Beneath the Burial Sword Abyss lies another realm of humanity.
If the surface is a desolate, steel graveyard, then this "Ghost Market," three thousand feet underground, is a flower of evil rotting in the mud.
Shen Qingqiu dragged Seventeen down an abandoned sewage pipe, winding its way downwards. The pipe walls were covered in glowing moss, and every now and then, unknown mechanical insects crawled overhead, emitting a sickening screeching sound.
"Seventeen, are you cold?"
Shen Qingqiu tightened her cloak—roughly sewn from several pieces of tattered insulating canvas, but effective at protecting against the damp, poisonous fumes underground.
Seventeen shook his head.
His condition was terrible. Although the wound on his severed arm no longer emitted blue arcs of electricity, he was in a state of low-power, decaying exhaustion. His remaining left hand gripped Shen Qingqiu's clothes tightly, the large hood obscuring half of his mutilated face, revealing only a pale chin and tightly pursed lips.
He followed like a badly injured cat, afraid of being abandoned by its owner.
"The Ghost Market is just ahead," Shen Qingqiu stopped and looked down through the pipe fence.
For a moment, even though she was prepared, she was still stunned by the sight before her.
It was an upside-down city.
Countless enormous gears, pipes, and iron chains suspended buildings above the cavernous ceiling. There was no sunlight; lighting relied entirely on talismans plastered all over the streets and alleys, emitting blinding neon lights.
Red, green, purple.
The bizarre glow of those talismans illuminated the dark mass of people below.
The hissing of steam, the cries of vendors, the roars of gamblers, mixed with the aroma of cheap engine oil and roasted meat, created a wave of scorching heat that swept over them.
The currency here was "spirit stones," which were essentially high-energy battery blocks.
Here, only two things matter: eyesight and brute force.
...
"Selling magical artifacts! Fragments of the 'Blazing Sun Sword' unearthed from ancient ruins! Only three low-grade spirit stones!"
"Freshly forged 'prosthetic limbs'! Second-hand models discarded by the Heavenly Crafts Pavilion, three-month warranty!"
Shen Qingqiu, leading Seventeen by the hand, blended into the bustling crowd like two drops of water merging into the ocean.
She put a pair of sunglasses on Seventeen—goggles she'd found in a junkyard, modified to perfectly conceal his scarlet electronic prosthetic eye, making him look like a cold-blooded blind swordsman.
"We need money," Shen Qingqiu muttered, calculating, "and some high-grade metal to repair your body."
She patted her pockets. There were only a few low-quality demon cores dug out of wild dogs; in the Ghost Market, that wouldn't even buy a cup of hot tea.
"Qingqiu..." Seventeen suddenly stopped, his finger hooking her palm.
He pointed ahead to a magnificent, yet somewhat gaudy, nine-story building. A huge plaque hung above it—[Qianjin Fang].
A crowd had gathered at the entrance, exclamations and sighs escaping from time to time.
"That's a stone gambling den." Shen Qingqiu's eyes lit up.
In the cultivation world, stone gambling is about whether the raw stone contains "spiritual jade."
But in the wasteland world, stone gambling is about—an "ancient encapsulated entity."
Those metal lumps, unearthed from ancient battlefields, thickly rusted and encased in rock—no one knows whether they contain scrap iron or a perfectly intact core chip.
"That's it." A confident smile curved Shen Qingqiu's lips. "Seventeen, let's go make a fortune."
… Inside Qianjin Fang, the atmosphere was bustling.
The center of the hall was piled high with all sorts of "raw stones." Some were the size of millstones, others as delicate as fists. The air was thick with the acrid smell of stone-cutting machines and the ozone fumes from sparks flying everywhere. "Open! Open! Open!" A group of cultivators, their eyes bloodshot, surrounded the stone-cutting platform, their eyes glued to the slowly descending saw teeth.
Sizzle—!
Sparks flew everywhere.
A roughly half-person-high rough stone was cut open.
The cross-section was grayish-white, all dead iron.
"It's ruined! It's all scrap metal!" The buyer let out a desperate wail, collapsing to the ground. "That's my entire fortune!"
Shen Qingqiu watched coldly.
She activated [Overclocking Vision].
The world rapidly faded in her eyes, transforming into a perspective view composed of countless lines.
