[A.B.P.P.E.] Bk 2 - Chapter 58 - Loopholes Abound

The White Demon was a bunny? How powerful does a bunny have to be to put Zhong Da in a state as bad as he had been?

It was an incongruent image to associate power and danger with what might be the least vicious prey one could get their hands on. Even a child could snap a bunny’s neck without much issue once they got ahold of one. Their escapability might be their only super power. The single thing they had failed to accomplish as a race when trapped within this array. 

“Are you positive?” Yin Hu asked. 

Zhong Da gave his wife a look before both turned back to him and nodded with serious faces. “That is a form I could never forget.”

“Is the Warg–”

“Mr. Cupcake!” Shui corrected Yin Hu’s mistake. 

“Yeah. Mr. Cupcake. Is it still outside of the palace and next to the headstone?”

Da Ruis closed his eyes and focused hard enough that a nerve popped on his forehead. It took only a few seconds before he opened his eyes. “Correct. It hadn’t found the courage to enter the building ever since you shattered the Supreme Illusionary Array Formation. I recall Rong tried to convince it to follow when we first entered but it refused to even set a single paw inside.”

Rong nodded to confirm that had actually happened. 

I can’t leave it out there alone with a potential peak realm cultivator out and about. Especially one that would attack the couple without warning or saying anything at all. 

Yin Hu turned toward Rong and pointed him back toward the exit. “Go check up on…” he looked back at the beaming Shui for a second, hardly containing her inner loot goblin. “Mr. Cupcake and make sure he’s fine. Keep an eye out for the White Demon and don’t kill it if it attacks. Not unless you are in unavoidable danger, your safety is far more important than the potential to shed some light on what happened to it and how it had escaped the illusion that imprisoned cultivators as strong as it.”

Rong saluted and rushed from their group toward the exit so fast he turned into a blur. 

In the meantime…

Yin Hu could have thrown every single stone into his rice bag with a wave of his hand and the crystal included, but he had designs for it. Primarily being a good way to teach Shui how to deal with her loot goblin tendencies and reel it back some at the same time. He couldn’t have her chasing after dragon treasures and delving into dangerous situations just because she found something shiny in the distance. 

Basic survival training.

The process was simple. Gather all of the used Qi Stones into the rice bag and don’t touch any of the still glowing and unused ones. She would still be gathering expensive treasures in this world's low standards, but wouldn’t dive face first into her loot gremlin and go ham on everything in the area. 

Plus, she wouldn’t be collecting it for herself, but rather for someone else entirely. 

“Shui,” Yin Hu waved her to come forward.

“Yes, Ancestor!”

“I have an important task only you can accomplish! One that I trust no one but a seasoned veteran of your calibre!”

Her eyes glowed like two bonfires as she nodded her head seriously. This was a life and death quest that she would dedicate her very existence to for the next duration of time. Even if she didn’t know it was actually a training regiment. 

“You were the only one to have found a treasury and looted it clean!”

“Mhm! That was me,” Shui agreed. 

“Hence,” Yin Hu pulled out his rice bag and held it out trying to place as much significance to the moment as he could with just his expression. “You shall be the one to do the first part of the looting!”

“Yes!”

“Separate all of the used and unused Qi Stones and place the dull ones that look like rocks into the rice bag. I trust you are up to the task.”

Hu Shui’s hands trembled as she took the spacial pouch with both hands. “I will do my best, Ancestor. You can rely on me and my minions!”

All six of the dragon hatchlings puffed their harmless little fires as if to accentuate the point. 

Yin Hu watched as she bolted away and began her work of gathering the proper used Qi Stones into the bag, none the wiser that this had been his plan all along. It struck him that training didn’t necessarily need to be the rigorous katas and endless endurance work he’d been making them do. It could be incorporated into actions they would enjoy thoroughly. 

Gaining both dedication to the task at hand and development at a fast pace. 

On the other hand, those difficult, hard to finish regiments had their place too. Both in developing a certain strength mentally and physically in ways playing games could never reach. It was like weight training versus just playing sports to develop the body. In order to reach certain heights, there needed to be a foundation of indefatigability and strength that stabilized everything above it. 

Yin Hu had seen multiple proofs of just that. Mainly in his own abilities. 

While he couldn’t sense even an ounce of Qi or manipulate it in this poor cultivation world, his pure physical command had provided him with said base. 

Enough that he was stronger and faster than even Rong. 

“Hmm…” Da Ruis rubbed his chin and continued to hum loudly. 

Yin Hu turned to him. “Everything alright?”

The old ghost had never left studying the crystal since he got close enough to check up on it. Constantly finding new functions and arrays that were either unused or hidden by the inverted engravings that had been corrupted by the Void Blob. 

“Isn’t it strange?” Da Ruis hummed again.

Yin Hu waited for him to clarify. 

“Rong. He’s also a Spirit Slime very similar to the Void Blob? You think he may be a distant offspring? Maybe a tiny piece that survived and remade itself into a new form?”

“A distant possibility, but one not worth considering.” Yin Hu turned back toward Shui.

She was busy rummaging through massive piles and sending equally large bunches into the rice bag. None of the dragons were around her. 

Yin Hu searched for them until he found a couple. Both had formed individual piles of used Qi Stones as mini hoards and curled around them, puffing smoke out of their nostrils and in deep sleep. He could have gone up to them and they wouldn’t have noticed a single thing. 

The system decided to ping him at that moment, nearly startling him. 

Central Power Source Detected…

System Analysis Starting in 3… 2… 1…

…

…

…

Ionized Superior Qi Crystal - (A+) Ranking

29% Capacity…

13% Damage…

87% Corrupted… Corruption Type - Void

Yin Hu swiped it away. The notification just put everything he already knew into clear numbers only. It wasn’t really giving him any ground breaking knowledge. 

Of course, knowing that it was A+ ranked was a good tidbit, and the percentages of damage and corruption, but those were things he had already expected from the way the story had been portrayed.

What would be more beneficial would have been a notification to accept it as his own tool. Become its master. 

Alas, it had not appeared. 

Yin Hu tried touching it, mentally prodding it, even trying to pick it up and move it. Nothing worked to get it going. He came to a final conclusion, as Da Ruis watched from the side, it likely needed him to use his personal Qi to take control over it.

Da Ruis floated toward him. “You’re likely too strong to change its ownership to you. Or maybe your Qi is too vast and filled with too great a Dao.”

“Sounds like you have a solution?” Yin Hu said. 

“I do,” the old ghost gave him a toothy grin. “What has your Qi but doesn’t have enough to flood the crystal? What has only flecks of your Dao but not enough to out right destroy the crystal’s main functions with a total reset?” he paused for effect. “Your blood! It's a perfect combination…” Da Ruis raised his hand to stop Yin Hu from saying anything. “Yes. I know, blood rituals of all kinds have been forbidden for a millennium. But this likely won’t need any circles and inscriptions, hence straying into a gray zone rather than outright banned.”

“This is assuming you know how?”

Da Ruis nodded, then gave a quick look around so no one could hear him. He floated closer to Yin Hu and whispered conspiratorially. “Just let a few drops of your blood onto the crystal and the system will activate the process itself. A pretty well hidden function that few have ever known, and few know how to activate. As the blood drops, you have to mentally press your desire to become the sole owner of the crystal.”

This system loophole would have saved an entire race had they known. It's a good thing I kept him around. I was ready to give up and just chuck it back into my inventory with the other few million items just sitting there doing nothing.