Chapter 2282: Hey Cliff |
River froze as Pearl ran away. It wasn’t because her reaction was amusing, or unexpected. It also wasn’t because he was a fan of marinating in that smell. No, it was because he started getting feedback for his oath, and it was far greater than what he’d been getting lately.
River’s mind raced as he tried to explain why that was happening. It did not take him long to figure it out. He’d promised to improve her life, and while making her life more enjoyable and fun was one interpretation of that, helping her improve her cultivation was another, much more literal interpretation as well.
After all, as her cultivation rose, her life expectancy, her power, her capabilities, her prospects, and more, all changed, and for the better. It also contributed towards her happiness for obvious reasons.
The reason he was getting some feedback for her improvement in cultivation was because half the points she had used to improve her cultivation had come from him.
All of a sudden, he’d finally found a reliable and effective way to grow stronger. His strength had grown by a tremendous amount, not just because he’d helped her, but because her cultivation level was so much higher than his that even the smallest help towards her would give him tremendous feedback. After all, it should technically be very difficult for someone with a low cultivation to help someone with a much higher cultivation grow stronger!
When he finally snapped out of his reverie, River quickly used his power to purify all the evidence left behind by Pearl’s improvement. He had learned from his previous mistake. He couldn’t let others easily find out about what had happened to Pearl, and he even needed to prepare a plausible explanation for her improvement in cultivation talent for if and when it was discovered.
At the same time, River did his best to ignore the disdainful look Cliff was giving him. It was obvious that Cliff had long discovered that they were actually quite doubtful of his claims about quests and rewards, and so had tried to test him. Now that he had proven himself, Cliff looked down at him as if he... as if he were standing atop a cliff.
"You have eyes, but fail to recognize Mount Tai," Cliff uttered while shaking his head, and then disappeared.
River paused, confused. Mount Tai? Wasn’t it Mount Decius? Where did Mount Tai come from?
"What’s your recommendation for Pearl’s cultivation? What rewards do you suggest we aim to redeem?" he asked, though his focus was mostly on the redemption list.
Clif shrugged.
"Depends on what you want, I guess. Do you want to quickly rise to the Golden Core level? Do you want to make her into an ultimate fighter? Do you want her to have the best foundation for future cultivation? It all depends on what you want."
Instead of picking something, River turned to Cliff.
"What would you pick in this situation?" River asked, once again putting the focus on Cliff.
For once, the man did not smirk in disdain. No, instead he smiled genuinely, as if for the first time in his life River had said or done the right thing.
"In this case, I would focus on how to make Pearl the strongest in her given cultivation realm while giving her the best foundation for future cultivation. Make her undefeatable now and create a far reaching path for the future. Do you really think cultivation ends at the Golden Core realm? Not at all."
River paused. There were cultivation levels above the Golden Core realm? He’d never heard of something so absurd, yet as he looked at Cliff’s confident expression, he began to wonder if maybe Cliff had ever seen such high leveled cultivators. Maybe that’s why he was so knowledgeable.
"Then that’s what we’ll do," River said with conviction, causing Cliff to nod.
"Okay then, you leave everything else to me, and just focus on collecting points. You’ll need 70 points to redeem your next reward, and be warned, the price for the rewards will only increase from this point onwards - it won’t get less. You’ll need to get imaginative about how to complete those quests."
River sat down, and carefully went through the list of quests carefully as he began to consider how he could fulfil so many quests. It would be very easy if he just had a lot of money, but he didn’t. How could he fix that?
The answer was quite easy, actually.
"Hey Cliff, how can I make a lot of money really quickly?" River asked as he looked up. Yet instead of a response, all he got was a look of disdain before Cliff disappeared.
Alright, it seemed like Cliff wasn’t going to solve all his problems for him. He didn’t mind. In truth, there was a solution within the rewards already present. It was just that to get it, he needed to accumulate 500 points, which was a whole lot more than anything else.
He formulated a plan. Instead of redeeming anything for Pearl, first he’d raise 500 points and get his hands on that technique. After that, getting money and raising points should not be a problem at all.
From that day onwards, both Pearl and River became incredibly active. They no longer just went out for odd jobs here and there - that would be too slow. Instead, they approached the elves and sought out proper jobs - even if they were temporary.
Unsure of how long they’d be here, their desire for change and better work seemed natural to the elves, and so both of them received different jobs that they would need to complete alongside their education, filling their days from dawn till dusk.
Yet neither of them complained - if anything, they seemed like it wasn’t enough. With only ten years left to them, they could not waste a single day!
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