24 - Rusty ring

Su Tao had at this point completely merged the black blood congealed ball into his heart, and his heart had turned black. He did not know it yet, however.

He had broken through almost 10% of the barrier to the silver rank as well. He was annoyed at how slow this was going. He had not even realized it, but he had already spent more than a third of a year cultivating. At this rate, it would take him up to three more years to break through to the silver rank, which was incredibly slow.

Of course, this "slow" was only in comparison to the speed he was capable of based solely on his talent, but his potential was restricting him immensely, making him slow down by ten times. But this speed was actually faster than the number one genius of the Su family, Su Xue, by quite a lot.

The reason that he had previously felt that the barrier was getting weaker and it was getting easier to progress was not because it was actually getting easier, but rather, it was due to the fact that the barrier had developed some cracks, which were weakening it and making it seem like it was breaking faster when, in reality, it was just losing integrity and could not withstand as much pressure, making it break and grind away faster rather than break through faster.

As there were no cracks right now, and he was not cracking it, it was not getting any weaker or any faster as time passed, and the maximum speed at which he could cultivate was still at a tenth of a percent a day even though it was already at nearly 10% of the way through.

He was annoyed that it was taking so long, but only because he knew how fast he could go if the potential of his body was only higher. He hated this feeling of being restricted by potential that was one tenth as good as his talent. This was especially annoying because most people would never be restricted by their potential since 99% of people were restricted just by their talent alone.

As such, since there was nothing that he could do about it, he decided to explore the forest in search of fortune. It was well known that the forest contained fortune, and it was just too big for it all to be explored. This fortune included natural treasures and valuable resources. These could be used to cultivate with, or sold to others for money. Some could even be used as resources to make weapons. Some grew naturally, meaning that there was a high chance of him finding them.

He figured that he should have better luck finding some resources to cultivate with considering his eyes, which could see about two thousand times as good as normal people's eyes. This meant that he did not have to explore an area as thoroughly to achieve the same result as other people searching that area for hours at a time.

He also figured that he should be able to avoid danger, and if he could not, then he should be able to escape with the help of the power of his eyes. After all, if he used all the power of his right eye all at once, he would be able to release a hit comparable to the two star silver rank, which was enough to kill or at least injure almost anything under the two stars silver rank.

There were some exceptions to this, just based on the pure amount of power, but he did not know what exactly they were at this time, so he just assumed that he could kill a weaker high tier one star silver rank. As for peak tier one star silver ranks, he just didn't know.

He was going to move anyway, because at this point, the beasts around the area he was in had started to not come here because every beast that came here died. This meant that he would not be able to find food super easily anymore, so he had to move anyway. He might as well go pretty far away while searching for fortune in the forest.

After all, his eyes were two thousand times better than other people's eyes, and they had a unique ability: they could partially memorize anything they saw instantly. This might sound normal, but it was to the point that he figured he could at least quickly memorize the landscape and path he took into the forest, allowing him to get out of it without getting lost.

It might have sounded like a normal forest that simply had silver springs, but in actuality, it was very different from other forests. It was very hilly and there were many small mountains within it. There were even a few areas with cliffs and steep hills that went almost straight down. This meant that there were many caves as well as many hidden areas where fortune could lay. This was why the forest had not been very well explored and why Su Tao dared to think he could find fortune there.

These thoughts were only there because of the complicated terrain of the forest which allowed him to find things that had never been found before.

As such, he started to explore through the forest and scan it with his eyes. Since he could see two thousand times better than a normal person, it only took one scan for him to see most things that were in his immediate vicinity. Instantly, he saw a cave about three miles away. Caves were much more likely to contain natural fortune, so he decided to go there.

About twenty minutes later, he had managed to reach the cave, but as he went inside, he was disappointed to find that it was only a couple hundred feet long after a few turns, and there was almost nothing in there.

There was only one thing that he found; an old ring. He figured that it was a ring that someone lost while taking shelter in the cave from a storm or something similar. It was extremely rusty, and it seemed to be made from silver, but silver did not rust, so he did not know what it was made of.

He felt that there was something slightly off about this ring, so he decided to put it on even though it was rusty. But when he did, nothing happened even after a long time. But despite nothing happening, he left it on because he still felt that it was slightly odd.

As there was nothing else in the cave, he moved on.

Little did he know, the moment he put on the ring, on the other side of existence, there was an old man who looked as if he had existed since the beginning time. He sat in a cave in the depths of the largest mountain imaginable.

The old man's skin was cracked and dry, and his life was drained to the point where he was one foot into the grave. His whole body was covered in dust with thousands of layers, as if he had been there for thousands of years.

Suddenly, his body shook, and an indescribable force left his body in a short burst, pushing all of the dust off his body in an instant. Just this wave of force seemed to drain almost all his remaining life, however.

Then, he opened his eyes. They were a deep purple, deeper than an ocean. They seemed to have seen thousands of lifetimes, and they contained infinite wisdom.

There was no aura whatsoever coming from this old man, and in fact, it seemed like an aura which did not even exist was fading from him. Just the effort required for him to open his eyes was draining his lifeforce, and his life was ending at this moment.

With the last of his lifeforce, he spoke three simple sentences. His voice was old and muffled, yet it echoed through the whole cave and seemed to echo through the soul of anyone that would have heard it. It passed between reality and illusion, and seemed to exist and not exist at the same time. It was a voice from the beginning of time.

"I can die without regrets now that the abomination is born. Your uncertain and uncontrollable destiny is in your own hands now. I hope you don't disappoint me."

After saying this, his life faded, and his eyes closed. Then, in an instant, his skin dried and cracked, and his body turned into dust and blew away in a light breeze going through the cave.