Chapter 167: The Gift

Following the apprenticeship ceremony came a grand banquet, easily the most high-end reception in Naan City.

However, several transcendent beings took their leave one after another; they certainly had no intention of staying for the banquet.

Transcendent Garen did not linger either, leading his four disciples toward the second floor.

No one in the entire hall raised any objection to the host leaving early, as everyone knew this was simply the privilege of the transcendent.

"David, this is my eldest disciple, Brian. You've already met my second disciple, Helena, and I don't need to introduce my third disciple, Furness—you two should be quite familiar with each other!" Transcendent Garen said with a smile as he led them into a small parlor and introduced them.

"From now on, we'll call you our fourth younger brother—though since you're so young, let's just call you little brother!" Helena said with a smile.

"I agree, 'little brother' it is!" Furness chimed in supportively with a grin.

Brian was much more reserved, standing to the side with a gentle smile.

"David, I have also prepared a gift for you. This is the deed to the villa you will be living in, these are the deeds to three commercial storefronts on the pedestrian shopping street, and this is the deed to a ten-story commercial building," Transcendent Garen said, sending several electronic documents to David.

"Teacher, why is this gift so heavy?" Furness blurted out before David even had a chance to ask.

It wasn't that Furness held any grievance; in fact, had he truly felt resentful, he would never have asked so bluntly on the spot.

Helena and Brian, standing nearby, seemed to know the reason, watching Furness with amusement on their faces.

"The villa David lives in is my gift to him, but the rest are compensations from the Free Blade Mercenary Corps!" Transcendent Garen explained with a smile.

"Uncle Garen, I've brought you some gifts as well!" David took a small box out of his pocket and handed it over.

He had prepared this gift long in advance. In this world, there were only a handful of people who truly treated him well. By becoming Transcendent Garen's disciple, he elevated Garen to a position nearly equal to that of his father, Hans.

Therefore, the gift he prepared for Transcendent Garen was identical to the one he had given Hans: five vials of the Fountain of Youth.

"You child, you even prepared a gift for me!" Transcendent Garen said with a chuckle as he shook his head and accepted the small box.

He certainly didn't expect David to produce anything extraordinary—at best, perhaps some second-rank Zerg materials. To a transcendent like him, such things were hardly precious.

Even so, he was deeply touched by David's thoughtfulness. Regardless of the gift's monetary value, the fact that David remembered to prepare something for him spoke volumes about his sincerity.

Transcendent Garen opened the lid of the small box. The moment his eyes fell upon the contents inside, his expression froze, and then he broke into a radiant smile.

"David, is that mysterious organization coming after you because of this?" He instantly put the pieces together. He had long pondered what kind of reason could possibly drive that secretive organization to pursue David so relentlessly, never expecting to find the answer today.

Initially, Transcendent Garen had assumed the opposition was merely retaliating because David had killed some of their members.

Yet when he discovered that the mysterious organization continued to hunt David even after he arrived in Naan City, he realized the matter was far from simple.

"Yes, Uncle Garen!" David did not hide the truth. Although he didn't specify the exact quantity of the Fountain of Youth, Transcendent Garen was currently helping him deal with that mysterious organization, and coupled with his deep trust in Garen, he naturally told him everything.

"Teacher, what is David's gift?" Furness asked, his curiosity burning.

Watching Transcendent Garen and David talk in cryptic riddles, he felt as though his heart were being scratched by a cat's claws.

"This gift happens to be precisely what Brian needs. David, I'm going to give these to Brian to use—you don't mind, do you?" Transcendent Garen asked with a smile.

"Uncle Garen, please make the decision as you see fit!" David naturally had no objections. This was a gift he had given away in the first place, and as for the issue of confidentiality—if he couldn't trust Transcendent Garen and his three fellow disciples, there was no one left in this world he could rely on.

"Brian's physical strength has broken through the two-thousand-kilogram mark, and he is currently entering an extremely perilous phase. During this stage, the growth of his strength exceeds the limits of the human body, while his physical constitution has not kept pace with that limit. As a result, he has spent the last two years in secluded cultivation. Even so, the injuries accumulated in his body have reached a terrifying and dangerous extreme!" Transcendent Garen explained to David.