The mountain of "rough stones" held no secrets for her.
"Low radiation...loose structure...hollow interior..."
Shen Qingqiu's gaze swept quickly across.
99% was junk. Some looked gleaming on the outside, but were already rusted and hollow inside; some showed energy reactions, but it was just leaking battery fluid—it would explode at any moment.
"Hey, aren't these the two beggars who just came in?"
A flippant voice rang in his ears.
Shen Qingqiu turned his head and saw a young nobleman dressed in fine clothes, twirling two iron walnuts in his hands, looking at them with disdain.
"What? Trying your luck too?" The nobleman sized up Seventeen's tattered cloak. "Looking at your shabby appearance, could you even afford a scrap of scrap?" Seventeen's body tensed instantly.
Although he had lost an arm, the murderous aura emanating from him, as if he had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, still made the surrounding temperature drop several degrees.
The nobleman, swept by Seventeen's gaze from behind his sunglasses, inexplicably shivered, then became enraged: "What are you looking at! Blind man!"
Shen Qingqiu pressed down on the back of Seventeen's hand, giving it a soothing squeeze.
"Young master, you jest." Shen Qingqiu smiled, but her eyes were as cold as ice. "We truly cannot afford large quantities; we can only look at... scrap." She walked straight to a basket in the corner of the hall.
There lay a pile of "scrap stones," discarded by others. Each piece was rusty, even covered in moss, and priced at only one low-grade spirit stone.
"I'll take this one." Shen Qingqiu picked up a dark, lumpy object shaped like a rotten lump of coal from the pile of scrap.
A burst of laughter erupted around her.
"Has this girl gone mad? That's clearly a rusty gear!"
"There's not a trace of spiritual energy on it; it's just a lifeless object!" The young man in brocade robes laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight: "Hahahaha! If you can extract anything from this rotten lump of coal, I'll eat this stone-cutting machine on the spot!"
Shen Qingqiu ignored him.
She weighed the "rotten lump of coal" in her hand.
To others, it was an inanimate object.
But in her [Golden Eyes], its internal structure was shockingly intricate. It wasn't a gear; it was an extremely rare **"Array Logic Core****, encased in a high-density lead layer.
In the previous era, this was the computing heart that powered floating warships.
"Boss, cut it." Shen Qingqiu pulled out the few low-quality demon cores and slammed them on the table.
The stone-cutting master, a one-eyed old man, casually took the "rotten lump of coal" and tossed it under the stone-cutting machine.
"How do I cut it?"
"Scratching the edge." Shen Qingqiu extended her slender finger and drew an extremely precise line on the stone's surface. "Grind off this rust layer, but don't damage the flesh inside."
"Flesh? This thing has flesh?" The master scoffed and started the grinding wheel.
*Sizzle—* A harsh grinding sound rang out. Black rust powder fell in a flurry.
The onlookers were mostly watching with amusement, with the young master in brocade robes crossing his arms, waiting to see Shen Qingqiu make a fool of himself.
However,
As the grinding wheel slowly removed the surface, a strange color suddenly caught everyone's eye.
It wasn't the green aura common in the cultivation world, nor the red fiery energy.
It was a deep, pure, and seemingly infinitely blue aura.
"It's glowing?!" someone exclaimed.
The stonecutter's hand trembled, almost cutting off the stone. He stared wide-eyed at the stone beneath his hands in disbelief.
As the rust completely peeled away, the "lump of coal" revealed its true form.
It was a fist-sized dodecahedron carved from an unknown blue crystal. Its surface showed no signs of artificial carving, yet it was covered with countless golden lines, thousands of times finer than a hair.
These lines weren't static.
They were flowing.
Like a living data stream, it circulated endlessly within the crystal, each flash accompanied by a heart-pounding, ancient rhythm.
*Buzz—* The lights in the entire Qianjinfang suddenly dimmed for a moment.
The instant this crystal appeared, its terrifying computing field directly interfered with the voltage of the surrounding talismans.
Dead silence.
The entire place was deathly silent.
Even the young man in brocade robes gaped, unaware that the iron walnut in his hand had fallen to the ground and hit his foot.
"This…this is…" An elderly appraiser with white hair and beard trembled as he stepped forward, took out a magnifying glass to examine it closely, and then let out a shrill scream:
"The Heavenly Mystery Core! This is the legendary Heavenly Mystery Core!"
