SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 608: What Money Cannot Buy

Chapter 608: What Money Cannot Buy

The Shen family’s private archive occupied a long, low room behind the counting house. Shielded lamps hung between shelves of maps, route records, cultivation notes, and histories that had never appeared in Moonfall’s public bookshops.

Shen Yuanhe walked slowly, but his steps grew steadier as they continued.

"Where does Moonfall truly stand?" Leon asked. "People in the market speak as if every important road ends here."

"For most of them, it does," the old man replied. "Moonfall is a frontier gate. Resources from the Three-Moon Desolation pass through us before becoming wealth elsewhere. That makes the city valuable, not supreme."

Four major houses divided most of Moonfall’s authority. They controlled the gates, auctions, large formations, and contracts that kept trade moving. Yet none wanted a direct conflict with a regional power such as Ninefold Ridge.

Shen Yuanhe opened a map and indicated the roads leaving the city. The southern routes ended at controlled entrances to the Desolation. The eastern road divided toward the Qiao mining valleys and the river settlements beneath their influence. Farther north, larger cities handled goods Moonfall could only appraise and resell.

Jade Moon Palace lay beyond all of them, across the Eastern Jade Sea rather than within the frontier marches.

The distances made Leon revise his sense of scale. Moonfall felt vast because it gathered everything nearby. On the regional map, it was one useful gate among many.

"The city houses will act if open war threatens their streets," Shen Yuanhe explained. "They will not eagerly investigate a secret attack on one merchant family, especially when the accused clan can make the matter expensive."

"So the Qiao clan expected its raid to remain invisible."

"That was the reason it could afford to send four Void Immortals."

Leon paused beside a shelf of regional maps. "Void Immortals are rare here."

"Very. In a minor sect, one may be the ancestor whose name protects every disciple. In a family like mine, one is the reason rivals negotiate instead of taking. Ninefold Ridge risked four because it believed my refinement had left this estate defenseless and that no survivor would identify them."

Their disappearance would matter. The false report prevented an immediate reaction, but the clan would eventually demand the treasure or direct contact from its team.

Leon had understood that already. What he needed was knowledge the market primers had not provided.

"Explain the Ethereal, or you say Immortal foundation," he said.

Shen Yuanhe selected a thin wooden case and placed it on a reading table. Inside lay several hand-drawn diagrams of a human figure surrounded by widening rings.

"When a cultivator becomes a Void Immortal, the body stops containing the whole of his existence," he said. "The Immortal foundation distributes that existence through the world around him and supports the body he manifests. Destroy the body, and the foundation constructs another."

"What separates an Early-stage Void Immortal from a Peak one?"

"Depth, stability, and control. An Early foundation is newly formed. Rebuilding is slow, expensive, and disruptive. At Late stage, the connection is strong enough that a cultivator can lose a manifestation and return without surrendering the entire battle. At Peak, the foundation has reached the broadest state available before Earth Immortal."

The old man touched one of the outer rings on the diagram.

"But time still matters. Repeated damage leaves strain. Centuries of rebuilding leave wear. My foundation had been weakening for years. Medicine could sustain my body, but the body was not the source of the decline."

"The treasure repaired that damage."

"It repaired and reinforced what I already possessed. My future cultivation will be faster, and I now have more time to seek the next step." Shen Yuanhe closed the case. "It did not give me the understanding required to become an Earth Immortal. That breakthrough cannot be purchased by gathering enough energy."

Leon compared the explanation to the System’s terms.

The System gave him ranks and levels. Shen Yuanhe had explained why two people within the same rank could differ so greatly in recovery and control.

Leon’s own foundation had developed through another path. He could not assume that local cultivation methods would strengthen it safely.

Shen Yuanhe answered several more questions, then handed Leon a thin wafer of dark jade. The Shen emblem was carved into one face, with smaller markings around its edge.

"This is an inner-network token," he said. "Show it to one of our factors in Moonfall or the five other cities marked on the back. It grants access to private sale lists, honest authentication, and the prices we offer trusted partners. My people can also introduce you to craftsmen who refuse unknown clients."

Leon turned the token over. "Can it be used for discreet transactions?"

"For small batches. You may buy or sell without your name appearing at both ends of the record. Larger transactions attract attention no token can remove."

"Can I request something through one city and collect it in another?"

"If our routes connect them. You pay transport, insurance, and local taxes. The token ensures the request is handled by people whose reputations my family guarantees."

That mattered almost as much as the private lists. Leon could not personally verify every formation component, medicinal plant, or cultivation text. A reliable chain of appraisers reduced the chance of buying something altered, tracked, or falsely identified.

"What authority does it grant over your people?"

"None. It does not make you a Shen, open our warehouses, or protect you from Moonfall’s laws." A hint of amusement crossed the old man’s face. "Yanning said you would ask about the limits before thanking me."

"She was right." Leon slipped the token into his sleeve. "Thank you."

"Use it well. That will be thanks enough."

The token alone was worth more than another purse. It opened the hidden part of the market Leon had spent six days trying to find.

Shen Yuanhe led him through a reinforced door at the back of the archive. Three separate formations examined the old man’s identity before the locks released.

The treasury beyond was smaller than Leon expected. Weapons rested in sealed racks. Talismans filled lacquered cases. Crystals and ore samples sat beneath glass covers marked with dates and appraisals.

Shen Yuanhe ignored the brightest objects.

He stopped before a ceramic pot standing alone on a stone plinth. A small formation surrounded it, maintaining a steady flow of earth energy.

"You may choose a weapon if you prefer," the old man said. "But this is what I intended to offer."

He lifted the lid.

Inside grew a low fern with leaves so dark green they appeared black. Its roots crossed a bed of faintly luminous soil, and every patch they touched looked richer than the soil around it.

Leon leaned closer.

The plant was not impressive in the way a sword or defensive treasure might be.

It was alive.

"What is it?" he asked.

"An Earthmarrow Fern," Shen Yuanhe said. "And if you are as sensible as I hope, you will understand why it is worth more than anything shining behind you."