[What do you mean you aren’t an Envoy of the Heavens? I can clearly sense the aura of a king from you.]

Onyx was thoroughly confused by Hei’s denial. Had he yet to hear the voice of the Heavens?

[Simple. This body is inhabited by two souls. The ‘king’ you can sense is the other soul. Unfortunately for you, I am in control.]

[Two souls? And the other is the envoy? Meaning your soul is dominant over an Envoy of the Heavens? Don’t make me laugh.]

[Whether you believe it or not, it is the truth. I am what you would call ‘one from beyond the outer boundary’.]

Onyx shook slightly after hearing Hei’s words.

[Beyond the outer boundary?]

[Indeed.]

[This…]

Onyx got out of Hei’s storage space and appeared in front of him, floating in the air.

[Take my hilt.]

“Oh? Do shields have hilts?”

[… Just do it!]

Hei shrugged his shoulders and took Onyx by the hilt.

“Now what?”

Onyx’s white aura intensified as it travelled down Hei’s arm and circulated through his body.

As it approached his soul, it was blocked completely, unable to advance in the slightest.

[Sigh. It’s true. Even when I find a king, something like this happens. Truly no luck at all.]

‘One less pain in the side quest.’

Seeing that Onyx had failed to find what he sought, Hei decided to move things along.

He put on the most concerned face he could and spoke in a soft voice.

“There, there Buddy. I think it would be good if you got lost now.”

That was Hei’s intention, and as if in anger, a barrier sprang forth from Onyx and pushed against the surroundings.

Before Hei could regret anything, his room was destroyed.

“This! Why did you do that? It’s not my fault that you failed to find what you were looking for.”

Hei dropped to his knees, pounded his fists into the remains, and mourned the loss of his hand scraped hardwood flooring.

He hadn’t even created a model for it in his mind, so the one-of-a-kind patterns were lost forever.

[Uh… That was all you, Bro…]

Onyx had reverted to the way he spoke in his younger days. Even he was surprised by the result.

“What do you mean it was me?”

Hei got up and looked angrily at Onyx.

Not only had this fellow barged into his life while he was minding his own business, he even blamed Hei for the destruction of his own home.

[I’m serious. You forcefully activated my barrier. It had nothing to do with me.]

“I activated it?”

Now Hei was surprised. He didn’t remember activating anything. Not to mention, he had no idea how to activate anything in the first place.

Even his own abilities were a mystery to him.

[Not only is your soul the dominant one, but it is also able to override the Envoy System entirely…]

Onyx paused for a moment before rapidly retreating.

[You! Were you sent here by Rubie?]

“Rubie?”

[That woman! STILL INTERFERING WITH ME!]

“…”

Hei was surprised by the random outburst. He stared for a moment, blinking his widely opened eyes a few times before responding.

“Calm down, Fellow. I wasn’t sent here by any Rubie.”

[Ah, forgive me.]

Onyx paused for a moment before continuing.

[But if you weren’t sent by Rubie, then how are you able to use a King’s Armament?]

“OP Hax.”

[?]

“Cough. I was sent by someone else. I'm not sure if there is any relation to your Rubie, but I was granted certain abilities by that someone.”

[Another administrator?]

“I suppose you could say that.”

Hei wasn’t too sure about the term ‘administrator’ and if Crystalia counted as one, but she did mention that she had an 'area of influence'.

[Hahaha! The heavens do have eyes!]

‘Uh oh.’

Hei had a bad feeling about this.

[This is even better. We don’t even need to enter a pact. It’s just like… never mind. Anyway, I need your help.]

“At this moment, the Black Shield Onyx realised that this had all been a dream. There was never a boy in front of him in the first place.

Distraught, the pitiable shield could only continue on its quest to find its fated king.”

[… What are you doing?]

“Unable to accept reality, the shield continued to speak to the boy, clinging to the faint hope that this was all real.”

