Striking it rich

On the third night.

Enduring the fierce pain in his chest, Lin Shisan still barely managed to gather all the Black Maple Bamboo he needed.

It was not just thanks to his tireless chopping, day and night, but also the tremendous help of the Little Black Cauldron.

The rice porridge and steamed buns, the rotten apples and bad peaches, and even the drinking water he had brought had all been upgraded in quality.

They replenished his strength just when he needed it.

Naturally, part of the credit also went to Lin Shisan's second-level Body Tempering cultivation.

Otherwise, even if he worked himself to death, he could never have felled four stalks of Black Maple Bamboo in three days.

Let alone gone off to cut thunderwood on the fourth day.

After a brief rest, he checked the Black Maple Bamboo again.

Its measurements and sizes, as well as its quantity and location.

Once he finally confirmed that everything was in order, he put away the wooden bed, then stored the Little Black Cauldron and his father's memorial tablet in the Locator Ring.

After one last look at the Black Maple Bamboo grove, he set off toward the ravine where the thunderwood grew.

To complete one-fifth of Niu Shan's quota.

It happened to be not far from where Niu Shan was buried, just over a mountain ridge.

With mixed emotions, Lin Shisan once again came to the little mound where Niu Shan lay.

"Senior Brother Niu, this might be the last time I come to see you."

"Stop clinging to resentment and hatred. Let go of what you should, and hurry along to your next life."

Lin Shisan bowed three times.

He left with a weight in his heart.

Though he did not know whether that long-faced enforcement disciple had beaten him because of Niu Shan.

He was certain that Chen Yang had come looking for him precisely because of Niu Shan.

Following the principle that one less trouble was better than one more, he would be better off having as little to do with Niu Shan as possible.

He did not want to invite another undeserved calamity over Niu Shan, a stranger, and perhaps even cut short his path to immortality.

Just thinking about that enforcement disciple was frightening.

That look in his eyes, that Azure Peak Sword, and his seventh-level Body Tempering cultivation...

Traveling by moonlight, weary and fighting through the pain of his injuries, he finally just managed to reach Thunderclap Ravine around midnight.

It lay between two mountain ranges.

From afar, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the whole place resembled a sea of clouds.

The moment he approached, an arc of lightning struck him, leaving his whole body numb.

He advanced and retreated three times in succession, but never made it into Thunderclap Ravine.

His hair stood on end, and several holes had been blasted through his clothes by the lightning arcs.

"How am I supposed to cut anything here?"

"With so many lightning arcs, how did Senior Brother Niu do it? There must be some way to avoid them."

Lin Shisan thought of Niu Shan again.

He thought of that wronged nobody, a stranger who had met a gruesome death in Little Tabby Cat's jaws.

"Forget it for now. Time to sleep."

Perhaps he was simply too weary, too exhausted.

Lin Shisan did not even set up his wooden bed. He found a relatively lush, thick patch of grass and lay down.

He was asleep in an instant.

In fewer than ten breaths, he was sleeping soundly.

In his hazy sleep, he even had two dreams.

One was of his kindly old father.

Smiling, his father patted his shoulder and offered a long string of encouraging words, telling him not to give up.

The second dream was rather terrifying.

Niu Shan approached with his belly ripped open, dripping blood, his eyes filled with profound resentment. Then he bit at Lin Shisan's neck.

"Ah..."

A sudden chill jolted him awake.

Instinctively, Lin Shisan felt his neck.

Thankfully, it had only been a dream.

But after that, he could no longer sleep.

"How am I supposed to fell the thunderwood? There must be a way to avoid the lightning arcs, but Boss Chen didn't tell me."

Lin Shisan's thoughts returned to the thunderwood.

Chen Yang's lecture on the first day still rang in his ears.

He had to gather one-fifth of Niu Shan's thunderwood quota.

Otherwise, he had no doubt that Chen Yang would punish him severely.

He might even push all the blame onto him.

When that happened, being expelled from the Azure Cloud Lineage and driven down the mountain would be the least of his worries.

