Chapter 59 – Scam
Xu Miao picked up a rainbow spatial ring. He used his qi to sense the items inside.
The ring was more spacious than the one that Xu Xiuying gave him. The previous ring's space was only 10 cubic meters. However, this one was 500 cubic meters, and the miscellaneous items inside it already occupied 10% of the space.
[Are you sure you want that?]
Xu Miao looked around to see if there were other rings. He picked them up and compared what was inside. However, he secretly transferred the content inside another ring to the rainbow ring's space.
"Can you give me some time to choose? I want to compare which ring suits me best."
[Oh, sure. Suit yourself. But don't take too long. I'm hungry!]
"You can eat those spears and swords. I'm only looking for rings and trinkets."
[Hahaha! Good! Then, don't mind me if I start eating those magic weapons.]
KQ gathered all weapons to her side while she shoved other miscellaneous items to Xu Miao, giving him more choices to choose.
As for Xu Miao, he tossed empty spatial rings to KQ when he was done. While he was at it, he picked several manuals and stored them in the newly acquired rainbow ring.
The talking katana noticed it, but she didn't care. She couldn't eat papers and books, so she let him collect them. However, she didn't know that Xu Miao had transferred the content in all spatial rings into one ring.
After 30 minutes of scavenging, Xu Miao emptied a total of 40 spatial rings and a few leftover medium-grade trinkets into the rainbow ring. Then, he announced his choice, "I'll take this ring."
[Eh, that takes you a while. Oh, you can keep those books and non-magic items. I don't eat junk food.]
Xu Miao nodded. He smiled at Wei Yuan and gestured her to take the leftover weapons that KQ ignored.
Wei Yuan picked three quivers of arrows, a composite bow, and a thin broadsword. Xu Miao gathered usable weapons into one pile before he stored everything into his spatial ring.
Inside the spatial ring, Xu Miao lost count of how many demonic stones, ores, treasures, artifacts, low-grade weapons, medium-grade weapons, and supplies he had stored. He would need days to sort everything inside.
"You're quite a scammer, young master Xu. Or should I say, you're a professional thief," Wei Yuan couldn't help but tease Xu Miao.
"You should have picked a spatial ring and done exactly what I did. Is that robe worth it?"
"You have no idea."
For the first time, Wei Yuan revealed the brightest smile in front of Xu Miao. She treated the robe as if it was the best treasure that she had ever had.
As if the talking katana could read their thoughts, she mocked them.
[That robe is an incomplete heavenly artifact of the oni clan. If a refiner can implant a strong soul in there, the robe can become an invincible armor. Even without a soul, physical attacks won't be able to cut it! Once completed, it can block 80% of Qi attacks!]
Xu Miao's jaw dropped. Such a cheating item slipped through his fingers and landed on Wei Yuan's laps.
The oni girl grinned as if she mocked Xu Miao, "Young master Xu, please don't be greedy. You already have THAT ring."
"…"
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After Xu Miao, Wei Yuan, and Killer Queen got what they wanted, everybody's mood got better. The awkwardness and the dead air disappeared.
KQ and Wei Yuan began chatting, exchanging their experience and knowledge. The talking sword seemed to enjoy Wei Yuan's company, and she even gave her an empty spatial ring, high-grade weapons, and medium-grade weapons.
The katana was lonely for centuries. She was so happy that she had someone to talk to.
As for Xu Miao, he spent his time sorting items in his new spatial ring. Miscellaneous items, such as clothes, food, clean water barrels, lumber, ores, and other resources, could easily fill a football field. These items piled into several mountains, sorted by type of resources.
Demonic stones were also plenty. From the rough count, Xu Miao guessed that over 50,000 refined stones were in the ring.
Low-graded magic weapons, armors, and common weaponry were also no less than the resource items. The majority of them were Japanese weaponry, such as wakizashi, katana, naginata, shuriken, kunai, bows, and many other blunt weapons. If Xu Miao hadn't learned that they were weapons of the oni clan, he would have thought that they were the arsenal of a medieval Japanese fiefdom.
It was a pity that most medium-graded and high-graded weapons were eaten by Killer Queen. Only a hundred of medium-grade items remained in the rainbow spatial ring. However, all these resources were enough to compensate for the losses.
Seeing all the riches, Xu Miao guessed that the oni tribe had deposited their most valuable items in the sealed box so that their enemies couldn't find or use it. He was delighted, though, since he could easily establish a noble clan with these resources.
But the fortune didn't end there. Several books that he acquired were martial techniques of the ancient oni clan.
Xu Miao wanted to read those books right away, but the live streaming might reveal his gain in this world, and Xu Xiuying might confiscate his loot. Thus, he kept the items in the ring for now.
