Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse
Chapter 366: Operation Life Stones

“Absolutely not, kid.”

“Come on, Venerable Saint Thousand Shell. One Life Stone a week is nothing. Even if I made ten per day for a year, the Supreme Blood’s energy would only decrease by a millionth.”

“I said NO!”

In the vast, green-tinged space of the Life Drop, the large turtle huffed and puffed. It snorted, the shockwave once again striking Jack’s body. However, he had now tempered himself for some time, so he wasn’t destroyed, just heavily injured.

“Think about it,” he said, enduring the pain as his body regenerated. “You and the Supreme Blood would benefit from me rising in power. It’s a tremendous long-term benefit for a tiny short-term concession. How bad could it be?”

“Kid, you’re getting on my nerves. I said one stone per week, so you will make one stone per week.”

The elephant-sized snapjaw turtle glared at Jack, its neck shrunk back and ready to strike. However, he believed it was only a feint. The turtle had already invested too much into him; it wouldn’t destroy everything just because Jack got a little disrespectful.

“Venerable Saint Thousand Shell, I completely understand. And, you know, think of it like this. I possess utmost respect for you and the Supreme Blood. I would never ask for something like this if I wasn’t convinced it’s a good idea. I don’t just want to help myself—we are a team, and I want to benefit us both.”

“Save your sweet words, kid. I am not an idiot. You want to use the Supreme Blood’s holy powers to create low-level trinkets and sell them. The answer is no.”

Jack scratched his head. This turtle was a tough nut to crack…but, since it hadn’t expelled him from this space yet, convincing it wasn’t impossible.

He decided to change tactics.

“Is there any way I could reciprocate this to you or the Supreme Blood?” he asked. “Creating more life stones would be of great help to me. How can I help you back?”

The turtle’s face warped into an ugly scowl. “Help us back? Very easy. Just find a treasure with enough life energy to restore everything you’re going to spend. Oh, but wait; if you could do that, you wouldn’t need the Supreme Blood to create those life stones, anyway. Whoops.”

The turtle’s words were bitter and laded with mockery. However, Jack didn’t mind. He only saw this turtle as a somewhat senile old person—any bitterness that came from its mouth was doomed to be ignored.

In this case, Jack was even happy. The turtle’s words had given him a direction to follow. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Sounds great. I could do that,” he replied.

The turtle shrunk back. “You could?”

“Of course. Life stones are precious, but they are not everything. If you let me create as many as I want right now, I promise to repay all that energy within two years.”

“Two years? Hah! As if the world is so easy! Do you really think I’m an idiot, kid? That I would let you benefit for free for two years just based on a loose promise you once made?”

“No,” Jack replied seriously. “The Supreme Blood has been with me for a long time now. You have certainly observed me; you know how I act. If I promise to repay you, then I absolutely will, even if I have to sell everything I own.”

“And what if you don’t?”

“Then you can destroy my body. You can withhold all further energy of the Life Drop or do as you wish.”

“Hmm.” The turtle extended its neck again, taking a closer look at Jack from only ten feet away. His stare remained steady. He could see in its eyes that it was moved. “I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” the turtle finally said. “I will increase the limit from one stone per week to one stone per day. That is the lowest I’ll go. In return, you will have to reimburse the Supreme Blood for every drop of energy you’ve used within two years—in double. Consider that interest.”

“Double!?” Jack’s brows shot up. “You’re scamming me!”

“Hmph! As if a venerable saint like myself would scam little humans. I said what I said, kid. If you don’t think you can repay all the energy in double, then just go back. We have nothing more to discuss. And don’t try to bargain—my patience is already spread thin.”

Jack was angry. The Life Drop contained nearly infinite energy—the amount he was requested was beyond negligible, yet now the turtle wanted him to actually repay it not in full, but in double. This was just ridiculous. It was the greediest, skimpiest proposal he had ever heard.

At the same time, he didn’t want to negotiate further or the turtle really would expel him from this space. He needed those life stones. As for finding a good enough life treasure to repay it…

Sometimes, one has to believe in their future self.

“Deal!” he said, reaching out a hand. The turtle chuckled, ignoring it.

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“Good,” it replied. “If you fail to pay, then I will suck out every iota of life energy in your body until you are nothing but a desiccated corpse. That will be a fate worse than death. Now begone.”

Debt was a dangerous game. To mortals, it could often destroy their lives—exactly what happened to the mother and daughter duo in the Mortality Chamber.

However, that was only a shallow way of looking at things. In truth, debt was a double-edged weapon. If one tried to bite off more than they could chew, or if they took a gamble that didn’t pay off, they would suffer. At the same time, if used correctly, debt could greatly accelerate a person’s ascent.

In this case, Jack was making a gamble, but he was confident in his chances. Those extra life stones were very precious to him. With their help, he was certain that his progress would be massively accelerated. He would become stronger, which would allow him to grasp even more resources and become even stronger. If his foray into the hidden realm went well, securing life treasures with enough energy to pay off his debt to the turtle would be simple—he could afford to just buy them.

