When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again

Story 2 - Golden Fingers, Jade Boxes, and Other Treasures (5)

Story 2 - Golden Fingers, Jade Boxes, and Other Treasures (5)

After around two incense sticks worth of time, the supply appraiser finally arrived. They gave our fake master face, and we quickly sold several thousands of my flag sticks for 1000 spirit stones, a good amount of the correct flag silk, paint, and brushes. Eventually, I’d use those to fully finish a few sets.

The purchase was so large that the assistant almost fainted.

After that, we left quickly to take a stroll around the city. I pointed out common cultivation items to Little Spring, such as a poorly made copper alchemy furnace that I was tempted to buy, or a few talismans with very weak protection spells.

Eventually, we reached a gated yard filled with uncut jadeite stones. A few groups of cultivators wandered down the isles in colorful yet elegant clothes, but there were also a few mortal merchants walking around.

Then I had a fantastic idea.

“Let’s do some stone gambling! It’ll be fun.” While I’d worked with raw jadeite before as a crafting material, I’d never had the opportunity to come to a place like this. Aside from a few difficult tasks I did for the sect and a dozen horrible experiences inside secret planes and forbidden areas, I mostly stayed within the sect and cultivated or learned professions like Formation Mastery and Alchemy.

Little Spring nodded, and we strolled up to the entrance where an old man with thin gray hair sat on a single-legged stool. I grinned up at him and tried to look as much like a normal child as possible. He narrowed his eyes at me.

“So, what are the rules, and how does this work?”

He tossed us a stack of thin talisman-like paper that had his energy on it. “Attach your spiritual signature to this, place it on the stones you’d like to purchase then go tell the seller at the back. You can pay him to cut the stones for you if you need.”

I nodded happily and — considering my current low realm — I bowed in respect to this hidden master. He snorted and waved us by.

Little Spring stared at me cautiously. “Fairy Lin.”

I paused and looked back at him and he whispered, “Are you sure we should be spending money on this? Isn’t jade very expensive?”

“Jade is a special material. It is precious to mortals and useful to cultivators. The difference is quality. All the highest quality jade is sold to cultivators because they need it to hold items filled with spiritual energy or use it to create interesting tools. While the lower qualities go to mortals who use it for jewelry and other things.” As we walked through the stone-filled yard I gave more explanations about the properties of jade and how it was used in the creation of Spiritual Tools. I also let him know that jadeite varied based on the location it was mined from. This location would not have any lavender or black jade, but it would have green, white, and possibly some other colors.

“So, now that you know a little about jade, let’s test your luck.” I handed him three of the little talisman papers. “Go place these on any three random stones.”

He gave me that look like he was questioning my sanity again.

“Come on, we’re just doing this for fun!” But actually, there was something I was curious about. The luck of a main character was often, unbelievably good. Since I’ve changed things so much I wanted to know if it was still good or if, as I suspected, my interference in the plot had changed his fortunes.

My mind unconsciously went back to when I’d almost gotten him killed, and he’d unlocked a little of his bloodline.

Maybe a main character had both the best and the worst luck.

But even if this little guy was this world’s main character, right now, he was only an innocent child. Hopefully, I could let him stay that way for a while longer.

I walked up to a few dozen pieces of rough jadeite stone and sent a trickle of my divine sense into each to visualize their quality. When I couldn’t sense it at first, I increased the level I used. The stone’s composition became clear, but a sickening sensation flooded the back of my throat. I suppressed the mouthful of blood I was about to cough up.

Shit. I was overusing my divine sense again.

That was right. I’d forgotten that it took a divine sense at the pinnacle of Golden Core to peer into stones like these. While I could handle that several times, it really wasn’t a good idea. I could practically hear Ghosty McGhostFace’s mocking laughter in my head. Whatever. Finding my current limits was also important.

Little Spring’s sudden yell drew my attention. I ran to him, pulling out my jade hairpin and turning it into a sword.

One of the groups of cultivators consisting of three men and two women, stood in front of him while wearing mocking smiles. One of the women had a scarred face and the other stood behind a taller man, so I could only see part of her robes.

One of those men was that idiot from the fight before, Seafoam. He was in the middle of tearing off the talisman Little Spring had placed on a large stone.

“Stop right there!”

