17: Chapter 17 Emptiness

"The depths of those ruins truly hide a great terror."

Gu Shen walked to the table and sat down, poured himself a cup of tea, and drank it in one gulp.

As a native Cultivator of the Great Yu Cultivation World, he had read many ancient books.

In his view, that dead, silent world filled with gray mist and completely devoid of Spiritual Qi was definitely the ruins of a fallen Ancient Sect.

Those towering glass towers that reached the sky without any Formation patterns, and the "hundred-refined refined iron" and "red copper" scattered everywhere, all demonstrated the past glory of this Sect in the path of "mechanism Puppets".

As for those monsters that resembled walking corpses, Gu Shen speculated that when the Sect fell, some kind of vicious curse or Formation backlash must have turned the Disciples and Spirit Beasts inside into those undead evil spirits.

"Fortune and misfortune are interdependent. The greater the danger, the greater the Opportunity."

Gu Shen calmed his mind and opened his tightly clenched left hand.

In his palm lay five strangely styled rings.

The material was neither gold nor silver, and they were inlaid with transparent crystals.

In the Great Yu Cultivation World, this type of transparent crystal was extremely rare and was known as a "void stone"; it contained the power of space and was the core spiritual material for refining storage Magical Artifacts.

"Ancient Cultivators were truly extravagant, actually cutting the void stone into such tiny pieces and inlaying them onto ordinary iron that had no Spiritual Qi fluctuations, treating them as mere ornaments."

Gu Shen exclaimed in admiration.

If it were an ordinary Artifact Refiner facing such embedded objects, it would take at least several days of painstaking effort to detach them without damaging the void stone in the slightest.

But Gu Shen did not need to.

With a thought, he acted.

The five rings vanished instantly, thrown into the [Heaven and Earth Furnace] in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

"Refine."

The virtual fire of the Great Furnace rose, silently licking the rings.

[Refining...]

Under the calcination of the rule-based fire, those grayish-white ordinary metals quickly turned into fly ash. Only the five rice-grain-sized transparent crystals shimmered in the fire, emitting faint spatial ripples.

"Fuse."

Gu Shen concentrated his Divine Sense and forcibly urged the Great Furnace.

The five tiny void stones slowly approached each other in the fire, eventually merging into one, becoming a crystal-clear bead the size of a soybean.

Immediately after, Gu Shen pulled out a piece of discarded copper wire (not red copper, just ordinary copper) he had picked up in the ruins from under the bed, tossed it into the furnace, refined it into a plain, unadorned brass ring, and inlaid the void stone bead onto it.

A moment later, the furnace fire subsided.

Gu Shen extended his hand.

A dark yellow copper ring landed in his palm.

He took a deep breath, mobilized the pure Spiritual Qi of his Qi Refining Stage 4 within his body, and slowly injected it into the ring.

Pop.

It felt as if a faint sound of a bubble bursting echoed in his mind.

Gu Shen's Divine Sense followed the Spiritual Qi and probed inside, and a small, pitch-black, silent space appeared in his perception.

The space was not large, only about three square feet, equivalent to a large wooden box.

"Success."

A trace of wild joy flashed in Gu Shen's eyes.

Although the space was extremely small, far inferior to the High Grade Storage Pouch hanging from the waists of those high-level Cultivators, this was a genuine storage Magical Artifact! Moreover, its style was disguised as an ordinary copper ring; wearing it on his finger, who would think this was a spatial treasure?

Gu Shen immediately began to count his assets.

He unbuckled the gold-severing saber from his waist, and with a thought, the long saber vanished into thin air, landing steadily within the ring's space.

Next was the black turtle shield he kept hidden close to his body.

That shadow cat bone spike.

Two porcelain bottles filled with red blood essence glue.

And the remaining three and a half Spirit Stones on his person.

He put them all inside.

Looking at his empty hands and then touching the cold copper ring on his finger, Gu Shen felt unprecedented peace of mind.

In this dog-eat-dog market, not revealing one's wealth was the first iron rule for survival. With this storage ring, he no longer had to live in constant fear, worrying that others would discover the bulges on his person.

"The poison evil bead has been used up; I have one less trump card in my hand."

Gu Shen calculated.

The battle in the ruins not only consumed the poison evil bead, but the gold-severing saber and black turtle shield had not performed as expected. Facing those swarming evil spirits that could strike directly at the Divine Sense, physical defense and melee weapons seemed somewhat inadequate.

"I must find a method for Divine Sense defense or a large-area lethal Spell."

He noted it down secretly in his heart.

But right now, he only had three and a half Spirit Stones in his pocket; wanting to buy those high-level Spells was nothing but a pipe dream.

"It still has to come down to the red blood essence glue."

Gu Shen closed his eyes and began to meditate to recover his Spiritual Qi.