David instinctively looked at Brian, who returned the gesture with a faint smile. This was the first time David had met a martial artist who had broken through the limits of physical strength. He had previously assumed that breaking the limit meant instantly becoming a transcendent, but now it seemed his thoughts had been far too naive.

"I will explain the detailed reasons behind this to you later. Because of his prolonged injuries, Brian's body has long since developed an extreme tolerance to all kinds of medicine. Even genetic repair treatments can no longer heal his wounds!" Transcendent Garen continued, before adding with a smile, "However, with these five vials of the Fountain of Youth, Brian's condition can be controlled, and his chances of advancing to a transcendent will increase exponentially!"

"Five vials of the Fountain of Youth!" Brian gasped in sheer astonishment.

Helena and Furness looked at David with undisguised disbelief in their eyes.

This made David realize once again just how valuable the Fountain of Youth truly was. Even individuals of such high status and standing as the ones before him reacted with such profound shock.

"David, the Fountain of Youth is a specialized elixir from the God-Domain World. It is extraordinarily difficult to purchase even there, let alone within the Starry Sky Federation. While diluted batches with mostly depleted potency occasionally surface on the black market, they are snapped up instantly. I've had an open order for the Fountain of Youth for ages, but I've never been able to secure any," Transcendent Garen said, staring down at the small box in his hands.

He handed the box over to Brian, who accepted it with trembling care.

If Brian's previous odds of advancing to a transcendent were one in a thousand, those odds had now jumped to one in a hundred. Though the hope was still slim, his life was saved.

Advancing to a transcendent realm was fraught with extreme peril; it was a leap of life, a fundamental transformation of existence.

The path to achieving transcendent status was literally a path of life and death, and every single transcendent had walked it step by perilous step.

It was precisely through seizing opportunities and utilizing suitable resources that one could overcome wave after wave of crisis. The greatest crisis looming over Brian had now been largely resolved upon receiving the five vials of the Fountain of Youth.

"David, I have prepared a gift for you as well!" Brian offered no words of thanks; such platitudes were utterly insufficient to convey the depths of his gratitude. He abandoned the gift he had originally prepared and instead took out his most cherished personal possession.

It was a ring inscribed with bizarre, exotic patterns, its style bearing an unmistakable foreign flair.

For a moment, David hesitated, unsure whether to accept or decline, especially when he caught the expressions of surprise on the faces of Helena and Furness the moment Brian produced the ring.

"David, just accept it!" Transcendent Garen took the ring from Brian's hand and placed it directly into David's palm.

He understood Brian's sentiment. Although David had gifted the Fountain of Youth to Garen, its therapeutic effects were meant for Brian, prompting Brian to offer his most precious possession in return.

David accepted the ring. It was exceptionally light—far lighter than an equivalent feather, feeling practically weightless in his hand.

He could say with absolute certainty that this was no ordinary ring; even the material it was forged from was entirely unknown to him.

"David, Brian spent fifteen years fighting in the War Stars. This ring is one of the spoils Brian acquired there. It is a spatial storage ring from the God-Domain World!" Transcendent Garen explained with a smile.

A flash of pleasant surprise crossed David's eyes. This was a treasured artifact he had always dreamed of possessing, yet he had never even heard of such a thing existing within the Starry Sky Federation, let alone imagining one would end up in his hands.

He tried to open the spatial ring using his mental energy, but there was no response. He silently chanted the command to open it in his mind, yet still, nothing happened.

Watching David's antics, Transcendent Garen chuckled, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Teacher, stop teasing David," Brian said with a helpless sigh, turning his gaze back to David. "It's just a little trinket—precious, certainly, but completely unusable."

"Unusable?" Disappointment washed heavily over David, though he quickly understood. If it were truly usable, Brian would have worn it on his finger long ago rather than keeping it locked away as a mere collectible.