SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 600: A Surprise Worth Waiting For

Chapter 600: A Surprise Worth Waiting For

The Shen compound stood in Moonfall’s third ward behind gray walls topped by a respectable defensive formation. Warehouses occupied most of the outer grounds, with offices on one side and a caravan yard large enough to hold twenty wagons.

Only four entered that afternoon.

The caravan yard had been prepared for eleven. Seven empty unloading lanes waited beneath the warehouse awnings, each with workers and tally boards assigned to it. One by one, the workers lowered the boards when they understood those wagons were not delayed somewhere behind the others.

Families and servants had been waiting since noon. The moment they saw the wagons, they began counting. Relief spread across some faces. Others kept searching the gaps between the vehicles for people who would never appear.

A woman in a cook’s apron moved along the line, repeating one name until a guard gently caught her arms and answered. She sat down in the dirt and did not move again for a long time.

Around her, the household kept working. Clerks recorded the surviving cargo. Stable hands unhitched exhausted beasts. Water heated over a hurriedly built fire while the wounded were taken inside.

Leon remained near the gate and stayed out of their way.

Yanning found him twenty minutes later. Her sleeves were rolled up, and ink stained two of her fingers.

"The guest wing is in the eastern courtyard," she said. "Your room is ready. There’s a bathhouse at the end of the corridor, and I had food sent over."

She handed him a folded map of the compound. Four areas had been marked.

"Places I should avoid?" Leon asked.

"Two storehouses have unreliable formations. The third building is where the night guards sleep during the day."

"And the fourth?"

"My family’s residential court. My grandmother is eighty-one, and if she finds you, she’ll decide you haven’t eaten enough in your entire life."

Leon glanced at the map again. "That sounds less dangerous than the other three."

"You haven’t met her."

The faint tiredness in Yanning’s expression eased for a moment. Then someone called her from the offices, and she turned back toward the work.

Shen Baoyuan intercepted Leon before he reached the guest wing. The older merchant was limping, his voice rough from hours of speaking, but he still insisted Leon remain in the compound.

"Stay as long as you need," Baoyuan said. "Yanning can help if you wish to buy anything in the city. Moonfall is not kind to newcomers."

Leon accepted. Refusing would only force the man to argue when he had a household in mourning.

The room was clean and comfortable without being extravagant. Fresh clothes waited beside a washbasin. A tray on the table held rice, roasted vegetables, sliced meat, and a covered bowl of broth.

The Shens were grateful, but they did not pretend he had become family overnight. They offered shelter, privacy, and practical help. Leon preferred that to grand declarations.

He ate only after checking that the injured caravan guards had been given rooms. By then, evening had settled over the compound. Voices continued in the offices, and runners carried messages through the courtyard to the families of those buried on the road.

Yanning returned once to ask whether the clothes fit and whether anyone had tried to charge him for his meal.

"Do guests usually pay the kitchen?" Leon asked.

"No. One of our older cooks occasionally decides unfamiliar people are caravan inspectors and sends them a bill."

"That seems risky."

"She has worked here longer than I’ve been alive. Nobody has successfully dismissed her."

Yanning left before he could tell whether she was joking.

Qingyue did not enter the estate.

She met Leon outside the eastern gate before sunrise the next morning. A travel bundle rested across her back, and the crescent jade in her hand still pointed south, toward the Three-Moon Desolation.

"You’re leaving," Leon said.

"The disturbance I came to investigate has not stopped." Qingyue closed her fingers around the jade. "Walking with the caravan cost me several days. I need to finish what brought me here."

"How long will it take?"

"I don’t know."

It was an honest answer, which made asking again pointless.

Qingyue adjusted the sword at her side. "If you’re still in Moonfall when I return, I’ll have a surprise for you."

Leon studied her face. "You aren’t going to explain that."

"No." A trace of amusement touched her eyes. "If you leave before I return, our paths separate. You should not remain here only because of something I said."

"I already planned to learn about the city."

"Then perhaps I’ll find you when I come back."

She left without a longer farewell.

Leon watched her cross the morning street and disappear beyond a row of closed shops.

Whatever she intended, it was unlikely to be ordinary. He had already decided against rushing back into the Desolation. Now he had another reason to stay where Qingyue could find him.

Two hours later, Qingyue passed through Moonfall’s southern gate and finally allowed herself to consider what she might offer him.

Four rare affinities were impressive. They were not enough to make Leon unique in the higher world. Qingyue knew cultivators born with ancient physiques, inherited sword intent, or bloodlines that allowed them to fight far above their stage. Great sects gathered such people deliberately.

Leon’s talent had earned her attention. His decisions during the journey had held it.

He had killed seven Dao Palace cultivators and one Early Void Immortal on the road. He could have crossed the hill and continued toward Moonfall without revealing anything, yet he had intervened when the robbers prepared to murder their hostages. Afterward, he treated the wounded according to urgency. A dying guard received his attention before the merchant’s daughter.

He also knew how to hide. Every affinity he revealed served a purpose, and Qingyue doubted she had seen all of them.

During the four days they had spent close together, she had examined his energy whenever she could do so without announcing it. She found no demonic trace, corruption, or instability. He was secretive, but his foundation was clean. His actions had given her no reason to believe he was malicious.

That mattered more than another rare affinity.

If he remained in Moonfall until she returned, she would give him a chance to enter Jade Moon Palace. The Palace would decide whether his talent justified recruitment, and Leon would decide whether he wanted the opportunity. Qingyue promised nothing beyond opening the door.

She had not mentioned that plan to him because she still had a mission to complete, and because an opportunity offered too early could sound like an obligation. Leon did not owe Jade Moon Palace service for her help at the gate. If he chose to follow her later, she wanted the choice made with open eyes.

There was also more she needed to learn. His cultivation method did not resemble any inheritance she knew. His story remained full of missing pieces. Clean energy and good decisions over four days earned him consideration, not blind trust.

She increased her speed once the city fell behind her. Soon she was running south fast enough for the road to blur beneath her feet.

Back at the Shen compound, Leon unfolded a city map on the desk in his room.

The Desolation would still be waiting in a week. For now, he needed prices, language, cultivation principles, and a clearer picture of the powers ruling this world.

He marked the exchange street, the pill market, the formation district, and the public archive.

Six days would be enough to begin.