Elder Yi Takes Me to Find Gold of Life!

Su Hui and Shui Bing'er walked out of the Gold Stone Studio.

He carried a bulging, stuffed burlap sack in each hand.

Shui Bing'er walked side-by-side with him along the bluestone path leading back to Skywater Academy.

She glanced at the sacks in Su Hui's hands from time to time, her lips pursed tight as she held back her curiosity.

Halfway there, she finally stopped in her tracks.

"Su Hui."

Her voice was tangled with a knot of confusion.

"You bought so much metal ore and even took away a large sack of scrap—what on earth are you planning to do with all of this?"

She paused for a beat, then asked suspiciously, "Don't tell me these things have something to do with barbecue."

Su Hui turned his head and gave her a smile. "Actually, I'm quite interested in smithing. I want to study how to become a blacksmith."

"Smithing? A blacksmith?"

Shui Bing'er repeated the words instinctively.

The expression on her face remained perfectly still.

But in those beautiful ice-blue eyes, a flicker of flame danced, and within that flame, four words were clearly written: Are you kidding me?

Her mind raced through every memory she had of Su Hui since they first met.

The first time she saw this young man, he was flipping skewers by a campfire.

His hand gestures while seasoning the meat were even more fluid than a Spirit Master unleashing a spirit skill.

Back then, she had mentally labeled Su Hui as: Barbecue Master.

Later, they met again in the Far North Snowfields.

Su Hui had transformed into a red-hot genius Spirit Master.

His strength was something even she, a core student of Skywater Academy, had to look up to.

It had taken her quite a while to convince herself to accept the strange premise that a "genius Spirit Master is also a barbecue expert."

Now, he was saying he actually liked smithing and wanted to be a blacksmith!

Barbecue seller!

Genius Spirit Master!

Blacksmith!

Three identities that had absolutely nothing to do with each other spun in Shui Bing'er's mind, clashing as she tried to piece them together.

She felt as though her logical chain had snapped completely when it came to Su Hui, leaving not a single link intact.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the words rolled to the tip of her tongue before she swallowed them back down.

She realized that no matter what she said, it wouldn't feel quite right.

To question him would make her seem overly dramatic.

To agree with him was simply impossible to say out loud.

In her view, Su Hui shouldn't waste his energy on things outside of cultivation; it would be a disservice to the talent he had worked so hard to acquire.

However, Shui Bing'er also realized one thing: "I will probably never be able to guess what shocking thing this young man will say next."

Forget it, there were some things she shouldn't pry into, lest she seem like a busybody.

She withdrew her gaze and chuckled helplessly. "You certainly have a wide range of hobbies."

"I suppose so." Su Hui didn't offer further explanation.

There was no need to explain the identity of a blacksmith.

Besides, his mind was currently filled with the pile of scrap in his sacks.

Where exactly was the "treasure with a special aura" that Electrolux had mentioned hidden among those stones?

He was itching to squat down on the side of the road right then and there to smash the rocks open and see for himself.

The two walked in silence the rest of the way.

After returning to the gates of Skywater Academy, Shui Bing'er parted ways with him.

She walked a few steps, then looked back at Su Hui's retreating figure.

The young man carried the two sacks with a vigorous stride, looking as if he had picked up a massive bargain.

She shook her head and turned toward the direction of the female dormitories.

Su Hui carried the two large sacks across the academy's small paths, bypassed the row of ginkgo trees beside the training grounds, and turned onto the stone path leading to his private villa.

The moment he hooked the door shut with his heel, he let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping in relief.

He dropped the two sacks onto the floor.

He immediately crouched down to untie the seal of the bag containing the scrap material.

The instant the hemp rope came undone, a pile of dusty, yellowish stones tumbled out with a clatter, scattering across the floor in a small, messy patch.

The large ones sat lopsided, the small ones rolled into the corner; not a single one looked remotely pleasing to the eye.

