All living things are born, age, fall ill, and die—stars are no exception.
Though Yang Kai didn't know what had caused this star to become a dead one, he could tell from the resources the Stone Puppet had brought back that long ago, this had clearly been a star rich in resources and beautiful in scenery. And this ruin before him was likely once the headquarters of some Sect.
A call from not far away interrupted Yang Kai's thoughts. He turned to look and realized it was the Stone Puppet summoning him.
Yang Kai gave a slight nod and blurred forward to catch up.
As they walked along, Yang Kai probed his surroundings from time to time. Before long, he realized there was no danger here. Because there was no spiritual energy between heaven and earth, even if remnants of formations still existed in this ruin—even if they were perfectly intact—they couldn't be activated.
In other words, this ruin was an extremely safe place.
A short while later, the Stone Puppet led Yang Kai to what appeared to be a storage chamber. Piles of minerals lay stacked there, along with some jade vials and a smattering of miscellaneous items.
The jade vials clearly contained Spirit Pills.
Yang Kai picked up a few vials and examined them, only to find that the pills inside had long since lost their spiritual energy and crumbled to ash. He paid them no further attention. Some of the other worthless items were clearly herbs that had spent countless ages losing their medicinal properties until they became utterly useless.
There was also a large quantity of Holy Crystals, but due to improper storage, most of them were useless. The ones the Stone Puppet had devoured were probably the only viable ones in the entire chamber.
Of everything in this storage chamber, only the minerals still held real value!
Minerals were durable and long-lasting—they wouldn't lose their effectiveness even without special preservation methods.
The chamber still held minerals numbering several times what the Stone Puppet had devoured, every last one a rare and precious resource of enormous value.
Yang Kai swept his hand through the air, collecting all the minerals into his spatial ring, and then continued exploring the surroundings with the Stone Puppet.
A day later, he had finished exploring the entire ruin.
There were no particularly special finds. Everything of value in the ruins had probably been stored in the chamber. Even the spatial rings on the skeletal remains had crumbled long ago from lack of spiritual energy to sustain them, and everything stored inside had been destroyed.
However, Yang Kai discovered that within this vast underground space, this ruin was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath the surface, there seemed to be an entirely different world, spanning an enormous area.
He decided to explore further.
After leaving the ruins, Yang Kai flew forward for half a day before arriving before a desolate mountain range. Within the range, there were countless openings that resembled mine caves.
Upon reaching this place, the Stone Puppet—who had been faithfully following at Yang Kai's side—showed an eager, excited expression, as if greatly interested in what lay within the mountain range.
"Minerals inside?" Yang Kai turned to look at it.
The Stone Puppet was especially sensitive to minerals—the rarer and more valuable something was, the stronger its desire. Like wolves and dogs blessed with keen noses from birth, the Stone Puppet possessed a unique instinct for detecting minerals!
Hearing Yang Kai's question, the Stone Puppet nodded eagerly.
"Let's go, take a look!" Yang Kai laughed and swept his hand forward. Holy Power enveloped the Stone Puppet, and they charged into the mountain range together.
A moment later, Yang Kai's low exclamation echoed from within a mine cave: "An Annihilation Crystal mineral vein!"
There was indeed a mineral vein here, and it was an exceedingly rare Annihilation Crystal vein!
Annihilation Crystals couldn't be used to forge Artifacts. They were extremely repulsive to spiritual energy—to the point of being fundamentally incompatible. If one tried to forge an Artifact from them, no one would be able to use it, and the Artifact would be utterly ruined.
But their value was beyond question.
It was precisely because of their innate rejection of spiritual energy that they could be used to set up formations! A formation deployed with Annihilation Crystals could restrict a warrior's ability to use Holy Power. If someone accidentally fell into one, they would be stranded just as on Soul Nether Island—forced to rely solely on their physical body!
The legendary Annihilation Void Grand Formation required Annihilation Crystals as its formation core.
A warrior who couldn't use Holy Power—or even wield Artifacts—could they even be called warriors? The inhabitants of Soul Nether Island survived by using the Primordial Chaos Pill to temper their physical bodies. But not every warrior had such a pill, nor did every warrior place importance on tempering the body.
The Annihilation Void Grand Formation could be called the bane of nearly all warriors. Even Void King Realm experts who fell into it would come away humbled.
Though the formation was immensely powerful, Annihilation Crystals were extremely rare and seldom seen!
And yet here, there was an Annihilation Crystal mineral vein. Judging from the crystals exposed on the cave walls, this vein was an abundant one!
Mineral veins were classified into three grades: abundant veins, ordinary veins, and depleted veins—each with its own distinct evaluation standards.
Generally speaking, an abundant vein yielded its minerals with minimal effort. The value was staggering, and such veins were extraordinarily rare.
Yang Kai hadn't expected to discover an abundant Annihilation Crystal vein here.
The Stone Puppet had already rushed forward and begun devouring them in great gulps. In a short while, countless Annihilation Crystals had disappeared into its belly.