13 Million First-Rank Spirit Crystals, Departure Crystal

Amy finished her preparations and clapped her hands together with a satisfied smile.

"Alright, Xixi — you and the others stay here and keep watch. Lei Feng and I will head up. We'll be back soon."

"Yes, Miss."

Lin Xixi nodded, then looked over at Lu Yuan.

"Mr. Lei, I'm counting on you to look after Miss."

Lu Yuan smiled. "Don't worry."

"Hmph! I'm perfectly capable on my own — I don't need this guy to look after me."

Amy muttered with a pout.

Lu Yuan rolled his eyes. "Amy. Let's go."

He turned and headed up the stairs.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Amy hurried after him.

Lu Yuan led Amy into the outer ring of hundred-meter towers first.

The rooms inside varied from one to five per floor.

Some held Mechanical Guardians; others concealed traps — exploding charges and similar contraptions.

Neither of them found any of it remotely threatening.

The two swept through all twelve towers with ease.

Each tower held five hundred vials of Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid, yielding a total haul of six thousand vials.

Converted to currency, that came to roughly six million First-Rank Spirit Crystals.

Beyond the Gene Fluid, three of the towers contained additional items.

**Viper Type-5 Spirit Sniper Rifle (First-Rank, 100%): Boss Grade Gene Armament.**

A long-range Gene Armament, similar to a longbow. Inject Spirit Power to fire spirit-energy rounds. High damage output — but with a notably long interval between shots.

Lu Yuan was a frontline fighter, not a ranged specialist. The rifle was useless to him.

Amy wasn't either. It would have to be sold.

**Thunderstorm Type-5 Mechanical War Hammer (First-Rank, 100%): Boss Grade Gene Armament.**

Same story — neither of them could use it. Another piece destined for the market.

In addition to the two Gene Armaments, there was a case of twelve BX101 Frost Grenades.

Blast yield equivalent to a full-force strike from a First-Rank Boss Grade entity, with a freezing effect on top.

Solid firepower.

Neither of them could use the attribute bonuses, but having a few on hand might prove worthwhile.

They split the haul evenly: three thousand vials of Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid each, six Frost Grenades each, and one Boss Grade Gene Armament each.

With the twelve hundred-meter towers cleared, they moved on to the four five-hundred-meter towers.

The rooms inside were tougher — both the traps and Mechanical Guardians had scaled up considerably.

Still no real threat to either of them.

Each five-hundred-meter tower held five hundred vials of the higher-grade Gene Fluid.

One vial of the higher-grade Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid contained ten times the Spirit Power of a standard vial — equivalent to ten thousand First-Rank Spirit Crystals. More importantly, the Spirit Power it carried was far gentler and easier to absorb than the lower grade.

For an ordinary, common-grade First-Rank Gene Warrior, just a few vials would likely be enough to fully temper their entire First-Rank Gene Chain.

The potency spoke for itself.

Even for Lu Yuan, this quantity was extraordinarily valuable.

Four towers at five hundred vials each came to two thousand vials total. His share: one thousand — equivalent to ten million First-Rank Spirit Crystals.

Between all the Spirit Power resources he had gathered, his total haul had reached thirteen million First-Rank Spirit Crystals.

An overnight fortune.

He thought back to the auction in Sandy Rock City — the Inheritance Crystal had gone for just over twenty million Zero-Rank Spirit Crystals, which worked out to roughly two million in First-Rank terms.

He could now afford five or six of those.

Beyond the Gene Fluid, the five-hundred-meter towers also yielded something else.

**Aier Type-6 Staff of Wisdom (First-Rank, 100%): Chief Grade Gene Armament.**

Focused on mental and perception enhancements. Exceptional in power — on par with the Mechanical Sentinel Lu Yuan had recently acquired.

The Staff of Wisdom stood two meters tall, forged entirely from metal, a blue crystal set at its crown that pulsed with soft, shifting light.

Amy wrapped both arms around it and refused to let go.

Lu Yuan had no interest in fighting her for it.

In addition to the Staff of Wisdom, they found two Departure Crystals.

**Departure Crystal (First-Rank): When used, allows a Gene Warrior of First-Rank or below to exit the Land of Origin early.**

The crystals were milky white, smooth and lustrous as carved jade.

Their purpose was exactly what it sounded like: let a Gene Warrior leave the Land of Origin before their allotted time expired.

Lu Yuan had seen them listed on the Battle Net before. Exceptionally rare.

A single First-Rank Departure Crystal started at one million First-Rank Spirit Crystals.

For ordinary Gene Warriors, that price made no sense. If you died inside, you might lose a few hundred or a few thousand Spirit Crystals. Spending a million to avoid it was throwing money away.

