Tang Ze was a bit taken aback that Elder He Xuan was offering him a fifty-fifty split. Seniority was given a huge importance in this world, especially within the sect system - given that, people would not find it unreasonable for Elder He Xuan to demand a sixty-forty or even seventy-thirty split in his own favor given his higher rank compared to Tang Ze.
Tang Ze knew that was how treasures had often been split in the past based on stories he'd heard, so Elder He Xuan, by giving him an equal share seemed to be doing him quite the favor. There was a good reason for this.
Elder He Xuan did not have that much interest in what lay ahead as treasure, and was more keen on learning more about the Mercury Kingdom.
Also, he had been observing Tang Ze quite carefully all of this time. Giving him the spirit ring that time when he was about to face off against Ling Kuang had an ulterior motive of his own in addition to trying to save Tang Ze's life. It allowed him to observe a part of Tang Ze's soul closely - and his goal had been to understand Tang Ze better.
Now, Elder He Xuan felt that he had a good grasp on Tang Ze's character.
As such, Elder He Xuan knew that Tang Ze was rather simple-minded, not dumb mind you, but simple and straightforward. Tang Ze was not the type to get crafty or scheme, and given that, the easiest way to get him on his own side, Elder He Xuan felt, was to simply offer him an equal split of the potential goods.
After all, no human would consider a fifty-fifty split to be unreasonable.
It would also motivate Tang Ze to work harder to get to where they were going.
"Um, sure, that's fine," Tang Ze said, when he found his voice.
Elder He Xuan's hand hovered for a moment over his storage ring.
Within it, he had a special soul contract stored. It had cost him a significant amount of sect merit points to obtain, but he had bought it back when he was first planning this excursion several months back.
As the name suggested, a soul contract could make an agreement which was binding on the level of two people's souls. It would greatly damage either party's soul if they willingly breached the contract. For anyone below Eternal Soul level, that was a death sentence.
Elder He Xuan had bought it back when he hadn't been so sure of what Tang Ze's character was like. He had been planning on using it as a guarantor of the agreement they had come to just now.
However, he no longer felt that it was necessary, and could even be detrimental now. Tang Ze appeared to be a man of his word, and not only that, in the future, was all but guaranteed to be a significant asset to the sect. He had already won a Novice Tournament, and would also do extremely well in the Advanced Tournament once he reached the Golden Core realm and could participate in that.
Needless to say, Tang Ze had an extremely bright future - more so, Elder He Xuan felt, than even Zhang Long, Chen Yu, or Guo Jia.
Given these circumstances, it would be greatly beneficial for Elder He Xuan to maintain a cordial relationship with Tang Ze. But, if he insisted on a soul contract, what message would that send to Tang Ze? That his teacher didn't trust him to keep his word? The bond between teacher and student is built on trust, so why erode the foundation of that relationship?
Why insist on a soul contract when Tang Ze was willingly agreeing to everything? Xian Yue had thought the same when considering whether or not to bind Tang Ze in some way to the task she had given to him; but upon seeing how he was, had similarly come to the conclusion that such a method would be counterproductive.
"Good," Elder He Xuan said, and then lightly chuckled. "Though, I might be getting a bit ahead of myself by talking about splitting the loot beforehand. I don't even know if you can get to where we need to go, let alone if there is anything worth taking there. Still, I prefer to have such things sorted out just so that it won't be an issue coming up."
With that, their verbal agreement was sealed; neither of them was the sort that would renege on it.
Two hours later, a small ball of light, almost imperceptible to anyone who would just be casually passing by, appeared, and Elder He Xuan pointed to it. "Yes! That's it!"
The two of them approached, and Tang Ze had to admit that if Elder He Xuan hadn't pointed this out, he would not have been able to see it given the light was very hard to detect while the sun was out.
On top of that, they were in a rather remote location, so it was clear how this place had remained hidden for so long.
The two of them walked in to see the scenery change before them as they entered the secret realm.
Before, they had been standing in a lush forest - now, they were in a wasteland, though there were several buildings around them and a nearby stream that delivered fresh water. A handful of trees grew here and there, but otherwise, the place was barren of plant life. It was daytime, though there was no sun visible in the sky. Strangely enough, the stream of water did not seem to originate from any source, it simply appeared out of the ether some distance away from them.
