Troubling Shadow Soul Stones

A massive black dragon soared through the sky above the boundless Nether Pool.

The girl on the dragon's back still gazed longingly at the clouds from earlier. They had intoxicated the heavens, and they had intoxicated her eyes.

The grey sky grew increasingly dim, while the Nether Pool beneath her began to glimmer with a faint light. She kept looking back, gazing upward...

"What are you looking at?" Chi Ming asked.

Chi Ji gazed at her father's profile and said softly, "The sky above is beautiful."

Chi Ming raised an eyebrow but remained silent. This was already the second time she had said the same thing.

Chi Ji pressed further, "Can I come here again in the future?"

Chi Ming looked sideways at Chi Ji and said gently, "Do you want to?"

"Of course."

Chi Ming said nonchalantly, "Then cultivate well. Once you become a new demon god, you can enter the Nether Hall and become an elder. You can come whenever you want; you could even live up there."

Chi Ji pursed her lips inwardly.

The demon god stage?

It wasn't that easy. In the entire Demon Abyss, a powerhouse of the demon god stage might not appear even once in a thousand years.

Furthermore, her talent was extremely average among the heavenly demon race of her age.

Though she was already at the late sixth rank, she knew in her heart that this was only because her father had forcibly built her up using massive amounts of resources.

From here on out, it wouldn't be so easy.

Feeling a bit discouraged, she said, "Then I'm afraid I won't see it for the rest of my life."

Chi Ming shook his head with a smile and said nothing more.

The black dragon arrived and departed in haste. By the time they returned to the Demon God Palace, the night of the Demon Abyss had not yet fully risen.

Chi Ji bid her father farewell and returned to her castle.

Chi Ming readily agreed.

Watching her figure disappear from his sight, he still couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.

'Sigh.'

A father knows his daughter best. The High Priest had seen that Chi Ji was lying, so how could he not see it as well?

It was just that...

As children grow up, they will always have their own thoughts.

After Chi Ji left, a commander of the Crimson Demon Guards stepped out from the shadows. He bowed to Chi Ming and said respectfully, "Patriarch."

Chi Ming shed the kind and gentle demeanor he had shown Chi Ji. His face darkened, and his gaze shifted, exuding an aura of authority without even trying to be angry.

"What is it?"

"News came from the city defenses. The person the young mistress is looking for entered the city at the Hour of the Horse today."

The demon god narrowed his eyes, showing no emotion. He said calmly, "Tell me everything you know."

"He matches the young mistress's description: white-haired, a third-class mortal demon, initial sixth-rank demon general stage. After entering the city, he checked into the Yuelai Inn in the outer city. He hasn't left since and hasn't made contact with anyone. Our people didn't dare get too close. Though he's a mortal demon, he has some skill. Even my divine sense couldn't penetrate the room he's staying in. It's likely some kind of formation," he explained clearly.

Chi Ming wasn't surprised. For a fellow to make his daughter so concerned that she would even lie in front of all the demon gods—it would be stranger if he were truly mediocre.

"Has everything been cleaned up?"

"Rest assured, Patriarch. The registration documents, the few members of the city patrol, and those who worked for the young mistress have all been silenced forever. No one else will find out."

"Well done."

"What should I do next?"

"Keep watching him."

"Should I tell the young mistress?" the man asked tentatively.

Chi Ming pondered for a moment. "Tell her."

"Understood!"

"Wait..."

"Yes?"

"It's getting late. A-Ji has had a long day. Tell her tomorrow morning."

"Understood!"

Chi Ming waved his hand, and the young officer vanished silently into the darkness.

Chi Ming stood with his hands behind his back and softly uttered two words.

"Bai Mang..."

If anyone in this world still knew the truth of that night in Ze Capital, Chi Ming thought it had to be this person.

...

Inside the Yuelai Inn in the outer city.

In his room, Xu Xian sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at a Shadow Soul Stone in front of him. He looked at it from the left, from the right, horizontally, and vertically... his brow was furrowed tight.

