Chapter 98 — An Empty Chest Was Useful

CHAPTER 98

An Empty Chest Was Useful

“If you're selling the chest, open it,” Shi Feng said.

Tang Sen hugged the little wooden box tighter. The secondhand stall stood beside the west market wall. Broken lamps, old medicine scoops, and mismatched bowls filled every space around his feet.

“Opening it lowers its value,” Tang Sen replied.

“So does finding nothing inside,” Shi Feng said.

The Qi Condensation seller looked wounded. He claimed the box came from a dead cultivator's estate, which apparently excused the lack of a key and made every scratch expensive.

“Maybe there's a pill formula,” Tang Sen suggested.

“Then you should open it,” Shi Feng replied.

“Maybe there isn't,” Tang Sen admitted.

Shi Feng bought a plain medicine scoop instead. It cost little and had no mystery attached. Tang Sen tried to sell him the box again while wrapping the scoop, but Shi Feng left without listening.

He already had enough mystery in a black ring.

That evening, Ling Qingzhu went to answer a clan letter at a nearby family residence. She said she'd return before the late bell and reminded Shi Feng not to leave supper uncovered. He put a lid over the bowl before she finished speaking.

“Like this?” Shi Feng asked.

“Don't be irritating,” Ling Qingzhu replied.

“Then stop giving me practice,” Shi Feng said.

She left with a cold look that didn't hide her smile. Alone in the kitchen, he took the black ring from its wrapping. It looked exactly as it did when he carried it out of the ruin: plain, dark, and unimpressive beside the more decorative rings sold in the market.

Mo Tianheng's spirit no longer hid within it. That attempted possession ended when Shi Feng's physique devoured the attacker. The alchemy knowledge and remembered experience were already inside his mind.

Opening storage wouldn't grant them a second time.

He guided a small stream of Foundation Establishment qi into the ring. The old resistance weakened immediately. A space beyond its surface became clear to his senses.

Shi Feng's heart beat faster.

“So that's what it was holding,” Shi Feng murmured.

The storage was far larger than his cheap bag. Even mostly empty, it would hold furniture, supplies, and many months of ingredients without forcing him to arrange every packet around his bedding.

Three travel chests rested inside. Several old tools lay beside them, along with a small pouch and two sealed herb packets.

Inside the three chests he found clean medicine jars, an empty sorting tray, and a balanced pair of furnace tongs.

He opened the pouch.

Ninety-six spirit stones.

Shi Feng counted them once and laughed quietly. A formidable Profound Heaven alchemist's spirit tried to steal his body, and the money left behind wouldn't pay for a grand feast at Yuelan Terrace.

He didn't feel cheated. He already gained the attacker's expertise. The empty space alone was an excellent treasure.

The herb packets held modest materials he could use in ordinary preparations. Their seals preserved them well, but there was no divine root or impossible fruit waiting to carry him through three more realms.

He checked each before putting it aside. Old didn't automatically mean powerful. Sometimes old meant a packet that needed careful inspection.

The tools were sound. The tongs gripped evenly, and a narrow scraper would be useful for cleaning furnace seams. None was a grand refined artifact that he couldn't understand.

Shi Feng thought, Good. Things I can use without needing another adventure first.

He tested the space with the new medicine scoop. A brief touch of qi put it inside the ring. Another brought it back to his palm.

The first retrieval was clumsy. The scoop appeared at an angle, and he nearly dropped it. On the next try, he pictured its position more carefully before releasing the qi.

It settled into his hand properly.

He repeated the process with a bowl, a bundle of herbs, and one empty travel chest. Each needed attention, but none fought him. Foundation Establishment let him use the ring as intended.

The cheap storage bag still had its uses. He could carry ordinary purchases in it without showing anyone that the black ring held much more. There was no reason to parade the ruin's main treasure before the market.

He moved his personal tools into the ring, leaving customer ingredients clearly separated. Keeping space didn't mean forgetting ownership. A large part of his kitchen shelf became empty.

Shi Feng looked at it with satisfaction. That might be the simplest benefit of a spatial treasure: he could finally find the salt without moving medicine boxes.

He also checked what the storage could safely hold. Dry goods stayed dry; a covered water jar remained upright where he put it. There was no living beast inside, and he didn't try to make the ring swallow one merely to answer a curiosity. He could learn the space's useful limits without testing every dangerous possibility tonight.

The main advantage was simple. Previously, every large purchase meant another bundle, another trip, or leaving supplies where a landlord could inspect them. Now he could keep his own materials with him. For an alchemist who worked in rented rooms, that freedom mattered.

He placed the ninety-six stones with his own funds, then transferred the unused chests back into storage. They weren't useless merely because they were empty. He could fill them himself.

Ling Qingzhu noticed the clearer kitchen shelf when she returned before the late bell.

“You finally moved those boxes,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“They aren't beside your feet now,” Shi Feng replied.

“Good,” Ling Qingzhu said. “I was going to move them myself.”

“Into the well?” Shi Feng asked.

“Only the irritating ones,” Ling Qingzhu replied.

He smiled and took down the salt jar without shifting anything first. She watched, then gave a little nod as if he had finally obeyed sensible household instruction.

After she retired behind the screen, he opened Xu Changhe's sword notes and checked the passages on channeling Foundation Establishment qi through a blade. The ordinary steel beside him could no longer support what his new realm offered.

The next morning, Shi Feng returned to the south-street weapon shop under his hood and face cloth. The weapon-shop master first offered a gilded sword, then brought out a plain refined artifact when Shi Feng asked for sound formation channels instead of a beast's head on the hilt.

In the enclosed practice yard, Shi Feng guided a thin stream of Foundation Establishment qi through the blade. Its spirit channel answered without the shudder of ordinary steel. He didn't test his maximum strength; he needed a reliable blade for the tournament platform, not another shattered sample.

Using the ninety-six stones from the black ring and twenty-four from his reserve, he paid the one-hundred-and-twenty-stone price in coin, slipped the wrapped refined artifact into the ring in the side lane, and kept his ordinary scabbard at his waist on the walk to the furnace yard.

That afternoon he tested a basic Golden Core formula from Mo Tianheng's memory. Even with Foundation Establishment qi, the binding separated before the shell formed. He recorded the limit calmly and locked the furnace door—because outside in the lane, Gao Yuan was already waiting with word of a mid Foundation Establishment buyer seeking Returning Breath Pills before the royal qualification list went up.