"A few things you need to know about this secret realm that I've learned over the years," Elder He Xuan began, moving towards a small table which had a steaming cup of tea on top of it, as well as some other supplies beside it. "First of all, time works differently here. A day outside is seven days inside, so we have a week to try to probe the remaining secrets of this place. Secondly, time only passes here when the pocket dimension opens up to the rest of the world." He picked up the piping hot cup of tea and took a sip. "I made this cup ten years back when it had last opened on the seventh day here just before leaving, and it has still remained warm enough to drink. It is thanks to this time dilation that most of these artifacts are still intact despite the passage of time for over several hundred millennia. Put it simply, they have aged only seven days for every decade that has passed."
Still, as Tang Ze quickly did the math, he figured with just the one hundred thousand years of time that had elapsed since the founding of the Raswatian Empire, that was at least about two hundred years, and these objects were even older than that.
"It is unfortunate," Elder He Xuan said, "that when people remember their past lives - there is a limit to it, usually the maximum is ten or at most twenty lifetimes ago. And it has been so long since the Mercury Kingdom fell, there are none alive who could recall their past lives to that extent. Else, we would have so much more information about how life was like back then. Come, sit, and let's talk some more before going ahead."
This pocket dimension had some other rules that Elder He Xuan told Tang Ze about.
Here, one could only rely on the strength of one's body - magic, and things like Qi or soul techniques were almost completely repressed.
If Tang Ze had to fight someone, this would actually be one of the best places to do so. His physical strength by now eclipsed nearly everyone in the Raswatian Empire.
"But, I've noticed your little talent works somewhat differently," Elder He Xuan said.
"Right," Tang Ze said, understanding that Elder He Xuan wanted him to test it out. He was wearing the costume of a character capable of destroying planets - the strongest he knew of and the one he had been wearing to passively absorb its benefits for quite a while underneath his sect uniform. He took his sect uniform off and found that indeed, his talent still worked - though he couldn't use any of the Qi techniques that this character happened to have, just its strength.
Though, perhaps given the expedition they were going on, it would have been better to dress up as a certain character known for wearing a fedora and wielding a whip - he thought jokingly as said character in question had no powers. "Yes, it still works."
"Your talent continues to astound me," Elder He Xuan said. "How does it still work even here?"
He had looked for more examples of Tang Ze's talent, yet had found none. And the breadth and depth of its power continued to be something beyond comprehension
If this went on, Tang Ze could eventually become the most powerful being on this continent. Elder He Xuan had made the correct decision by choosing to recruit him despite the fact that he couldn't cultivate at the time - he was sure of Tang Ze's continued success.
"I don't know, but I can still only use its strength part," Tang Ze said. "Not anything else."
"So be it," Elder He Xuan said. There were so many provisions kept there from his last visit to the point that there had really been no need for him to bring his storage ring with him.
After their short break, it was time to explore.
Elder He Xuan stopped to show Tang Ze most of what he had already found till now. He had often had to reign in his excitement and interest in the Mercury Kingdom in front of other people, but now, that he had a captive audience he could finally eagerly share some of his findings.
Tang Ze had found much of what he had been reading on the Mercury Kingdom to be boring, but actually seeing some of this stuff really piqued his interest. The fact that some of this stuff was as of yet undiscovered for the most part, and also a secret between the two of them gave it all an allure it otherwise wouldn't have.
While the Raswatian Empire was a lot like ancient China, or at least, somewhat similar to it - he couldn't put a finger on what exactly the Mercury Kingdom reminded him of from Earth.
Then again, maybe that was the problem - and they were not similar to any earthly civilization in the first place. Not everything in this world had its parallels with things back on Earth.
This secret realm seemed to be something of an outpost of the Mercury Kingdom - and while Elder He Xuan called it an 'inheritance' it seemed to be more of a case of this place being suddenly abandoned for some reason, which was why whoever had occupied it had left some things of value behind.
"Do you recognize what this is depicting?" Elder He Xuan asked, pointing to an image on a vase. It was a blue humanoid creature with multiple arms wielding various weapons.