Chapter 10. Acquiring funds and armor!
After entering the Pocket Hunting Dimension, Lin Xiang began to search the grassy plains once again, spear in hand.
At this time a gray baby rabbit was a perfect match for Lin Xiang, but Lin Xiang's luck was neither good nor bad because the first enemy that he encountered was a single large white rabbit that was blissfully munching on grass.
After hesitating for just a moment, Lin Xiang backed off. Although his strength increased by a lot since yesterday, he should still not be a match for the large rabbits.
After successfully avoiding the white rabbit, Lin Xiang continued searching for another target.
Next he encountered two rabbits. A large black one and a small gray one. He safely avoided these two once again and continued searching.
Following that, he encountered two gray rabbits.
Lin Xiang hesitated, but only for a moment.
Even if he suffered fatal injuries or even died, as long as he managed to obtain a single red orb or two red orbs, then he would consider this visit to the Pocket Hunting Dimension as a success.
This grassy plain was simply too dangerous for him to roam about. Lin Xiang felt that sooner or later he would be sandwiched by two groups of large rabbits without a chance to go in a different direction.
Lin Xiang readied his spear and approached the two small gray rabbits that were munching on grass together.
The gray rabbits noticed him and soon a fight ensued.
During the first exchange, Lin Xiang suffered a deep wound from one of the gray rabbits, but he managed to accurately pierce his spear through the skull of the other; it died with a single strike.
After the gray rabbit died, its body didn't disappear immediately.
Lin Xiang pulled back his spear, but the spear's speartip remained stuck in the rabbit's skull.
At that time, Lin Xiang had no chance to pull it out and was forced to dodge a charge of the second gray rabbit.
Lin Xiang dodged and suffered a small wound on his shoulder.
At that moment the killed gray rabbit's body disappeared and freed Lin Xiang's spear.
During the next exchange, Lin Xiang killed the second gray rabbit with a single accurate thrust.
Two faint red orbs collected!
After this fight Lin Xiang had two considerable bleeding wounds, but he already decided to not take his time bandaging himself and instead continued walking in the same direction.
If he remained in this place and took his time to properly bandage his wounds, then he worried that the smell of his blood might attract the large rabbits or other wild beasts. Instead, he decided to take a gamble and pick a direction.
Unfortunately Lin Xiang ran into a large single white rabbit already hopping in his direction. This time it was impossible to avoid it because it already detected him, probably due to the smell of blood that permeated the area.
After some fancy struggling, Lin Xiang's throat was ripped out after two exchanges with the large white rabbit.
He died.
…
Lin Xiang breathed in a large breath of air as he re-appeared back in the real world, his body covered in cold sweat. Sharp pain pulsated from his throat and upper chest which were just shredded apart by the rabbit's claws and teeth, and his body trembled in fear and pain.
At that moment he felt as if he would never get used to dying.
In truth, it seemed that he did not experience true death during any of his visits in the Pocket Hunting Dimension. Once he suffered a fatal wound, one that he could completely not recover from like the majority of his throat being ripped out, the special dimension seemed to have kicked him out soon after.
In reality, after his throat is ripped out he should still continue clinging on to his life and continue suffering for some time until he finally experiences true brain death.
It was justice of sorts.
Though Lin Xiang's experiences were traumatic enough to make him feel that he really experienced death.
After being shaken by pain and fear for several moments, Lin Xiang finally returned to reality.
A smile formed on his lips. He was still not the large white rabbit's match at all, but this time he managed to acquire two small orbs.
Lin Xiang summoned a single faint red light orb from the dimension in his head and it turned into a red pearl on top of his palm. He swallowed it and then absorbed all of the heat-like energy.
Just as Lin Xiang almost finished absorbing the first red crystal there was a change in his body.
He finally reached Late Strength Training!
Following that, Lin Xiang absorbed the second red crystal and consolidated his Late stage cultivation, making another small leap in his strength and cultivation.
…
Next day the efficacy of Lin Xiang's Soul Gathering Pellet had run out.
Although the Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridian manual is powerful and considerably increases his strength by a bit with each passing day, practicing long term without proper medicinal herbs and cultivation pills is too wasteful. Earlier Lin Xaing wanted to rapidly increase his strength, but now his foundation was quite solid, so instead of continuing cultivating just like this, he decided to do something new.
He wanted to integrate his memories of inscriptions in order to confirm for certain whether it is possible for him to create Inscriptions with the materials from Sky Fortune Kingdom or not. Afterwards, he would try to take a loan.
For a Martial Artist practice without high quality medicine would be several times slower than otherwise.
At this moment, for the healing medicines, Lin Xiang had owned half of a 100-year old Blood Ginseng remaining. As for pills that help with cultivation speed, he didn't have any.
