Chapter 191: Spatial Crystal

The woman did not seem very old, and her features were quite delicate, but her face was covered in patterns and her hair was red, which made Xu Chen's eyebrows twitch incessantly.

At this moment, she was sprawled on the ground with her limbs splayed, her face and head covered in dirt, and her leather clothing in tatters, which failed to arouse the slightest interest in Xu Chen.

All he wanted now was to figure out how to wake this woman up so they could communicate normally.

Spirit Pill? Spirit Medicine? Yuan Qi? White Qi?

He did not dare to experiment with any of them.

After all, the environment here was so harsh and bizarre that he could not find anything to eat or drink, and he felt that everything might be poisonous; what if these things from the outside world were also toxic to these natives?

The only things left were ordinary food and water, which he might be able to try, but it seemed there was none of that here either.

Therefore, for the time being, he could only stand by and watch.

Xu Chen was very worried about whether this woman would ever wake up.

After all, the aura brought by that terrifying pressure just now was too powerful; even with the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, his soul had nearly collapsed, let alone this woman who had resisted the impact almost entirely with her own body.

The only thing he felt fortunate about was that the terrifying giant beast had not specifically pursued them; it seemed to have launched one all-encompassing attack and then stopped.

Otherwise, neither of them would have survived.

Xu Chen sat cross-legged beside the woman, eyes slightly closed to meditate and recover his Yuan Qi; of course, he did not dare to concentrate fully on his cultivation, but instead released a wisp of Divine Sense to observe the woman and the situation outside the cave.

Time passed without him knowing how long; Xu Chen finished refining another True Yuan Pill and felt that the Yuan Qi in his dantian had recovered by more than half. Only then did his mood slowly relax, and he crawled into the shell, using the bright white light emitted by the large pearl to begin rummaging through his supply reserves.

In his Storage Bag, there was still a bag of millet and a bag of flour, totaling about a hundred catties, as well as some dried bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, bean curd sticks, and other mountain goods he usually ate, and even a few dried rabbits; the rest were various oils, salts, sauces, vinegars, pots, bowls, ladles, basins, and daily spare clothing, and even some gold, silver, and copper coins needed for walking in the mortal world, plus a few steel knives and swords—ordinary tools mainly used for cutting vegetables and cooking, which were basically decorations; the purpose of stocking them was just for convenience, and they held no great significance.

These normal foods could last about three months if he ate sparingly.

The Storage Bag had poor protective properties and a small capacity, so these things filled it up completely, and they were all worthless items; even if the Storage Bag were damaged or lost, he wouldn't feel a shred of heartache.

The Dazzling Gold Bracelet, however, held almost all of Xu Chen's valuable possessions.

There were seven or eight bottles of Bigu Pill and more than ten bottles of commonly needed Spirit Pills, mainly Second-Grade Gathering Yuan Pills; as for pills commonly used in the Kaiyuan Realm like the Great Origin Pill or Small Yuan Pill, there wasn't a single bottle, as they were meaningless to him now.

In fact, the Great Origin Pill was cheap and the materials were easy to prepare, so many Zhenyuan Realm cultivators still kept them as their primary Spirit Pills, but the scale of Xu Chen's dantian had long since far exceeded the state of the Zhenyuan Realm, so the Great Origin Pill was like trash to him; eating it would only waste time refining it.

Aside from Spirit Pills, there were some specially collected Spirit Medicines, many of which he had brought back from Yuqing Hall; he had left most of the large quantity of First Stage Spirit Medicines at the Danyuan, but he had kept most of those above the Second-Tier, many of which were even above the Third-Tier.

These Spirit Medicines added up to at least several hundred varieties, occupying a large space in the storage bracelet.

Then there were some Spirit Materials for refining Magic Treasures, various tools, and various Jade Slips; these were of no use for the time being.

The Qinglan Light-Splitting Mirror, the Profound Green Thunder Fire Pestle, the pill furnace, and the Second-Grade Flying Sword he used daily—these four personal Magic Treasures were placed separately for easy access.

Additionally, there were several large barrels of water, some Spirit Tea, Spirit Wine, Spirit Flower Dew, and so on.

There was even a quilt and a pillow stuffed into a corner.

The rest were some strange things he had found after entering the Nether Rift.

Although the total number of items was not small, they actually occupied less than twenty percent of the entire storage space.

These reserves seemed substantial, but in this place, there were few things that could actually be used; apart from water, food, Spirit Pills, and a few Magic Treasures, almost everything else was just for show.

In reality, Xu Chen still did not understand the artifact-refining principles behind Storage Bags and storage rings.

Once these things were put inside, it was as if they were placed in a pitch-black Void; there was only a layer of faint Array light and shadow surrounding them, completely imprisoning them. Aside from being able to use Divine Sense to communicate and activate the Array to retrieve them with Yuan Qi, they would not have any movement or change even if the world turned upside down.

He had once asked his Eldest Senior Brother, and even exchanged ideas with Lan You and some cultivators from the Artifact Refining Hall at Yuqing Hall; in fact, Yuqing Hall had no theoretical system regarding the manufacture of these spatial Magic Treasures. The Great Song territory had no sect specifically dedicated to making Storage Bags and storage Magic Treasures; most storage Magic Treasures were exchanged from the Immortal Sects of other nations.