Whether he could even keep his life would be another question entirely.

According to the well-meaning warnings of his senior brothers, these alchemists generally had fierce tempers.

If one finally gained an insight and was ready to fire up the furnace to refine pills, only to be forced to stop because of him, they would absolutely tear him limb from limb.

With the firm resolve that, so long as he was not electrocuted to death, he had to fell the thunderwood.

Lin Shisan mustered every last ounce of strength, swung up the Crescent Chopping Axe, pushed hard off the ground, and leaped forward to chop.

"Szz, szz..."

Lin Shisan rolled as he landed.

He even ended up eating dirt.

This time, he was in an even sorrier state, utterly bedraggled.

Two gouges, three to five inches long, had been blasted into his chest by the lightning arcs, as though carved by a sword.

They were a full inch deep, and blood pattered steadily down.

Fortunately, he had chopped his way inside.

And happened to land right beside a thunderwood tree.

The crackling lightning arcs darted everywhere as though alive.

The spot where Lin Shisan stood happened to be an empty pocket.

The lightning arcs could not reach him.

Even better, this thunderwood tree was already nearly cut through.

Only a small section at the edge still connected it.

Without even thinking about it, he knew Niu Shan had most likely done this.

"Senior Brother Niu, thank you."

After silently offering his thanks.

Lin Shisan swung the axe in his hands and hacked away with heavy thuds.

He had no idea how many blows he struck, or how long he chopped.

He chopped until his head spun and his arms went numb. At last, one final axe blow sent the thunderwood crashing down.

"Crack... I..."

Having let his guard down, Lin Shisan felt like throwing himself into a river.

For all his calculations, he had never accounted for a thick arc of lightning shooting straight at his forehead at the very moment the thunderwood fell.

Had his foot not slipped, he would have met his end right there, becoming another wronged soul struck dead by lightning.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lin Shisan emerged from his numb stupor.

With difficulty, he opened his eyes, which felt as heavy as mercury.

He had finally returned from the gates of death.

But his entire body seemed numb, and his hands and feet no longer obeyed him.

He could only watch the sun shift little by little, unable to move.

His last shred of hope was dashed.

There was no way he could return to report completion before sunset.

Besides, he had no strength left to cut the wood into blocks of the required dimensions.

He could no longer complete this assignment. His fate had been sealed at this very moment.

"...Is this"

Lin, beneath the dim setting sun

Shisan finally propped himself up against the thunderwood and sat up. Glancing down, he spotted a glint by his feet.

"A Locator Ring..."

A sudden shiver ran through Lin Shisan.

As though pumped full of adrenaline, he immediately perked up.

Finding the Locator Ring counted as a meritorious deed.

Even if he could not return on time to report completion, surely Chen Yang would not make things too difficult for him?

"Why does it look a little different from my Locator Ring?"

It felt cool in his hand, yet held a gentle warmth.

Faintly, he could even sense fluctuations of spiritual energy.

His feverish heart quickly cooled as well.

After comparing them repeatedly, he became certain that this was not the Storage Ring with a locating function that Chen Yang had issued.

"I got excited for nothing..."

Disappointed, Lin Shisan had hoped to use the Locator Ring to get out of his punishment this time.

He had not expected it all to come to nothing. This was not the ring at all.

"A Storage Ring... storage? Could I be the one destined to find it?"

The storyteller in his mountain village had said that many fortuitous encounters only came at moments of life and death like this.

Especially in immortal sects, where an overlooked pearl might be waiting for someone destined to pick it up.

Taking it as a way to comfort himself, Lin Shisan did not think too much about it.

He simply extended his spiritual sense inside to see whether he could snag a bargain.

The next moment, Lin Shisan's mouth opened into a huge O.

This seemingly ordinary ring actually was a Storage Ring.

Moreover, its space was larger than the Locator Ring's.

It seemed this Storage Ring was of better quality, too.

More importantly, there were good things inside.

The sight left his eyes dazzled.

He had struck it rich this time. He really was the one destined to find it.