Curse? Open the Stone!

But most importantly—

Ning Rongrong's tone became mysterious, "My dad said that it's a place that people who don't want to go in leave. But anyone who goes down and chooses to come back up will be harmed."

"Harm?" Tang San asked, puzzled.

"Or it could be a curse." Ning Rongrong changed her words, her tone uncertain, and then gave another example, "For instance: the first level is 500 meters below the ground. Once you go down and then go back up, you will experience a slight dizziness, accompanied by vomiting; the Second Layer is 1,000 meters below the ground. Once you go down and then choose to ascend, you will experience a strong dizziness and physical discomfort."

But Tang San thought it was normal.

After all, a person who lives at the foot of a mountain year-round might suddenly decide to climb up the mountain and experience severe dizziness or even vomiting.

Then Ning Rongrong said, "Do you think that as long as you take it slow and adapt, it will be fine? But that's not the case. Even if you ascend slowly, you can't avoid it. And even a Soul Saint can't avoid this dizziness when ascending. At most, Soul Master have much stronger Life, faster recovery, and a stronger ability to withstand damage than ordinary people."

"Moreover, the damage increases with each layer! In such a place, even Titled Douluo would suffer greatly if he were to endure the curse during the ascension process, making it difficult for him to fully unleash his surging Soul Power. Theoretically, if he were to faint from the pain of the Ascension Curse, he could even be killed by an ordinary person with a single strike!"

"Therefore, all the major powers on the continent are currently speculating that there are actually humans below the Seventh Layer of the Ruins Abyss. However, they chose not to return because they could not withstand the curse, or they were destroyed in the process of returning because they could not withstand the damage."

After learning about the general situation of the ruins in the Tianming City, Zhou Qing understood that the place was definitely a place where danger and opportunity coexisted.

However, due to the "Ascension Curse," all major powers hesitated to venture there, and even the Spirit Hall dared not develop the area.

For example, the Sea God Hall, while mysterious to the major powers on the continent, is at least somewhat known.

But what about the ancient ruins near Tianming City?

Completely unknown!

Furthermore, the higher-ups of various powerful factions likely have related legends about gods and would instinctively maintain a sense of awe towards them...

Regarding the so-called "curse" issue, Zhou Qing has reason to suspect that in the original trajectory of fate, the collision between the Sun Moon Continent and the southwest coast of the Douluo Continent was because Great God King Tang, Ah Yin, and Tang Hao discovered the thorny nature of the problem and prepared to guide the Planet's own power to Destruction the ruins once and for all, thereby increasing the foundation of the Douluo Continent.

As for the humans who died during this process...

He's already a god, so his way of looking at things is completely different from when he was human. And his original intention was for the future of Douluo Star. Apart from those few thoughts, he naturally doesn't care about anything else.

"For the reasons mentioned above, Tianming City is extremely independent, and the ores and stones mined from the various layers of ruins are quite valuable. In fact, some of these stones can even contain Soul Tool."

According to Ning Rongrong, most of the Soul Tool that are extracted cannot be used directly. However, researchers of Soul Tool in various forces are able to replicate them through the Soul Tool Core Formation within these discarded Soul Tool, thus recreating the Soul Tool and forming the current Soul Tool industry chain.

Therefore, even if Soul Tool is scrapped, its potential value to a power that owns the Soul Tool industry is far greater than the Soul Tool itself.

"If you're lucky, you might even find Evil-Repelling Stone."

The so-called Evil-Repelling Stone is a black stone that can reduce the effects of curses received when ascending from ruins. It is very simple to use; just wear it on your body.

However, most Soul Master, upon hearing of the dangers of the ruins, would never go there. The Evil-Repelling Stone is only of great use to the residents of Tianming City and nearby towns, as well as Soul Master with an adventurous spirit.

In other words, if you find Evil-Repelling Stone, you need to find the right person to sell it for a good price; otherwise, you can only sell it at the price of a normal crystal.

Zhou Qing understood. It was like selling a comb to a monk. Even if the comb was inlaid with gold and jade, its only function was to comb hair. For a virtuous monk, it was of no use and he would naturally not pay for it.

Walking up to the various strange rocks, Tang San squatted down and carefully examined a fist-sized stone in front of him, but couldn't make out anything about it.

The Purple Demon Eye is not X-ray vision, and it doesn't know the tricks. No matter how good his eyesight or how strong his Spiritual Power is, he can hardly perceive the situation inside the stone armor.

Not to mention, the stones displayed here have a rather special stone coating, smooth like jade, and dark black, as if they can block the detection of Spiritual Power.

"This kind of stone is similar to amber and fossils. It can only be formed in the special environment of the Abyss Ruins. Ordinary methods cannot see what is inside it. Even I can only rely on luck when faced with these stones."

Ning Rongrong reminded Tang San not to try to figure out any tricks, and also reminded Zhou Qing not to listen to other people's tips on selecting ingredients.

Those tricks might work on other types of stone, but they're completely useless on these stones obtained from the Abyss Ruins.

Then, Ning Rongrong explained some precautions, namely that before selecting a stone, one should not handle it, but only observe it with one's eyes; otherwise, one should buy it directly.

The price is calculated based on the weight of the stone, at 10,000 Gold Soul Coin per kilogram.

"This price is really expensive!"

Zhou Qing's eye twitched.

"I want this one!"

Just then, a girl about the same height as Ning Rongrong, wearing a black robe and a mask, pointed to a stone that looked like a fox but also somewhat resembled a human figure.

The staff on both sides immediately put on black gloves and moved the stone onto the weighing Soul Tool, measuring its weight: fifty-three kilograms.

The girl didn't haggle and simply pulled out a Black Card.

After payment, the staff asked, "Would you like it taken home, or opened here?"

"On site."

The girl clearly wanted to see if the 1.06 million Gold Soul Coin had gone down the drain.

Seeing this, Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Ning Rongrong didn't rush to choose, but instead decided to see what kind of treasure the girl could open.

Seeing that the stone had already been placed on the cutting stand, Tang San asked in a low voice, "Could this be a plant?"

"Impossible. I can't even tell anything about this stone. It can't be a plant." Ning Rongrong denied it and gave a hint: "However, generally speaking, the appearance of this kind of stone is closely related to the items inside. This stone looks like a human and a fox, so it should be relatively shallowly wrapped."