Chapter Forty-six: Puppy?

This time, leaving would not be as troublesome as before. Now, he could use the low-grade storage ring he had acquired upon arriving at Nasster. During his last interruption in cultivation, he had taken out the ring and slipped it onto his finger; he had already performed the blood-binding ritual to claim it as his own. When he extended his spiritual sense into the ring, he entered its interior without any resistance.

Inside, he discovered a space of roughly five hundred cubic meters, within which various items floated, each fixed in place as if they were resting upon a table. He experimented with touching them with his spiritual sense—if he willed it, an object would appear before him. However, to put things inside, mere spiritual sense was insufficient; he had to infuse his hand with true essence, touch the item, and then use his spiritual sense to succeed. This was due, first, to the fact that these items were either raw materials or unrefined magical implements; if they were artifacts he himself had refined, he could use his spiritual sense combined with the technique for moving objects to directly store them in the ring. Second, his spiritual sense was not yet strong enough—if it could be fully materialized, even ordinary items could be moved directly into the ring with spiritual sense alone.

He had examined the contents of the ring at the time, finding a three-inch-long miniature sword, a bowl-shaped magical implement, some talismans, and several minerals he could not identify. To his mild disappointment, he found no spiritual pressure stones or pills inside. Another discovery surprised him: there were over a dozen stones identical to the rubies and sapphires he had brought from Earth, which were used to power laser guns. At first, this startled him—did cultivators also value these gems? Later, recalling an introduction to the cultivation world, he remembered spirit stones were minerals that provided energy and spiritual power to cultivators. Since his rubies and sapphires could power laser guns, perhaps they were actually a kind of spirit stone from Earth.

He had already placed all his belongings into this storage ring. Although the ring could become invisible at will, he realized that walking around without any luggage would attract attention. After some thought, he took out the backpack he had brought from Earth and put some clothes, knives, and other weapons into it.

As he strapped on the backpack and prepared to leave, he lingered, glancing with reluctance at the cave that had been his home for over a year. Suddenly, it occurred to him that his spiritual sense could now penetrate up to a meter of earth or rock within a twenty-meter radius around his body, revealing whatever lay beyond. He also recalled the valley animals’ fear of the cave, suspecting there might be another reason. Thus, before departing, he decided to scan the cave with his spiritual sense.

He found that his spiritual sense could indeed probe about a meter deep into the stone walls and floor. As his spiritual sense moved, it was as if the cave expanded outward by another meter—a quite peculiar sensation. He searched the entire cave but found nothing hidden behind the stone or beneath the floor. He withdrew his spiritual sense, shook his head with a self-deprecating smile, and turned to leave. But as he reached the entrance, he stopped abruptly, as if remembering something, and spun around to stare at a specific spot inside the cave. Unbeknownst to Li Xingyu, this was the very place where spiritual energy had surged during his breakthrough.

As he walked out, Li Xingyu was still savoring the exquisite feeling of probing the stone with his spiritual sense. He thought it was far more useful than X-rays or CT scans from Earth, and some mischievous uses even flashed through his mind. In retrospect, he realized that one spot had behaved differently during his scan—he hadn’t noticed at first, but now he recalled that while nothing was detected, his spiritual sense could only penetrate half a meter into the ground here, unlike the full meter elsewhere. This suggested a problem, so he stopped at the entrance and turned to gaze at that spot.

After pondering, Li Xingyu took out his laser gun, set its power to maximum, focused the beam to ten centimeters, and walked over. Scanning again with his spiritual sense, he still found it could only penetrate half a meter, revealing nothing. Lacking suitable tools to dig through the hard stone floor, he channeled true essence into his hand and struck the ground; with a muffled thud, a pit about half a meter deep appeared. On close inspection, the rock at the bottom was different from the surrounding stone, and his spiritual sense could no longer probe into it. He had intended to strike again, but realized that if it were ordinary stone, the pit would have been much deeper, and another blow might be useless or even dangerous. So, he backed away and prepared to attack with the laser gun, knowing its maximum power far exceeded his own true essence.

Li Xingyu pulled the trigger, and a bright beam shot from the barrel, directly hitting the pit’s bottom. Strangely, there was no explosion, melting, or penetration—the beam seemed to shine through a transparent object. He kept the trigger pressed, letting the beam pour onto the bottom until the energy in the ruby was depleted, then quickly replaced it with a new one, wary of any unexpected events.

With the new ruby installed, Li Xingyu did not rush to attack again. Instead, he watched the pit’s bottom closely for other changes. After about fifteen minutes, a sound like something moving came from below, instantly putting Li Xingyu on high alert—if not for his true spirit of adventure, he might have fled.

Under Li Xingyu’s tense gaze, the sounds grew louder, and cracks appeared at the pit’s bottom. The cracks multiplied as the noise continued. Suddenly, a small, furry red head poked through a crack, looked curiously at its surroundings, then squeezed its whole body out and stood atop the “pit bottom,” shaking itself like a puppy.

Li Xingyu had been bracing for danger, but to his astonishment, what emerged was a creature that looked and acted just like a newborn red puppy. He nearly collapsed in amazement, thinking, “If this thing starts barking, I’ll faint for sure.” Fortunately, the little creature made no such sound—its voice was actually quite pleasant.

The creature appeared utterly harmless, waddling around the pit bottom, attempting to climb out. But its body was so small and the pit so deep by comparison. It tried several times, even attempting to jump but only succeeded in falling back with pitiful whimpers.

Seeing the little one unable to escape the pit, Li Xingyu cautiously approached the edge and peered down. From the cracked area, he could see a basketball-sized space below, but nothing else. “Could this have been an egg? Was this creature hatched from it? Judging by the egg’s formidable defense and its immunity to the laser gun, it must belong to a powerful spirit beast. Yet, nothing about this little one seems extraordinary.” Li Xingyu mused. If he’d seen it on Earth, he would have assumed it was just an ordinary red puppy.

When the little creature noticed Li Xingyu, it paused, sniffed at him like a puppy, wagged its tail, and called out, gazing up with a pitiful expression as if begging to be lifted from the pit.

Three chapters today—once again, seeking your collection and recommendation.

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