Withered Stone Spring

Hong Yuan patted the shell of the Mystic Turtle. "However, you're not in good shape today, there's still blood on your forehead. Let's make an appointment. Three days from now, after you've recovered your spirit, I'll have it show you those glowing characters again."

"As for money, precious metals, or holy healing medicines, those are all worldly possessions. I don't want them, no."

Su Yuehe took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from her chin. She understood what Hong Yuan meant and readily agreed, "Alright, three days it is."

The deal was thus struck under the watchful eyes of the crowd.

Hong Yuan's words blew into the ears of everyone present.

No money, no precious metals, and no holy healing medicines; just purely happy to help others.

It sounded generous, but paired with Hong Yuan's gleaming eyes and rubbing fingers, anyone who believed her would be a fool.

An Changqing sighed, silently took out his phone, and opened Green Bubble.

"Student Hong Yuan, you can make a list of your needs and send it to me, I'll help collect them."

Hong Yuan cleared her throat and fished out a crumpled little notebook.

"Actually, it's not much. My axe is badly worn, so I need twenty pounds of Deep Sea Black Gold, fifty Thundercloud Crystal Cores, and..."

She looked up at the sky, counting on her fingers. "Give me ten pounds of high-strength titanium alloy, plus two hundred recovery potions to drink as daily beverages."

The surrounding freshmen listening with pricked ears gasped.

These are worldly possessions? This is called not wanting money? This is more ruthless than kidnapping someone and demanding a ransom.

Twenty pounds of Deep Sea Black Gold was a strategic-level rare material, priceless and unavailable even on the black market.

Yin Chen directly turned his head away, looking as if he didn't know her.

Although to those two it certainly wouldn't be considered an exorbitant demand, Hong Yuan's blatant extortion was truly too embarrassing. As Hong Yuan's classmate, he felt his face burning with shame.

Transfer! He couldn't stay in this Magic City Academy anymore!

An Changqing stared at the list, his fingers pausing on the communicator's screen.

With his financial resources, buying these things would cost an arm and a leg, but the most important thing was that they were incredibly hard to collect.

Su Yuehe, however, didn't even blink.

"Fine. Tomorrow afternoon, these materials will be piled up in your dorm right on time."

She didn't hesitate at all. This deal was a guaranteed profit for her; the value of the ancient demon script far exceeded a few pieces of metal.

Things that were priceless and unavailable were actually the easiest for her to obtain. As long as she wanted them, plenty of people would willingly offer them to her.

Hong Yuan grinned from ear to ear, smiling so wide her eyes narrowed into slits. She generously lifted the Mystic Turtle over her head and shook it.

"A pleasure doing business, big patron!"

The Mystic Turtle, treated as a cash cow, had all four legs pointing at the sky, its beady eyes full of despair.

Instructor Black Crow stood on the high platform, picked up a megaphone, and roared, "Have you seen enough?! Those with injuries, roll over to the infirmary! Those who aren't exchanging items, go back to your dorms! Those who want to exchange items, go to logistics yourselves! Dismissed immediately!"

The crowd scattered like birds and beasts.

Chen Guan and the other two turned and walked toward the logistics department. They were going to claim their rewards; it was time to cash in all those points they had accumulated.

Along the way, Hong Yuan hummed an off-key song, wearing the Mystic Turtle on her head like a hat.

"Chen Guan, Yin Chen, we've completely struck it rich this time."

Hong Yuan patted her chest. "With the sponsorship of that little rich girl Su Yuehe, my broken axe can finally get a massive upgrade."

Chen Guan didn't reply. He was looking at the data continuously jumping across his retina.

Pushing open the doors to the Logistics Department, the director saw the three of them walk in and nearly dropped the thermos in his hand.

"You three... here is your points exchange list."

The director pulled a tablet from his drawer and handed it to Yin Chen, who was at the front. "You can pick whatever you want from this catalog. Don't be shy, choose whatever you like, just don't empty out our bottom-of-the-barrel strategic reserves."

Yin Chen took the tablet, his slender fingers swiping rapidly across the screen.

"I want a hundred of these Frost Crystals, and one Polar Storm Scroll."

He was wealthy; the Yin family's warehouses were piled high with all sorts of precious medicinal herbs. But wealth was all he had. For some things, money wasn't enough; you needed power and authority.

Hong Yuan snatched the tablet away, specifically tapping on heavy, massive, high-density metals.

Chen Guan stepped forward. He didn't need conventional resources, nor did his scythe need another upgrade. He only needed something that could feed back into his true body.

"This one." After a brief glance, Chen Guan tapped an icon in the corner of the screen.

The Logistics director leaned closer to the screen and got a clear look at the icon Chen Guan had selected.

His face, which had been blooming with a smile, instantly fell. He pushed up the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, repeatedly confirming the information on the screen.

It was a black crystal.

"Student Chen, are you sure you want this?" the director asked, typing on his keyboard to pull up the item's detailed file.

"This thing is called a Withered Source Stone. It was dug out of a high-level ruin three years ago. Its hardness is extremely high, even high-energy laser cutters can't slice through it. It has no energy fluctuations and cannot channel spiritual power. It just takes up space in the warehouse. It's priced this way purely because it came from a high-level ruin and is very hard, but in reality, it's just a useless rock that can't be cut."

Hong Yuan peeked at the screen.

She placed the tablet on the desk. "You're trading for a broken rock to smash walnuts with?"

Yin Chen didn't say much. History had already proven that Chen Guan always had his reasons for the things he did.

Chen Guan withdrew his hand.

"Just this." His answer was extremely brief.

Seeing Chen Guan's firm attitude, the director shook his head.

"Alright, you're in first place, so you're the boss." The director tapped on his keyboard a few times and printed out a collection slip. "Go to the warehouse to pick up your goods. But let me warn you right now, once you confirm the pickup, there are absolutely no returns or exchanges."

The three of them received their respective supplies at the Logistics Department's warehouse.

Chen Guan held a palm-sized lead box in his hand. Inside the box was the black crystal known as the Withered Source Stone.

He hadn't chosen it at random; he just suddenly made a connection.

The Withered Source Stone came from the Black Wind Ruins, belonging to the same era and the same civilization as the Black Wind Relic Site that Chen Guan had visited before.

Back when he was at the Black Wind Relic Site, he felt that the black wind there didn't seem to reject him. It had an instinctual affinity for his gray energy.

Therefore, Chen Guan speculated that the power within him might have some connection to the Black Wind Relic Site.

And now, this Withered Source Stone from the Black Wind Ruins showed no reaction to ordinary spiritual power, so could it perhaps react to his gray energy?

After all, his gray energy was neither pure spiritual power nor pure mental energy.

Even if it wasn't, and the final conclusion was that the Withered Source Stone really could only be used to smash walnuts, it didn't matter much. There truly wasn't anything in the warehouse that he desperately needed.

Rather than exchanging for things that could be bought with ordinary gold and silver, he might as well take this bottom-of-the-barrel rock.

If his guess was correct, he was about to hit the jackpot.

With this thought in mind, Chen Guan pushed open the door to his single dorm room.

The cheetah flicked its tail and followed him inside. It obediently lay down next to the doormat by the entrance, resting its massive head on its front paws.

As a Tier-5 demonic beast, its perception far exceeded that of an ordinary human. Right now, inside this room, it didn't even dare to breathe heavily.

There was an aura in this room that compelled it to submit.

It was as if something truly terrifying had stayed here.