Although Yuqing Hall was wealthy, only those Kaiyuan Realm disciples with excellent aptitude, as well as disciples, deacons, and Elders at or above the Zhenyuan Realm, were equipped with Storage Bags. Among the more than two thousand cultivators, less than thirty percent actually possessed a Storage Bag, and this was the quantity accumulated over thousands of years of heritage.

As for other sects, it was roughly the same.

Of course, Yuqing Hall and Longmen Mountain could also make Storage Bags themselves, but the Spirit Materials were hard to find, and they were made according to the most rudimentary techniques, with no refinement to speak of; the space created was narrow and could only be described as barely usable.

It is said that making a Storage Bag requires a very special Spirit Material called Rare Spirit Gold, which has a unique origin and extremely scarce production; only a small amount can be extracted from high-purity Earth-type High-grade Crystal mines, and there was none at all in the Great Song territory.

Even with Rare Spirit Gold and other auxiliary materials, and even with the methods of manufacture, no one in the Great Song territory truly understood the formation principles of these spatial Magic Treasures; the production was merely following the book.

Ever since Xu Chen began self-studying artifact refining, he had been researching Storage Bags, but after several months, he still had nothing to show for it and remained completely confused.

At this moment, while checking and organizing the items in the Dazzling Gold Bracelet, he always had a feeling of déjà vu; finally, when his Divine Sense landed on a few blue prismatic crystals, his eyes suddenly lit up.

It turned out that the sense of familiarity, which had felt like an illusion, was actually the feeling of opening the Dazzling Gold Bracelet.

In other words, if his guess was correct, this blue crystal should be the Spirit Material used to make storage bracelets.

Thinking of this, Xu Chen was extremely pleasantly surprised and hurriedly took out a blue crystal to observe it carefully.

However, this observation still yielded no results; his Divine Sense could not penetrate this stone at all, as if it were illusory, yet its touch, feel, and visual appearance were incredibly real.

After observing for a moment, he suddenly remembered something; he stood up and walked to the woman lying on the ground, staring at the blue prismatic crystal embedded in her tight leather clothing, right in the center of her high, full chest.

In the previous battle, this woman had repeatedly taken out several Flying Fork Magic Treasures from somewhere unknown, but Xu Chen had not detected any aura of storage-type Magic Treasures on her just now.

If his previous deduction was correct, then this prismatic crystal was highly likely to be a storage Magic Treasure.

If that were the case, perhaps there were medicines or similar things inside to save this woman.

Right now, he did not dare to use the things he brought to rashly save her, and he dared not use the White Qi even more; after all, these natives lived in this hellish place just like the Soul Beasts, and perhaps inputting it wouldn't save her, but instead blow her to pieces.

Thinking of this, Xu Chen squatted down, pressed his finger lightly on the crystal, and injected a trace of Yuan Qi. To his surprise, it went in at once, and his Divine Sense followed the Yuan Qi and successfully penetrated inside. Then, his expression suddenly turned to one of pleasant surprise, because he saw a simple Soul Locking Array inside the crystal, with only a circle of seven or eight Ancient Runes; although they were different from what he had seen in his Storage Bag and Dazzling Gold Bracelet, they were generally quite similar.

"It really is!"

Xu Chen was overjoyed. After his Divine Sense pushed the Soul Locking Array to rotate, he didn't even need the help of the Blue Light Treasure Bottle to break through the seal directly. Immediately, a vast storage space appeared in his Divine Sense.

"So big!"

Xu Chen couldn't help but shake his hand, his face revealing an expression of extreme astonishment.

According to Taiwu Zhenjun, his own storage bracelet was already a rare storage Magic Treasure in the mortal Immortal World, possessing a space of three zhang and worth thousands of Spirit Stones.

But compared to this prismatic spatial Magic Treasure before him, it was completely dwarfed.

The space inside was at least twenty zhang in scale, almost like a large hall; it was so vast that his soul nearly lost its hold.

However, although the space was large, there were not many things inside: shells, crystals, Soul Beads, and some things like Fangs, bones, and animal skins; there were also more than ten Flying Forks of various sizes, and even a bow and arrows, plus some animal skins or pottery jars, pottery pots, and stone bottles.

Everything was very crude, with no refinement to speak of.

Xu Chen hesitated for a moment, then guided by his Divine Sense, he took out one of the pottery jars and opened the lid. Inside was a blood-red liquid that carried an aura that strongly stimulated the soul; smelling it once made his blood seem to start boiling.

This thing was definitely not food.

Xu Chen thought about it and put the clay jar inside, then took out a clay pot, opened it, and observed it with his Divine Sense; inside was a pale blue liquid, and he sniffed it lightly, finding it slightly pungent, but he felt nothing else.

This kind might be usable.

However, he did not immediately feed it to the woman; instead, he set down the clay pot, took out all the bottles and jars, identified them one by one using his Divine Sense and sense of smell, and ultimately kept three types, putting the rest back inside.

There were four types in total: two were liquids, one was something like a lump of mud, and another was similar to a medicinal pill, seemingly made by mixing many things together.

After Xu Chen carefully identified them again with his Divine Sense, he took out a pill-like object, pried open the woman's mouth to put it in, and then poured in a mouthful of the pale blue liquid.

Right now, he could only treat a dead horse as if it were a live one and try his luck.

If he did not provide treatment, this woman might die very soon.

(End of chapter)