'Hahh, it seems that I'll have to find a way to earn money', he sighed inwardly as he made his way out of Misty Mountain. It took him a few days to reach the outer regions, and he finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar gathering of individuals.
He didn't hide his aura and walked out calmly. A few people glanced at him, but soon shifted their gazes after noticing his aura. In their minds, a lone expert in the sixth level of the Foundation Establishment realm couldn't have acquired anything significant. This was the exact effect he wanted to achieve.
He entered Stonehold City and swiftly made his way toward the rented courtyard. Immediately, he entered the manor, an amusing sight came into view. Olivia and Jayson were sparring. Well, it wasn't as much a spar as it was Jayson whooping her ass. He blocked her attacks with minimal effort while taunting her.
"Come on, Liv, your strikes are very weak. With how much you've been eating every day, I thought you would be stronger by now." Jayson said while holding his sword in a relaxed posture. This comment infuriated Olivia as she yelled while rushing forward, her cute face scrunched up in a frown.
"You're the one who eats too much!" She yelled out as she lunged forward, attempting to stab Jayson with her sword. Jayson smirked as soon as he saw this, and he easily sidestepped her.
He then used his sword to whack her buttocks, causing her to fall on her face. Olivia stood up, rubbing her nose that she had fallen on while trying to hold back her tears.
A voice coming from the entrance suddenly drew the attention of the two children.
"You guys seem to have had a lot of fun while I've been gone," Adrian said with a smile on his face. Upon seeing him, Olivia immediately ran and jumped into his embrace while bursting into tears.
"Wahhhh, big brother, thank God you're back. Jayson was being mean to me. He would steal the meat from my food and use training as an excuse to beat me up." She said through snot-filled sobs. Jayson was speechless at her accusations.
While it was true that he spanked her from time to time, he had never been mean to her or stolen her food. However, before he could defend himself, he heard Adrian's voice, sending chills down his spine.
"Is that so? Don't worry. Now that I'm back, I'll make sure to spar with him a lot, " he said while carrying Olivia inside. Hearing his voice, Olivia broke into a smile before turning towards Jayson and sticking out her tongue towards him.
Adrian noticed this but paid it no mind. Adrian went inside after instructing John, the servant, to prepare a sumptuous meal for them.
Olivia was excited and promptly asked him multiple questions about his adventures. Adrian patiently told her the stories of the beasts he fought, omitting the more gory details. Jayson entered the house at this point with a gloomy expression.
However, Olivia was too engrossed in Adrian's story to pay him any mind as she continued asking questions before John came to inform them that their meal was ready.
Meanwhile, in a dark room, several hooded figures were standing around engaged in a heated conversation.
"Since we are all here now, can you tell us why you have called us here, Black?" One of the voices bellowed in annoyance.
The other two members were also attentive to the current conversation. They usually didn't gather unless it was important, so they weren't angry like the previous speaker.
The first man who was referred to as 'black' didn't seem to mind the previous speaker's tone as he spoke in a low voice.
"I have orders."
This simple statement was enough to make all three figures around him tense as they paid attention to his next words closely.
"The heir of the Thorne family, Adrian Thorne is alive. During the attack, he was nowhere to be found. After some investigation, the leaders found out that he wasn't in the Thorne family when the attack occurred. He was training in the Misty mountains."
Black paused to allow the weight of his words to simmer among the group. After a few seconds, the man who spoke up initially retorted again.
"So what, can't you just get to the point?" He said in anger.
"Patience Red, we're all here to listen to the mission." One of the other two men spoke this time.
Black continued his story. " You all know that we couldn't enter the vault of the Thorne family, so we weren't able to gain anything from the attack."
The rest nodded in agreement. This was already a widely known fact in their organization.
"Well, I was told that we needed some sort of key to open the vault. Previously, the higher-ups didn't have a clue where this key could be. Even the patriarch of the Thorne family didn't have it. Now that they know that Adrian is alive, they believe that the key is in his possession." Black stated earnestly.
The other two men who were known as Yellow and Green exchanged skeptical glances.
However, before they could express their opinions, Red roared in anger.
"Are you kidding me? Why would such a precious item be in a brat's hands."
Black responded candidly, "Where else would it be if it isn't in his hands? This is the only clue we've managed to find about the key so the higher-ups are very serious about it. Our mission is to hunt down the kid and find the key if it's in his possession."
The room fell into silence as Black finished speaking.
"Alright, we'll send some assassins to find him. Since he was in the Misty Mountains, let's start the search from Stonehold City.
Let's just hope he hasn't gone too far."
Green, who had been silent all this time finally spoke up.
"Hmph, it hasn't even been two months yet. How far could he have gone?"
Red spoke again.
"I agree. He's just a brat in the end. He is most likely just in the middle stages of the foundation establishment realm. Even though he is a genius, he won't be able to pose a threat. This mission should be an easy one." Yellow commented.
"Alright, let's send a group just in case. This mission is incredibly important, and nothing can go wrong," Black reiterated. Their meeting swiftly concluded as each of them departed for their respective regions.
Unbeknownst to Adrian, he had just become a target for the demonic faction.
The next few days were spent in peace. Adrian would spend his days practicing his sword techniques and alchemy while his nights were spent cultivating inside the blood star. Cultivating in the presence of the rainbow rose was much better than cultivating in his room, so the choice was a no-brainer. Of course, he had to take note of the time, he didn't want the kids to freak out if they one day came into his room and didn't find him there. He obviously didn't want to inform them about the blood star. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, but that the information would do them no good. It might even bring harm to them.
After about a week, Adrian sets out into the city again. His funds had already run out a long time ago and they were only surviving off of the money he had left behind before his trip into the mountains.
One would have expected that he would have made a fortune from the space ring of the disciples of the Cloudcrest sect, however, the reality was disappointing. All of them had very few qi stones. Their storage rings were mostly filled with some rank 1 and 2 pills that weren't useful to him. Some herbs which they had discovered were also present.
He chuckled a bit when he remembered the scene of Robert yelling at him for his lack of funds when in reality, he was the poorest of them all.
Of course, their lack of qi stones didn't mean they were poor. Most sects preferred to use a different form of currency known as 'sect points'. The resources in most sects can only be accessed through sect points which makes qi stones useless for disciples of sects. Of course, they didn't discard them completely. After all, sect points were only useful within the sect. Once one leaves the premises of the sect, they become useless.
As he discarded his irrelevant thoughts, Adrian strode leisurely in the streets.
He needed to make more money. He was planning on selling some of the herbs and pills he had accumulated within his storage ring. This wouldn't earn him much but he didn't mind. He was mainly doing it to discard irrelevant junk.
His real money maker was the corpse of the rank 3 beast. Magical beasts provided a large amount of energy and were the preferred meals of cultivators. Ordinary foods wouldn't be able to provide the insane amount of energy needed by a cultivator which is why magical beast's meat sells really well.
However, Adrian didn't know how much he could get for such a piece of meat. Therefore, he headed to the nearest market and entered pretending to be a customer. He wanders around and haggles with a few butchers to get a preliminary understanding of the price of those types of goods. He stylishly asked about their prices for large amounts of meat while pretending that he was inquiring on behalf of a new restaurant that wanted to sell dishes made of magical beasts. He gained many useful information this way before leaving the market, towards his real goal.