Apocalypse Gachapon

Chapter 2267: Kunzuoʼs treasure

Ye Zhongming traced the barely visible strange patterns—patterns that could only be clearly felt when his fingers were placed upon them—and felt an inexplicable shock in his heart.

Was this... a soul artifact lock?

Back then, at the bottom of the Sacred Pool, the three-legged man had told him about the names of those patterns on soul artifacts.

But those were clearly features that only completed soul artifacts possessed, so why were they on this bony hand?

Were they naturally carried by a peak expertʼs bones?

Could it be that this was also a naturally formed soul artifact, without any need for crafting?

Kunzuo had been killed by his own hand. If this bony hand really was a soul artifact, then when he used it, would he not be haunted by vengeance?

Ye Zhongming had his misgivings and did not dare to immediately test whether this thing was indeed a natural soul artifact.

At the same time, a speculation arose in his mind: if a peak expertʼs body would automatically disintegrate upon death, returning its energy to the universe, then if some method was used to prevent the corpse, or a part of it, from dispersing, like this bony hand, would the remaining part become a soul artifact?

The power of the Soul-Shattering Bone Staff had left a deep impression on Ye Zhongming. One could say it was one of his early trump cards back on Earth, and the most powerful one at that. At that time, the only material for that piece of equipment had been the bone of a level-nine lifeform. Now, what he held was the bone of a peak expert that was several levels higher. If he could confirm that this bony hand was a soul artifact, would its power be extraordinarily great as well?
Looking at it from another angle, this bony hand should have disintegrated but had not. Earlier, it might have been because it was inside spatial equipment, and the spatial power had severed its connection to the main body. After being taken out, it retained its original form because he and Qiuqiu had drained all the energy from it.

But if that were the case, why did it still have these soul artifact locks? Were they innate? And why did the energy within feel so abundant rather than like that of ordinary dry bones?

Ye Zhongming could not explain this, so he could only wait for an opportunity to experiment with it later.

He thought it best to do so with the old dean of the Library Palace present, since that was the only person he knew who was definitely a peak expert and likely one of the foremost among them.

Unable to study the bony hand further for now, Ye Zhongming turned his focus to Kunzuoʼs spatial ring.

It was this very ring that had sparked his greed in the first place.

In his eyes, it was a treasure trove.

But Ye Zhongmingʼs excitement was immediately doused by the harsh reality. He could not open Kunzuoʼs spatial ring.

Although Ye Zhongming had some rudimentary knowledge of spatial theory and could manufacture spatial equipment to a certain scale, and in theory he did have methods to open someone elseʼs spatial equipment, unfortunately, the ring he held was a peak expertʼs. To open it required not only strong mental power but also the ability to break the imprint left behind by its owner.

But Ye Zhongmingʼs strength was far too inferior to Kunzuoʼs, and this treasure was locked to him.

Ye Zhongming, however, did not give up. He grabbed Qiuqiu, pointed at the ring, and told it to reach inside and retrieve something.

Qiuqiu gurgled and grumbled, unwilling, as this was a rather dangerous task. Only after Ye Zhongming patted its head a few times did it reluctantly extend two white threads and try to enter Kunzuoʼs spatial ring.

As the white threads probed inside, Qiuqiuʼs expression became clearly pained. Clearly, although it had the ability to enter othersʼ spaces, it was not exactly an easy process.

Soon, a layer of sweat actually secreted from Qiuqiuʼs body!

If Ye Zhongming had not sensed any danger on his end, he would have made Qiuqiu withdraw its threads immediately.

After a few minutes, the white threads were slowly pulled out, and a wooden box appeared before Ye Zhongming.

Ye Zhongming looked at the wooden box, then at Qiuqiu, wondering why it had chosen this particular item. Surely there should be many good things inside, like the Luosheng Bow.

Qiuqiuʼs answer was: tasty.

Ye Zhongming coughed dryly, opened the wooden box, and found inside a plump, tender little worm about the thickness of a babyʼs finger.

The Cloud Peak King sighed inwardly. Well, this was indeed something to eat.

Ye Zhongming recognized this little creature. It was called a wood-marrow worm. Although it was called a worm and looked like one, it was actually a plant—the root of a plant called the Single-Stem Grass.

This plant was very strange, growing only on a few planets. Its above-ground appearance was almost indistinguishable from ordinary weeds, but underground, its root system might have stretched for over a thousand miles, concentrating nutrients into a root core located somewhere within that root system- the very thing that looked like a small white worm.

Because this mutated plant was extremely hard to find, within a thousand miles there might be only a ten-to twenty-centimeter ordinary leaf above ground, mixed in with other weeds and very difficult to identify. Even if you dug up the underground roots, you might not recognize them and could easily miss them. Even if you did recognize them, finding the root core within a thousand-mile radius would take ages. It required searching inch by inch, and one slight carelessness would cause you to miss it.

The item was precious, but Ye Zhongming was not particularly excited, because this thing was specifically for raising the offspring of the cosmic races. To be precise, for lifeforms with Furelai below five hundred. Eating it would straighten the bodyʼs foundation, making training twice as effective, and would essentially allow one to advance all the way to the great-expert realm.

One root core was almost equivalent to one great expert, so one could imagine its value.

Ye Zhongming put away the wood-marrow worm and looked at Qiuqiu, which had retreated far away, giving up on the idea of having it retrieve more items.

He adjusted some parameters on the spacecraft and was about to fly back to the spaceport, but his hand stopped on the console.

A thought suddenly struck him.

The elemental spirits shared a common ability called Spatial Barrier—did that mean they could enter spatial equipment?

Ye Zhongming slapped his head. Why had he only thought of this now? He summoned the Star Spirit, which was already in its growth phase, and told it to enter the ring.

The little creature obediently flew over, circled the ring once, and then sank into it. But it was immediately bounced out halfway through.

The little creature paused, and a rare expression of seriousness appeared on its small face.

It hovered above the spatial ring, focused for a moment, and then plunged straight into it.

Ye Zhongming watched from the side. Once the Star Spirit entered the spatial ring, he lost contact with it, but an inexplicable feeling told him the little creature was fine.

After a few seconds, the Star Spirit reappeared, carrying an ancient bronze token inside its body.

Ye Zhongming took it and, rather than examining the token first, carefully sensed the Star Spiritʼs condition. He found that the little creature consumed a considerable amount of energy during the transit—not just going in, but also coming out, and even retrieving the item depleted its energy.

This entire sequence consumed quite a bit of energy. In its current state, the little creature could make at most three round trips.

Ye Zhongming thought for a moment, had the Star Spirit go in two more times, then fed it some food and his own purified energy before letting it rest.

Before him, including the bronze token, lay three items in total.

Unfortunately, the Fallen Saint Bow was still not among them.