BXBX NOVEL Chapter 148 - Old Man in Gray
Martial Uncle Wang took Han Li with him on a leaf-shaped magic tool and flew for a couple of hours. They landed on a lush verdant mountain range, within an area crowded with flat houses. These shabby houses were built using rocks from the mountain, and there wasn’t a single person inside these houses. They seemed like they were all empty, and this puzzled Han Li!
“Don’t be surprised. These houses are truly empty. This place is meant for the new disciples to live in until they improved their magic power, then they will move out and look for somewhere else to live. It happens it is currently the beginning of the ten-year rotational cycle. The new disciples haven’t joined the sect yet, so the houses are temporarily empty,” Martial Uncle Wang spotted Han Li’s confusion and explained softly. This cleared Han Li’s bewilderment.
Martial Uncle Wang led Han Li the way as they walked among houses, making so many turns that Han Li felt dizzy. Then they finally stopped at a house that was larger than the other normal stone houses. He didn’t explained much to Han Li and started yelling loudly, “Junior Martial Brother Lin, open the door. I brought a new disciple to pick up the items!”
As soon as Martial Uncle Wang finished yelling, the door opened outwards automatically in a whoosh. Seeing this, Martial Uncle Wang walked in without any hesitation. Han Li paused a little, and followed him into the house.
Inside the house, it was more spacious than it looked outside. This amazed Han Li, wondering what the house was tempered with.
But the specific situation inside the house gave Han Li a certain feeling, and it was the word “messy.”
All kinds of different items were piled here and there. Some were clothes, some were weapons such as knives and swords. But from the wave of spiritual power the weapons were giving off, they seemed to actually be pretty well-made magic tools.
Aside from these things, there were also some other daily items such as shovels and hammers. Those items were also giving off strong spiritual power, it seemed like the items had been. refined into something like a magic tool. This broadened Han Li’s horizons. What kind of special effect did these tools have?
At the center of the house, there was an eight-seater square table. Facing the door and sitting behind the table was an old man in gray clothes with fluffy hair. The old man ignored them as the two of them walked in the house, instead being focused on a small shiny knife, carving a yellow wood about the size of his palms that he held in his hands.
Martial Uncle Wang saw this, he frowned slightly, but his facial expression turned back to normal immediately. He didn’t walk up and interrupt the old man working, instead he pulled a chair from the corner of the room, sat across the old man, and waited quietly for the old man to finish carving the wood.
Han Li blinked his eyes when he saw the situation and stood behind Martial Uncle Wang without saying a word while waiting sensibly with him.
The old man in gray was moving his hands fast like the wind while wood chips fell from in between his finger. After merely the time it took to make a cup of tea, a life-like little monkey appeared within his palms.
“Junior Martial Brother Lin’s carving skills have improved a lot since the last time I saw you!” Martial Uncle Wang just then complimented while smiling.
“It’s nothing impressive. I had nothing to do, so I was just killing time! How come Martial Brother Wang has the time to come and visit my humble residence?” The old man in gray said carelessly, but his eyes were already looking straight at Han Li and seemed to have guessed what the two of them were doing here.
“It’s nothing too important, just wanted to get the equipments that all new disciples who join the valley’s sect would receive for this Martial Nephew Han,” he smiled and answered.
“Didn’t all the new disciples from the Immortal Ascension Assembly receive their equipments? How come there’s another one? And his aptitude is so poor! Did our Sect Leader Zhong’s standards really became that low, he would recruit someone so untalented into the valley!” The old man in gray said bluntly right in front of Han Li, making Han Li sound completely useless. From his tone of attitude, it doesn’t seemed like he respected the Sect Leader Zhong as much either.
Hearing this, Han Li naturally felt extremely awkward, and Martial Uncle Wang was also smiling bitterly.
He knew that because of what happened back then, this Junior Martial Brother Lin had been holding a grudge against their Senior Martial Brother, the Sect Leader, ever since. But in front of this junior, Han Li, how could he possibly pick on the young!
So, he coughed a little and changed the topic, “Junior Martial Brother, this Martial Nephew Han was the one who brought the Writ of Immortal Ascension and joined us in the Yellow Maple Valley! It counts as an exception, so his aptitude is not important. What’s important is that the sect needs to keep our promise.”
“The Writ of Immortal Ascension!” The old man in gray was very surprised and looked at Han Li once again.