"Tsk, tell me, how do we handle this thing?"

The little book spirit let out a yawn. "Yawn... how about we just open a forging workshop? We can earn it slowly. Even if it's slower, it's more reliable than this."

Xu Xian's frown deepened immediately.

His original plan was to use Shadow Soul Stones to forge an underwater mecha, using external force to pull himself to the bottom of the water. Then he would go to the bottom of the Nether Pool and start digging directly.

A million tons could be collected in the blink of an eye.

But this Shadow Soul Stone was truly bizarre.

If you hit it with a hammer, nothing happened with low force, but if you used too much force, it shattered instantly, breaking into shards like glass.

Try using fire.

Low temperatures were useless, but high temperatures turned it directly into a puddle of water, which then evaporated into steam in the blink of an eye. It was incredibly weird.

If you used a sword to cut it, that worked, but when you wanted to join the pieces back together, the two Shadow Soul Stones had a powerful repulsion, just like magnets.

You could force them together if you were aggressive enough, but achieving a seamless fit was out of the question.

It gave Xu Xian quite a headache.

He had tried fusing it with other metals and immortal gold, but those attempts failed too.

He had actually noticed this problem before entering the Demon Abyss.

At the time, while still outside the Demon Abyss, the little book spirit and he had both guessed that because the laws of the world in the Demon Abyss and Fanzhou were different, the Shadow Soul Stones produced in the Demon Abyss couldn't remain stable outside.

That's why it happened.

After all, Shadow Soul Stones came from beneath the Nether Pool and were born in the Ruoshui. Much like spirit stones, they were the crystallization of demon qi in the Demon Abyss. As long as they were inside the Demon Abyss, in an environment saturated with demon qi, they should be like spirit stones—capable of being refined and shaped.

But facts proved otherwise.

He and the little book spirit had overthought it.

While the little book spirit was asleep, Xu Xian had also tried privately, but the problem persisted. At that time, Xu Xian had considered other ideas, wanting to rely on slow earnings to accumulate the stones.

Saving up a million Shadow Soul Stones.

But after wandering around the Demon Abyss for several days, Xu Xian had to face reality.

In the Demon Abyss, with his current identity and status, he wouldn't be allowed to earn that much money.

Inside and outside the Nether Capital, every profitable business was firmly controlled by the Ten Great Demon God Palaces.

Even the nominal government of the Demon Abyss, the Demon Court, couldn't get a foot in the door.

If he wanted to earn a million tons, he would have to make massive moves and open a large company.

By then, he would one hundred percent be targeted, and they would seize both the person and the money.

There was no escape.

The legitimate route was too risky.

If he took an illegitimate route, the risk was even higher.

Robbery.

That would certainly be the fastest.

If he could wipe out the Ten Great Demon God Palaces in one go, he'd probably have enough.

But...

So, after thinking it over, digging it himself was still the most reliable way.

Salvaging didn't work either; you only got a few thousand pieces a day, and even that was monopolized by those ten demon god families.

He had hoped that the little book spirit would have a solution once it woke up.

After all, it came from an era long ago and from the Upper Realm. It recognized this Ruoshui, saying it came from that great river in the thirty-third heaven of Cangming.

It did provide Xu Xian with some ideas.

Unfortunately, in reality, none of them worked.

"Master, if you're afraid that opening a forging workshop will be too much trouble because people will target you, why don't you become an assassin? Kill people for others, specifically the ruthless ones. You get the reward and get to loot the bodies; it's two birds with one stone..." the little book spirit suggested a terrible idea.

Xu Xian said irritably, "A million tons? How many lifetimes would I have to spend killing people for that? Are you even speaking like a person?"

The little book spirit replied as if it were obvious, "I wasn't a person to begin with."

Xu Xian couldn't be bothered to respond. He rubbed his chin, thinking hard. "There has to be a way. Think again. You think, too."

The little book spirit gave up and said, "Oh~ then you take your time thinking. As an immortal sword spirit, I'm going to rest..."