Level 87: Spirit Stone

Gradually, Yunqing’s vision was obscured by flames and thick smoke. Fortunately, the clothes of her predecessor were unlike her own coarse beast skins and did not fear ordinary fire in the slightest.

Unable to see her opponent, the Iron Red Puppet, Yunqing could only rely on the red dot on her minimap to track its position. Again and again, burning firewood was hurled toward the puppet—sometimes chipping away at its health, sometimes missing entirely.

Occasionally, through the flickering flames and swirling smoke, its silhouette appeared—the health bar slowly dwindling. Burning a puppet with ordinary firewood was proving to be a daunting task.

…

Sliding to the bottom of the passage, Xiao Haoran immediately used his spiritual sense to survey his surroundings. The place seemed to be an array of some sort, though its intricacy exceeded anything he had ever encountered.

Unable to discern much, he unwittingly stepped deeper into the formation. Dense fog rose all around, the environment shifting. Countless soul-corpses—both human and animal—emerged, encircling him. Each possessed power beyond Foundation Establishment and coordinated to form a killing array, closing in on him.

Xiao Haoran drew his flying sword, calmly facing the unending tide of enemies.

…

Who knew how much time had passed when Yunqing, suffering from oxygen deprivation, felt her mind grow hazy. The flames had already consumed her long hair, the smoke forced her to hold her breath. Even with her internal cultivation technique, she had reached the limit of endurance—she desperately needed to breathe clean air.

She could no longer inhale the smoke-filled air; she had already taken several gulps, her chest burning with pain, her health reduced to 70 out of 200.

Even so, she dared not relax for a moment. She knew that if the Iron Red Puppet approached, a single swipe would be enough to end her.

The puppet’s health bar was down to a tenth; now it was simply a matter of who would outlast the other.

Yunqing could barely go on. If not for the instinct to survive, she would surely have died long ago.

Illusions began to dance before her eyes:

“You don’t want to visit your aunt for New Year’s, so today you’ll fend for yourself. Mom and Dad won’t be home for dinner.”

“Got it!”

With her parents absent, Yunqing ruled the house, sprawling across the sofa playing games with the speakers blaring. Beside her, a black-and-white Labrador alternately peeled tangerines for her.

She had eaten so many tangerines she was already full. In one corner of the living room, a red dot appeared. Yunqing tossed a tangerine at it—her aim true, a direct hit.

“-1!”

“Battle experience +40!”

“Congratulations! Your combat level has risen to 33.”

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“Congratulations! Your character level has risen to 33.”

A white light flashed from head to toe across Yunqing’s body, leaving her feeling refreshed. The haze and illusion vanished, and her health was fully restored by leveling up. The burning ache in her chest eased for a moment.

Yet the sense of suffocation remained unchanged. She could no longer control herself and inhaled another breath of poisonous smoke.

Her health dropped from 200 to 180 and continued to fall. Leveling up hadn’t healed her wounds, and the scorching air filling her lungs made her feel as though she was being roasted alive.

One breath eased the suffocation just a little.

The ‘tangerine’ in her hand transformed back into burning firewood, which she hurled once more at the Iron Red Puppet.

Again and again, she attacked at an ever-increasing pace. Finally, as her bundle of firewood in the system backpack neared its end and her health fell back to 70, the puppet’s health bar finally emptied and it collapsed into the fire.

Yunqing didn’t pause to check what loot the puppet had dropped. She leapt down from the stone wall and raced forward.

Below the stone wall, the smoke was not as dense. Yunqing still dared not breathe, skillfully combining sprinting and her abilities to quickly traverse the narrow staircase.

At the end of the stairs was an irregular opening, about ten meters high, evidently formed by destruction. Smoke poured into the hole. Yunqing didn’t care how it came to be. Using her rolling skill, she followed the smoke and entered the opening.

Inside, she found herself in a broad chamber, much of it damaged, with cracks and holes in the walls.

Smoke drifted in, dispersing through various exits—one especially large.

The air quality here was much better than in the narrow stairway. Though smoky, it wasn’t poisonous.

Breathing through her damp clothes, Yunqing savored the rare clean air, her condition slowly improving.

Air entered her lungs without burning, and her injury was no longer aggravated.

She had survived at last!

Yunqing sighed at the difficulty of this hell-level dungeon. Facing a single puppet monster, corroded by countless years, she had walked the edge of death repeatedly.

Unknown to her, another was trapped in the array, his spiritual power depleted, relying on pills and spirit stones to endure.

After a few breaths, Yunqing heard the delightful chime of the system:

Obtained: Low-grade spirit stone x10, iron ore x6, mysterious iron ore x4.

She turned to see White Whirl running toward her, tongue lolling.

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White Whirl’s skill to collect monster loot was truly useful! She wouldn’t dare retrieve the corpse from the fire herself.

The Iron Red Puppet had dropped ten low-grade spirit stones upon death—the first time Yunqing had ever acquired spirit stones, though sadly she could not take them out, as they only existed in the system’s inventory.

Still, they were usable. Yunqing could use ten spirit stones to upgrade her crouching skill, granting it stealth attributes.

This place was far too dangerous; she didn’t know what else the spirit stones could do and decided to save them for later.

With a thought, she withdrew a large jug of water from her system backpack, gulping it down greedily. After so long being roasted, she was parched—not only wanting to drink, but to soak herself entirely.

Her throat burning, Yunqing took out a grilled fish with healing properties. After hours of mining and fighting, hunger gnawed at her—healing food was just what she needed.

As she ate, she surveyed her surroundings: a hall of over a thousand square meters. The walls and ceiling were inlaid with glowing stones, some fallen to the floor.

Signs of battle abounded—sharp weapon marks everywhere, anything destructible reduced to ruin, though many remnants remained.

The floor was covered in fresh black dust, newly formed, bearing only her footprints. White Whirl left none.

The recent blaze and smoke had obscured many of the original traces.

“White Whirl, can I pick up the glowing stones on the floor? What are they?”

“You may pick them up. Since they weren’t dropped by monsters, I can’t help you retrieve them.”

Having used a hint scroll in this secret realm, most items could be identified by the system.

The system promptly informed her that the glowing stones were luminescent stones.

Luminescent stone: gathers ambient light for illumination.

Yunqing picked up a luminescent stone, wiped off the dust, and found its dim glow became brighter after cleaning.

“So that’s why the light was so dull—how could I refine pills or conduct experiments in such gloom? Turns out it was just dusty.”

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