Ji Fa nodded. "Then I'll leave it to you, Royal Father!"
With that, Ji Fa turned and left.
Once Ji Fa was gone, only Ren and Jiang Ziya remained in the Star-Plucking Tower.
Jiang Ziya studied Ren. "For someone like you to appear among the Expounding Sect's Third-Generation Disciples... there's no telling what the future will bring."
Ren sipped his wine. "You're thinking too much, Martial Uncle. The sect's affairs are ultimately for Grandmaster to decide."
Jiang Ziya gave a bitter smile. "True... there's still Master. Master..."
After a moment, Jiang Ziya took a bamboo scroll from his sleeve.
The scroll was dark gold, threaded with golden light and heavy in his hand.
At the sight of that light, Ren felt a flash of recognition. "That... that's Merit! Then this scroll must be a Merit Spirit Treasure!"
Jiang Ziya nodded faintly, joy showing in his eyes. "That's right. This scroll is a Merit Spirit Treasure, though only an Upper-Grade Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure. Still, I put great care into making it, and its potential is limitless. The slips are made from Ten-Thousand-Year Green Bamboo, and the threads binding them were forged from Crimson-Flow Mysterious Gold. I engraved the words with the God-Striking Whip and stained them with Dragon Blood. That is how this Houtian Spirit Treasure came to be!
"Unfortunately, my learning is limited. I wrote down a lifetime of military experience and called it the Six Strategies. But the Merit drawn by the military principles in those words was only enough to turn this book into an Upper-Grade Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure!
"By my reckoning, though, continuing to write military strategy and refining the Way of Military Strategy in the Mortal World will keep drawing Merit and raising the treasure's grade. The scroll's materials are extraordinary, and my Six