111: Chapter 111 The Harvest from the Spiritless Ruins

The gray mist surged and silently receded.

Gu Shen's feet stepped firmly onto the spacious refined iron floor of the first level of the Spiritless Ruins.

There was no suffocating treachery like in the Cultivation World here, only deathly silence.

For Gu Shen, this silence was the greatest sense of security.

Beep—!

Almost the moment he landed, the lifeless black iron button at his collar suddenly lit up with a blinding circle of azure light.

"Local area network connection successful! Security protocol overwrite complete!"

Accompanied by an extremely rapid electronic prompt, the mechanical spider leaped down from Gu Shen's shoulder.

Its eight legs alternated rapidly as it spun wildly around Gu Shen, the red and blue lights on its sensor head flashing frantically.

"Holy shit! I'm alive! I'm finally alive!"

The Crab's electronic voice, which had been dry and stuttering in the Cultivation World, now became incredibly loud and filled with the excitement of having survived a disaster.

"My Lord! The physical Laws of your world are complete dogshit! What the hell kind of energy field was left in that pile of scrap metal? There was no electromagnetic radiation, yet it could directly interfere with my underlying logic gates!"

The Crab waved its mechanical pincers while frantically complaining, "Just now, when I was repairing that Iron Corpse, I felt like my central processor had been stuffed with ten thousand rabid Aberrations! I almost hit a logic deadlock and burned out my motherboard completely!"

Gu Shen looked at it throwing a tantrum with a blank expression.

In the Cultivation World, Yin-Resentment Qi is a combination of remnant Souls and resentment.

Technological creations cannot analyze Souls, so they naturally produce severe rejection and short circuits.

"Quiet."

Gu Shen coldly spat out two words.

The mechanical spider's movements stiffened abruptly, and the blue light stabilized instantly.

It knew its Lord's temper very well and immediately switched back to its highly professional advisor mode.

"My Lord, welcome back to Shelter No. 7."

The Crab's voice returned to a steady tone, "The surveillance logs for the surface area have been synchronized. During the time you were away, the three simple armored puppets you left behind perfectly executed the automated collection script."

"Lead the way, let's see the results." Gu Shen tightened his grip on the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade at his waist.

Man and machine passed through the dim corridor and arrived at a super-large storage room deep in the first level.

The heavy iron door of the storage room had already been pushed open.

Inside, three eight-foot-tall humanoid armored puppets, covered in rough weld seams and basic Spirit Gathering Array patterns, stood quietly in the corner like stone statues.

Their shells were covered with scratch marks and traces of acid corrosion of varying depths, obviously having had many physical collisions with low-level Aberrations remaining in the surface area while scavenging for supplies.

But as long as the array patterns were not destroyed and the Spirit Stones were not exhausted, they were tireless worker ants.

And directly in front of the three armored puppets,

Was a "mountain of trash" in the true sense of the word.

Gu Shen's pupils shrank slightly the moment he saw the small mountain.

A mountain of stripped purple copper wires, dismantled chunks of load-bearing refined steel plates, discarded crystal components emitting a faint luster, and a large number of broken control panels forcibly pried from the hub area of the third floor above ground.

"My Lord, these three laborers have almost completely dismantled every metal facility they could on the third floor above ground."

The Crab reported with extreme pride, "According to the priority you set, a total of about three hundred catties of high-purity purple copper cables and twelve hundred catties of hundred-refined load-bearing steel plates have been collected here. In addition, more than sixty low-frequency thunder magnetic crystals were pried out of some scrapped confidential equipment."

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

Low-level Loose Cultivators in the Cultivation World would fight to the death for a few Spirit Stones.

Yet he, by simply letting three low-tech lumps of iron roam free, could sit on a mountain of gold in these Spiritless Ruins.

This was the ultimate dimensionality-reduction strike brought about by the resource disparity between the two worlds.

Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Shen strode forward and pressed one hand onto the massive mountain of metal trash.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the ancient [Heaven and Earth Furnace] let out an extremely vast roar.

"Refine."

Boom!

Pale white flames of Law swept out like a tsunami, completely engulfing the entire small metal mountain.

Such a massive amount of refining was extremely draining on his Divine Sense. Gu Shen's face turned slightly pale, but he gritted his teeth and forcibly channeled his magic power to sustain it.

The Wasteland purple copper wires quickly collapsed and purified in the furnace fire, with oxide layers and Impurities dissipating as billowing black smoke; the twelve hundred catties of load-bearing steel plates were forcibly stripped of their most essential iron essence under the extreme heat and Law.

A full hour passed.

The furnace fire subsided.

Gu Shen let out a long breath of stale air and flicked his large sleeve.

Clang! Clang!

Three types of top-grade spiritual materials, refined and tidy, landed on the clean refined iron floor.

Fifty catties of [refined red copper], crimson all over and radiating a warm, fiery aura.

Two hundred catties of [hundred-refined refined iron ingots], shimmering with a cold silver light and completely free of any Impurities.

And a small bag, weighing about half a catty, of [thunder magnetic fine sand] with dark blue electric arcs constantly jumping on its surface!

"Rich overnight."

Gu Shen looked at the spiritual materials on the floor, an extremely fervent light flashing in his eyes.

Fifty catties of refined red copper were worth at least two hundred and fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones on the market in the Cultivation World. Two hundred catties of hundred-refined refined iron were worth eighty Spirit Stones.

And that half catty of thunder magnetic fine sand was an invaluable, top-grade thunder-element spiritual material that could sell for an astronomical price, and it was the core foundation for him to upgrade his gold-severing saber and set up thunder arrays in the future.

He flicked his large sleeve and swept all this massive wealth, enough to make even Foundation Establishment Cultivators take notice, into his Storage Ring.

The Spirit Stone crisis of the Cultivation World was completely wiped out at this moment.

"Well done." Gu Shen rarely offered a compliment.

"That's right! As long as there are enough Spirit Stones, I can make these three pieces of junk dismantle the load-bearing walls of this Shelter!" The Crab excitedly claimed credit.

Gu Shen walked over to the three dormant armored puppets and checked the Low-Grade Spirit Stones in their cores. The Spiritual Qi had been half consumed.

He casually pried out the waste stones and replaced them with three brand new Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Accompanied by a low mechanical hum, the electronic eyes of the three Puppets lit up with dark blue light once again.

"There is no more profit to be made on the three floors above ground. Put them into sleep mode."

Gu Shen turned around, his gaze passing through the deep corridor, looking toward the passage leading to the depths of the underground.

With money in hand, the next step was to improve his strength.