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Lu Ye finished unlocking the magical seals of the Storage Bags while they chatted.
The number of enemies was only five, but the amount of Storage Bags that Yi Yi had recovered was a good twenty-odd of them.
The five did not need so many Storage Bags. Most Cultivators had no more than three Storage Bags for convenience and classification of their items and equipment.
Yet they had more than twenty Bags in all, and Lu Ye could only think of one reason: these must be the Bags they had looted off other poor victims they had waylaid and they had now become Lu Ye’s prize.
Lu Ye picked out ten of the Storage Bags and slid the rest to Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.
Which Li Baxian did not decline. As brothers-in-arms, there was no need to be coy. He took the Storage Bags and emptied them all.
Lu Ye did the same.
There wasn’t anything remarkably precious to be expected; just some usual supplies that could be useful. There were items such as Spirit Artifacts and supplies that he could sell off for Contribution Points, but some he might take back to the main stronghold of his sect.
Most Cloud River Realm Cultivators used Middle-grade Spirit Artifacts and hence they could fetch very good prices.
He went on searching through the pile of loot until he found a tiny little box glowing with an iridescent luminescence. He recognized what it was: a box containing an Amulet.
Without thinking further, Lu Ye flipped the lid open and a bluish glow came pouring out.
“God, you really have great luck, brother,” Li Baxian moaned with amazement.
Both he and Feng Yuechan had their own share of good luck since entering the Cloud River Battlefield. In fact, he still had three boxes containing Amulets himself—although he had never once gotten anything beyond a Green Amulet thus far.
He had spoken to others at length about the unpredictability of such boxes which were more commonly known as Amulet Chests. The chest was enchanted by the powers of the Heavens—the de facto entity shrouded with an enigma that governed all things—to grant its opener an Amulet of varying quality, depending on their luck. It could be a Gold although the possibility would be absurdly slim. Even a Purple Amulet would be rare enough. Most Cultivators expected to get a White or a Green. Some with better luck might see a Blue. That was why Li Baxian had decided to gather as many Amulet Caskets as possible and open them all together. Maybe that way, he could obtain a good Amulet.
If he could not rely on his luck to provide him with a good Amulet, then perhaps a bigger number of tries could tip the scales.
But right here, right now, Lu Ye had stumbled on a Blue Amulet right off the bat.
“I think my luck has been good since receiving the Gift of Providence when I was making my ascension to the Cloud River Realm. That last time when I discovered that pocket dimension I told you about? I found a magic that could manipulate the traits of a Spirit Beast. A stranger told me that selling it to the Vault of Providence would earn me the Heavens’ blessings, meaning that my luck would increase, and that was what I did.”
“Wait, you got the Gift of Providence?!” Li Baxian yelped. That was the first time he heard about this. With him and Feng Yuechan already inside the Cloud River Battlefield, Li Baxian was deprived of any fresh news from the real world of Jiu Zhou and everywhere else outside the Battlefield.
“Yeah.”
“That explains it. Teacher had told me a long time ago that Senior Brother Feng, who was the last person to receive the Gift of Providence, had enjoyed a tremendous run of good luck after that. Anything he did, as if he had the help of the Heavens themselves, would just work. That was how he became so feared and respected that at one point he wielded as much power and authority as the chief of the Grand Sky Coalition. So it was not just some fairytale then…”
Then, he had an idea. He extracted all three Amulet Caskets from inside his Storage Bag and handed them to Lu Ye. “Try opening these for me, Lu Ye.”
Knowing that Lu Ye has been blessed with tremendous luck, letting him open the Amulet Caskets might be a good idea. There was a possibility of getting a Gold Amulet.
That reminded Lu Ye about Xia Qianqian. She too had asked him to open her Amulet Casket just a few days ago. Instead of being able to make use of his good fortune, all she got was just a White Amulet…
Three pairs of eyes stared intently.
Lu Ye placed a hand on the first Casket and flipped open the lid. A wash of white-hot phosphorescent came gushing out.
Lu Ye’s brow cocked with interest. Peculiar.
Up until today, he had opened a total of four Amulet Caskets. The first one was his and it yielded a Purple Amulet. The next one was Xia Qianqian’s which spouted a White one. The third one, which was the one just now, gave him a Blue Amulet. Now this, another White.
If the first time’s a coincidence, what about this time?
“It’s fine. Fortune can turn on a dime, brother. Let’s try the next one,” said Li Baxian.
Lu Ye hesitated. “Can you give these two Caskets to me, brother?” he asked gingerly.
“No problem. They’re yours. If I had known about this, I would have tried to save more Amulet Caskets for you.”
Lu Ye did not wait; he was already opening the lid of the next Casket. An emerald-green glow came pouring out.
A Green Amulet. Mediocre but still acceptable.
Then the last Casket.
A breathtakingly rich violet incandescence blazed from within as soon as the lid cracked open, casting a purplish sheen on everyone’s amazed countenance.
“Incredible!” exclaimed Li Baxian in disbelief.
Even Feng Yuechan’s eyes were the size of eggs. No one had expected that he would get a Purple Amulet—twenty-seven times more valuable than a White—on his third try.
Seeing really is believing, and witnessing Lu Ye’s extraordinarily remarkable fortune up close and in the flesh, one could well comprehend what an incredible boon the Gift of Providence was.
Barely a month ago, Li Baxian was just telling Feng Yuechan how it could be easier to find a four-leaf clover than expect Amulet Caskets to yield any Amulets Purple or beyond. A blue moon comes around about as often as such an improbable occurrence.
Yet here, after almost thirty days, Fate had elected to prove him wrong.
Lu Ye slid the Caskets containing both the Green Amulet and Purple Amulet back to Li Baxian.
The latter peered at him incredulously.
