Treasure

Felix's treasure? She ran into good fortune and actually remembered to bring her roommates along? Good grief, a saint has arisen in our dorm room! Ingrid teased with a laugh, "Aren't you just afraid Felix has sinister designs on you, so you brought us along to dilute the risk, even reminding us to report our whereabouts to our parents so he'd hesitate to make a move?" Sonia shrugged, not denying it. "That was a tiny factor in my thinking, sure. But the treasure is real..." Watching Sonia talk so freely and self-assuredly, Felix sighed inwardly, suddenly wondering if he had gone too far with this decision. When leaving the Meditation Building that morning, Felix had stopped Sonia, claiming he had an enormous stroke of good fortune to share with her. Yet what kind of person was Sonia? She was a scheming girl scraping by on her own in the dazzling, dissolute metropolis of Jialesi. Having witnessed plenty of the world's perils, she wasn't about to buy into such empty promises. Even swindlers knew to hand out small trinkets before pulling off a scam. At the very least, you ought to shower me with gifts and cash to lower my guard! A sugarcoated cannonball is supposed to have sugar on it—your cannonball doesn't even have a coating! Who are you looking down on? It took every ounce of Felix's persuasion to keep Sonia from walking away, but as she repeatedly pressed him with threats of "Forget it, count me out," he had no choice but to lay his cards on the table, yielding the upper hand. The so-called treasure was, in truth, an inheritance left behind by Felix's mother. However, his mother had divided this inheritance into multiple portions, each bound to specific conditions. Fail to meet those requirements, and the legacy would remain forever out of reach. One portion required the claimant to possess the Killing Intent Sword sorcery spirit and wield at least half a wing's worth of sorcery power. Though Felix possessed half a wing of sorcery power, he had lost his Killing Intent Sword. One could say his luck was just terrible enough to turn what should have been an easily accessible treasure into an impossible feat. Right then, Sonia's Killing Intent Sword had entered his sight. Felix knew full well that Sonia would never surrender one of the precious Twenty-One Secret Sword Spirits, so he proposed a partnership. At first, he offered what he considered a very reasonable deal: a sham marriage. It wasn't that he wanted to take advantage of Sonia; rather, he had investigated her background and believed this was precisely the opportunity she craved. Under the Noble Crest Law, any relationship recognized by the House of Nobles was legally binding. Felix knew that what Sonia desired most was noble status so she could live with dignity in Jialesi. The road to ennoblement was grueling and treacherous; by contrast, marrying into nobility was a shortcut. As long as she married Felix, Sonia would directly obtain the crest of the Voslodar clan. Not only would she receive a monthly allowance from the family fund, but she would also gain access to the clan's sorcerer training resources, opening miracles like Dragon's Belly Scale and Dragon's Banquet to her. Most importantly, she could use the Voslodar clan crest to bypass Jialesi's household registration restrictions and enjoy noble privileges, purchasing property and choosing occupations without limitation. She could even change her mother's household registration from that of an agricultural town resident to a citizen of Jialesi. Felix judged her by human nature: he knew Sonia deeply cared for the widowed single mother who had raised her. If given the chance, she would surely want her mother to enjoy an easy life as early as possible. Even with Sonia's exceptional talent, however, it would take her at least a year and a half to manifest Silver Wings, and at least four years to manifest Golden Wings. If she wanted to step into the Three-Winged Sanctuary within ten years, she would need both exceptional luck and extraordinary opportunities. Far more likely, she wouldn't reach the Three-Winged Sanctuary within twenty years. In recent years, the number of newly granted titles had dwindled dramatically. Noble status and crests were almost never conferred upon anyone below the Sanctuary realm. Without a noble crest, no matter how outstanding Sonia became, she could only enjoy that success alone in Jialesi. She would have no authority to transfer her mother's registration, leaving her mother bound by the rule allowing non-citizens only thirty days in Jialesi per year. Commoners had to keep to their station; only nobles had the right to soar. Felix assumed Sonia would gladly accept, since agreeing was tantamount to skipping twenty years of struggle. After all, a marriage could always end in