Chapter 85

Chapter 85: The Furnace Opens

A layer of white fog separated the outer region from the inner. They stepped into the fog, and with a single step the world changed. A moment ago they had been in a forest. After crossing the fog, an endless desert spread before them.

Chang Le An took a deep breath. If nothing else, the spiritual energy here in the Inner Zone was clearly thicker than in the Outer Zone.

“Third Senior Brother, let’s hurry and search for treasures,” Ye Zhao Zhao urged.

Chang Le An agreed at once.

They began to trek across the sand.

On the way, Ye Zhao Zhao kept judging the distance between her and Li Shuang. She still had time for nine breaths of unsealed strength. With her Nascent Soul Stage power, she could erase Li Shuang in a single instant. [This time, Li Shuang will die.]

On the map, the red dot for Li Shuang had not moved for a while. She must have been delayed by something. Whatever it was, Ye Zhao Zhao felt no fear before overwhelming power. The last step to kill Li Shuang was to shake off Chang Le An for a short time.

Her eyes flashed.

Just then, a faint beast roar drifted from far away.

Chang Le An’s body trembled on reflex. They had been in the Inner Zone for less than four hours, and already a Demonic Beast? He did not know if it was a beast born of the secret realm or one from the Demon Clan.

Ye Zhao Zhao’s gaze sharpened. Opportunity had come. She looked at him with firm resolve and said: “Third Senior Brother, we still have to rely on you to find enough resources. I will go check the beast roar. Whatever it is, I will draw the beast away so it does not affect Senior Brother. Once I lure it off, I will come back and meet you.”

Chang Le An was moved at once. Li Shuang had set him up with the Winged Lion Beast. Junior Sister, however, was willing to risk her life to pull danger away from him. And Li Shuang blamed others for favoring Junior Sister. With a Junior Sister like this, how could anyone not favor her?

He said quickly: “Zhao Zhao, do not go. We can just change direction.”

Ye Zhao Zhao held firm: “What if the beast chases us? It would ruin your treasure hunt. Do not worry. I have the Dragon Roar Sword. Long Yan may be a Defective Sword Spirit, but he can still help here. If I face deadly danger, I will force him to act.”

That calmed him a lot. Right. It was already a Defective Sword Spirit. At worst, Long Yan could keep burning his Spirit Body. He opened his mouth to say more, but Ye Zhao Zhao, afraid he would keep asking, shot into the distance at once.

He did not chase. Watching her back, he felt deeply moved and swore he would not fail her trust. He would find treasure as fast as he could.

Once out of sight, Ye Zhao Zhao’s face turned cold. She had no wish to check the source of that roar. She flew straight toward Li Shuang. The moment she saw her, she would unseal her power and kill her without a word. [Otherwise, who knows if this Heavenly Dao heroine will rise again.]

An endless desert.

A flash of joy shone in Li Shuang’s eyes. She held a strange red stone she had just sifted from the sand. This vast desert hid a special ore called Firebright Gold. It appeared randomly within the sandy layers and was very hard to spot. With the Heaven and Earth Furnace, though, finding Firebright Gold was as easy as a fish swimming in water.

Since entering the Inner Zone, she had collected quite a lot of Firebright Gold. With this piece added, the progress bar of the Heaven and Earth Furnace faded to one hundred percent. That meant once she truly absorbed these ores, the furnace would open.

The Heaven and Earth Furnace concerned her Mother. For Li Shuang, opening it was a top priority. She did not hesitate and spoke in her heart: “Absorb.”

As the word fell, the Firebright Gold was fed into the Heaven and Earth Furnace. The progress bar shot to one hundred percent.

In her expectant gaze, inside her sea of consciousness, the Heaven and Earth Furnace that had been slowly turning suddenly stopped. The body of the furnace glowed with a strange light. A message appeared in her mind: “Heaven and Earth Furnace, activated. All things can be refined. Even heaven and earth can be refined.”

Li Shuang’s heart trembled. [All things can be refined, even heaven and earth? What a bold claim.] As more information rose, she no longer doubted the claim. The furnace was truly outrageous.

“Offer something you own to be refined, and you can receive what you desire.”

“Refining rules are as follows.”

“1. The thing you refine and the thing you desire can be exchanged. All things are within range.

2. If the two things are equal in value, the exchange succeeds one hundred percent.

3. If the offered thing is worth more than what you desire, the exchange succeeds one hundred percent.

4. If the offered thing is worth less than what you desire, the success chance depends on the value gap. If the exchange fails, the offered thing is not returned.”

Refining all things. Equivalent exchange.

Li Shuang’s eyes showed thought. She felt these rules were not as simple as they looked. Equivalent exchange sounded fair. She would gain no obvious advantage from it. But was the furnace’s idea of equal value the same as the real world’s?

For example, First Tier spirit herbs. In theory, a First Tier herb and another First Tier herb should be similar in value. In real life, some are widely grown and easy to buy, while others are very rare or even extinct. Their values cannot be the same. If a common First Tier herb could trade for a rare First Tier herb, then just by pocketing the difference she would never lack spirit stones again.

The fourth rule also said that if your offering was worth less, there was still some chance to succeed. In theory she could use low-value items to gamble for high-value items. As long as there was a chance at all, then with enough attempts the chance would be very close to one hundred percent. [With enough tries, the odds would be on my side.]

Li Shuang was about to study how to use the Heaven and Earth Furnace when her brows lifted. In the Langya Secret Realm, divine sense was tightly limited, but with the Supreme Unfeeling Art her sensing range was wider than most. She sensed someone moving straight toward her. For some reason, a strong sense of danger struck her.

Li Li was also sharp. Even while still in the Sword Spirit Space, she grew uneasy for no reason.

Li Shuang did not hesitate and sped away.