Guixu Relay Station, Hall of Myriad Treasures.
Chu Qing was barefoot, walking along a corridor paved with deep-sea flood dragon hide. The sensation beneath his soles was delicate and icy, yet it could not suppress the tremor of the Earth Vein creeping up through the bottoms of his feet. The vibration was faint, as though something far away were digging desperately.
"Master, the core area is ahead." Nangong Xue hurried two steps forward and stayed close behind Chu Qing's side. Her fingertips pressed against the Array Disk at her cuff, her knuckles turning deathly pale from excessive tension, while a fine layer of sweat beaded on the tip of her nose.
Chu Qing did not respond.
He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the hall's vaulted ceiling. Tens of thousands of luminescent pearl clams hung there, the glow they spat out illuminating the entire hall as brightly as day.
What lay on the counters were the lifeblood of countless worlds.
There was "Primordial Ancestral Qi" sealed inside Liuli bottles, faint purple smoke still seeping from the stoppers; pulsing "World Core Fragments," each throb causing minute folds in the surrounding space; and even several rusted lengths of Forbidden Chains, forcibly torn from the corpses of Ancient Gods and Demons.
Chu Qing's steps remained steady.
He swept past those treasures, his pupils narrowing to slits as Dark Gold light slowly flowed through his eyes.
(Evaluation): These things had foundations that were far too shallow.
(Plan): If the relay station collapsed, tossing these scraps into Stone Ridge Mountain's Grindstone probably would not even make a sound.
He needed something heavier.
In a side hall deep within the main hall, several old men sat in grand chairs carved from Ten Thousand Year Agarwood.
They wore loose dharma robes, and the fingers hidden beneath