novelraw Chapter 256-2: The Ninja Master’s Skill Showcase, Mountain of Gold and Silver Treasures (2)
Chapter 256-2: The Ninja Master’s Skill Showcase, Mountain of Gold and Silver Treasures (2)
[Before your eyes is an endless mass of gold and silver treasures: coral and jade, pearls and agate, gold ingots and silver bricks…]
[All manner of precious things piled into mountains, seemingly inexhaustible.]
[You notice that crates upon crates of copper coins are stacked inside the stone chamber. When you open them, most are Torai coins stamped with ‘Vermilion Treasure,’ while only a tiny portion are Sakura Falls local coins marked ‘Universal Coin.’]
[In your memory, many years ago Sakura Falls would send tribute to the Vermilion Empire every year to ensure the nation’s safety and foster trade.]
[These Vermilion Treasure coins are the product of the two nations exchanging goods. But later, the Shogun stopped sending tribute to Vermilion, severed ties, and began minting local coins stamped Universal Coin.]
In this hellish game, all the story NPCs in every chapter traded with apostles using only Spirit Essence.
Spirit Essence was the hard currency, automatically converted in transactions into whatever ‘money’ the story NPCs were familiar with.
When story NPCs gifted apostles currency, it was likewise converted back into Spirit Essence. Naturally, the exchange rate was secretly controlled by the game behind the scenes…
Lin Xun frowned deeply.
Staring at a mountain of gold and silver yet unable to pick any up, it was a miserable feeling.The hellish game simply refused to give him any [You discovered XXX] or [You obtained XXX] prompts or options.
This was exactly what ‘a clever woman cannot cook without rice’ described, he wanted to gather wealth but had no way to reach it…
“Damn it! Hellish game, can’t you be a little more generous?”
Lin Xun racked his brain, pouring all the wits he usually used for solving puzzles into this.
In a short while, he suddenly smacked his thigh.
He really had thought up a good idea!
Without hesitation, he put down the phone and manifested the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Vice Palace Master of Iya Palace in the real world.
After a flurry of incantations, he summoned the shikigami Snow Woman.
“Dragonborn Lord.”
The Snow Woman’s figure appeared in the rental apartment, bowed respectfully.
Lin Xun sized her up so thoroughly it made her nervous before he spoke slowly, “In a moment I’ll summon you into the mortal realm. You don’t need to fight, or do anything else.”
“You just have to grab the most valuable things nearby. The more you grab, the better. There’s only one requirement, under no circumstances are you to let go.”
He had told Snow Woman that the real world was the divine realm, so accordingly, the game world was the mortal realm.
The Snow Woman nodded obediently, her look saying plainly: Whatever the master asks, I’ll do.
“Once this is over, I’ll give you a fine reward.”
Lin Xun ended the shell manifestation, sending Snow Woman back into the game.
Then he picked up the phone again and switched shells.
[You possess the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Palace Master of Iya Palace!]
[You weave seals and incantations, summoning the Origin-Tracing Mountain Snow Woman!]
[In the stone chamber, a woman in a snow-white kimono appeared out of nowhere. When she saw the room full of precious treasures, her eyes went wide with disbelief.]
[As a mountain spirit, she had never seen so much gold and silver. For a long moment, she was dazzled, standing frozen in place.]
“…Get to work already!”
Lin Xun smacked her with a basic attack.
[You raise the Purifying Exorcism Wand in your hand and give Snow Woman’s butt a sharp swat.]
[She jolted as if waking from a dream, hurriedly grabbing gold ingots and fine jade, then scooping up pearls and agate until her arms could hold no more.]
“Well done!”
The next step was to summon Snow Woman in the real world and bring all this treasure back together.
Lin Xun put down the phone, about to summon Snow Woman, when he saw her make another move.
[Snow Woman’s eyes shifted. She shed her kimono, revealing vast swaths of snow-pale skin.]
[She spread the kimono open before her, raised a finger, and let the deep ink-colored draconic energy surge forth. A great heap of gold and silver treasures flew into the garment and piled up like a small mountain.]
