Chapter 67: Refining the Space Ring
Lin Yingshan stood up, no longer looking at the Ninth Princess, but fixing her gaze on Zhang Ruochen. "Cousin, remember to deliver one million silver coins to the Lin residence within a month," she said.
With those words, Lin Yingshan and Lin Chenyu, along with the three Lin family guards, slunk away from the royal training ground.
Once outside the palace, tears of humiliation welled in Lin Yingshan's eyes. She said coldly, "The Ninth Princess actually humiliated me like this. She must die, and Zhang Ruochen too. In this life, I never want to see those two again."
A cold gleam flashed in Lin Chenyu's eyes. "Don't worry," he said. "I've already been to the Black Market and placed a heavy bounty on Zhang Ruochen's head. The moment he dares to step out of the palace, it will be his end."
"As for the Ninth Princess, killing her would be even easier."
"Yingshan, the most important thing for you now is to train hard and break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm as soon as possible. When you do, you won't need anyone else's help. You can kill the Ninth Princess with your own strength."
A cold glint flickered in Lin Yingshan's eyes. "Right! I must personally cut the Ninth Princess into a thousand pieces to ease the hatred in my heart."
Lin Chenyu took a red copper box from his sleeve and handed it to Lin Yingshan. "This is a third-grade pill, the Blood Mysterious Pill. Take it when you're about to break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm. It will increase your success rate by thirty percent. Once you break through, I can take you to the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion. With your talent, passing their examination won't be difficult."
Lin Yingshan accepted the Blood Mysterious Pill, a hint of joy appearing in her eyes. "Breaking through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm means I can go to the Cloud Terrace Sect Mansion? That's wonderful. I'll definitely be able to see the Seventh Prince then."
"Of course," Lin Chenyu said, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "The Seventh Prince is now an inner sect disciple, with an exalted status. If you can win his favor, you'll have no shortage of benefits in the future."
Hearing Lin Chenyu's words, Lin Yingshan immediately forgot the humiliation she had just suffered, a sense of anticipation rising in her heart. The Seventh Prince was so extraordinarily talented. Compared to him, Zhang Ruochen was nothing but a minor character.
At the royal training ground.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Ninth Sister, by humiliating Lin Yingshan today and making her kneel before everyone, she will likely resort to extreme measures to take revenge on you."
The Ninth Princess sheathed her Azure Water Sword. "I didn't intend to humiliate her. I just wanted to help you get back that one million silver coins. Besides, do you think I'm afraid of her? Even if she had the courage, she wouldn't dare to harm a member of our royal clan."
"I hope so," Zhang Ruochen said, taking out a bronze box and handing it to the Ninth Princess. "Ninth Sister, this contains a Blood Mysterious Pill. Take it when you're about to break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm. It will increase your success rate by thirty percent."
Zhang Ruochen had originally bought the Blood Mysterious Pill for himself, planning to use it to break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm. However, while cultivating in the Royal Mountain, he had reached the Supreme Extreme Realm, triggering the resonance of the gods. With the blessing of the gods' power, he had directly broken through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm, so he hadn't needed the pill.
Now, he was giving the Blood Mysterious Pill to the Ninth Princess.
The Ninth Princess didn't stand on ceremony with Zhang Ruochen at all. She accepted the Blood Mysterious Pill with great delight.
The other princes and princesses looked on with envy. After all, the Blood Mysterious Pill was a third-grade pill, worth one hundred and twenty thousand silver coins, and could save a year's worth of cultivation time.
Ordinary princes and princesses simply couldn't afford it.
After leaving the royal training ground, A Le bid farewell to Zhang Ruochen, intending to go to the Black Market.
"A Le!"
Zhang Ruochen called out to A Le, who was about to leave, and said meaningfully, "I'll be leaving the royal city in a month to go to the Martial Market Academy. But there's one thing I'm worried about."
A Le stared at Zhang Ruochen. "The Ninth Princess?"
Zhang Ruochen nodded. "Lin Yingshan suffered such a great humiliation. She will definitely retaliate against Ninth Sister, and might even try to kill her."
A Le said, "As long as I remain in the royal city, I will secretly protect the Ninth Princess. I won't let the Lin family harm her."
"Having your promise puts my mind at ease," Zhang Ruochen said with a smile.
Without another word, A Le walked out of the palace, leaving behind only a solitary and proud silhouette.
Zhang Ruochen had always felt that spending one million silver coins to buy A Le from Lin Yingshan was the best deal he had ever made.
But one million silver coins was no small sum.
He currently had only eight hundred and ninety thousand silver coins, still short by one hundred and ten thousand. How could he make up the difference?
"It seems I'll have to pin my hopes on the Space-Time Ring. If I can successfully refine one, I should be able to easily earn the one hundred and ten thousand silver coins."
"Now that I've reached the Mysterious Extreme Realm, my true qi is much more abundant, and I have a faint trace of the gods' power within me. I should be able to inscribe the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune."
Of the eight basic space runes, Zhang Ruochen had long been able to inscribe the first six. Only the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune had been difficult, and he had never been able to inscribe them successfully.
It was worth noting that Zhang Ruochen's spiritual power was quite strong, having reached the thirty-second rank.
