238: Chapter 238 Mysterious Stone, Huge Gain!

Staring at the deep black stone before it, the Ostrich's eyes revealed a look of bewildered confusion.

He had sensed that something was very wrong back when the three players—Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao—were fighting that 'Vibrant Mutant White Boar' of unknown origin, dying and then undergoing Resurrection. Logically, at this stage, it should only cost a single point for any of those three players to undergo Resurrection on the spot with full status. However, under Chen Mo's perception, he discovered that they consumed two points every time they revived. Aside from the one-point Resurrection processing fee that Chen Mo had already set, the additional point was used for the consumption of reconstructing the dead player character's Soul body—but this consumption was unnecessary under the established operating procedures of the Fantasy Jianghu game! It was only because an accident occurred; after a player died, the pure Soul Fragments formed by the dissipation of the Soul Power that constituted the character did not remain in the game world, but were instead absorbed by something that did not belong to the game world. Therefore, Soul values had to be consumed to reconstruct the player character. The players themselves could not sense this; the only thing they could notice was that the fantasy points required for Resurrection suddenly increased from one to two. They simply assumed that some game rules had changed upon entering the Dungeon and would never guess the truth. But Chen Mo was completely different from these players; as an Apprentice Main God and the creator of the Fantasy Jianghu game world, he was particularly sensitive to such underlying rules of the game world's operation. He immediately sensed a problem, and that problem was this cold, deep black stone.

It was this stone. It did not belong to the game world, yet it possessed a significant attraction toward unconscious, pure Soul power. That was why it could snatch away the Soul power belonging to the game world whenever a player died near it!

So, was this stone conscious or unconscious?

Was its act of snatching the Soul power that scattered into fragments after a player's death intentional or unintentional?

Chen Mo had only been an Apprentice Main God for a few short days, and his experience with such bizarre objects was still severely lacking. Although the database in the Main God Space might contain relevant information, he had not yet become a full member and lacked sufficient authority to access the relevant database materials. Even standing before this deep black stone, he could not tell what its origin was.

After a careful inspection and searching through all the knowledge in his mind, Chen Mo confirmed that his current knowledge reserves truly contained no information regarding this deep black stone. He couldn't help but shake his head and sigh inwardly, controlling the Ostrich's forelimbs—its wings—to slowly reach toward the deep black stone.

At this moment, the Timid Ostrich, which had been perfectly submissive under the control of a wisp of Chen Mo's mind, suddenly sent him a sense of resistance.

Chen Mo was slightly stunned. He hadn't expected the Timid Ostrich, which had been letting him control it obediently, to suddenly develop a heart of resistance. Nor had he expected this creature, whose grade was only that of a common monster, to not be a templated mob with only combat and survival instincts, but to seemingly possess its own consciousness.

Since that was the case, Chen Mo shifted his thoughts and had a brief exchange with the Timid Ostrich. He discovered that although the Timid Ostrich was terrified of the deep black stone before it, this fear stemmed from the Ostrich's biological instincts. In truth, it didn't understand what kind of threat the stone posed; it only knew that it should stay away.

Chen Mo, however, didn't believe in such superstitions. Most importantly, he had no other way to learn about this deep black stone and could only touch it to find out. Furthermore, when he was hiding behind the earth wall earlier, he had seen Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao touch the stone out of curiosity, and no abnormalities seemed to occur. Therefore, he figured the stone wasn't untouchable.

Chen Mo controlled the Ostrich's wing to reach closer to the deep black stone.

'Hiss, so cold.'

Since he was controlling the Timid Ostrich's body with a wisp of his mind, Chen Mo could indirectly experience the sensations felt by the Ostrich's body. The moment he touched the black stone, he felt a wave of icy cold. Combined with the slippery and hard texture, Chen Mo felt as if he were touching a piece of ancient ice.

However, beyond that, Chen Mo couldn't sense anything else. He was still at a loss regarding the origin and function of this large stone.

Perplexed, Chen Mo made a bold decision. He controlled the Timid Ostrich to withdraw its wing, then detached his wisp of mind from the Ostrich to attach it directly to the surface of the deep black stone.

Although the Ostrich regained control of its body after Chen Mo detached, it did not immediately flee this place filled with danger. Because it had been under that person's control, it vaguely sensed that the person was extraordinary, perhaps even akin to a god. Thus, it stared warily at the black stone, its body tensed so it could flee the moment danger arose, yet it didn't actually run yet.

Just then, the wisp of mind Chen Mo had detached from the Timid Ostrich to attach to the surface of the deep black stone also felt the coldness emanating from the stone. He was startled to realize that even without the Ostrich's physical senses, his own mind could feel the chill of the deep black stone. This icy sensation wasn't just physical; it existed for spiritual entities like Divine Thought and the Soul as well?

This gave Chen Mo a shock. He wondered what the origin of this black stone was to possess such a miraculous effect.

His curiosity grew, and wanting to investigate further, he made the wisp of mind attached to the surface penetrate into the stone. As his 'vision' went dark, the surrounding light faded, leaving only deep black in every direction. His mind had entered the interior of the deep black stone.

Having entered the stone, Chen Mo accurately sensed the icy feeling becoming even more intense. However, this did not stop him from delving deeper. Soon, Chen Mo's wisp of mind passed through the deep blackness and reached the very center of the stone. To his surprise, there was a small space here; it was only now that Chen Mo discovered the interior of this deep black stone was hollow rather than solid.