When it came to his finances, Lin Xiang originally had 237 gold taels of his life's savings, which he accumulated over 15 years of his life. In truth, two hundred of it came from selling the herbs that he received from the Lin family.
Lin Xiang wasn't a direct descendant of the Lin family. In addition, his martial talent was average, so the family didn't invest much into him apart from providing him with education and basic necessities.
What Lin Xiang always focused on in the past was mostly combat training and studies, and he didn't spend any money on cultivation pills or medicine. Managing to save up 237 gold tales was already a great accomplishment for a commoner from a mortal family.
However, now he spent 200 gold taels on a Soul Gathering Pellet and only had 37 left. 37 gold was naturally not enough for him to start an Inscription business, so he planned to take a loan later today to acquire start-up funds.
While Lin Ming went out to train in the back Mountains by himself in the morning, Lin Xiang remained in his room. He began to fuse with the memories on Inscriptions.
The memories on Inscriptions comprised the bulk of that little soul fragment, and they were also very obscure and difficult to understand. For Lin Xiang, fusing with them took a few hours.
In the late morning, Lin Xiang finally opened his eyes. He smiled while resisting the severe headache he felt.
The inscription techniques that originated from the Divine Realm were beyond exquisite and utterly profound. They were not something that the lower planes even dare hope to compare with!
The inscription techniques found within the soul fragment were simply amazing. They could not only increase the level of equipment, but also the strength of medicines.
One could also engrave the body itself to enhance the speed of cultivation and the flow of true essence during combat - this method was also already known by Lin Xiang!
This was the sum of countless millennia of knowledge within the numerous dimensions of the Divine Realm. And it was only a tiny fragment! The lower planes might possibly have had some similar techniques, but most were without a doubt lost in the passage of time due to destruction of ancient sects or other such reasons.
Sky Spill Continent's engraving inscription technique can only increase the level of equipment; moreover, even it can only do so by a tiny amount! To compare this with the Divine Realm's techniques was truly comparing the Heavens and Earth.
Lin Xiang raised himself to stand. Suddenly a wave of nausea swept over him. The massive amount of information emerged from within the recesses of his mind. It was a pain that came with a certain virtue.
He also felt relieved. To his knowledge, it really appeared that he could use the materials from the Sky Fortune City to create many Inscriptions from the Divine Realm.
With this in mind, Lin Xiang left the Grand Clarity Pavillion. He walked through the Sky Fortune City and visited the Lin family branch where Lin Xiaodong was staying as a direct descendant.
Instead of searching for Lin Xiaodong, he wanted to meet the Lin family elder in charge of the Lin family's businesses in the capital, Lin Gong.
Luckily, at that moment Lin Gong was present.
After Lin Xiang was made to wait for a whole half an hour, he was finally led into the family head's office where he saw a muscular middle-aged man handling some accounts behind a desk.
"Lin Xiang pays his respects to Elder Gong." Lin Xiang cupped his fists upon entering.
Lin Gong sent Lin Xiang a brief look, before he returned to looking at the documents. He casually said, "Nephew Lin, why is it that you wanted to personally see me?"
If it was any other side-branch Lin family junior, then Lin Gong would be annoyed if they were wasting his time, but when it came to Lin Xiang, he had heard rumors about him and was at least a bit curious why he visited him at this time.
Lin Xiang got straight to the point and said, "Elder Gong, there is a business opportunity that I noticed. I wish to take a loan."
"A loan?" Lin Gong turned his head from the documents and looked at Lin Xiang, raising his eyebrows.
Lin Xiang continued, "I want to borrow two thousand gold taels. In a month from now I will return two thousand two hundred, and if I fail, for every following month that sum would increase by another two hundred. Of course, we will write a loan recipe."
Lin Gong looked at Lin Xiang. He thought for a long while. The loan terms were great, but although the ty would write a recipe for the loan, there would be no guarantee that Lin Xiang might be able to repay it, and he might even disappear with the money.
Two thousand gold taels wasn't a small amount of money, but it wasn't a lot either. However, just for two thousand gold taels, would Lin Xiang abandon the family and leave Sky Fortune Kingdom? Too unlikely. Furthermore, if he failed to pay it off, Lin Gong could always demand it from his parents.
Lin Gong said, "You want a whole two thousand gold taels. Are you so confident that your business will succeed and you will be able to pay it off?"
Lin Xiang nodded. "I am fairly confident."
Lin Gong analyzed Lin Xiang's expression and saw him confidently looking straight at him with a small friendly smile that wasn't forced or fake, as if he had a trump card up his sleeve. He said, "Good, the young must be bold in business. I will give you a loan, but you must pay it off within a month or the interest will keep increasing."
"I understand," Lin Xiang said. Internally, he was very glad that Lin Gong agreed so easily. Whether he wanted him to fall into debt or what other intentions he had, he didn't care.