…
Staying idly in the underground mine was boring. As Xu Miao was looking at the craters of raw demonic ores, his imagination ran wild. He couldn't help but want to bring them back with him. After all, he had learned a way to refine these resources into a refined stone, even if the finished products might be inferior to the ones made by adept alchemists.
"I'm gonna go and look around," Xu Miao wanted to explore the mine some more.
[Sure. While you're at it, use that spatial ring to gather more raw ores. I'll need you to refine more dark crystals for me.]
Xu Miao snorted. He waved his hand in acknowledgment and left them alone, walking toward the nearest craters to collect random resources.
After Xu Miao left Wei Yuan's sight, the curious girl was interested in the topic, "Dark crystals? You mean refined spirit stones?"
[I don't know about refined stones, but I know these things.]
KQ extended a string of her aura to pick up the unfinished refined stone that Xu Miao had created.
Wei Yuan recognized the stone. It was similar to what her grandfather used to give her.
"Ah, my family calls this stone [Refined Demon Stone]. We usually absorb Qi from one of these stones at home."
[Then, you should hire my stupid hooman master. I just taught him how to refine raw ores into dark crystals. This thing is what he had refined.]
"R-Really? He made this?" Wei Yuan looked at Xu Miao in disbelief. Normally, only demons who could utilize yang qi could refine these ores. This was the first time she heard that a human could refine a demon stone, "But he's a human."
[Nope! He's definitely a demon. A hooman demon!]
The more Wei Yuan talked to KQ, the more she was curious about Xu Miao.
"Tell me more."
[Of course! You see, that stupid hooman can use a common demonic body strengthening technique, Qi stealing skill, and a restrain skill. Since he can digest our demon Qi, his constitution is also…]
Wei Yuan's eyes gleamed as she heard interesting information. She changed her opinion about him from a hostile human into a fellow demon comrade.
'Come to think of it, my grandfather said that Xu Xiuying is a succubus. So, is he an adopted child or a mutated human?'
Her interest in Xu Miao grew.
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48 Hours passed after all test-takers had arrived in this monster realm. Xu Miao, Wei Yuan, and Killer Queen were still trapped inside the underground mine. The three got used to the enclosed environment now.
Killer Queen was a sentient object, so she had no problem with food issues. She only needed to absorb demon qi from refined demon stones that Xu Miao had created, and she could be active for a decade if she didn't have to use her energy in a fight.
Wei Yuan was a demonic being in disguise. Staying in an area with a low oxygen level wasn't a problem since she only needed demon qi to filter her blood instead of oxygen.
As for Xu Miao, he had been creating ice cubes, using his yin qi. There was a reason behind his action.
The oxygen in the mine was low, and his fireballs consumed a lot of them. Thus, Xu Miao had a hard time breathing. He needed oxygen!
Xu Miao still vaguely recalled the science classes during his high-school days. He remembered that ice was a combination of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, so creating these ice cubes and melting them might give him a source of oxygen. He didn't know if it would work or not, but he had to try, or he could be suffocated to death soon.
"What are you doing?" Wei Yuan was curious why Xu Miao had been creating ice. Because of him, the temperature in the mine was getting chilly.
"Creating oxygen?"
"Oc-sey-what?"
"I'm creating air to breathe. Don't you have trouble breathing?"
"Can't you just fill your lungs with Qi and replace the air with that? Why bother doing something so complex?"
"…"
"I assume that you can use demonic qi since you've absorbed some of mine and you're still fine.
Circulate demon qi and fill your lung with them. Then, you don't need to breathe unless you want to speak."
Xu Miao had a wry smile on his face. He forgot that he was in a cultivation world, not a scientific world. Their common sense was completely different. He wondered how this world's technologies had progressed since the local cultivators had a strange way of adapting to the environment, but that investigation had to be postponed for another time.
"I only have yin qi and yang qi. I'm a human, you know."
Wei Yuan rolled her eyes, "Combine 10 yin qi and 10 yang qi together to create a strand of Demon Qi. Or, you just absorb the qi from the ores that you've looted and filled your lung with them."
"Ah, stupid me. I haven't thought of that."
Xu Miao followed Wei Yuan's advice and use his turtle breathing technique. He altered the technique a bit, so he could inhale demon qi into his lung.
Upon inhaling a wisp of demon qi, his lungs swelled. Xu Miao felt as if hot air and cold air conflicted inside his lungs, but it wasn't painful. Instead, he felt refreshed as if he had been staying in a national park for days, breathing in clean air.
"Wow. That works."
Wei Yuan chuckled. Her initial plan of making Xu Miao owing her a favor was completed unintentionally, but she wanted to claim the credit, "Now, you owe me one. You're going to help me when I visit the Xu Clan later on, okay?"
"How about I pay you back right away?"
Wei Yuan tilted her eyebrows, amused, "How?"
Xu Miao revealed a lewd smile, "Have you ever heard of… dual cultivation?"