Chapter 188: I changed my mind.
"Get out!" Was the only reply Lee got when he went to meet Elder Shen.
Lee kind of hoped to use their relatively normal relationship and previous familiarity to ask her to give him a mission to go to the Celestial Abyss sect. She was the elder leading the Mission Hall, and surely now and then there was some kind of interaction with the parent sect, but all he got was a finger pointing at the door and an angry stare.
After a longer physical training to calm his mind, Lee went to the library and asked junior elder Chen for an advice, but after he mentioned the Celestial Abyss, she turned cold and left. Fortunately she didn’t throw him out, firing on the spot.
Lee didn’t have that many acquaintances in the sect. He decided against consulting Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen. After all the two were close with Shen Rouya. That left only his young friend, whom he didn’t take completely seriously, and Han Li.
Left with no other options, Lee meditated through the night, but in the morning ran off to the closest village to purchase sweets. He returned only after noon, but Han Li had just woken up and happily accepted his bribe to be her breakfast.
"Forget it!" She said, "You can’t cross the ocean. No one can. The only way is to get someone to open a rift for you. But the sect master probably won’t do it ... and that means you have to persuade someone from another sect. You’re out of luck."
"How much would it cost for someone to open a rift for me?" Lee asked. He considered himself to be a reasonably resourceful person and with time he could find the necessary means.
"A skillful elemental lord would probably open a rift for you only if you were his personal friend or if it was for a business deal or something." Han Li said, "But if you mean the rift gate ... it will cost a large container of elemental sparks to only start it up. How much do you think an elemental lord would charge for the effort? You can’t persuade someone like that with few sweets, no matter how good they are!"
Then she licked her fingers, savoring the last bits of sugar, and said, "Drop the idea. If an opportunity comes up in the future, use it. Otherwise, do your thing."