On the other hand, if the hidden realm didn’t go well, he would probably die anyway. His debt would be meaningless.

At the end of the day, this was a decision that stemmed from Jack’s utmost confidence in himself. It was no different than all other gambles he had taken. If he could rise fast enough, everything would be fine. If not, he would plunge directly into hell.

The turtle’s beady stare bore into him, so Jack quickly detonated his own body and exited the Life Drop space. He returned to the real world, somewhat stressed but hopeful.

Step one of the Life Stone plan was complete. He had secured the ability to create thirty stones per month. If he could convert every two of them into a Dao stone, that was an extra fifteen Dao stones—enough to achieve his goals.

The next step was actually achieving that conversion. Jack’s Life Stones would be a new addition to the Cathedral’s market. While undoubtedly useful, it would take some time for them to catch on. Moreover, there would be a lot of resistance if people knew they came from Jack—nobody would want to give him Dao stones and help him make the one-year deadline.

Thankfully, he had an idea.

***

“Hohoho.” The Sage chuckled. “We haven’t seen each other in months—I didn’t believe your first words would be a business proposal.”

“There is no time to waste,” Jack replied with a smile. He swiped his space ring—a sack of thirty Life Stones appeared, each shimmering green. “If I try to sell these myself, people won’t buy. If anyone else tries, they won’t be able to explain how they came across them. Only you are mysterious enough to pull this off.”

The Sage’s eyes glinted with amusement, and his grin revealed two rows of yellow teeth. The two of them were currently at the Sage’s living room, in a cabin larger than most with several rooms.

Jack still wasn’t clear on the Sage’s status. He was a one-fruit C-Grade but not an outer disciple. His name wasn’t on the Ranking Obelisk. Moreover, he could live in a place like this while all outer disciples lived in tiny cabins, and he had worked closely with the granny Envoy to divine the hidden realm’s circumstances. Back in the Milky Way galaxy, he’d seemed like friends with the Head Envoy.

All these were far too weird, but Jack had accepted it by now. He just went with the flow. As the Sage had told him a long time ago, his soul resonated with Enas—he could freely cultivate the Dao of Life and reach the B-Grade with no bottlenecks. It wasn’t too strange for him to receive treatment on the level of an Envoy.

“I guess I could,” the Sage replied with amusement.

“Thank you…” Jack said, heaving a huge sigh. “You would be doing me a huge favor. I can give you a part of the profits…”

The Sage laughed. “No need. These are produced by you, anyway—I’m just putting my name on them. Consider it a favor between friends. However, as for actually selling them, I’m afraid I cannot help. I, too, lead a busy life.”

Jack’s grin was wide. “That’s not a problem. I have ways to handle the distribution. Using your name is more than enough.”

“Then, I’m glad I could help.”

Doing business with the Sage was refreshingly simple—if it was the turtle in his situation, it could have asked for half the profits. After shaking hands, Jack remained at the Sage’s house for an hour, enjoying random chatting over a pot of tea. Throughout the process, the Sage did not reveal the tiniest bit of extra information about himself.

Finally, Jack stood up.

“I have to go now, but it was great catching up. I’ll see you around—and thanks again for your help.”

“No problem. If you need me for anything else, let me know.”

“I’ll try not to,” Jack replied with a laugh, but he actually meant it. Ever since the Integration, he owed the Sage a large number of favors. It was making him a bit apprehensive.

Leaving the Sage’s house—which was located on the outskirts of village four, far enough to be in its own space—Jack then walked straight to Brock’s cabin.

“Sup, bro?” Brock asked with joy.

“Hey Brock. Glad to see you’re doing alright. I have something to ask of you and our bros.”

Brock gave him a wide grin. “Speak. We help.”

Jack’s heart swam in warmth. He described the life stone situation and what he needed, and Brock was quick to agree. After that, they spent a while ironing out the details. Brock promised to talk with the other bros and make it happen.

The plan was simple. Jack would produce thirty life stones at the start of each month and hand them over to the bro squad. The bros would then work in shifts, spreading rumors about the life stones’ efficacy and selling them in any way they could. The Cathedral had no established marketplace, so selling them would depend on their skills. They would even go door-to-door if they had to.

Using the bros as salespeople would indirectly connect the life stones to Jack, but it was the best they could do. Nobody else could be trusted. They just had to hope that labeling them “The Sage’s Life Stones” would make the connection to Jack weak enough that people would buy.

It was a good thing he hadn’t started selling them before, or this plan would never work.

As for the profits, they would all go to Jack. As much as he wanted to repay the bros, giving them one Dao stone a month off the profits would be too little to each of them and too much for him. He just promised to repay them in any way he could at a later time.

Once again, Jack found himself in a sort of debt, but nobody could advance without owing others.

With the details ironed out, Jack exited Brock’s cabin, leaving behind the sack of thirty life stones. Brock, in turn, went out to gather the bros and discuss how they would handle this. Jack believed in them.

As he returned to his own cabin to practice body tempering, he couldn’t stop his grin from spreading. The life stone plan was finally set to action—and he had a feeling it would do very, very well.

Not to mention how fun it would be.

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