Hei went about his business. He now needed to repair the room he had meticulously crafted.

[It’s not like it’s a one-way agreement. By helping me, you will also be helping yourself.]

“The boy paid no mind to the words of the shield. It was as if the shield and its offers meant absolutely nothing to the boy.

It was almost as if he was waiting to hear something tangible and not just vague potential gains.”

[… I am aiming for the throne of the world. That is where you shall be seated once we achieve success.]

“‘The throne of the world? I couldn’t care less.’

This was what the boy seemed to be saying, even though no words had escaped his mouth.

He continued on in his repair work.”

[…Knowledge! I have knowledge. Even if you don’t seek the throne of the world, you can still make use of the knowledge I have amassed over the years.]

“‘Oh?’

The boy seemed to be interested as he took a quick glance at the shield.

Perhaps knowledge was truly valuable to the boy.

However, the knowledge had to be compelling if the boy was to consider the offer.”

[I have knowledge of all of the cultivation realms and have comprehended several laws to the 9th degree. Not only that, but I also have personal relationships with some of the other armaments, which could be of benefit to your subordinates.]

“‘Oh? What kinds of laws?’

The boy showed interest in the laws that the shield had mentioned.

Perhaps if he liked what he heard, he would consider helping the shield on its quest.”

[These include spatial laws-]

“‘Say no more!’

The boy seemed to say as he held his palm up to signal the shield.

‘If what you want isn’t too troublesome, I will agree.’”

Hei didn’t need to hear any more.

To him, spatial laws were the pinnacle. That is if you exclude time laws. But to Hei, time laws were forbidden.

[… I want to destroy the current regime. That is, to dethrone the current ruler of the four worlds.]

“That’s all? Alright then.”

Hei was already planning to do this. That spot was for Bai and Bai only.

[Eh? Just like that?]

“Mm. Does there need to be anything else?”

[Uh. Well, no, but…]

“Then it’s settled. You will tell me what I want to know, and I will handle your issue when I feel like it.”

Hei was feeling pretty good right now. This side quest meshed perfectly with his main quest, so it didn’t feel like a side quest at all.

‘It’s actually more like good fortune falling from the sky. Hm…’

He wondered if there were any similar side quests.

The difficulty would be in distinguishing between the fortunate ones and the troublesome ones.

[This… Then we are partners.]

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, tell me how you were able to get into my storage space.”

[That’s simple. You didn’t apply any…]

For the rest of the night, Hei spent his time repairing his room, while asking Onyx various questions.

He learned some basic applications of spatial laws, that allowed him to manipulate the shape of his storage space.

If before it was a cube, he could now shape it in any way he liked.

It didn’t add too much to his skill set, but it was a nice little trick. If he ever found something that was too long, he could adjust the space to wrap around it.

He planned to absorb as much information about spatial laws as possible so that he could activate his ‘Gate of Chainylon’ and remove the limitation of his chains having to be physically connected to his body.

On top of that, he would create beacons, which he would give to his subordinates so that he could locate them as they spread far and wide, accomplishing their respective tasks.

If they ever came across a danger that they could not survive on their own, he would make a flashy entrance and save the day.

After all, it would be a terrible shame to lose a subordinate he had worked so hard on.

This would probably have the added effect of making them more loyal.

There was nothing quite like being snatched from the jaws of death and looking at the smiling face of your saviour.

Of course, he wouldn’t do something despicable like orchestrating such an event himself… Never…

Once Hei was done repairing his room, he couldn’t help but notice that something wasn’t quite right.

As a result, he berated Onyx for hours.

It was only when Jingfei appeared that he stopped.

“Young Master Hei.”

“Come in.”

Jingfei opened the door and was surprised by what she saw.

“Why did you change your room? I liked it better before.”

“Right?”

Hei sighed and pointed to Onyx, who was in the corner.

“It’s all that fellow’s fault. I told you he was nothing but trouble.”

