After Chen Quanxu took the flawless crystal back, it tried absorbing resentment into the crystal, and the results were actually quite good.
But resentment and blood curse did not offset each other easily. The two coexisted inside the crystal without interfering with one another.
It took many experiments before it managed to make them cancel out, though it felt it hadn't made good use of the blood curse.
The horned owl opened the leather pouch in its grasp and tipped out a resentment crystal about three centimeters across. "Look, this is how it is now."
"Smaller," Wu Youren's mouth twitched. It didn't even have the pointed tip of an orange seed anymore!
Smaller was putting it mildly. The jade-like body that used to be hazy, with a faint sense of treasure-light about it, was now dry and shriveled.
It felt like nothing more than an oversized resentment crystal. It was surely still worth a great deal, but... Senior, you really do know how to squander a fortune.
"The effect is very good," the horned owl insisted, sounding a little sheepish.
"Then the next one... I'll consider you first," the youth said, also at a loss for words. "Are we selling this one?"
"I'll use it. This one's mine!" the horned owl said without hesitation.
"By the way, I've also prepared some Guizu relic samples for you. They're on the way right now."
Guizu relics... samples? Wu Youren was even more speechless. Could those two words even be used together?
"I'm still studying the situation with the pouch eagle," Chen Quanxu said — probably feeling a little guilty — and immediately added that it had other plans as well.
"If it weren't for the snow, we could already be trying our hand at it."
"Mm," Wu Youren nodded in deep agreement. "Steal in wind, not in moonlight; steal in rain, not in snow. Wait till spring... and we go together."
"I don't need you," the horned owl shook its head. "I'll handle it myself. With you along, you'd just get in the way!"
That was a bit much. The youth was taken aback. "You, alone... can you manage?"
"I have lives to spare," Chen Quanxu answered without thinking. "You can't imagine how much trouble it is to get on the wrong side of the Hall of Esoteric Masters."
Wu Youren fell silent. Without noticing it, he had underestimated this senior — he really had gotten a little too cocky.
After a moment's thought he said, "Once we get the marching stone, the next orange seed goes to you too... if there is one."
He truly dreamed of having a storage pouch. He'd had more than enough of hauling supplies around on his back!
"If we're getting them, get a few," the horned owl nodded vigorously. "I want one too. Oh, and don't give one to Hong Yan!"
"I can hunt one for her, but why would I just hand it over for free?" the youth said without hesitation.
He paused, then couldn't help adding, "I have a marching stone."
"I know," Chen Quanxu answered at once. "Otherwise, how could you have identified the pouch eagle?"
Wu Youren was startled for a moment, then laughed. "I guess I'm not as smart as I thought."
The horned owl gave him a sidelong glance. "Did you tell Hong Yan?"
"How could I?"
"So you're not stupid," Chen Quanxu said, ending the subject there. "By tonight, the samples should be here."
Wu Youren's mouth worked, and in the end he said, "Thank you."
For his cultivation he had little need of Guizu relics — he practically never used them — but a man had to know the proper measure of things.
At midnight the goods really did arrive. The courier was a half-meter-long snow ferret with a white bag wrapped around its belly.
Wu Youren untied the bag, and the ferret turned and vanished without a word.
"It's very simple control," the horned owl explained. "And you shouldn't keep too many animals around. Others might think of me."
The youth nodded. He would like to have a few animals around too, to help when necessary — they weren't afraid to die, after all.
But that really wasn't practical. Earlier, Guard Captain Hao Wei had seen the little snow harrier and immediately thought of Chen Quanxu.
"Your reputation... huh?"
He weighed the white leather pouch in his hand, and his expression changed. "I really do have to thank you!"
The horned owl didn't ask what he was thanking it for, only said mildly, "As long as it helps. Don't open it until dawn."
Snow everywhere only improved visibility; it couldn't replace the cycle of day and night. Daylight was safer.
The next morning, Wu Youren opened the white pouch and found dozens of tiny compartments packed inside.
None of the Guizu relics was large; the biggest was no bigger than the pad of a little finger, the smallest only the size of a soybean.
Chen Quanxu explained that it had used many of these relics — or at the very least tried to use them — and that was why their size had shrunk.
What a lavish big shot! Wu Youren silently raised a thumb.
Then he extended his index finger and pointed at a small jade-white pellet.
The next moment the youth hurriedly sealed the pouch before speaking. "What is that one?"
Exposing dozens of Guizu relics at once was no small matter. In those few short minutes, the air around them seemed to stir restlessly.
Two beetles even dropped from a bush in the distance.
"I don't know," the horned owl shook its head. "Give me a moment to think. It's useful to you?"
"Extremely useful," Wu Youren nodded, secretly counting himself lucky — lucky he hadn't been rude earlier.
He had always thought Guizu relics were wealth only on paper for him, and had overlooked the fact that he had come across a useful one.
It was that strange object that had appeared in the azure armadillo's burrow — the first time he had ever successfully gathered qi on his own initiative.
