The Distance Between Us

Tian Zhu stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the horizon through the glass windows.

A gentle breeze passed, and a person appeared behind him.

"Tian Zhu, I'm here." Along with Bao Wuji's figure came his voice.

There was no excessive respect in his tone, unlike the other elders who usually addressed the sect leader. He even called him directly by name, which, in this world, was considered speaking from a position of superiority.

People on the same level or lower would normally address him as Sect Leader Tian.

However, it depended on who was speaking. As an ancestor, Bao Wuji calling him by name wasn't considered disrespectful.

Despite being the sect leader, Tian Zhu was still a junior before Ancestor Bao, both in cultivation and in position. Ancestors were figures taken very seriously in this world.

Tian Zhu turned and looked at him calmly before nodding.

"Ancestor Bao," He said indifferently.

Bao Wuji then turned his gaze toward a long table in the corner, where various items were laid out.

"Is this for me?" He asked, glancing back at Tian Zhu.

The sect leader merely nodded calmly.

Bao Wuji walked over to the table and saw several small piles of items. In the first pile were two low-grade spirit stones.

He raised his hand, placed it over them, closed his eyes, and tried to guide his position skill—equivalent exchange.

Aotian didn't know exactly what the abilities did or how they worked when they first appeared. He could only experiment with their uses on his own, guided by assumptions.

After a short moment, Bao Wuji opened his eyes, looked at the stones that remained unchanged, and shook his head.

"I thought about exchanging them for a mid-grade stone, but with the price of just two low-grade ones, it's not an equivalent exchange," He said, looking at the leader.

Tian Zhu nodded indifferently, as if he had already expected that.

Bao Wuji then went to the second pile.

There were ten low-grade stones. This time, when the ancestor tried, a five-colored light flashed in his hand. When he withdrew it, the ten stones had vanished, leaving behind a single mid-grade spirit stone in the middle of nine small piles of stone dust.

Aotian's eyes sparkled upon seeing that, and his excitement grew immensely.

'Just as I thought. It's widely known that a mid-grade stone holds about ten times the energy of a low-grade one. Its value being a hundred times higher is due to its energy purity. So, despite being worth a hundred stones, equivalent exchange doesn't work based on monetary value but on real energy value!'

After pondering this, he continued the tests more intensely. That ability could be far more terrifying than he imagined.

Without wasting time, Bao Wuji moved to the third pile, which held about a hundred spirit stones. He placed his hand over them.

Once again, with the colorful glow, the hundreds of stones turned to dust, leaving behind only ten mid-grade stones resting calmly in the middle.

Waving his hand and dispersing the dust with his spiritual energy, Bao Wuji placed his hand again over the ten stones, his eyes glowing, and activated his ability.

In their place appeared a high-grade stone, twice the size of a mid-grade one, with dazzling purity, glowing in a deep blue.

'Incredible! This is the first high-grade spirit stone I've ever seen! And even more amazing is the ability. I thought it was limited and unable to perform simultaneous syntheses. This is amazing!' Aotian thought, euphoric.

Next, Bao Wuji took the storage pouch at his waist — which had belonged to Bao Hui — poured out ninety mid-grade stones, and used his ability, obtaining nine high-grade stones. With the one he had synthesized before, he now had ten high-grade stones.

He tried again, but this time he failed, which made him frown.

'Seems like it's not enough...' Aotian thought.

By spending nine hundred more mid-grade spirit stones, he synthesized ninety high-grade ones, which, when added to the ten he already had, brought the total to one hundred.

This time he tried again to synthesize the high-grade stones, and it worked.

From them, a stone emerged the same size as a high-grade one but radiating an extremely pure and powerful energy, sitting amidst the dust.

'I've never heard of such a spirit stone, but I imagine it must be a perfect-grade stone.'

Bao Wuji held the stone with a bright glow in his eyes and analyzed it.

'This stone has a hundred times the energy of a high-grade one, and its purity is unmatched. There isn't even a trace of impurity or of the five elements within it. It's useless for cultivation, but it can power a formation for a long time. Even Bao Wuji, a Nascent Soul cultivator, could quickly recover his energy if he meditated and absorbed this stone.'

Greed and curiosity grew in Aotian's eyes as he thought.

But above his greedy thoughts came reason.

'Anything beyond the perfect-grade spirit stone is probably out of my reach for now. I imagine that even with a thousand perfect-grade stones, it wouldn't be possible to synthesize something superior. And to synthesize a thousand perfect-grade stones, I'd need a million high-grade ones… which I don't have. Even the fortune from the Shi family I obtained is valued at only 260,000 high-grade spirit stones.'

Aotian reflected and abandoned his insane, greedy thoughts, realizing he couldn't sustain such desires.

Changing the focus of the tests, he began trying to perform equivalent exchange with a new intention.

From his tests, if he changed the intent of what he wanted to obtain, the result would be different.

Bao Wuji gathered five hundred low-grade spirit stones, and with a different intention, he managed to create five elemental low-grade stones, one of each element.

But when he tried to do the same with mid-grade stones, he needed one thousand mid-grade stones to form five mid-grade elemental stones.

And by combining ten low-grade elemental stones of the same element, he could get one mid-grade elemental stone.