Seafoam did not stop and tore the talisman off before slapping his own on it. He then turned to me and smirked.

“This is the brat I was telling you about.”

“The one who cost you that fight earlier?” A voice I was hoping I’d never hear again said.

That was when I really noticed her. A young woman, in the foundation establishment stage, around 17-18 years old, with a chest even larger than that shop assistant from earlier, and wearing seafoam to contrast with — of all the stupid fucking things — her damn glittering pink hair. I assumed that this story had been popular enough to get a manhua adaptation because it seemed like almost everyone in the world had black or brown hair and eyes except for the people who would either be Bloodsword’s worst enemy or one of his harem members. The exception was my body’s original but that was likely because she’d been the girl next door/ older sister type.

This girl crossed her arms under her chest while glaring at me and Little Spring. She was, obviously, one of Bloodsword’s braindead wives. His third one to be precise. Her name was Effervescent Sea Pearl.

I remembered when I first met her. She had just married into the sect and brought several maids. Each of them had a scarred face. At first, I thought that she liked taking women who had been in bad situations and giving them hope for a better future. Then she became jealous of me for my good looks and for the fact that as Bloodsword’s Elder Sister, I had been close-ish to him since he joined the sect. She believed that no woman could resist his allure (gross). Eventually, the bitch tried to slice my fucking face off!

Seriously, if she was a jealous type of person, then she shouldn’t have married a man with a harem. While I wasn’t a fan of the various different types of poly relationships myself, even I knew that jealousy didn’t belong in them.

And then that motherfucker, Bloodsword arrived while I was defending myself against her. Instead of stopping her, the ignoramus tit llama fought me off and forced me to apologize. Me! He was lucky I knew he was the universe’s favorite, or I‘d have utterly murdered his wife’s ass.

And now I was facing this scum person again! I grabbed the talisman that Seafoam placed on the stone, and pulled. It refused to come off. Their group laughed, so I placed two of mine next to it and they stopped laughing.

When Seafoam came to tear mine off, I pointed my sword at one of his weak points and started cycling my spiritual energy.

The other cultivators in that group, aside from the stupid Sea Pearl, all pulled out their own weapons.

A sudden spiritual pressure crushed us. A sickening sensation rushed through me, and I coughed up that mouthful of blood I’d repressed earlier. I glared at the hidden master’s general direction, and the pressure vanished.

“There is no fighting here. Only stone gambling,” his old gruff voice reached our ears through sound transmission.

I wiped my bloody mouth with a handkerchief, put away my sword, and crossed my arms as if my world hadn’t just been on the verge of going dark a moment before.

“He has a point,” I said. Plus I was in no shape to take on a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment.

“Yes, he does,” Sea Pearl said. “So, let’s gamble. Whoever can purchase a stone with the highest value jade inside gets to buy this stone.”

“As you can see, my junior and I are poor so, while I agree, we need to keep the price of each one low. Let’s say, stones worth one spirit stone or less.”

“Fine, but we'll each buy three.”

I cringed as if I was truly that poor and nodded.

Little Spring stepped up, his hands shaking, “The loser should apologize and pay for the winner’s stones.”

I shot him a questioning look, but he only glared fiercely at the group.

“You both should apologize for ruining my subordinate’s fight but what, exactly, should I apologize for?”

“If you hadn’t pulled my paper off and started a fight with me, my sister wouldn’t have been injured. I want you to apologize to her.”

“If you hadn’t put your mark on the stone I wanted then I wouldn’t have had to order him to do that.”

“I was here first.”

Alright, now he was starting to sound like the child he was.

“Enough. I’m fine with the loser apologizing and paying for the winner’s stones. We shouldn’t argue too much with our seniors.” He nodded and I smiled. “Since, as a Foundation Establishment senior, I’m sure Fairy Effervescent Sea Pearl won’t bother coming after us or sending people to kill us if we do win.”

A blood vessel bulged on her forehead. “Of course not.”

Heh. I knew this bitch well. Of course, she was planning on it, but, by mentioning it, she’d at least send someone in the same realm instead of going herself. Even if the main character was on my side, I had no interest in going up against his past life’s wives. Then again, I’d changed reality so much, maybe it was possible that he wouldn’t marry this one bitch, at least.