Chapter 656: This Thing Is Treated as Waste? Time to Scavenge!

Su Ming slowly closed his eyes, feeling the earth-shaking changes within his body.

Inside his Dantian, the Golden Core was a full circle larger than before. The original fine cracks on its surface had completely vanished, replaced by ring after ring of dark blue formation lines that flowed like water ripples. The purity and reserve of his Ruo Shui spiritual energy had increased by nearly double compared to before.

Su Ming flexed his slightly sore muscles and bones, listening to the crackling sounds within his body like popping beans. The corner of his mouth finally curved upward.

In his Consciousness Sea, he said to Lin Yu, who was still shaken by the earlier spectacle, "Master, I think although this spirit realm is incredibly dangerous, not even giving us a moment to breathe, the cultivation efficiency here truly leaves the human realm in the dust."

"Hmph, stop playing coy." Lin Yu snorted coldly, ruthlessly pouring a bucket of cold water on him. "So what if cultivation is fast? In this place that devours people without spitting out bones, living long is the real priority. You saw that cross-realm resonance earlier. The time left to us might be even shorter than we think. Survival is always first!"

"Your disciple will remember." Su Ming wiped the smile from his face.

He turned his head to look at the Void Stone fragments that had completely crumbled into worthless powder. A trace of helplessness flickered in his eyes. "Except, before we consider survival, we need to solve a very practical problem first."

The last trace of Void spiritual energy lingering in the meditation room was greedily absorbed into Lin Yu's Soul Body.

Su Ming didn't bother with the messy workbench. Instead, he poured everything from his storage pouch onto the stone bed.

His dark blue water spiritual energy transformed into pairs of invisible hands, sorting the bottles, formation flags, and ores into categories.

"Top-grade Qi Restoring Elixirs, seven bottles left. Clear Heart Talismans, twenty. Soul-Stabilizing Talismans, only the one life-saving trump card Senior Brother Luo Feng gave me remains." Su Ming's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

His gaze finally landed on several fist-sized gray stones covered in honeycomb-like pores on their surface.

These were his last Void Stones.

Su Ming quickly made a calculation in his mind: "Based on the rate of consumption during this breakthrough to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, plus the outrageous thickness of this spirit realm's spatial barrier, the remaining Void Stones, even if I use them sparingly, can support at most three to four more activations of the Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation."

"Three or four times? That's practically running out of food!" Lin Yu drifted down beside the stone bed, looking at their pitiful stockpile, his tone revealing obvious anxiety. "Your Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation is our only way to quickly replenish pure spiritual energy in the spirit realm, and also the only hope for this old man to recover soul power. If it runs out and we really encounter a kill zone from the Dark Current Sect, what will we use to fight for our lives? I should have asked for more from that big shot when I had the chance."

Su Ming remained silent.

He was fully aware that Lin Yu's anxiety was not unfounded. In this foreign realm where they could not directly absorb ambient spiritual energy, Void Stones were his oxygen tank. Once the oxygen tank ran dry, suffocation was only a matter of time.

"We need to find a substitute." Su Ming tapped his knee lightly with his fingers.

Void Stones weren't considered some supremely rare divine object in the human realm, but on the spirit race's territory, this kind of human race ore with obvious spatial attributes, if sought out ostentatiously, would inevitably arouse the spirit race's suspicion. They would wonder why he was so desperate for spatial power.

"Master." Su Ming raised his head, a cunning glint flashing in his eyes. "We can't directly ask for Void Stones. We can use my status as a guest official to request some spirit realm ores with spatial attributes from them. We'll say... it's to repair certain ancient formation cores in the Greenwood Court that involve spatial folding."

Lin Yu's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands with a laugh. "Brilliant! Your skill at using borrowed authority as a cover has truly reached perfection. Let's go, strike while the iron is hot. Find that silly boy called Ye Qing and sound him out!"

A short while later, Su Ming pushed open the wooden door of the tree hollow.

The guard stationed in the distance along the passage merely glanced at him indifferently before paying him no further attention.

Su Ming followed the vine passage to a massive tree platform where Ye Qing handled logistics and supplies in his daily duties.

Ye Qing was directing several mountain-moving apes as they hauled bundles of glowing timber, sweating profusely from the hustle. Seeing Su Ming arrive, he immediately wiped his sweat and came over to greet him.

"Su Ming, you just became a guest official today. Instead of enjoying that rich life-force in Qingyou Residence, what are you doing in my hard-labor corner?" Ye Qing teased with a smile.

Su Ming casually fished a fingernail-sized Void Stone fragment from his sleeve and held it out to Ye Qing, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness. "Brother Ye, to be honest, when I was reviewing the formation diagram log Elder Genxu gave me yesterday, I noticed several ancient defensive nodes on the outskirts with somewhat unstable internal spatial structures. To repair them, I need a type of ore similar to this material as filler. I wonder if the Greenwood Court's storehouse has anything like this in stock?"

Ye Qing took the Void Stone fragment and examined it closely for a long while.

He even touched it with the green soft tendrils on top of his head, then furrowed his brow and shook his head.

"Strange, this stone's material is incredibly hard, and it seems to contain a kind of power I've never seen before." Ye Qing handed the fragment back to Su Ming. "To be honest, I recognize basically every plant, rock, and metal on the spirit race's territory, but I've never seen this kind of stone."

Su Ming's heart sank slightly, but he kept his expression calm. "Then... if there's no stone like this, is there any other substance containing a similar spatial repulsion force?"

"A substance containing spatial force?" Ye Qing stroked his chin, pondering carefully.

After a moment, he suddenly slapped his thigh, his eyes lighting up. "Hey! Now that you mention it, I do remember something!"

Su Ming perked up, putting on an expression of attentive listening.

"In the northwest direction within Greenwood Court's jurisdiction, there's a place classified as a restricted zone, called the Void Rift." Ye Qing lowered his voice, speaking mysteriously. "They say that several thousand years ago, while Elder Woodheart was in deep slumber, one of his main root veins grew wildly underground and accidentally touched a weak point in this world's spatial barrier. As a result, the root vein was severed by spatial turbulence, forming a natural tiny rift there."

Ye Qing paused, then continued: "That rift is extremely dangerous, with spatial fierce winds that can slice through souls blowing year-round. But in the soil at the rift's edge, due to years of erosion by spatial force, a substance called Void Condensation Sand has formed. The elders once appraised it and said it does contain spatial force, but because it's too violent and cannot fuse with the laws of life, it was classified as waste material and nobody bothered with it."

Void Condensation Sand!

Su Ming exchanged a look of wild joy with Lin Yu in his Consciousness Sea.

Containing spatial force and considered unusable waste by the spirit race. This was practically a perfect substitute handed to him by the heavens!