Since he had a lot of confidence in himself, he decided to bet on surviving and transcending the third mortal coil. He also bet 500,000 low-grade energy stones on it.
He still had 330,000 left from the first harvest from raiding the Milton family. He just gained another 400,000 from Storm Hawk. Plus the years of savings he had from the recent and all the past intersect competitions, he had a total of 900,000 low-grade energy stones in hand.
By betting 500,000 low-grade energy stones, he was risking up to half of his wealth for the bet. But he wasn't scared about losing the bet. If anything, he wanted to bet more.
But he didn't bet more because he wanted to have some money on hand and because he didn't want to lose all of his wealth in case something went wrong with the organizer of the bet.
After all, how long he would love wasn't the only important matter to consider in the bet. It was also important to consider if the person who organized the bet is going to survive until the end of the bet.
It was even extra important to consider that the person organizing the bet was trustworthy. So he didn't go overboard with his bet.
When he was done deciding how much he would bet, he still had to exchange the energy stones for credits before he could join the bet.
These credits are currency that everyone uses to transact in the inner sect. Everyone uses it because they can keep track of it with their sect ID card and can even make exchanges through the ID card.
All he had to do to get the credit was deposit the money with the finance hall. Then he could join the bet through the ID card.
After Storm Hawk was sure that he had bet his money and was sufficiently motivated to survive longer, she left him to finish her matters.
He, on the other hand, went to the weapon forging hall and the library to exchange the tokens for benefits. He used his ID card to lead the way for him.
At the weapon forging hall, the weapon he exchanged the token for was a hybrid shield. The shield was a circular structure made of small blades interlocking together. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ NoveI~Fire.net
The shield could be used to defend, but it could also be disassembled with his divine sense into small blades that he can attack his enemies with. So the weapon was capable of both attacking and defending.
Its two-in-one nature is why it was a hybrid. This property of the shield was enough for him to like it at first glance. But when he learned that he could channel his lightning through it to enhance its power, he fell in love with it.
After getting this hybrid shield, he left the weapons forging hall. He was tempted to exchange his rank 2 flying board for a rank 3 one, but he didn't go through with the exchange because he didn't need the newer and better flying board.
For one, he didn't need a flying board to fly anymore. He could fly on his own. The only reason he would need a flying item was to carry someone else who couldn't fly with him.
The second reason he didn't make the exchange was that he was just as fast, if not faster, than the best top-grade flying artifact. This is because one of the elements of his foundation is the lightning element.
To top things off, he was sure that he would be more energy efficient than a flying artifact. Even if he was wrong, he was sure that he wouldn't lose out to a top-grade flying artifact in terms of energy efficiency because his foundation is also of top-grade quality.
The third reason why he opted out of the exchange was that the exchange won't be free. He will need to add some extra credits or sect contribution points to the rank 2 flying board before he can get the rank 3 flying board.
The last reason, but certainly not the least important reason, is that he has Roar for his flight and movement needs.
He already paid a lot of money and put a lot of effort into helping Roar advance to the third mortal coil. So there was no way he wasn't going to take advantage of all of his hard work and instead pay more money to buy something he has to spend his internal energy to use.
With this decision made, he left the weapon-forging hall and went to the library. Then he tried to use the token to get the Wood Vessel Sigil technique.
His attempt failed because the Wood Vessel Sigil Technique was a rank 4 technique. The token could only be used to get rank 3 or rank 2 techniques.
The Lightning Vessel Sigil Technique was also a rank 4 technique. This made him understand why Lady Evergreen had told him to give up on them until he reached the fourth mortal coil.
He now understood that even if he managed to comprehend them, he wouldn't be able to use them yet because of the energy requirement for activation.
So he decided to give up on them for now. But he still did research to learn about their capabilities and what made them special.
From the people he had spoken with, he heard that the vessel sigil techniques were the apex techniques of the Everlasting Wood Art and the Divine Lightning Armament. He had been curious about these claims, so he wanted to know why the claims were made in the first place.
The first thing he learned about the two techniques was that they were needed to secure transcending the fourth mortal coil into the fifth.
This surprised him because the first thing he found out about the techniques wasn't about their capabilities but was about their importance and value. It made him take the two techniques more seriously than he already did.