Jingfei looked over to where Hei was pointing and opened her eyes wide upon seeing the same black sword from a few days ago.

“So it is the sword’s fault that your room has changed?”

“Exactly. This darn fellow destroyed the whole thing and I couldn’t put it back together again. The whole atmosphere is ruined.”

Jingfei raised one brow as she saw this new side of Hei.

She never expected him to sulk over such a minor issue.

“Young Master Hei. You should step outside.”

She rolled up her sleeves and picked Hei up by the armpits before dropping him off outside his room. Shortly after, Onyx came flying through the door, which was swiftly closed.

Hei looked to Onyx, who seemed to be looking back at him.

“…”

[…]

Before either one could react, the door opened again, and a jade token landed in front of Hei. It was followed by a bag of pills.

“You should be able to exchange the pills for a fair price using my identity token. Please take your time, Young Master Hei.”

Hei took the token and the pills with a blank face.

“What-”

“On your way now.”

Before Hei could ask what Jingfei was doing, she shooed him away.

He turned around with a blank expression as he started walking out of the residence. Onyx floated behind him.

For some reason, he was inclined to do as she said.

“She really is like a mother.”

[I once knew a woman like that.]

Hei waited for onyx to continue, but it took a while.

“And?”

[And what?]

“You knew a woman like that, and?”

[No, I was just letting you know. There is nothing more to the story.]

“…”

The two strolled down to the alchemy hall where Hei tried to exchange the pills for merit points.

“That will be 255 merit points.”

The receptionist was ready to transfer Hei's merit points when he pointed at the identity token.

After taking a closer look, the receptionist adjusted her words.

“… That will be 2,550 merit points.”

[They really rob people blind. I wonder why that fellow told them to allow men into the sect in the first place.]

Onyx felt Hei’s struggle as a fellow man. Well, he used to be a man. Currently, he was in-between forms.

[I know, right?]

Hei was also curious as to why the founder made the strange rule.

[Wait, you were there when the rule was made?]

[I was indeed. It was only a few hundred years ago. Didn’t understand it then, don’t understand it now.]

[I see.]

Hei found it interesting that Onyx had been here before, but he didn’t really want to probe for more information. It seemed he didn’t know much anyway.

After trading the pills for merit points, Hei went on to select some ingredients and books.

When it came time to pay, a similar situation occurred.

“That will be 25,500 merit points…”

All of the receptionists had already been instructed on how to calculate monetary values when Hei was the subject.

“Cough. It’s this one.”

Hei handed the receptionist Jingfei’s identity token.

“Um. It’s one thing if you are adding merit points to someone else’s token, but removing them…”

“… If there is a complaint, I will leave the sect. How about it?”

“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

The receptionist immediately completed the transaction, leaving Jingfei’s balance at 0.

Hei watched with a blank face as this happened. It seemed his promise to leave the sect was worth quite a few merit points.

After that was complete, Hei and Onyx headed back to the Man Peak.

When they reached Hei’s room, Jingfei was still inside.

“Uh, Jingfei?”

“Oh? You’re back?”

The door to the room opened and Jingfei was standing there with a smile on her face.

“You came just in time. Take a look.”

Jingfei moved out of the way and Hei stepped into the room.

“This!”

What he was looking at was the exact same room he had created for himself. He didn’t know for sure, but it seemed there wasn’t a single line out of place.

The atmosphere that had been ruined by Onyx had been restored to its fullest.

He turned to Jingfei, his mouth agape.

“How did you do this? The floors, they’re perfect!”

Jingfei's smile grew wider in response to Hei's words.

“I just copied the way they were before. Do you like it?”

“I do. You were able to remember all of the small details?”

“Mm. Any of the apprentices would be able to do the same. Tsk-tsk. It seems you don’t pay enough attention to detail.”

Hearing Jingfei’s words, Hei now realised what was going on. His mother had told him about this before.

“A Woman’s Touch!”

[Truly a wondrous thing.]