John looked up at his father before asking, "What condition?"
Suddenly, a small and thin disk-like object appeared in Barden's hand.
"What's that?" asked John as he saw his father take something out of his storage ring. It was a small disk about three inches in diameter, and quite thin. It seemed to be some kind of carved stone, and had fantastic patterns etched all over the surface.
"This is a spatial talisman. When broken, it teleports the user anywhere in a thirty mile radius. They are quite rare and our Fenix Clan only has a few, but my condition is that you take one of these with you, no exceptions. If you ever run into a situation that you cannot handle, crush this talisman and you'll be able to escape from it. If you do end up crushing one, immediately return back to the clan."
John reached out and took the talisman from his father, his fingers tracing the wonderful patterns on the surface. Although he had no idea what the lines meant, he was sure that they were the core that allowed the spatial talisman to work. After inspecting it for a while, he stored it in his storage ring.
"I have no problem with that. If I ever run into trouble that I can't handle, I promise I'll crush this and come back to the clan as fast as possible" responded John.
"Good. There's only one thing you must be aware of. Any cultivator at the Meridian Forging realm or above can use their power to suppress the space around you, making you unable to teleport even if you crush the talisman. I don't expect you to run into any Meridian Forging experts as they are very rare on this continent, but you should still know this piece of information nonetheless," said Barden.
"Anyways, the day is getting pretty late. We should end things here for now and head back. Dinner should be ready pretty soon" said Barden as he stood up and stretched his legs. John stood up as well and followed his father as they walked back into their mansion.
John had dinner with his parents, with his mother making his favorite Golden Ox stew. Rachel Fenix tried a few more times to convince John to stay before she realized the effort was futile.
"Just make sure to keep yourself safe. That's all that matters" said Rachel as she looked at John, concern clearly on her face.
"I will mom. Dad even gave me a spatial talisman just in case, so I'll be fine" responded John before he ate another mouthful of stew.
After dinner was done, John decided to head out and prepare for his journey. "I'll head out tomorrow, so I should go and get all the items I'll need for this journey."
John decided to visit the Medicinal Pavilion first. After walking for a few minutes, John arrived in front of the building and walked in. He looked around for a few seconds but couldn't find Elder Barus anywhere.
"Can I help you?" a voice asked from behind John. He turned around to see a young girl around 20 years old. She had long black hair and a fairly attractive face.
"Uh, I'm looking for Elder Barus. I want to get some pills" responded John. Being a young master of the clan, John was afforded free access to medicinal pills as long as the requests were not too excessive or expensive.
"Oh, Elder Barus is out for today. I can help you with that though. What type of pills were you looking for?" responded the girl.
"Some healing pills, suitable for Mist Creation cultivators. I guess around twenty will do" John stated.
The girl nodded her head before turning around and walking to the back of the building. She returned a few minutes later with a small jar and handed it to John. "Here you go, twenty Life Mist Healing Pills. They're quite effective for Mist Creation cultivators, although if you are fatally wounded they won't be of much help."
"Thank you" said John as he accepted the jar before putting it in his storage ring. John then walked out of the building, wondering where he should go next.
"Now that I think of it, my storage ring's spatial area is quite small. I should at least upgrade to a better one" thought John.
Although his storage ring was good for his day to day uses, he had no idea how long he was going to be away from the clan. It was better to be prepared and bring a ring that was large enough to carry everything he needed.
John turned down the street and walked for a little while before arriving in front of a large ornate building, the clans Trade Hall. The Trade Hall was seven floors tall, and appeared quite similar to the Medicinal Pavillion, the only difference being that the trade hall was solid white with black eaves.
After stepping inside, John found the attendant in charge and walked up to him. "Excuse me, I'm looking to buy a storage ring" John said as he approached the attendant. The attendant was a middle aged man, who had short black hair and a thin black mustache.
"What type of storage ring? How large should the interior be?" asked the attendant.
"My current ring is ten feet on each side, so I would like one at least double or triple that" replied John.
"We have quite a few good rings with that storage capacity. One moment please" responded the attendant before walking to the back storage area. He returned a few minutes later, carrying a few rings on his palm.
