with me.”

She walked outside.

After exiting the Su palace’s backyard, a carriage was already waiting. The person driving the carriage was dressed in all black robes, and their face was hidden. When Su Chen walked over, the carriage driver glanced at Su Chen. It was then that Su Chen discovered that there was nothing under that black robe.

A chilly aura manifested around her, as Night Demon said, “If you aren’t afraid of dying, get on.”

As she spoke, she jumped onto the carriage.

Su Chen laughed. “The moment that I decided to begin a relationship with you all, I lost the right to be afraid of death.”

He jumped on the carriage, which began to slowly move. They travelled along the Han River and continued advancing past the limits of the city. After travelling for around half an hour, they finally stopped in front of a farm.

There were around ten or so rooms in the farm. Night Demon brought Su Chen directly into the oldest and most run-down room. Upon arriving in front of a tattered storage container, she opened it, then pressed on the switch inside. A wall began to open on its own, revealing a dark tunnel.

She brought Su Chen into the tunnel. After walking another lengthy distance, the tunnel gradually began to widen in front of them.

They were now in a large underground space. The space was divided into different layers, just like different rooms.

Su Chen had walked directly into the main lobby. At this moment, there were a few people standing in the lobby, all of whom Su Chen had seen before.

They were Copper Deer, Qingbai, Smoke, and Aaron.

Baron was not there. Night Demon had previously told him that Baron was just an ally of the organization and didn’t actually belong to them. Thus, it was not strange that he was not present in this kind of place.

Apart from these four people, there was also an old man. Although Su Chen had not seen his appearance, he instinctively felt that they had likely encountered each other before.

Indeed, in the next instant the old man laughed, “Prince Su, we meet again.”

Upon hearing this voice, Su Chen laughed. “Old Sang.”

The old man in front of him was precisely the Old Sang whom he had unintentionally overheard speaking a while ago, marking the beginning of this chapter in his life.

Though it seemed like he was the leader here, he was definitely not the highest-ranking official in the organization.

Old Sang said, “I originally thought that the unintentional leaking of our secret would be a great problem, but I never expected that such a thorough cooperation would develop. Indeed, fate is always filled with twists and turns.”

Su Chen indifferently said, “I like to think of it more as the affairs of life being variable, and that disasters and happiness depend closely on one another..”

Old Sang was stunned for a moment before laughing loudly, “Haha, well said. Fate is always controlled by oneself. This kind of development is not so much fate as it is the result of Prince Su’s hard work. Come, please sit, Prince Su.”

The lobby had already prepared a place for receiving guests.

Su Chen stepped forwards and sat down. He even politely conversed a bit with Qingbai, Copper Deer, and the others since they had met each other before.

Old Sang poured tea personally for Su Chen. He said, “Let me introduce myself first. I am Sang Zhen. I am in charge of the Immortal Temple in the northern area of the Three-Mountain Region. I am also responsible for the matter of opening the Spirit Burying Terrace.”

“Immortal Temple?” Su Chen pretended to be oblivious.

Old Sang said, “Prince Su, there’s no need to pretend like you don’t know. Just like you said, trust is the foundation for cooperation. If you continue to tell me that you haven’t guessed already who we are, then there’s no need to bring up the words ‘good faith’”.

Su Chen thought for a moment, then said, “So then you mean, when you were selling me the Origin Skills, you already intended to reveal your identities to me?”

Sang Zhen didn’t reply directly. He only said, “If an organization wants to expand, they cannot allow themselves to be buried underground forever. Expansion inevitably requires a foundation, and probing is the prelude to expansion. Prince Su’s performance has pleased us, and we appreciate your way of doing things. Thus, the organization has treated Prince Su as an important member that will be recruited in the future. All we are doing is taking advantage of the current situation; since you want a show of good faith, we will give it to you. Look, this is the secret meeting place of the Immortal Temple in Northface City. How about it? Is this enough good faith?”

Su Chen shook his head. “I don’t actually want to become an official member of the organization. If possible, I want to be more like Baron, working together under the guise of cooperation. A secret is worth far more than just some Origin Stones, after all.”

“You think you’re worthy!” Aaron angrily said.

Cooperation meant that they were equal to each other. People who had the right to stand side by side had the right to discuss cooperation. Even people of the same rank as Baron, strictly speaking, could not be considered true cooperation. It was more accurate to say that he was employed.

For Su Chen to open with talk of cooperation was truly somewhat arrogant. It was no surprise that Aaron was angry.

Sang Zhen stopped him, however, and laughed, “The Immortal Temple doesn’t just ally itself with anyone. If you want to establish this kind of relationship, you need to first demonstrate your own value. However, this is not very important right now. As for the million Origin Stones, it was just a random figure. The Spirit Burying Terrace does not contain that many riches, and even if it did, we would not give it to you.”

“What’s inside?”

“Has Prince Su ever heard of Sark’s Energy Nucleus?”

