Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Upon entering the Treasures Hall, the group was faced with a large space containing 22 shelves positioned in a circular pattern around the same central point.

At the central point of this space, an elevator that only the Elder behind this post could control gave access to the room with no windows or doors, a place very well lit by yellowish magic lamps on the room's high ceiling.

When the group arrived there, with the elevator that had no side walls, just a device that raised and lowered the floor, they saw the first boxes in their field of vision, each with different designs, reliefs, and presentations.

Some were gold, others silver, but there were also those with colors that showed they weren't made of metal. Some seemed to be made of wood and others of rare materials, such as glass.

But the way the mysterious boxes looked on the outside told little about what was inside. All the boxes gave the same magical impression to those who examined them, and the sect's rumors said that one could choose mysterious boxes at random, because no logic would make sense there.

Their appearances served to provoke the disciples into preferring those boxes that best caught their attention. Everyone had their own preferences, personalities, something that led them to choose boxes with specific appearances.

Some chose the most eye-catching and shiny boxes, while others chose the more discreet ones, with shapes they liked. The contents of the box did not depend on its appearance, but on what the Elder who sealed it wanted.

Some Elders even liked to test the members of the sect with prizes. Some of them put smaller amounts in flashier boxes, while others did the opposite, rewarding the greediest disciples.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Choosing there would be a long shot, something that the Elder accompanying the group quickly encouraged them to do.

"You have 10 days to come here and see which boxes you prefer. But I recommend you make your decision quickly, preferably today. Whatever your destiny is, it will catch up with you sooner or later," said the middle-aged man as he gave the group access to this area.

"Are there any kind of rules here, Elder?" Liam asked the man in white.

"You can stay here for a maximum of one hour for each day you enter the hall." The man explained before gesturing. "The shelves are basically the same, so the whole environment here is basically a repetition of corridors. Only the inside of the boxes are different. But be careful not to mess the place up. Return any boxes that don't lead to the same places they were originally. I'll check the situation in the hall after you've left.

Anyway, if you choose any boxes today, you'll have to open them here and in front of me. I'm afraid these are rules to prevent smart guys from using the same key more than once."

Liam and the others thought the same thing about this, but didn't object. The Elder of the Treasure Hall was supposed to be one of the oldest and most senior people in the sect. He wouldn't covet the resources of a newly awarded junior.

"Go ahead. Help this old man and choose your prizes quickly," he said as he sat down on a chair next to the elevator in the room.

Liam and his companions looked at each other and he said, "I want you to help me choose the mystery boxes for our group. I'll share their resources with you according to our affinities later."

The five of them nodded in understanding before splitting into two groups, leaving Liam to choose one of the boxes on his own.

Liam was left alone and was soon walking down a corridor with large boxes the size of chests of drawers positioned on shelves on either side of him.

Some spaces on these shelves that went up to the height of the ceiling, 5 meters high, were empty, showing that some mysterious boxes had been collected and not yet replaced. But overall, the two initial shelves that Liam saw were over 70% full.

He walked along that initial aisle for a while, soon arriving at another, seeing several types of boxes. Some were mirrored, others looked like pirate treasures, while there were those that seemed to contain something sinister inside them, tied up with large black chains.

Liam was interested in the appearance of some of these objects, until he saw something that caught his eye in the fourth corridor he entered, 15 minutes after separating from his companions.

At the top of the shelf on his right was a box with a large blue padlock, which glowed in a way that evoked a sense of belonging inside Liam.

He summoned his mana and moved towards the box, making it float up to his eye level, coming face to face with an item capable of containing a human body inside.

From the bluish lock emanating power, he saw several lines of the same color with small symbols that surrounded the entire box, symbols that made him think of the symbols and lines of the blue star in his soul space.

'That...' Liam hesitated as he moved one of his hands to the box in front of him, identifying the sensation he was feeling.

'Could this be something placed here by the same Elder who placed the items and beings from the Eternal Doom Island?' He remembered how he had suspected that the experiment on that island where he had been with Mary might be related to Elder Neill.

Until that moment, Liam had considered that Neill was not responsible for the blue star. He thought that the blue star had originated there through some natural phenomenon, a wild evolution unrelated to Neill's actions.

But when he saw this item in front of him, his thoughts changed direction and he couldn't help but consider the possibility that he was wrong and Neill was the one who had placed the blue star in that waterfall where he had gotten that essence.

'I need to take this box...' He thought as he closed his fingers on the hand about to reach the box floating in front of him. 'Now there's no point in me getting worked up about the possibility of this being Elder Neill's doing. Whatever it is, it's out of my control. The only thing I can do is take the box with me.

I'm just afraid that if I touch it, something out of my control will happen...'

He thought about how unusual the blue star in his soul space was, afraid that something like a box from the Treasure Hall disappearing could cause him problems.

Liam didn't rule out the possibility that the blue star wasn't entirely Neill's doing. If that were the case, he couldn't risk the star in his soul space somehow consuming that box and indicating to the sect that he had something unusual, even for cultivation geniuses.

Afraid of the attention he might get if he disappeared with one of the boxes from this place without using the key he had with him or following the hall's rules, he continued without touching the item, returning to the center of this area.

"Elder, I'd like to take this box with me," he said as he presented the box and one of the keys.

"All right. Let's wait for your companions to finish and decide whether to take the other mystery boxes that you have the right to choose. We'll only open it when we're all together to go back to the Records Hall."

Liam waited for a few minutes until his Officers returned with one box and the two First Officers returned with another.

None of them wanted to wait, and they wanted the chance to win a big prize from their recent journey outside City Five right away.

Jane and her two companions placed a box that looked like a lost pirate treasure to the left of the one chosen by Liam. Meanwhile, Toby placed what looked like a large porous cobblestone next to the box apparently made of wood chosen by the Officers.

Liam summoned his keys and said, "Jane, open the boxes."

Jane immediately took the three keys and placed them in the padlocks, unlocking the one Toby had brought first.

The moment the box opened, a magical fluctuation escaped from inside, exploding into the surroundings, revealing three items before the lid of the box had even finished opening.

Among the three items were a bracelet, a wand, and a vial from which most of the essence was coming that made the whole group look at it with interest, seeing the first Fifth Class potion of their lives.

Jane was impressed, but she was more curious about the inside of the box that she herself had indicated.

After turning the key in the lock, she unlocked the box, lifted the lid and came across another pleasant surprise. This time, five items caught the group's eye: two weapons, a weak pill and two preserved herbs that made the green-haired girl's eyes widen.

Even Liam was surprised at how lucky they were with this second box, but his interest was still focused on the box he himself had chosen.

Enjoy new tales from empire

As the Elder curiously checked the items in the two boxes that had already been opened, Liam murmured something to Jane, snapping her out of her stupefied state to get her to open the last box.

It took her a few breaths to control the feeling in her heart, but eventually she did what she had to, opening the box which revealed a blue glow from inside, before something unexpected happened.