Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 370: Scarlet Eyes.

“I can give you the most basic version of the Scarlet Eyes. Only if you agree to my terms.”

Instantly, Raven guessed that she would have to join this organization under her officially. After all, Ember had been persisting on that for a while now.

“No thanks. I’m fine without it,” Raven started.

“...”

“It’s not about becoming my apprentice,” Ember mentioned with gritted teeth. She didn’t know what was so wrong with really joining the organization.

Now it was Raven’s turn to be confused.

“What do I have to do then?” She questioned.

.....

“Well, If you can convince your group to owe me a mission in the future, I will unconditionally hand you over the Scarlet Eyes.” Ember glanced at everyone to see their reactions, then she said, “And I won’t hesitate to give you the evolved versions as well, but you will have to pay for them separately. It won’t be so hard for them though.”

Still confused, Raven asked for clarification on this ‘mission’.

To which, Ember replied, “What I mean is... You will not reject a specific mission that I will entrust you guys in the future...”

Sensing that Raven would immediately reject this proposition, she further added in, “Do not worry. It won’t be something that’s any more dangerous than the usual missions. It’s just that I... That specific mission is important to me and I think no one other than him,” her eyes locked at Ozul, “could be trusted on it. I am afraid that I can’t discuss anything about it at this point in time.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed in distrust. Even if this ‘specific mission’ wasn’t extremely dangerous, she wouldn’t have everyone commit to anything for a Spiritual Art, no matter how valuable it was.

Before she could say anything, however, Ozul cut in the conversation, “I agree to do this mission of yours. Now give her these... Scarlet Eyes.”

Not only Raven but even Blaze raised his eyes in surprise.

They knew Ozul as a man who never committed to anything that he wasn’t sure about. He would never take useless risks. It was surprising that he would agree to a mission that he didn’t even know about at this point

Even Ember was a bit surprised by his hasty agreement. After all, she was prepared to describe every characteristic of her scarlet eyes. Back when she was at her peak, these Scarlet Eyes were crucial in maintaining her a cut above even her fellow Sage Realm masters.

Unknown to them, Ozul wasn’t just blindly trusting Ember.

It was because he could precisely feel other people’s emotions that he had made this decision.

Not only was Ember sincere in her words, but whenever the mission was mentioned, even her emotions would feel tense. It was apparent that she was telling the truth.

Moreover, the Scarlet Eyes was an evolving Spiritual Art meaning Raven could make use of it for maybe even until her death. It would surely benefit her. Since she lacked talent, he wondered if such a thing could make up for it.

And as for the mission, he wasn’t worried about it.

Since it looked so important to Ember, she would never send someone who would die leaving it unfinished.

He wondered in his heart, ‘Maybe it is because I don’t use Mana...?’

Ember quickly snapped out of her thoughts and remembered that she shouldn’t let this opportunity slip out of her hands.

Before Ozul changed his mind, she quickly took out a well-maintained book from her Spatial Ring and forcefully ended it over to Raven.

At a loss of words, Raven looked at Ozul for help. She was about to tell him that she didn’t want this Spiritual Art anymore.

“Take it and use it well.” As if reading her heart through her concerned eyes, Ozul assured her.

Seeing that Ozul won’t budge on this, she nodded her head with a sound, “Un.”

With that out of the way, Ember turned towards Ozul.

“So, what type of Spiritual Arts do you desire?”

“Anything simple.”

Ember gave him a comical look. She expected many things, but not for him to ask for anything simple.

“Uh... Are you sure? I have many good ones. For you, I may even be willing to take out something of 9-Star, which is basically the best in Earth Grade.”

For her purpose, Ember wanted him to become stronger. So she would always be willing to take one more step for him.

After all, to her, even Spirit Grade1 Spiritual Arts were basically useless

Shaking her head, Ember commented, “Honestly, for you, I would have even considered giving away something of Spirit Grade. Pity, they are useless for anyone under the Soul Materialization stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.”

Ozul ignored the yet-another-stage-of-a-realm and focused more on the fact that Ember was valuing him so much.

‘She is desperate.’

By now, he was certain that this mission of hers most probably was her priority right now. Most probably, even causing unrest between these kingdoms somehow aided her goals for that mission.