“Sark’s Energy Nucleus?” Su Chen thought for a moment. He suddenly thought of something and yelled out, “An Energy source?”

“Yes! An Energy source.” Sang Zhen’s expression was one of satisfaction. “Prince Su truly was raised in a scholarly family. You even know about energy sources.”

How could he not know about them?

It was an existence that was on par with the Bloodline Extraction Instrument. It was the royal treasure of the Feathered Race.

Back then, when the Arcana Kingdom fell into ruin, the Five Great Races split the Arcana Kingdom and obtained many secret treasures. The most valuable treasure that the human race obtained was the Bloodline Extraction Instrument, while the Feathered Race obtained an energy source. They used it as the core for their Sky Expanse City, establishing the Sky Country.

Precisely speaking, “energy source” was just a common name. Many things with unique energy characteristics could be called energy sources, and from a certain standpoint even Origin Stones could be considered energy sources.

The one that the Feathered Race possessed was naturally the most powerful energy source.

The energy that it could supply was more than enough to keep a large city floating in midair. Its strength was quite apparent.

It was an extremely large engineering construct in its own right and possessed tremendous capabilities. Upon installation, it could automatically absorb Origin Energy from the air and turn it into the pure raw energy before supplying it.

This kind of energy installation was primarily invented by the Arcana Race great master Isador Sark. Thus, it was named after him and was called the Sark’s Energy Nucleus.

For Sang Zhen to mention Sark’s Energy Nucleus gave Su Chen quite a shock.

If the Spirit Burying Terrace truly possessed Sark’s Energy Nucleus, it was definitely a treasure that was worth more than the entire Three-Mountain Region.

The Five Great Races could begin to fight a large-scale battle for it without any hesitation.

Thus, Sang Zhen supplemented with another sentence, “Of course, they are not at the level of the Sark’s Energy Nucleus in the Sky Expanse City. precisely speaking, there are three levels of Sark’s Energy Nuclei: one is a city-grade Sark’s Energy Nucleus, which can continuously power an entire city. The Arcana Race only ever invented one of those kinds, and it is installed in the Sky Expanse City. Another is a warship-grade Sark’s Energy Nucleus, which is used on floating warships. There are probably a few of these scattered all over, but they are still quite uncommon. Lastly, there are tool-grade Sark’s Energy Nuclei, which are used to power Origin Puppets.”

“Then what’s inside the Spirit Burying Terrace is......”

“Tool-grade, but there are a total of four of them. They can be used to support four large Origin Demon Puppets,” Sang Zhen replied.

“Can they be used only by large Origin Demon Puppets, or can they be used by many things including large Origin Demon Puppets?” Su Chen asked.

Only and including implied two drastically different things.

Sang Zhen laughed, “Even if it’s just a tool-grade Sark’s Energy Nucleus, it is about as large as a Melted Golden Battle Armor. Naturally, it can only be used by large Origin Demon Puppets.”

“Then it’s useless to me,” Su Chen replied.

Controlling large Origin Demon Puppets was extremely complicated, and moving and concealing them was very difficult. They were very powerful, but as a target they were quite obvious.

Su Chen pursued his own increase in strength, so he was not very interested in it.

“Apart from this, there are three Void Essence Crystals. Prince Su should know the value of these things even if I don’t say anything.”

Void Essence was a very rarely seen substance and could be used to assign space to other objects. For instance, spatial rings could be created using these, but it was too wasteful. Normal people wouldn’t do this. Their true usage was to bestow an Origin Tool with a powerful spatial attribute. If an Origin Tool possessed that attribute, its strength would greatly increase.

The value of three Void Essence Crystals was extremely high.

“Is there anything else?” Su Chen continued to ask.

“We are not too clear about whether there is anything else. After all, these are all clues that we obtained from history texts. Things that are less important are unlikely to be recorded,” Sang Zhen said.

“So that’s how it is......” Su Chen drew out his sentence. He thought for a moment, then let out a strange smile as he said, “Since that’s the case, how about we compromise? Since these two items are not useful to me, how about this. I help you go into the Spirit Burying Terrace. If I get the Sark’s Energy Nucleus and the Void Essence Crystals, I’ll give them to you. If I make any other discoveries, they will all belong to me. How does that sound?”

“How can that be allowed?” Aaron instantly jumped to his feet.

Sang Zhen slowly sighed, “It seems it is still impossible to hide it from Prince Su.”

Su Chen gently smiled as he said, “Then now, can you make a more solid show of good faith?”

Sang Zhen leisurely said, "Of course. However, Prince Su, do you not feel that it is slightly unfair that we are the only ones displaying this good faith? Do you not intend on displaying your own sincerity?”

“Me? What do I have to display my sincerity?” Su Chen said. “I don’t have any secrets that I can’t tell others.”

“That might not be true,” Old Sang said with deliberation. “I believe that Prince Su’s secrets can interest many people. For instance...... Prince Su’s eyes. Or...... Li’s fate? Am I right, storekeeper Demon Face?”