divorce. While she would forfeit the Voslodar crest upon divorcing, Sonia would have already accumulated immense wealth and transferred her mother's registry to Jialesi. A divorce would damage neither her interests nor her reputation—among nobles, divorces and lovers were commonplace, accepted as normal by all. Yet even after Felix laid out the pros and cons, Sonia still rejected the proposal. He couldn't fathom why the clever and worldly Sonia would turn down an offer that benefited both sides. Profit, status, fame—weren't those the very things she pursued? Why would she refuse? Could she truly be so confident in her ability to achieve everything through her own strength in just a few short years? Or did she look down on him, Felix, having no interest in taking such a shortcut? With Option One having failed, Felix could only offer Option Two: an even split of the treasure. Although the treasure was an inheritance left to him by his mother and theoretically shouldn't be shared with anyone—and acquiring another Killing Intent Sword wasn't entirely impossible, meaning Felix could easily save the inheritance for the future—Felix also knew that everything in this world had an expiration date. Power, too, could expire. The restrictions his mother placed on the inheritance were designed specifically to assist Felix at appropriate stages. Whenever Felix met the exact conditions to unlock a vault, the contents within were fundamentally tailored to grant tremendous aid to his current phase, avoiding giving him power he couldn't control. For example, as a One-Wing Sorcerer, he wouldn't obtain a two-winged sorcery spirit from the legacy, because at this stage, such a spirit would merely be a burden and a drain on him. And this treasure, which required half a wing of sorcery power to unlock, was naturally suited to his present circumstances. If Felix waited until he advanced to Two-Winged Gold before opening it, he would no longer need that assistance; it wouldn't even be icing on the cake. But if he opened it now, even if he only secured half, it would be timely help in his hour of need. Years of surviving assassination attempts had long since forged Felix into a pragmatic, rational man. He wouldn't stash away his provisions like a squirrel. Filled with a constant sense of danger, he adhered to a utilitarian philosophy of "use it when it's meant to be used." Maximizing utility was the sole law he lived by—even if it meant parting with half his mother's legacy. Sonia agreed, yet didn't entirely agree. She put forward a condition Felix found utterly baffling: she insisted on bringing her friends along on this venture, and she would divide rewards for them out of her own share. At first, Felix thought he had met an incorruptible saint who could neither be bought by wealth nor cowed by force. But on second thought, he understood Sonia's apprehension—she feared he might kill her and seize the treasure! Were it not for Professor Trozan's backing, Sonia was essentially an out-of-town university student without connections. Even with Trozan behind her, cooperating with a local noble like Felix was like making a deal with a tiger. She had no choice but to assume the worst of him! Bringing along her three roommates diluted that risk brilliantly. Ingrid was the daughter of minor out-of-town nobility, Lois was the daughter of a local merchant, and Adele's father was a government official in Jialesi... Most importantly, Lois and Adele surely carried emergency distress beacons that would instantly transmit their coordinates to the police bureau if they encountered danger! On top of that, since they had all reported their whereabouts to their families, Felix would have to carefully escort these young ladies back to school. If anything happened to them, the House of Nobles would be the first to hold him accountable. Felix admired Sonia's caution, but he was naturally unwilling to let more people in on his secret. He argued his case and tried to entice her with benefits, even offering to shift the split from fifty-fifty to sixty-forty in her favor—humbling himself considerably. Yet Sonia stuck to her line: "If you don't agree, I don't want the treasure." She had Felix's bottom line firmly in her grasp. The victor in any negotiation is always the one who cares the least. Knowing how much this treasure would bolster his growth, Felix ultimately yielded. After Sonia finished explaining the situation, the roommates cast wary glances at Felix, huddling behind Sonia like little chicks. Felix was so exasperated he almost laughed. "If you're still worried, you can leave right now, as long as you keep your mouths shut outside." "No, I'm staying to protect Sonia!" Lois declared with righteous indignation, though her eyes brimmed with eager excitement. Adele also had