The conclusion was clear: only five thousand low-grade stones were needed to form five mid-grade elemental stones, whereas using mid-grade stones directly required one thousand — the energy equivalent of ten thousand low-grade stones — a considerable energy waste.

Therefore, there was a 50% resource saving when using low-grade stones to create elemental stones, as due to being more impure, they contained more elemental energy.

Aotian didn't attempt it with high-grade stones, as it would be a waste. He knew that the amount of elemental energy in them was negligible, and with perfect-grade stones, it wouldn't even be possible, since they contained no elements or impurities.

The elemental stones were a very welcome surprise for Aotian, as with them, even breaking through cultivation realms — or even major realms — was possible, even without the aid of a spiritual vein.

They possessed a high concentration and purity of their respective elements, which made them excellent for nourishing spiritual roots.

It was a shame they were an extremely rare and scarce resource in the cultivation world.

But with Elder Bao Wuji, everything changed for the Infinite Dao Sect. They were no longer limited to spiritual veins, as long as they had enough spiritual stones.

Other tests involved equivalent exchanges with other materials. From those, it became clear that, as long as compatible energy was supplied — in sufficient quantity and quality — any material could evolve.

This news made Aotian's body tremble, once again drawing a strange look from Rihai.

'Now I just need to know if there's a limit to the level of what he can synthesize… there must be. But since Bao Wuji is a Nascent Soul cultivator, that won't be a problem for now. This ability is truly unexpected, but amazing!'

He analyzed excitedly, and there were still two more abilities to test.

[Name: Bao Wuji (Meaning: Treasure Without Limits)

Position: Sect Ancestor (Treasure Pavilion)

Cultivation: 7th level of the Nascent Soul (3 Major Realms Above Host)

Position Skill: Equivalent Exchange

Affiliation Skill: Storage Space

Position Bonus: Treasure Radar (4 times per day)]

Bao Wuji then tested his Storage Space ability and discovered that items disappeared upon using the ability, and only he could access this special space.

'The internal space of the affiliation skill seems very large… probably because he's a Nascent Soul cultivator, and it'll grow even more with realm advancement. Although there are more interesting and necessary abilities, it's still useful, since I don't even have storage rings right now,' Aotian pondered.

And finally, it was time for the main course.

Bao Wuji closed his eyes and focused. Then, with a long pulse of his terrifying energy, mysterious and complex patterns formed and shot out, entering directly into his mind.

Bao Wuji's eyes widened as the massive amount of information invaded his mind, and he quickly deactivated the ability before his mind exploded.

Gu Jian, the external elder at the Peak of Qi Refinement, could find treasures of the same level from a distance of 9 miles (14 km), and Bao Wuji was a thousand times more terrifying… no, even more than that.

Although he hadn't found any, Aotian estimated that with his current seventh level of Nascent Soul, he could detect treasures of the same level up to 7,000 miles (~11,000 km) away. If the treasures were of a lower realm, such as the Golden Core level, the detection range would increase tenfold — and for each realm below that, it would continue expanding by the same magnitude.

Thus, he was seeing Qi Refinement-level treasures within a radius of 7 million miles (~11 million km) from his position. That distance was simply too frightening for his mind to process so many low-level treasures.

Such a range almost gave Aotian a heart attack. One must remember that the Earth's diameter in his previous life was just under 8 thousand miles (12,800 km). Therefore, Bao Wuji could detect Nascent Soul-level items across nearly a third of the planet, and if he were at its core, almost the entire Earth — including underground.

And when it came to the terrifying range for Qi Refinement treasures, even if you placed the Sun side by side seven times, it would still fit within the range of Bao Wuji's gaze if he were at the center.

Even if he could only see dots of different colors representing different treasures — which he would still have to study to understand what they were — there were simply too many dots and too broad a range for his mind, even as a Nascent Soul cultivator, to process.

But, based on Gu Jian's abilities, the external elder, he already knew what some of the dots represented and was familiar with everything around the sect. However, with Bao Wuji's ability, he saw a color within the sect that he hadn't seen before: a deep blue hue.

He turned his gaze to Tian Zhu and realized the color was on him. And around the mountain, there were a total of 191 other light points of the same color.

Bao Wuji used his spiritual sense and discovered that each point of light represented a member of his sect.

'Makes sense! Bao Wuji, as an ancestor, has a much stronger bond with each member of the sect than an external elder like Gu Jian. That's why he can see the sect's disciples and members — they are also the treasures of an ancestor, while to Gu Jian they are not… wait!'

While Aotian was reflecting, something clicked in his mind.

'I, as the system's owner, am also technically a member of the sect, right? Besides, I'm at Qi Refinement, so the search will be at the greatest possible range for now. So… can I find myself?' With that thought, Aotian's eyes narrowed, heart beating anxiously.

Using Bao Wuji's ability again — but this time limiting the search only to the type of treasure referring to sect members — he activated the ability at full power.

In Bao Wuji's mind, lights quickly lit up around him, once again registering the positions of the 192 lights, and the range continued expanding, and expanding, and expanding.

Aotian's eyes widened at the sheer distance and still found no other point.

'Could it be I don't count as a sect member?' He frowned.

But just as the ability was about to end, a final point lit up on the edge of his perception.

Aotian was stunned — and bitter.

'You've got to be kidding me…'

He was only a small distance away — the equivalent of three and a half suns.

'Shit, damn these gigantic cultivation worlds…'