But for high-ranking warriors, the logic flipped entirely.

A single run might yield a find worth many times that. At the edge of death, burning a million to preserve the rest of the haul was an easy trade.

That was exactly Lu Yuan's situation right now.

His current haul was already worth far more than a million.

If he ever found himself in a genuinely hopeless fight, he wouldn't hesitate.

His eyes lit up the moment he saw them.

"Amy — one each."

He picked them up and held one out to her.

Amy shook her head. "You keep it. My mother gave me one before we came in."

Lu Yuan blinked, a flicker of envy moving through him.

*A million-credit First-Rank Departure Crystal — already prepared in advance.*

*That's Amy, the little heiress, for you. Terrifying.*

He shook his head. "Two's better than one. Keep yours as backup."

Amy tilted her head, thought it over, then nodded.

"Fine."

She tucked the crystal away.

With that, every building in the outer ring had been searched — all twelve hundred-meter towers, all four five-hundred-meter towers.

Only the thousand-meter spire remained.

Lu Yuan and Amy came back down to the ground floor.

Each five-hundred-meter tower had a gate at the base connecting through to the central spire. They stepped through.

The thousand-meter tower's lobby was unremarkable compared to the others — just larger in scale.

A staircase at the center led upward.

Lu Yuan looked up.

Six rooms above.

*Six.*

A quiet flicker of anticipation. He glanced at Amy.

"Let's go."

Amy nodded.

They climbed the stairs and reached the first room.

Amy stepped back automatically, letting Lu Yuan take point.

She raised the Staff of Wisdom and swept it forward — vines of Tianrao Purple Vine unfurled and spread outward, weaving themselves into a living barrier of green that wrapped around Lu Yuan like armor.

The same pattern they had developed over dozens of rooms: let the vines take the first hit, whatever it turned out to be.

Lu Yuan stepped up and pushed the door open.

The moment it swung wide, a massive surge of Spirit Power came screaming toward him.

His eyes snapped tight. On pure reflex he brought his greatsword up sideways.

**BOOM!!**

The spirit-energy round detonated against the blade. Lu Yuan rode the impact, sliding back two steps before planting his feet.

He looked inside.

The room stretched roughly three to four hundred meters across — another compressed pocket space. From outside the building you would never have guessed.

At the center stood a Mechanical Hound, shoulders clearing four meters, mouth hanging open. Spirit energy was already gathering in its jaws for the next shot.

*Chief Grade Mechanical Hound.*

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened. He disappeared from where he stood and launched into the room. Amy followed a beat behind.

They had handled Chief Grade Mechanical Guardians before. The routine was smooth by now.

Lu Yuan charged forward and intercepted the next round the moment it fired. Amy seized the opening to cocoon the Mechanical Hound in a thick wrap of purple vines — bound so thoroughly that even its spirit-cannon maw was sealed shut.

Then Lu Yuan drove his blade into its head, methodically, strike after strike, until the machine went still.

Less than a minute, start to finish.

The Mechanical Hound scattered several drops as it died.

A Chief Grade Gene Armament — a pair of gauntlets.

**Steel Hound Claws.**

Neither of them used gauntlets. But the Algaibi family was large enough that someone back home certainly did. Lu Yuan handed them to Amy without discussion.

His own share:

— Five hundred vials of Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid — One Boss Grade Gene Armament ring: **Steel Fang Ring** — One Boss Grade Gene Armament suit of chain mail: **Spirit Dynamic Type-5 Spirit Energy Chain Mail** — Four BX101 Frost Grenades

Of the two armaments, the Steel Fang Ring was actually usable.

Primary bonuses: Power Burst and Agility. Secondary: a modest defense increase.

Gene Warriors could equip two rings at once, one per hand. Until now, Lu Yuan only had the Torrent Ring — recovered from the Ancient Sea Oasis back near Sandy Rock City. He had gone this long without finding a second ring worth slotting.

This one filled the gap.

The moment he slipped it on, the difference was immediate — Strength up nearly five percent, Agility up over ten. The defense gain was barely perceptible.

An improvement was still an improvement.

Everything else he would sort through later. If it didn't suit him, it would sell.

Once they divided the loot, they left the first room and moved to the second.

The door swung open, and a wash of pale green radiance made Lu Yuan squint.

Amy let out a sharp breath.

"So much Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid!"

The room was five to six hundred meters across. At its center, vials of the higher-grade Gene Fluid were heaped into a small mountain — a volume that was almost difficult to comprehend at a glance.

Lu Yuan kept his voice even despite the excitement slamming around inside his chest. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Let me check for traps first."

"Right, right!"