"Here are our best rings with that storage capacity. Might I suggest this one" said the attendant as he handed one to John before continuing, "This one has an interior space of thirty feet on each side, and the ring itself is made from Altrius Ore, which is a very sturdy material. Even during intense battles, your ring will be safe and won't be at risk of breaking."
John took the ring and inspected the interior space with his mind. The interior of the space was indeed thirty feet on each side, and was much larger than his current ring.
"I like it. How much for the ring?" asked John.
"10 gold pieces" replied the middle aged attendant.
John winced as he heard the price. Although he had several dozen gold coins that he had saved up through his clan allowance, it was still a decent chunk of his overall wealth.
"Oh well, it's still worth it" thought John before saying to the attendant "I'll take it. Here's ten gold coins."
John gave the attendant the gold as he kept the storage ring. He transferred all his items from his old storage ring to his new one before asking the attendant, "How much for this storage ring of mine?"
The attendant took the ring and inspected it before replying "Two gold coins."
John agreed to the price and received two gold coins, becoming slightly less unhappy about spending ten gold coins. He walked out of the building and onto the main street, stopping to think if he needed anything else.
After a few seconds of thinking, John muttered "How could I be so stupid. I'm almost at Mist Creation and I still don't have a proper technique or attack suitable for that level. I can't believe I forgot that all my attacks are based off of weapon fundamentals that don't use Qi."
John shook his head at his own stupidity before heading down the street towards the White Feather Martial Library. He arrived a few minutes later and walked inside, immediately heading up the stairs due to his familiarity with the library.
"I've read most of the books on the first three floors, but I've never been to the fourth floors and above. From what I know, the fourth floor has the clan's Mist Creation techniques, with higher floors having higher cultivation level techniques."
John walked up the fourth floor, at which point he was greeted by an elder standing guard.
"John? What are you doing here?" asked the elder.
"I'm here to browse the clan's Mist Creation techniques. Although I'm not quite a Mist Creation cultivator yet, I've started to absorb Qi into my body, so it's only a matter of time" responded John. Normally one had to be the appropriate cultivation level to get access to the floor, but John decided to try his luck anyways.
The elder thought about it for a moment before nodding his head and saying "Well I suppose that does make sense. Alright then, you can head on inside. Do you have any ideas of what you're looking for?" asked the elder.
"Well, I suppose some techniques for a greatsword, oh and also a scythe if we have any. Also some movement techniques would be nice" replied John.
"Scythe huh? Well we do have multiple greatsword techniques, but I think we only have one scythe technique. Unfortunately it's in a language that no one in the clan recognizes. It's been in the clan for a few hundred years but since no one can read it, no one has bothered learning it. We only know it's a scythe technique since there's a small scythe drawn at the top of the page" responded the elder. John talked to the elder a bit more to find out the locations of those techniques before heading inside.
As he stepped inside the fourth floor, John could see dozens of book shelves each holding dozens of books and scrolls. "There must be over three hundred books here" thought John in amazement as he started walking towards the greatsword techniques.
Arriving there a few seconds later, John started reading the names on the spine of the books. "Mountain Crushing Sword, Ferocious Cleaving Technique, Flowing Sword Art."
"Wow, these are some impressive sounding techniques" thought John as he took a few books off the shelf and started reading the summary on the first page. After finishing those books, John went back and grabbed more of the greatsword techniques and read their summaries.
After reading all the books, John decided to go with the "Mountain Crushing Sword."
"This technique utilizes the cultivator's pure power to unleash devastating attacks, and even has a powerful ranged sword light attack. My body has always been much stronger than normal, so this technique suits me perfectly" thought John as he stored the technique in his storage ring.
John then walked over to the location that the elder pointed out had the scythe technique. After a few seconds of searching he saw it. It wasn't even a book and instead was just a single page sitting alone on the shelf. The page looked quite old and appeared to be made out of some kind of hide. John looked at the page for a bit before slowly reaching out to pick it up. As he picked it up and started reading it, a disappointed look flashed across his face.