“I think it only works when I’m opening my own Amulet Caskets. If I’m opening it on behalf of someone else, my good luck wouldn’t work.”
That was why he asked Li Baxian to give him both the Amulet Caskets in the first place, he explained further. It was only to verify his guess.
It could not be just mere coincidence when every single Casket that he opened for others only yielded White Amulets while those that belonged to him provided better rewards.
But this proved his hypothesis. Whatever good luck the Heavens had bestowed him with, it would only work for his benefit and his alone. Anyone thinking of exploiting this extraordinary providence through him would be sorely disappointed.
Li Baxian peered at the Amulet Caskets and shook his head. “No, brother. I cannot take them.”
Lu Ye was about to protest, but Li Baxian stopped him. Smiling, he said, “I understand, brother. But luck is something intangible that you can’t see or feel. If your current string of good luck is really a result of you receiving the Gift of Providence, then you should be even more careful. The reach of the entity we know as the Heavens is far and boundless. Any form of perfidious manipulation or deceitful trickery in the use of this extraordinary luck you now embody might be seen as a slight towards this omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient being. That could affect the favor you now have with the Heavens, or worse, see you ruined.”
“What? Is that true?!” Lu Ye yelped with trepidation.
“It’s prudent to practice caution,” said Li Baxian pensively. When it came to the Heavens, he would rather tread carefully than make flippant and sloppy mistakes. Not even the slightest one.
Li Baxian would have readily pounced on the offer of a Purple Amulet if it were anyone else. The Amulet would have ensured a huge increase in his power. But this was Lu Ye, his own brother-in-arms that he owed his loyalty to. He could not just sit and watch him commit what could be a disastrous mistake.
“He’s right, Lu Ye,” added Feng Yuechan. “We can’t be too careful with issues of such gravity. In the future, be wary of anyone wanting to make use of your extraordinary fortune for their own gain. You could put yourself at great risk.”
Lu Ye nodded.
“Very well. I’ll keep the Amulets. But you’ll keep the rest of the loot.”
He pushed the pile of Storage Bags which was his portion of the bounty towards them.
This time Li Baxian proffered no objection. Satisfied, he picked up the pouches piecemeal and upended each of them to empty their contents.
Lu Ye examined the insides of his own Storage Bag. He had several Amulets in total—one Gold, one Purple, one Blue, one Green, and a couple of Whites—all of which should be enough for him to make it to the Fourth-Order.
He had progressed enough and it wouldn’t be too long before he reached the next Order.
Which would have to wait until the Carnage Colosseum ended. To consume Amulets required time, a commodity that could be viewed as a luxury in the Colosseum. A White Amulet needed barely a quarter of an hour but a Gold Amulet would take at least a day and night to fully assimilate and the process could not be interrupted. Any disturbance could cause terrible losses.
Therefore the best solution would be to wait until the Colosseum had ended, then Lu Yu could start searching for a hidden and secure location.
“In that case, brother, you could just purchase any number of Amulet Caskets. Try to get as many as possible in the price range of Green Amulets. With your luck, you might have quite a haul waiting to drop on your lap,” Li Baxian suggested suddenly.
“Green Amulet? That would just be around six to seven hundred Contribution Points, in that case,” quipped Feng Yuechan, chuckling, “That’s not a number of Points that Cloud River Realm Cultivators would hanker after. Therefore, no. Amulet Caskets gotta be higher than that. Remember, every single Casket represents a Cultivator’s chance, however small it might be, to procure a Gold Amulet. If anyone’s gonna sell Caskets away for six to seven hundred Contribution Points, then they might as well just open the Caskets themselves. Who knows? The Heavens might somehow take a liking to them and drop them a Gold one.”
Li Baxian thought about what she said and felt she had a point. “You’re right.”
That was true. Even he himself, now that he thought of it, would be reluctant to part with an Amulet Casket for a measly six to seven hundred Contribution Points. Like Feng Yuechan said, every Casket represented hope. An Amulet Casket might reveal a Gold Amulet and if this did really happen right after he had sold his Casket to someone else, he would suffer a stroke.
To say nothing of the fact that Amulets remained an important if not one of the few ways Cultivators relied upon to progress. Most people immediately opened their Caskets as soon as they found one, which would make Amulet Caskets a rare commodity to be offered up for sale.
Hence, the idea of purchasing more Amulet Caskets was a dead end.
While some Cultivators could be tempted to part with their Amulet Caskets at the offer of a price that equaled Blue Amulets, there was no absolute certainty in whether transactions like this would be profitable or not. Nevertheless, that anyone would sell off their Caskets in the first place remained a very, very big if.
With the distribution of the loot—the Amulet Caskets were all opened, the looted Storage Bags emptied and their contents tucked away—completed, Li Baxian singled out one of the Storage Bags, filled with more Spirit Pills and Stones before tossing it to Lu Ye.
Without waiting for a reply, Li Baxian pointed out, “It’s filled with ward flags.”
Lu Ye disavowed any thought of protesting. He peered inside. There really were several dozens of ward flags inside, making this the Storage Bag that once belonged to the Ward Cultivator he slew. Lu Ye had a good many ward flags before but recent use had pretty much exhausted his supply and this could not have come at a better time. He did not decline the offer and put away the Storage Bag.
“So, what are your plans after this, brother?”
Li Baxian asked.
“Well, at first, I was thinking of laying low here until the Colosseum ended. If anything happened, I’d just escape using these Teleportation Wards.”
“And now?”
Li Baxian’s brow cocked. He could hear that Lu Ye had something else in mind.
Lu Ye sighed. Quietly, he admitted, “Well, about that. There is something else that I’ve not yet told you about. I think the name now at the number-one spot of the Carnage Roster is mine.”
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