Chapter 30 - In His Hands
The Purple Wood Cane lay across his knees. It was as thick as an adult’s thumb.
A golden eagle head adorned the top of the cane, the border inlaid with pearls and carvings encircling the cane. Pale silver acanthus leaves clustered around the eagle head. The cane looked modestly luxurious.
Cassius tried to restrain his excitement. First, he sat on the sofa and played with the cane for a while, maintaining the persona of an antique enthusiast as he conducted a thorough inspection. After six or so minutes of chatting with Matthew, all the while admiring the cane, he excused himself and went to the restroom.
Both sides of the carpeted rectangular hallway had bronze wall lamps placed equidistant apart. The lamps emitted a faint glow, enveloping the entire hallway in a cozy, soft yellow light.
Cassius headed for the restroom. Upon seeing no one around, he bit his thumb hard. It instantly started bleeding.
He pressed his thumb against the cane and an icy stream of air instantly wrapped around his thumb. It was a strange sensation, like an octopus licking his wound.
In the next moment, the cold air rushed into his wound, numbing Cassius's entire right arm and spreading up to his mouth. A biting chill accompanied it.
It was June, clearly early summer, but Cassius felt like he was in an ice cellar. His face was numb from the cold, like he had just swallowed a large piece of ice on a hot day. The cold shot straight to his brain, numbing his entire body.
Fortunately, both the numbness and iciness passed as quickly as they came. In just a few seconds, Cassius absorbed the freezing sting, and the cane stopped emitting the cold energy.
"Hu…" He braced one hand against the wall, exhaling a long breath. When he raised his head, numbers began to appear in his view.
[Lingering Attachment: 1.1]
As a standard measurement, a single instance of time-travel required one unit of lingering attachment. With the Purple Wood Cane containing 1.1 units of lingering attachment, this had a bit more energy than what was required for one time-travel.
"I see, the lingering attachment contained in different antiques varies. I wonder what determines the strength of this energy…" Cassius muttered to himself, rubbing the cane in his hand.
Once again, his eyes flicked to the upper right corner, where a Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant symbol hung alone above the lingering attachment display. There were no other symbols beside it like, say, a wooden cane with a golden eagle head, for example.
Cassius narrowed his eyes and gently probed around with his senses. He understood.
Not all legendary antiques could generate symbols like the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant. Most of them just contained lingering attachment.
Which meant there were two types of antiques.
The first type was what Cassius called legendary antiques.
Like the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant, these antiques contain lingering attachment and the owner's time-travel nodes, which was how Cassius got to train. For instance, the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant’s original owner, Li Wei, had three key nodes: the youth training camp incident, the ruthless battle, and the path of vengeance.
The second type was what Cassius called antiques with lingering attachment.
As the name suggested, these antiques only had lingering attachment and did not have the time-travel nodes like the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant. For example, the Purple Wood Cane he just absorbed only provided the lingering attachment energy.
He collected himself and looked at his thumb. The wound had already scabbed over.
He glanced at the wall on his right. A small blood spot marred the smooth surface from when he had steadied himself earlier. Cassius casually swiped his hand over it. He turned and walked toward the restroom.
Cassius washed his hands briefly and cleaned the blood-stained cane for good measure. Then he turned and retraced his steps. Once he left the hallway, he arrived at the villa's hall. He stepped on the marble floor in his black shoes and froze.
A familiar taste spread over his tongue.
Cassius clicked his tongue, glanced at the cane, and clicked again. It instantly clicked in his brain. There were other antiques with lingering attachment in this villa besides the Purple Wood Cane!
As expected of a wealthy businessman owning several multi-city companies. His house was full of antiques!
This was turning out to be quite a fruitful day for Cassius. With such a delightful surprise, a genuine smile spread across his face.
It makes sense. The reason why I didn't notice anything while walking from the living room was because I had the Purple Wood Cane. The bitterness of the other antiques with lingering attachment from afar wasn't noticeable compared to the bitterness of the cane I was holding.
Since I’ve already sensed it, there's no reason to let this pass me by. I just need the lingering attachment energy. Even if it's not a legendary antique, I can just absorb its energy and return it afterward, Cassius thought.
He hadn't specified to Matthew whether he was going number one or a number two, so if he spent a few extra minutes in the restroom for a number two, nobody would bat an eye.
With this in mind, Cassius quickly scanned his surroundings. No one was around, not even the occasional servant passing by.
He immediately walked into the hall and used his tongue, not unlike how a search-and-rescue dog might use its nose, to track down the source of the bitterness. The closer he got to the antiques with lingering attachment, the more bitter his mouth tasted.
After about three minutes of wandering through the hall, he became increasingly certain the source was on the second or third floor. He spotted a spiral staircase with bronze railings and a spherical handle on the hall's right.
Cassius glanced up, then leaped up the stairs on light feet like a fast and agile leopard. A few seconds later, he landed on the second floor, all without making a single sound.
To be frank, a Covert Martial Arts Practitioner wasn't stupid enough to starve to death. His muscle control made him quite an exceptional thief. He could scale walls easily and move silently, and should he get discovered, he could quite easily make his escape.
However, no Covert Martial Arts Practitioner would stoop to stealing. They had other ways to make money.
Standing at the second-floor landing, Cassius heightened his senses briefly. The source of the bitterness was on the second floor.
Ahead of him was a spacious hall like the one on the first floor, with cabinets, coffee tables, and sofas. Several oil paintings similarly decorated the walls, with potted plants and decorative antiques in the corners.
Further down, two hallways diverged into opposite directions, leading to different areas of the second floor. Rooms dotted along the hallway and at the end of one of the hallways, occasional sounds could be heard from behind one of them with a dark red wooden door. The brass label above read one word: study.
"White Bird, Duststorm's people attacked my son…"
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