Miscellaneous Affairs

"My apologies, I did something beyond my capabilities just now and startled you all."

Shen San Qi Fei said with a hint of apology.

"As long as you are alright, that is what matters."

Linley now had only one thought: to stay as far away from Shen San Qi Fei as possible.

This person was too bizarre, yet his strength and influence were both terrifyingly immense; it was best not to get involved with him.

While the two were speaking, Alice consciously took Bebe and left, clearing some space for them to talk.

"Right, Lord Cadmus, I am returning this to you."

Linley offered the ring back to Shen San Qi Fei with both hands.

Having been forced to bind it with his blood, he knew it was a Space Ring even without the reminder from his Old Man.

He couldn't just keep something like this.

"I already told you, this is your payment. I have already received sufficient returns from you."

Shen San Qi Fei waved his hand, refusing to take it back.

There was no reason to take back something he had already given away.

"?"

Linley's face showed confusion.

"Are you aware that beyond the seven elements, there exist the Four Rules?"

Shen San Qi Fei decided to reveal some facts to Linley.

His future cultivation of the Rules of Fate could not be separated from Linley; revealing a portion of the truth now would make things easier to handle later.

Besides, the protagonists of I Eat Tomatoes were generally quite decent.

There was no need to worry about Linley becoming greedy or trying to hold Shen San Qi Fei hostage after being told the truth.

"I am aware."

Linley nodded.

For someone who had a Saint Realm Old Man, this kind of knowledge was considered basic common sense.

"In you, I caught a glimpse of the direction for my cultivation of the Rules of Fate. This is the payment I prepared for you to facilitate my training."

Shen San Qi Fei's light remark left Linley's Old Man deeply shaken.

"Linley, this is your good fortune."

Doering Cowart, in his soul form, whispered into Linley's ear.

"He can use you to cultivate the Fate Law, and you can use his resources to grow faster; this is a win-win situation."

Practitioners of Fate magic were extremely rare; he hadn't expected Linley to encounter one so soon, and for them to have formed a connection.

Not to mention, this person's Master seemed to be even beyond the Saint Realm.

If they could maintain a good relationship with Shen San Qi Fei, the assistance in the future would be immense.

Linley's luck was truly incredible.

Doering Cowart couldn't help but sigh.

Generally speaking, words spoken by an Old Man in soul form were inaudible to normal people.

However, Shen San Qi Fei was no normal person.

With the enhancements from the Supreme God of Destruction, the experience of honing his Divine Will, and the Thread of Fate he had just manipulated...

Having experienced all these, Shen San Qi Fei heard their conversation clearly.

However, Shen San Qi Fei was in no hurry to point it out.

Although the old man mistook him for a practitioner of Fate magic, he wasn't saying anything bad, so he let it slide.

"But his gift is far too generous. I worry he might have other intentions."

Linley was still somewhat concerned.

Shen San Qi Fei had handed over a full Space Ring right from the start, which was truly a bit frightening.

"These things look like a lot, but in reality, they are only equivalent to what a veteran Saint Realm expert would possess."

Doering Cowart explained to Linley.

If it were a peak Saint Realm powerhouse, their wealth would easily crush the contents of this ring.

The main value of this ring was the gold coins represented by the magic crystal cards; the rest of the collection wasn't considered rare for the Saint Realm.

Truly precious treasures that were useful to the Saint Realm could not be bought with money.

He reckoned this was likely the accumulated savings of the Fenlai Kingdom over many years.

Cadmus had likely glanced at it, deemed it useless, and casually tossed it to Linley.

"His Senior Brother is a Saint Realm magical beast, and his Master is very likely beyond the Saint Realm. He probably doesn't even hold these things in his eyes."

Doering Cowart continued to accumulate his strength.

"Above the Saint Realm? Wouldn't that be the same as the War God, the High Priestess, and the others?"

Linley exclaimed inwardly.

Qi Fei, however, found himself caught between laughter and tears at Linley's words.

If Qi Fei didn't know that Linley was currently ignorant of the inner workings of the world, he would have thought Linley was throwing shade at Beirut.

The High Priestess is a Lowgod of Life; the War God is a Fire-style Lowgod who refined a godhead.

Even in the face of Beirut's public identity as a Highgod, these two wouldn't even be qualified to sit at the same table, to say nothing of the Sovereign Spark Beirut kept hidden.

Just as Qi Fei was lamenting this, Linley and Doering Cowart finished their rapid exchange, facilitated by the speed of soul communication.

"Then I shall shamelessly accept, Lord Cadmus."

Linley's tone was filled with an almost overflowing sense of gratitude.

With such a massive sum of wealth, his father in the future and his younger brother far away in the O'Brien Empire would both be able to live comfortable lives.

He truly had to find a way to repay this person.

"Just call me Qi Fei."

