Chapter 960: You Should

"Here, these are all the space rings I have on me."

On the ground, Qiao Lin spread her hands, a large pile of space rings piled atop her pale palms—no fewer than a dozen.

After recognizing Xu Jingming's strength and realizing escape was impossible, Qiao Lin decisively chose to surrender.

With their captain Qiao Lin no longer willing to fight, the other three—Lady Xina and the rest—felt the same.

Hence, this scene before them.

Besides Qiao Lin, Lady Xina and the other three also obediently handed over all the space rings they carried.

Each person had over a dozen space rings on them; some had more than twenty.

Combined, the four of them had nearly a hundred space rings!

"Where did you get so many space rings?" Xu Jingming was surprised.

"All taken during this period."

Qiao Lin shrugged. "We looted every psychic who entered the eighth level through the teleportation channel—except those too strong for us to beat."

"You're clever, indeed."

Xu Jingming raised his sword-like brows and ordered, "Eva, scan them again. Check if they're hiding any other space rings."

Though his spiritual force had detected nothing else on them, he still had Eva scan once more for safety.

"Relax, all the space rings are right here."

Qiao Lin let out a light huff, clearly displeased with his action.

Yet the moment she spoke, Eva, having completed her scan, warned:

"S-class: the other three have no space rings. Only she still has one."

"Oh?"

Xu Jingming narrowed his eyes, watching Qiao Lin with a half-smile. "Hand it over yourself. Don't force me to take it."

Exposed, Qiao Lin's face instantly changed, her expression shifting wildly—until finally, gritting her teeth, she declared:

"What level of AI is that? Even my hidden space ring couldn't escape detection."

Saying this, she hesitantly unfastened her battle suit slightly at the neck.

Reaching in with her right hand, she fished out another space ring from the full, bulging area of her chest.

This space ring had a simple, ancient design, radiating a deep black metallic luster.

The space ring lay in Qiao Lin's pale palm, visible to the naked eye.

But when scanned with spiritual force, the palm appeared completely empty.

"Hmm, this is a space ring forged from Mole Metal?"

Su Qingli beside him seemed to recognize something, letting out a soft exclamation.

"What's Mole Metal?" Xu Jingming asked, puzzled.

He was well-traveled and knowledgeable, but he'd never heard of Mole Metal before.

"Mole Metal is a metal discovered in the First Civilization era."

This metal is visible only to the naked eye; no matter how strong the spiritual force scan or electronic detection, it cannot be detected."

"My father once owned a space ring from the First Civilization era, forged from Mole Metal."

"Though its capacity was less than one cubic meter, he still treasured it as a priceless treasure."

"Because this metal is so exceedingly rare, most people don't even know of it—I only learned because of my father."

Su Qingli explained softly.

"I see." Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

Unlike ordinary people, psychics rarely rely on sight—they often use spiritual force for scanning.

A space ring forged from Mole Metal would indeed be hard to detect.

"You've got some discerning eyes," Qiao Lin muttered, visibly annoyed.

Logically, Xu Jingming could only have found this ring by stripping her naked.

Yet he'd found it through artificial intelligence.

But what she didn't know was that Eva wasn't ordinary AI—she was a sentient intelligence.

Only the synergy of spiritual force and electromagnetic scanning could uncover this ring.

No other AI besides Eva could ever find this space ring.

Whoosh—

Spiritual force surged; Xu Jingming erased Qiao Lin's spiritual imprint from the space ring and replaced it with his own, right before her eyes.

Immediately, a space of roughly one cubic meter appeared in his perception.

The contents weren't many: two Wu Yin, several rare and precious flowers and herbs, clearly valuable.

Some pill vials, and a wooden box twenty centimeters long and wide.

Aside from the wooden box, everything else in the space ring was visible at a glance.

Without hesitation, Xu Jingming pulled the wooden box out of the space ring and opened it.

Inside the box lay a fruit, shaped and sized like a fire dragon fruit.

The fruit was entirely crimson, its surface adorned with cloud-like patterns as if traced by golden threads.

"This... could it be the Chi Yun Fruit?"

Su Qingli's pupils shrank, a look of unprecedented anticipation appearing on her pale, exquisite face.

"Yes! This is the Chi Yun Fruit! Teacher Su, your side effects can now be reversed!"

The little girl Eva affirmed.

"Chi Yun Fruit? Your original target was this all along?"

Qiao Lin froze, her face filled with disbelief.

"That's right."

Xu Jingming smiled, "Originally, I thought that after meeting you, I might be able to trade for the Red Cloud Fruit."

"But I never expected that the moment we met, you'd try to steal my Spatial Ring. With no other choice, I had to take it back."

"You should've said so earlier!"

Hearing this, Qiao Lin felt like crying without tears.

Now not only was the Red Cloud Fruit gone, but all her years' worth of rare pills, exotic flowers, and strange herbs were gone too!

"If I'd told you, would you have traded with me?"

Xu Jingming asked, "Suppose I had told you—you'd have refused to trade and tried to steal it anyway. In the end, wouldn't it still have ended up like this?"

"Since the outcome is the same, how it happened doesn't matter."

Qiao Lin fell silent.

She knew Xu Jingming was right...

"Teacher, go test the effect of the Red Cloud Fruit first. I'll interrogate them to see if I can get more information."

Xu Jingming mused.

Then the Iron Vine, which had been clinging to him in its plant armor form, reverted to its original shape.

Swish-swish-swish—

Dozens of massive vines sprouted from it and rapidly burrowed into the ground.

"Top-tier plant life—Iron Vine? And it's grown to the ninth rank?"

Qiao Lin and the others stared in shock; Lady Xina's face twisted with bitterness.

A top-tier plant life is equivalent to a human S-rank awakened ability user.

Add Su Qingli, and Xu Jingming now has two ninth-rank S-rank powerhouses.

Even if Xu Jingming hadn't broken through to mid-eighth rank, the four of them likely couldn't defeat him...

"Jingming, I'll go down first."

"Alright."

In less than five seconds, the Iron Vine had dug a tunnel straight down to the deep earth.

Su Qingli, her face alight with anticipation, leapt down with the Red Cloud Fruit.

Xu Jingming remained on the surface, ready to observe the surroundings and stay alert, while interrogating Qiao Lin and the others.