Chapter 74 - Treasures Everywhere

"These competitors are all so terrible" 'A01' motions toward one screen before him, a scene showing 3 people attempt to catch a golden rabbit that easily escapes from them causing them to break down into arguments.

"We cannot expect greatness from a species that grew in an environment with such thin heavenly energies even the Heavenly Emperor would struggle to grow in such an environment" 'Princess' responds as she turns away from the monitors as if she's bored with the show.

"Oh, you know about the Heavenly Emperor… what about the Dongshu family?" the childlike 'A01' asks the young bunny-eared woman without turning around.

"Dongshu Family? I have heard of them but aren't they just an insignificant branch family?"

'A01' snorts, "True, they are just an insignificant branch family but they are still incredibly powerful and I shouldn't have to mention the power of the main family behind them who will always back the Dongshu family no matter the problems they get into..."

The childlike entity's voice goes strange and gravelly as he trails off not finishing his sentence, 'Princess' notices the difference but she knows better than to get involved with this entity anymore than she needs to.

"Why mention them? Are they related to why you're back so early?"

"Did nothing happen here? I see only 11 competitors here yet you said everyone was accounted for and we cannot have anything to mess up the ceremony later"

The young woman blushes for a moment before replacing it with a calm smile "There was an incident with one competitor showing up inside my inner chambers, he has been placed within the dungeon where one attendant is retrieving him"

"The dungeon? Did he attack you? How did he get inside the inner chambers?"

"No, nothing happened and I am fine he just surprised me as he had been missing all day and suddenly showed up inside the inner chambers after I was finished preparing the gifts for today's event."

'A01' turns to look at the young woman wearing priestess clothing, looking at her causing her spine to shiver for a moment but never losing her neutral smile.

"Are you prepared for the ceremony later? The legendary Jade Palace is one of this universe's supreme treasures and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for a lot of these useless people so we need to give them a show… most of them won't survive a few days once they reach The Centre"

"Yes, everything is prepared for the ceremony, what about the person within the dungeon?"

"You mean this person?" 'A01' while turning his head away looking towards the multitude of screens floating before him, a new screen appears where Jack is displayed running around the treasure room while seemingly talking to himself.

"He certainly seems more interesting than those people out in the field, let's see what he does"

The bunny-eared young woman can feel her heart race as she looks at this adolescent man on the screen, but her eyes don't leave his body as if it's searching for something on him. The two watch in silence atop this stand with many attendants surrounding them.

We return to Jack who is running around the room grabbing handfuls of the various seeds while also placing some more valuable looking statues within his storage area because the village needs as much money as possible for both the auction coming up and the trade with the White Flower Church.

'Make sure you don't forget to take the artwork now that it has depleted the crystal of energy'

"I won't forget it but is the seal around that floating sphere really going to come undone shortly?"

'It should but you have to be quick because those seals shield it from everything, I have never seen such advanced seals used on such a small object so its incredibly dangerous or incredibly precious'

Jack spends many more minutes just running around collecting these items ensuring that he misses nothing valuable while inwardly he checks his body with his divine sense. The corruption that arrived via the vision has been cleansed from his body thoroughly, but the new source of qi is strange.

Previously he had 3 stars filled with energy within his forehead, 2 fire types and 1 general demonic qi.

This is now 5 stars, 3 of the previous stars are the same while two new qi types are flowing around his body that he cannot identify, a silver qi that feels ancient and desolate seemingly similar to the Phoenix Qi while a grey-black star has also appeared filled with another type of qi that seems chaotic yet familiar.

Struggling to remember where he has seen or felt the grey-black qi before Jack gives up because this qi type has the same issue as all the others, his cultivation technique didn't include any battle techniques so while the qi can flow around his body or appear outside, it does nothing else not that he minds as the qi isn't reproducing by itself like the Dragon Qi or the tiny bit of Phoenix Qi.

The block of dirt doesn't look any different from before as it sits in the space of darkness with a pile larger than itself stuck to it, the sealed crystal is still floating near the plot of dirt while Jack tries to find out where that other type of energy came from, it came from here but how and where?

There's also the question of where or what that giant arm was and how it relates to everything, letting out a sigh Jack grabs the last handful of junk before going back to the artwork on the wall.

The artwork is still hanging high on the wall but the crystal has dulled the white dagger still seems to be sealed tightly but the seal seems to becoming undone with several drops of Jack's blood while the sphere itself is still floating there no different but Xueli assures Jack that it will be released soon.