It wasn't that he had forgotten that scene; he had simply felt the thing belonged among heavenly treasures and earthly rarities, and didn't seem like a Guizu relic.
And now this little jade-white bean was telling him that such a thing... could be a Guizu relic!
"Finally, something you actually think is worth having," the horned owl said, flapping its wings twice, clearly overjoyed.
Truth be told, Chen Quanxu had been rather frustrated too. Ever since it met this youth, it had rarely had a chance to show its true strength.
Setting aside the fact that it had been killed by a flying blade the moment they met, it had been reaping benefits the whole time, or on its way to reaping them.
Compared with the Shadow-Splitting Yue and the flawless crystal it had received, how big a gift was a beat-up motorcycle?
All it had been doing was a bit of scouting and lending a hand, at most stealing a blade or luring a monster or two.
The youth might think it was very useful, but it felt it had never shown its strength — as if all it could do was bluff people with its inheritance.
The orange seed was hugely useful to it, but as for a possible second one, it hadn't even had the nerve to ask.
Now it could finally offer real help — how could it not be happy?
Yet the horned owl stared wide-eyed for a long while and simply could not recall where it had gotten this particular Guizu relic.
"This bird's brain is too small. Take it out and let me have another look."
The youth opened the white pouch, took out the little bean, then sealed the pouch again and said with a tremble, "Hurry... look quickly."
"What are you shaking for?" Chen Quanxu was curious. Surely there was no need to get that excited?
The next moment the horned owl's eyes went round; it raised a claw and snatched the little bean.
It turned the bean over a couple of times, looked curiously at the youth, then at the bean in its claw. "It dissolves?"
"I can absorb it directly," Wu Youren said, stepping back two paces before he could suppress that restless urge. "Just like you can absorb resentment crystals directly."
"This thing has no resentment in it," said the horned owl. Its claws weren't large, and holding the little bean was rather difficult.
There was a layer of keratin on the claws too, which affected its ability to sense things.
It sensed for another ten seconds or so before speaking slowly. "There's a faint, strange energy in it, and it's... not the same as what's in your body."
The youth asked in a low voice, "Do you have any more of these?"
"I can't answer you right now," Chen Quanxu said, and actually sighed. "I need to remember how I got it first."
Wu Youren looked at it, his expression somewhat odd: this was a Guizu relic, and it had only spent a few years in the outside world — how could it not remember?
Or had it gone senile to that degree?
The horned owl guessed what he was thinking. "Back when Shadow-Splitting Yue wasn't scarce for me, guess how many kinds of animals I used to search everywhere for treasures?"
"Got it," the youth nodded. No wonder it bragged about a rich inheritance — this one really could stir things up, and dared to.
When you consider that it had gotten a flawless crystal and unhesitatingly used it for experiments — that kind of spendthrift boldness wasn't something you could learn without some experience.
"Absorb it and let me watch," the horned owl tossed him the little bean. "You don't mind?"
"I still want a second one," the youth answered with a smile. "Of course I don't mind."
The first time he had come into contact with the azure armadillo's relic, he had gathered qi rather hastily, and he'd had no experience.
This time, feeling it carefully, he really did sense some differences.
This warm current didn't feel as vast and mighty as national fortune value; as for purity... it was so-so.
But its permeability was excellent — not the kind that seeped out of the body, but the kind that could seep into the blood and meridians.
In other words, it was highly absorbable, and relatively gentle as well.
That was easy enough to understand; something like national fortune was not only powerful but overbearing.
But when the opportunity is given to you, failing to hold on to it means your own fortune is thin; forcing it to stay would leave hidden dangers — the natural side effect of a snake trying to swallow an elephant.
Anyway, each had its own advantages. Wu Youren felt that a good thing like this was better saved for use in battle.
After about ten minutes, the little bean disappeared. Wu Youren settled his emotions for a moment before slowly opening his eyes.
The horned owl raised a claw and pointed at his shoulder. "Shh~"
The youth turned his head and found Xiao Ha on his shoulder, eyes half closed, head bobbing — it looked a little sleepy.
This time, he truly felt it. "This fellow..."
Two or three minutes later, the little snow harrier gave a full-body shudder, and its eyes suddenly became clear.
"It got quite a lot of energy," Chen Quanxu said leisurely. "Did you use to starve it?"
"Starve" didn't mean meat — Wu Youren wasn't short of that now. It meant the qi during cultivation: he had never deliberately shared it.
"Did I?" The youth was a little confused. He remembered Chen Quanxu saying before that the little snow harrier was affected by the qi field of his cultivation.
With that understanding, he hadn't deliberately cut off contact with Xiao Ha while cultivating.
The next moment he realized what it meant. "The effect was obvious this time?"
"Exactly," the horned owl nodded. It had been watching the youth cultivate for quite some time now. "The observer sees clearly."
"Then we really do need to get this organized," Wu Youren said, steadying himself. "When it's convenient for you, go ahead and leave."
Chapter 215