Chapter 385: Enchantment Stone and Refining Stone, and That Inexplicable Sense of a Pay-to-Win Scheme

The inside of Purgatory was rather chaotic, with numerous items piled up haphazardly.

Qi Suian did a couple of laps around the place. It wasn’t that he found nothing, but his haul was truly abysmal.

He figured that even if he hadn’t come to Purgatory, the Crown Prince would have sent the remaining items over as gifts anyway.

One was a high-grade Enchantment Stone, which could be used to enchant equipment and grant it additional attributes.

For example, a weapon could gain extra attributes like Attack or Critical Hit. As a high-grade Enchantment Stone, it could generate up to nine attributes.

As for the exact number of attributes, their types, and their values—that all came down to luck. That’s why one needed a large quantity of high-grade Enchantment Stones.

The other was a high-grade Refining Stone, which could be used to re-roll the numerical values of an item’s attributes. After all, the stats on every piece of equipment had a certain range of fluctuation.

To get a weapon with maxed-out stats, you’d also need a ton of high-grade Refining Stones.

Enhancement Stones, Enchantment Stones, Refining Stones... it was all the same old trick. You needed to burn through huge quantities of them unless you were someone like Qi Suian, blessed with the insane luck of a protagonist. Getting a perfect result on the first try was just unrealistic otherwise.

’The more I look at this stuff, the more it reminds me of certain Chinese games...’

Looking at the three special stones in his hand, Qi Suian even suspected there might be other types of stones out there.

However, since there were no others to be found in Purgatory, he couldn’t find any proof.

In fact, Qi Suian had also spotted things like mounts and giant wings in Purgatory, which only intensified the strange sense of déjà vu.

It was just that they were too badly damaged for him to make out any details.

"What was that?" Yan Jingxing, standing beside him, looked confused, unable to understand what Qi Suian had meant.

"It’s nothing." Qi Suian casually stored all three types of stones away.

He’d deal with these things later; he needed to research them first.

"You only chose a couple of worthless rocks? Aren’t you going to pick more?" Yan Jingxing asked.

With no one else around in Purgatory, he finally dared to speak normally with Qi Suian, which must have been a relief.

"Everything else is garbage. What’s the point in taking it?" Qi Suian shot him a glance.

’And here I thought I might find another Skill Book or a piece of equipment.’

In the end, all he got were some item enhancement props.

Clearly, too much time had passed. There was basically nothing left of this Extraordinary system.

With only a single piece of each of the three types of stone remaining, Qi Suian was hesitant to do anything drastic with them.

His research style wasn’t really suited for studying these three stones. The best method would be to install them as modules for the Tai Sui God.

But Qi Suian was reluctant. Researching them himself was akin to developing a whole new power system, whereas giving them to the Tai Sui God would just be a one-and-done deal.

’What’s that? Just uninstall them later to study them?’

’The stones involved some kind of underlying principles; they weren’t ordinary items. Qi Suian didn’t want to gamble on whether they’d be affected by the process of evolution or devolution.’

It would be best if there were no side effects, of course. But if there were, with these being the only ones in existence, he alone would have to bear all the consequences.

So, he planned to ask the world will for the data directly and then conduct his research.

As things stood, asking for more stones was likely unrealistic; the world will probably didn’t have any left either.

These things were obsolete items that had been "deleted." The chance of any being preserved was slim to none.

However, he knew one thing for certain: people love to compromise.

If he went straight to the world will and asked for the data, it might be reluctant. But if he first made an outrageous demand for a large number of the original stones—which would surely be rejected—and then took a step back, the chances of it agreeing to give him the data would be much higher.

As for asking for *all* the data... Qi Suian was greedy, but he wasn’t an idiot.

He knew the meaning of "give an inch and take a mile."

If he tried to take it all, the price might very well be his life.

"All of it is garbage? None of it is useful anymore???" Yan Jingxing looked shocked, not expecting Qi Suian to say such a thing.

"Well, not *all* of it is garbage. The rest is just useless to me," Qi Suian corrected, ever the purist. "For example, things like the zithers, fans, and various pieces of jade still have some aesthetic value."

But in the Ziyue Dynasty, they were destined to be useless. If they could last until the ghost scourge was over and the entertainment industry was revived, perhaps they’d have their chance.

Assuming they could actually be preserved that long without falling apart.

Based on Qi Suian’s estimate, they could probably last for another ten thousand years or so.

Even though these items seemed ordinary now, they were originally high-quality items from an Extraordinary game.

Take the three stones in Qi Suian’s hand, for example. Their original grade was surely not just "High," and their quality wasn’t merely "Fine"—it was definitely something much higher.

They had simply degraded to their current level due to the passage of time and environmental factors.

"Well, that’s a relief. If, in this entire Purgatory, only these few stones were useful to you, it would make the Royal Family look completely blind," Yan Jingxing scoffed.

He didn’t have a good impression of the Royal Family. After all, they were to blame for both the creation of the Ghost People and the death of Nangong Yuan.

Qi Suian was, at worst, just making the most of his resources. The Royal Family, in his eyes, were nothing more than greedy hyenas.

