Splitting the Heave

“AhHHHH!” The sharp scream came from Shang Xi, and Shang Xia tripped over himself as he tossed the sword in his hand to the side and ran back up the pavilion. 

When he arrived, Shang Ke, Shang Quan, and Yan Qi were already present.

They wanted to barge into the room when Shang Xi’s enraged voice rang through the air. “You little brat! How dare you waste precious resources?!”

Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief after noticing that nothing was wrong. 

Shang Quan and Yan Qi gasped in shock while Shang Ke shook his head helplessly. It seemed as though there was no hiding Shang Xia’s secret anymore. 

Yan Ni’er seemed to be in a state of extreme fright when they entered. Shang Xi was holding the nest in her hand and the little bird was chirping desperately at it.

Shang Xi couldn’t be bothered with the little bird as she glared at Shang Xia who just entered the room.

Forcing a smile, Shang Xia asked, “Aunt, what… What is going on?” 

“You… Do you not know how precious the Rain Swallow Fur is?! How dare you make it into a nest?!” Shang Xi snapped.

Shang Ke moved quickly as he approached Shang Xi’s side. He looked at the ball of fur in the nest and his eyes widened in shock.

Shang Quan walked over and his lips trembled uncontrollably. They thought her screams had something to do with the appearance of the Mutated Rain Swallow but from the looks of it, it was something way more important.

Behind Shang Xia, Yan Qi was also craning his neck to look into the nest.

“It really is a ball of Rain Swallow Fur… It’s huge!” Shang Quan rubbed his fist together as though he was about to pluck out the entire ball from the nest. His actions were met with aggressive chirps from Yan Ni’er. 

Shang Ke coughed lightly, “Ahem, we expected as much, but didn’t think that the brat would be able to gather such a huge ball of it so quickly…” 

Shang Xi looked at Shang Ke and asked, “Fifth Uncle, what do you mean?” 

“This little brat showed off in front of Yan Su’er, Ji Wenlong, Shang Bing, Yun Yishi, and myself back at the Spiritual Swallow Peak. He brought out an entire flock of Mutated Rain Swallows. All of us expected him to gather a bunch of Rain Swallow Fur eventually.” 

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

“What?! A flock of it?! And you even allowed someone else to see it! Wait a minute… Did you say that the little brat summoned it to show off?” Shang Xi’s voice grew higher and higher as she spoke.

In her shock, she handed the nest over to Shang Quan. She reached over to twist Shang Xia’s ear in a fit of rage. “Little brat, look at what you have done now! Our Shang Clan could have kept it all for ourselves… Look at what you’ve done!” 

Shang Xia gnashed his teeth and cried, “Aunt, I was wrong! Can you at least tell me why it’s so precious?” 

Shang Xi twisted his ear and snapped, “Why? Little brat, weren’t you always envious of my Embroidered Cloud Case? You’ve been scheming to get your hands on it for a while now haven’t you? There’s no need to come up with weird ideas to obtain it anymore. Now that you have such a huge ball of Rain Swallow Fur, it’s more than enough to create a massive spatial pouch!”

“Huh?” Shang Xia felt his eyeballs popping out of their sockets. He looked at the ball of fur before looking at the elders standing beside him. “Is this what you use to create spatial artifacts?!” 

Shang Ke smiled at the side, giving Shang Xia the answer he needed.

It didn’t take a genius to know that spatial artifacts were extremely rare. As one of the four great clans, the Shang Clan only had three Embroidered Cloud Cases when they pooled everyone’s resources together. 

That was also the reason why Shang Xia had lusted for Shang Xi’s Embroidered Cloud Case.

It was too bad she never gave him a chance to get his hands on it.

The family had five graded weapons in total and Shang Xi had the authority to let Shang Xia take away two of them to flaunt his wealth in the institution. However, she refused to allow him to get close to the Embroidered Cloud Case.

When Shang Xia saw the look on Shang Xi’s face, he turned to look at Yan Ni’er slowly. He didn’t know if he should ask his fifth grandpa or someone else, but he eventually decided to get Shang Quan to enlighten him. “Uncle Shang, is the Rain Swallow Fur really required to create the Embroidered Cloud Case? What did she mean by a Spatial Pouch?” 

