Chapter 931: One Hundred Thousand Void Stones! Iron Vine Breakthrough!

What's wrong?

Xu Jingming placed the ice element essence into his space ring and followed Su Qingli's gaze.

He saw that the glacier about a hundred meters ahead had completely collapsed.

Transparent crystal stones faintly reflected light amid the snow.

That's…

Xu Jingming's eyes lit up.

With a single step, he instantly crossed the hundred-meter distance and arrived before the collapsed glacier, picking up a crystal stone from the ground.

The crystal stone was about the size of a goose egg, transparent like crystal, yet its texture was utterly different from crystal.

It seemed to contain a mysterious energy that warped the surrounding space.

Holding it in his hand, he could clearly feel a sense of resistance.

This must be Void Stone.

Su Qingli walked forward with her rounded, slender legs, her figure swaying.

Void Stone is not only a specialty of the Ember World—it exists on Blue Star too.

But it is extremely rare; she had only seen it one or two times.

I didn't expect besides element essence, we'd find something like this.

Xu Jingming smiled.

Because he was learning that SSR-tier lightning combat technique, he still owed the Ember Divine Temple 3.1 million Void Stones.

He had to repay this debt, or he couldn't learn any other SSR-tier combat techniques.

Moreover, this trial's ranking was determined by the number of Void Stones collected.

The more of this, the better.

Teacher, you search the right side, I'll search the left, and Eva handles the leftovers.

Let's scour this entire area and collect every single Void Stone!

He still had a Chi Mang Liu Jin guardian he bought from the Ember Divine Temple—he could give it to Eva to use.

Actually, having the Iron Vine that could grow thousands of vines would be ideal for this task.

It could explore a ten-kilometer radius in just a few dozen seconds.

But the Iron Vine was currently at a critical stage of breaking through to ninth rank and couldn't be used.

Okay. Su Qingli nodded.

Eva also excitedly took control of the Chi Mang Liu Jin guardian.

The three split into three directions and moved separately.

Xu Jingming's space ring had ample capacity; any Void Stone he sensed with his spiritual force he immediately stored inside.

In less than half a minute, they had already collected over four thousand Void Stones!

We've only cleared less than one-fifth of the area.

Once we've scoured the entire region, we'll likely have at least fifty thousand Void Stones!

Xu Jingming sped up, and eventually the three spent four minutes completely stripping the area clean before reuniting.

I have 45,000 on my side. What about you?

Xu Jingming looked at Su Qingli and the Chi Mang Liu Jin guardian controlled by Eva.

I have 42,000, Su Qingli replied.

I only have 14,000, said Eva, who handled the cleanup—she collected the least.

So just from this one area, we've gathered a full 100,000 Void Stones!

Xu Jingming's smile could barely be contained.

This was only the seventh level; there were still six levels ahead.

At this rate, we'll quickly gather the 3.1 million needed to repay the Ember Divine Temple's debt.

Also, the rankings should have updated.

The scoreboard in the sky had always been there; he glanced up and saw his rank.

23rd place, No. 344, Void Stones: 【number】

Su Qingli was two spots behind him.

25th place, No. 345, Void Stones: 【number】

The number of Void Stones matches exactly what I have on hand.

That means the Void-Piercing Tower has been monitoring my movements all along.

Xu Jingming's heart tightened.

Know that

Both he and Su Qingli maintained spiritual force isolation nets around their bodies.

This prevented other psychics from spying on them with their spiritual force.

After breaking through to the sixth level of the Divine Mind Technique, he was confident even ninth-rank experts couldn't sense him.

But he hadn't expected this method to be useless against the Void-Piercing Tower.

Looking further up, Xu Jingming saw the top rank.

1st place, No. 1, Void Stones: 【number】

220,000 Void Stones? Already? Xu Jingming was startled.

That No. 1 must be the ninth-rank peak expert from the Lei Ding family, Su Qingli whispered beside him.

Ninth-rank peak!

Inside the Broken Void Tower, where the supreme强者 cannot enter, it absolutely belongs to the top-tier combat power.

"It must be him."

Xu Jingming nodded and remarked:

"That means even ninth-rank peak mental power is still useless against the Broken Void Tower—it can be probed at will."

"Since even the supreme强者 cannot enter the Broken Void Tower, having such a method is normal."

Su Qingli wasn't particularly surprised by this.

"True. Then I'm even more eager to see what awaits at the tower's summit," Xu Jingming smiled.

"Jingming, keep these 42,000 Void Stones with you."

At that moment, Su Qingli extended her slender, jade-like hand and passed over a space ring filled with Void Stones:

"That way, your ranking can climb higher."

Her upper limit was already fixed at the ninth-rank lower tier; resources were useless to her, better to give them all to Xu Jingming.

"Keep them with me?"

Xu Jingming shook his head. "No. From now on, any Void Stones we find, we split evenly."

Though the Broken Void Tower is mysterious, for him—with his system—all he needs are Ability Points.

Other external resources are of little use.

Besides, Su Qingli is his teacher; he could never take her Void Stones without cause.

It's just a ranking—it's not that important.

"You don't need to worry too much about your bottleneck, Teacher."

"Once we find Lady Qiao Lin and get the Red Cloud Fruit, we can resolve your side effects."

Xu Jingming smiled, seeing through Su Qingli's thoughts. "Besides, even if Lady Qiao Lin doesn't have any, the Broken Void Tower must have a solution."

Hearing this, Su Qingli's heart warmed.

Whether or not the side effects could be resolved didn't matter—this attitude made her feel she hadn't misjudged her disciple.

"Alright, I'll keep the Void Stones with me for now. We'll decide after we enter the 13th level," Su Qingli retracted the space ring.

"That's right."

Xu Jingming grinned and turned to Eva: "Eva, hand over your Void Stones."

"Favoritism! This is blatant favoritism!"

The twin-tailed little girl Eva stuck her hands on her hips and pouted angrily:

"You split evenly with Teacher Su, but you just want to take mine!"

"You're an AI lifeform—what do you need Void Stones for?"

Xu Jingming chuckled.

"Who says I don't need them!"

Eva puffed out her flat chest proudly.

"I have my own serial number and ranking—I'm No. 346, currently ranked 201st!"

"Oh? You heard that voice too?" Xu Jingming asked, puzzled.

"Yes!" Eva nodded her little head, looking utterly adorable.

"It seems the Broken Void Tower classifies any being with mental power fluctuations as a trial participant," Su Qingli mused.

"Alright, then keep the Void Stones with you for now."

Having confirmed this, Xu Jingming did not take Eva's Void Stones.

At that moment, a peculiar mental power fluctuation suddenly emerged from his space ring, as if suppressing some kind of energy.

Sensing this fluctuation, Xu Jingming froze for a moment, then immediately realized—his eyes lit up with delight:

"The Iron Thread Lotus is about to break through to ninth rank!"