Su Hui communicated urgently with Electrolux within his Sea of Consciousness: "Elder Yi, the treasure you sensed is inside these stones?"

The Ice Empress sat cross-legged on the illusory ice surface of the Sea of Consciousness, her elbows propped on her knees and her chin resting in her palms, tilting her head as she scanned the pile of trash-like scraps on the ground over and over again.

Her face, exquisite to the point of being sharp, was a mix of disdain and suspicion.

"This Empress has been staring for ages, and no matter how I look at it, it's just a pile of rotten rocks."

The textures were coarse.

There was zero energy fluctuation.

Even the lowest-grade soul beast fossils had more collection value than these.

Her golden eyes slanted toward the gray sphere suspended in mid-air.

"Lord Electrolux, are you certain your perception hasn't skewed after sleeping for too long?"

"It would be understandable for an occasional misjudgment to occur when one's soul origin is damaged."

The Ice Empress did not believe that with her level of cultivation, she could fail to see through a few stones.

However, the gray sphere trembled slightly, and Electrolux's aged voice came, unhurried and calm: "Little one, empty your mind and lend me your body."

"Alright."

Su Hui did not hesitate for a second, immediately relinquishing control of his body.

The next moment, Su Hui's black pupils were suddenly dyed with a deep, profound gray.

This gray was not murky, but clear and deep, like a color settled after being washed by the passage of time.

His entire temperament underwent a earth-shattering change in the blink of an eye.

The youthful vitality that had belonged to the boy, that irrepressible, sharp edge of his spirit, was replaced by a sense of profoundness born from long, weary years.

He was like an ancient well.

The surface of the water was perfectly still, yet it was bottomless.

No one could know how many fragments of time lay submerged at the bottom of that well.

'Electrolux' raised his right hand and pointed his index finger into the void.

The dusty scraps around the sack jolted violently, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand.

All the stones hovered into the air in unison.

Seven or eight stones of varying sizes rotated slowly in mid-air, their rough, gritty surfaces shedding dust that fell away in the light streaming in from the window.

One fist-sized, irregularly shaped grayish-brown stone detached itself from the pile.

As if guided by an invisible thread, the stone drifted steadily before him.

'Electrolux' extended his finger once more, tapping it lightly against the surface of the stone.

"Crack!"

The stone shattered on cue.

The stone skin peeled away layer by layer.

The grayish-brown shell grew thinner and finer as it was stripped away.

The moment the final layer of stone shell crumbled beneath his fingertip.

A glob of emerald-colored liquid substance flowed out from the heart of the stone!

The liquid condensed slowly in mid-air, finally shrinking into a point the size of a fingernail.

It looked round and full.

Su Hui's consciousness remained clear throughout the entire process.

Through those gray pupils, he saw the appearance of that object with absolute clarity.

It was a liquid substance.

Entirely emerald green, its luster three parts purer than even the finest imperial jade.

Its translucent texture was as warm as jade, and it seemed to seal a beam of slowly flowing liquid light within its core.

Even as it hung there silently, it continuously radiated a gentle aura of life that made every pore on his body expand in comfort.

"!!!"

The Ice Empress stood up abruptly.

Her golden eyes widened wider than they ever had before.

"This, what is this? Such dense vitality!"

She stared fixedly at the emerald liquid, no larger than a fingernail. "No, it is not just vitality; there is also powerful spiritual energy."

"This Empress has roamed the Far North for many years, yet I have never felt such a dual fluctuation of pure vitality and spiritual power!"

"Hmm?"

The Ice Empress's description reached Su Hui, striking his mind like a bolt of lightning.

His consciousness churned violently within his Sea of Consciousness, and something deep within his memories was illuminated by this flash.

A name suddenly leaped out from the layers of fragmented cognition, accompanied by disbelief, wild joy, and shock.

"Gold of Life? This is the Gold of Life!"

He nearly cracked his voice shouting within his Sea of Consciousness.