568 Silver Stone

Two times, the tree had sent out a wave of Yang energy, and two times there was commotion here. 'That is no coincidence,' he thought.

"What do you mean by commotion exactly, master?" Alex asked.

"Well, there are some books that fall down, along with some of these armors and formations, but that's it. The commotion is usually these armors making noises. They are quite loud," Wen Cheng said.

"Armors?" Alex walked back to the armor and checked them again carefully. Except, this time he used his spiritual sense as well.

'Yang energy,' he thought when he felt the slightest hint of yang energy on those armors.

'Shame I don't need them,' he thought. He then turned back around to the books and thought, 'some of those reacted to the yang energy too right?'

He went on to check them as well. He spread out his spiritual sense and found that they still had some lingering yang Qi in them.

'Hmm… will they…'

Suddenly, Alex let go of the restraint he was constantly putting on himself and let his Yang energy flow around freely.

He kept tabs on the books with the lingering yang, and suddenly they responded with slight vibrations. It wasn't much, but Alex caught the vibration with his spiritual sense.

There were 3 that showed the most response. Alex took back the yang before either of the other 2 noticed what he was doing and checked the books.

He pulled all 3 of them out and tried to read them. He started with the lowest one and when he opened it, he realized it was in a language he couldn't read but could understand.

'Hmm…' he read the introduction section of the book and as expected, he could understand what the words meant even if he couldn't read it.

The first book was a defensive yang art that created a defensive barrier that could withstand strong attacks.

From what Alex could tell, the technique was a heavens grade technique, and maybe even an immortal grade one.

'That's quite good,' he thought. He continued to the second book and read about it.

This technique was one that helped create a false clone that could be used as a method of confusion and distraction for the enemy. While it didn't have any offensive capabilities, Alex reckoned it could be quite good if used properly.

Finally, he read the one that gave the most reaction when it came into contact with Yang energy.

As he kept reading it, his eyes went wide. 'No way!' he thought.

It was decided, he was going to take this book. "This is my first one, master," Alex said.

"Oh, you chose one?" Wen Cheng looked curiously at the book Alex chose. From what he could remember, he had no way of reading it.

"What about the second one?" Wen Cheng asked.

Alex looked at the doppelganger book that could be useful, but its use cases were so… limited that he didn't want to choose it right away.

'Is there anything else I can take?' Alex wondered and look to the side. There were some pills, some stones, some books, and various other trinkets.

Alex looked at them and couldn't really tell what he could want from them. 'Maybe they have yang aura too,' he thought and released his spiritual sense to check through all of those.

As he did that, he sensed something weird. Rather, he didn't sense it at all.

Alex moved to the object and picked it up. It was a silver-colored rock, about the size of a human head, and weighed practically nothing.

If not for Alex holding the stone, he would have assumed that it was not there at all.

Even his spiritual sense told him there was nothing in his hand. That was perhaps the weirdest thing he had ever sensed.

Even his master who was a void in his spiritual sense could still be told that she was there just based on the dead spot in his senses.

This stone, however, was as if his spiritual sense just passed through it.

'No?' Alex thought when he realized he was a little wrong. He had been limiting his senses to just sense the rock so he didn't notice it, but when he increased the range of his spiritual sense, he realized that the stone was acting as a sort of absorbent that swallowed all of his Spiritual sense.

No matter how far he released his spiritual sense, the stone would swallow all the spiritual sense that he was putting on it.

'This is incredible. Is this a sort of rock that can be used against mental attacks?' Alex wondered.

"Master, do you know what this is?" he asked, showing the silver rock to Wen Cheng.

Wen Cheng walked up to Alex and looked at the rock. "No," Wen Cheng said. "I have seen this here for a long time, but still to this day, I have no idea what it is. All I can guess is it's a special artifact material."

"I guessed so too," Alex said. He was truly fascinated by the stone now. However, since he didn't know what it did, he didn't want to choose it either.

He fell into a dilemma. 'What should I do?' he wondered. No matter what he thought, the doppelganger skill was definitely more useful for him, but… this silver stone that could make spiritual sense useless was also quite useful if he could use it right.

'Uhh…' he was having a really hard time choosing. 'Should I just read that book right here?' he wondered.

He took the book and started flipping through it.

"Disciple Yu Ming, are you choosing that book?" the First Elder asked.

"Uh… no, first elder. I am just trying to see if it is even useful to me since it's impossible to read, you know," he lied and continued reading.

Finally, after a few minutes, he finished the book and closed it. "This language really is similar to the one in the stele, isn't it? Have you managed to figure out what it is?" Alex asked.

Wen Cheng looked at him weirdly. He knew Alex could read the book and was even sure that Alex was reading it right now. The only reason he let him be was that he was his disciple.

"No," the first elder replied. "I don't think anyone has managed to crack the language yet."

"That's unfortunate. Then I guess I will take the stone," Alex said and put back the book.

"What about the other book? Why are you taking it if you don't understand it?" the first Elder asked.

"Um, since I'm going to the capital tomorrow, I will try and see if there is anyone out there that knows this language. It might be a lost cause, but I will try," Alex said.

The First elder could find no faults in his words, so he let him be and accepted it.

"Let's leave," Wen Cheng said and the lot started walking outwards.

Alex looked at the book and put it back into his storage bag, he would use it later tonight, and then he looked at the silver stone too and kept it in his storage. Only…

"Huh?" Alex exclaimed in surprise. The rock wouldn't go into his storage bag at all.