294: Terrifying shock!

The Tiangong Clan are natural-born treasure hunters.

This was something that even the Calamity Mercenary Group would not dispute!

The reason was that their preparations for various environments were simply too thorough.

Ye Su cautiously moved deeper into the area.

A giant blood wolf trailed behind him.

This brain-dead thing had really set its sights on Ye Su.

There was truly no reasoning with something that lacked a brain.

"The blood qi is indeed very dense, and it's becoming increasingly pure."

Ye Su said.

Even he could sense it clearly now.

It was evident how extreme the changes in blood qi had become in this place.

"Ye Su, you must be extremely careful."

Gong Li spoke with unprecedented solemnity.

"At first, I thought the probability of a divine blood heavenly stone being here was no more than 2%!"

"But now, I think the probability of it appearing is over 20%!"

"Oh? What kind of calculation is that?"

Ye Su didn't get angry or anything.

If Gong Li said this, it must be related to a matter of common knowledge.

"The blood qi of a divine blood heavenly stone lingers for a long time," Gong Li explained.

"Any place where it has once appeared will have blood qi that is difficult to disperse for ages."

"The Blood Qi Long Song Grand Canyon only somewhat resembled the environment where it exists, but it seemed more like a habitat for residual auras."

"However... the deeper we go, there's actually a fresh sensation within this blood qi."

"It's highly likely that there really is a divine blood heavenly stone breathing in and out here."

"Breathing? It's alive?"

Ye Su caught the key point.

A divine blood heavenly stone.

It was a stone, after all.

Isn't the term 'breathing' a bit inappropriate?

"A heavenly stone is naturally alive."

Gong Li said.

"It is a type of spirit, something with consciousness, just like top-tier equipment."

"It can run and escape on its own; it doesn't just sit there waiting for you to dig it up."

"Otherwise, in the universe, with millions of blood qi regions, would there really be millions of heavenly stones?"

"Those are all just decoys they set up."

Holy crap.

This isn't digging for treasure; this is catching a Spirit Beast!

The fact that heavenly stones were alive was indeed a bit hard for Ye Su to wrap his head around.

Could it be that making equipment with a divine blood heavenly stone meant smashing its corpse and smearing it on?

Wait, no.

"Precisely because it is alive, after it merges with the equipment, it can coexist with it as a form of transcendent consciousness."

Gong Li explained.

"Just like the combat AI of the Mechanical Race."

"With such an external module, you can exceed your limit combat power and push it even higher."

"Otherwise, how could it receive the blessing of Heaven's Will and be counted in the total combat power?"

Only life can receive the blessing of Heaven's Will.

This was an ironclad rule.

So that was it.

The relationship between the heavenly stone, the equipment, and the Ascender would be similar to that of a Symbiont.

Like the eel-like Symbionts inside the Dragon Whale back then.

Those Symbionts not only didn't lower the Dragon Whale's combat power but also helped it defend against intruders.

Oh—the cosmic version of beneficial gut flora, right.

That made it very easy to understand.

Awooo...

Suddenly.

Seeing Ye Su pause for a moment, the giant blood wolf lunged directly at him to bite.

Ye Su's hand jammed into its throat.

He clenched it into a fist.

Little brat, choke on this!

Then, with a slap of his long saber, he dispersed it.

Normally, the giant blood wolf had no brain and would just keep chasing relentlessly.

A large puddle of blood fell onto the moss.

Then it began to congregate again.

Ye Su continued walking forward.

But he soon stopped and watched the giant wolf take shape.

"Did you feel that? The blood qi in this place seemed to surge suddenly."

Ye Su said with a frown.

"It's like... like you touched a calm lake, and then ripples vibrated across the entire lake."

At the edge of the lake, it's hard to see the impact of such ripples.

But once you reach the center, you can see the sweeping ripple.

Gong Li nodded frantically.

The two of them then stared at the gradually forming giant wolf.

"No way—"

"It couldn't be—"

The two of them said in unison.

Awooo.

The giant wolf fully formed, staring intently at Ye Su, poised to pounce.

Its eyes flickered with blood-red light.

Yet, he still couldn't sense a shred of intelligence within it.

"Is there a possibility that the heavenly stone split itself into countless pieces to become these blood creatures?"

Ye Su asked.

"Very, very, very likely!"

Gong Li said excitedly.

This was simply Genius.

In the blood qi canyon, the blood qi surged like a violent wind.

And the blood creatures scurried around, slaughtering any living thing they saw.

This blatant display was the polar opposite of the 'stealthy god' nature of the divine blood heavenly stone.

And because of the immortality of the blood creatures...

No one would ever think to search through them inch by inch.

They would only think about avoiding them as quickly as possible.

Not only that—it seemed the entire blood qi canyon was a labyrinth constructed to hide the location of the heavenly stone.

The blood-water on the moss.

The immortal creatures.

The gale-like blood qi.

The wave-like Soul impacts.

Could it be that everything they saw was the heavenly stone? One could only say the answer was very close.

Yet it was unsolvable!

Because...

As an Ascension Level Two, it was impossible to pick up the entire canyon and squeeze it to force the heavenly stone to reveal itself.

Holy shit.

A dead end!

Their thoughts raced like lightning.

It was like guessing the winning numbers for a twenty-million-dollar lottery but not having the money to buy the ticket.

This is... "Do you have a way?"

"No!"

Gong Li answered very quickly.

There really was no way.

Playing like this in a Ruined World was truly a dead end.

Unless, after exploration was complete, they invited an Ascension powerhouse to directly shatter this world and break its rules.

Only then.

Could they force the divine blood heavenly stone out.

But... you'd have to be fast.

Because it really would run.

A heavenly stone's escape was incredibly fierce!

"Are you going to report this to the Calamity Mercenary Group?"

Gong Li asked cautiously.

Ye Su shook his head.

Report to the Calamity Mercenary Group?

Who are they to me?

I'm not a complete idiot!

"How about we look further inside?"

Ye Su suggested.

He wasn't willing to give up.

This was a divine blood heavenly stone.

An Ascender might not have the chance to be this close to a heavenly stone in their entire life.

"Fine, let's go a bit further in."

Gong Li was also unwilling to let go.

A divine blood heavenly stone.

One of the Ten Great Heavenly Stones, the divine blood heavenly stone!

The two of them continued forward.

After encountering a cavern.

Ye Su cautiously took a step forward.

Whoosh—the wind howled.

The blood qi was as dense as viscous mercury, and the air began to feel thick and sticky.

At the same time.

A wave of terrifying Soul attack washed directly over them.

50 points of intensity!

Even a Prodigy would find their scalp tingling.

Boom!!~

It was as if something had exploded right next to his ear.

Ye Su retreated violently.

His head throbbed with a splitting pain.

His entire body contorted in agony.

He hadn't fully mastered the Zen Heart Calm yet, dammit.

Ye Su's current defense intensity hovered around 50 points.

One step into Hell?

How could it increase so much all of a sudden?

Gong Li was shrieking; he was scared to death.

"Retreat, retreat, retreat!"