Honestly, even after transmigrating for so long, Qi Fei still wasn't quite used to the name Cadmus.

"Yes, Lord Qi Fei."

Linley followed his lead readily.

"I wonder, for your cultivation, what exactly do I need to do to assist you?"

After thinking it over, he felt that this was the only area where he could offer any form of repayment.

"You only need to live your life as usual; my cultivation can only rely on my own insights."

For Qi Fei, simply being able to observe Linley was already the optimal outcome.

As for having Linley assist in altering the Rules of Fate, Qi Fei decided he would wait until he had refined the Sovereign Spark and his body was sturdy enough to handle the backlash.

"Is just that enough?"

Linley asked, puzzled.

If it were just that, there would be no need to give him so many things, right?

"That is enough. The cultivation of Laws and Rules can only rely on personal enlightenment."

Of course, this excluded Qi Fei, who was essentially cheating.

However, since the other Qi Feis were actually just himself, saying it relied on his own self wasn't technically incorrect.

"If you feel guilty about accepting this, why not use the resources inside to cultivate diligently and help me fulfill an ancestral wish sooner?"

Qi Fei fabricated a reason to divert Linley's attention.

"An ancestral wish?"

Linley looked at Qi Fei with some confusion.

"The ancestors of the Cadmus Family once fought to a draw with the ancestors of your family, but they never had the chance to see a Saint Realm Dragonblood Warrior with their own eyes."

Qi Fei said with an air of deep emotion.

He acted as if he were truly sighing for the regrets of his own family.

"So that's how it is."

Linley suddenly realized.

No wonder Qi Fei had been able to identify his origins so easily.

"Judging by the speed of your magic cultivation, you clearly have the potential for the Saint Realm. Cultivate well; I shall wait for you to reach the Saint Realm so we may have a duel."

Qi Fei said, patting Linley on the shoulder.

In truth, he wasn't entirely pulling his leg.

Even if he became a god through the Rules of Fate, didn't he still have his Saint Realm original body? That would be enough to spar with Linley.

"Yes."

Linley, completely taken in, said with an excited expression.

Making a pact as a weakling to duel once they reached the Saint Realm, fulfilling an ancestral wish—it all sounded so magnificent.

"Come to think of it, Junior Brother, why don't you move into the Ernst Institute?"

Seeing that the two had finished their conversation, Harvey, who had been lying on Qi Fei's shoulder without a word, suddenly spoke up.

"Actually, Senior Brother, I won't hide it from you; I have indeed considered proposing this to Master."

Qi Fei, however, hadn't intended to move into the Ernst Institute.

He only thought about buying a house in Fenlai City and then tailing Linley around the city every few days.

Yale, the eldest in Linley's dorm, often brought their roommates to Fenlai City to visit the brothels.

Although Linley had never experienced such things, he still tagged along to Fenlai City to fit in with the group.

Now that he had gradually begun dating Alice, he came even more frequently.

Of course, being able to enter the Ernst Institute directly was fine, too; at the very least, it made spectating Linley much more convenient.

"Alright, once we regroup later, I'll go have a talk with the Ernst Magic Academy."

The reason Harvey didn't go right now was that he didn't dare leave Qi Fei alone.

Originally, Harvey had intended to chat with Bebe, but now, even with Bebe only a few dozen paces away, he didn't dare walk over.

Let alone leaving Fenlai City to head for the Ernst Magic Academy.

To separate, he had to at least hand Qi Fei over to his father first.

"Many thanks, Senior Brother."

Qi Fei said gratefully.

"Welcome, everyone, to visit the Ernst Magic Academy."

Linley never expected that Qi Fei and the others would consider going to his academy because of him.

He only hoped the school leadership would accept a group of Saint Realm experts staying temporarily.

"Many thanks."

Qi Fei said casually.

Afterward, the group went their separate ways.

Once Qi Fei and Harvey met with Beirut again, Harvey proposed the idea to him.

Beirut thought that since they were already here, they might as well head straight to the Ernst Institute.

It just so happened that Bebe was there, too.

Thus, the three of them took Linley and returned directly to the Ernst Institute.

It was unknown what Harvey discussed with the Academy Head, but Qi Fei was able to move into the academy very smoothly.

After entering the academy, Qi Fei's daily routine did not differ much from Beirut's previous plan.

He would wake up early in the morning to cultivate Dou Qi.

In the morning, he would study magic and hone his body during the intervals while recovering his mental energy.

Gravity Magic, combined with the armor gifted by Senior Brother Harry, tempered Qi Fei's body in every possible way.

In the afternoon, he would conduct practical combat training with his senior brothers.

The intensity of the combat training had been increasing as time went on.

Recently, Senior Brother Harry even had Qi Fei abandon the armor's protection to train his evasion instincts.

Once, his senior brother used his most proficient Darkness Attribute, nearly hanging Qi Fei up to beat him.