the look of an onlooker eager for drama. Ingrid was even more direct: "I'm just curious what a treasure unlocked by a sorcery spirit looks like." A treasure coveted even by the second young master of the Voslodar clan—it would be stranger if apprentice sorcerers like them weren't curious. They were adolescent girls in their teens, after all; how could they not yearn for a treasure hunt straight out of a novel? Felix sighed and drew out five blank sealed-film contracts. "Then let's sign the contracts first." Sonia and the others inwardly marveled at his extravagance. Sealed-film contracts were common artifact spirit items that worked by temporarily storing Miracle: Void Realm Oath onto paper. Anyone who signed would fall under the constraints of the Void Realm. Breaching the contract triggered Void Realm retribution—at best, falling into a permanent slumber; at worst, total soul destruction. Sealed-film contracts weren't cheap, their market price on par with a one-winged sorcery spirit, reserved only for crucial transactions. Felix pulling out five at once not only proved he was wealthy, but also demonstrated the extraordinary value of the treasure, for he wouldn't have invested so heavily otherwise. Using a sealed-film contract was simple. Once the user peeled away the protective film, they copied directly from a contract template. Minor corrections or ugly handwriting didn't matter; as long as the five completed and signed contracts aligned perfectly when stacked on top of one another, it confirmed identical content and activated the oath. Sealed beforehand, transcribed separately, verified by stacking—all these measures minimized any chance of a sorcerer tampering with the document. Experience had proven sealed-film contracts were trustworthy; Sonia's student loan, for instance, had been executed on one. The contract template was straightforward: no disclosing anything that occurred in this basement, no leaving behind records in any form, no revealing anything about the treasure, finding their own ways to conceal the origins of anything obtained, and never implicating Felix personally. At the same time, Felix and Sonia would split the basement's contents evenly, after which Sonia would distribute shares among Ingrid, Lois, and Adele. In essence, it was a confidentiality and profit-sharing agreement. As they were copying, Adele whispered, "Sonia, why did you reject the sham marriage proposal? If it were me, I definitely wouldn't want the treasure—I'd pick the fake marriage... That's the Voslodar crest..." Lois was equally curious, watching Sonia intently. Sonia's expression turned awkward. After holding it in for a long moment, she finally squeezed out two words: "It's disgraceful!" What was disgraceful? A sham marriage with Felix? Or using such a shortcut to elbow into the noble class? If Ingrid had said it, that would be one thing. But this was Sonia Serwe! Neither Lois nor Adele could understand. In their eyes, Sonia was hardly a paragon of virtue. More crucially, they never considered her someone obsessed with saving face. What did losing face matter? Losing money was what truly hurt! They couldn't understand, and neither could Felix. Only Ingrid had a faint inkling of the truth. Not because her friendship with Sonia ran so deep, but simply because both hailed from small towns. Unlike an open-minded metropolis like Jialesi, smaller towns were deeply conservative. While city folk viewed those values as backward and rustic, to provincial folk, certain things were never to be treated as a game. Marriage, for instance. Perhaps because Sonia had integrated into the city so quickly, everyone assumed she was a modern, fashionable college student. But Ingrid knew that down to her bones, Sonia still harbored the unique naivety and idealism of a country girl. She believed hard work led to success; she believed enduring hardship brought progress; and she believed... marriage was sacred and love was pure, incapable of bearing the slightest blemish. She might view marriage as an avenue for upward mobility, but she had never abandoned her reserve for it—otherwise, the streets were full of sleazy young noblemen she could have pursued. She simply wanted to find the most suitable partner within an acceptable scope, then commit to managing that marriage faithfully until the end. Not everything could be reduced to a transaction. Things like that were lost on city dwellers. Of course, on top of that, Ingrid sensed that part of Sonia had grown cocky. Shortcuts were undeniably effortless, but if she could achieve success on her own, why allow a stain on her honor? Feeling Ingrid's stare, Sonia grew a little uneasy. "What are you staring at me for? Is there something written on my face?" "Hehe, are you embarrassed?" "You're out of your mind."