However, he no longer had the presence of mind to ponder why a stone that looked seamless from the outside—despite its strange shape—and was clearly formed as a single piece would have a hollow internal space.

This was because Chen Mo was currently completely stunned by the sight before him.

He saw an empty space where every direction was deep black, except for the very center, where a pile of fragments shimmered with faint light. An ordinary person might not even be able to see this pile of fragments, but Chen Mo, who was used to seeing them in the Freezing Room for Soul values in the Main God Space, recognized them instantly. These shimmering fragments were pure Soul Fragments, free of any Impurities!

Furthermore, while the Soul values frozen in the Main God Space were very few, the Soul Fragments before him were piled up into a small mound. There had to be at least several hundred points worth!

The moment Chen Mo saw this clearly, his breathing couldn't help but quicken.

Just then, a massive suction force suddenly erupted from that pile of shimmering Soul Fragments. Chen Mo was in a state of immense joy at the sudden appearance of several hundred Soul Points and, caught off guard in his distraction, was actually pulled toward the mound of Soul Fragments by that massive suction.

'!!!'

Chen Mo was instantly shocked and enraged. A hair-raising sensation was transmitted through this wisp of mind to his original body currently inside the Main God Space.

His intuition told him that if he were sucked into that pile of shimmering Soul Fragments, his wisp of mind would lose its consciousness and turn into the same pure Soul power, becoming part of that small mound.

Although the wisp of mind inside this deep black stone was only a tiny fraction of Chen Mo's total consciousness and could be recovered quickly even if lost here, the sense of crisis from the potential annihilation of his consciousness made Chen Mo feel an unprecedented terror. His main body immediately sat upright in the Main God Space, closing its eyes and focusing. He increased his control over the wisp of spirit inside the deep black stone, engaging in a tug-of-war. The pile of Soul Fragments inside the stone wanted to claim his wisp of mind, but his main body in the Main God Space was also exerting all its strength to take back control of it.

Although that mound of Soul Fragments looked conspicuous and the Soul power contained within was quite high, they were perhaps unable to beat Chen Mo in this struggle for the wisp of mind because they lacked a consciousness to control them and were merely pure Soul power. After a back-and-forth tug-of-war lasting two or three minutes, Chen Mo felt a sense of soreness—not in his physical body, but from deep within his Soul. However, the struggle for this wisp of mind finally yielded a result. Under the concentrated effort and power of his main body, he not only pulled his wisp of mind away from the center of the deep black stone but also dragged the pile of Soul Fragments that originally belonged inside the stone out of their original space.

Soon, Chen Mo's wisp of mind, like a small horse pulling a large cart, dragged the mound of Soul Fragments out of the internal space of the deep black stone. Looking at the deep black stone again, it seemed it wasn't as black anymore. He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but what was certain was that the icy sensation on it had greatly diminished; at least, under Chen Mo's mental perception, it was now very faint.

Looking at the pile of shimmering Soul Fragments before him, Chen Mo felt like a thief who had just stolen a pile of gold bars from a bank. He couldn't bother with anything else and only wanted to find a place to safely store his loot. He hurriedly transmitted a message to the Timid Ostrich still waiting by the stone, telling it that it was now free, and then led the wisp of mind along with the massive pile of Soul Fragments back to his main body in the Main God Space.

Inside the Main God Space, Chen Mo, sitting next to Xiao Wan, shuddered. His first thought was to see where the pile of Soul Fragments he brought back from the black stone had gone. However, he looked around his left hand, his right hand, and his surroundings but couldn't find any trace of them. Just as he was feeling confused, he suddenly received a message notification from the Main God Space.

[Obtained main god points: 524]

'How... how many? Five hundred and twenty-four!?'

Chen Mo was so shocked he was speechless. He rushed to the place in the Main God Space where Soul Points were kept. Sure enough, he saw a pile of shimmering Soul Fragments in the Storage Room. Because these were the purest Soul Fragments and didn't have the contract restrictions like those in the Freezing Room of the Main God Space, they were directly converted into main god points that could be used at any time upon entering the Main God Space.

"Five hundred and twenty-four..."

Facing such a huge sum of wealth, Chen Mo was speechless for a while, only able to mutter to himself after a long time.

Aside from when he first took over the Main God Space and painstakingly coaxed those 648 main god points—the Reserve Energy Points that served as the Main God Space's startup capital—from Xiao Wan, Chen Mo had basically been destitute. Even if he occasionally gained some main god points, they were quickly squandered. Suddenly seeing such a huge sum, he was truly overjoyed beyond measure.

Except... why would such a black stone exist in that cave? And why was such a massive amount of main god points placed inside that stone?

Chen Mo couldn't help but fall into thought again.

Suddenly, he remembered that his initial reason for investigating that stone was because it had sucked away the Soul values of Hu Gualing and Tang Yao, which had caught his attention.

Connecting this event to the over 500 main god points he obtained from the black stone, a guess soon formed in Chen Mo's mind. 'Could it be that the stone doesn't belong to the Fantasy Jianghu game world, but exists somewhere else, silently absorbing surrounding Soul power, and for some reason appeared in that cave? Or perhaps, for some reason, Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao entered the place where the stone was located through a passage that looked like a cave, which led to this strange encounter?'

But this brought him back to the initial question: 'What exactly is that place in the mysterious cave that looks like a Dungeon?' With the intention of finding out, Chen Mo projected his mind back into the game world. Just as he was looking for that Timid Ostrich to carry his mind and investigate further, he was surprised to find that the cave was already within his perception range!