The morning mist at Gazing Star Cliff was cold and damp.

Su Ming stood outside his cave dwelling, the unremarkable black ring in his hand feeling as if it weighed a thousand pounds.

He took a deep breath of the icy, mist-laden air, trying to calm the heart that still pounded violently in his chest.

A great power at the late Nascent Soul stage, or even half a step into Spirit Transformation, had personally sent him something?

This kind of treatment was something he wouldn't have even dared to dream of before.

Su Ming slowly walked back into his cave dwelling. The heavy stone door silently descended behind him, sealing off the outside world completely.

He didn't sit down immediately. Instead, he first walked to the formation hub of the cave dwelling and lightly tapped his finger, raising the alert level of the "Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Array · Earth Vein Dual Circulation Concealment Grand Formation" to its maximum.

Only after doing all this did he walk over to the stone bed and sit down cross-legged.

"Master, look..."

Su Ming spread open his palm, and the black ring lay quietly in the center of his hand.

Within his Consciousness Sea, the phantom image of Lin Yu's soul body also appeared somewhat solemn. He drifted around the image of the ring twice, his tone carrying a hint of emotion: "This Grand Elder really leaves no stone unturned in handling matters. The person he sent—even I couldn't see through his background. This ring... take another careful look. Make sure there's no hidden trick like a soul brand or anything."

"Your disciple has already checked. It's clean," Su Ming replied.

He extended his divine sense into the ring once more.

This time, he didn't just glance over things. He took his time, meticulously taking inventory.

The space inside the ring wasn't large, about three zhang square—roughly the same size as the initial space of his own Xuantian ring.

In the very center of the space sat a small mountain of spirit stones.

These weren't low-grade spirit stones, nor were they the ordinary mid-grade spirit stones he had been paid as military rations on the Northern Border battlefield.

Every single stone emitted a warm and pure glow of spiritual light, with almost no impurities visible inside. The spiritual energy was so dense that, in his divine sense perception, it felt like clumps of solidified liquid.

These... were high-quality mid-grade spirit stones!

Su Ming's divine sense carefully swept across them, beginning to count.

One thousand... three thousand... seven thousand...

Finally, when he had counted a full ten thousand blocks, his divine sense began to tremble slightly.

Ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones!

This massive fortune was more than enough for an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator to cultivate from the initial stage of Foundation Establishment all the way to the Golden Core stage! Even a Golden Core cultivator, upon seeing this mountain of spirit stones, would probably start breathing heavily.

Beside the small mountain of spirit stones were several jade bottles and jade boxes of various sizes, quietly placed.

Su Ming's divine sense first landed on the largest white jade bottle. The bottle's surface was smooth, and it felt cool to the touch. The mouth of the bottle was sealed tightly with a special wax seal.

On the bottle's body was a small label with three ancient-style characters: Void Stone Powder.

Su Ming's divine sense swept over it, estimating the quantity. This bottle of Void Stone Powder was at least ten jin!

His heart clenched abruptly.

In the Administration Hall, one liang of Void Stone Powder cost twenty spirit stones. Ten jin was one hundred liang! That was worth two thousand mid-grade spirit stones!

Next to the Void Stone Powder was a slightly smaller green jade box. Opening the lid, inside were silver grains of sand that sparkled like stars.

Boundary Origin Sand!

Estimating with his divine sense, there was at least ten jin here. That was another three thousand mid-grade spirit stones! 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

And importantly, these were things you might not even be able to exchange for at the Administration Hall.

And this still wasn't the end.

What made Su Ming's heart race the most was the piece of wood placed deepest inside. It was the size of an adult's fist and emanated a soft, golden halo.

That piece of wood seemed to have a life of its own. With every pulse of the halo, Su Ming's divine sense felt a surge of comfort.

Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith!

A piece this large! He had seen it in the sect's ancient texts—a piece the size of a fingernail could sell for a sky-high price at auction, fought over tooth and nail by Nascent Soul old monsters whose souls had been damaged.

This piece... its value was utterly incalculable!

In addition, there were three bottles of elixirs. Su Ming's divine sense swept over them, and on the bottles were written "Meridian Protection Pill." Each bottle was fully packed with twelve pills, exuding a rich fragrance of elixir of the highest quality.

Beside the elixirs was a thick stack of talismans.

Su Ming's divine sense swept over them; there were ten in total. Every single talisman emanated a shocking fluctuation of spiritual power, clearly indicating they were high-grade talismans. He even spotted three "Golden Light Escape Talismans"—shattering one would be enough for him to escape from a Golden Core cultivator!

Tucked away in the very corner of these treasures was a neatly folded, form-fitting soft body armor. It felt soft to the touch but glimmered with a metallic cold light, clearly a lower-grade defensive magical implement of considerable quality.

Su Ming's divine sense swept back and forth through this space—truly a mountain of treasures—a full three times.

He even pulled his divine sense out, gave his thigh a hard pinch to confirm he wasn't dreaming.

Only then did he call out in his Consciousness Sea with a trembling voice.

"Ma... Master..."

Within the Consciousness Sea, Lin Yu's lazy voice rang out, as if he had just woken up.

"Hm? Done counting?"

Su Ming's voice was shaking: "Ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones! Ten jin of Void Stone Powder! Ten jin of Boundary Origin Sand! And... and a piece of Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith the size of a fist!"

With every name he reported, his heart leaped wildly.

Lin Yu's phantom image drifted over and let out a nonchalant "Oh."

"Oh, not bad. Seems that old man wasn't too stingy."

Hearing this calm, dismissive assessment, Su Ming was completely stunned.

"...Not bad?!"

This is called not bad?! If the outer disciples who brawled over a few low-grade spirit stones saw this, they'd probably go insane on the spot!

Lin Yu snorted in the Consciousness Sea and began putting on the airs of a master, giving his disciple a lesson on "wealth philosophy."

"What do you know?" Lin Yu's voice carried the weary wisdom of someone who had been through it all. "To a True Lord at the Unity stage, this little bit is nothing more than a few taels of loose silver casually tossed to a servant by a wealthy old man in the mortal world. It's just pocket money."

Lin Yu: Holy shit! Holy shit! We hit the jackpot! This old man is way too generous! Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith! The treasure I've been dreaming of! And Void Stone Powder and Boundary Origin Sand—there's hope for repairing my soul body now! My retirement fund has arrived!

Su Ming remained lost in immense shock, unable to pull himself out. He felt that his twenty-something years of life had never hit him with this much impact in a single day.

Lin Yu cleared his throat and continued in a flat tone: "Just take it, disciple. When an elder bestows a gift, it's not proper to refuse. If you don't accept, you're disrespecting the Grand Elder. Since we've already taken on this karma, this bit of benefit is only what we deserve."