Lin Gong smiled. He said, "Nephew, can you tell me what your business idea is about?"
Lin Xiang plainly smiled and said instead, "Elder Gong, I also want to order Sky Worm Silk, is that okay? As much as one hundred gold taels can buy."
Sky Worm Silk.
Lin Gong was taken aback. Sky Worm Silk is extremely expensive when it comes to making clothes, thus it's mainly only used for creating zithers in these parts. Did Lin Xiang plan to make a zither or a bow? No, just how did that make sense?
Lin Xiang said nothing more and only plainly looked at Lin Gong.
Lin Gong saw that Lin Xiang refused to talk about his business and changed the topic, so he didn't probe. How did it make sense for Lin Xiang to talk about his secret and how did it make sense for an elder to bully a junior of his own family?
Although Lin Xiang's martial talent is ordinary, with his intellect he might actually have great talent in business, so Lin Gong wasn't against trying to invest into him either. In the end, there was no risk in this deal and the amount involved wasn't high.
After chatting a bit more, Lin Gong agreed to order Sky Worm Silk for Lin Xiang and then wrote a loan recipe.
Lin Xiang signed the recipe with his finger print and a true essence signature, and then received 1900 gold taels.
After leaving the Lin family compound, Lin Xiang walked through the various stores and bought the rest of the Inscription materials required.
Sky Wind Grass juice, rank 3 desolate beasts' blood, long-tailed cicada's molt, ice bound shrimp… Ling Xiang purchased these materials in a frenzy.
Not all names perfectly matched those in his mind from the soul memory fragment, but Lin Xiang was still able to purchase everything that should be necessary to create the Overwhelming Symbols - the simplest Inscription that Lin Ming seemed to have chosen in the novel.
In a short amount of time, Lin Xiang spent slightly more than seven hundred gold teals on various materials and tools. He estimated that it should be enough for him to create five to five to six Overwhelming Symbols if the amount of Sky Worm Silk he acquires wouldn't limit him.
Calculating his finances, Lin Xiang had 1937 gold taels after he ordered the Sky Worm Silk, but now he had around 1216 gold.
Having this kind of spare capital, Lin Xiang visited the Hundred Treasure Hall.
After sending Lin Xiang a faint glance, the fat shopkeeper inside turned away and didn't bother with him. He was already familiar with Lin Xiang. Although Lin Xiang looked like a poor commoner, he was at least not completely broke. Recently he purchased a Soul Gathering Pellet, so the shopkeeper allowed him to browse the goods while he himself continued munching on pastries while reading the Sky Fortune City's newspaper.
Lin Xiang ignored the shopkeeper's gloomy face and went straight to where the flexible armors were. He looked around while pondering.
After looking around, he found one that he liked.
That soft armor was made with 10,000 six foot long day ruler hemp. It had also been mixed with several thousand strings of Golden Wood Root silkworm silk and been made from combining over twenty advanced crafting techniques. The price was 392 gold taels.
This armor was not made from steel wires or scales, but from durable silk-like material, thus it should be quite comfortable to wear.
It could withstand attacks up to the 4th Stage of Body Transformation!
Of course, its defensive ability only applied to ordinary attacks of common mortal martial artists. Its effectiveness against blunt force like from hammers or maces was non-existent, while powerful thrusts of 3rd stage martial artists could still pierce through it or at least transfer force into one's internal organs and bones, but it was still extremely effective against cuts.
This kind of armor was not something that most first-level vicious beast's would be able to slash through! Lin Xiang expected that the large rabbits also wouldn't be able to damage it.
Lin Xiang hoped that thanks to this armor he would not die so easily inside the Pocket Hunting DImension and perhaps might even have a chance to trade lives with large rabbits if it came down to it.
For Lin Xiang's purposes this flexible armor was ideal. In addition, the price was quite low as well, so he could easily afford it.
"Shopkeeper, I'll take this Golden Wood Root Silkworm Armor," Lin Xiang called out to the shopkeeper.
The fat shopkeeper's eyes lit up as he turned to Lin Xiang. He saw that LIn Xiang seemed to be serious. He smiled and said, "Alright, I'll wrap it up for you immediately, young masters!"
Lin Xiang was expressionless. While the shopkeeper was retrieving the flexible armor from the casing, Lin Xiang continued glancing around the shop.
Following that, Lin Xiang also bought two Soul Gathering Pellets. In the end he was left with 424 gold that he wanted to keep in case of emergency.
When Lin Xiang returned to the Grand Clarity Pavilion, it was slightly past noon.
Instead of practicing with inscriptions that Lin Xiang learned in the morning, he swallowed a Soul Gathering Pellet and cultivated with Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians in preparation for his next visit in the Pocket Hunting Dimension.