He decided to come back later to explore the castle thoroughly. After a brief observation, he entered the castle and asked the chief to guide him to its center.
The chief led Ryan to the heart of the castle, where a fountain rested.
There, he asked the chief to step aside for a minute as he had found the solution to the problem that had plagued them for generations. He was going to cleanse the castle and asked not to be disturbed for a few minutes.
Ryan sat cross-legged and began meditating, his hand resting on the edge of the fountain where black, murky water lay.
Ryan soon entered a deep meditation, connected with the fortune cauldron within his soul, and asked it to begin absorbing the energy it needed.
Then, the chief got an eerie feeling from the surrounding castle as a cold wind began to blow in, making him extremely uncomfortable.
To his shock, the chief observed Ryan's skin turning jet black, like a demon's, with veins bulging all over his body. A dark wind surrounded Ryan, obscuring the chief's view of him.
Ryan felt his qi exercise activate automatically as the black wind surrounded him, and within a minute, the entire thing was absorbed into his body. Then, his body returned to normal.
Soon, the cauldron absorbed the black energy from his body, rotated clockwise a few times and digested all the energy, and then spewed a small amount of chaotic energy needed for his practice. It also provided a message detailing the black energy.
According to the message, the black energy was called doom's luck, where only cultivators died by the curses of the heavenly dao after they did an unforgivable thing to the world, which made the rules of the world disturbed.
After understanding the details of the energy the cauldron absorbed, Ryan instructed it not to send the chaotic qi into his body to increase his realm immediately. Instead, he asked it to save the energy for emergencies when he needed to increase his cultivation urgently.
The cauldron shook twice in agreement and then fell silent.
Ryan opened his eyes to see the worried chief looking at him, unsure of what to do next.
Ryan wakes up from his meditation and tells the chief that he has been cleansed of the filth that was causing the various accidents in the castle.
Ryan lied by claiming that his practice method was special, allowing him to easily identify problems and clean the filth in the castle.
Seeing the doubtful look on the chief's face, Ryan decided to weave a story about how the castle was cursed by someone after the death of the previous owner a thousand years ago. He explained that anyone who hadn't practiced immortal cultivation would be affected by the curse, depending on the time they spent in the castle. The curse had gradually weakened over time, but he had cleaned up some of what was left in the castle.
He will try cleaning the rest after purchasing the castle, as it will take more time to clean it entirely.
The chief felt happy as he heard Ryan decided to buy the castle.
Ryan saw the chief didn't hear anything other than the word, he decided to buy it and then Ryan poured cold water on the chief enthusiasm by reminding him that he has no gold to purchase such a large castle now and he required minimum of 10 years to purchase.
The chief thought for a minute and asked if he could sell the spell seeds he could produce in ten years in exchange for the castle papers.
Ryan thought for a moment and agreed, but it would take at least one year to produce such a large number of spell seeds, Ryan reminded the chief.
The chief happily agreed and offered to send villagers to clean the castle, but Ryan declined. He didn't have enough money to hire workers since he needed to work for a year nonstop to repay the debt he incurred to buy the small castle. Additionally, he wanted to purchase a small house in the village for his grandfather so that he wouldn't have to live alone and away from his friends in his old age.
The chief understood his difficulties and didn't press him, only reminding him that Ryan was just a 12-year-old kid. He had forgotten Ryan was a child when he listened to his objections, which sounded like those of an adult.
The chief then took Ryan out of the castle and looked at the gates before passing the keys into Ryan's hands as agreed and then took him back to the village and showed the independent house, which was free for occupying immediately.
Ryan liked the house and bought it at the price of 10 gold coins, which he paid with 10 spell seeds.
Then, Ryan left the chief's side after saying goodbye and went back to his home and informed his grandfather of buying the house in the village center while concealing the castle in the valley.
Both of them started packing the things in the house to shift the house as soon as possible.
While they were packing the stuff in the house, Ryan found a golden wood box which has intricate designs and remembered it was the box the old man who came with the foundation realm expert, which he threw at him while leaving the village.
Ryan then thought for a moment and decided to open it the next morning after he finished packing his things. He placed the box under his pillow on the bed.
Then Ryan got busy packing his things, leaving the other matters in the back of his mind to deal with later.
After finishing his work, he had some dinner and then went to sleep, dreaming a pleasant dream that night.
The next morning, Ryan hired some villagers to carry the packed items to his new house. Once the work was done, he went to the room he had chosen as his bedroom, closed the door, sat on his bed, took the golden wooden box from the table beside his bed and placed the box on his lap, and began observing it from every angle.