He still had to report for duty at the Baicao Pavilion tomorrow morning. Under high pressure, this rat still had to continue diligently stealing grain.

...

The next morning.

Gu Shen stepped into the backyard of the Baicao Pavilion silently, wearing his shadow shoes.

As soon as he entered, he sensed that the atmosphere was unusual.

The courtyard was filled with a group of Cultivators wearing blood-colored robes, each with a cold aura, and their cultivation level was at least Late-Stage Qi Refining. The leader had a stern expression and was speaking in low tones with Alchemist Chen.

Manager Wang Tong and a group of apprentices stood in the corner, silent as cicadas in winter.

Gu Shen lowered his head, hunched his back, and blended into the crowd without making a sound.

"Those are the Blood-Clad Guards from the Law Enforcement Hall."

A familiar apprentice nearby lowered his voice, his voice trembling, "I heard that the front line has suffered another major defeat, with heavy casualties. The Danding Sect has ordered that the output of all medicine halls be increased by another 30%, and the Blood-Clad Guards will personally supervise the work. Anyone found embezzling or slacking off will be executed on the spot."

Gu Shen's heart sank.

Increase it by another 30%? That was pushing people to their deaths.

Moreover, with the Blood-Clad Guards personally supervising, it meant that if he wanted to continue using the Great Furnace to refine medicinal dregs as recklessly as yesterday, the risks would increase exponentially.

"Listen up!"

The Blood-Clad Guards commander turned around, his gaze sweeping over the apprentices like a blade, "The soldiers on the front line are shedding blood, so you in the rear must shed sweat! From today on, no one is allowed to leave the Baicao Pavilion without permission; you will all eat and sleep in the Earth Fire Room."

"Start the furnaces!"

At the command, the entire Baicao Pavilion began to operate again like a giant millstone.

Gu Shen returned to his extraction vat.

It was the same red blood vine as yesterday, but today's amount was a full half more than yesterday.

He picked up the wooden pestle and began to pound the medicine mechanically.

He quietly released his Divine Sense.

He could feel that the Blood-Clad Guards commander's Divine Sense was like an invisible net, sweeping across the entire extraction room from time to time. The Divine Sense of a Late-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator was far more powerful than Gu Shen's; once his little actions were discovered, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Cannot be too greedy."

Gu Shen immediately made a decision in his heart.

The first vat of medicinal mud was pounded. He did not use the Great Furnace, but honestly filtered it and loaded it into barrels.

The second vat, he did the same.

Until the third vat, taking advantage of the moment the Blood-Clad Guards commander turned to check the Pill Furnace's heat.

Gu Shen's fingertips pressed against the vat wall, and the Great Furnace vibrated slightly.

The suction force was released and retracted instantly.

He only extracted a tiny bit of the most hidden essence, not even enough to make half a ball of red blood essence glue.

The color of the medicinal mud hardly changed at all.

Throughout the day, Gu Shen was exhausted and sweating profusely. The high-intensity labor combined with his constantly tense nerves made even him, a Qi Refining Stage 4 Cultivator, feel bouts of collapse.

And his harvest for the day was only a miserable two balls of red blood essence glue.

Compared to the ten balls yesterday, it was a cliff-like decline.

Night fell.

The apprentices collapsed directly in the corners of the sweltering Earth Fire Room and slept in their clothes.

Gu Shen found a dark corner near the ventilation opening and sat down cross-legged.

He did not sleep, but instead used his Spiritual Qi to slowly circulate his energy through the major cycle to eliminate the fatigue of his Physical Body.

"The Danding Sect is watching too closely."

Gu Shen reviewed the situation of the day in his heart.

The front line situation was tight, and the demand for healing medicine was a bottomless pit. The control at the Baicao Pavilion would only become stricter, and he, this rat, was at risk of being crushed to death at any time.

But thinking about it from the other side.

The shortage of healing medicine meant that the prices in the black market would inevitably soar again.

The twelve balls of "red blood essence glue" in his storage ring, which were several times more potent than ordinary hemostatic powder, were now definitely worth more than double what they were a few days ago.

"I must find an Opportunity to sell this batch of goods."

Gu Shen opened his eyes slightly and glanced at the Blood-Clad Guards commander who was sitting in meditation in the distance.

The Baicao Pavilion now allowed entry but not exit.

To go out and fence the stolen goods, he had to find a legitimate excuse.

Moreover, he had to guard against probing by interested parties.

The few transactions he had made in the market over the past few days, although extremely covert, might have left traces. Especially Old Man Zhang next door, who had given him the news about the "Immortal Ascension Token"; he still didn't know if he was a person or a ghost.

In the Cultivation World, danger lurks at every step.

Gu Shen closed his eyes again.

He had great patience. As a corpse collector, he understood best how to wait for death and Opportunity to arrive.