'The artwork is on the skin of a Divine Beast so make sure you take it, not long now until it undoes the seal'

"What divine beast?" Jack asks as his fingers run through the top of the artwork which feels like leathery skin with a fine layer of hairs on it but it doesn't feel any abnormal.

'I don't know but probably a Heavenly Ox as usually their skin is used for high level scrolls and leathers. Those dumb cows always do the stupidest things and give up without a fight, but I cannot deny how useful their skin is'

"Wouldn't Dragon skin or something be better?"

'Of course but that level of Dragon is much more of a problem than an Ox' Xueli laughs before adding, 'we will get lots of Dragon skin when we revisit the beast realm' continuing her sinister laugh.

"How much longer do we need to wait?"

'It's enough now so once you store the artwork away, place a drop of your blood over the sphere and then also store it away quickly'

Jack sets into motion quickly, biting his thumb before placing his hand on the artwork and safely storing it away including the dull-looking gemstone on it but the sphere before him vibrates like it's no longer bound by something holding it in place.

He quickly flings a drop of blood onto the sphere causing it to split apart revealing a ridiculously bright orb but Jack isn't given any time to look at it as he stores it away nearly instantly when luckily nothing happens.

The bright orb sinks into the dirt within the dark space while the artwork is sitting on top of the piles of junk that crowds everything else out Jack turns his attention to the white dagger next to him on the table already covered with drops of blood but before he can do anything, his body feels like it's falling as his vision distorts.

'Who did you annoy today to cause so many forced teleportations?' Xueli asks in a sardonic tone as Jack looks at his new surroundings, he's outside in what appears to be a field while a small garden wall and gate appears before him while beyond that is a stone courtyard with a few structures on it that look like stages.

A middle-aged woman is looking at him with a pleasant expression as she speaks, "Welcome Competitor, you are running out of time to take part in the last competition so I suggest you get out there and catch a rabbit quickly"

"Where is this and who are you? Is it only you here?"

"To answer your questions you are within the Jade Palace after you retrieved the beggars key, I am Attendant Justine and I am only one attendant for this Jade Palace there are many of us but after the competition there will be a ceremony where you will meet the Princess but hurry and catch a rabbit so you're not left behind"

"Princess? Catching rabbits… like the Easter event before? Do I need to do that?"

"Yes, like the event within the game world and you need not take part but you are free to choose one reward from the reward list no matter which rabbit you gain except the top prize"

Jack looks away from the attendant and out into the field, but he cannot see anyone else in the vast flat field devoid of anything but short green grass and a few randomly scattered trees.

"Is that all? Nothing else you need to speak with me about?"

"No, that is all Competitor, do you require anything else of me?"

"Umm, no, thanks"

The attendant nods her head before retreating into the distance while Jack walks into the field, not sure what's going on anymore, as he thinks about the strange course of events so far he's left confused and slightly agitated from the lack of control.

'This field is full of treasure, like 600 metres ahead there's a small herb on the ground that you should collect'

Jack listens to Xueli while testing out 'Bunny Dash' which to his surprise works, it only takes a few jumps to cross the distance where a small purple herb with 4 leaves is sticking out of the ground.

Jack carefully pulls it out of the ground before storing it away when Xueli mentions another herb that she can smell not too far away leaving him wondering how she can smell all of these things while still inside the tattoo form that she takes.

The two run all over the field collecting herbs and talking, Jack wants to know more about these 'secret realms' because they seem like a deathtrap if the people who control it wish to trap you inside or harm you.

'Theres another herb about 1200 metres to your left and Secret Realms are very dangerous but usually filled with treasures so everyone tries to enter the ones that are discovered for one simple reason; if they have discovered the secret realm, it means the people controlling it are dead or not in control of it.'

Jack uses 'Bunny Dash' to collect the herb while thinking about her words, "What if the people running the secret realm want to make some sort of trap?"

'That's the risk you need to take but you have an advantage over most people'

Jack collects the herb, another random type of stage 1 medicinal grass, "What's that?"

'Dummy, it's the thing we're using right now also there are several herbs about 2000 metres straight ahead'

"Your nose? Your treasure seeking nose is that the advantage? Aren't there like treasure seeking pigs or something?" Jack uses 'Bunny Dash' a few times but walks the rest of the distance.

'Lots of things think they can detect treasure but White Dragon's have the true treasure-seeking nose, all those other species just copied us after they saw us get rich and more powerful'

"So there is treasure seeking pigs?" Jack laughs while collecting the group of herbs which are just more generic stage 1 medicinal grasses which will hopefully sell for lots of money when he returns.