"This is a treasure that can be used to make top-grade puppets, even the main brain of a mountain-protecting array! Even in the Myriad Immortals Alliance, only core elders are worthy of possessing it!"
*Boom!*
The crowd erupted in uproar.
"It's gone up! A huge jump!"
"This isn't just turning stone into gold, it's turning stone into a god!"
"Girl! I'll offer five thousand spirit stones!"
"Get lost! I'll offer ten thousand! Plus a magic weapon!"
Countless greedy eyes, like sharks smelling blood, instantly focused on the blue crystal in Shen Qingqiu's hand.
Shen Qingqiu remained calm.
She held the crystal in her palm; its cool touch brought her peace. With this, Seventeen's arm was secured.
"Seventeen."
She called softly.
"Here." Seventeen stepped forward, standing before her.
Although his clothes were tattered, and although he only had one hand.
He drew his half-broken sword.
Boom—
An extremely fierce killing intent erupted from him. It wasn't the pressure of spiritual energy; it was pure, tangible killing intent condensed from the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of lives.
The prosthetic eye exposed outside the sunglasses was flashing a dangerous red light, locking onto everyone who tried to approach.
[Warning: Hostile target detected. Quantity: 36.]
[Annihilation Mode: Warming Up.] Those cultivators who had initially intended to seize the item were instantly chilled by the murderous aura, retreating hastily as if doused with cold water.
This cripple… is not to be trifled with.
"I'm not selling." Shen Qingqiu's voice was cold and clear, piercing through the clamor. "I want to trade."
She looked at the stunned young man in brocade robes, a mocking smile playing on her lips.
"Young master, what did you just say? You wanted to eat the stone-cutting machine?"
The young man in brocade robes turned a deep shade of liver, but dared not retaliate, and could only slink away into the crowd.
Shen Qingqiu turned around, raising the Heavenly Mystery Core in her hand towards the tightly closed carved wooden window on the second floor of Qianjinfang—that was where the real big shots resided.
"I want to exchange for the Flowing Gold Fire Essence, and… a letter of recommendation for entry into the Heavenly Crafts Pavilion."
…Half an hour later.
Shen Qingqiu and Seventeen walked out of Qianjin Market.
Although they didn't have the ten thousand spirit stones in their pockets, Shen Qingqiu carried a bottle of extremely precious, liquid-like golden metallic solution, and a token engraved with the words "Heavenly Crafts."
Walking in the dark alleys of the Ghost Market, Seventeen remained silent.
"What's wrong?" Shen Qingqiu noticed his low spirits.
Seventeen stopped and looked down at his empty right sleeve.
"That thing…is very valuable."
He said hoarsely, "It can be exchanged for a lot of money…so you can live a good life." But he knew that the Flowing Gold Fire Essence she obtained was for rebuilding his arm.
That Heavenly Secret Core could have allowed her to live a wealthy life in this underground city, instead of wandering and suffering with him.
"I am…a burden."
Shen Qingqiu sighed.
She turned around and, in the dirty alleyway filled with the smell of engine oil and the flickering neon lights, cupped Seventeen's masked face in her hands.
"Seventeen, are you bad at math?"
Seventeen froze. "?" His math skills were clearly top-notch.
"That time, the mechanism was precious, but it was just a stone, a dead heart."
Shen Qingqiu stood on tiptoe, her forehead touching his, looking into his panicked eyes behind his sunglasses.
"But you're alive."
"To me, no treasure in this world can compare to the weight of your arms when you embraced me again."
She shook the metal bottle in her hand, smiling like a little girl who had received candy.
"Just wait, when we get back tonight, I'll make you the most handsome hand in the world."
"Then, you'll use that hand to pluck all the gold from this city for me."
Seventeen looked at her.
The noisy, bustling ghost market around them, the bizarre neon lights, all seemed to fade in that instant.
Only the light in her eyes shone ten thousand times brighter than the Heavenly Secret Core.
He slowly lowered his head, burying his face in the crook of her neck, and took a deep breath.
That was her scent.
She was his only anchor in this ruined world.
"Mmm," he responded softly in her ear, his voice light yet carrying immense weight.
"From now on... my life was bought with yours."