“I am sure. Just give me something easy to learn. With apparent effects though. Maybe something to augment my physical body as well?” Ozul relented and finally gave more description of what he desired.

His only need for a Spiritual Art was to experiment with it. Whether his body accepted the Spiritual Art even when he doesn’t have Spiritual Essence.

As if suddenly enlightened, Ember remembered that he most likely didn’t use the Spiritual Essence, ‘Is he trying to test if the Spiritual Arts are compatible with his version of Spiritual Essence?’

If Ozul knew how close she was to the truth, even he would have been shocked out of his wits at the instincts of experts of this Realm.

The only thing she didn’t get right was that the Purity wasn’t some version of Spiritual Essence but an entirely different thing. Her conclusion stemmed from her firm belief that no other energy could evade the Realm Ego’s will in this Realm.

Having realized his reasoning, she didn’t question him anymore and thought for a moment before bringing out yet another simple-looking book. Although its edges were a bit rough, this one wasn’t too worn out.

“Blue Claws” The book’s title read.

“It’s one of the best 8-star Earth Grade Spiritual Art. If a normal cultivator were to learn this in the early stages, they would easily defeat someone of a higher stage than them.”

In the back, Blaze opened his mouth in disappointment. Hadn’t he asked something like this? Why was he handed over that lousy book that was barely held together by some ancient strings?

His sense of betrayal, however, was misplaced since Ember only hadn’t explained to him that his ‘Cold Fists’ Spiritual Art wouldn’t lose out to this ‘Blue Claws’.

“There is no special nature of this Spiritual Art, unlike the Cold Fists that I gave him,” Ember motioned towards Blaze, “It simply uses Spiritual Essence to strengthen one’s fingers till the point that it starts glowing blue. A cultivator then can use their fingers not only to best someone in a physical fight, but they can even instantly channel their Spiritual Essence through those fingers.”

Ember didn’t find the need to mention that in the hands of an expert who knew about a human’s internal body, these Blue Claws could be a fatal technique. That person could channel their Spiritual Essence into their opponent’s body and target their Core to effectively disable them.

Ozul took the book nonchalantly. He didn’t care how good the technique was.

He was curious as to whether or not using the Purity in the exact same manner as the book’s instructions, but for Spiritual Essence, would yield similar results.

Having received the book, he was about to jump back to the bed and read it comfortably, but Ember stopped him. “You have yet to choose a weapon. Just tell me your preference, I have a whole smithy inside my Spatial Ring.”

She was confident that she had every type of weapon inside her Spatial Ring.

“Hm? Oh... I don’t need it. Give it to Zier.”

“Ehh?” x2

Both Zier and Ember turned to look at him in question.

Since he appeared to be the most valuable of the others, Ember wanted to give him a weapon.

She wanted him to be as powerful as possible, and a High-Tier Earth Grade Weapon would undoubtedly increase his strength.

Ozul waved his hand without much interest and remarked, “Just give it to him.”

Unwillingly, Ember turned towards Zier. At this moment, this sickly-looking kid irritated her the most.

She would have definitely shoved a Peak-Tier Earth Grade Weapon in Ozul’s hands if she didn’t want to appear as someone desperate.

It was her time to swallow a mouthful of air as she asked him about his choice of weapon instead, this time with much less enthusiasm.

“Uh...” Zier hesitated for a second, “... do you have needles?”

Ember’s eyes examined his whole body. Although it was subtle, the slight budge of the side of his sleeves was quickly caught by her.

It seemed that he usually used hidden needles for attacking. However, in her experience, she didn’t think such needles would do much in a fight with more than two people.

Still, she didn’t say anything and complied with the request.

With a single command in her mind, five silver needles appeared in his hands. They were around the size of an adult human’s face and also fairly thin and lightweight.

“If caught off guard, these needles can injure even a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. Also, you just need to inject some Spiritual Essence into it and you can call them back whenever you want. They only come back to you though.”

Zier took the needles from her hand with stars in his eyes.

Needles that come back whenever he wanted? Wasn’t that his dream since he had started using needles?!

Having distributed the rewards and securing the deal with her Scarlet Eyes, Ember suddenly took on a more serious posture and spoke with a heavy voice,

“Since that’s out of the way... let us talk about your future.”