The sky was filled with purple-gold and black shadows; it was impossible to tell from which direction the attacks would strike.

Even though Harry had limited his strength to the limit of the ninth rank that time, Qi Fei was still covered in bruises afterward.

Of course, the results brought about by this kind of training were significant.

Having taken many beatings, Qi Fei naturally learned how to dodge and use techniques to defend himself.

He could be considered to have moved past the realm of a combat novice.

In addition to the progress in his instincts, the development of Flame Explosion was also steadily moving forward.

Qi Fei successfully used the Profundity of Explosion to unleash nearly ten times the power from a single portion of Dou Qi.

Furthermore, in the process, he incidentally gained entry into a profundity related to high temperatures that was never mentioned in the original work.

As for the other Laws of Elements, he was still in the stage of learning magic.

Qi Fei could now basically determine that the attribute of a Battle Through the Heavens Newcomer should be the Fire Attribute.

Only by stacking two Fire Attributes together could he enter the Laws of Fire Elements so quickly.

As for the Rules of Fate, because he had Linley as a reference, the speed was unimaginably fast.

As far as Qi Fei's own feelings were concerned, his comprehension of fate changed completely day by day.

It was just that because the Rules of Fate had no specific division of profundities, he did not know exactly how much longer it would take to become a god.

After the afternoon practical training, Qi Fei still needed to continue learning magic theory from Beirut at night.

His foundation was too poor; he had no choice but to spend more time making up for it.

After magic theory, there was the study of exotic products from other planes with Senior Brother Hart.

However, as this course developed, it had evolved into a treasure-hunting game between Harvey and Qi Fei.

Qi Fei found an open space and used Earth-style Magic to build a giant warehouse.

Every night, Qi Fei would take a pile of miscellaneous items out of his Space Ring to identify them with Senior Brother Harvey, then place them into different Space Rings.

Among these miscellaneous items, the most numerous were various artifacts; he had already filled two Space Rings before finishing the cleanup.

The most common type of artifact was robes.

These artifacts were ordinary garments strengthened to reach the lower threshold of artifact-grade defense, though their upper limit could not compare to proper armor.

Although Qi Fei had no use for them, they would serve as decent gifts for others in the future.

The second most common were offensive artifacts.

Among these, the one that satisfied Qi Fei the most was a High-God Artifact spear whittled from a tree branch.

According to the identification by Senior Brother Harvey, the raw material was a special type of tree known as Starlight Wood, produced in the Life Supreme Plane.

This type of tree had a natural affinity for the Life Law, making it much simpler to craft Life-attribute artifacts from it.

Thus, it could be considered a relatively common specialty.

Of course, Qi Fei was not preparing it for his future Life God Clone.

Since he was already cultivating the Rules of Fate, how could he not prepare a Gungnir for himself?

Although the original was made from the World Tree—something currently out of reach for Qi Fei—a lower-spec version would suffice.

Moreover, Qi Fei could already achieve something close to the "guaranteed hit" effect of the Spear of Fate.

Therefore, this would be the primary weapon for his future Fate God Clone.

As for the issue of attribute incompatibility, nurturing it with Fate Divine Power for a period should resolve that.

It was just like Linley's Violet Blood Soft Sword.

Excluding the artifacts, the remainder consisted mostly of currency from various planes and some general-purpose resources.

The majority of these resources were for combat, while only a small portion were for cultivation.

Within the portion meant for cultivation, there was a large pile that was only effective for those at the Saint Realm and below.

He had no idea why there were so many of these in the rings.

A large pile of Floating Shadow Crystal Balls, a specialty of the Coiling Dragon Universe, was also unearthed.

These crystal balls were like magical video tapes; they only required entry-level Water-style magic to record, hence their high production volume.

The crystal balls Qi Fei found all contained recordings of battles between various powerhouses. Each one could provide Qi Fei with significant inspiration.

They were a rather decent collection.

Beyond these items, there was one category that both Qi Fei and Harvey looked forward to the most.

That was the Space Rings.

Before dripping blood to claim ownership, these discarded rings were like treasure chests, full of anticipation.

Qi Fei's greatest haul was opening a box containing a total of twelve High-God Divine Sparks, two hundred and sixty-one God Divine Sparks, and a number of Lowgod Sparks.

Releasing them all at once would probably be enough to make the Saint Realm experts of the Yulan Continent fight like dogs.

As for Harvey's greatest haul, it was a crate of Amethyst sourced from Hell.

Amethyst was a semi-natural mineral with a function similar to Soul Gold Beads, but its effectiveness was more than ten times inferior.

Therefore, generally, only Deities without money would purchase and refine them.

When Harvey saw it, he was still complaining, wondering what kind of thought process would lead someone to stockpile a crate of Amethyst instead of selling it to exchange for Soul Gold Beads.