Chapter 1562: Inside the Cellar

There was nothing more Ning could think of at the moment that could be possible in regards to why someone became Sparkless. Maybe there was something more he could learn in the library?

He visited the library the next day to search for any sort of records on Sparkless but found nothing substantial. It just explained the circumstances around which most people had become Sparkless.

Ning did manage to discern a bit of difference between what most people thought caused being Sparkless and what caused Sparkless. It was a common belief that using too much Spark at once caused you to be Sparkless.

And while it did make you Sparkless, it was not the fact that you used too much Spark, but the fact that you didn't use it enough. At least, that was how it sounded in the end.

'You go Sparkless when you hold onto the power for too long,' Ning thought. 'When you use too much Spark at once, you sometimes don't manage to use all of it at once and end up keeping the remaining power in your body, which makes you Sparkless.'

He learned that but what did that mean? Was there something more to it now that he had learned it?

His two hypotheses still didn't change much after being clarified about the cause of Sparkless. Ning wanted to spend his time learning more about it, but he couldn't do so. The leader, Swini Milios, would be starting to make Dust starting tomorrow, so he needed to see everything that led up to it.

Ning arrived at City 7 early in the morning and found the leader. Throughout the entire day, he did nothing productive at all, spending most of his time doing Dust. However, around late afternoon, he left his home to go somewhere with Karina.

Ning followed them and arrived at a shop filled with military people. He wondered what the Cadets and officers were doing there and checked what the shop was for.

Surprisingly, it was a fruit shop, belonging to the military. Everything grown by the military's Cultivators was sold by them through their shops, and this was one that sold fruits.

Ning looked at the fruits, all of which were plump and ripe. Surely the leader wasn't here for this? Was one of the ingredients for the Dust some sort of fruit?

As Ning thought that, someone walked out of the shop, carrying three large metal barrels on a cart.

"Here you go," the man said, handing over the cart over to the leader.

"Thanks, friend," the leader replied picked up the card, and began taking it away. From the slushing sound coming through the barrel, Ning could tell there was some sort of liquid inside.

His eyebrows raised. 'Juices!'

He looked at the shop and back at the barrels. Were they talking about actual fruit juices? Were these ingredients to Dust?

None of the soldiers seemed very concerned with the Leader taking away the juices at all. It didn't take Ning too long to understand why.

Taking barrels and barrels of juice was common at this shop. Some took it for their shop, some took it for their homes. No one questioned why it was being taken away.

That was why they were here to sell it after all.

'Damn,' Ning thought. 'Right from under the military's nose.'

Ning followed the leader and Karina and arrived outside their house. They took the barrel in, but instead of taking it anywhere else, the leader looked around and slammed his leg on the floor twice.

The floor surrounding the leader and Karine began to ripple as it slowly moved upward. It twisted around the two, slowly opening up to the side as a spiral slide revealed itself.

The leader pulled the cart up and began taking it down to the secret cellar. Once he and Karina walked in, the ripples of stone closed the ground as if they never existed.

Ning followed the two inside and soon arrived at a wide room with a large plastic-like mat prepared on the entire floor, one side of which was filled with large pieces of rocks.

One man was in the room, a Carver who had opened the door. He seemed to be the only one here. Neither General Cord's son nor the other girl who was like a Breather.

The three barrels were put to the side and Karina got working on it while the Leader went toward the piles of rocks on the other side.

"You finished weighing it all?" the leader asked the man.

The man simply nodded.

Karina began unscrewing a small cap on the top of the barrel and smelled what was inside of it. Ning went by and smelled it as well.

It smelled sweet.

She then opened another barrel and it was the same juice. Finally, she opened the last barrel, and this time a bitter smell filled the air.

Karina closed her nose and moved away, looking toward the leader who needed to get working quickly.

Ning went close to the leader and looked at what he was doing from up close.

The piles of rock placed on the mat weren't in any random order at all. They were separated into 3 distinct piles where two of them were of the same size, but the last one had as many rocks as the other two.

The leader pulled out a large vial of Spark poured out a bit of it and sniffed it directly, inhaling the entire thing into his lungs.

Immediately, he began sensing the power building inside of him and used it on the pile of rock in front of him.

The first rock turned into something off-white. The rocks never changed shape and they barely changed size as well. Whatever he had made, it appeared to still be some sort of rock. Ning looked at it closely. Was that limestone? It appeared to be so. He was once tested to see if he could change something into limestone and he hadn't been able to.

Berraine hadn't tested him further because limestones weren't that necessary compared to items like glass and Newt-metal.