Shang Quan looked at Shang Xi and saw her turning her face away in a huff and he chuckled, “Spatial artifacts are split into different tiers. Rain Swallow Fur is the most important ingredient when creating them.” 

Shang Quan didn’t answer Shang Xia’s question directly. Instead, he talked about how precious the treasure was before adding, “The Embroidered Cloud Case can be split into different grades according to how much space they contain. They are usually one, two, or three cubic feet large. That’s the limit of an Embroidered Cloud Case.”

Shang Quan sucked in a long breath before continuing. “Shang Xi’s case is three cubic feet large, and it’s the largest storage item in our family."

“How much Rain Swallow Fur is needed to make that?” Shang Xia asked.

Shang Quan waved his hand to dismiss Shang Xia’s impatience and he continued, “If nothing goes wrong, five maces of Rain Swallow Fur is required to create an Embroidered Cloud Case one cubic feet large. One tael of it is required to make an Embroidered Cloud Case two cubic feet large. Two taels of it are required to make one three cubic feet large.

Shang Xia looked at the ball of fur in the nest and saw that it was three taels at the very least. According to what Shang Quan said, that was more than enough to make an Embroidered Cloud Case three cubic feet large.

Hiss…

Shang Xia finally understood why Shang Xi was so agitated.

He also realized that he was truly wasting resources.

However, he thought of the other thing Shang Xi mentioned. “What’s a Spatial Pouch?!” 

“Calm down. I was just about to explain what it is. A Spatial Pouch is different from an Embroidered Cloud Case. The case is created with the Rain Swallow Fur on the interior, and even though the fur is the most important ingredient, we still require other treasures to create it.” 

“As for a spatial pouch, it’s created entirely by the Rain Swallow Fur.” 

“Of course, there are also secret techniques involved in the creation process. From what I know, we need to inscribe a tine rune on each thread. These runes will interact with each other to form a massive formation to increase the space contained.”

Seeing the look of confusion on Shang Xia’s face, Shang Quan continued, “There’s no need to be surprised. That’s just the outline of it. No one knows if the institution has a complete manual on how to craft one. Even if they do, the craftsmen in the Hundred Profession Pavilion might not be able to do it.” 

Looking at Shang Xia’s disappointed expression, Shang Quan continued, “Even though it’s difficult to create a spatial pouch, every single one of them contains five cubic feet of space. It’s said that spatial pouches at the peak level would be able to store up to ten cubic feet! An Embroidered Cloud Case is nothing more than a toy in front of it.” 

Gulping, Shang Xia asked, “How much Rain Swallow Fur do we need to make one?” 

“Three taels!” Shang Quan chuckled mischievously.

That was the exact amount Shang Xia had!

However, from what they said, creating a single spatial pouch was a difficult task. If they failed…

When Shang Xia was deciding if he should risk it all to request for a spatial pouch, he sighed softly.

“How long does it take to obtain three taels of fur from a flock of Mutated Rain Swallows?” Everyone else was shocked by Shang Xia’s sudden question.

Shang Quan eventually replied, “Did you really find this on a cultivator of the Martial Realm?” 

Shang Xia finally realized how weird it was, but he nodded in affirmation. “Yeah.” 

Once again, he recounted what happened when he obtained the ball of Rain Swallow Fur. He also spoke about the other items he recovered.

Shang Quan shook his head slowly, “Even if they were hunted down by our patrol squads, items of such importance would be held by an expert at the Martial Intent Realm or higher! Unless… The others didn’t know of its existence!” 

“That’s the only possible explanation. We can confirm that the group of cultivators attacked a nest of Mutated Rain Swallows. The fur should have been obtained by the cultivator secretly when rummaging through the Lightning Bird’s stash. He might or might not know what it was, but he chose to keep it for himself.” Shang Xi deduced.

Everyone nodded and seemed to agree with Shang Xi’s guess.

“What do we do now? There isn’t an expert capable of creating an Embroidered Cloud Case on the Tongyou Peak…” Shang Quan spoke while looking at Shang Xia.

Scratching the back of his head, Shang Xia asked uneasily, “Since I haven’t thought of what to do with it, why don’t we allow Yan Ni’er to keep it to incubate her eggs?”