[She bundled the kimono tightly, forming a heavy, bulging package.]
[Clutching the bundle, she winked at you playfully…]
“Beautiful work. You deserve a reward!”
Lin Xun hadn’t expected Snow Woman to improvise so cleverly, leaving the shikigami’s mind intact had truly been the right choice.
He manifested the Palace Master shell, began weaving seals and chanting incantations, summoning Snow Woman.
“Everything hinges on this!”
As the last syllable of the summoning spell fell, the woman in only her undergarments appeared.
Lin Xun looked at her hands, only to see the bundled white kimono hanging empty, not a scrap of gold or silver in sight.
Snow Woman seemed to feel her hands suddenly lighten. She looked down, puzzled, and cried out, “Dragonborn Lord, I, I didn’t let go… It was the treasures themselves that disappeared.”
Lin Xun clutched his forehead, feeling the veins on it throb violently.
After a long time, he finally let out a deep sigh. In his heart, he naturally knew this was the hellish game’s doing.
In the game, equipment and items could only be stored in the inventory, and thus brought back to reality, if they were explicitly displayed with [You obtained XXX].
Otherwise, even if you held them in your hands, you’d end up just like Snow Woman, returning with nothing but an empty kimono.
“It’s not your fault. The things of the mortal realm are impure and unworthy of being easily brought back to the divine realm. It was my own foolish idea.”
Hearing this, Snow Woman looked dejected as she put her kimono back on, though it was hard to tell whether she was disappointed that the treasures had vanished or that she hadn’t received a reward from the Dragonborn Lord.
Lin Xun could only withdraw Snow Woman and pick up his phone to continue the game.
[Leaving a treasure mountain empty-handed is clearly not your style. Unwilling to give up, you begin searching the stone chamber for anything usable…]
[Searching…]
[You discover an extremely ornate treasure chest in the far corner of the stone chamber.]
[The chest is painted with a beautiful scene of an island’s waves, a lone sailing boat, and the setting sun casting its final rays across the sea and sky.]
[Do you wish to open this treasure chest?]
Lin Xun’s eyes lit up.
It had been a long time since he last encountered a treasure chest event.
Who knew whether the hellish game would grant him something valuable, or some deadly trap…
“This treasure chest is so fancy. There’s definitely something fishy. When has the hellish game ever been so generous?”
After thinking it over briefly, Lin Xun once again summoned the shikigami Snow Woman into the real world, instructing her to open the chest in a moment.
If all went well, she would be rewarded. If it didn’t… no worries, her master would revive her…
Snow Woman: ???
[You weave seals and chant incantations, summoning the Origin-Tracing Mountain Snow Woman!]
[In the stone chamber, the woman in her snow-white kimono appeared once more. This time, facing the room full of treasures, she remained perfectly calm.]
[Snow Woman walked to the treasure chest and pulled it open in one motion…]
[In an instant, radiant light burst out, dazzling brilliance flooding the chamber.]
[The shikigami Snow Woman covered her eyes and staggered back repeatedly. You stood on full alert, waiting a long while without any sign of danger.]
[Hesitant, you stepped forward slowly and peeked inside, only to see the chest overflowing with treasures…]
[You obtained Light Aya Pearls *2 (Item)]
[You obtained Crimson Blood Coral *2 (Item)]
[You obtained Painting of the Frontier Riders Playing the Flute (Treasure)]
[You obtained Black Crow Crown Feathers *30 (Material)]
[You obtained Black Ox Spirit Horns *30 (Material)]
[You obtained Pale Blue Magatama *20 (Material)]
[You obtained Spirit-Conducting Copper Mirrors *10 (Material)]
[You obtained Underworld Night Lantern *10 (Material)]
[You obtained Owl Tail Feathers *30 (Material)]
[You obtained…]
[…]
[You obtained Celestial Demon Nurarihyon’s Soul Pearl (Special Item)]
Lin Xun was dumbfounded.
A barrage of item acquisition prompts instantly flooded the screen.
The dense lines of [You obtained XXX] made his head spin.
“Did the hellish game just bug out?”
In Lin Xun’s mind, only one thought remained.