This perception was likely because he had a relatively good impression of Qi Suian. Aside from his loose tongue, he hadn’t, at least, endangered the Ziyue Dynasty.

Unfortunately, after learning how vital the predecessors of the Ghost People—the Royal Shadow Guard—had been to the Ziyue Dynasty, he could only keep his thoughts to himself.

Sacrifices always had to be made, and members of the Royal Family were among those who paid the price.

They were indeed monstrously cruel, but without them, the Ghost Control Technique would never have developed to its current state, nor would the Ziyue Dynasty enjoy its present prosperity.

The various methods and strategies for dealing with ghosts were all developed through the Royal Family’s trial and error. When it came to casualties, the Royal Family’s losses were no lower than those of the Exorcism Bureau.

Of course, Yan Jingxing’s animosity didn’t waver. Knowing the truth didn’t change his opinion.

The fact remained that all the prefectures in Dust Rock State had fallen, and the ghost tide had yet to recede.

"It seems you and the Royal Family really don’t get along," Qi Suian remarked casually.

"That’s right. And I won’t, until the day I die," Yan Jingxing said without any reservation. Everyone knew about it, and nobody cared.

Plenty of people were at odds with the Royal Family; they couldn’t care less about adding the Grand Commander of Celestial Capital to the list. Even without accident or illness, he only had a few years left to live anyway.

"Let’s go. It’s time to head back." Qi Suian paid his words no mind. It wasn’t like he was on good terms with the Royal Family either.

The Royal Family had always wanted a ten percent cut of his yang energy. Qi Suian had not only refused but had also beaten them up for it. Why would they ever look kindly on him?

After leaving Purgatory, Qi Suian returned directly to his laboratory.

"AI, what do you think if we free up a module slot to use as a laboratory?" Qi Suian asked. "Otherwise, it’s a pain to clean up and set up every time, not to mention dealing with environmental factors."

[Your idea is an excellent one, but...]

A compliment followed by a "but." Qi Suian didn’t even need to read the rest to know the AI disagreed.

The reason for its disagreement was that Qi Suian was powerful enough to clean up quickly, so there was no need to waste a module slot.

As for environmental concerns? That was even easier to solve. How could either Qi Suian or the Tai Sui God be incapable of sanitizing an environment?

Qi Suian was just trying to save himself some trouble, but he wasn’t considering the Tai Sui God. That Gold-devouring Beast’s progress was already painfully slow.

’Where would they get a spare module slot from?’

In the end, Qi Suian had no choice but to drop the idea.

However, the AI hadn’t shut down the idea completely. It explained that at the current stage, having a portable laboratory wouldn’t bring about a qualitative leap in his capabilities.

After all, a proper lab required highly controlled environmental conditions. It would be more appropriate to create one after a series of modules—such as anti-corrosion, high-pressure resistance, and so on—were installed.

By then, he could use top-tier materials for the lab’s construction and combine multiple modules to create a portable laboratory with a far superior foundation.

"Tsk, how is it that the more modules I plan, the fewer actually get implemented," Qi Suian couldn’t help but grumble.

With this in mind, Qi Suian glanced at the five ghosts burning away in the Melting Furnace.

There was one piece of good news: the ghost fuel showed no signs of decay.

It was ninety percent likely a small boon from the world will; otherwise, how could there be no decay?

’Next up is waiting for the module from the world will. I wonder when It will give it to me.’ Qi Suian knew that by tomorrow at the latest, the Tai Sui God would have five empty module slots available.

***

"Mr. Su, your suspicions were correct, but there’s a detail you missed."

A government official walked over and placed a report in front of Su Huayun.

"What detail?" Su Huayun didn’t look at it, not because he could understand it anyway, but because the gesture was a sign of respect from them.

"The location where the returning survivors appeared didn’t just spawn a single ghost. It has become an incursion point for them."

"In the time since you passed along that intelligence, we’ve already detected three more ghosts arriving in the real world," the official said, his tone grave.

This made Su Huayun’s expression darken.

He had assumed the ghosts had simply followed them from the Netherworld into the real world. He never expected that they had torn open a full-blown rift.

"With our current technology, we have no way of dealing with ghosts, do we?" Su Huayun asked.

"That’s correct. Conventional weapons are completely ineffective. We even detonated a thermonuclear weapon, and the ghost was completely unharmed." The official flipped to a page in the report and pointed it out to Su Huayun.

Su Huayun merely glanced at it before saying, "The Ghost Control Technique. You’ll have to throw lives at the problem."

"As long as someone can successfully master a ghost, not only will you neutralize that ghost, but the survivor in question will also gain its power."

"But you must be prepared for heavy casualties."

"But don’t you worry. I will help you," Su Huayun said, brimming with confidence.

The solution was simple. By using his divine Deceiver ability, he would spread the word that he could increase the success rate of the Ghost Control Technique. As long as enough people believed him, his power could turn that lie into reality.

And in the process, his Deceiver talent would gain evolution progress.

"However, I need your help with publicity. The more people who believe, the more power I’ll have to activate my talent and boost the success rate." Su Huayun knew that a simple lie was easily exposed.

That was why he would weave his lie from the threads of truth.