“Tsk tsk! If you say so, then this fellow must have a lot of luck, and he can take a Foundation Establishment Pill?” The old man said with a loud voice and looked at him with a look that said, ‘fellow, you’re truly a lucky b*stard!’
“Hehe, normally that would be the case. But Martial Nephew Han and Martial Brother Ye made a deal, and he gave up this Foundation Establishment Pill automatically,” Martial Uncle Wang smiled and mentioned.
“Gave up the Foundation Establishment Pill?” The old man was startled at first, but for some reason his expression darkened right away, and after a moment of silent, he said something that surprised Han Li.
“It’s a good thing he could give it up! The most important thing about being human is knowing your limits. Knowing what to give up and what to take at this young age, this quality is a lot stronger in him than in me!” The expression of the old man in gray seemed to be incredibly lonely. The expression in his eyes, which were originally cold, became more kind.
But after Han Li heard what the old man said, he was confused and didn’t take it to heart!
‘Knowing your limits? That was because I had no choice, so I gave up the precious Foundation Establishment Pill! If it weren’t so, who would give it up!’
Without Han Li mentioning the complaints his heart, the old man suddenly put on a straight face and stood up. He used his hands to lightly and continuously claw at the space around them. An item suddenly appeared in his hand, and the items kept increasing. The whole process stunned Han Li.
“A Yellow Silk Shirt, a Azure Leaf Magic Tool, an everyday refinery set, one Fierce Sun Sword and Cold Moon Saber each, and a tenfold storage pouch,” The old man listed all the items in his hands coldly and put them on the table.
“The items are all here. Little fellow, take them away! As for Martial Brother Wang, who is a busy person, I will not ask you to stay. Please see yourselves out!” After saying this, the old man took out another piece of wood from his chest, started sculpting once again, no longer paying attention to the two of them.
Seeing this, Martial Uncle Wang sighed, stopped saying anything else, and told Han Li to pick up the items. As soon as the two of them walked out of the stone house, the door automatically closed up with a loud bang!
Martial Uncle Wang looked at the shut door and shook his head. He then prepared to leave the place with Han Li.
“Oh! You don’t have to carry that many items in your arms, just put them in your storage pouch!” Martial Uncle Wang turned around and saw Han Li carrying everything in his arms, standing like an idiot beside him. His foolish look amused him, so he spoke to remind him.
After Han Li heard what he said, he put the things in his arms on the ground and found the black cloth pouch among the items. “This is the tenfold storage pouch?” Han Li was a little confused!
He picked up the pouch, looked at the incredibly small opening, and then looked at the enormous swords and items. He hesitated a little since he didn’t know how to stuff them in the pouch.
“This is your first time using a storage pouch, so let me demonstrate!” Martial Uncle Wang was understanding. After he recognized Han Li’s confusion, he reached over and took the pouch.
“All you have to do is aim the opening of the pouch at what you want to put in, inject some magic power into the pouch, and focus on the item. It will be sucked in automatically!” Martial Uncle Wang said as he demonstrated it himself.
He pointed the opening downwards, and the white light in his hand flickered. A bright, white light shot out from the pouch and covered everything that was on the ground. Those items immediately shrunk under the white light, and as soon as they reached a certain size, they were sucked into the pouch. Han Li, who was watching on the side, was surprised and amazed!
“You use the same method when you want to take out an item. You just have to focus on the item that you want to take out with your magic power beforehand,” Martial Uncle Wang said as he returned the pouch to Han Li.
“But there are a few rules when it comes to using the storage pouch. Martial Nephew Han, you must remember them carefully!” Martial Uncle Wang put his hands behind his back and spoke seriously.
Hearing this, Han Li nodded like a chicken pecking rice.
“Firstly, the storage pouch can only hold and shrink a certain amount or size of items. If the pouch sucked in something that’s too big or too many in quantity, it will lose its ability, and you won’t be able to put more items inside of it anymore.”
“Secondly, the storage pouch cannot store living things. If you put a live creature inside it, then it will die for sure!”
“Lastly, and also the most important rule you must keep at heart: Low–grade storage pouches do not have the ability to recognize their owner, so whoever steals your storage pouch can take the items inside! Hence, don’t reveal your storage pouch easily in front of other cultivators. You should hide it carefully, or else you could get into serious trouble.”