A jade colored field of energy sprung up around his body and a blade formed at his wrist. He swept his hand down and the blade slashed clean through the crystal, aiming just far enough to the side to miss the darkened core. The two halves of the crystal fell apart and thudded onto the soft mat the crystal had been placed upon before this ordeal began. The larger of the two halves contained the dark core and now that it was revealed Sage felt a call from the emitted energy.

“Hahaha! Just as I thought! Wonderful!”

He couldn’t contain his joy and his sudden exclamation caused the Pang’s to laugh along with him. The only person that didn’t seem joyful was the young girl. Her lower lip started to quiver and she stared at the crystal, her most prized possession, sliced in half in front of her. She suddenly broke into tears and Sage was shocked out of his joy. He realized how quickly he’d acted and winced a little. Then he held up his hands, “Aiyah, I’m sorry Xiaxue! I acted without thinking. Your treasure is very important to me, and I just lost control.”

For a few minutes he attempted to soothe the little girl, who was actually a plant many hundreds or thousands of years old, but then he couldn’t help himself. The core was calling to him and he turned around to snatch it out of the crystal. The jade aura around his body protected his fingers, but then his Qi flowed into it and there was a loud rumble. The ground began to shake and the three standing beside Sage all thought they were being struck by an earthquake.

“We need to get out of here. Quickly!”

Sage spoke quickly and then wrapped the three up with a tendril of jade colored Qi and carried them off at his top speed. As he left the ground behind them seemed to open up and the small building they’d been using was cracked in half. A bright light shot out of the ground and they kept rushing further away.

I’m an idiot. I should have figured it would cause a big spectacle in here.

At this time, the four of them were all on the Inner World and as soon as Sage’s Soul Clone sent his Qi into the small core, it established a connection with the world around them. The earthquake was quite real and the world broke apart to let that little core fly out and then shoot deep into the ground. A few minutes later the shaking stopped, but that was only a temporary reprieve. The quake began anew, but this time the huge crack in the ground was closing. At the same time, the quake spread to the whole of the Inner World, causing damage all across its surface. It seemed to intensify to the point that the stone buildings were on the verge of collapse. Then when many felt the end was near, the second quake stopped and the Inner World regained its calmness. Only half an hour had passed, but quite a bit of damage was caused to the human civilizations. Thankfully, only a few died as the quake wasn’t quite enough to topple most buildings, but its unusually long duration had done great amounts of superficial damage to the whole world.

That tiny core flew down to the center of the world and then passed into the green barrier that protected Sage’s true core. The Green Core that was created by the Seed of Life and that housed the original bodies of his many Heavenly Materials. That little dark core of the crystal was actually a Heavenly Material. A fist sized chunk of iron that looked like it was in a dark area even though everything else in the Green Core seemed shrouded in bright green tinted light. It had been almost immediately taken control of by him as it had been first brought into his Inner World. That crystal was some sort of restriction that blocked away most of its strength and it was in quite a weakened state. That problem was quite rapidly remedied when it entered his core, joining the cycle of Heavenly Materials. They floated around the Tree of Life in a loose circle, passing energy from one to the other and the new hunk of iron joined in seamlessly.

Once it joined the cycle the earthquake on the Inner World intensified. It added its power to that of the others and the composition of the Inner World was altered. Many new minerals were suddenly grown all over the Inner World, created by the power of this new Heavenly Material. Sage finally recognized it at this time: Solar Iron.

It was one of those Heavenly Materials that he always figured he’d have the most impossible time to obtain: Heavenly Metal. The Blue Icesilver was also a Heavenly Metal, but it was one that was in extremely low demand because of its unsuitability to be used to create Magical Tools. The Solar Iron on the other hand did not suffer from this problem. It was in fact the opposite. Solar Iron was one of the most sought after materials. All day long it would absorb sunlight and that power would be stored deep inside the metal. Magical Tools that incorporated Solar Iron would always have a sort of built in battery, one that put any Spirit Stone or Crystal to shame. The power it stored was on a completely different level. This was the sort of material that many people would kill over.

It was a Heavenly Material that could be used to create a weapon of immense power, or perhaps used to create one of those legendary artifacts. Unlike other Heavenly Materials it was not something that converted one type of energy into another, nor could it control existing elements. It was a finite resource that could be used to create the most heaven defying equipment. Most Heavenly Metals fit this category, and they also happened to be far more common than most other Heavenly Materials. Since they were finite in quantity and extremely sought after this somewhat higher supply somewhat made up for it.

Yet, even if Heavenly Metals were the most common Heavenly Material, Sage still never expected to get his hands on any. If someone was crazy enough to want to sell some, they were the sort of thing that the Royals would get involved in and if they weren’t careful other Kingdoms or even those from the Imperial Capital might aim to get a cut as well. It was truly quite a lucky find to have it fall into his lap.

Sage felt his strength slowly increasing. Just like the Eye of the World and the Green Lifewater, the Solar Iron gave him a substantial boost in power because of its unusual properties. The Eye of the World constantly nourished his soul, converting some of the Qi that he was naturally generating at all times. The Green Lifewater used his energy to create lifeforce. This lifeforce infused water extended his lifespan and increased the potency of all the plants on the Inner World. The Solar Iron actually improved the rate that he generated Qi, drawing in greater power from the outside world and adding it to his own.

He was quite pleased with the results, but then he realized he still had a crying little girl to deal with so he brought out the two pieces of the crystal he’d sliced in half earlier and pushed the two back together. A yellow light fell over it and he used the power of the Sovereign Stone to seal the parts into a single whole. He handed the big crystal over to Xiaxue and apologized again. She hugged the watermelon sized crystal to her chest like a stuffed animal then turned around, walking away while still bawling loudly.

Jiangbei tutted and walked after the little girl, reaching out to rub her back and console her with soft words. Pang Xie, the chubby crab just patted Sage upon the back and then walked after the other two with a smug smile on his face. Sage wasn’t sure what was up with that silly crab’s behavior. Did the guy think he was a dad now and was proud of how good a mother his wife was? Even his best guess felt completely ridiculous.

Oh well, I’ve got better things to do. She’ll get over it.