Amy nodded rapidly.

Lu Yuan stepped inside and swept the perimeter. No traps. He turned back with a grin.

"Come on in."

Amy bounded through the doorway and stood before the gleaming pile, grinning stupidly to herself.

"We're rich this trip! I've never made this much money myself! As expected of me!"

She planted her fists on her hips with exaggerated pride.

Lu Yuan rolled his eyes. The Spirit Crystals Amy burned through for her own cultivation probably cost a small fortune on their own. Objectively, this haul wasn't life-changing for her.

But she had *earned* it herself — and that apparently made all the difference.

For Lu Yuan, though, this was genuinely transformative. *I won't need to stress about Spirit Crystals for a good long while.* He had been scraping by for too long.

"Let's count it up."

Amy's eyes lit up. "Yes!"

It took a while.

When they finished tallying, the total came to two thousand vials.

"Not for nothing that it's the thousand-meter spire — one room here matches the entire output of all four five-hundred-meter towers combined."

Lu Yuan's breathing had gone slightly uneven. He worked to sound casual. "Same deal as always. Split it down the middle."

A thousand vials each.

That brought his total higher-grade Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid to two thousand vials.

Adding the thirty-five hundred vials of standard Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid he had already collected, his Spirit Power resources alone now converted to twenty-three million five hundred thousand First-Rank Spirit Crystals.

Staggering.

"Keep going!"

With a haul like this building around them, neither of them wanted it to end.

Third room.

Lu Yuan pushed the door open.

A deafening explosion erupted from inside.

The force reached him before his mind could process it — a crushing tide that launched him off his feet. He tried to brace. Couldn't. He slammed backward into Amy, and the two of them tumbled together, rolling down the staircase in a heap until the landing below stopped them.

Lu Yuan lay still for a moment, chest tight, every inch of him aching.

*...Something's soft. And it smells nice.*

He blinked.

Looked down.

He was on top of Amy.

Right — she had been standing directly behind him. The blast had hurled him into her, and they had rolled all the way to the landing together.

Amy was pressing a palm to her forehead, brow furrowed, face pale.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

At the sound of his voice she went rigid. Her eyes flew open wide. She looked up.

Lu Yuan was directly above her.

Every muscle in her body locked. She stared at him, completely blank, not knowing how to react.

Lu Yuan scrambled off her immediately and got to his feet.

"Amy — are you alright?"

Amy blinked back to herself. Color flooded her face all at once. Her expression cycled through confusion and then something that looked very close to panic, her voice cracking into a near-sob:

"L — Lei — *Lei Feng!!* Does this mean we're going to have a *baby?!*"

Lu Yuan stared at her.

*...*

*Right.* He had nearly forgotten — Amy had once informed him that holding hands was how babies were made. He had thought that peculiar at the time.

"Relax, Amy," he said quickly. "Absolutely not."

"*Really?!* Don't you dare lie to me! If *holding hands* makes babies, then what we just did is a hundred times worse than holding hands!"

Tears were pooling in her eyes. She was seconds away from actually crying.

Lu Yuan opened his mouth. Closed it.

*How exactly do I explain this? Give her a full biology lesson?*

He looked at those wide, earnest eyes, and quietly buried the thought that had briefly, treacherously surfaced.

*Ahem. That would be entirely inappropriate. I am a man of pure and unblemished character.*

He composed himself and said with complete gravity:

"Think it through. The rules say holding hands makes babies. We haven't held hands. So it's impossible."

Amy blinked.

Then she looked down at both their hands.

"...I guess we really haven't held hands."

The tears receded. She exhaled slowly.

"Oh, thank goodness. You scared me."

Lu Yuan stared at her. *Am I really such a terrible prospect?*

"Don't I count for something? Is the idea really that dreadful, Amy?"

Amy shot him a withering look.

"It's your fault for having such improper thoughts in the first place!"

Lu Yuan's eye twitched. He leaned forward with a dangerous smile. "Then I'll just have to hold your hand right now."

Amy went rigid. Her small frame flinched back.

"W — What?! Don't you dare —!"

"I'm joking."

Amy went silent.

She sat there for a beat. Then she sprang to her feet and started hitting his chest as hard as she could.

"You *are* a bad person!"

Lu Yuan felt absolutely nothing. The armor helped.

He still had work to finish. He reached out and caught her small hands mid-swing.

"Alright, alright. Three rooms left — let's keep moving."

Amy settled and nodded. "Fine."

Then she went completely still.

She looked down at her hands.

At the hand Lu Yuan was holding.

She froze.

Lu Yuan followed her gaze.

Then he froze too.

*...Oh.*

*I forgot.*