Nightmare’s Call

“Never mind.” Lin Sheng extended his hand and tapped Adolf on the arm. He made a quick assessment before recalling the sacred power. Something strange had fallen upon Adolf; he was in a state of stagnation. It felt weird.

“Does your sacred power stop growing even when you meditate?”

“Yes, Teacher. It happened since two days ago,” replied Adolf

“The so-called Paragon of Treasure is limiting your cultivation.” Lin Sheng thought for a moment and reached into his pocket. He took out a tiny object and tossed it to Adolf. “Take this. Crumb it when you are in trouble.”

“Thank you, Teacher.” Adolf caught the object in his hand and found that it was just a folded paper star. But that did not dishearten him because he knew his teacher would not prank him.

“Don’t leave the hill these few days; stay in the sanctum while I deal with the other things. I will come back to you later,” said Lin Sheng softly.

“Understood.” Adolf nodded.

After briefing him about a few more stuff, Lin Sheng turned and strode into the small sanctum. Inside, several people were praying with their eyes closed on the bench. They were the wealthy people who had secured their seats in the sanctum.

Lin Sheng disregarded them and walked up to the prayer altar. He flipped through a book on the altar, pretending to read from it, but in reality, his mind began to connect to the sanctum system.

“Link the soul to the sanctum.” Strands of the golden thread that popped out from the altar began to connect to the back of Lin Sheng’s hands just as Lin Sheng commanded in his mind. Immediately, a semi-transparent sand table showing the panorama view of Sanctum Hill popped up before Lin Sheng’s eyes.

“The Preparatory Sanctum

“Sanctum master: Lin Sheng

“Sacred Power: 602

“Functions: low-level soul benediction (it was an effect of basic divine spell, the confluence of sacred power that produced a supernatural force field to aid the healing of the negative condition of living things. Its effective range fluctuated with changes in the sacred power reserve). 

“Upgradability: the Sanctum of Dawn, the Sanctum of Dusk, the Sanctum of Shadow”

“Nice. I have always wanted to save enough sacred power to upgrade the sanctum. I can now try to find out how good the Sanctum of Shadow is.” The corner of Lin Sheng’s mouth arched in a faint smile as he could use Adolf’s case as an experiment.

In Blackfeather City of the dream, the sanctum was a dominant force. So, Lin Sheng wanted to turn the sanctum into a command-type building, much like the magician tower. Instead of immediately upgrading the sanctum, he paused for a moment and began to meditate.

As time went by, the afternoon passed into the evening, and it was dinnertime. Lin Sheng, Adolf, and Khadula were having a sacred meal together. The sacred meal was food that the back-end distribution center prepared and delivered to the sanctum. As the food was exposed to the force field of the soul benediction for a long time, it was not only fresh but it also came with body and mind purification benefits.

To the wealthy people there, having a meal in the sanctum was a means of social stratification. The sacred meal there was extremely costly. It was prohibitively expensive.

A meal with the same ingredient as the sacred meal cost only 50 Xylond dollars outside. But there, it cost 10,000 Xylond dollars per person. Not to mention that one needed to make advance reservations. So even the wealthy found it exorbitantly pricey to have 10,000 meals there.

Lin Sheng was looking at the paper box containing the meal. There was some printing on the packaging.

“Sacred Meal

“by Sanctum Hill Back-end Distribution Center.

“Everyone loves Sanctum Hill’s sacred meal. Sis, marry a sacred meal chef if you find one!”

Looking at the last sentence with his cutlery in hands, Lin Sheng fell into deep thought. Beside him, Adolf’s face blushed. He smiled awkwardly amid a heavy silence. His men had made the silly blunder when he tasked them with the packaging design.

“This is a matchmaking arrangement!” Lin Sheng nodded and sighed with mixed emotions.

“It is also a chef advertisement.” Khadula nodded, curiosity taking over him.

“Maybe I have been stymieing your inborn nature all this while,” said Lin Sheng softly.

“Teacher, it’s all my fault! I will reshuffle the entire back-end distribution center right away!” said Adolf sternly as he forcefully shoved the table and got to his feet.

“Heads must roll if people advertise without our consent. This is against our policy. Besides, we need to study how to solve the personal problem of the employees,” said Lin Sheng gravely.

“Forgive me, Teacher!” Adolf could not help but say. “Solving the problems of survival of the students is the key.”

Khadula sided with the teacher apparently and did not give a damn about others. All she and the rest of the new recruits cared about was to cultivate their sacred power every day. Ever since they arrived there, they became non-productive. To many families, these people were a headache. They used to be the providers of their families. But when they immersed themselves in cultivations, they became a burden to their families.

“We have discussed the problems and come to a few conclusions.” Adolf began to explain his solutions. It was right up his alley anyway. “The most crucial thing is to find out how to sustain themselves via sacred power. The sacred power has three main uses: healing, appeasing the people, and enhancing the physique.”

“You sum it up well. What then?” Lin Sheng became interested.

By the side, Khadula was bored. She counted the grains of rice and fiddle with the money to kill time. Was it not good enough that people came with their offerings? But she did not care one bit about what was being discussed. After the briefing, Adolf wanted to know what Lin Sheng and Khadula thought about his approaches.

“I’m sorry, mate. You’ve got the wrong person. I’m Khajila, Khadula’s younger brother.” Khadula looked at Adolf with a sweet smile after she reverted to boy mode. That dumbfounded both Adolf and Lin Sheng. Khadula had been addicted to “monopolylogue” lately. While the female Khadula was the standard mode, there were also boy-mode Khajila, father-mode Khaduela, mother-mode Khameila, uncle-mode Khafila, and aunt-mode Khazila. These had become the entire members of the Khadula family.

Lin Sheng ignored the dipstick. He thought for a moment before pointing out the flaw of the solutions to Adolf. His soul was now powerful and his body supporting his fully powered soul. He had attained an unprecedented level of thinking agility, perfection in planning, and memory.

Adolf noted his advice. And after the meal, Adolf went outside the sanctum and made a call to reshuffle the back-end distribution center.

Meanwhile, Lin Sheng was back to the prayer altar in the sanctum and stayed there until he closed the sanctum at seven in the evening. He asked the devotees in the Preparatory Sanctum to leave. No one caused troubles there as the force field of the soul benediction had tranquilized everyone. People were rational and gentle. Most of the time, they were tolerant and accommodating, and able to adjust their differences with each other.

After the last person—a teenage devotee—left, Lin Sheng closed the door and came back standing in front of the prayer altar. But he waited until the students and devotees had left the hill that he only began to connect his mind to the sanctum system, and was ready to do the Sanctum of Shadow upgrade.

The sanctum had become saturated in just half a month with the sacred power accumulation reaching its limit and producing twenty units of sacred power after deducting the unit exhausted.

After the sanctum upgrade, the sacred power font would be further expanded. It would then have a higher capacity, more functions and powerful divine spells, and better control.