Therefore, his previous inability to inscribe the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune was not due to insufficient spiritual power, but rather because his true qi was not deep enough.
Now that his cultivation had reached the Mysterious Extreme Realm, his true qi had surged, naturally giving him a much greater chance of successfully inscribing the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune.
Thinking of this, Zhang Ruochen could no longer contain his eagerness. He immediately hurried back to Yushu Palace.
Just as he arrived at the entrance of Yushu Palace, General Gan Li, carrying an axe, approached and bowed to Zhang Ruochen. "Greetings, Ninth Prince."
"General Gan Li, what business do you have?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Gan Li chuckled and handed a bundle to Zhang Ruochen. "This is the silver coins and spirit crystals sent over from the Finance Office. It's said to be the proceeds from the beasts you hunted in the Royal Mountain."
"Oh!"
Zhang Ruochen's heart leaped with joy. He immediately took the bundle, which felt quite heavy.
Opening the bundle and seeing the silver coins and spirit crystals inside, Zhang Ruochen burst into hearty laughter.
The bundle contained one hundred and forty-three spirit crystals and six hundred and seventy silver coins, totaling one hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred and seventy silver coins.
It should be noted that in the Royal Mountain, Zhang Ruochen had killed three second-rank beasts, thirty first-rank upper-level beasts, over thirty first-rank mid-level beasts, and some first-rank lower-level beasts.
A single second-rank beast was worth at least twenty thousand silver coins. For example, the second-rank Silver Dragon Lion was valuable from head to toe. If sold at the Martial Market, it could usually fetch between thirty thousand and forty thousand silver coins.
A first-rank upper-level beast was worth between five thousand and ten thousand silver coins.
A first-rank mid-level beast was generally worth around one thousand silver coins.
"I spent half a month in the Royal Mountain and earned one hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred and seventy silver coins. This is because I exchanged them at the Finance Office, where the prices are lower. If I had sold them at the Martial Market, the total would probably have exceeded two hundred thousand silver coins."
Hunting beasts seemed quite profitable, but it wasn't that easy.
The reason Zhang Ruochen was able to hunt so many beasts was that the Royal Mountain was the royal clan's hunting grounds. The beasts raised there weren't very aggressive, and there were no second-rank upper-level or third-rank beasts, making the danger relatively low.
If it were the Demon Ridge or the Tongming River, even a Mysterious Extreme Realm Great Perfection martial artist would face a near-certain death sentence trying to hunt beasts for money, let alone a Mysterious Extreme Realm initial-stage martial artist.
Even Earth Extreme Realm and Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artists, if they dared to venture alone into the depths of the Demon Ridge or the deadly stretches of the Tongming River, would most likely fall.
So, earning one hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred and seventy silver coins was already quite satisfying for Zhang Ruochen. At the very least, it was enough to make up the one million silver coins he owed Lin Yingshan.
Returning to his residence, Zhang Ruochen immediately entered the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal.
He took out an inscription brush and placed a sheet of spirit paper on the ground.
"I must inscribe it successfully!"
Zhang Ruochen infused his true qi into the inscription brush and quickly began inscribing the Expansion Rune on the spirit paper.
Having reached the Mysterious Extreme Realm, Zhang Ruochen could clearly feel that his movements were smoother, and his brush strokes left clear marks. In just ten breaths, he successfully inscribed the Expansion Rune.
"Haha! Success! Finally succeeded!"
Zhang Ruochen then began inscribing the Shrinking Rune.
This time, he was even faster, completing it successfully in just eight breaths.
Zhang Ruochen continued practicing on the spirit paper. By the tenth attempt, he could inscribe both the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune in just three breaths.
"All eight basic space runes successfully inscribed! Wonderful! After triggering the first resonance of the gods, my spiritual power seems to have increased significantly. I wonder what rank it has reached now?"
In high spirits, Zhang Ruochen prepared to refine a space ring.
Although he had refined a space ring before, he hadn't learned the Expansion Rune at the time and couldn't expand the inner space of the ring.
Therefore, that ring was merely a basic space ring, with a very small inner space of only one cubic meter, capable of holding only a small amount of items.
Now that he had learned the Expansion Rune and the Shrinking Rune, how large an inner space would the space ring he refined have?
Zhang Ruochen felt a surge of anticipation. He immediately took out a white ring engraved with phoenix patterns and held it in his hand.
The first step was to inscribe the space runes on the white ring.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Zhang Ruochen inscribed six space runes in one go, without a single failure. All were successful.
Inside the white ring, a one-cubic-meter inner space was constructed.
Next came the most critical part: inscribing the Expansion Rune to expand the size of the inner space.
Holding the inscription brush, Zhang Ruochen carefully inscribed the rune on the white phoenix ring. His strokes were smooth and fluid, like flowing clouds and water.
"Boom!"
The moment the Expansion Rune was successfully inscribed, the inner space of the space ring immediately began to expand.
One cubic meter, two cubic meters, three cubic meters...
Soon, the inner space of the ring reached a capacity of eight cubic meters, and it was still increasing.
Zhang Ruochen poured all his true qi into the space ring continuously, using his full cultivation to push the inner space to its maximum limit.