'Ugly things but they taste really realllly good… I smell something interesting by that tree over to your left about 4000 metres away'

Jack looks in that direction, he can see a tall tree but grasses and shrubs that look taller than him surround it block off visibility but using his movement skill he crosses the distance quickly before walking the final couple hundred metres towards the tree that looks at least 50 metres tall.

Step by step he walks through the long grasses reminding him of the plains area back at his own village, but the rustling of grass in the distance draws his attention. Stopping his footsteps he stands still to listen to the noises he can hear some stomping further away but within the grasses there is a small creature walking around stealthily.

'Rabbit' Xueli says then doesn't speak anymore as she knows Jack is concentrating.

The rabbit is making its way parallel to Jack going further into the long grasses, Jack waits a few moments for the rabbit to settle and no longer pay attention to his direction before crouching in preparation to use his movement skill.

He hasn't had to catch a rabbit for quite some time but he's secretly hoping that it's a rainbow rabbit as he could never capture one of them properly; the rabbit stops where it is while Jack's heart beats heavily.

'Bunny Dash!' Jack yells in his mind to psych himself up to capture the rabbit, it's only two jumps away as he makes the first jump the rabbit can notice and runs off incredibly quickly in the opposite direction towards the stomping.

Jack doesn't let up and follows the rabbit, able to keep only a few metres behind as his attention is wholly focused on the rabbit but suddenly the rabbit makes a weird shift in direction going in a way that Jack wasn't prepared for.

Jack pauses and readies his movement skill to follow the rabbit going in the other direction when he's interrupted by someone speaking out loud.

"Whoa friend, don't scare us like that" a young male voice yells out.

Jack looks away from the rabbit as it disappears into the distance before looking at the group before him, a group of 6 people who are all wearing different clothing and all look different, 4 men and 2 women. The youthful man that spoke out is a brown-haired man in his early 20s who has giant patches on his clothing like some sponsorship deal.

"Were you trying to chase that rabbit? Are you an idiot, don't you know how fast they are?"

Another young man speaks up, Jack looks to this other person who has a shaven head wearing things that have the British flag all over it strangely, he is flanked by a young woman who looks like she comes from a rather tropical region compared to the person with the British accent.

Jack look over the rest of the people who haven't spoken while squinting his eyes, a well-dressed middle-aged Asian man who hasn't spoken is following by a younger Asian man while the last person is a young blonde-haired woman who is smiling at Jack but it doesn't feel sincere.

"This event is nearly over and I haven't caught a rabbit yet so I'll leave you guys to your weird little group and I'll speak to you afterwards" Jack looks at the direction the rabbit rushed off in.

"Now hold on friend, how are you going to repay us for scaring away that rabbit we spent hours cornering in the grass area?" the first man speaks out.

"Uh, No why would I do that... plus how would you even share a single rabbit between 6 people?" Jack responds, the group smirks in unison while the first man continues to speak.

"We have our own agreement but you need to compensate us for our time wasted"

"What if I don't want to?"

"Well, I can't speak for these other people but have you heard of 'Epsilon'? Don't you wish to associate with the best team in the world? I can provide that connection for you if you adequately compensate us for our wasted time"

"Epsilon the best team? Don't make me laugh, Galaxy United will reign supreme just like good old Arsenal" the shaved head childish man yells out.

"Shut up about soccer, no one cares about it except you Europeans!" the brown-haired young man yells at the British young man.

"Don't talk about football like that and don't you ever tell me to shut up about Arsenal"

"Or what? Do you think you can do anything to me? I'm not afraid of you"

Jack is quiet as he watches the two immature men break down into arguments while the rest of the group doesn't stop them as though they're used to this thing, Jack looks over the group again but can see that they're not in any rush to collect rabbits.

"Have fun arguing, I don't have time and I won't compensate you for anything, bye!" Jack yells out and uses 'Bunny Dash' to disappear from the group before they have time to respond, the middle-aged Asian man could track Jack's movements but he didn't move from the spot.

Jack uses several 'Bunny Dash' to leave the people far in the distance where he lets out a sigh.

'Those people were so noisy and stupid, is that what the people of your world are like?'

"Far too many people are like that but I'm glad you agree they were stupid"

'Theres some more herbs straight ahead'

Jack follows Xueli's instructions to find herbs, after some time within some more long grass he can hear the familiar rustle of a small creature walking close by, as his heart thumps again he creeps closer to the rabbit step by step.